Spotting His Leopard (Shifters, Inc.)

by Georgette St. Clair

  Chapter Seventeen

  Her Royal Highness Serena, Wife Number One, looked exhausted as she quickly crossed the room to greet them. She had circles under her eyes, and her face was pale and drawn. She was robed in creamy peach-colored silk, but her dress hung on her as if she had lost a great deal of weight recently. She walked through the door with her hands clenched, flanked by ladies-in-waiting on either side.

  The lieutenant colonel leaped to his feet and moved as if he wanted to speak to the Number One Wife. Several priestesses quickly crowded in front of him, blocking his view.

  Belij stood up quickly. “And now you must go at once,” she said to the lieutenant colonel. “This is a matter for ladies only. It is very bad luck for you even to be here right now. In fact, you might never recover.”

  He pressed his lips together, shifting from one leg to the other. It was obvious that he was trying to decide which frightened him more; the Witch Doctor or the loss of his manhood.

  “I told you to leave. Your disrespectful behavior towards a Priestess of GuRa is intolerable,” Belij said, her eyes blazing with fury. “It disgraces you and your ancestors. If it continues, we will go to the Island Council and demand an investigation at once.”

  With a wretched look on his face, the lieutenant colonel allowed the priestesses to surround him and walk him to the door. Gwenneth knew they wouldn’t have long. He’d go scurrying off to the Witch Doctor like the rat he was.

  “Priestess Belij,” Wife Number One said as she came closer to them. Her voice was thick with sorrow, as if she were grieving a death, and she swayed slightly where she stood. “I welcome you here.” She glanced around nervously as if fearing she would be overheard.

  Gwenneth stepped forward. “We don’t have a lot of time. I’m not a priestess, I’m a tourist here. My boyfriend works for a security company, and we’ve been doing some investigating and speaking to the local Thieves’ Guild. We know the Witch Doctor and Wife Number Two are conspiring together. What have they done with the king?”

  And had she just called Tyler her boyfriend?

  Queen Serena’s shoulders hunched and her gaze darted around the room before she answered. “They keep him drugged with a special hypnosis serum concocted by the Witch Doctor,” she said, her voice low and fearful.

  “Did they replace the Eye of the Jaguar with a fake?” Belij asked, also keeping her voice low.

  “Perhaps. Many precious paintings and statues have gone missing, so why not the crown? Nothing they have done would surprise me.” She blinked hard to keep from crying.

  “Why have you not spoken up? Why did you not seek help?” Belij asked.

  Gwenneth already knew the answer to that question.

  “Because they took her youngest son,” she said to Belij. “And I know where they’re keeping him.”

  A look of shock crossed Belij’s face, but before she could say a word, Serena had crossed the space between Gwenneth and herself so fast that Gwenneth didn’t even have time to blink.

  The look of deep sorrow and desperation had vanished, replaced by wild determination and anger. Her face rippled with black hair and her fangs descended.

  She grabbed Gwenneth by the shoulders.

  “Where is my son?” she demanded, her voice ending on a growl, and Gwenneth had no doubt that Her Royal Highness would rip Gwenneth’s throat out if she didn’t get an answer at once. Gwenneth liked Serena a whole lot at that moment.

  “He’s living in the shanty town with a group of children who are members of the Thieves’ Guild,” she said quickly. “They call him Hiro. I recognized him from that family portrait.” She pointed at the enormous painting on the wall. There was a picture of him there, a toddler in formal ceremonial robes, leaning against his mother. He must have been taken away shortly after the picture had been painted.

  “The shanty town!” Serena cried in tones of horror. “There are children living there? That is an evil place for criminals. You must take me to him at once. And all of those children must be rescued from there. That is not acceptable!”

  “Who took him from you?”

  Serena let out a low growl of anger. “The Witch Doctor and my husband’s second wife. It was three years ago. Three years since I have seen my son. I sent him out to play in the garden one morning with the nanny, and the Witch Doctor came in, holding my son’s clothing, soaked in the nanny’s blood.” Tears ran down her face; she didn’t raise a hand to wipe them away. “She fought to the death for him, but to no avail. I have been a prisoner ever since that day. But now you will take me to him and I will have my revenge on those who stole my child.”

