Collected (5 page)

I nodded to reassure myself. It was that easy
on most days. Maybe not so easy tonight.

Less than an hour later, after a quick stop
for gas and a camera memory card, we pulled up to the factory. A
single checkpoint was all that stood between us and the parking
lot. Using Stan’s ID badge, Alex got us inside. The gate had been
open a few hours ago when I’d shown up, but now that it was
evening, the night shift had to scan to get in.

All those security lights I’d seen earlier
were now glowing, bathing the forest around us with light. The
parking lot wasn’t as full, but there were enough cars here to help
us blend in.

“You got any ideas on what we do next?” Alex
asked.

“The display is in the administrative
building,” I said.

The factory continued to rumble with life,
but the bottom floor of the attached administrative building
appeared dark, locked, and quiet. No one could just saunter in and
take pictures.

“Does the factory have any back hallways into
the administrative building?” I peered over my shoulder to ask
Stan.

“Two of them. One is the main hallway, where
payroll gives checks. I’ve heard others say there is another one,
but I haven’t been able to see it. Most likely hidden by them
leprechauns. They’re sneaky fuckers, but they pay good.”

With the cash from their pot of gold, of
course.

I said, “When I went in earlier today, I
could see through their magic.”

“You’ve seen them?” Stan jumped out of the
back and leaned on Miles’ window. “I haven’t seen them before. Just
smelled ‘em.”

Alex sighed. “This whole place smells like
chemicals. I don’t smell a damn thing.”

“You’d have to work here for a while. There
are a couple of packs with folks here. When they come round, some
of them stink of leprechauns.”

My nose wrinkled. Did people smell goblin on
me from my job? Was that smell under my skin? ‘Cause I sure didn’t
notice it.

I chimed in—albeit reluctantly. “I’ll go in
first as the lead. Maybe I’ll be able to see the hallway.”

Alex gave me a look that reflected the
confidence I felt. “You sure about that?”

“Not really, but hey, my deal, my
burden.”

He nodded slowly. “At the first sign of
trouble, I go in alone. We could also get arrested for this.”

Stan snorted. “Oh, they won’t call the police
if they find us.” Everyone gathered outside of the truck to stare
at him. He sort of shrugged and tilted his head. “They’ll flat out
kill you and hide the bodies.”

I stopped breathing.

“I’m just kidding.” Stan laughed. “They’ll
torture your ass, and then they’ll kill you.”

The guys laughed, nervously though. I hoped
like hell Stan was kidding. He had to be. Was this factory hiding
the bodies of delinquent teenagers who joy rode their way into the
basement of doom at the leprechaun factory?

“Just keep drinking, Stan. We’ll be out soon
enough,” Miles said.

“I hope so,” I mumbled.

Stan jumped into the back of the truck and
pulled out another beer. Apparently, it could be Miller Time from
any location.

Our walk up to one of the loading docks was
uneventful. Nobody stopped us, and we walked in through one of the
open doors. Miles took point. The loading dock led directly to the
shipping floor. Stacks of boxes and piles of wood planks, ready to
be shipped, waited with labels. My nose to the air, I didn’t smell
that anyone had been here recently. Maybe a few hours ago. There
were still footprints on the sawdust peppering the floor.

There was minimal lighting here, since the
area wasn’t being used, but I could still see into the shadows.
Small creatures lurked in the corners, scuttling about to avoid the
larger predators that came their way.

A few corners stank of a strange scent. A
filth that pushed at me.

“What’s wrong?” Alex asked as we walked past
the rows.

“Something here smells off.”

“Stan said the leprechauns had a weird
smell.”

“No, it’s weird,” I said. “Like the one you
smell on a diseased body. It warns you away. That kind of
thing.”

Alex shrugged. We approached two sets of
doors. One of them really smelled bad while the other one
didn’t.

Miles reached for the stinky one.

“Don’t!” I surged forward and grabbed the
back of his shirt to yank him back.

“What the hell is your problem?” he
asked.

“Don’t you smell it?”

“Smell what? Other than wood and mice and
chemicals?”

