by Lysa Daley
Way up here, a little song bird like me would be easy pickings for hungry hawk like that. I folded my wings in and dove straight down toward the whizzing cars on the freeway.
The hawk followed.
Chapter Ten
Plummeting toward the earth, I heard the terrifying screech of the predatory hawk hunting me.
Because of his larger size, he was accelerating more quickly and catching up to me. If I couldn’t get to the ground and transform back into my regular form, I was going to be dinner for this hawk.
My only other choice was to try to shift into a larger bird while in midair. I wasn’t sure I could do it. And failing would’ve been devastating. If I lost control mid-flight, I would’ve slammed onto the freeway.
Glancing back, all I could see were the wide open talons of the hawk preparing to grab me.
Only fifty yards above the ground, I closed my eyes and concentrated. My wings quickly expanded and my feathers grew. I regained control, pulling up and away from the ground.
The hawk did the same.
But then I circled back around, heading straight toward him.
His eyes narrowed with confusion. How was it possible a large golden eagle was suddenly charging him? Where had the delicious little finch gone?
Hawks were incredible navigators. He changed course on a dime and veered to the north away from me.
I was safe, but exhausted. Luckily, my large wings easily carried me to the other side of the tangle of freeway exchanges below. I’d never been so relieved when I made it to the other side and landed on a fence post a few feet away from the raised freeway.
I didn’t have much time to rest, but I needed to catch my breath if I was going to be able to go on. Both the transformation and the energy it took to be an eagle had sapped my energy.
I caught my reflection in the window of a nearby parked delivery truck. Wow, I was a damn impressive-looking eagle.
Still, I needed to get back on Rosario’s trail. When I was sure the hawk hadn’t doubled-back, I reverted back to the much more manageable small finch form.
It definitely wasn’t easy being a small bird in the big city. I made a mental note to refill my birdfeeder when I got home.
Getting back on track, I got lucky at the intersection of Western and Exposition Boulevard, not far from USC (my school UCLA’s rival), when I spotted a bus pulling over to the curb. Rosario soon climbed down to the sidewalk.
As she walked away from the bus, she slung the plastic bag over her shoulder with some effort. Whatever was inside had to be heavy. The bottom of the bag looked round—like perhaps a helmet was in it.
After hiking a couple blocks up Exposition, she turned down a much quieter residential street.
Where was she going? Was she headed to work now in her maid’s uniform? This wasn’t exactly the best part of town. Hard to believe a lot of people around here had maids.
I followed her down the street, flitting from branch to branch. She kept nervously glancing back as she walked, like she had some sixth sense that someone was following her. Luckily, she never thought to look up to see me watching her from above.
Anticipating that she would continue on to the end of the block, I'd flown ahead. As I sat waiting, I noticed how tired I’d become. My little bird heart pounded like a drum and my wings ached as I balanced on a rough wooden telephone pole. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could go.
At the far end of the block, a big black SUV with dark tinted windows, rounded the corner and slowly approached her. It rolled forward, then pulled over and idled half a block back.
Oh jeez. Coincidence? Hard to say, but I was get a funny feeling about it.
Rosario, who seemingly hadn’t noticed the SUV, got to the corner and turned left down another residential street.
The SUV followed, pulling up just shy of the corner behind her, and parked. The headlights dimmed and the engine quieted. I’d almost convinced myself that they were looking for a parking spot when the door opened and out stepped a familiar face.
Stryker Smith.
The badass seeker agent I’d met in Mr. Stroud’s office. And some other creepy looking guy got out from the passenger side.
What were they doing here? He hadn’t seemed at all interested in this job when Mr. Stroud handed him the flyer? Maybe this was a good sign. If Stryker was here that had to mean that he thought Rosario had the stolen helmet too.
Stryker stood in the pool of dim light on the edge of the sidewalk, watching Rosario amble down the street.
“Clive,” Stryker hissed, as the other guy hurried over. Stryker whispered instructions, pointing in the direction we’d just come from. Clive, who had to be some sort of assistant, jogged off that way.