  “It would be safer for me to find him and bring him to you,” Gwenneth protested. “The head of the Thieves’ Guild in the shanty town – I’m sure he’s working with the police and watching over Hiro for them.”

  “His name is Tam, and I will not be kept from him another minute,” Serena said in tones that brooked no argument.

  Does Farruki know the children are all hiding out at the Fallback now? Gwenneth wondered. If he did, they were heading into a trap. But how could she refuse to take Serena to her son?

  “Take her,” Belij interjected. She began stripping off her clothing. “We will switch clothing. I will stay here, and my priestesses will surround her as you walk out of the palace, hiding her from the guards. You must get off the grounds at once, because the deception will not last long.”

  “They’ll kill you!” Gwenneth protested, but Serena was already shedding her robes. The ladies-in-waiting stood by nervously.

  “They wouldn’t dare,” Belij said. Serena was quickly stepping into Belij’s robe. Then she glanced at the ladies-in-waiting.

  “We must take you back to your quarters, or they will spot the deception too soon,” one of the ladies said.

  “They might harm my ladies for helping me escape,” Serena said nervously to Belij.

  “Pah! The Witch Doctor is destroying our country. If he stole the Eye of The Jaguar, he has committed sacrilege,” one of the ladies said defiantly. “His offense against GuRa has cost our country dearly. My family is falling into ruin; all of their businesses have failed. If I must die to free our country, so be it.”

  “You will not die,” Belij said. “I will command that you all stay with me so they cannot harm you. They will not dare disobey a direct order from me. Go!”

  There was no time to argue. Gwenneth and the priestesses surrounded Serena, and they hurried out the door and down the hallway.

  “As we walk, cover your face with your hands and start singing,” one of the priestesses said to Serena, and she did so. They all began singing loudly in their native language, words that Gwenneth didn’t understand, so she just made it up, trying to match their tune. As they walked out of the front door, the soldiers quickly stepped aside for them.

  They walked as quickly as they dared to the curb, then climbed into two waiting taxi cabs and headed back towards the jungle. The priestesses apparently did not own any vehicles, and the only money they had came from donations from infertile couples and tribute left by the native populace. Then again, they spent their time living in the jungle and their needs were few.

  They directed the taxi drivers to drive quickly and leave the main road. As they drove off, Gwenneth prayed that the ancient, battered vehicles wouldn’t break down before they reached their destination. She could see the road through the holes in the floor.

  After twenty minutes, they heard sirens in the distance, heading their way.

  “We’ll get out now, before they catch up to us,” Gwenneth said.

  Their taxi driver pulled over, idling as they scrambled out. The second taxi full of priestesses stopped as soon as they did. The coughing, sputtering exhaust pipes pumped black smoke into the air, and Gwenneth wrinkled her nose at the smell. They were still in the city, in a dodgy neighborhood near the shanty town.

  “Once we have her son back, she can go to the Island Council and tell everybody about what happened,”
Gwenneth said to the priestesses. “Everything should be back to normal soon.”

  “May GuRa protect you,” the priestesses called out the taxi window as it pulled away.

  Serena stared with dismay at the dingy, battered buildings with their cracked windows and the garbage piling up in heaps at random intervals up and down the street. If she found this upsetting, the shanty town was going to make her sick to her stomach, Gwenneth thought.

  “We should shift. It’ll be faster,” she said to Serena, who nodded in agreement.

  They stripped off their clothes, seized them in their mouths, and began running, the jaguar queen following the leopard commoner.

  When they entered the shanty town, they stuck to the shadows, slinking down narrow, stinking alleyways and staying out of sight. The queen shuddered frequently as she ran, lifting her paws to avoid stepping in puddles of filth.

