by Debra Dunbar
I ran to the second set of pumps, and a movement caught my eye at the edge of the building. It was tiny, as if a fly had disturbed one of the leaves on the wall, but as I looked, I saw another slight movement. And put together I realized that there was a second guard, this one employing the same magical cloaking means as the hunters had outside the compound. He was standing in front of the wall, completely unnoticeable except for little movements. There was no heat signature, no scent, nothing to indicate that a human with a big fucking weapon stood there, ready to blow my head off if I so much as sneezed. Which I really wanted to do. Fucking bear pee.
The guard moved, and if I hadn’t been staring at him hard enough to make my eyes water, I would have missed it. He completely blended in with his surroundings and even his movements were no more than a faint ripple in the air. Illusion or an invisibility spell. Either way it was kick-ass and I wanted to know how I could get one of these myself. Mir said I’d get paid a wage for my sanitation job and that the money was mine to do with what I wanted. I’d been thinking I probably needed to get a cell phone, but since Jake had already bought me one of those, an invisibility spell just moved up on my most-wanted list.
“Is it midnight yet?”
I nearly jumped out of my fur, thinking for a split second that the guard was talking to me.
“No,” the shimmer by the corner of the building replied. “Another twenty minutes. I hate this.”
“Me too,” the guy on the steps said, still typing on his phone. “When I took this job, I thought I was going to get to shoot some werewolves, not stand around an old building in the middle of nowhere.”
“If I’d had five grand, I would have paid for a hunt. At least then I would have maybe had a chance at bringing home a trophy.” The blur moved over and sat down on the steps next to the other guard.
“Grab a couple of those bullets in there before you leave tomorrow, and just go shoot your own werewolf. Or that bear woman on your block you keep talking about, the one with the BMW.” The guy paused his typing and looked over his shoulder toward the building. “Not like those guys aren’t pocketing a few right now.”
“Five hundred a pop.” Blurry guy snorted. “Even if I don’t shoot that bear woman, I can sell them on the internet and make more than I am here.”
These guys clearly weren’t going to budge, and that shift-change or whatever was going to happen in twenty minutes wasn’t something I had time to wait for, so I made my way forward. I could feel the magical wards, setting my fur to twitching from their weird static feel. I could smell the copious amounts of bear urine covering the physical explosives. With a careful, twisting path, I managed to make it to the porch, only to freeze in place as the guard suddenly turned around and saw me.
He yelped. “Jesus Christ, that’s the biggest rat I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Was I about to get shot? I really didn’t want to get shot. The good thing about being a rat, no matter how huge, was that I was a smaller target than I would have been as a human. If I ran really fast, there was a good chance that this guy would only end up shooting a bunch of holes in the concrete wall of this building.
Blurry guy chuckled. “There’s some as big as a small dog in New York City.”
Really? Damn, I needed to step up my game. The guard kept a wary eye on me, and I did the same as I headed toward a hole in the concrete by the door. It would be a tight squeeze, but I was betting that I could make it through.
“Think I should warn Darren and Scott?” the guard asked.
Blurry guy laughed. “Let the giant rat scare the piss out of them. That’ll teach them to leave food and chips lying around in there.”
Two guys inside. I wondered what other surprises awaited me on the other side of this concrete wall. Hopefully they didn’t involve me turning into a poison-spitting frog, because as cool as that sounded in theory, I was pretty sure in reality it would suck.
I managed to get through the opening with most of my fur intact. A wash of static brushed over me and I held my breath, expecting an alarm to sound at any minute or for me to explode.
Neither happened. Either my rat-form was spot-on, or these guys had some pretty sub-par magic now that their main elf was dead. Past the static-barrier, I darted across the room and surveyed the inside, which seemed much bigger as a one-pound rodent than a human. There were indeed two guards inside the building, as well as half of a bologna sandwich that someone had dropped on the floor. I shoved the sandwich in my mouth, partially as a convincing prop, and partially because I was hungry. That bag of burgers had been over four hours ago, and I had just hiked through miles of woods. I needed a snack, and I actually liked bologna.
