03 - You Only Live Nine Times

by E A Price

  Raf paled somewhat. “Yeah, how about that? You think that’s likely?” He really, really looked like he didn’t want that to be in any way likely.

  “If they are, they’re picky eaters. Let’s leave that theory to one side for the moment. There’s no reason to suggest that is what’s happening.” There was no reason to suggest it wasn’t either, and there was precedence. About a year ago in Serpens City, a young witch brought her dead boyfriend back to life as a zombie. It was true, even death couldn’t part them. No, what did part them was his increasing need to devour brains. It ended with him trying to eat her brains, and she took an axe to his head. There have been worse breakups, but not by much. But then, that was brains – not bodies. Why take the whole body when you could just take the head? Plus the first victim that Isis literally fell upon was only missing arms. Zombies didn’t really need brains or human flesh to live; it was the witch’s half-baked magic that made his into a crazy cannibal.

  “Anyway, Jessie told me that Crowe Medical Supplies gave them an awful lot of bodies. Besides their facility here, they have one in Playa Lunar, another in Ursa, and another in Serpens, and Crowe supplied enough bodies for all of them. I can’t imagine that preying on the sick ward at local hospitals could really bring them nearly the same amount of test subjects as they’re used to.

  Raf pulled out his phone as it chirped. Brimstone took the opportunity to nuzzle his neck. Ms. Kitty let out a heated yowl. Was it hot in here? It was too damn hot in here.

  “E-mail from my buddy in the crime scene unit. He says that piece of plastic you found belonged to a surgical glove. He couldn’t get any usable prints, but he actually found a substance on it that didn’t come from the cemetery.”

  “Oh?”

  “Orchid feed.”

  “Oh.” She tried not to look too disappointed. “I suppose it was too much to hope for blood or brain matter I guess.”

  Raf waggled his eyebrows. “You say the sweetest things,” he said, huskily.

  Oh, they were nothing compared to the things she wanted to purr into his ear. “I’ve been told I have a wicked tongue.” And she wasn’t just talking about her tiger.

  “Really?” he breathed in obvious interest.

  “Talented, too, I spent a whole summer trying to tie a cherry stalk into a knot with just my tongue when I was fifteen.” She tried not to look too smug as the smell of his arousal, hot and fierce, intertwined with his fresh, enticing scent.

  Beads of sweat actually formed on his forehead. “Did you manage to do it?”

  “Nah, but I was voted best kisser at my camp,” she told him with only a tiny bit of feline pride. It wasn’t an actual official award or anything; it was just the general consensus.

  Raf blinked and let some of the tension deflate from his shoulders. He busied his hands with one of the files. Perhaps he was too concerned about what they might do if given free rein. It was why she dare not let her tiger out around Raf; without purpose, who was to say what the beast might do. Newspaper headline: ‘Perverted Tigress Accidentally Kills Detective by Humping his Leg to Death’. No, that would go down well at all.

  “We’re getting off track,” he eyed her drolly. “You have a bad habit of leading me astray.”

  “Oh, this is nothing, just you wait and see.” Hey, she’d already managed to have sex with him in a car with very little effort – well, almost sex – who knows what else they could do.

  Raf let out a long breath, trying to soothe the rat-a-tat-tat of his heartbeat. Good luck, even she could hear it. The thing was virtually thumping out of his chest like a cartoon wolf. She couldn’t deny it, she liked it. She generally didn’t send hearts a fluttering. Dicks, yes. Hearts, no.

  “Back to Forever Young,” he said, in the most censorious voice he could muster. “Someone who worked there could easily get a hold of surgical gloves.”

  Right, right, back to the case. “So could anyone who shops at a pharmacy.”

  Raf mulled it over as he tickled Minion’s ears. “People who shop at pharmacies don’t also necessarily require corpses. We need to look at the employee profiles and see if anyone is fanatic enough actually to go and dig up dead bodies. Trying to slow the aging process is something that a lot of companies are trying to achieve. Competition could encourage someone to go the extra mile for their research.”

