Protect

by Laura Wylde

  It would take a physicist to understand some of it. It would take an anthropologist to tie some of the pieces together. I did not even want to think about what it would do to cellular studies and the theory of evolution, yet every brain cell I had was charged, with the neurons zapping around, creating synapsis so quickly, my head felt like it would explode.

  I listened to Lenny and Jack discuss their lack of significant findings, if you don’t count shape-shifting animals, sphynx’s and dead Gollum, not to mention a drunken siren on the top floor, as significant findings. They focused on Bunny, debating how safe I was around her. From everything I’ve studied, sirens didn’t hold a grudge against women, only men. My gorgeous, shape-shifting crew were either paranoid or simply didn’t care for man-eating women.

  Daniel grilled Lenny on the dependability of the prostitute they had just met. Over the last few days, Lenny had gone to visit her several times, collaborating information he had received from the coyote. Lenny insisted she was trustworthy. I wished I could back him up. It seemed sad that she lived in the building and I’d never even met her, but that’s how it was. At least half the tenants kept to themselves and never mingled with the others at all.

  After four days of covert operations, keeping their eyes primarily on the upper floor and the narrow alley, Jamie felt it was safe to visit Miss Cranden. Although Bunny could often be heard cursing drunkenly while her badger husband egged her on, she had no unusual visitors.

  His visit took nearly an entire day. There was nothing the old lady enjoyed better than filling people in on every sight, sound and smell she had noticed throughout the day. He learned the teenagers smoke pot on the roof, the widow on the second floor owned eleven cats, and there was a foreign family in 4D, but nothing concerning suspicious characters, all of whom were her versions of suspicious characters. She did say she once saw Bunny order her poodle to pee on the pant leg of one of the gay men. “And the little varmint did,” she snorted. “That poodle is a menace. He pees on the postman, too.”

  Now that they had finally determined the building was safe, they began hashing over strategies for widening their search. I felt like I was verbally being taken apart, examined under a microscope, and put back together again. I can only take so much, and I decided to let them know it.

  “I’ve been stuck here for five days now, and all you’ve done is rattle some cages. You found no harpies in the building, no harpies in the parks. I’ve spent the last eight hours revising my notes but before I put them in solid documentary form, I need to visit the library. I need verification.”

  “I can show you my profile data base,” offered Lenny. “You can’t use any of the private information, but you can compile a list of statistics.”

  I smiled at Lenny. He was so eager to please, he stumbled over backward. It was impossible to be angry with him. “I appreciate that, but it isn’t statistics I need right now. There are a few First Species chapters I need clarifying and the scientific papers on sea serpents and monstrous reptiles.”

  “We covered that,” said Jamie, sounding a little hurt.

  “We did, but they need collaborating, along with the accounts of your grandfather’s battles in Crete and Mesopotamia. Your notes explain a lot of early mysteries, but I want to present them accurately, with back-up references.”

  Jack was listening to me carefully, his hand stroking his goatee. Any other time, I would have swooned over his thoughtful elegance, but right now, he was an obstacle to my freedom. I looked at him rebelliously. “I’ve done my homework. Now, I want to go outside, take a run in Central Park, eat a Subway sandwich, and spend a couple of hours at the library.” I crossed my arms, waiting.

  Instead of answering, he picked up my manuscript. “This is good,” he said. “This is very good. Daniel, you should give her a few hours. The four of us should be able to take on one dried up old harpy. Unless you really are afraid she can out-run you.”

  Daniel glanced over at Jamie, who gave a slight head shake. “I’m not afraid. I just don’t think it’s wise. She’ll be too exposed.”

  “You can’t hold me here against my will,” I objected. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  Jack was still thumbing through the pages, but he looked up long enough to say, “she’s right. We can’t really force her to stay home. Anyway, I’ve been meaning to study up more on sea monsters, myself. A few have been sited in the Hudson Bay.”

  I could tell Daniel didn’t like the idea, but he finally gave his grudging consent. I hated to defy him. Even when grudging, he had the appeal of a red-headed Dick Tracy pounding the streets of New York. I almost expected him to slam a fedora down on his head and turn up his coat collar. My absolute joy with my outdoor time, however, over-road any guilt trips related to defiance. I put on my running shoes, grabbed my music and headphones, and headed out the door, four shape-shifting body guards beside me.