  They kept moving until they finally reached the area that Hiro, or rather his Royal Highness Prince Tam, had described. It was the area underneath an overpass for a rusted old train bridge that had been abandoned long ago. Obscene graffiti was sprayed across cracked concrete, and spiky weeds higher than Gwenneth’s head swayed in the breeze.

  Gwenneth stopped just before they reached the bridge, crouching behind a heap of broken furniture, battered shopping carts and old, stained mattresses. She didn’t see anyone under the bridge, and she didn’t hear anything either. In leopard form, she should have been able to hear the kids if they were there.

  She turned human, crouching low to stay hidden, and dropped her clothing from her mouth. Then she cupped her hands around her mouth and made the bird sound that Tana had taught her.

  Then she sat back on her heels and listened.

  In the distance, she could hear the faint sounds of traffic. But that was it. Total silence. No reply.

  The jaguar queen turned human too, crouching down next to Gwenneth. “What’s happening? Where is my son?” she demanded, her voice frantic.

  “I don’t know. This is where they said they’d wait for me. Maybe they’re out hunting for supplies?” Gwenneth had an uneasy feeling. At least some of them should be there, shouldn’t they?

  She made the bird call sound again, waited again. And there was still silence.

  “Stay here,” she said to the queen, and she shifted and slunk over to the underpass, sniffing the air. As she got closer, her fur stood on end. She could smell the scent of male jaguars, and also the acrid scent of fear. Panic seized her and she let out a feline growl of fury and ran back to where the queen waited anxiously.

  Again, she shifted back to human form so she could speak. “They’re not here. Let’s go,” she said to the queen. “We’re going to have to go to the temple for help. I don’t know what else to do at this point.”

  “Will they hurt my son?” the queen cried, tears shimmering in her huge, dark eyes.

  “I don’t believe they will. He’s leverage, so he’s valuable,” Gwenneth tried to reassure her.

  Queen Serena swallowed hard. “I will find my son, and I will kill the people who took him from me,” she said, her voice tear-choked but determined. Gwenneth had no doubt she meant it.

  A sudden scuttling sound made them both jump. They looked up; a lone male jaguar was perched on top of a garbage heap

  He leaped down in front of them, landing with a thud about twenty feet away, and hurried towards them. He was a scrawny adolescent with scars on his fur. When he reached them he shifted back into human form. It was Pern.

  “You’ve got to get out of here,” he said to Gwenneth, glancing around fearfully. “The Shadow Lord and his men are looking for you.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Is that who took the kids? The Shadow Lord?” Gwenneth asked as a sickening sensation swirled in her stomach.

  “Who? What is a Shadow Lord?” The queen wailed. “Where is my son?”

  Perk took another look at her and did a double take. “Your Highness?” he said, staring at her in shock, then went down on one knee and bowed his head.

  “Tell us what we need to know,” Gwenneth demanded. “Who took the kids?”

  “I don’t know where any of them are,” Pern said anxiously. “I scented male jaguars under the bridge, but I didn’t recognize anyone’s scent. They were there this morning. We were running low on food so I went to bring back provisions.” He glanced up at Gwenneth, then at the queen, then quickly looked down again. “When I got back, everybody was gone and it appeared there had been a fight. I started searching through the shanty town, and after a while I spotted Farruki and his men, so I hid and listened to them. Farruki was talking to a very big, powerful-looking man, and he addressed him as the Shadow Lord. The Shadow Lord had many others with him.” He shuddered as he mentioned his name, a look of fear on his face.

  “What did you hear them say?” Gwenneth prodded impatiently.

  “They said that they were here looking for Rhonwen and her gang. Farruki promised he would find you and deliver you to the Shadow Lord.”

  “I see,” she said, going pale. She’d be dead very soon, then, and so would anyone near her. She looked at Serena. “I must send you and Pern to the temple; being with the priestesses should give you some protection. You’re in danger being with me.”

  “No.” Serena’s tone was regal and determined, and held no fear. “I do not fear death, not anymore. Living every day without my son for the past three years, that has been worse than death. You will be searching for him and the children, and I will go with you.”

  Gwenneth stifled the urge to argue. She couldn’t force Serena to leave.

