Defender Raptor (Protection, Inc: Defenders, #2)

by Chant, Zoe

  “Not at all,” Merlin said. “I can be happy in lots of places.”

  His mother took a deep breath, then slowly let it out. She leaned over and kissed his forehead. “Then be happy in the job you choose. And next time, dodge better!”

  “I promise,” said Merlin. If Dali ever needed him to place his body between her and danger, he’d never hesitate. But sometimes you had to tell parents what they wanted to hear.

  Dali jumped in before Mom could start scolding him over his carelessness. “Janet, Merlin told me that you know a lot about the history of shifters. The wizard-scientists claim to be descended from ancient enemies of King Arthur. Do you know anything about them?”

  Roland leaned forward, interested. “Or any shifter-related Arthur lore that might possibly be helpful to us.”

  Janet looked pleased; she enjoyed being consulted for her knowledge of legend and myth. “This is the first I’ve heard of your wizard-scientists, I’m afraid. The legend of Merlin is that he was the first shifter, and all shifters descend from him. He was a friend to animals, both ordinary and mythic. He had a pet owl who spoke prophecy, and he gave King Arthur his beloved dog Cavall. But on the eve of the battle of Camlann, the sorceress Morgana cast an enchantment over the owl and the dog, so the owl couldn’t warn Merlin and the dog couldn’t protect Arthur. Arthur was killed and Merlin vanished forever.”

  Blue let out a mournful whine. Merlin petted him. “Not me, Blue. Just my namesake.”

  “It’s interesting that magical animals have sought you out,” said Janet. “It’s almost unheard-of for them to adopt humans. Given what happened when the original Morgana took the pets out of the picture, I suggest that you be careful with yours.”

  “I would anyway,” Merlin said, putting his arms around Blue and Cloud.

  “So you think the pets may have some protective abilities?” Roland asked.

  “They definitely do,” Dali told him. “Blue and Cloud both attacked our enemies. And I think all the pets came to the performance to try to warn us about Morgana.”

  “It’s more than that,” said Ransom unexpectedly; Merlin had thought he was asleep. “They’re important in ways that we haven’t discovered yet. That’s all I know, though.”

  “Changed your mind about wanting one?” Merlin teased.

  “No,” Ransom said, and rolled over and put a pillow over his head.

  “What were those qualities you said were needed to run a circus?” Roland asked Merlin. “Detail-oriented, excellent organizational skills, able to manage a group of people and get them working together smoothly? There’s another person here who has them.”

  Everyone looked at Dali, who said, “I don’t want to run a circus, though.”

  “How would you feel about running the Defenders office?” Roland asked.

  Yes yes yes, said Merlin’s raptor. She can fix everything and not chase off the clients and we can be together even more!

  Roland went on, “It’s very similar to your old job.”

  Ransom removed the pillow to say, “And we really need you.”

  “If you can run a circus, you can run an office,” Mom said.

  “Our office is a circus,” Merlin said, grinning. “Complete with a fake psychic, a juggler, an acrobat, a strong man, a target boy, and a dancing bear.”

  Dali looked like the sun had risen in her eyes. She nudged Merlin. “If I take the job, will you bring hot chocolate to my desk on cold days?”

  Heartfelt, he said, “I’ll bring you anything, anywhere, any time. And I’d love to have you on the team. We all would. It might even make Carter happy.”

  “Then I accept.” She smiled at him, then at the rest of them. Roland gravely shook her hand.

  “Good,” said Ransom, and put the pillow back over his head.

  Roland’s phone rang. He stepped away to take the call, then returned and said, “Well, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that Morgana’s shifters were just criminals she hired. They’re going to a special jail with shiftsilver locks, but they don’t know anything about the wizard-scientists or their plans.”

  “And the good news?” Merlin asked hopefully.

  Roland smiled at Dali. “Pete and Tirzah say welcome to the team, and Carter says me hiring you is the only reason he’ll even consider setting foot in the office again.”

  “Woo-hoo!” Merlin exclaimed.

  Without removing his head from under the pillow, Ransom yanked Merlin’s pillow out from under his head, and laid it atop his own.

  “Keep it down in here,” Zane said, walking over. “The patients need their rest.”

