by Mac Flynn
Luke wrapped his arm around my waist and pressed me against his side. His lips curled back and he growled at the man as the stranger struggled to his feet. The guy wasn’t happy, at least judging by his balled fists and quivering shoulders. “I don’t care if you are a lord, nobody touches me and doesn’t get as good as he gave!” the man roared.
The man dove at us, but Stacy stepped between us with a masked, wizened old lady at her side. Stacy crossed her arms and the man skidded to a stop in front of them. “That’s enough, Cal,” she scolded him. My eyes widened, and I whipped my head between Luke and the stranger. I’d just stomped on the fee of Frederick Callean, the richest and most powerful man in the city.
Callean opened his mouth, but the masked old lady took a threatening step forward. I realized then that it was Leonor, and she wasn’t happy. He clacked his teeth shut and glared over their heads at Luke. “You’re not worth the trouble you’re causing around here, Laughton,” he snapped.
“That’s enough, Cal,” Stacy warned. She slid up to him and looped her arm through his. Stacy turned to the gaping crowds and smiled at them. “You all know how Cal is. He always like to be the life of the party,” she joked.
A laugh rippled through the crowd and Stacy led Cal off the floor. She wound her way through the crowd with Leonor in tow and us close behind. Luke looked like he’d rather walk us both off a cliff rather than follow Cal anywhere, but we had more important things to do than a lover’s suicide. Stacy guided our group into the entrance hall, and from there she took a right down a hall beneath the right side of the grand staircase.
The hallway was narrow with wood panels and doors on either side of us. Stacy walked forward until we were at the back of the house where stood an exit out onto the wonderful gardens. The sun had set and outside was a veil of darkness wrapped in a chilly wind with clouds to top off the cool night. Stacy opened the door to her right and shoved Cal ahead of her. Stacy and Leonor were in front of Luke and me, and I peeked around them to see the room was an old-fashioned study. Bookshelves lined every wall and at the far back was a large, paneled window looking out on the grounds. In front of the window was a large wooden desk with a cushioned chair with its back facing us.
Cal swung around and glared at the four of us. His eyes flashed with anger and his hands were clenched at his sides. “Is this some kind of conspiracy?” he growled.
Stacy strode into the room and took a seat on the corner of the desk. “Yes, but we’re not in on it,” she replied. The rest of us stepped inside and Luke shut the door behind us.
“Mind making sense?” he demanded.
Leonor stomped up to her son and looked him in the chest. He was a lot taller than her. “Don’t you dare talk to Stazia that way!” she growled. She growled just like her son, and vice versa. Emphasis on the vice. Callean rolled his eyes, and she tore off her mask to show off her angered wrinkles. “And don’t you dare roll your eyes at your mother,” she snapped.
Cal threw up his arms and took on a less genteel accent. He sounded like a rough gangster just off the streets. “What are you even doing here, Ma? Didn’t you tell me you were going to stay home and wash your eyes of newt?” he quipped.
“And let Stazia get herself into trouble alone? Not likely,” she huffed. Luke and I glanced at each other. We wouldn’t have called ourselves non-company.
Stacy removed her mask and showed she had a troubled expression on her face. “Cal’s in a lot more trouble than we are. Isn’t that what your note told us?” she asked the old woman.
Leonor raised an eyebrow. “Note? What note?”
Stacy’s voice held a hint of panic. “The note about Cal going to be assassinated by Cranston.”
The old woman wrinkled her nose. “Cranston? Your father’s secretary? What’s he got to do with this?” she wondered.
Stacy’s eyes widened and she whipped her eyes over to Luke. “Then the note-”
“Was a fake?” a voice asked. The chair swiveled around to reveal Cranston seated in it with his fingers intertwined on his lap. He didn’t have a scent on him which explained how none of us knew he was there.
Luke grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the door, but it slammed open and a half dozen patrols swept into the room. All of them wore a red armband. They grabbed us and pinned our arms behind our backs, then turned us toward Cranston still seated in the chair. “I’m afraid I can’t let you leave. You see, you’re very important to my plan tonight.”
