iron weapon and hope it sticks. It’ll stop their healing process, but someone else could save them if you don’t stab them in the heart or cut their head off. They won’t bleed to death, so don’t rely on that. Like the witch, a fae can have a variety of annoying abilities you’ll need to fight through.”
“What else is out there?”
“Well, everyone knows werewolves, so I can tell you about werecats. Be careful with them. If they get a good enough bite, you’ll be turning fuzzy during the full moon. Just like werewolves, but a lot bigger, meaner in a lot of cases, and very antisocial.”
“Werecats?” His hand was starting to shake. I didn’t like that much, considering it was holding a firearm.
“Well, we can talk about my kind, the nagas. Or maybe the kitsune, they’re always fun. What about banshees? They’re cousins to the fae. We can try nymphs. What about ghosts or spirits?” I shouldn’t have been egging him on, not with how nervous he already was. I hadn’t even started on the real monsters, the ones that couldn’t take human form. The sphinx, the manticore, the wendigo, and more—hidden away. Keeping those secret from the world was a lot harder, and they were going extinct at an alarming rate, but many of them were still around. There were so many supernatural or mythical creatures, there was almost no way for any single person to know what was out there. I was only giving him a taste of the terrible.
“You’re…you’re lying. There’s no way…”
I opened my mouth and let my fangs drop again. I could taste the drop of venom falling from one of them. I spit it out before it got into my system. The last thing I had time for was that.
I’m going to need to milk them the moment I get the chance. I can’t deal with all this right now.
“I’m a naga, just like I said. Snake people from India, going back to ancient times. I wouldn’t lie to you about the rest. You need to come with me. Mygi put a ten-million-dollar bounty on your head, for all the public to see. I’m not planning on cashing you in for it. Money isn’t much of a worry for me. I’m just trying to keep you alive.” If anyone had asked me this time yesterday, my objective would have been different. Capture human, find out what human knows, then let him go on his merry way.
My physical reaction to him changed the rules. His life was the most important thing now. I reined in my anger over that frustrating fact and tried my hardest to keep calm. If I started getting pissy, his trigger finger was going to get twitchy.
“How do I kill werewolves?” he asked. “Some type of metal, right?”
“Silver bullets, obviously. A lot of them. They heal well, but once silver gets into their system, it’s a toxin. It hampers all their abilities, and they can’t Change when they have large amounts of it in their body. Just load them up or hit them in a fatal spot, head or heart. They won’t come back from it. Good luck getting silver bullets, though. A silver sword or dagger is much easier.” Silver bullets weren’t easy to come by. Most were custom made by small supernatural companies, and those companies didn’t stay open for long once a nearby werewolf pack found out someone was putting silver bullets on the market. Every few years, there was someone new I had to contact to make sure I had a good supply since I wasn’t into making bullets for myself.
“Werecats? How do I kill those?”
“Exact same deal. They both Change on the full moon, without any control, but they can shift between their forms whenever they want to, full moon problem aside.”
I checked the time while he watched me. Less than an hour until sunset, and he didn’t seem like he wanted to come with me yet.
“Maybe you should pack,” I said gently. “I won’t move.”
“I haven’t decided whether I’m going with you,” he growled. For just a second, I wondered if I caught a glimpse of red flashing in his eyes.
“Why don’t you tell me your story?” I asked, crossing my legs and leaning back.
“You know my name, so you know what happened,” he snapped. The gun was still shaking in his hand.
“I know very little. You were set up to do great things in the human world. One night changed everything, and you disappeared