The only thing I could conclude from this was that Stryker already knew where Rosario was headed, and he was sending Clive around the back way.
This was not good.
Meanwhile, Rosario had cut across the street and hid herself behind a bulky oak tree. It looked like she was spying on a second story window of a rundown apartment building.
Stryker remained where he was, smoking a cigarette. The spicy smoke wafted up, and I caught the scent of cloves. This took me by surprise. A lot of people smoked clove cigarettes, but certain supernaturals used them to help calm some of their more primitive urges. Was it possible that Stryker was more than only a wizard?
Or maybe it meant nothing. Maybe he just liked the sweet spicy taste of clove.
It was after 5pm, and the January sun had pretty much called it a day. In the fading light, Rosario slipped out from behind the tree, then scurried across the scrubby front yard of the apartment building to the far side, where the garbage cans and utility boxes lived.
When she disappeared alongside the building, Stryker took one last puff of his cigarette, tossed it in the gutter, and crushed it under his boot.
Right before he went after her, he turned his gaze in my direction and looked right at me. I was so startled I chirped and inadvertently ruffled my feathers.
How could he possibly have known this was me?
He sniffed the air, like a wolf or a lion. A cold, primordial fear rippled through me. What was this guy?
Then, apparently losing interest, he turned away and crossed the street.
I waited until he was out of sight before I took to the sky. I landed in the safety of the leafy ficus hedge that separated the apartment building Rosario had approached from the apartment building next door. It also did double duty by keeping me well hidden inside the leafy branches.
The last thing I needed was competition. How was I going to get the helmet with these guys here? I had to collect the helmet. Time was running out, and I needed the money.
From my perch, I had a good view of Rosario on the other side of the fence. She stood nervously halfway up a rickety wooden stairwell that led to the second floor. She started to pull something out of the plastic grocery bag she’d been hauling around.
From my vantage point, I could also watch Stryker lurking around in front of the apartment building, and Clive skulking through the back alleyway. From where they were, neither of them could see her.
I had that advantage. At least for now.
Rosario looked back and forth, making sure no one else was around, then she pulled out the Helmet of Perseus.
A flutter of excitement surged through me. My hunch had been correct. She was the thief.
Maybe I didn't have a lot of experience, but of all the agents who had been working this case for a month, I was the one who was in the right place at the right time.
Of course, unfortunately, so were Stryker and that Clive guy.
At the moment, Stryker was easily pulling himself over the locked security gate.
Rosario must've heard him coming because she hurried to put on the helmet and vanished before he landed squarely on the pavement on her side of the fence.
Stryker froze in a crouched position, like a predator stalking his prey. Puzzled, he looked around. He seemingly knew that
she was there even though he couldn’t see her.
My eyes flitted back and forth from him to the spot where she had just been. She must have been frozen in place as well.
Slowly, he moved down the narrow walkway, passing right by the rickety stairs. I breathed a sigh of relief as he continued to the rear gate. He quietly opened it and stepped through into the alley behind the building, presumably to meet up with Clive.
I didn't see Rosario, but I could hear quiet footsteps padding up the old wooden steps to the second floor landing, then they stopped. The stairway opened up to a small makeshift porch, complete with a tiny grill and two cheap plastic chairs.
The stairs continues up one more flight to the roof. I flew, as soundlessly as I could, from the tree branch up to the third floor railing. From my perch, I saw into part of the second floor apartment. The muffled sound of a basketball game on the television drifted out an open kitchen window.
I caught a glimpse of a coffee table with two sets of feet resting on it. One pair wore large men’s work boots, while the other smaller feet wore fuzzy orange socks. One orange foot draped over the ankle of the boot wearer in an intimate way.
Pretty safe guess that it was a man and woman canoodling on the couch.
Was this what Rosario had come to see? Why? My best guess was that this was either the apartment of her boyfriend, or perhaps the home of his new girlfriend. Was she going to try to get inside this apartment?
Wearing the helmet, Rosario remained invisible. All I could do was sit patiently and wait for her to remove the helmet, or for something else to happen.
