Serve

by Laura Wylde

  Adrien returned carrying a small vial of rosy-hued liquid. He pulled back the bandages and removed the moss rudely, pouring out the contents of the bottle just as nonchalantly as though he was adding a vinaigrette to the salad. With the first drop, Todd drew in his breath sharply, hissed and slumped back. Tara gasped with alarm, then relaxed when she saw that Todd was breathing normally and did not seem to be in much pain. “What is that?”

  “Alchemy. It counteracts black magic. “Watch.”

  The liquid remained on top of the wound but was drawing something shiny and blue into it, turning it purple. The solution gelled, vibrated, then cracked with a scattering of light, golden dust. The wound quit seeping and began to close. “Now, he’ll be alright,” said Adrien.

  Within minutes, Todd fell asleep and was snoring like a band saw. After balling up the blood-soaked sheets and tossing them in the waste bin, I started out the door with the others when Tara caught my arm. “Shouldn’t somebody be with him?” She asked. Her eyes were dark, green pools with dark hollows under them. I had a strong urge to kiss that freckled nose but patted her hand instead. “There isn’t much to do beside let him sleep, sweetheart. He’s a phoenix. He’ll be fine in the morning.”

  Since I was the last one out, I closed the door, but not before peeking inside and watching her turn down the lights and take a seat at the end of the bed.

  Todd

  I am as lucky as they come when it comes to leprechauns. You might argue I got nearly skewered, which isn’t very good luck, but I would point out my leprechaun side-stepping skills saved me, and my wounds put me into a bed with a beautiful woman. That my friend, is the luck of the Irish.

  I thought she was a perky little lass right from the start. She was comfortable in denim or sturdy work pants; not quite so comfortable in feminine slacks. She didn’t wear jeans to look sexy. I know a lot of women do, and I’m not criticizing them. A woman looks hot in a pair of pants two sizes too small, coated over their skin like spray paint, especially if they’re showing off their rounded parts in high heels. They can’t move much though, just look sexy. That wasn’t Tara.

  Tara looked like she had been born in jeans. They looked as natural on her as the billed FBI cap she wore on her head to shield her eyes. She could have done the sexy by wearing short, girly tops and a waist length jacket, but she didn’t. She wore button up shirts in subdued colors, usually greens or blues. At the pub, though, she had been wearing worn-out jeans and a Rock Café tee-shirt. She looked so cute, I wanted to kiss her.

  And there she was, on my bed! If that isn’t the lucky reward of a leprechaun dream! Drowsing in that delicious realm between sleep and wakefulness, I nuzzled my nose against her hair and inhaled its fragrance. This was the scent of high mountain pines! My arms circled around her, pulling her in close. I drifted back into a light sleep, dreaming of wild canyons and eagles soaring through the sky, while riding on the back of a horse, holding a beautiful, sweet woman in front of me.

  I became aware the minute she stirred and felt her ease herself up on her elbows. I pulled her down, snuggling her close to me again. She was soft as a kitten. She muttered as though confused. I turned her face toward mine so she wouldn’t be confused any longer. “You’re the prettiest thing I ever woke up to,” I whispered, kissing her. I pulled her down on me, delighting in the perfect curve of her back and the swell of her firm buttocks. What was under the clothes wasn’t boyish at all. It was all woman, solidly packed inside velvet skin.

  Those darling freckles splattered down below the neckline, collecting in hives at her shoulders and the sun-exposed vee between her breasts. I followed their migrations, kissing them like specks of gold to add to my bag of magic. I pushed my hands under her tee-shirt and held the rosy-tipped breasts in my hands, round, perfect goblets balanced delicately in my palms. She was wearing a halter, not a bra. I pushed it up and kissed the rosy tips as well. They tasted like cherries.

  “I didn’t burst into flames?” I asked, nibbling at her ear.

  “No,” she answered, chuckling. “You stayed here and bled, then got better.”

  “I’m glad.” My hands strayed down to her waist and snuggled her close again, her naked breasts pressing against my chest. “If I had risen from the ashes, I would have had to start over. I would have missed this.”

