Tyger Tyger (13 page)

"There's the Skinner," Aiden said.

Teagan pulled out her cell phone to check the time. "It's three o'clock already. She came for her appointment with Dad." As they watched, the older
sídhe
pulled out a wallet and handed Ms. Skinner a card. He gave a card to the cop, too.

"Isn't that your friend Gabby?" Finn asked.

It was Abby all right. She was flirting with Abercrombie boy. The older man must have called him, because he gave Abby a dazzling smile, touched her arm, then stepped away to speak to the police. Abby started to follow him.

"No, no, no," Teagan said. "Those things are
not
messing with Abby." She pulled out her phone and punched a number on speed dial.

Abby pulled her phone out, glanced at the caller ID, then answered.

"Oh, my god," Abby said. "Everybody—"

"Shut up," Teagan said. "Don't say another word. Don't say my name. Who are those guys in front of my house?"

Abby turned and looked down the street.

"And don't look at me! Get away from them so they won't hear you talk."

"Not a good idea," Finn said. Teagan ignored him. Abby gave a flirty wave to the goblin when he looked at her, then walked farther away from them, the phone pressed to her ear.

"Come on." Finn took Teagan's elbow and started pulling her down the street in the opposite direction, away from the crowd. "Walk while you talk."

"What's going on?" Abby said. "I never knew you had so much family. You have a cousin Kyle and an uncle Leo?"

"I don't have a cousin Kyle or an uncle Leo," Teagan said.

"They're saying someone's after you. Someone named Finn Mac Cumhaill. Ring any bells? They showed the cops a photograph."

"Did you tell them anything?"

"I'm a Gagliano," Abby said. "What do you think?"

"I'm sure the cops are fine..."

"Yeah, right."

"...but the other two are not. Finn's not the one who's after me, Abby. It's them, Kyle and that guy he has with him. It's really, really important that you don't tell them I'm here. Why are the cops even there?"

"Ms. Skinner thinks you've been murdered," Abby said. "The fascists won't even let me in to get the shoes. I mean,
I
didn't murder you, right? I need those shoes."

"Nobody kidnapped me," Teagan said.

"That's what Aunt Sophia told them. She said she saw Finn go in with you and your dad yesterday, and you and Aiden went out with Finn, and you all came back this morning."

"She told them it was Finn?"

Abby snorted. "Are you kidding me? The way she tells it, Finn's some kind of junior saint, and they are wasting their time. Is it him I just saw with you, Tea?"

"Meet me at your apartment, okay?" Teagan said. "And don't tell anyone I'm coming, especially not Kyle and Leo. I'll explain everything when I get there."

"Kyle and Leo?" Finn asked after she'd put her phone away.

"The goblins," Teagan said. "They're telling the police they're my relatives."

"Not a good idea," Finn said again. "Getting Gabby involved."

"She's already involved. Did you see the way that thing was looking at her? I'm not leaving without warning her."

TAKE your shirt off."

Abby had gotten her apartment the day she turned eighteen. Teagan loved the place. It smelled of paint, turpentine, and fresh canvas; maddeningly comforting smells, and the walls were hung with canvases full of angels. The sketchpad on the table was also full of angels.

Abby never drew or painted anything now but angels. She said that all great artists went through phases, and when her angel phase was done, she would paint something else.

The tiny efficiency didn't even have a door on the bathroom, so Abby had thrown the guys out while she took care of Teagan's back.

Teagan peeled Finn's T-shirt off.

Abby gasped. "You said a
dog-headed man
did this?"

"I think it was the dog-headed man. I was too busy running to look."

Teagan leaned on the counter as Abby cleaned the scratches out.

"Abby?" Teagan said when the silence had gone on too long. "I know it's hard to believe—"

"You know what the problem is here?" Abby said. "Old books. They've damaged your brain, Tea."

"What?"

"Those books your family is always reading. You know why they call old books literature? Because they litter up your brain, that's why. I'm putting the peroxide on now. It might hurt. Focus on my babies. They're wiggling their little fins at you."

Teagan gripped the counter and focused on Abby's collection of Chinese fighting fish. They were the perfect babies for Abby. They could survive even when she forgot to feed them for days at a time.

"Ow, ow, ow!" The hydrogen peroxide trickled down Teagan's side.