  I peeked down the hallway before taking the stairs. Sure enough, Miss Crandon’s door was open a crack and one eye was peeking back at me. I waved to her merrily.

  It was a perfect day for running. Large, fluffy clouds wandered across the sky, adding shade and sunlight like a patchwork quilt, keeping the temperature in the mid- seventies. They were the kind of clouds I liked best. I liked to call them spirit clouds. Pushed along by a high wind, they twisted and rolled, sometimes taking the shape of animals. I remarked on this to Lenny, who was diligently copying the warm-up exercises close by my side. “Today, they look like Valkyries,” I told him. “See how the sun shears off the edges as they pass by. It makes them look like they have wings.”

  “Could be,” he mused. His hands clasped behind his head, feet planted firmly apart, he swung at the waist from side to side, his six-pack outlined through his damp tee-shirt. I should probably mention, in running gear, my guards looked more like marines than police officers. Lenny was the smallest, as well as the youngest among the four, and he still had the wiry, chorded muscles of a light-weight champion.

  Jack was the largest. He was a power house. Although Daniel was built like a lumberjack, he still looked like Jack could take him down. Jamie was the type of eye candy they took pictures of for world’s sexiest fire fighters. The bulges were in all the right places, but he wasn’t on the fast-track for those muscle beach contests with triceps and quadriceps, if there is such a thing.

  Actually, all four of them would go well in a calendar filled with bare-chested, life-saving heroes, tenderly holding a kitten or a puppy in their hands. Jack would take the centerfold in carpenter pants, a tool belt, holding a loose-skinned dog. I entertained the fantasy a few more seconds while doing some final leg -stretches before starting my run.

  “Could be Valkyries,” Lenny offered, his stretches matching mine. “Sometimes they fly pretty close to the veil.”

  I adjusted my headphones and gave him a smile. For someone with street smarts, Lenny sometimes seemed shy and awkward. But then, I really didn’t know anything about the streets he inhabited. The streets that tangled in the darkness of the underground, dripping with blood lust and vice.

  I shook off the thought and turned up my music. The dappled sun squinted through the trees gloriously. I felt like I was running on air. I heard Lenny’s foot steps keeping time with my own, soft rubber soles swishing against the sidewalk. I knew the others were close by, which pumped me more. The adrenaline rush was liberating. The song and I were one. I didn’t notice when the clouds were no longer fluffy and white, but dark and ominous.

  I didn’t notice when they were no longer clouds at all, but winged, living things. I didn’t take the time to notice, until suddenly, Daniel, far to my right, shape-shifted into a phoenix. I came to a standstill, still unaware of the danger swooping in from above, as I tried to make sense of his change.

  Then I heard a shriek so terrifying, it turned my blood cold. For the first time, I looked up. Circling above me were four or five harpies, their ravenous mouths wide-open, tails lashing, their claws distended. My heart stopp
ed for a moment, then began pounding furiously. My brain screamed one word. Run! The sky turned black with thunderclouds and crackled with fire. I ran without direction and only one thought on my mind; I had to get away.

  Lenny

  It was really all my fault. If I hadn’t been daydreaming, none of it would have happened. I would not have separated from the rest. I would have been a defender instead of the defended. That’s a very embarrassing position for a phoenix, even one so young he’d only received his first chevrons. At this rate, it was unlikely I’d receive my second set any time soon. I blew it when I could have been a hero.

  My only excuse is, she had captivated me. You don’t often meet women who are as pretty on the inside as they were on the outside. Tanya was. I didn’t sense anything of greed or envy. She wasn’t even a snob. I had interviewed nearly everyone who knew her. They all said she was polite, helped her neighbors with small favors when she could and rarely had company over. They all understood it was on account of her studies. They were positive, if she had time, she would rather play canasta than hold wild parties with her fellow students. The only one with negative thoughts was Bunny, but her negativity was evenly spread. Completely indiscriminate, she took a dim view of everyone.