The two guards were playing cards, smoking, drinking, and eating. There was food everywhere and a box full of empty beer cans on the floor. I was positive their “guard-this-shit” assignment hadn’t included drinking beer and playing cards. Clearly boredom made for inattentive mercenaries.
One guy did a double take and yelped, shoving his chair backward to stand and dropping his cards. I noticed he had a pair of twos. Loser.
The other guy followed his gaze and cursed, also jumping to his feet and backing away a few steps. Full house, fives high. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
Or in my case, bologna sandwich. I sat on my haunches and ate, watching the two.
“Shoot it,” Pair of Twos commanded.
“Are you joking? Unload in a room filled with a bunch of magical crap just to kill a rat? One stray bullet would blow us all up, or turn us into mice or something.”
Two guards outside, one invisible. Two guards inside. A magical ward around the building walls. And more inside. I finished my sandwich and decided it was time to take a tour of the small room. Up by the front door was a glass-fronted case that had once held lottery tickets and cigarettes by the faded stickers. The table with the food and cards and two chairs was in the center, and along the back wall, lined up along unlit refrigerator cases, were stacks of boxes. I scampered over to sniff them, amused to note that the two guys kept me in sight, shuffling around so they continued to face me.
Gunpowder. And I could feel the magic, although instead of static, this magic felt rotted and slimy. The boxes themselves didn’t appear to have any physical locks, or magical protection, but there was a ring of something that surrounded them. Powdery and white, and loaded with tingly magic. It would be kinda stupid to have an explosive ward around boxes of live ammunition, so I assumed this magic was of the turn-me-into-a-frog kind.
I’d learned enough, and knew if I lingered too long I was going to have a giant bear and an angel-light bursting through the door. Still, I wanted to mess with these guys a bit, so I loped toward them, amused to see them jump out of my way with high-pitched squeals. Hopping on the table, I grabbed one of the small bags of chips, then hopped back down, racing toward the hole in the wall.
“Hey, he stole those chips!”
Yes, yes I did.
“Let him have them,” the other guy replied. “Not like I’m gonna risk getting rabies to take those chips back.”
It was an even tighter fit through the hole with my contraband, but I managed. I also managed to run right past the other two guards as they shouted and danced out of my way. Safely into the woods, and far enough away that I was sure I wouldn’t set off any of the detection wards, I shifted back into my human form, opened the bag of chips, and went to find Jake and Karl.
Chapter 17
“Bet you fifty dollars I can.” I’d finished telling the guys everything I’d discovered on my rat-patrol. And I’d finished the bag of chips. I hadn’t shared.
Jake rolled his eyes. “I can’t collect fifty dollars from you if you’re dead. Besides, I don’t think you even have fifty dollars.”
I didn’t. But I’d eventually get paid, although I had no problem with conveniently forgetting to pay Jake if I lost.
“I can do this. I got past the barrier without setting it off before, and all the guards did wa
s hop around and scream like little girls when they saw me. I get in. I whack the two guards inside. You guys take care of the two outside, and I’ll open the door for you and start handing you boxes. Easy peasy.”
“Can’t see one of the guards outside,” Karl complained. “How the hell am I gonna kill a guy I can’t see?”
“He’ll be the one shooting at you,” I told him.
“Oh, excellent plan,” Jake scoffed. “You’re inside as a rat trying to gnaw a hole in two armed guards while we’re getting blown full of holes and trying to kill a man we can’t see.”
“Yep. It’s an excellent plan,” I replied.
Karl grunted. “I ain’t got no problem killing these four humans, but Brina is always telling me it’s not good public relations or some shit like that. Maybe we should try to knock them unconscious instead, like they do in the movies.”