"It hurts?"

"No," Teagan decided. "It's just cold."

"Don't be an infant." Abby wiped the trickles away. "You get yourself messed up, you take your medicine. I'm going to put some antibioticals on now."

"Ow! That
does
hurt. You don't have to grind it in!"

"I'm not grinding," Abby said. "Tell me about this cousin Kyle who took your dad."

"He's not my cousin; he's a goblin. Dad always said, 'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.' I don't think he expected to be this right."

"That's from an old book, isn't it?" Abby said.

"
Hamlet.
" Teagan winced again. "It's a play, actually."

"See? That's what I'm talking about. It's messed up your brain. I saw this on one of those shows you have to watch when nothing good is on. Your brain's just inter ... inter ... I know this word.
Interpolating,
" Abby said triumphantly. "That's it."

"What?" Teagan said.

"Seriously. Your eyes see stuff your brain don't understand, right? So it searches around for information, but all you got in there is litter from old books. Your brain is making all this up. You should watch some Maury or Dr. Phil. Get the real world into your head, you know?"

"The police at my house were not made up."

"That part's true. Your dad is missing." Abby finished with Teagan's back. "I'll loan you a shirt." She flipped through the shirts in her closet until she found one she could part with and tossed it to Teagan. "So what are you going to do, Tea?"

"I'm going to go to Mamieo's and try to figure out how to find Dad."

Abby pursed her lips. "I'm going to give you some advice, seeing as your mother isn't here to give it."

"You have a mother, and you never listen to her." Teagan pulled the shirt over her head. It was a little big, but it didn't hang to her knees the way Finn's had.

"Not when she tells me to give up my painting and marry a nice Italian boy. Other than that, I listen."

"So what are you going to tell me?"

"That"—Abby pointed out the window at Finn, who was sitting on the curb with Aiden—"is bad news, Tea."

"You thought he was cute when you first saw him," Teagan said.

"For, like, two minutes. Then I tried to melt him with holy water." Abby's eyes narrowed. "Does he still smell good?"

"Yes," Teagan admitted.

"And is he still
electric?
"

"Yes." More
electric.
He didn't even have to be near her. She could tell where he was, even with her back turned. "But he's different, Abby. He isn't making any moves."

"Just make sure he doesn't. The guy's eighteen and he doesn't have a car. He doesn't have a job. He has no future. And you're running away with him, because of some crazy stuff."

"If I were running away with a guy, would I take my little brother? I told you, we're going to see our grandmother." Teagan retrieved Finn's shirt and folded it up.

"The grandmother who never bothered to call after your mom died? Who you haven't seen in fifteen years? That grandmother? Have you thought this through? Have you thought about Aiden?"

"I
am
thinking about Aiden." Teagan put the shirt on the back of the couch and grabbed Abby's hands to keep her from pacing. "Finn is the only one who can help us right now. He's the only one who can keep Aiden safe. I understand why you think I'm crazy. I would have thought so myself, yesterday. Just do this one thing for me, okay?"

"What thing?"

"The guy who gave you his card. The one who's pretending to be my cousin?"

"Kyle."

"Stay away from him, okay? He's ... evil. If he wants to hurt you, the police won't be able to stop him."

"Tea"—Abby shook her head—"I'm not just a pretty face. I got a brain, you know. I've met Kyle's kind before."

"Where?"

"At the kind of parties and clubs you don't go to. They wear those shades even at night. Girls who go with them sometimes don't come back. I'm not stupid."

"I know," Teagan said. "I know, Abby. There are worse things than Kyle out there, too. They might be with him."

Abby grimaced, then squeezed Tea's hands. "So, the cops are looking for you. The ... goblins ... are after you, and this Kyle kidnapped your father. Let me call my family, Tea. They'll give you a ride wherever you need to go. I don't care who these bastards are, I got uncles who can deal with them."

"No, they couldn't. But maybe Mamieo can. I need you to believe me."

"So, you quit your job?"

"What?"

"You would be working tomorrow if you weren't running away with that guy, right?"

Dr. Max. She'd worked all summer to regain his trust. There was no way she could leave without notice. Teagan pulled her hands away from Abby and took out her phone.

Agnes picked up at the clinic.