  “Missed what?” Asked Adonis, walking into the room without knocking. He was closely followed by Adrien and Thaddeus.

  “This,” I said, still holding onto Tara, although she was struggling to pull back down her tee-shirt. “When I woke up, I thought I had reached the end of the rainbow. In fact, I still think I did.”

  “There are worse ways to wake up,” he agreed, taking a chair and sitting down. “How is the patchwork holding up?”

  Thaddeus spat. “Patchwork! I have centuries as a general practitioner.”

  “You’re a horse doctor,” said Adrien.

  As Adrien sat down on the end of the bed to inspect the wound’s progress, Tara sat up, trying to pretend she had not just given everyone in the room a view of the most beautiful little breasts framed in freckles you’ll find on the East Coast. “It looks like the wound has survived Thad’s poultice. No adverse effects. You should probably be able to go back to work within a couple of days.”

  “I could go back now,” I said, sitting up, then realized my side was very sore. In fact, the upright movement caused a sharp, burning sensation under my ribs. I eased back on the pillows in a semi-sitting position. “Well, maybe not today, but what’s the update?”

  Adonis used an old-fashioned note pad and a pen for taking notes. “The badgers believe they may have found another entrance to the corridor, but they aren’t sure because the area is honeycombed with tunnels. We’re going to need a complete squadron of shapeshifters. The word on the street is that we’re dealing with a clan of twenty to thirty trolls.”

  I whistled lightly. That was a big outbreak. The underworld must be facing a shortage of swampland. “Was that what they said at the pub?”

  Adonis was too tall for the chair. His knees stood out prominently and he used them to balance his pad. “Adrien’s source said the same thing.”

  Adrien was full of surprises. The whippersnapper was going to get ahead of me before he reached his first century. “Who is your source, Adrien?”

  “His name is Lenny. A detective for another precinct. One of his team has a direct line with a siren.”

  “Lenny Katz? I’ve heard of him. He’s part of Daniels’ team. Why do they always have the best informers?”

  “It could be a matter of diplomacy,” Adrien suggested, glancing at Thaddeus, then quickly away.

  “But a siren? How did they get a siren to talk to them?”

  “They didn’t. The siren hates them, but she likes their woman. They drink pina coladas together or something. Maybe play pinochle. Every now and then she tells Tanya about a demon or a goblin that’s on the loose. She told her about the trolls. She called them fat, ugly, stinking little men who were too tough to eat.”

  “Eat?” Squeaked Tara, who had followed most of the conversation with apparent calm.

  “Well, yes,” answered Adrien a little uncomfortably. “That’s their usual measurement on the quality of a man. They want someone edible. If not edible, then wealthy.”

  “You let sirens run around loose?”

  “Not all of them. Bunny’s married to a badger. He’s got her under control.”

  I think Tara very much would have liked to discuss further this turn in the conversation, but Adonis cut her short. “Todd, I want to discuss with you and Adrien a little more about direct combat with trolls. They can withstand the impact of a forty-five -bullet shot nearly at point blank, but they are not invulnerable. The bullet will penetrate and do damage. Aiming for the head is pointless as the bullets will bounce off. Their most vulnerable areas are the ears, eyes and the legs. Try to attack from behind so as to stay out of the way of their blades.”

  “My team and I will w
ear full body armor and carry assault rifles,” added Tara. “We could come in shooting enough to keep them stunned and you could zoom in from behind for the clean-up.”

  Adonis tapped his pencil against his knee in a series of nervous spurts. “Tara, you aren’t going to lead an assault team into the tunnels.”

  She sputtered and crossed her arms. “The hell I’m not! I’m the commanding officer!”

  “But not in battle! You’re not going down there. No humans are going down there. Not you. Not the members of your team. Only shapeshifters.”

  “It’s my duty…”

  “It’s your duty to stay alive! Take a look at Todd. The only reason he survived was because he moved aside in time to keep from being sliced in half. No human could ever move that fast. A phoenix could not move that fast. Todd could because he’s a leprechaun. You would only be chop suey out on this playing field.”

