Page 45 of A Malicious Menagerie (Fangs & Fables #1)

The Farewell

W hen Chase and I arrive in the loading bay, the centaurs are already there.

That bodes well for the plan since it means Colby was able to successfully lead them here before leaving to get the truck.

The centaurs look wary, so I smile reassuringly.

To my delight, the appaloosa woman returns the gesture with a tentative smile of her own.

Not long after we arrive, the door opens again to reveal a familiar vampire, followed closely by Nathan. “Delia!” I launch myself at her, wrapping her up in an enthusiastic hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”

She goes stiff at the unexpected contact. Just as I’m about to apologize and pull away, she tentatively raises her arms to embrace me back. “Thank you,” she whispers, her voice trembling.

My smile is so wide it hurts. “You are so welcome.”

As we pull away, Delia’s scarlet gaze finds the centaurs and widens. The stately equine beings could not look more out of place in the flickering overhead lights if they tried.

She blinks a few times in shock before raising her hand to give the pair a little wave. “Hello.”

“’Allo,” the male centaur mimics in his lyrical accent, his gaze narrowing in on her fangs.

“Oh!” I exclaim, realizing that Delia and Chase haven’t met yet. It’s amazing to me that they’ve been neighbors in a sense, but they’ve never seen each other or spoken. “Delia, this is Chase. Chase, Delia.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Chase says with a grin, reaching out to shake her hand.

“Ditto.” She scrutinizes him with furrowed brows. “And I have to say, none of it was exaggerated.”

Behind her, Nathan clears his throat. “Have the kelpies not arrived yet?”

“Have a little patience,” a familiar voice drawls in its Irish brogue.

I glance over to find Fionn shouldering the door open, the older mermaid cradled like a bride in his arms. She has her arms looped around his neck, though she looks less than thrilled by the situation.

Fionn, on the other hand, smiles beatifically at our assembled group.

“That’s it. I’ve peaked. Nothing I ever do will compare to carrying a damn mermaid. ”

The blue-haired siren squints at him as if she can’t understand him but knows he’s talking about her. She bares her needle-sharp teeth at him threateningly, and Fionn gives her a fanged grin in return. “Careful, you fine thing. I bite back.”

Ciara in equine form follows not far behind, the younger mermaid sitting the equivalent of sidesaddle on her back with her fingers knotted nervously in the mare’s coal-black mane.

I huff a sigh of relief. “That’s it. That’s everyone.”

“What about the Mothman?” Nathan asks, glancing around as if he might have missed a winged man with a miasma of doom.

“He’s going to make his own way,” I reply before exchanging a look with Chase. “And so are we.”

Delia gapes at me. “Anna, no—”

“We need to get my grandmother,” I remind her gently, my heart aching at the fear and sadness in her expression. “She’s still trapped in the nursing home with Mathis’s guard. And our original plan to sneak her out in an ambulance is out the window now.”

Nathan grimaces at that. “I’m sorry. My colleague Eli will be, too. He was looking forward to the ruse, but we’d planned on tomorrow night.”

“It’s not your fault,” I assure him, though my stomach clenches. “But we’re going to have a narrow window to free her now. Job will distract Mathis and his men, but not forever.”

Though if Job has his way, Mathis won’t survive the night. My feelings about that are a tangled mess that will likely take days to coax apart. For now, I’m just grateful for the distraction.

The sound of a truck engine rumbles closer outside, and I tense until a moving van backs up toward the open loading bay door. Then, profound relief washes over me. It’s Colby. He’s managed to get his cousin’s truck from where he stashed it a few blocks away.

We’re almost free.

Our goodbyes are rushed and bittersweet as Colby helps get everyone loaded into the van. It’s a tight fit with the centaurs, but with the kelpies riding shotgun and Delia going with Nathan, it works.

Nathan hands me a set of keys to one of the extra cars parked in the back. “You’ll need to ditch the car quickly,” he warns me grimly. “They have GPS tracking. But it’ll at least get you away from here.”

“Thank you,” I reply, remembering how awed I was to be offered a car that first night in the menagerie. It feels like a lifetime ago. “Take care of yourself,” I tell Nathan, reaching out to shake his hand one last time.

“Same to you,” he replies. “And if you ever need anything…”

“I have your card,” I tell him with a wry smile.

“Hey, Anna,” a gruff voice calls. I glance up to see Colby leaning out of the van’s driver’s side window, his expression thoughtful. When no words are forthcoming, I raise an eyebrow at him. He huffs and shakes his head before he finally says, “Good luck.”

An odd mix of pain and pride swirls in my chest. I’m going to miss the surly soldier, but at the same time, we did what we set out to do. Maybe not quite the way we intended, but best laid plans and all that. “Same to you, Colby.”

Chase pulls me into his side with a comforting squeeze as the van eases away from the loading bay and out toward the street, Nathan’s borrowed car just behind. And then, with no more fanfare, the prisoners of Mars Mathis’s Mystical Menagerie leave the crumbling wonderland behind.