Third Time's the Charm

by K. J. Emrick

  “As you wish, my lady.”

  The snap sounds like a tiny sonic boom. For a moment, when his hand twists, I swear I can see the etched lines on his metal wrist cuff move. Trick of the light, I decide. Just my imagination running away with me. It’s had a lot to chew on over the last few days.

  When the echoes fade, Molly is holding a necklace in her hand, the chain made from bulky links, the disc on one end displaying a wolf howling at the world. It’s exactly the way the Garoul Necklace had looked in the photo she showed me. Only, about a thousand times more impressive.

  She stares at it in disbelief for a moment with her mouth hanging open. Her fingers were trembling. I think she was afraid to move. Afraid it was an illusion and anything she did would make it disappear again.

  “It’s all right,” I tell her. “Really. That’s the necklace you’re holding. Harry doesn’t make mistakes.”

  He puffs his chest out at my compliment. “Thank you, my lady.”

  “Any time, big guy.”

  Molly looks between the two of us as a smile slowly spreads over her face. With the necklace clasped tightly in her hands, she gets up in one swift motion and practically leaps over to the couch, to Kurt, to the man she loves. He watches her with those dark eyes as she spreads the necklace out, over his face and over his ears and then…around his neck…

  The change was so instantaneous that I would have missed it if I blinked. Kurt cried out, in a voice that morphed from animal scream to human shout in a matter of seconds. His body crackled as bones resettled and fur retreated into skin that became tanned and smooth, muscular in all the ways a guy can be muscular. His skull reshaped itself into the handsome man I saw in the photo from the bedroom. The hair on his head was mussy and stood up everywhere. The only other hair on his body was a patch on his chest, and a thin line of it that leads down his sculpted abdomen to…um…his man parts.

  He gasps, and studies his hands, and his arms, and then he throws himself around Molly, kissing her over and over, happy beyond words to be back in his human shape.

  Well, maybe not completely beyond words. Looking over Molly’s shoulder he found me, and says, “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” I tell him, careful to keep my eyes on his face and nowhere else. “Um. Just a suggestion, but maybe it would be good to put some pants on now.”

  Before either of us could say anything more about it, Molly has him by the hand and is pulling him off the couch, down toward the bedroom. “Come on,” she tells him. “I’ll help you.”

  I had the feeling that they were going to be a while. Not that I could blame Molly after what I just saw. I mean, some guys are just blessed in that department, you know?

  Ulva stares after them with a look of disgust on her face. “Wonderful. Big brother’s back and those two are off to adulterate the bloodline—”

  “Hey,” I warn her. “That’s enough of that. Give love a chance, lady.”

  Her bottom lip starts to tremble as she realizes her whole world has come crashing down. She might not have been the thief, but her brother isn’t likely to be too happy over the way she treated him while he was caught in the luping.

  “What about me?” she asks. “What’s going to happen to me?”

  “That’s going to be up to Kurt,” I tell her. “He’ll decide your punishment. After this, I’ve got nothing to do with you.”

  Like I said. I’m not the police. I don’t decide on punishments. I just find the truth.

  And I’m very, very good at it.

  Because I’m Sidney Stone.

  Epilogue

  A job well done, and a check for services rendered from Kurt Dachiana’s personal account. It has their family seal up in the corner and everything—the wolf’s head, howling at something unseen.

  So life in Detroit has gotten that much stranger, as if it needed any kind of help in that department. There’s werewolves up by Woodlawn Cemetery. There’s a genie living in my apartment. Witches walk the streets right alongside everyone else, even though you’d never know it. There’s a Taffy Man out there, somewhere, with a gun and a grudge.

  What am I going to find tomorrow, I wonder?

  My life has taken a strange turn to be sure, but really, I don’t mind. I like that there’s strange things out there to discover. Things I don’t know about that will someday just pop into my life with a smile and a handshake and maybe a how you doing?