  “Yeah, nerds do the craziest things.” Just look at the shifters in the computer tech division at the SEA. She knew for a fact that they got together on a Friday night to play role playing games. No, not the kinky, fun kind, either, the kind that she was hoping Raf would be into. No, the boring ones that had twelve sided dice and lots of long, tedious exposition. Who would want to do that when they could be out on a date?

  “Let me guess, you were one of the cheerleaders in high school.”

  Isis snorted at that as Ms. Kitty bristled. “One of those losers? Puh-lease.” As if she would spend her free time spelling words with her arms. “I was the bad girl that all their boyfriends wanted to bang.” Not that she did; stealing other girls’ boyfriends was not the kind of sticky mess she wanted a part of, but she couldn’t deny a little teasing. She leered at Raf’s taut frame without a little self-consciousness. “What about you? Football? Lacrosse?”

  “Chess Club.”

  Isis hooted with laughter as he gave her a baffled smile. “No way!”

  “I play a pretty mean game of chess. Until I was fourteen, I had asthma, and I weighed ninety pounds wet through. Couldn’t have played sports if I wanted. Thank god for that growth spurt.”

  “I’ll bet you were a cute little nerd,” she cooed. “Any other embarrassing teenage secrets I should know?”

  Raf blushed to the tips of his ears. “Nope, none. What about Howler? Think he’s capable?”

  There was just no distracting this man, at least not for long. “Sure, but I’m not certain he’s the type to get his hands dirty, he’d probably pay someone. What about Topanga? She seemed pretty aggressive; I’ll bet she’s capable of anything.”

  “Sure you’re not pissed because she was flirting with me?” His eyes sparkled with interest at her answer, so naturally she played it cool.

  Isis rolled a shoulder, elegantly. “Was she? Can’t say I noticed.”

  “Sure, if you say so.” His lips twitched as he let out a violent shiver. “Jeez, did you feel that?”

  A sudden blast of cold air swept through the room, and Isis scowled at her mother as Cleo waved her hands in apology. Of all the times to appear - and the place! She just walked right through Raf!

  “You okay? You look angry?” Concern marred his handsome features.

  “I’m fine,” she muttered. “Just thinking about that film Ghostbusters.” She gave her mom a look that could melt the paint off a canvas, and Cleo’s ghostly eyes widened as she disappeared, wordlessly.

  “Really? Oh, hey hold that thought.” His phone buzzed, and he snatched it up. “A-ha. Right, okay, yeah. We’ll be there.”

  “What’s up?”

  “I think some of our missing arms have shown up.”

  *

  “Are you like the only patrol cops in the LLPD?” asked Isis with a smirk.

  Collins scowled as Titan the dog tried to chew through his ankle. “You don’t get that animal under control I’m calling, uh, Animal Control!” he hissed at the owner.

  “You’re just frightening him!” snapped Mrs. Constantinides. “He’s a gentle soul, and you’re upsetting him with your shrill voice and big, clompy feet.”

  The elderly lady scooped up Titan, who growled at Collins and snapped his small but worryingly powerful looking jaw. “There, there. Mommy’s here. See, isn’t he a sweet thing?” Mrs. Constantinides gave the dog’s head a punishing stroke that he definitely didn’t seem to enjoy.

  “I’m really more of a cat person,” Isis told her honestly. Ms. Kitty sneered at the ugly little critter. He looked far too much like a gremlin to ever be considered pretty. Cats, on the other hand, were always beautifu
l. How often did you see an ugly cat? It was a fact that the cat shifters at SEA teased all the other shifters about. Even male cat shifters were beautiful – just take the SEA’s medical examiner, Rick – an arrogant lion shifter – he looked like an angel and a knitwear model had a baby.

  Raf strode over to them. “Thank you for your time, Mrs. Constantinides. But I don’t think we need to detain you any longer.”

  “It’s no trouble,” said the nosey woman as she strained to see what the crime scene unit was up to. Now that the shock had worn off, she had been taken over by curiosity instead and was keen to report back to her friends about her adventure. The more juicy details, the better.

  “No, no,” insisted Raf. “We have your statement, and that’s all we need. And Officers Leaky and Collins will give you a ride home.”

  Raf gave the two men a pointed look, which they returned with horrified ones.

  “I suppose so,” said Mrs. Constantinides, disappointed.

