Bowman also looked rested and energetic. He swung himself out of the car at dawn as though he were healed and as supple as ever. Kenzie felt hungover and exhausted, her eyes aching, and she could murder for some coffee.
Dr. Pat arrived shortly after daybreak in a trim white SUV that went with her chirpy personality. Kenzie softened toward the woman a little when Dr. Pat leaned into the passenger side and withdrew a cardboard carrier holding four cups of steaming coffee. Good, expensive coffee, a rich roast whose scent tickled Kenzie’s nose and promised wonderful things.
The smell and taste of the coffee as Kenzie drank almost blotted out the decaying smell of the creature. But not quite. Nothing would wipe that out except time.
After they fortified themselves with coffee, the four climbed down the hill to where the creature lay. Kenzie held her breath against the stench; Dr. Pat’s eyes were streaming. The males of the group pretended to be able to stomach it, but Kenzie knew better.
“What the hell is it?” Dr. Pat asked.
“We were hoping you could tell us,” Bowman said. “Take your time; I know it’s bad. If you need to go back up, that’s fine.”
Dr. Pat shook her head, and Kenzie’s estimation of her rose some more. She wasn’t a wuss, that was for sure.
When Dr. Pat took another step toward the body, her foot slipped. Two male hands quickly caught her, steadying her on the muddy ground. Dr. Pat gave both Gil and Bowman a pretty and grateful smile.
Kenzie rolled her eyes. Dear Goddess, save me from all this testosterone.
She folded her arms while Bowman and Gil helped Dr. Pat move on the slippery ground toward the creature. The woman stopped a few feet from the thing, wiped her eyes, and looked it over.
Its lower body was definitely lion, or at least Feline, but the rest was like nothing Kenzie had ever seen. The big cat body changed abruptly in the middle to something reptilian, and what looked like the remains of a feathery wing poked out of its back.
Then came the head, a mishmash of lion, wolf, and something eagle-like. Its open mouth showed rows of giant, very sharp teeth. The wide, staring eyes had filmed over, but they were protruding and red.
“Huh,” Gil said. “Don’t tell me we’ve taken down Godzilla.”
“No.” Dr. Pat lifted her hands from her mouth. She looked green and sick, but her eyes were alight with interest. “It’s not from the movies; it’s from mythology. I think this is a griffin.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Bowman stared at Dr. Pat, then at the animal, then up at Kenzie, as though she would have the answer. “What the hell’s a griffin?”
Kenzie answered him, proving she did know. “A griffin is half lion, half eagle. A mythical beast with origin stories from Persia, Turkey, and Greece. Used in heraldry in Europe beginning in the middle ages.” She frowned as she studied it again. “This thing doesn’t look exactly like the pictures I’ve seen. It’s as though someone threw in a dragon on top of it.”
Dr. Pat nodded gravely. “True, but I’ve never met a mythical beast before, so I’m not going to argue with it.”
Bowman fixed Kenzie with a sharp look. “How the hell do you know all that?”
“Books,” Kenzie said without inflection. “Ryan likes fantasy.”
His brows slammed together. “Ryan reads about fantasies?”
“Fantasy,” Kenzie said, pronouncing it carefully. “As in Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia. Ryan liked Narnia a lot when he was younger. Now he’s into the Dresden Files and the Iron Druid Chronicles.”
Bowman kept scowling as he processed the information. Kenzie raised her brows at Bowman until he turned away and resumed his study of the animal.
Gil had taken out his cell phone to snap pictures. “Cool. A real live mythological beast that shouldn’t exist.”
“But it does exist,” Bowman said, his voice going quiet. “The questions are how? And why?”
“And who created it?” Kenzie asked, her voice also controlled. “This didn’t spring up naturally.”
Bowman put his hands on his hips, closed his eyes, and took a long sniff. Dr. Pat and Gil both stared at him, amazed that he’d want a deeper smell of the thing, but Kenzie knew what he was doing.
After a time, Bowman opened his eyes, glanced at Kenzie, and shook his head.
No smell of Faerie, he meant. The beast had been born here, in this world. Interesting.
“Now what?” Gil asked.
“Now you send me copies of the pictures you took,” Bowman said. “And we burn the body.”
Gil stared. “You’re kidding, right? That could take days.”
“Then it takes days. If someone did breed this thing, I don’t want them coming back for it. Harvesting DNA and whatever.”
“They might have already,” Kenzie pointed out.