“I smell magic. Like something dead.” He
tried to move forward again, but I slapped his hand.

Miles growled, and I cowered a bit. A low
rung wolf like me was to never strike a higher-ranking wolf, but I
refused to let go of him. If I did, he’d get hurt. Or worse. Thorn
was never this foolhardy.

When I noticed he stayed still, I backed up a
bit.

“Give me a reason to believe you about the
magic,” he said.

I searched the dark corridor for something. A
broomstick was the nearest thing I could find. The end appeared as
if it had been bitten off—by what, I didn’t want to know. I picked
up the broom and edged near the door, but didn’t approach it
headlong like Miles tried.

The closer I got to the door, the more the
scent urged me to back away. To flee. Why couldn’t they smell it?
Then the end of the broom, the wooden end, blackened. The green
paint over the broomstick began to crack and peel off. As if
something ate away at it.

“What the hell?” Miles hissed.

“Leprechaun wards.” So that’s what I smelled.
I should’ve known since my goblin employer, Bill, had told me about
them. A deadly ward was much more effective than paying security
guards. This wasn’t the olden days when you had to keep thieves
away from your treasure. They could’ve spent money on a camera
system and guards. But why not just melt off the hands of the
curious?

I silently thanked Bill for charming me with
his magic. (This gratitude wouldn’t last long when I got to work on
Monday.)

“I think we should take the other door,” Alex
said quietly.

I tossed what was left of the broom to the
floor. “It’s clear. But we need to be careful from now on.”

The doors led us into another storage area.
The guys now followed me, completely dependent on my nose. We
bypassed two more leprechaun traps: a pathway with some kind of
guillotine and a random puddle in the floor that led…somewhere. We
didn’t speculate where the wood block we dropped into it went.

“What are they protecting in here?” Miles
asked.

“Profits.” If Bill could’ve had these kinds
of safeguards for The Bends, he’d have done it in a heartbeat.

Finally, we reached what appeared to be the
locker room for staff. Two werewolves left, and we were safe to
amble inside.

“Where do we go from here?” Miles asked.

“I saw an emergency exit map right before we
came in,” Alex said. “There should be another doorway from here
that goes to the administration building.”

“Through payroll?” Miles asked.

“No, one of the paths just cuts off. I think
that’s what Nat meant by a hidden doorway.”

“Wouldn’t it be guarded?”

“Not necessarily,” I told Miles. “Especially
if it’s protected by magic.”

This whole trip felt…too easy. We’d stumbled
across a few traps, but why hadn’t any of those alerted the
leprechauns? They’d guarded their money viciously for centuries.
Why would they let us stroll in?

“But wouldn’t they put another trap on the
hallway?” Alex asked.

“Then how would the employees get through?” I
said. “You can’t kill off the janitors.”

“You do have a point there.” Alex started
going through the lockers without padlocks. He found three work
shirts and gave one to Miles, but he stopped when he came to
me.

That was someone else’s shirt. And it didn’t
smell clean, either.

“Sorry,” he blurted. “I sometimes
forget.”

“Forget what?” Miles tossed off his shirt and
threw on the grimy one from the plant. It buttoned up nicely over
his torso, but nothing in the world could get me to touch him now.
Someone had worked a full shift and had thrown that thing into
their locker without laundering it first. That was just wrong on
many levels.

Alex took the lead as we left the locker room
and headed down the hallway. This area was well-lit, but we didn’t
see anyone. Still, we moved quietly. It was a lot easier to hear
footsteps since we kept a steady pace.

The scent of leprechauns grew stronger as we
approached the administrative building. The roar of machines grew
louder, too. We quickly walked past two doorways that lead to the
cutting floor. Humans and supernatural creatures toiled the
graveyard shift to cut products from the trees. Once in a while,
the chemicals used to treat the wood filled my nostrils and blocked
out almost every other scent. We’d be past this area soon
enough.

The whole place seemed innocent. There were
safety signs. A locked bulletin board with company announcements,
the standard Occupation Safety and Health Administration signs that
we used at The Bends. But it was what the others couldn’t see that
made this place weird. The leprechauns had peppered all sorts of
propaganda for themselves on the walls.