  Mom and Roland left, but Dali stayed, lying down next to Merlin and snuggling in. She retrieved a pillow from another bed first.

  “Go to sleep,” she whispered. “Zane was right. You need it.”

  Merlin was tired, but he hated to waste this time in sleep. He whispered, “I want to enjoy every second I have with you.”

  Dali kissed him. “I’m not going anywhere. True mates, remember? You’ll have all the seconds in the world.”

  For the first time, his future felt less like a wild rollercoaster, fun but totally unpredictable, and more like a ride that was just as fun, but was headed toward a destination where he wanted to go.

  All the seconds in the world, his raptor said dreamily. One... two... three...

  Warmed by Dali’s body and the love that surrounded him, Merlin fell asleep.

  CHAPTER 28

  Ever since she’d lost her hand, Dali had known that your life could change in an instant. But she’d only thought about it in the sense of the changes being terrible. But the moment those pigeons had stolen her necklace had set off a chain of events that had changed everything for the better.

  Sitting in the audience of the Fabulous Flying Chameleons’ final Refuge City performance, Dali mentally ticked off the ways that everything had changed.

  She’d gotten back in touch with her Navy buddies. As Merlin had predicted, none of them thought less of her—in fact, it turned out that some of them had worried that she thought less of them! They now checked in with each other almost every day over email or text or phone. She might be retired, but the Navy would still be a part of her life.

  She and Merlin had moved into a larger apartment that had opened up in Tirzah and Pete’s building, and managed to compromise on decoration by dividing it up room by room. When they proudly showed off the final result, Tirzah suggested that they photograph it for a magazine article called “Opposites Attract.”

  Managing the Defenders office, not to mention the Defenders themselves, was definitely a challenge. But then, she’d always loved a challenge.

  She’d cracked down on food-stashing and coffee-mug-abandoning with an iron fist, posted clear rules about what was and wasn’t allowed in each room of the office, and turned a certain horrifying disaster area into an actual working kitchen/break room where people could cook, eat, and relax.

  Dali had also hired the two most responsible of the pigeon teenagers as cleaners, since they already knew about shifters and clearly needed good honest work. It had been a definite win-win. Ara and Mason got money to save for college, and the office actually looked professional. Mostly. Not even Dali could bring herself to ban the pets, so clients were occasionally puzzled by the discovery of blue hairs on the sofa.

  She’d even had a chance to plan and coordinate a team mission. Merlin’s raptor had never let up about the barista’s sofa, so Dali had presented Roland with a plan for retrieving it.

  As the least intimidating member of the team, Tirzah had approached the barista after work and said that she worked at a security agency, she’d been in the Starbucks when the barista’s evil sofa-stealing ex had showed up and gotten his just deserts in the form of a frappuccino to the face, and she’d like to help out, woman to woman. With the barista’s enthusiastic permission, Roland and Pete had knocked on the evil ex’s door, loomed over him, and repossessed the sofa. And then the whole team had ceremoni
ally moved it back into the barista’s apartment.

  The barista had been delighted and posted an enthusiastic review for Defenders on Yelp, the evil ex had left an angry comment to her review that attracted hundreds of jeering rejoinders, Merlin and his raptor had been thrilled, and Dali had enjoyed the deep satisfaction of a difficult job well-done.

  A month ago, Dali and Merlin had driven her grandmother to their own apartment to tell her about shifters in a more private space than the retirement home. Merlin had proved it by turning into a hamster-sized velociraptor. Grandma had taken the news with surprising equanimity; Dali suspected that was mostly due to Merlin’s charm and Dali’s clear happiness at being with him, though the presence of Blue hadn’t hurt.

  “I had a hound dog named Blue when I was a little girl,” Grandma said, patting the bugbear. “He had big sad eyes like this creature, too.”

  “How’d you get him?” Merlin asked. And then they were off, trading stories about dogs they had known.

  After the visit, Merlin stayed in the car while Dali walked Grandma inside.

  “I was wrong about what kind of man he is,” Grandma said thoughtfully. “He’s got other things to do with his restless heart than run around the country.”

  “You mean, he runs around as a raptor instead?” Dali asked.