  Raf stared at the two officers, not meanly, or impatiently, just stared at them sharply, allowing his eyebrows to waggle up and down and do the talking for him. They caved, of course they did and led Mrs. Constantinides and Titan away, avoiding the snapping jaws – of Titan that is, Mrs. Constantinides didn’t try to bite them, she was too busy trying to talk them to death.

  Isis had already taken a look at the severed limbs and ascertained through scent that they were human. They smelled like they belonged to the body she had fallen ass over tit on top of a couple of nights ago. The CSU would run tests to confirm, but Isis was pretty certain.

  “There’s a bank across the street,” commented Raf.

  “Umm hmmm, and there’s a lemonade stand down there.”

  “No,” smiled Raf, “I meant that banks usually have a lot of cameras around them. Maybe they might have one that points in this direction – it’s opposite the bank parking lot. Maybe we got whoever dumped the arms on tape. I’m going to talk to the bank manager.”

  “Ah. So do you want lemonade or not? I’d come with you into the bank, but you’re more likely to have joy without me. That used to be my branch. Let’s just say I didn’t leave them on the best of terms. If I go in there, there’s no way we’re getting the footage.”

  It wasn’t her fault. They started dicking around with her mortgage repayments, so she may or may not have shifted into her tiger and scared the hell out of the bank manager by bursting in on him while one of the tellers was giving him a blowjob. Poor girl was so terrified she bit down – hard. Apparently, the bank manager walks with a limp now.

  Raf gave her a look of interest, but perhaps wisely chose not to pursue the topic. Clever boy. “Sure, get me a pink one.”

  “Pink, ooh, I knew you were a pretty boy.”

  “No, just comfortable enough in my masculinity to be able to pull it off.”

  “I’ll say. No cameras at Hola Sunshine or the donut place?” she asked as they dodged traffic and ran across the street.

  “Only pointing inwards. Food places only really have cameras pointed at the register and entrances, they don’t tend to focus on the outside.”

  “Okay, cool, well…”

  A scream resonated down the street as a woman started wailing and pointing at what appeared to be a hooded youth running in the opposite direction. Sure enough, he was carrying a huge, pink purse under his arm that was definitely not his color. “He stole my purse! Stop him, won’t somebody stop him! He stole my purse! Oh, the humanity!” With that, she fainted and a few concerned passersby came to her aid.

  “Stay here,” commanded Raf as, naturally, he took off after the purse-snatcher without a moment’s hesitation. “Stop, police!” he yelled.

  Isis took a few seconds to watch the way his muscular ass squeezed as he ran. Ms. Kitty drooled. He should always be running.

  He really was a boy scout, wasn’t he? He was a little straitlaced, a little too keen on following the rules for her normal tastes, but damnit if she didn’t love the way those little frown lines appeared on his forehead when he was all judgey and disapproving.

  Okay, she’d spent more than enough time ogling the as yet undefined male in her life. And it had given the purse-snatcher ample time to get a nice head start. It’s much more fun if you really have to work at catching your prey. There was never any doubt that she wasn’t going to run after the purse-snatcher, but she could afford not to rush into it. The way she was about to catch him, she was pretty sure he’d be scared into becoming a model citizen. Ms. Kitty roared excitedly.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Stop!” yelled Raf, “police!”

  Jeez, why did he even bother? He might as well just shout ‘run’.

  His feet pounded the sidewalk, his heart racing, maniacally as he struggled to gain on the young man. Raf knew he was fast when it came to foot chases, but damn this boy could move. Was it even worth it? How much money could the woman even have in her purse? Even from this distance Raf could see it was a pink, plastic purse. He didn’t want to be a snob, but it hardly indicated a wealth of riches hidden inside.

  At least Isis had listened to him. She had mercifully stayed behind and allowed him to handle the situation, not that he was handling it all that well at the moment. It wasn’t that he didn’t think she was capable of chasing the boy down. He wasn’t sexist. He may have been raised to think that men do all the police work, and women stay home and raise the children, but he had made his own mind up on the subject. He told Isis to stay put because he couldn’t be certain about what was going to happen. The boy could easily have a concealed weapon, a gun or a knife, and if Isis went barreling in there, she could get hurt. He was trying to protect her. As far as he knew, tigers weren’t bullet proof.