  “You’re not cutting me out,” she warned him, but he ignored her.

  “The Bear Clan will be entering the tunnel from the grate. They are our best swimmers and best combatants in human form. Once they enter the main chamber, they’ll shift.”

  “I said, you’re not cutting me out!” She said louder. “I found the tunnels on my own. I left them on my own. I’m more familiar with them than any of you.”

  She stood up to her full height, hands on her hips. She was so angry she stamped her foot. It caught his attention, but not in the way she intended. His pencil hung motionless in his hand as he stared at federal agent Winslow, who currently looked like a street urchin throwing a tantrum. A smile split across his face at the still-tapping foot. “They’re mine now,” he said, showing off those perfect teeth set in a perfect Greek jaw. It’s a good thing that woman wasn’t born a leprechaun, or the curse that shot from her eyes would have caused him fifty years of itching dust devils in his feathers.

  It amazed and inspired me. The only human women I’ve known intimately had been Irish, and those vixens could tie three leprechauns together and make them all give up every gold nugget they owned. Tara was totally refreshing. She had no idea she had more charms wrapped up in that cute little body and independent mind than I had in my whole bag of leprechaun tricks.

  Adonis was charmed but not to the point where he was willing to give in to her demands. We were protectors and Tara needed protecting. “I’m going to plant a few coyotes on the main floor tonight. They will pose as offenders waiting to be processed. Their sole purpose is to alert the desk if they smell a troll. “

  “Blimey!” I chuckled. “What kind of trade did you make for that service?”

  “The sheriff upstate was holding Freddy’s Uncle Leopold at the county jail on charges of transporting stolen goods. Freddy wanted us to pull some strings and get him out.”

  “What kind of stolen goods?” I asked. “Munitions? Automobile parts?”

  “Virtual gaming equipment. He claims he picked it up at the open market in New York City and was on his way to Boston.” Adonis remembered his pencil and tapped me with it.“Say, didn’t you tell me your brother is thinking of expanding into Boston?”

  He was heckling me, and I knew it. “Don’t get me Irish up,” I said with a mock growl. “You know we keep a clean business. Leopold could have been going anywhere. He was trying to sucker punch you.”

  Adonis laughed and shrugged. “Thaddeus said the same, but Thaddeus would rather horse-whip the coyotes into service. We paid his bail. We took it out of the Special Unit funds. It’s a small price to pay for coyote sniffing.”

  “He’ll disappear,” I warned.

  “Probably.”Walking around Tara to get to the door, he hooked a finger at Thaddeus and told him, “I want you to come with me. We need to teach the inexperienced shapeshifters in the detail, the fine art of taking down trolls in human form.”

  Tara scrambled after him, trying to hold him back. “Teach me too.”

  He drew her wrists down to her sides gently but firmly. “Not today. We don’t have time to teach you. Today, you will stay here. The precinct will guard you. There are two shape-shifting bears on both ends of the block, and a wolf staking out the park. They all have a keen sense of smell. Not as discerning as the coyotes, but enough to keep them alert. And,” he added before leaving. “They will know your scent more quickly then they would a troll’s. You smell like woodlands. So, please stay here so you don’t distract them from their job. Adrien and Todd will stay with you.” He closed the door emphatically behind him.

  She gasped as though insulted within an inch of her life. She tore around the room, her arms flailing and beat up on a few cushions. “I never! How could he! I’m not a baby!”

  Adrien scratched his head and sat down on the edge of the chair that had so inadequately housed Adonis’ legs. “I guess you’re going to have to get used to it,” he told her. “We’re supernatural. You’re not.”

  She pouted and hugged one of the cushions she had so recently abused. “I’m not a lollipop girl. I didn’t play with dolls. I didn’t pretend I was a princess. I’m strong. I’m a fast learner. I’m good at calisthenics. I can swim. I don’t want to play your damsel in distress. I want to stand on my own two feet!”

