Fat Bastard turned to Boba Fett and said, “You believe this guy?”
Jango Fett shook the spray paint can.
“Don’t even think about it.” Thor lifted a lip to tell him he meant business. Jango farted in response.
Boba said, “Yo, I resemble that remark. We protect our hottie.”
Fat Bastard slapped a paw to his face. “The word is resent, numbskull. You resent that remark.”
“That’s right, I do,” said Boba.
Jango, who seemed to be the Curly of these three stooges, nodded.
Fat Bastard said, “Listen, Dogzilla, word around the craps table is there’s been some trouble wit da familiars. You know anything about dat?”
Thor cringed as the forest creatures made worried noises.
“You idiots are about as subtle as a freight train, you know that?” Thor growled.
Daisy said, “What is he talking about Thor?” Her nose twitched in alarm as she walked towards him.
Jango Fett said, “Well, aren’t you a tall drink of water. You like some cushin’ with your pushin’, baby?” He grabbed her rear and Daisy yelped.
Thor picked him up by the scruff and tossed him across the room like a chew toy. The calico cat slid down the wall with a smile on his face. “Totally worth it,” he said.
Thor eyed the other two vermin. “I swear to Diana, if any of you touch a lady inappropriately in my presence, you’ll be lucky if I let you walk out of here with a limp.”
The three-legged rabbit squeaked.
Thor turned his watermelon sized head toward the sofa. “No offense, Lucky.”
Lucky thumped his good foot.
“Is that understood, boys?” Thor said to the cats.
They each gave a thumbs up.
A dazed Jango Fett said, “Just blowin’ off some steam, Thorannosaurus Rex. Won’t happen again.”
Fat Bastard tried not to smile. It made him look constipated. “Anyways, what’s the situation, here? We got some little ones of our own you know. Should anything happen to Lucky and Charm Zelda won’t even use the car on us.”
Jango said, “My money’s on a bulldozer.”
Boba said, “Zamboni.”
“All nine lives gone” –Fat Bastard snapped a paw—“like that.”
Thor could not believe his ears. “Kittens? WOOF entrusted you bozos with kittens?”
Boba Fett said, “See, now that sounds insulting.”
“That’s because I just insulted you.”
The spotted gray cat had to think about that. It seemed to strain him. Like when you use a muscle you haven’t flexed in a while.
None of these clowns would have ever passed basic training if they hadn’t all slept with the colonel. She was a sleek black cat with yellow eyes and sharp claws who hated dogs. While Thor was busting his tail doing search and rescue, these three were serving as concubines.
Thor shook his head. “Okay, look, I don’t think the kittens are in danger.” The map hadn’t covered their town. “But there is a situation here that I need to deal with, so please just go home guys, okay?”
Fat Bastard stepped forward. “We can help, whatever you got.” He snapped his paw. “Let’s show him boys.”
Thor was growing impatient as time ticked away. He had to get the animals to the den, lock it up tight and find The Viper. It wouldn’t be too challenging to shove these three in there as well so he decided to let them do their thing and then get on with his mission. He doubted Zelda would even notice their absence.
He had to admit their display was grotesquely impressive. They somehow managed to form a giant cat by climbing on top of each other. Fat Bastard was doing something with his paws and Thor just had to ask.
“He can shoot fire,” said Boba.
Fat Bastard said, “It works better if we’re threatened. Come on Thor, threaten me.”
“That’s impressive, guys, but I’m good.”
Janga said, “But look how tall we are. Over six feet!”
Thor stood on his hind legs, towering over the trio by a good two feet.
The cats weren’t fazed. “But can you shoot fire?” asked Boba.
“No, but I can rip all your heads off in less than a minute.”
The cats tumbled to the ground.
Troy and Roy, the twin foxes spoke up in unison. “Um, Mr. Thor, what exactly is the situation?”
“Right. Here’s what’s happening, everyone.” Thor quickly told them, noting that the mothers were surprised to learn their children had been chosen as candidates for WOOF. “So you see it’s very important that we get all of you into the Seeker’s Den.”
