“It wasn’t a love spell, those are more involved.”
“Oh, they’re more involved?” Lucy said, still in disbelief. “And you’re an expert because you want to, what, force me to love you? That’s sick.”
“I’ve been right here!” Morgan cried. “Right here in front of you, but you always look past me. Two people couldn’t be more perfect for each other, but you refuse to see it. So yeah, my ritual bath wasn’t focused on money, it was focused on you, but it didn’t work. Once again you looked right past me to him.”
“You’re supposed to be my best friend,” Lucy said, trying not to cry. “You’re supposed to have my back, always. Isn’t that what you tell me all the time?”
“Lucy, I know it was wrong, I shouldn’t have done it. But it was Marcus. He pushed me toward it and said I should get what I want no matter what.”
“Get out,” said Lucy.
“Lucy, it’s Marcus.”
“I don’t believe you. You’re a liar, and now I know you will do or say anything to try to get what you want.”
“Lucy—”
“I said, get out!”
“Please.”
“Do I have to call the police?” Lucy asked, dead serious.
Morgan turned and walked away, leaving Lucy alone on the terrace. She watched him walk through the living room and out the front door. The door closing made Lucy jump, it sounded so final.
Lucy hugged herself. It had been a not so great afternoon with first her family and now Morgan. Lucy tensed as she heard Morgan’s car peel out and race down the narrow street. He was being stupid and was going to wreck his car if he wasn’t careful.
It was impossible for Lucy not to think about the accusations Morgan leveled against Marcus—not the girlfriend-murdering stuff, that was just ridiculous—but the love spell stuff. She was sure Marcus was powerful enough to pull something like that off, but would he? Lucy thought about their night out in Vegas. The spark between them had been intense, but to Lucy it hadn’t felt false. Sure, she got all handsy in the limo, but he had stopped it and said they should wait. Would someone who was using magic on her really have that much control?
The sound of metal smashing against metal, glass breaking, and horns ripped through the night, breaking Lucy’s train of thought. A car crash, there had been some kind of accident down the hill on Sunset. Lucy stood on her toes, leaning over the railing to see if she could spot anything from this far up. Sirens started wailing in the distance, it was a serious accident.
Morgan.
He’d raced down the street like a maniac. What if he’d lost control down on the Boulevard? He’d been a total jerk and shattered the trust between them, but she didn’t want him to be hurt. The sirens were getting closer. Lucy grabbed the house key and dashed outside. Sunset was less than three blocks down and she decided to run the distance, just to make sure the idiot hadn’t wrecked his car.
It turned out to be an accident involving a tour bus. There were a lot people milling around but nobody looked injured. She didn’t see Morgan’s car anywhere and let out an anxious breath. A large crowd had gathered along the sidewalks and they were all staring and pointing at something in the street. A few tourists had their cameras out and were snapping pictures. Lucy pushed her way through so she could see.
Lucy froze in mid-step.
It was Mr. Muscles.
He was standing in the middle of the street.
There was no doubt in Lucy’s mind. The only reason he would be here in LA was because he was following her. She knew he was dangerous because of what went down at the hotel pool. Lucy could vividly recall how his hands had turned to claws.
Mr. Muscles wasn’t alone. He had a gang with him. Lucy recognized the redheaded kid with glasses. The other two were more of a surprise, both very pretty women—a blonde and really tall, auburn-haired girl.
Lucy needed to leave, now. She ducked her head down, trying to hide her face, and turned to push her way back through the crowd.
“There!” Lucy heard someone shout and she glanced up. The auburn-haired girl had spotted her and was pointing in Lucy’s direction. Mr. Muscles turned his gaze on Lucy and smiled.
Nope.
Lucy ran.
CHAPTER 15
The accident had pulled a crowd of gawking onlookers. It was going to be impossible to find Lucy in this mess. I knew she had to be close because her memory bubble was finite. It was restricted to her immediate surroundings.
“There,” Elyse shouted.
I turned and looked. Lucy was standing in the crowd of lookie-loos. I needed to be as non-threatening as possible, so I gave her my best charming, Orson grin.
