by Joyce Lavene
“What harm would you visit on those you feared might kill your offspring?” She took the egg back from him. “Hurry. The harpy won’t be gone long. The egg is soon to hatch.”
They got back in the car and headed toward the agency. With Sunshine gone, they were a person short of the effort they needed to fight the harpy. Aine had her own magic, but it wasn’t as practical as Sunshine’s. She could move them, and the egg, to where the harpy couldn’t find them, but she had precious few other resources.
O’Neill put on his lights and siren, driving like a madman through the streets of downtown Norfolk. But they were only on the road for a few minutes when they heard the harpy’s screeching cry that was followed by her talons scraping the metal roof.
“I don’t think her claws can get through that.” He flashed a frightened frown at his companion. “Good thing we don’t have the convertible, huh?”
The harpy continued her assault against the car. At first her talons only scratched the roof, but after a few passes, they actually began slicing through the thin metal. The process must have seemed too slow, however, for the harpy. She began smashing her body against the windows.
Aine looked into the creature’s eyes as she damaged the window next to her face. The harpy was enraged, furious with the need to reclaim her egg. The glass next to her didn’t shatter, but one more pass might have seen the creature in the car with them.
“A sword! It has been many years since I longed for my sword.”
O’Neill put his service revolver in her hand. “Just point and fire. It’s not hard. Even if you don’t kill her, it should scare her off.”
She glanced at the odd weapon then saw the angry harpy coming toward her window again. Without another thought, she fired at the creature, shattering the window, glass flying everywhere.
“You should’ve opened the window,” he said. “Now you’ve done what she couldn’t. Shoot her again.”
Aine kept firing the weapon until the harpy was gone. “She’ll be back. She won’t abandon her egg. She’ll follow us to the building with the purple door where the shifters are. But now we don’t have magic.”
“Let’s not worry about that right now,” he advised. “If we can make it in the building, we can take out the assault rifles. I don’t know if those will kill her, but they should make her think twice about coming after us.”
“I hope Sunshine returns swiftly.” Her eyes remained on the sky.
There was still no sign of the harpy all the way back to the Purple Door Detective Agency. Despite Aine’s misgivings of their positions in this battle, she took the egg inside while O’Neill gathered his weapons and followed her.
He locked the front door behind him. “I don’t think this lock is going to matter to her.” He looked at the terrified shifters. “Get some furniture here and put it up against the door. Jane, find something to cover the windows.”
“Where’s Sunshine?” she asked with a tremor in her voice.
“She is unharmed,” Aine told her. “Do not fear or become a mouse. She has gone to have O’Neill’s partner healed. We need your human hands to fight the harpy.”
Jane pointed at the egg. “Is that what I think it is?”
“A harpy egg,” Aine confirmed. “The creature will no doubt move heaven and earth to have it back. We must do our best to stop her.”
“What can I do?”
“Do as O’Neill commands. Find furniture to put in front of the windows. I am going to hide the egg.” She stormed into Mr. Bad’s office. “You are the only one who can do what is necessary with this egg.”
“I’m sure you can hide it without me.”
“You understand and yet fail to react. You must take this egg to the underworld where it can be hidden for all time. This task can only be yours.”
“Don’t think I will give away my hiding place here to keep humans from dying. Leave the egg here with me if you must, but reclaim it after you have dealt with the harpy. With Miss Merryweather gone, the chances of survival are limited.”
“I know that, my lord. Your aid in this fight would be greatly appreciated.”
There was no response. Aine left the egg on the desk and quietly closed the door behind her.
Chapter Twenty-four
The harpy began her assault on the building with a fierce battle cry. She ignored the roof and began throwing herself at the windows on the ground floor.
Jane immediately turned into a mouse and went to hide in the supply closet, but she’d made it through the process of blocking the windows, which was what Aine had asked of her.