  “All right, then.” She nodded. “Your Highness, at this point the only thing we can do is go to the Island Council and tell them everything. Farruki and his men must have taken your son and the other children. Going public is the only hope we have of getting them back. And Pern, I need you to go to the Temple of GuRa and find a wolf shifter named Tyler and deliver a message for me.”

  He nodded, looking up at her, carefully avoiding all eye contact with the queen.

  “Tell him to leave without me. Tell him that he is not my fated mate, and I was using him to get information, and I got what I needed. Tell him he was a fool for ever believing that I cared about him.”

  “Are you sure?” Pern asked in tones of bewilderment.

  “Dead certain.” She was not going to let Tyler die trying to save her. All she could do was pray that he’d believe Pern and give up on her.

  The queen looked at her in confusion.

  “Really long story; no time to explain,” she said.

  “You forgot to say ‘Your Majesty’,” Pern chided her disapprovingly.

  “Pern! Go!” Gwenneth gestured at him impatiently, pointing towards the jungle.

  As Pern ran off, she and the queen shifted yet again and headed out of the shanty town, racing down the stinking alleyways and leaping over piles of debris. The queen no longer looked around her or shuddered at the horror of their surroundings; she was looking straight ahead, entirely focused on their destination.

  Then Gwenneth slowed down. She scented male jaguars – lots of them. She heard growls, and crashing sounds, like tin walls being tossed about. She heard shouts of anger from the shanty town’s inhabitants.

  She and the queen back-tracked, raced down alleyways, and crouched behind big piles of refuse for a while, waiting until the sounds passed.

  Then the scent grew closer and they had no choice but to abandon their hiding place and make a run for it.

  The edge of the shanty town was up ahead. Here there were actual drivable roads, although there was no electricity. There were small shacks on either side of the road, wedged in among trees and shrubbery. They were still shabby but they looked like real dwellings instead of ramshackle piles of plywood sheets.

  And then Gwenneth scented more of the male jaguars, lurking in the vegetation and behind the houses. She and the queen were quickly surrounded.

  She stopped in her tra
cks, and so did the queen. Jaguars came running from behind refuse heaps and leapt from the trees

  One of them strode down the dusty road straight towards them and turned human as he walked. He stopped in front of them and stood there with a look of gloating triumph on his face. Police Chief Angara. Gwenneth’s heart leaped into her throat.

  His eyes gleamed with malice. “I’ve been really looking forward to this.”

  Neither Gwenneth nor the queen favored him with a reply.

  Within minutes they were dressed, with copper collars clamped on their necks, and sitting in the back of a stretch limousine with darkened windows. Nadette and the police chief sat facing them.

  Nadette leaned seductively against the police chief, who had apparently forgotten that he was a married man. She trailed her fingers along his thigh, and a smile twisted his lips. He laid his hand on top of hers.

  “Let me make her bleed,” she cooed to Chief Angara, casting a malicious smirk in Gwenneth’s direction. “Pleeeease. I’ll make it worth your while.” She moved her hand closer to his crotch, but he seized her hand and removed it.

  “Not yet, my dear,” he said. There was a briefcase sitting on the leather seat next to him, and he opened it and pulled out a sheaf of papers.

  “These are confessions,” he said to Gwenneth. “You will sign this paper, or your little friends will die in ways more horrible than you can imagine, while you watch. If you sign it, I will return them to the shanty town unharmed, and I promise you a quick and merciful death.”

  With Nadette there? Right, Gwenneth thought scornfully.

  The limo was moving through town now, and outside the window, citizens were strolling by, driving by, with no idea what was taking place mere yards away from them.

  “What’s in the confession?” she asked.

  “Don’t question me,” he said haughtily. “You have no power and no rights.”

  He glanced at the queen. “And you will sign this paper confessing to treason, and to conspiring with this woman to steal the crown and kill your husband. In exchange, we will spare your life and only imprison you. And we will allow your son to return to the palace, to be raised by the Witch Doctor and Wife Number Two.”