Huge mistake.
Lucy spun and ran like I had pointed a gun at her.
“What’d you do?” Elyse asked.
“Nothing,” I said. “I only smiled.”
“Well, if she remembers you guys from the hotel—and why wouldn’t she—she probably thinks you’re here to kidnap her. So stop grinning at her,” Elyse said.
“Go it,” I agreed.
“Um, guys, she’s like getting away,” Wyatt pointed out.
“How’s the leg?” Elyse asked.
I looked at her.
“Shifter hearing, I heard it shatter when you punted the bus.”
“Oh, right. It’s a little tender,” I began to rub at it and stopped when a warm, gentle wave washed over my leg. I looked down—what the heck?
“Over here, tough guy,” said Maddie.
Sure enough, Maddie was performing some healing goodness. In less than a minute my leg was totally healed.
“Now that is cool,” I said. “How are you getting around my aura? It usually short-circuits magic?”
Maddie shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe because I’m trying to heal you, not attack you?”
“Guys, Lucy is getting away,” repeated Wyatt. “She ran up that street over there.”
“Let’s go get her,” I said.
The crowd was not happy that we were trying to leave the scene of an accident. I had to remind myself that none of this was real. We weren’t in danger of exposing magic to the world and the police when they showed up couldn’t put us in real jail. The problem was that my brain refused to believe what I was telling it, because the sights, sounds, and smells—heck, even the air on my face—all screamed this was reality.
“All the rules the Society has pounded into us about avoiding showy displays of power aren’t a problem here in Lucy’s brain. So, Elyse and I are going to move at full shifter speed. Wyatt, you’ve got Maddie, cool?”
“Let’s do it,” Wyatt said, taking a hold of Maddie’s hand.
When they blinked away the crowd went nuts.
“If you thought that was cool,” I said loudly, “Watch this.”
Elyse and I moved in top shifter gear up the street we’d seen Lucy running. The gasps of the crowd behind me made me chuckle. Ever since my Ollphiest super-powers manifested, a small part of me wanted to go full Neo at the end of The Matrix, showing people a world ‘without borders or boundaries, a world where anything is possible.’
It is our destiny.
Well hello, Crazy. Our destiny, huh? I subscribe to the idea that we make our own destiny.
You are a fool.
Yeah, I get that a lot. You know, we’re still going to have a serious heart-to-heart about this destroy our enemies, destiny thing. Maybe after we save Lucy, we can pencil in a meeting.
I was greeted with silence. Good, because I needed to concentrate.
Lucy ran straight to a small house at the end of a street a few blocks up from the Boulevard. She hustled inside, slamming and locking the door behind her. I considered just ripping the thing off its hinges, but too much trauma could injure Lucy’s psyche and there was the real danger that her brain would conjure up another demon-dog.
“Hold on,” I said. “Let’s try this the calm way.” I walked up to the door and knocked like a normal person. “Lucy? My name is Orson. We a
re here to help you.”
“I’ll check the back door, make sure she’s not trying to slip out,” Wyatt said, blinking away.
“She’s in there, I can hear her talking on the phone,” said Elyse.
I nodded. “Yeah, I think she called 911.” I knocked again. “Lucy, I promise you we’re the good guys.”
Wyatt was back in a flash. “She is in there huddled in the hallway, yammering on about being attacked by a gang. I mean seriously, we are the most un-gang like group of people I’ve ever seen. Well, except for you, Orson. You look like the president of the Hell’s Angels.”
I rolled my eyes. I was getting impatient. “Elyse, kill the phone line.”
Elyse ran off around the side of the house.
“Lucy,” I called out in what I hoped was a non-threatening tone. “I’m going to nudge the door open, okay? Don’t be afraid, we just need to talk to you.”
Elyse rejoined us. “Done.”
Holding the doorknob I pressed my shoulder against the door and pushed slowly. The door didn’t stand a chance, the wood jam splintering to pieces, and I let the door swing open.