Both shifters stood in the middle of the front office area ready for the fight. Tom had shifted completely into the large lion with a tawny mane and frightened eyes. Lloyd had become a sleek black panther. He flexed his muscles, showed his teeth, and growled.
O’Neill was nervously tapping his finger on one of the assault rifles as he watched them change. When Aine came out of Mr. Bad’s office, he nodded to the shifters. “Maybe one of them could’ve stayed a person and I could’ve showed him how to fire a rifle. I don’t know what good they’re going to be this way.”
Aine nodded. “I will speak to them. But have no fear, neither will attack you.”
“Yeah.” He watched the big cats again. “Thanks for that.”
Tom volunteered to become human again when Aine spoke to him. She had O’Neill explain how to use the large rifle that had been on one of the purple chairs.
“Don’t bother asking me.” Lloyd’s voice was more like a roar. “If I have to fight, I’m fighting this way.”
The harpy screamed and threw herself against the front door. It vibrated on its hinges but stayed in place. The creature made a circle around the building, trying the windows and clawing at the bricks.
Aine held the reloaded revolver that O’Neill had given her in the car. She longed for a sword or a spear. The police weapon had only frightened the harpy. As far as she could tell, it had done no lasting damage.
The harpy she’d seen die had been beheaded, after hundreds of other wounds. It had been done with a charmed blade. Perhaps if Sunshine got back in time, she could conjure one up. Aine had the strength to use it against the creature but no magic that would defeat her.
She thought about Mr. Bad brooding in his dark office. She also considered that the harpy’s death was unfortunate. Though the creature had killed, it was through no fault of her own when she was under the control of O’Neill’s lover. Protecting her offspring—perhaps the last of her kind—seemed not so much a crime to her.
A dozen bricks fell from the outside wall of the agency as the harpy determinedly continued her onslaught. The windows rattled in their casements, and the door threatened to give way.
“I don’t think she can get in the elevator.” Jane managed to become a person again. “It’s magical and made of metal. I think we should go in the elevator.”
Lloyd roared his approval of the idea. O’Neill kept his eyes and his rifle focused on the front door.
Tom wiped nervous perspiration from his eyes. “I think the mouse is right. We can’t win against this thing. If she gets in, we’re done for.”
O’Neill glanced at Aine. “What do you think?”
“Without knowing the magic that works the elevator, I would rather stay and fight. The metal box could become your tomb.”
“That’s right. You can’t die, so you have no dog in this fight. Maybe this is my death that you foresaw.”
Tom, Jane, and Lloyd all stared at the beane sidhe.
“As long as you are living, I fight for your life.” Aine’s green eyes were steady on his.
“Okay. Thanks.”
The harpy smashed into one of the front windows. The impact shattered the glass and left a gaping hole in the wall. The three men—Lloyd became human again to use his hands—quickly pushed a large metal file cabinet in front of it.
“You got another gun like that?” Tom asked O’Neill.
“Yes but no amm
o. Sorry. I wish I did. Are there any other things we could use as weapons?” O’Neill turned to Jane.
“If the harpy comes inside, she will kill all of you,” Aine said. “Right now she is only taunting us. She could have come through the wall at any time.”
“Yeah. Thanks for that.” Tom began his transformation back into the lion.
Lloyd said, “Now I know how they felt at the Alamo.”
“Not a great way to keep up morale,” O’Neill told Aine.
“I spoke the truth,” she defended.
Jane trembled. “Sometimes it’s better to keep the truth to yourself.”
A bright light in the outer office heralded Sunshine’s return. She smiled at everyone gathered there. “I’m so glad you made it back,” she said to Aine and O’Neill. “I didn’t even stay long enough to get my face healed.”
“What about Malto?” he asked.
“She’s going to be fine,” she told him. “She won’t remember a thing. She thinks she had the flu and had to take some time off. I tucked her in at her apartment. I even conjured a few roses from you wishing her a speedy recovery.”
He laughed. “Thanks, but Malto hates roses. She’s gonna think I lost my mind.”