  Coming back to my apartment I smile across to my neighbor Mrs. Peggerly while I unlock my door. She’s on her way out, big purse under her shoulder and her jacket buttoned up tight against some unexpected, cold September rain. She casts a glare in my direction, and makes a show of locking her door, and the deadbolt. Twice.

  Well. Guess it’s going to be a bit longer before she trusts me again. Maybe I should send her a fruit basket, or something. One of those nice ones with the chocolate covered strawberries.

  Inside, I lock my door too, reminding myself that the world is a lot more dangerous than I used to think. I’m home now, and I can rest for a while, and quite frankly I think I deserve it. I kick my shoes off and send them flying in different directions. Man, it’s good to be home.

  Untying the tassel from my belt I drop it on the shelf of the half-wall between the living room and the kitchen, next to where I keep my wallet and stuff. Harry poofs out of it, with a rush of floral-scented air.

  “I need to soak in a hot bath,” I tell him. I’m still aching all over from everything that happened in the last few days. “I don’t think I’ve been put through my paces like this since leaving the Marines. You okay out here for a while, Harry?”

  When he doesn’t answer I turn around and find him just standing there, watching me with one of those unreadable guy expressions that men do so well. Everyone thinks women are all mysterious and hard to understand but I have to tell you what—men are a jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces missing.

  “What is it, big guy? You should be happy. We just solved my first werewolf case. If I didn’t put such a high standard on my clients’ privacy, I think this would make one terrific book, don’t you?”

  “My lady, my adventures with you have meant more to me than anything in my whole entire life.”

  “Wow, big guy. Considering you’ve literally been around for thousands of years, that’s saying quite a bit.” I move back over to him, settling my arms around his wide waist, resting my head against his strong chest. “I’m glad you got mailed to me in that rug, Harry. My life wouldn’t be the same without you.”

  A quick hug, and I step back. His expression is still unreadable but there’s something in his eyes…something intense.

  “Harry?”

  “Sidney Stone, I must tell you something.”

  “Mmph. Can it wait until after I take a bath? I don’t know if you noticed, but it’s been a very long day. Week, I mean. Like in the history of time, this was the longest week ever.”

  My humor falls short as he shakes his head. “I must tell you this now, or I may not have the courage to say it again.”

  A snicker bursts out of me. “You, lose your courage? Harry, you might be the bravest person I know. Next to me, I mean.”

  “Or next to Christian Caine?”

  “Now, now. Don’t start that again. You guys are both brave in your own way. You’re both my friends, too, so don’t go asking me to decide who is better, okay?”

  “My lady, that is exactly what I’m asking you to do.” His eyes close, and his nostrils flare as he takes in a deep breath. When he looks at me again, the gold flecks in his eyes sparkle. “I was going to hold my tongue, and not say anything, but then you told me how Christian Caine has already told you the same thing and now I must speak. I must tell you this. I should have told you first but…I was afraid. I would like to know…to say…I mean…I want to say…”

  His words break off in the middle of his sentence.

  Harry’s hardly ever at a loss for words.

  “Just tell me,” I prompt him, almo
st afraid that I know where this is going.

  With another deep breath, he nods. “I must tell you—”

  Whatever he was trying to get out is lost to the sound of the apartment door being forced inward, the deadbolt breaking away from both sides of the frame, the wood splintering and metal screeching. The door swings all the way around and bounces hard off the wall.

  And there, where the door had been just a moment sooner, stands Arnie Chen. Tall, and wide, and red with anger.

  “I gave you two days.” His voice is thick and sharp. His eyes are already smoking, literally, with hot gray wisps slipping out from the corners. “Your time is up, and I grow impatient. Thus far you have managed to lose both my statue and the thief who took it. You have squandered your time on other cases instead of devoting yourself to mine. You have tested my patience to its end and now you will see what happens when Li Qiang Chen is made to feel like a fool!”

