The Darkening by Robin T. Popp

mobster?" He opened the folder and made a show of reading it, though Lexi had no idea if he could understand English.
    "That's all right," she assured him. "It's just a delinquent leprechaun. I can do it later."
    He gave her a dubious look. "I lost my memory, not my intelligence or my abilities. I've spent a millennium hunting down demons, vampires and other sources of evil. I've even, from time to time"-he held up the folder-"hunted down leprechauns. If you've ever hunted one before, you know how tricky they can be. You'll be glad I was there to help."
    "How do you know you've hunted demons and leprechauns?" She didn't doubt it was true, but if he'd lost all his memories, how did he know it was true?
    He cocked his head like he was thinking, and then gave a slow smile. "I just remembered. I wasn't trying to remember-I looked at the folder and suddenly the memories were there "Do you remember what happened last night?"
    "No, nothing that recent. Just some old memories of hunting with my brothers." He smiled again. "I remember my brothers-Adrian, Kalen, Hunter and Thin." "The spell's working," she breathed. "Don't try to force it." She looked at the file clutched in his hand. The truth was that she had hunted leprechauns before, and the thought of having help was appealing. "All right. You can come with me."
    She took the file from him and opened it, quickly scanning the known facts of the case and reading them aloud. "Patrick Darby-arrested two weeks ago on charges of public intoxication and lewd behavior. His lawyer secured bond for him, and Darby, in true leprechaun fashion, disappeared." She paused, flipping through the rest of the papers, looking for more information. "There's not much here."
    "Every leprechaun I've known loves to drink," Darius offered.
    "There are an awful lot of pubs around here, so I guess we'd better get started," she said.
    Apparently the luck of the Irish was with them. It only took three stops before they'd found the right place. Several heads turned their way when they walked into O'Rourke's. Lexi imagined they made quite a pair. Darius with his tattoo-covered arms and chest, black duster and pants. She dressed in black leather as well, with her long black hair pulled back in a braid. They stood just inside the doorway while their eyes grew accustomed to the dim interior.
    "What can I get you?" the bartender asked.
    "I'm looking for a leprechaun calling himself Paddy Darby," Lexi said. "He's in his mid fifties, wrinkled eyes, bushy white eyebrows and thick hair. Know him?"
    The bartender nodded to the far corner. Turning to look, Lexi saw a small man in a bright bottle-green coat, sitting alone at a table with a nearly empty bottle of whiskey in front of him. He was so short that his legs didn't reach the floor.
    She and Darius moved forward quietly, so as not to alert the little man, who had obviously been drinking for quite a while and was singing loudly.
    "'Oh, the end is nigh, me bonny lass, so here's a kiss good-bye. We'll not fare well when they loose the hounds of hell, so lift the tankard high, love and drink until ye die. "
    It wasn't the rowdy drinking song one typically heard in bars. In fact, Lexi thought this one was a bit of a downer. Well, whatever reason he had for being upset, it wasn't her problem. What was her problem was bringing the little guy in.
    She and Darius approached from different sides, hoping to take him by surprise. She was less than four feet away when he scrambled about on his chair and stood up.
    "Friends and neighbors," he shouted, lifting his mug in the air. "The end is almost on us. Join me in another round, won't ye-"
    He fell silent when he spotted Lexi, still quietly moving forward. She saw alarm register in his eyes and knew the instant he decided to run for it.
    She raced forward just as he leapt off the chair and ran to the back of the bar. He was as fast as legend reputed leprechauns to be, and by the time Lexi and Darius reached the back of the bar, he