“Oh well. Better that than being dead from harpy poison.” She glanced around the room as the harpy threw herself against the wall again. “How’s it going here?”
“I hid the egg,” Aine said. “You should have allowed them to heal your face. It is very angry.”
Sunshine put her hand up but didn’t touch the raw mark on her cheek. “I thought you might need me here. I’m not going to die from this scratch just yet. I hope it can wait until after we get rid of this thing.”
“What do we do now?” O’Neill asked. “Do you have magic covered bullets? How does it work?”
Jane quivered. “Shouldn’t we all get in the elevator?”
As she said it, the electricity went off. It was barely dusk outside but the inner office got dark.
“I really think we should get in the elevator,” she said again.
“That won’t help,” Sunshine told her. “It takes magic to make it run. I need all the magic I have to release on the harpy.”
“I think we should go outside and shoot her,” Lloyd said. “What’s the point of hiding in here? She’s just going to come in and kill us.”
“No,” Aine said. “No one leaves the castle when it is under siege.”
There was a loud rumbling from beneath them. The sound grew louder as it came closer.
“Upstairs!” Sunshine yelled.
But it was too late.
The harpy came under the building, through the floor, with a screech that shook the structure. Her eyes glanced around the room until they fell on Sunshine. She grabbed the witch by the shoulders and started digging back out through the floor.
O’Neill and Lloyd began firing. It was difficult to tell if they were hitting anything. Ruptured wood and stone had spewed up with the harpy. The waiting room was covered with it.
Aine didn’t think twice. She threw herself down the hole after them. The bullets meant nothing to her. She grabbed the harpy’s scaled leg and pulled hard. Her strength was enough that she jerked the creature backward. The harpy raked her arms with her other foot but found there was nothing there to injure.
Once the harpy was back in the office, Aine beat at her midsection with her fists, trying to make her release Sunshine. With no magic—only her inability not to die—all she could do was keep the creature immobilized.
“Shoot it!” she called out. “O’Neill, shoot the creature now.”
“You’re in the way,” he yelled back. “She’s moving too fast. I’ll shoot you too.”
The harpy freed one clawed hand from its grasp on the witch and raked it across Aine’s face. Jane gasped as she saw the damage done, but before the creature could move again, Aine had transformed into the crone.
“You cannot defeat me by changing shape,” the harpy hissed at her. “I shall have the witch’s life. There’s nothing you can do to prevent it.”
Aine already knew that the deep gouges into the Sunshine’s chest and back could be the death of her, yet she held on to the harpy with fierce strength. “You underestimate me. Your cries are those of a mewling child compared to mine.”
The death cry of the beane sidhe fell on the ears of those around her like a bomb going off. O’Neill finally began shooting at the creature as Aine kept the harpy at bay while it writhed, trying to escape the sound that came from her opponent.
All three shifters fell to the floor with their hands over their ears. Both cats cried out in pain as they were exposed to the unearthly sound.
Still the harpy clutched Sunshine, her claws sinking deeper into the witch’s flesh. She kept tearing at Aine, even though it was evident there was no human body to assail.
Aine knew this was all she could do. She didn’t have Sunshine’s practical magic that could form a sword or an elevator to defeat the creature. O’Neill and Lloyd kept firing their rifles, joined a moment later by Tom. The bullets bounced off the iron hide of the harpy, inflicting little, if any, damage. Their strength together could only keep the creature from taking Sunshine and departing through the floor again.
“That’s enough!”
No one was certain at first who had shouted the words. The tone and voice penetrated both the harpy’s screams and the beane sidhe’s wail. It even pierced the staccato of gunfire in the room.
Aine looked back and saw Mr. Bad emerging from his office. He was as she remembered from long ago when she’d been stripped of her right to rest in the quiet of the underworld. Centuries later, he hadn’t changed.