  His lip twists into a snarl and he takes one step across my threshold, just one, squeezing himself through a door that should have been too small for him by far. He seems to expand as he comes inside, filling the space around him. It’s almost like him and Kato the Taffy Man are cut from the same cloth, able to change their shape as it suits them.

  Although, Harry told me Kato could do that because he’s some sort of slithering snake hiding inside a human skin.

  So…what does that make Mister Chen?

  With another step, I’m looking up into his smoking eyes as his head brushes against my ceiling. His hands come up, reaching for me, huge in a way that wasn’t physically possible. Big enough to engulf my head in one palm. Large enough to crush almost anything I had in my apartment into teeny tiny pieces…myself included. And my future-sense doesn’t work with him, so I don’t know what he plans on doing if he grabs me.

  Oh, this is so not good.

  Harry abruptly steps in front of me, protectively pushing me back by my shoulder before raising his arms in front of him in the shape of an X. They cross at his wrists, right at his metal cuffs, and as they come together the air rings with a loud clanggg. Light blossoms from them and spreads out through the room, and when it touches me, I feel like I’m being pushed backward even though I’m standing still. Shadows slice through the light, shadows that create very specific shapes of lines and curlicues. It takes me a moment to realize the shadows are from the etched lines on those cuffs, slicing through the light.

  Well. This is new.

  The light passes through my walls, the ceiling, the floor, and then it’s gone. Whatever it had been, whatever magic Harry had just called on, it was spent just like that.

  Arnie Chen looks at Harry when it’s over, and snorts.

  “I’m not impressed. You may be a genie but there are things in this world far greater than you. Remember your place, or I will put you in it.”

  “Sidney Stone is my master, and my friend,” Harry tells him without budging. “You will not hurt her.”

  “Oh? Says who?”

  “I say. I am Harris, and I defend the ones I love.”

  Wow. I’m not even really sure what’s going on between these two, but Harry’s kind of my hero right now.

  Chen crowds in closer on us, filling my vision. “Out of my way, genie. This is between me and Miss Stone.”

  “Then it involves me, as well. I am her friend and I am her—”

  “Enough!” Chen roars at him. His hands lift to the ceiling and he throws his head back and his body…

  Changes.

  His skin stretches and thickens and hardens with scales that shine with an iridescent green shimmer. His clothes simply vanish into his changing form but now there’s nothing human about Arnie Chen to be exposed. His face…his whole head…has expanded and grown into the shape of a giant snake but with horns and frills and long tendrils along the lips like a serpent’s mustache. The body is long, impossibly long, coiled around itself and looped all through my apartment. His limbs are now four powerful legs with claws on each of the toes. Down at the end, tucked into the rest of the coils, is the barbed tip of a tail.

  For a moment I think I’m seeing a snake.

  But then I realize it’s something more. It’s a dragon. One of those Chinese dragons without wings, just a long and graceful, tapered body. Big eyes. Big mouth. Big teeth.

  Those eyes find me, and that mouth opens wide and from between those teeth the dragon lets loose a massive roar. All around me, the apartment shakes and rattles. Things fall off shelves. Things fall off the counter. Things crash, and break, and then the roaring stops.

  I close my eyes against it, just for a moment, and when I open them again Arnie Chen is himself. An overlarge man in a white suit, just standing there, glaring at me with very human eyes.

  My ears are still ringing from the blast of the dragon’s anger. My throat is so dry I can’t swallow. I’ve been wondering all this time what Arnie Chen really is. Now I know.

  I wish I didn’t.

  He huffs, and when he does a little line of smoke drifts out from his mouth. “Now. Do we understand each other?”

  Harry hasn’t moved through the whole display. If he’s surprised by what he just saw, he isn’t showing it. In fact, he’s about to start arguing with Chen again. I might not be able to see what he’s going to say with my future-sense, but I don’t have to. It’s written all over his face.

  I can’t let this escalate because the two of them going at each other will tear my home apart. The whole damned building, probably.