  We had a heated discussion over Bunny when we first discovered her background. After all, she was wanted in connection with several murders. However, it was just as Daniel had said. If we arrested Bunny, she would eventually sober up. Once she was sober, there was no human male who could resist her. Her worst punishment was to remain in the hands of a badger who would buy her everything except her freedom.

  It seemed there had been heated discussions ever since we took on this case. We broke with standard protocol the first time Daniel shape-shifted in front of Tanya. We had been at odds as to how much we could trust other shape-shifters as soon as we discovered Tanya had a website presence as a paranormal investigator. Offended bears are only a mild worry. There are some species who become actively hostile if you misinterpret or stereotype them in any way, and there are some who ferociously guard their privacy.

  Her Internet presence was nothing compared to her notes. So far,she had not discovered any of the more ancient demons or most powerful beings. She had only brushed the surface of the Minoans’ secrets. However, she was on the right path, correctly linking several Homeric monsters with the images found in pottery at an Aegean archeological site. When you begin writing about some of these lesser known, but far older and more potent beings, you’ve got to get your facts straight or you’ll do more than offend them. You do not want to see the hell-fire of a three-headed dragon. For this reason, Jamie felt it best to fill her in on a few inaccuracies.

  Of all people, it was Jack who broke protocol again. When he read her manuscript, he realized it was as beneficial for guardians as it was for a human population trying to understand what they had assumed to be mythological creatures. Our own history is colored by what the ancients have told us, which is a past as twisted with secrets and guilt as any human’s. Sometimes, you have to dig deeply to know the truth.

  He thought a run would be a good idea for all of us. It had been an intense five days. Most of our time had been spent doing interviews, sitting at a desk or serving guard in Tanya’s apartment. I’m a ground pounder. I like listening to the beat of the earth and its dark whispers, coming up through the concrete and black alleys. I understood her need for open spaces, so I was sympathetic with her plight, but I’m the rookie. I don’t have much say in these matters. I was genuinely surprised when Daniel agreed to the run.

  Jogging through the park with Tanya seemed about as good as it gets in terms of first dates, even if there were three other escorts. Tanya didn’t see it as a date, which made my behavior even more unprofessional. I was doing my best to impress her by doing everything a guy probably shouldn’t do, and not paying any attention at all to my surroundings. I didn’t even notice Daniel had shape-shifted until Tanya stopped running. I saw the expression of terror on her face and my eyes followed hers.

  I can’t explain it. I panicked. I’d seen harpies before, usually confined within the tunnels, unwilling to stage a full assault. This was the first time I’d seen a group of harpies flying openly in daylight. They are more hideous in the light. You can see their humanistic faces and naked bodies. The skin is very thick, leathery and webbed, covered by an oily fluid. They have short, powerful arms, talons, and a long, spiked tail. When their mouths open, you can see their serrated teeth and sharply pointed tongue.

  One hovered directly over me. She dipped her head, her eyes boring into mine. It was like falling into a black, icy pit, into the frozen wasteland of the underworld, itself. I was locked in place, forgetting who I was, how it was my nature to combat her kind. A scurrying movement made the harpy swing her head, breaking the hypnotic spell, but not the mind-numbing panic. She abruptly veered, her primary prey targeted.

  The harpy was chasing Tanya! She was flying close to the ground now, neck outstretched as she barreled toward her prey. Tanya scrambled toward a copse of trees planted closely together. The branches created an umbrella, making it difficult for the harpy to break through without folding her wings in more closely. Fighting on the ground would handicap her.

  Beating her wings furiously, the harpy tried to scoop up her prey just as Tanya dived beneath the branches of an Elm tree and rolled behind a large rock. The harpy screeched with rage, her talons clawing at empty air, while leaves and twigs snapped and swirled in a mad dance. I raced after her, my heart pounding, the blood roaring thick and heavy in my head. Desperately I lunged at the creature, grabbing one of the spiny wing tips. She bellowed her monstrous fury, an odor of rotting meat clinging to her forceful breath. In a mid-air twist, she lashed out with her tail, knocking me loose with a powerful blow to the head that sent me tumbling into the brush.I struggled to sit up, but the blow had dazed me, and her putrid smell tore through my senses like a toxic chemical released into the air.