He stalked across the room, easily eight feet tall with black skin and blacker hair. His eyes were made of the night that he’d witnessed for ten thousand years trapped in the underworld created by his brother, Zeus, who sought to keep him from the earth.
One large hand reached down and easily held the harpy. “You will not take her. It is not her time. And you can no longer remain here.”
Aine pulled Sunshine close to her and signaled for O’Neill to stop shooting. She didn’t need to bother—he, Lloyd, and Tom were transfixed by the ancient god in their midst. They had stopped firing as soon as they’d seen him. The mouse and the lion lay down before the might of the one they’d jokingly called Mr. Bad.
“I only want what’s mine,” the harpy lisped. “They took it from me. I won’t leave until I have it.”
Midnight eyes focused on the creature nearly as ancient as himself. His hand slowly stroked the metallic wings and scaled body. “You have been wronged, as have all your ancestors. You will leave this place and not return, but you will not leave alone.”
He glanced toward his office, and the egg came to him. He placed it in the harpy’s claws.
“Thank you, dark lord.” The harpy bowed her head. “Happily shall I leave this realm now and never be summoned again.”
“So it shall be.” Hades looked around at the faces that dared gaze upon him. O’Neill knew no better. Aine had nothing to fear. The shifters had hidden their eyes from him.
“What are you waiting for, Aine?” he asked. “You know I have no power to heal. Take Miss Merryweather to her family. Tend her well. She must survive.”
“My lord.” Aine respectfully inclined her head to him. She took a quick glance at O’Neill, still holding his rifle, and then rose to ride the wind to the place the witch had last visited.
“Uh…excuse me,” O’Neill interrupted. “Are you a witch too?”
The trembling words amused the elder god. He smiled, despite the arrogance it took to speak to him—or perhaps it was courage. “No. I am not a witch. I leave that to Miss Merryweather. Good day to you, young sir.”
O’Neill watched him disappear through the floor with the harpy and the egg before he lost consciousness.
Chapter Twenty-five
Three weeks later, Sunshine Merryweather returned to her purpl
e-doored home. Jane hugged her and cried when she saw her.
“Everyone’s gone—I was glad to see the cats go! But I wasn’t sure if I had enough food to last. I even thought about going to the grocery store myself, but I was waiting until the last seed was gone. I’m so glad you’re back.”
Sunshine frowned at the huge mess still waiting for her. She closed her eyes and shrugged. As she did, so did the old building. When it was over, things were back in place, including the floor, outside bricks, and the front window. “There we are. Where is everyone?”
“If you mean Aine, I haven’t seen her since she took you to Wilmington. By the way, you look wonderful. I’m so glad your family was able to heal you.”
“My Aunt Molly said I was in pretty bad shape when Aine brought me there. I’m glad they’d met before. I don’t know what would’ve happened if she’d shown up with me like that before she had a chance to explain.”
“Well, she never came back. I waited. O’Neill called a few times and came over here a few other times. He hasn’t heard anything from her either.”
The door was open to Mr. Bad’s office. Sunshine went closer to it and peered into the darkness.
“He’s gone too,” Jane explained. “After he showed his real form, he took the harpy and the egg with him and disappeared. It was like some mass exodus from the agency. I didn’t know what to say or do. That’s why I’m so glad to see you. And there’s the food situation. But I guess I mentioned that.”
“You did.” Sunshine sat in her purple office chair and kicked off her purple pumps. “Any business calls?”
“Yes. Dozens of them. Do you want me to get them before you go shopping?”
Considering the question, Sunshine absently rubbed the place where the harpy had slashed her. There was nothing to mar her smooth complexion, but she could still feel it. Her aunt had told her it was all in her mind. Sunshine knew she’d forget it after a while, but it was part of an experience that had changed her life. It would take some time.
Not only had John been killed but Mr. Bad had finally revealed himself after five years. She had no idea who he was until the day he’d saved her life—although she should’ve guessed from Aine’s questions about him.