  My heart was jumping right out to her. “I know you do, kitten,” I said soothingly, beckoning for her to sit beside me once more.Just like a kitten, she folded herself up on the bed, curling against my chest. I kissed her forehead. “He was blunt about it but tis true what Adrien says. We have extra powers you don’t have and we’re fighting some nasty underworld creatures.”

  She stirred in protest. “We have Kevlar. We have body armor, artillery shells.”

  Adrien moved his chair around, so the edge was touching the bed, making our company of three a cozy circle. “Think of it like this. You wouldn’t use a bow and arrow to attack a guided missile, would you?”

  “It would be pretty pointless.”

  “Exactly. They are both guided weapons, but one uses a far more advanced technology than the other. Our biology and our chemistry are more advanced than yours; more complicated. In our spectrum, we have species that can invade your thoughts, control your dreams, steal your memories, disappear in front of your eyes or turn you into stone.How do you protect yourself from them?”

  “Don’t scare her to death, lad,” I scolded. “Those creatures lie deep in the underworld. They don’t come out often. It’s why we keep informers like Ready Freddy. They are more valuable on the outside with their noses to the ground, then on the inside wasting tax- payers money for their petty crimes.”

  Adrien shrugged and his hands tapped as though looking for something to keep them occupied. “The trolls are a bad sign.”

  I straightened up so I could put my arm around his shoulders, pulling the three of us even closer together. “You shouldn’t listen so much to the words of a drunken siren. She wrestled a rat and threw it off the roof of their apartment building because she thought it was a Gollum. There’s a young gay couple from there that come to the pub and they gossip about her all the time. They say she’s nuttier than a fruitcake.”

  “How do you know it wasn’t a Gollum?” Objected Adrien. He’s still so starry-eyed about what he considers exotic women; sirens, mermaids, nymphs and feline shapeshifters.

  “The gay couple said it was a rat. It was a rat.”

  Tara stirred and lifted her head to stare at us. “Is this part of your normal day? Talking about trolls and sirens and Gollum?”

  “Yeah,” we both said at the same time.

  Adrien

  Adonis had the station sealed tight as a drum. I went downstairs to give a once-around and catch up on any information or rumors I might have missed. The duty roster contained all regular humans, but they knew how to follow orders without questions. They were to make sure no unauthorized persons went up the stairs, the FBI agent did not come down and they were to get out of the way if all hell busted loose in the station.

  There was also Henry Burkhart. He was a Millennial, like me, and an a
lchemist. He was our forensics specialist. He knew the chemical composition of fifty different interdimensional species and potions that would subdue them, temporarily paralyze them, ease their pain and suffering, cure them of diseases or release them from spells. He told me once he was a direct descendent of Merlin. I believe him. Thaddeus, who knew Merlin back in the day, told me the reason they hired Henry was because of his striking resemblance to Merlin.

  I found him in his lab, comparing the teeth marks on the remains of one of our Turtle Pond victims with the remains of another murder they had found in Bryant Park. “Are they the same?” I asked, clicking the door gently behind me as I entered.

  Henry took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “I almost wish they were. No, unfortunately, this poor woman was taken down by a werewolf. I’ll have to call disease control.”

  I pulled out my cellphone and quickly jotted off a text. “Yep. I just notified Adonis. We’ve got three shape-shifting wolves out there tonight. We don’t want a mix-up.”

  “Three wolves? Jeez. Adonis is pulling all the stops. He’s really into that girl.”

  I tried to play it cool. “We’re just protecting her.”

  “With three wolves? The bear clan and the rest of your team aren’t enough?”

  “She’s cute. Really cute.”

  “The last time I talked with you, I believe you said something about her being a ball-buster.”

  He was fishing and I didn’t care. I was beginning to realize there was something special about Tara. It was fun to have her around. “She’s a little bit of that as well. It just makes her cuter. What is she? Five-four, five-five? She’s shorter than Todd!”

  “Todd would be six feet tall if they stretched him out to a normal chest. You should give me a drop of your saliva, Adrien, to make sure she hasn’t given you guys a love potion.”

  I laughed, then said half-seriously, “maybe she has elf blood. It’s happened a few times. She seems to like Todd a lot.”