Juan was flying around the room, darting in and out of the open door because he still wanted to hang guard.
“Juan, knock it off. Get inside,” said Thor.
“Bah, I will chop up this Viper into little tiny pieces and eat him for breakfast!”
“No you won’t. Get your fuzzy ass inside.”
“But why me? I am bat. I am the night. I am darkness.” He gave a maniacal laugh.
“Ever heard of Ozzy Osbourne?”
“So the den is this way?” He darted down the hall and out of sight.
The rest of the group rose as well, making their way down the hall as Thor instructed, towards Stacy’s bedroom and the Seeker’s Den. Thor was about to close and lock the front door when he heard, “Hello, Thor.”
He stopped dead in his tracks. Ears alert, tail stiff. He was trained to show no fear, no emotion. But dammit if his own tail didn’t betray him with a wag.
That voice. One of the sweetest sounds he has ever heard.
But it couldn’t be.
And yet.
Slowly he turned.
“Lucy,” he whispered.
~FIVE~
She was as beautiful as he remembered, with a steel-colored coat, legs that went on for days and a walk that made him want to move mountains for her. Her eyes were a blue not quite found in nature and her ears were silky and floppy. She was—had always been—the only Dane for him.
“But how?” he croaked. “I watched you die. Held you in my arms.”
Fat Bastard whispered, “Oh, he totally banged her.”
Thor gave him a low growl.
“In the most romantic way, of course,” said Boba.
“I love a good love story,” said Jango.
Lucy stepped inside the cottage and said, “I was taken to a healing witch after…. our last mission.”
Thor moved closer to her. He wanted to hold her, nuzzle her, do things to her that would make her howl. And then do it all over again. He thought of all the time they had lost. But that didn’t matter now. She was here. With him. And they would be together again.
“Why didn’t you contact me?” he asked.
“I spent weeks with Hildy—that was the healer—recovering. Communication wasn’t possible. By the time I returned to WOOF, you were gone.”
An anger boiled in Thor’s throat. Why didn’t anyone tell him? Why didn’t the Commander tell him that Lucy was alive?
“Because I asked her not to Thor,” Lucy said, reading his thoughts. He had forgotten how magical she was. She had abilities that few familiars did and it had served the team well on several missions. She was witchy in her own right.
Jango said, “Hey, I remember you.”
Boba said slowly, “Oh, yeah, Dogess.”
Thor tossed them an annoyed look.
“You know, like Goddess, because, well damn.” He waved an arm up and down Lucy’s muscular legs.
Lucy smiled at them. “Hello, boys.”
They swooned like drunk sailors.
Thor felt another headache coming on. “You know these buffoons?”
Lucy giggled. “They were Hildy’s familiars.” She turned and gave them a sympathetic look. “I was sorry to hear of her passing. She was a good witch.”
“One of the best,” Fat Bastard kissed his paw and looked up. The other cats nodded.
“Um, fellas, could yo
u give us a minute,” Thor said.
“Sure, no sweat,” said Boba, not moving an inch.
Lucy touched her paw to Thor’s. “Thor, we don’t have much time. We can talk about… things later. Right now, we have a mission to complete.”
He leaned forward, staring into her eyes, searching for the love he used to see there. She blinked, looked away.
“Just tell me why. Why didn’t you come find me? Was it because you blamed me for what happened?”
Because he did. Every day, he blamed himself for what that monster did to her.
She swung her head to him. “No! How could you think that?” Her voice told him she was sincere and he took some comfort in that.
“Then why?” he asked.
She tilted her head. She was so strikingly regal.
“I did find you, Thor. Your files were sealed, but I found you.”
Now it was his turn to cock his head questioningly.
She touched her nose to his, reading his thoughts again. “How do you think?”
He nodded. Her canine voodoo.
“You seemed so happy here in this town. You and your witch make a good team. I’ve heard great things about what you’ve accomplished. You’re still quite the legend at WOOF, you know. I couldn’t ask you to leave this assignment. It’s too important. You have a lot more to do here with your witch.”