Lucy was standing in the middle of the room, a purple can of pepper spray pointed in our direction. The set of her jaw, the glint in her eye, it was the Lucy I knew. The tough-as-nails battle-mage who didn’t back down from anyone or anything. I breathed a sigh of relief. Up until this moment I had been doubtful that she was still hiding somewhere in her subconscious, but I could see her now, peeking out from behind the Valley girl facade.
“Hey, Lucy,” I said gently.
“The police are on their way,” she said, a small quiver in her voice.
“That’s okay. My name is Orson, this is Wyatt, Elyse and Maddie. I know you may not remember us, but we know you.”
“Oh, I remember you,” said Lucy. “You were in Vegas, and when that thing attacked, your hands, they were claws. You’re a shape-shifter like Piper.”
“Who’s Piper?” Wyatt whispered out of the side of his mouth.
I shook my head. I noticed Maddie was wiggling her fingers. Smart, throwing some heals at Lucy from the inside of her personal Matrix was a great idea. I needed to keep her talking.
“So, you know about shape-shifters?” I asked.
“You bet I do, and if you know anything about the magic world, you need to know that I’m friends with Marcus Horn and he will be really pissed off if anything happens to me.”
“Marcus Horn is a friend?” I asked, surprised she would bring him up, especially as someone who would protect her. “Where is Marcus now?”
“He’s waiting for me, and if I don’t show up, he will come looking for me and then you’ll be sorry. He’s like a total, first class wizard.”
Wyatt laughed.
“Dude,” I said, shaking my head again.
If Lucy was using terms like wizard, then she was certainly no blood-mage, which was great news. Maybe Horn was trying to recruit her, but thankfully she hadn’t gone down that path yet— or at least not very far down that path.
I figured I would stick with the direct approach. “Lucy, does the Paragon Society mean anything to you?”
Lucy got a funny look on her face. Oh yeah, she remembered something.
“Marcus may have mentioned something about a Society.”
“Fat chance,” Wyatt said, under his breath.
“Lucy, we’ve been standing here in your very nice living room for a couple of minutes now, and we haven’t done anything to hurt you. You’re safe with us.”
Unfortunately, the cops picked that exact moment to arrive. I counted two cruisers through the open front door, which meant four cops at the most.
I sighed. “It looks like we do this the hard way. Remember they’re only pretend cops. We need to take them out quickly, by any means necessary.”
“What do you mean, pretend cops?” Lucy said, confused.
“Wyatt, try to keep your eye on her. We can’t afford to lose her again.”
“On it,” said Wyatt, twirling his fully functional battle-baton in his hand.
It turned out the kid had been correct when he assumed the baton would follow him into the memory the way our clothes had, which was excellent, because when it came to fighting, Wyatt with his baton was an agent of chaos.
Handling the pretend cops was easier said than done. The four officers piled out of their cruisers and instantly morphed into the same variety of tentacle-waving demon-dog that attacked us in Vegas.
I looked at Lucy. “Really? Four of them?”
It was clear by the look on Lucy’s face that even though this was her party, she had no idea where the monsters had come from. She got one good look at the things, tossed her useless pepper spray over her shoulder, and sprinted for the back door.
Luckily the demon-dogs weren’t super-smart. They charged with no thought about tactics. Unfortunately for them, the front of the house was between them and us. Four demon-dogs trying to use the same door at the same time is a sight to see and the house didn’t stand a chance. It was like someone had fired a bazooka at the front door. The entire thing vaporized into a cloud of stucco, dry-wall and paint. Having learned my lesson in Vegas, I shifted into bear form, ready to pummel and tear. A demon-dog head materialized out of the dusty air, caught sight of me and charged. I reared up on my hind legs and caught it in—well, a bear hug. Not being submerged in water was a huge plus for my fighting ability. I simultaneously twisted and yanked, and the demon-dog came apart in my claws. I got spooged by demon-dog blood and brains—the blood was thick and green, just like in Vegas—and it was gross. Lucy’s imagination was turning out to have some very warped tendencies.