  “What I understand,” I say, my voice dry and squeaky until I stop and work my tongue around to wet my lips. “What I understand, Mister Chen, is that you lied to me.”

  His eyes narrow. He didn’t like that one bit. “Excuse me?”

  Harry gives me a warning glance, but this needs to be said. If I’m going to help Chen, we need to put this out in the open. “You lied to me,” I repeat. “You didn’t give me all the information I need to do the job you hired me for. You wanted me to find the guy who stole your statue. Well, I found him. Samuel Kato. He got away, yes, but that was because you didn’t give me all the information. You know him. You and him have a history but you didn’t tell me that. You didn’t tell me what he is, or what he can do. You’re keeping secrets and it’s keeping me from doing my work. So. Let’s hear it. What is it between you and Kato?”

  My heart is pounding a mile a minute, but I manage to keep my knees locked and my eyes focused on Chen. On his forehead, not his eyes. I’m not looking into those eyes ever again. I’m brave, but I’m not stupid.

  After a moment, he clears his throat. One hand comes up for him to scratch at the folds of his double chin. “I am forced to admit, Miss Stone, that you make a good point. We should have a meeting, you and I, to discuss this. Not here. Not now. I’ll let you know when. For now, consider yourself still in my employ. Find my statue, Miss Stone, and find the person who stole it from me, or the next time you see my true form it may be the last thing you ever see on this Earth.”

  He turns to the door, and with a step he puffs into smoke that drifts out into the hallway and disappears.

  Well that was…that was…

  My vision spins, and I can feel the floor rushing up toward me.

  Harry catches me before I get that far. He sweeps me up in his arms and holds me while the spinning stops and the buzzing in my ears clears away. Did I seriously just faint? I never faint. Not ever. Then again, I’ve never come face to face with a dragon before, so there’s that. I think fainting is probably the right response under the circumstances.

  “Sorry, Harry. Um. Sorry.” My legs are still shaking, so I hold onto him tight. I’m not sure what I’m apologizing for. It just seems like the thing to say.

  I’m working for a shapeshifter who is a freaking dragon. My world wasn’t weird enough before, now there’s a dragon. I look around, seeing all the mess he left me with. Broken coffee cups on the floor. Spices and food cans and boxed cereal spilled out of the cabinets. And my door…I just
replaced that door damn it, and now I need to do it again!

  “It’s okay,” Harry whispers to me. “It’s okay, Sidney Stone. I am here. I have you. I have you…”

  He turns me around in his arms, and holds me close, and then his lips are on mine. They move tenderly, touching me deeply, and before I know it, I’m kissing him back.

  In my mind I hear Chris asking me, It’s because of him, isn’t it?

  I told him no. I said Harry and I are just friends.

  This doesn’t feel like ‘just friends.’

  When the kiss ends, he sighs out a warm breath. “That, my lady, is what I was trying to tell you.”

  Yeah. Yeah, I got that. Sometimes actions speak louder than words.

  “My lady?”

  And sometimes, you just have no idea what to say.

  Both of my best guy friends have told me they have feelings for me. What am I supposed to do with that? Not one, but two amazing men in love with me. One of me, two of them, and every reason in the world to be thrilled and scared and upset and confused.

  Which I am. All of that. All at once.

  I’ve been standing here for a long, long time now, not saying anything. My thoughts are too loud for me to explain them. I reach for the words, but come up empty.

  As the silence stretches between us Harry turns away, and walks into the living room, and simply drops down into his rug.

  I frown and kick myself for not even trying to explain myself to him. It had been the same with Chris. All I had to do was tell them how I really feel. How can that be hard?

  Maybe because I have no idea how I feel.

  All of my relationships with men have been disasters. All. Of. Them. How can I tell them that and not make it sound pathetic? Hey, it’s not you it’s me…you’re both great and gosh I feel lucky, but you don’t want anything to do with this hot mess, believe me.