“Trust me, that’s harder than they make it out to be in the movies,” I said. “And it would be a bummer if one came to in five seconds and shot us after calling for reinforcements. They’ve got cell phones, you know.”
Karl nodded. “Maybe I just won’t tell Brina about the killing part, then. Okay. Jake and I take the two guards outside after demon-wolf sneaks in and slaughters the two on the inside.”
“I’ve grown rather fond of this demon-wolf and I’d be pretty bummed if she got killed sneaking in and slaughtering two guys with magic bullets on her own.” Jake gave me a side-eye.
That warmed my tiny little heart. “Tell you what. I’ll sneak in, and the moment you guys hear gunfire, you roll in like the cavalry and save me.”
From the expression on Jake’s face, I could tell he liked the idea of saving me. I didn’t, so the idea of me being some damsel in distress made me even more determined not to get caught.
Jake sighed. “Okay. Deal. But you take one of these before you go in, just in case.” He dug in the backpack and handed me a vial with some sparkling liquid in it. “Drink this.”
I felt just like Alice in Wonderland. “Will it make me freakishly tall? Or super tiny?”
“No, it will make sure you aren’t forced to shift form when they shoot you. And it will negate the magic that rots your flesh.”
I was all about not having my flesh rotted, but how would the magic bullets force me to shift if I was already in animal form? Would they work in reverse, turning me from a rat into a giant, naked human? Because that might actually work to my advantage somewhat.
“They’re not going to shoot me,” I told Jake. “They’re afraid if they hit that line of magic around the boxes, they’ll be turned into mice. Besides, I’m going to be a rat. No one shoots a rat that’s attacking their friend. They’ll try to whack me with a shovel or a chair or something.”
Jake glared at me. I got the feeling that this was a non-negotiable mandate, so I drank the contents of the vial, grateful he wasn’t making me wear a tiny rat-sized flakjacket as well.
“Go. You’ve got ten minutes, then we’re coming in.”
Shifting back into my rat form, I darted off toward the building. Ten minutes would be right around the time the guards were doing their switcheroo. I really didn’t want to have to take on four of them all at once, so I’d need to get in and take out the two inside with as minimal noise as possible, and get it done before the other two came in and discovered a giant rat standing over two dead bodies.
The outside guards didn’t jump this time when I hopped up on the porch, but they did give me a wary side-eye.
“That rat’s back,” the visible one commented. “Or maybe it’s one of his buddies. We need to get some poison in here fast. I don’t like the look of this one.”
The invisible guy laughed. “It’s a rat, not a bear. Pussy.”
Little did they know I was probably worse than the bear in the woods behind me. Probably. I got the feeling Karl was damned lethal in a fight, so maybe not.
I scampered in through the hole and saw the two inside guys playing cards once more. Full house guy had a shitty hand this time, so I went after him first, running up and sinking my teeth deep into the exposed skin under his pants hem.
He screamed and flipped the table in his haste to get up, so much for minimal noise.
I held on as the guy frantically shook his leg, trying to dislodge me. The two outside were laughing, yelling slurs about the inside guy’s manhood. Pair of Twos, meanwhile, was standing like he was frozen in place, staring wide-eyed at his co-worker.
“Do something! Get it off me!” Full House screamed.
“Do what? I don’t want it to bite me,” the other guy replied. Then I guess he decided if he didn’t do something, he was liable to be next, because he picked up his rifle and pointed it at Full House’s leg.
“Don’t shoot me, you idiot.” Full House hopped over to the wall and tried to slam me into it. I jumped off just in time, then leapt upward and sank my teeth into whatever I managed to grab hold of. It was his upper inner thigh. Two more inches of vertical leap and I would have been biting his dick.
One of the joys of being a genetic freak was that I could alter individual parts of my body as I so chose—well, as my beast so chose. Sometimes that meant I was a lion-chicken-snake. Sometimes it meant I was a big-ass rat with teeth the size of steak knives. Which meant I had the perfect tools to sink those pearly whites into both the guy’s femoral artery and femoral vein.
