They came out only when she was sleeping.
I saw her begin to struggle with the images and then brush them aside in an act of will startling in its intensity. She clenched her jaw and turned in a slow circle. She was a head shorter than every other haunt-taken child there, but she made full eye contact with each and every one of them before speaking in a clear, calm voice. “You guys are the worst. Let’s get this over with.”
We turned together and headed for the nearest place of darkness and fear, and the haunts followed us.
On the way, my instincts warned me again. My Shadow was near.
Whatever this creature was, it was a master of remaining unscented and unseen. It would, I presumed, rely heavily on its abilities and be accustomed to being undetected by its prey. It had struck me as arrogant before, as poor a look as I had gotten. I decided to trust that instinct as well. So instead of going on guard, I only walked beside Maggie, as if I were entirely unaware of the threat.
Together we walked into a building that smelled of stale old predator scents, and inside found stairs that went down into darkness and fear sufficient to encourage the haunts to come out of their protective human shells and be destroyed.
If she could. They would do everything in their power to tear her heart into pieces and leave her vulnerable on the ground, meat to be taken.
At the top of the stairs, Maggie turned to me and said, “Don’t be afraid. I got this.”
My Maggie is clever and quick and brave, but she was also lying. She didn’t know if she could do it.
But, then, if she had been certain, it wouldn’t be an appropriate challenge for her.
Then I caught it again—the scent of black ice, the vibration of violent energy, rolling forward like mist around the haunts behind us. I could hear the dark whisper of thought behind that energy as well, enveloping the haunts like fog.
Kill the child.
I saw the haunts at the rear of the group, nearest the source of dark energy, begin to clench their fists and reach into their pockets for objects with which to hurt and tear.
Sudden rage filled me. My Shadow was a creature of evil the likes of which I had seldom faced. It was trying to get the haunts to violate natural Law, to physically attack a little girl. Certainly, if they did, I could intervene—but only by hurting innocent children who had committed no sin but to be unprepared to face spiritual threats they had likely never imagined.
My deepest growl rumbled from my chest and into the air with my breath, beginning the work of disrupting that dark energy and serving as a warning to the haunts at the same time.
The weight of small human bodies had begun to shift, but they settled back again at the sound of my growl. For a moment, I thought that they might break and leave Maggie in peace—but then their leader, the girl with the tear-streaked face, turned to me and sneered.
“Guardian,” she said. “You know the Law. We are within our rights.”
I growled lower. I needed to be closer to them to protect them from the influence of My Shadow. I took slow steps forward, growling out more of my breath, until I stood before the haunt, almost eye to eye. I was working energy in earnest now. Excess power skipped along the tips of my hairs in a glow of blue starlight, and the dark energy once more recoiled before light.
The haunt hadn’t even realized what was happening. It thought I was trying to threaten it. “I know the Law. As should you,” it said. It pointed the child’s finger past me, at Maggie. “That is my prey. Stand aside.”
I could send these creatures fleeing with a roar, but that would only scatter them. It wouldn’t stop them from continuing their pursuit later.
“It’s okay, boy,” Maggie said. “I got this.”
I looked at her, falling silent.
This child was about to walk into the darkness with a dozen predators, knowing full well the danger she faced—and knowing equally well that there was no promise that she would emerge victorious. Her heart was pounding, her eyes a little wide, but she stood with her feet planted and her expression set in stubborn calm.
Maggie was not heart-stupid at all when it came to courage. She had chosen to forge her own destiny in this meeting.
So be it.
I bowed my head down low to the ground in respect. I could, at least, be sure that nothing else disturbed her during her confrontation. I moved past the haunts, brushing excess energy gathered in my fur against several of the taken children who were still touched by darkness, wiping it away. I got to the doorway My Shadow must use if he wished to interfere, and settled down by it to wait.
Maggie stared at me for a moment more. Then she took her phone from her pocket and, without looking back, descended into the darkness.
The haunt-ridden children followed her down. The last shut the door behind them.
“You might as well come out,” I said.
There was a moment of silence, and then in the darkness of the stairwell above me, something stirred and appeared at the landing.
My Shadow.
I huffed out an energetic breath, and it was like wind blowing away fog. The shadows and darkness lifted, and standing a single long leap from me was …
Me.
He was a celestial hound, just like I was, though his fur was streaked with broad bands of nearly black coloring. His mane, especially, was vast and dark, and it made him look threatening. He was leaner than I was, with more sharply defined muscle, and scars that showed through the fur in streaks of fine white. He showed every mark of having lived a difficult life.
“Brother,” My Shadow growled.
I inhaled, and the scent of him filled my nose and brought out brilliant, simple images from when I had been small enough to fit in My Friend’s pocket. Taken by figures in dark robes, male and female, from the monks of the monastery. They’d swept all of us, my brothers and sisters, away to a place of dark power, and surrounded us with cold stone, black enchantment, and watchful demons.
Until My Friend had come. He slipped in when the dark robes were briefly away. He fought the demons, and saved me and my brothers and sisters.
But he hadn’t saved all of us.
The figures who had taken us had only left the others unguarded in order to take my siblings, the largest male and female, away. I had never scented my brother or my sister again.
Until now.
I tilted my head at My Shadow and then bowed it slightly and politely. “I hardly recognized you.”
“We were puppies,” he said.
“We grew up.”
“I grew,” he said. “You …” He lifted his lips from his fangs in a sign of contempt. “You merely ate.”
“I like food,” I said.
“You’re fat.”
“And very happy,” I said. “Are you happy?”
He flashed his fangs again. “What does that question even mean?”
“Oh! I like philosophy as well,” I told him. “Is that why you’re here? To talk about the meaning of life?”
“I am here,” he said, “to shape things to my will.”
I growled at him, but gently. “Brother,” I said, “that is not our purpose in this world.”
“That is not the purpose we were given,” he snarled. “What we were designed to do. We were made to be slaves.”
“We were made to be dogs,” I said, as gently as I could. “To love. To show others how to love. To be guardians. To be examples.”
“You speak, but your words have no meaning,” My Shadow said. “You’re soft. But you at least chose your own path, rather than bowing to the will of our masters.”
“Master Wong was very kind, I thought,” I said.
“He was a fool,” My Shadow said. “You stand across my path, brother. I cannot have that. Step aside, or I will kill you.”