The Flower of Arizona

Something is killing people in Arizona...and whatever it is, it's not anything currently known to science. Left unchecked, this new predator could call down a Covenant strike team on the state, endangering the lives of uncounted innocent cryptids. Faced with this immediate threat to the cryptid community, the Healy family has no choice but to send a representative to check it out. And as the youngest Healy, Jonathan inevitably draws the short straw.

Naturally, things can't be as easy as "take the train to Arizona, find out what's killing people, make it stop, go home." There's the desert heat to contend with, along with over-friendly locals, a traveling circus that seems to follow the predator's path, and a golden-haired trick rider who may or may not know more than she's letting on. It's enough to drive a gentleman cryptozoologist to distraction—and that's before the mice get involved.

That's really not addressing the fact that anything with a taste for human flesh is likely to regard Jonathan himself as potential prey, and he is, after all, so very, very far from home...

"The Flower of Arizona" was originally published in the DAW anthology Westward Weird, released in February of 2012. Copies are available from a bookstore near you.