  “Yes. Much more practical. This one’s a keeper.” Once again, she said triumphantly, “I told you my necklace would bring you luck!”

  Dali kissed her wrinkled cheek. “You were so right.”

  And now Dali was back at the circus, in the audience for a change. Cloud perched on her shoulder, intently watching the show. Blue sat in the aisle beside Merlin, his stubby tail thumping the floor.

  Merlin sat beside her, his arm flung over her shoulder, suffusing her with his body heat, their ever-sizzling chemistry, his protective strength, and his love. Even though she could touch him and be with him all she pleased, his presence was still a marvel to her. Especially when she thought back to how discouraged and lonely she’d been only a few months ago.

  “How did I ever get this lucky?” she whispered in his ear.

  He knew immediately what she meant, and whispered back, “I’m the lucky one.”

  The lights went down, and the small but enthusiastic audience applauded, then applauded again for the curtain call. And then the house lights went up, and Janet came forward to invite everyone to join the closing night party in the ring.

  The Fabulous Flying Chameleons liked to conclude their engagements by doing a final show for a private audience composed of local shifters and non-shifter friends and family who knew about shifters.

  The audience for tonight’s performance was a bunch of Refuge City shifters and their friends, the Defenders, Pete’s mother and daughter, three of Caro’s friends from the apartment building, and Dali’s grandmother. It also included some non-locals: the west coast branch of Protection, Inc. and their mates and children, who’d flown out for the occasion.

  By the time Dali and Merlin and Grandma got down to the ring, it had already been set up for a shifter party, with tables of circus-themed food and drink, plus plenty of toys and climbing equipment for kids (and adults) who wanted to play.

  Birds and flying squirrels zoomed and fluttered and glided overhead, and raccoons and opossums and humans and other beasts with grasping hands tried out the trapezes, which had been lowered for the sake of nervous parents, though the net remained underneath.

  Dali settled her grandmother down in a comfortable chair with a table for her food. Grandma wore her lucky necklace, and the pigeon teenagers kept shooting her guilty looks while staying as far away as possible. Janet came over and introduced herself, Pete introduced his mother to them both, and soon the three old women were chatting away.

  Merlin and Dali set out the goodies they’d brought for the party, which they’d transported in a lockbox to protect it from roving bugbears. They’d spent a happy weekend cooking, and had produced everything from Filipino nata de coco pastries to peach cobbler from Grandma’s recipe to truffles in twenty different flavors. No sooner had they arranged everything on platters than the entire Defenders team, plus Caro, descended to fall upon their homemade treats like a bunch of starving wolves.

  Carter bit into a Buddha’s Hand truffle. “Put some of these in my next box, Merlin.”

  “That was an apology box,” Merlin said. “You’re not getting one every week!”

  “I’m sure you’ll have something else to apologize for,” said Carter. “I want some of the raspberry ones too.”

  Kalpana gave a sigh of happiness as she ate a truffle. “Merlin, you outdid yourself. This tastes just like Dad’s hot chocolate.”

  Kalpana, who normally dressed plainly, practically glowed in a striking green pants and tunic with a flowing pink scarf. Going against all tradition, she’d convinced Janet to hold a company vote on the heirship with Kalpana and Fausto as the contenders. Kalpana had won, and Fausto had accepted it with a mutter of, “At least it’s not Merlin.”

  Fausto was currently a flying squirrel, and Dali suspected he was enjoying himself more that way. No velociraptor, regardless of size, could annoy him while he was in the air.

  “Come on, Dali,” Merlin said. “I want to introduce you to the west coast team.”

  He escorted her to a group of men and women, plus three babies and a whole bunch of magical pets. Blue wagged his tail and panted happily. Cloud took one look at the other pets, arched her back, buzzed her wings, and hissed. Merlin quickly plucked her from Dali’s shoulder and kept a firm grip on her.

  “This is Dali Batiste, my mate,” Merlin said. “She was a yeoman in the Navy and now she’s our office manager. She ran the entire show backstage when we had the inspectors, and she saved my life, and...”

  A handsome man with shoulder-length black hair said, “I remember what it was like to meet Grace.”