“To kill Cal?” Stacy guessed.
Cranston wrinkled his nose. “Oh, not just kill. Kill is such a base word,” he argued.
“Then it fits you,” I quipped.
He chuckled. “How very entertaining, but I prefer the term assassination. That’s why it was in the note I sent you.”
Luke frowned. “Another fake note?” he guessed.
Cranston gave a nod. “Yes, and you fell for it just as easily as the first one. Didn’t you ever stop to think that if we knew Miss Stevens’ secret messaging to you then we could easily find her connections and repeat the ruse?”
“I’ll have to remember that the next time I receive a message,” Luke replied.
Cranston clucked his tongue and stood. “I’m afraid there won’t be a next time. Well, unless the message is from your attorney, that is.”
Luke frowned. “Attorney?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Cranston replied as he sauntered around the side of the desk. “You see, I could have my men kill you right now, but that would make you a martyr for the green cause, and we can’t have that. You see, I, and your brother Lance, have something much better planned for you.”
My mouth dropped open and I whipped my head over to Luke. “Brother?” I repeated. Luke closed his eyes and turned away.
Cranston stopped in front of us with a sly, oily smirk on his face. “I see you haven’t told her much about your family, but you’ll have plenty of time once you’re convicted.”
“Convicted of what?” Stacy questioned him.
“What the hell is going on?” Cal spoke up. He pulled against his guard, but the patrolman held fast. Cal glared at Cranston. “What’s going on, Cranston? I haven’t bothered your boss, so you don’t bother me. That was the deal we made.”
Cranston turned his attention to Cal and strode over so they were face-to-face. “I’m afraid the deal’s off and you’re stuck with the consequences,” he told Cal.
Cal’s lips curled back in disgust. “And the consequences are my death. Am I right?” he guessed.
Cranston smiled and nodded his head. “Precisely right.”
Leonor gasped and struggled with her guard. She twisted and turned to bite the hands that held her, but the guard wrenched her arms back and she winced. Leonor looked to Cranston with eyes full of hate. “Don’t you dare touch a hair on my son’s head,” she growled.
The cold man shrugged. “It can’t be helped. We need a murder to pin on these fine people here.” He gestured to Luke and me. “The first frame up didn’t work out as expected, so we decided to go with a bigger fish this time. One who’s death wouldn’t go unnoticed.”
Luke narrowed his eyes. “You’re going to murder Callean and pin his death on us,” he surmised.
“Yes, and all this talking is wasting valuable time.” Cranston pulled a gun with a suppressor from inside his suit and pointed it at Callean’s head. “Nothing personal.”
He didn’t have a chance to pull off his impersonal murder. The door swung open and this time it was the good guys swarming into the room. Alistair and Baker were in the lead of two rough-looking suited men, and they knocked out our guards. Cal ducked and Cranston’s bullet sped into the brain of his own man who dropped to the floor dead. Leonor roared with rage, pulled from her guard and dove at Cranston.
The secretary aimed his gun at her, but Cal grabbed Cranston’s gun hand and pointed the barrel harmlessly toward the ceiling. The pair of them wrestled while the remaining conscious and living guards grappled with us. They were qui
ckly dispatched and lay at our feet, and Cal knocked Cranston toward the desk and window. Cranston turned his venomous eyes on us and his elongated teeth snarled. “Damn you all,” he growled.
“That’s a compliment coming from you,” Luke quipped.
Cranston turned around and flung himself at the window. The glass crashed at the same moment Cal fired off a shot. It struck Cranston in the shoulder, but the werewolf secretary was already half transformed and loping off across the yard. Cal turned to his men and jerked his head toward Cranston. “Get him!” The two suits took off out the window.
The pursued and the pursuers disappeared into the night, and I collapsed against the nearest bookcase. I ran my hand through my tussled hair and shook my head. “Can’t we go anywhere without somebody trying to kill us or frame us for murder?”