Blood gushed, blinding me as well as choking me. I let go, gagging and sputtering, and was nearly crushed by the guy who immediately collapsed from the sudden blood loss. I gave him a minute tops.
Pair of Twos screamed. “Help! Giant, crazy, rabid rat! Help!” Then this time he actually shot at me.
Luckily, a terrified person is a very poor shot, because the rain of bullets did nothing more than blow chunks of concrete off the walls and shower white dust into the thick blood that was rapidly spreading across the floor. I hid under the body until I realized the guy was turning his aim on his dead co-worker, then I ran across the floor, trying to avoid the ring of magic around the boxes as well as the bullets being wildly shot around the room.
Even big magazine clips run out. As soon as the shooting stopped, I ran for Pair of Twos and jumped. He screamed, trying to hit me with the stock of the rifle as I bit and clawed my way up his body. Then as I latched onto his neck, he grabbed me with both hands, squeezing tight.
I didn’t get as lucky with this bite as I had with the other one. Without an arterial strike, I was left to chew up the man’s throat and hope he bled out before I needed to actually breathe. He did. And this time I did get somewhat crushed when he fell to the floor on top of me.
My ribs hurt. I was sticky with blood and cement dust. There was a two-hundred-pound guy crushing me. Still, I hesitated, waiting for the other two guards to come rushing inside now that Pair of Twos wasn’t liable to kill them with his wild aim. I heard nothing but silence. Finally I couldn’t stand to wait any longer. Shifting into my human form, I pushed the dead guy off of me and stood. Surely the guards outside would have at least called out to see if their buddies inside were okay by now.
There was a knock on the door that sounded like someone was hitting it with the butt end of a rifle. Then someone did call out—Jake.
“Tupper? You okay in there?”
I brushed my hands against my thighs, which did nothing to clean off the blood and dust. Then I grabbed the less bloody of the two dead guys and hauled him over to the door, using his hand to turn the latch, then using his body to prop open the hinged plywood.
The static feel of magic vanished. I didn’t know if it was the human body interrupting the flow, or the guy’s blood, or what, but I gave Jake and Karl the all-clear thumbs-up, and stood back.
They had to hunch over to get through without scraping against the hinged plywood. Inside they straightened up, then stared.
“The fuck? Looks like five humans got run through a chipper shredder in here,” Karl commented.
“Not the neatest job by a long
stretch, but she got it done,” Jake defended me.
Karl grunted. “She looks like she rolled in it, too.”
“You try to avoid arterial spray,” I countered. “And concrete dust really sticks to blood.”
The place did look like a war zone with blood everywhere and chunks blown of out of walls. Sad when the two dead guys on the floor were the least alarming thing in the room.
“Am I right in assuming there’s some magic protection around the boxes?” Jake asked.
I nodded. Then I went over and grabbed the second dead guy, dragging him over toward the boxes. When I shoved the top half of his torso through the ring of dust, it sizzled, then caught fire with a bang.
The fire was blue. It didn’t feel hot, but the guy’s skin was melting.
“How much C4 did you bring?” Karl asked Jake. “I’m thinking we just blow it all up and call it a day.”
“I’ve been warned that blowing up areas with magical wards might result in a catastrophic incident,” Jake told him.
“Well, the owners of this shit had to have some way of getting the bullets out in case they needed them,” I said. “The two guards out front were talking about pocketing a few of them as a little side bonus to their paycheck. They knew there was a magical barrier, so they must have had something on them to make stealing a few a possibility.”
Karl grunted and went outside, returning moment later carrying an arm.
“We stack up the dead guards then use them as a bridge to get to the cases?” I asked. “Or we keep shoving dead human body parts into it until the magic runs out of juice or overloads or something.”
“Guy had an amulet that made him invisible,” Karl told me. “I yanked it off when I killed him, and noticed this ring. Looks kinda elf-like to me, you think?”