In large print, a few said: PROFIT IS LIFE.
Another said: PRODUCE OR WITHER AWAY. It was rather strange and
made me think of the propaganda in that book
1984
by George
Orwell. Leprechauns used brainwashing?

Thank goodness, the visible ones for the
humans were much friendlier.

Alex eventually led us down a hallway that
appeared to end in darkness. Almost as if someone had turned off
the lights. The darkness tried to suck me in. It prickled every one
of my wolf senses.

“This should be a dead-end,” Alex said.

“It looks that way,” Miles said behind me.
“What do you see, Nat?”

“It’s weird. I feel like the path keeps
going, but it’s so dark that it looks like the inside of a
cave.”

“I only see a wall with some plants,” Miles
said.

“Me, too,” Alex added.

So bizarre. Almost as if I was high on
something. Maybe I had been slipped a beer or two.

I slowly crept toward the blackness.

Suddenly, Alex turned around the way we came.
His head whipped back in my direction, and he growled. I froze and
listened. Footsteps. And they were quickly coming from around the
corner. My ears told me a good thirty feet or so.

“Go!” Miles pushed me toward the hallway
while Alex followed.

Miles left us, took a drink from the nearby
drinking fountain, and then walked down the hall in the opposite
direction.

A voice yelled, “Can I help you?”

Dread hit my stomach. Miles couldn’t see the
traps in here. This wasn’t the time for us to separate.

Alex grabbed my arm and urged us forward. By
the time we stepped over the dark threshold into the administration
building, we only heard the sounds of thundering footsteps, then a
struggle.

The leprechauns had Miles. And damn it all to
hell, I had only wanted to take some pictures.

* * * * *

Chapter Four

The blackened path was an illusion, of
course. The hallway was a mask for the entryway into the
administration building. I took several tentative steps forward,
waiting for our pursuers to come down the secret passage. But no
one came for us. From where we stood, everything was recognizable.
If we continued this way, we’d eventually reach the lobby where I’d
been stopped before. The place looked like any other office
building. Nice mahogany doors with names on signs. Human resources,
the vice president’s office. Even the break room for the staff.
Just another work place. But the complete silence crept along my
arms and made me want to scratch them. The ordinariness of it and
what magic lurked underneath made me so very afraid we’d be
attacked by leprechauns. The hints of fear snatched at my breath,
but I tried to keep it at bay. This wasn’t the place for a panic
attack. Not now. Not here.

I tried to lighten my mood. “You sure you
don’t want to stop in the copy room and make copies of your
ass?”

Alex snorted. “As tempting as that sounds, I
just want you to take those pictures and get out of here.”

I nodded, and we walked faster. My
destination came into view, a glass display case with a few items
inside. The hallway was dimly lit, but the light from the case
shone brightly. The compass appeared to be made from polished brass
with ornate carvings for the declination markings. It even had a
movable sundial built into the device. As an antiquarian, I could
appreciate such a beautiful piece. But now wasn’t the time to
admire it. All I had to do was finish the job.

“Take your pictures.” Alex looked around.
“I’m gonna double back and see if I can find Miles.”

I sucked in a sour breath. “You’re going to
leave me alone? Are you nuts?”

“Then hurry up! What if he’s hurt?”

I opened my purse and took out the camera the
dragon had given me. It was a newer one. Magic tingled on my
fingers as I held it. Most likely the film had been touched to
record anything hidden by a spellcaster.

The camera turned on easily enough, and I
took pictures of the antique compass. I got in as closely as
possible and took shots from multiple angles. Then I remembered my
blood-sealed deal with the water spirit. I took another memory
card, the one we’d purchased right before we came here, and used it
to take more pictures. My hands shook the whole time.

“That’s good enough,” I said. “Let’s find
Miles.”

The path back from where we’d come was
deserted. Alex and I crept down the hall, barely making a sound
with each tentative step. My brother’s heartbeat was loud in my
ears—almost like a frightened rabbit. Miles’ scent led around the
corner he’d went. That led further into the factory.