The cloud of debris cleared enough that I could see one of the overgrown evil puppies had been knocked out cold when it slammed head-first into the house—yay us, just two to go. The last two seemed to have learned from their overzealous first attack. They stalked slowly through the gaping hole in the front of the house, callously stepping on their unconscious brother. Wyatt blinked in behind them, giving each of them a couple of zaps on their exposed backsides. The demon-dogs yelped and spun toward the attack. Of course, Wyatt was long gone and so the demon-dogs snarled and snapped at each other—like I said, not super-smart.
Elyse, in her sleek but deadly cat form, launched herself onto the back of one of the distracted creatures and began to shred its spine to ribbons. I didn’t wait for an invitation. I charged the remaining ugly, tentacled freak as it was about to jump to its comrade’s aid. I clamped my jaw down on a back leg, thrashing my head from side to side, and was rewarded with the sound of snapping bones.
This was going much better than Vegas—until the entire house lurched with a head-snapping jolt.
What was that?
The house began to tilt and slide.
“Hey, I think these Ghostbuster rejects knocked the house off its foundation,” Wyatt shouted.
Sure enough, the house was picking up speed, sliding down the hillside. We were going to end up as a pile of rubble on Sunset.
Fantastic.
I was about to shift so I could shout out orders, but Wyatt was way ahead of me. In three blinks he had Maddie, Elyse and me, but where was Lucy? Wyatt dumped us on the street in front of the house.
I shifted and shouted over the crashing, avalanche sound of the house tumbling down the hill. “Where’d Lucy go?”
“I’m on it,” Wyatt shouted, blinking away.
The house had almost entirely disappeared over the side of the hill.
“Orson, he needs to get out of there now,” said Maddie.
I saw a flash of red hair through a window on the side of the house, but it was gone just as quickly. I took a step toward the receding single-story. If Wyatt didn’t appear in the next five seconds I was going in after him.
Another cop car skidded to a stop behind us and no sooner had the cops jumped out of the car that they also turned into demon-dogs. We so didn’t have time for this.
“Go,�
�� Elyse said. “We got this.”
I only hesitated momentarily. I ran, shifting into beast form and leaping as the front of the house slipped out of sight. I did a somersault-ninja-roll thing in through the non-existent front door and caught one last glimpse of Elyse and Maddie going head-to-head with two demon-dogs.
I landed in the tilted-funhouse version of the expensive Hollywood bungalow. Surprisingly, the house was staying mostly intact, sliding down the hill like a giant snowboard. I shifted just enough of my face and throat so that I could do more than growl.
“Wyatt!”
I couldn’t hear anything except cracking wood, breaking glass and disintegrating concrete.
“Wyatt, damn it, are you in here?”
The house smashed through a chain-link fence and the slide became more of a tumble. The small building had put up an amazing fight, but the forces crushing in from every side were too much and the walls started to split apart, which meant the roof was toast. I shifted into bear form and hunched down, digging my claws into the hardwood floor. I was able to catch glimpses of Sunset through cracks and blown-out windows. The street was rushing toward me at unbelievable speed. How fast could a falling house move?
I wasn’t afraid of dying or being injured, because you know, I’m a super bear, but crashing into a solid wall of asphalt while surfing inside an imploding house didn’t seem like it would be very pleasant.
I braced for impact.
I was correct. Having almost two hundred tons of building materials blow apart around you is not cool. I actually had the breath knocked out of me. I didn’t even know that was possible in my bear form. And trying to catch my breath was hard because I was buried under so much crap. I did the bear equivalent of a push up, which helped shift the pile off my back and relieved the pressure. I could suck in some air which immediately started me sneezing. Apparently my shifter abilities didn’t make me immune to dust.
I could hear sirens and lots of shouting. Sunset was a disaster zone. I wished there was another way to get free of the rubble, because a giant bear was going to add a whole new layer of crazy to the scene. I was still worried about Wyatt and Lucy, but I didn’t smell any blood in the wreckage, so I didn’t think they had been along for the ride.
Lucy: A Paragon Society Novel (Book 3) Page 15