23
“This isn’t over yet,” Luke interrupted my moaning.
I cringed. “Don’t tell me. The whole city is going to learn we shot the secretary to their lord and they’re going to come after us with pitchforks and knives.”
“Other than the pitchforks and knives, you’re probably not far off,” Stacy spoke up. She slipped back onto her edge of the desk and flung off her mask. “With my father under Cranston and Lance’s control we’ll be accused of high treason. If you’ll all remember, Cranston was sent by High Lord Simpling to help my father.”
“Like hell I’m going to be accused of shooting him when I meant to kill that bastard,” Cal growled. He pocketed the gun in his goofy costume and looked at our late companions. “And how the hell did you two end up with my guards?” he wondered.
“We found your guards partaking of the food in the dining hall. They are covered in your scent, and our questioning them about your whereabouts reminding them of their duty,” Alistair explained to him.
“And one nose led to another mess,” Baker spoke up. He strode over to the window and looked out. The commotion of the broken glass hadn’t disturbed the ruckus of the party in the ballroom further down the house. He glanced over his shoulder at Luke. “Can’t you stay out of trouble for one second?”
Luke shrugged. “I’m popular with our enemies.”
I folded my arms and glared at my mate. “And speaking of our enemies, when the hell were you going to tell me about you and Lance?” I growled.
His good humor slipped off his face and he turned away. “When the time was right.”
“I think that time was a few weeks ago,” I argued.
Luke’s voice was so soft I could barely hear his reply. “It’s not something I’m pride to tell anyone,” he answered me.
“Brooding later, getting out of here now,” Stacy piped up. She nodded at the window and gave one of Cranston’s men on the ground a good quick. He groaned, but didn’t wake up. “Somebody’s going to notice all this mess and ask questions.”
“Do we have to worry about these idiots killing themselves?” Baker wondered.
Stacy shook her head. “I doubt it. With Cranston leading them these guys were here on official business and their accounts of our fighting them will be useful to Cranston’s cause.”
“So the guys we wish were alive are dead, and these guys we wish were dead are going to live?” I surmised.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Stacy agreed with me.
“What are we gabbing around here for?” Leonor interrupted us. She grabbed an arm from Stacy and Cal, and herded them toward the study door. “Let’s get out of here before we’re answering questions nobody wants to be hearing.”
Luke grabbed me, and Alistair and Baker followed us. We stepped into the hall and Leonor took a hard right out the rear door to the gardens. There were dozens of guests strolling along graveled walks through a menagerie of bushes made of animals and bubbling fountains. There was even a large hedge maze with thick walls of bushes. We hurriedly strolled a few dozen yards from the house and stopped near the opening to the hedge maze.
It was there where Cal’s two guards found us, out of breath but with enough air to tell us more “wonderful” news.” “He eluded us with his lack of scent and returned to the house,” the largest of the guards reported to Cal. “We watched him hurry to up to the host and tell him something that alerted the man.”
“How did you know to go back to the house?” Cal asked them.
The man frowned and shook his head. “At some point he got back his scent and we followed that from the driveway through the front doors.”
Cal turned to us. “Cranston talking with the host means bad news for me, and worse for you people.” he commented.
“So where do we go from here?” I asked the large group.
A commotion from the door we just left answered my question, especially when Cranston, followed by his now-conscious patrol, broke through the door. I could smell the men from where we stood, telling me they’d also somehow found their scents again. Cranston glanced around and his sniffer caught us. He turned to his followers and pointed a finger. “There they are!” Cranston yelled.
“That’s our cue to run!” Luke commanded us. He pulled me into the maze while everyone else scattered to the other three corners of the gardens. Cal took his guards with him, Leonor was dragged off by Stacy, and Baker and Alistair paired for the last corner.
We split our enemy’s forces into four groups, but Cranston decided Luke and I were the meatier targets. He led one of his guards into the maze after us. Luke had to pull me along because my damn dress kept tripping me. I risked a glance over my shoulder and my eyes widened when I saw Cranston and his guard half changed into their werewolf forms.