He brushed his muzzle across her cheek. “You could come here. We could work together again.”
She tensed.
Thor took a step back just as someone else came through the door. He was about to lunge, but Lucy pushed him back. “No, Thor, he’s with me!”
Thor stopped. “What?”
The German Shepard dropped a backpack at Lucy’s foot. “You forgot your supplies. I’m headed to the other location to stand guard over the rabbit if you need me.” To Thor, he said, “Hey, Champ!”
Now he remembered. Tank was a member of the take-down team. He called everyone Champ. Except for Champ, ironically.
“Hey, Tank. Thanks for coming.” Tank tried to give Thor a high-five and ended up tripping over his own paw.
“Oops. Still working on that one.”
Thor threw Lucy a look that said, seriously?
“Don’t worry, he’s a good soldier,” she whispered.
He sure hoped so. “Listen, Tank, watch out for the human. She’s a new mother with a temper and an arsenal.”
“Roger that,” said Tank. Then he leaned in and kissed Lucy’s face. “See you, honey.”
Thor felt his jaw drop and his heart sink. One minute she was back in his life, and the next… He couldn’t believe it. She was with him? That bumbling weasel? He wasn’t worthy to lick her paws let alone—he couldn’t finish the thought.
This night just keeps getting better and better. A German Shepard? Really?
Fat Bastard said, “Uh-oh. Plot twist.”
Thor shook his head, licked his lips and barked. “All of you into the den.” When no one moved, he roared, “I said GO!”
Lucy stepped forward. “Thor.”
“Forget it. We have work to do,” he growled, refusing to look at her.
~SIX~
The cats tried to put up a fight, but a vicious snarl from Thor halted their protests and they were locked up inside the Seeker’s Den with the rest of the menagerie. Now that everyone including Rocket was secure, Thor could focus on retrieving the familiars and ending The Viper once and for all.
Lucy was standing across from him at the kitchen counter. She had a fancy computer that was specifically contoured to her paw and her voice. Boy, had things changed since he’d been a soldier. She was making notes like they used to do in the War Room back at WOOF and he was having trouble focusing because he couldn’t stop staring at her beautiful face.
“So I think we need to concentrate on the missing in Amethyst,” she said.
Thor blinked a few times and looked back to the screen as she pointed.
“The other familiars that have gone missing do seem to form a black magic pattern, but I have a hunch that’s just a decoy to throw us off,” Lucy said.
“Why do you think that?” asked Thor.
She met his eyes, “Because all of them are adults. The missing here are children.”
“What difference does that make?”
Lucy chewed her lip. “Remember the last sacrifice The Viper had planned?”
Thor nodded. He had stolen children then too. Five in all. One for each point of the pentacle. Because the magic of the young is pliable, easier to syphon and restrain. Adults were much harder to manipulate even for a seasoned warlock.
Lucy turned back to the screen, “There’s one other reason.” She grabbed a pointer with her mouth and used it to highlight her theory. “The missing woodland creatures are a coyote pup, a fawn, a bunny, and a squirrel. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“So the pup, I believe, represents you as well as the fawn because of your coloring.”
Thor said, “And the bunny likely symbolizes my protégée.”
Lucy sat, scratched her chest. Thor knew that helped her think. “But why wouldn’t he simply take the actual rabbit? The one you’re schooling?”
Thor could think of two reasons. “Rocket is well protected. Guarded by old magic from charms created by my witch as well as her ancestors. His guardian is also a newly appointed witch. That’s a lot of white magic to fight through and The Viper isn’t one to go on the hunt. He waits for his prey to come to him.”
“Except this time, he’s coming after you.”
Thor sighed. “So it seems.”
“There may be another reason.” She pulled up a video of the witches’ prison. Thor didn’t see anything significant until Lucy pointed out a shadow.
“What’s that?”
“We think that’s The Viper escaping.”
Thor looked at her as if she’d lost her marbles. “He was invisible?”
Lucy chuckled and enlarged the image. Thor looked closer. It wasn’t a shadow. It was a cockroach. Which seemed fitting.