  He squeezed the arm of the woman beside him. In contrast to his black silk shirt and dress pants, she had pink-and-purple hair and wore Army boots and a 1950s dancing dress with a cherry print. She held a baby in one arm. A pink-and-purple flying kitten perched on her shoulder.

  He went on, “I couldn’t stop talking about how wonderful she was to anyone who’d listen, and some who didn’t. But let us introduce ourselves, and then you can go back to telling us how fantastic your mate is.”

  Merlin grinned. “Okay, Rafa. It’s a date.”

  “I’m Grace Chang,” said Rafa’s mate. When Dali shook Grace’s hand, she noticed calluses, little scars, and very short nails painted with black glitter. This was a woman who worked with her hands. “You ran this show? I’m so impressed! I’m a stage manager, and I kept thinking what a fun challenge it would be.”

  “Kalpana’s the stage manager,” Dali said, indicating her. “You should talk to her. She could show you the booth.”

  “Oh, thanks, Dali. Join us when you get the chance if you want to talk shop. Rafa, mind taking Gabriel?” Grace passed the baby to Rafa, who cuddled him against his broad chest. Her pink-and-purple kitten spread his wings and flew to Rafa’s shoulder as Grace headed off in Kalpana’s direction. To Dali’s delighted astonishment, the kitten’s bright coloring got darker and darker until he was almost invisible against Rafa’s black hair and shirt.

  “I’m Rafa Flores, a lion shifter,” he said, and gave Dali a firm handshake. “Navy, huh? Represent! Me and Hal were SEALs.”

  Hal, a big man carrying a baby clutching a teddy bear, said in a rumbling voice, “Pleased to meet you. I’m Hal Brennan, the west coast boss and grizzly bear shifter. This is my mate, Ellie. She’s a paramedic.”

  Ellie, a plump woman with curling hair who was also carrying a baby, said, “And this is Haley, and that’s Elliot, and that’s Bob.”

  “Sorry, which one is Bob?” Dali asked. The babies were clearly twins and crawling age, with their mother’s sandy-blonde hair and their father’s hazel eyes.

  Ellie laughed. “I’ve got Haley, and Hal’s got
Elliot, and Elliot’s got Bob. Bob is the owbesloque.”

  Merlin reached over and scratched the teddy bear behind the ears. It opened round owl’s eyes and blinked at them.

  “It’s alive!” Dali exclaimed, then took a closer look. Its paws had blunt hooked claws like a sloth, which it was using to hang on to Hal’s arm, and a squirrel’s tail that she had initially mistaken for a fur wrap around the baby. Then she remembered what Ellie had called the creature, and laughed. “Oh, it’s an owl-bear-sloth-squirrel. How cute. Your kids must love him.”

  Elliot squirmed, making an unhappy noise. Haley promptly echoed it. Both babies were wriggling and staring downward. Following their gaze, Dali saw that a nearby area had been set up where kittens and poodle puppies and baby sea lions and tiger cubs and flying squirrel kits were playing together, pouncing on each other, nosing around balls, and dozing in furry piles.

  “Nick?” said Hal, glancing at the man near him.

  Nick, a young man with tattoos and intense green eyes, detached Bob, allowing Hal to set his son down with the baby animals. Ellie did the same with Haley. A moment later, a pair of bear cubs crawled out of their onesies and joined the group. Nick considered Bob, then set him down beside a tiny jungle gym. Bob reached up with his sloth claws and dangled from it, watching the twins closely with his golden owl eyes.

  “Best babysitter ever,” said Ellie.

  “Bob saved our lives,” said Hal. “Every parent of twins needs an owbesloque.”

  “Hey,” said a man. “Who gives your twins panther rides whenever they want?”

  Dali nearly jumped out of her skin. She could have sworn the tall man with ice-blue eyes had materialized from thin air.

  “Shane...” Hal said with a sigh. “Will you ever stop doing that?”

  “Probably not,” said Shane. He looked Dali over, his cool gaze approving, and offered his hand. “Shane Garrity. Your kitten and mine look related.”

  Dali was about to ask where his kitten was when a soft gray head peered out from behind his neck. Shane held out his hand, and his little kitten spread gray moth wings and landed on it, soundless and light as a feather.