  Through the fog in my head, I heard an insistent voice. “Get up. Stand on your feet. She needs you.” I struggled slowly to my feet, shaking off the last of the deadly fumes. Instead of running deeper into the brush, Tanya had taken a stand in front of me. She’s not much of a martial artist and would probably never win a boxing match, but she was a fighter. She had found a long, stout stick, and was using it like a staff, battling the harpy with every inch of courage and determination she could summon from a hundred fifteen pounds of athletic fitness and magnificent legs that danced of their own accord.

  Tanya was protecting me! A phoenix! It was so shameful, so humiliating, I immediately transformed and shot into the sky like a blaze of righteous fire. I barreled down, flames shooting from my beak, my talons spread, sharp and ready. The harpy turned so that she was facing me, her eyes filled with hate. Her stubby arms pulled in, her claws opened wide, her tail lashed back and forth dangerously. I stayed away from her tail and aimed for the back of her head, trying to drive her closer to the ground. Screaming she arched her back and rolled. I missed my target but had bitten into her left shoulder. I hung on, driving her down with my wings. We hit the ground in a tangle of talons, feathers and hideous flesh.

  I broke free, and hovered, my flames shining brightly. She crouched and growled, then flew at me. My response was off by two seconds. With one swift stroke, she raked my head with her claws from temple to cheek, then sped away, a scream of triumph in her throat.

  The sheering, red-hot pain brought me to my knees.I could no longer retain my phoenix form.We recover rapidly from most wounds but are vulnerable to the poisonous claws of a harpy. I held my head in my hands, watching the blood seep through my fingers, wondering why she didn’t finish me off when she had a chance. I could feel Tanya beside me, her hands clasped over mine. “I’m sorry I failed you,” I whispered.

  Her long, gentle fingers were all over my face as she brushed away mine to look at the wound. Her lips were kissing me on the head, on the cheek, on the neck; sweet, tin
y kisses, like drops of honey. “You didn’t fail,” she said between her kisses. “The harpy’s gone. They’re all gone. You didn’t fail.”

  I fought back a wave of nausea. My body was already starting to fight back against the toxins and the shearing pain had subsided to a dark, throbbing ache. I groaned. “I think my head is going to burst.”

  Somebody was wiping away the blood with a warm towel. It didn’t feel like Tanya’s light, quick touch. I opened my eyes. I was laying back, looking up at the trees. They were hazy, with patches of sunlight peeking through cheerfully. I closed them again as another wave hit me, then subsided. “Hey little buddy. There are better ways to attract a girl’s attention than letting a harpy half-kill you.”

  This time, when I opened my eyes, I could see more clearly. Jack was kneeling beside me, examining the cut. “It stopped bleeding. It won’t start closing though, until all the poison is gone. How do you feel?”

  “Like I just drank a gallon of paint thinner.”

  “You’ll be nauseous for a few days. Can you fly?”

  I nodded and staggered to my feet. The world tilted dangerously to one side and I almost collapsed a second time. Jack caught me and propped me up with one arm around my shoulders. “Easy. Give yourself a minute. We’re not going anywhere without you.”

  I kept my head down until the rush of blood eased off and my heart began pumping normally. It was worse than paint thinner. It was like taking deadly nightshade, psilocybin and mescaline all at the same time. The black tide of nausea swelled one more time, then fell away, leaving me weak but clear-headed. The poison had done its worst. Now, all I needed to do was to go home. “What happened?” I asked in a normal voice.

  “Maybe you can tell me what happened.”

  That was Daniel. He had that dreaded tone of voice that said, “you’re in big trouble.” I’d never really messed up that badly with Daniel before. The last time he had used that voice was back in the 1960’s when I was hanging out with Jimi Hendricks and Janis Joplin. We had a cool thing going on, seeing how much we could trip each other out. They burned the best frankincense and myrrh on the market and jammed like it was going out of style. Okay, I did help them out a bit, putting a little extra fire and jazz into their music, but it was mostly them.