  Course, all of that was irrelevant as a huge black and orange blur flew past him and had the purse-snatcher flat on the ground before he could even let out a ‘what the fuck?’.

  The boy was whining and crying as the magnificent tigress pinned him. A few people stared open-mouthed, but the tiger didn’t care. She kept the boy firmly in place with one massive, terrifying paw and lifted her huge head to the sky, releasing an almost deafening roar.

  Raf approached slowly, almost dumbly, his mouth open, catching flies. The tiger caught sight of him, and he swore she actually looked a little apprehensive. The magnificent, yellow orbs looked at him with almost a need, mixed perhaps with a fear of acceptance. Or maybe he was just reading too much into it, but those big, soulful eyes seemed to call to him. But whatever it was, he felt amazement at just how beautiful she was. Sure, he’d met plenty of shifters. He’d seen a couple shift before, it looked odd and more painful than it actually was. But he’d never met a tiger shifter. To him, tigers were relegated to zoos, and damn, seeing one up close was wonderful. She was so darn pretty. But then, he expected she was especially beautiful for her species. Hell, she was more beautiful than all the other species combined.

  A couple of cops who had been interviewing people back at the alley came running up, puffing and panting. They caught sight of Isis and jumped back in fear. The tiger let out a snort that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. The cops immediately realized the tiger was Isis, but that didn’t diminish their palpable fear.

  “Hey, beautiful,” said Raf, soothingly. “You did great, but I think you should probably let him up now.” He nodded down to the young man caught under her paw. The idiot was starting to groan under the weight of a huge tiger.

  “Get this thing off me!” wheezed the clearly suicidal young man.

  Isis snarled and pressed down on him. Raf let her have that for a few moments. Calling Isis a ‘thing’ was unacceptable.

  “It’s okay, baby, it’s okay,” murmured Raf, edging toward her. He waited to see if she would object before giving into temptation and rubbing his hands through her silken fur. She was too lovely a creature to resist. He ran a hand down her back, marveling at how soft she was to the touch. He used his other hand to tickle her ear, and she shivered. She was ticklish! H
e scratched her head, and she leaned into his hand, easing up on her captive. Raf moved back slightly, and she followed, eager to feel his hands on her again.

  Raf nodded to the two patrol cops who, giving Isis a wide berth, grabbed the young man and pulled him up, cuffing him and taking away the pink bag. They ignored his howls about police and tiger brutality and led him away.

  “Let’s get you back to your clothes,” said Raf. The tiger let out a contented sigh and licked his cheek. He chuckled at the warm, raspy tongue.

  They walked along the sidewalk, people jumping out of their way, gawping at the man seemingly walking a huge tiger. Like this was the craziest thing they’d ever seen! Isis butted her head against him, and he regularly smoothed his hand through her fur.

  They reached the spot on the sidewalk where Raf had left Isis, and she let out a growl. What should have been a pile of clothes, shoes, a gun, her badge, and a wallet was now thoroughly diminished. Oddly enough, it was just her clothes and shoes that were gone.

  Thankfully, the thief had chosen to leave her badge, gun, and wallet behind – perhaps fearing that stealing those would land them in a huge heap of trouble. But the clothes – who cared about those? Well, other than Isis, who had bared her teeth and was glaring at the passersby in turn, trying to root out a suspect.

  He kneeled in front of her and made hushing noises. “It’s fine, baby, c’mon, I can give you my t-shirt.” He scooped up her items and walked away.

  The tiger chuffed and followed him to his car, haughtily holding her head high and swishing her tail. It was kind of surreal, walking around with an animal you only usually see in zoos following you, but to Raf, it didn’t feel wrong. He never thought he’d admit this, but seeing Isis’ inner beast had only strengthened the burgeoning and overwhelming feelings he had for her. Finding a tiger sexy? Yeah, maybe he did need some help.

  *

  “We could just go back to my apartment,” said Isis.

  Not at all embarrassed at wearing a t-shirt that barely covered her butt, she still strode around like she was the sexiest thing on two legs. Which she really was in Raf’s opinion.