“It would take a tremendous amount of energy for a human to shift into something so small. Probably all the magic he could muster. He would need time and rest to recover from that. Especially if he was preparing for battle.”
Thor nodded. He still didn’t understand one thing. “Why a squirrel?”
Lucy said, “I was hoping you could answer that. You know him better than anyone, Thor.”
Thor racked his brain for an answer that made sense. He had saved a squirrel from The Viper’s clutches, but he’d also saved cats, raccoons, and other creatures. “Maybe he thinks all dogs chase squirrels? I’m just spit-balling here.”
“Or it could have simply been convenient. Baby squirrels aren’t exactly hard to capture.”
“True. So that’s four. But he would need five for the ritual. And no one else is missing.”
Lucy looked at him pointedly.
“Oh, right. I guess that would be me,” said Thor.
Lucy glanced at the clock. It was after midnight. “We don’t have much time. We need to search. He’s close, Thor, I can feel it.”
Thor helped her shrug into her pack. As he touched her fur, his own skin electrified. She could still make him pant.
She swallowed hard, meeting his eyes and something softened inside him.
“Thor, I—“
“Don’t.” He held up a paw. “We need to go.”
Her shoulders slumped a little and she nodded.
As they stepped out onto the porch, Lucy lifted her nose skyward, sniffing the air for a scent. The Viper had a distinctive musky odor, but neither of them caught it. Thor supposed that all that time on the inside could have altered his earthy scent.
“Where to?” she asked.
“To the woods. We start there and head toward the river. He always practiced where the woods met water.”
“Are there any pits there?” she asked, following his lead.
Thor cons
idered that. Amethyst was filled with caverns and old mine shafts. “Yes. Too many.” Then another thought occurred to him. Maybe it was important. “There were crows. Flying in some kind of formation.”
Lucy paused. “Crows? Where? When?”
“Over the woods. Tonight.”
Lucy said, “Why didn’t you say so!”
“I just thought of it.”
She rolled her eyes. “You never did take the magical classes seriously at the academy,” she grumbled.
“Because I fight with these.” He bared his teeth. “And these.” He reared up, flexing his muscles.
“Yes, well, if you fought with this”—she smacked him on the head—“you might actually save yourself some trouble.”
He had forgotten how bossy she could be. “Don’t start,” he growled.
“I’m just saying, you need to watch for signs. You’re a witch’s familiar for crying out loud. Surely she’s proficient in these things.” She flicked her eyes to him. “Or is she not mastered in her craft?”
Thor thought about how far his witch had come from being reluctant to a complete badass. He felt incredibly protective of her and wouldn’t let anyone, not even Lucy, speak ill of Stacy Justice.
“Do not insult my witch.” There was an edge to his tone he’d never used on her before.
Lucy wrinkled her nose. “I wasn’t. I was insulting you.” She jabbed him with her paw. “Come on, we used to tease each other all the time. Remember?” She winked.
Was she flirting with him?
Focus Thor. You have a mission. “Tell me about the crows.”
Lucy stretched her neck. “What kind of formation were they flying in? Was it clockwise? Counter-clockwise?”
“Counter-clockwise. Around the moon.”
Her face grew solemn. “That’s the death march. We haven’t much time.”
He didn’t need another prompt. “Follow me.”
The two giant Great Danes stampeded through the woods, their powerful paws thundering over the earth. They worked in a zig-zag formation with precision and skill. Each was on high alert, in tactical operation mode, searching, sniffing, digging at the dirt. They flipped over rocks, pawed through logs, climbed up trees as far as their legs could reach. They ripped apart shrubs, explored rabbit holes, fox dens, and squirrel nests. The full moon provided light to investigate the darkest crevices and corners of the forest. Their noses, night vision, training and instincts provided the rest of what they needed to cover every square inch of the habitat.
Magic and Mayhem: Thor and Peace (Kindle Worlds Novella) (A Stacy Justice Mystery Novella (3) Book 0) Page 3