"I've got a ... family emergency," Teagan began.

"Oh, my god," Agnes said. "Is everyone—"

"I'm really in a hurry, Agnes," Teagan said. "I'm going to be out of town at my grandma's for at least a week. Please let Dr. Max know. I'll explain more when I can. Gotta go."

Abby took a deep breath as Teagan put her phone away. "Okay. I believe that something really bad is happening now. There's no way you would risk losing that job for some jerk, right? So you've got to go to your grandma's. How 'bout money? You have money?"

"My purse is in the house," Teagan admitted. "I can't risk going back there."

"Tomorrow is payday." Abby pulled the cushions off of her couch. "All I got is the emergency fund." She shoved her hands down into the cracks and dug out a dollar and seventy-eight cents' worth of change.

"Thanks," Teagan said.

"You need water? I got bottled water for my fish." Abby took three bottles out of the cabinet. "And a chocolate bar."

"Your emergency ration? Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure." Abby pulled a super-size chocolate bar out of the back of her otherwise empty fridge. "Take the antibioticals, too. Somebody's got nasty claws."

"
Something
has nasty claws," Teagan said. "A dog-headed man."

Abby followed her outside. "Hey, Dumpster boy. I want you to know something. Tea is like a sister to me. I ever hear about you hurting her, I have people I can call. My uncles like Tea, you understand?"

"I'll keep it in mind, Crabby," Finn said.

"It's Abby, and you know it. You take care of them. Aiden's just a baby. And Tea's ... if anything happens to her, I mean anything, I swear I'm coming after you."

"Imagine my terror," Finn said.

"We'd better get going." Teagan took Aiden's hand. "Thanks for everything, Abby. And remember what I said."

"I'll remember." Abby glared at Finn. "You remember what I said, Tea."

"I will. Abby ... light a candle for us, okay? Light a candle."

Abby stood on the sidewalk, arms folded, glaring at them until they turned the corner.

"Told you she wouldn't believe you." Finn put the antibiotic cream and chocolate bar in his kit and fished out a length of clothesline.

"She believed enough. She believed me about Kyle."

He cut a length of cord and twisted it into a knot around the neck of a water bottle.

"Here you go." He tied it onto Aiden's belt. "Best to keep your hands free. You never know when you might need them. You want one, Tea?"

"Sure," Tea said. "Where'd you learn to do that?"

"From the Boy Scouts," Finn said.

"You were a Boy Scout?"

"Well, no. I knew two old Scouts. They'd have been Boy Scouts fifty years ago, I'd guess. They lived in a box, down by the expressway."

Teagan handed him her water bottle and watched as he tied another cord around the neck.

"You think we can walk all the way to Gary?"

"Walking will get us there eventually. Waiting won't. It's better to keep moving until we find Mamieo. But we'll keep our eyes open. Something usually turns up."

"What kind of something?"

"Hopefully something with wheels," Finn said.

"Yeah," Aiden agreed. "My toes hurt."

"Not surprising," Finn said as they stopped for the light. "You've walked a good way today, boyo. Do you want me to tell you the story of Mag Mell while we walk a little more?"

"Yes," Aiden said.

"This is the way Mamieo told it to me. All the worlds are born of song. Mag Mell was born of the Almighty's first song in the time before time. The people who lived there were the Fir Bolg. They had magic in their hands, magic for tending and mending all that the Almighty had made. Because, you see, Mag Mell was special. She was the world-between-worlds, always hidden, but with doorways here and there where they were needed into all the worlds of creation."

"Like our maid's stairs," Aiden said.

"A bit like that," Finn agreed. 'After this green Earth was set in place, the Fir Bolg were given a door into Éireann, which we call Ireland today. They were to take care of it until the Milesians, the people who were to sing the Earth songs of Éireann, arrived.

"The Fir Bolg tended and mended and looked after Éireann, and grew to love it as well as they loved their own home, because it was a beautiful place.

"But before the Milesians arrived, Fear Doirich, the goblins' god, and Mab, the Queen of the Sídhe, came riding storm clouds and bringing their wicked servants with them;
cat-sídhe
and cobs,
bean-sídhe
and night hags, phookas and all of goblinkind, gifted in war and slaughter, polluting Éireann with their filthy touch."