“Luke, we have two furry problems!” I yelled at him.
“Then let’s get two furry solutions!” he called back. His hand holding me lengthened and hair burst from his skin. I followed suit and felt my body shift and change. My dress tore open as my muscles expanded and my limbs lengthened. I fell on all fours and loped beside Luke. Our only advantage was our head-start into the maze, but they followed our scents like the wolves they were.
We were a few turns ahead when a voice above and ahead of us interrupted our running. “You two look like you could use some help,” someone spoke up. Luke slid to a stop, whipped his head up and growled, and I followed his gaze. Emily, in her human form and chewing gum, sat atop the bushes like the Cheshire Cat from Wonderland. She sat up and smirked at us. “Don’t be like that. I’m here to help,” she whispered.
“Help yourself,” I mumbled.
Emily frowned. “You don’t have time to argue with me.” She dropped down close to us, and Luke snarled. She held up her hands. “Trust me or let them catch you,” she put forward. He stepped back and she rolled her eyes. “I don’t like you, but I don’t like Cranston, and this is my chance to get back at his not letting me capture you.”
We heard the pounding of the pads from our pursuers. Another minute and they’d be on top of us. “Well? Which is it?” she persisted. Luke continued to frown, but didn’t growl. She stepped forward and snatched pieces from each of our costumes. Then she jerked her head behind her. “Take the left route and I’ll take the right with these.” She held up our shreds. “That will give you a better chance, but the rest of it is your problem.”
Luke eyed her very carefully, and gave a nod. “Thank you,” he replied.
She scoffed. “I don’t want your thanks, I just want that Cranston taken down a notch. Now get out of here.”
Luke sprinted forward and I ran after him. The way ahead branched out like she said it would, and Luke took the right direction. “But she said the left!” I reminded him.
“She can take the left,” he told me.
We raced through the maze zig-zagging around corners and down short straights. Our path took us farther away from the house and I was relieved to neither smell nor hear any signs of being followed. After ten minutes of running we reached a dead end with freedom from the maze just on the other side. Luke stopped and looked at me. “We have to jump the wall,” he ordered me.
I cringed, but nodded. “I’ll try,” I replied.
“Don’t try, do,” he persisted. He focused his attention on the wall of shrubbery and hunkered down. His legs tensed, and in a blink of an eye he sprang upward and landed cleanly atop the bushes. He turned around and looked to me. “Hurry before we’re seen.”
“Don’t rush me,” I hissed. I hunched down so my belly touched the ground and my eyes zoomed in on the spot beside Luke. I rolled my eyes when my tail wagged, but I ignored it and tensed my leg muscles. With a great leap I jumped up and sailed over the top of the walls.
The only problem was I forgot to jump forward far enough to land beside Luke. My front paws hit the top, but my back legs scratched at air until my stomach hit the side of the bushes. I whimpered and tried to pull myself up, but my body was a little too heavy. Luke grabbed the rough of my neck and yanked me onto the top. We had a grand view of the grounds, but didn’t see our enemies nor our friends. Luke jumped off the wall, and I followed. He led us across the final twenty yards of grass to the rear fence.
I looked up at the eight-foot tall, spiked metal bars and cringed. “I don’t think you can pull me over that,” I commented.
“Don’t have to.” He nodded toward a nearby tree who’s branches stretched over the fence.
We jumped and clawed our way up the trunk and onto one of those limbs, then tiptoed across to jump the long distance to the ground on the other side of the fence. I breathed a sigh of relief, but only got that short break before Luke was off again. He led me through the nice streets and back into the less hygienic ones. I caught up to him and looked around.
“Where. . .now?” I gasped.
“Now we get back to the apartment,” he replied.
I skidded to a stop and my long jaw dropped open. “But Cranston already knows about that place. He sent that last message there, remember?” I argued.
Luke “Yes, and he probably ordered the place wrecked to keep us from returning, but he didn’t count on one thing,” Luke countered.