I told myself eventually something else would happen. My other choice was to transfigure back to myself and try to take the helmet from her now.
My gut told me to wait. Especially with Stryker and his goon so close by.
Finally, from approximately where Rosario stood, a key appeared out of nowhere. The dull brass house key must have been in Rosario’s pocket.
While she and her clothing remained invisible, apparently the thing she touched did not.
The key magically floated over to the door and inserted itself into the lock. Then, ever so slowly, the doorknob turned to the right, and the back door creaked open inch by inch.
I heard a soft rustling as Rosario must have stepped inside then closed the door behind her.
What was she going to do? Was she there to spy on them? Or worse. Was she going to harm this couple?
I feared I was in over my head.
For a brief moment, it crossed my mind that maybe it would be smart to tell Stryker. He had more experience than me. He could intervene in a way that I wasn't prepared to do.
A few seconds after she slipped inside, the back gate opened as Stryker and Clive appeared. They must've heard the door open and close. I could tell by the way they were sizing up the building that they weren’t sure which apartment she had gone into.
Watching them case the building helped dissolve any desire to let them know what I’d seen. Why should I? I wanted to be the one who collected the helmet. After all, I was the one who got here first.
I couldn't hear exactly what they were saying as Stryker leaned over to give Clive an order. Stryker must’ve sensed that the helmet was nearby, and he wanted to grab the prize.
I couldn't be sure if Stryker had seen me back in the tree and knew that I was an animagi. Perhaps Stroud had told him.
Either way, this seemed like a good time for a change.
When I was certain that they weren’t looking in my direction, I concentrated all my energy and transformed from a bird into a small lizard.
Ew.
I never liked being a reptile. Far too cold and clammy. Not as bad as a snake, but still not my favorite transformation. However, under the circumstances, it was practical.
Low to the ground, I scuttled across the railing and over to the wall, flicking my tail behind me. It was pretty handy to be able to walk on walls.
Attaching myself to the exterior of the building, I pulled the super cool chameleon move of turning my scaly skin from green to dirty yellow so I blended more closely into the aging paint on the apartment building. I scuttled steadily to the open second story window, then climbed onto the narrow window sill, where I got a full view of what was going on inside.
The work boots belonged to a burrito of a man holding a beer. He reclined lazily on a dirty beige couch with one arm draped over his girlfriend, a pretty Asian girl, despite too much badly applied makeup. A cluster of empty beer cans littered the table. The girl sat next to him, scrolling absently through Twitter on her phone.
The apartment was filled with mismatching thrift store furniture, sports posters, and an abundance of randomly scattered dirty glasses and plates. It was a pretty good bet that this was the boyfriend's apartment.
The girl wore a tight red dress, like she was on her way to a nightclub. If this was a new boyfriend, she must’ve still been trying to impress him because that dress looked uncomfortable.
Either way, this seemed like the world’s dullest relationship. It actually made me glad I didn’t have a boyfriend. What was even more puzzling was the possibility that Rosario wanted this loser back.
I scanned the apartment. Where the heck was Rosario? Because the TV was so loud, at this point, she could have gone in the kitchen, opened the fridge, and made a sandwich without the two on the couch even realizing she was there.
From where I clung to the wall, I saw Stryker outside, slowly stalking up the backstairs. His creepy assistant Clive dumbly trailed behind him. Why did he bother with this dimwitted assistant or whatever he was? I didn’t see the appeal. Stryker did not strike me as a dimwit, so there had to be a reason for bringing him along.
Either way, I didn’t have much time. I had to do something soon, or I was going to lose this bounty to the more experienced agents.
Using my four little sticky reptile feet, I crept down under the windowsill and into the apartment. Luckily, the kitchen walls were a faded olive green that proved easy for me to blend into.
A wooden baseball bat in the corner of the kitchen behind a small round dining table stood out, because it was currently floating in the air like it was getting ready to strike something.
Bingo! I’d found Rosario.
I couldn't think of a single thing that Rosario might want to do with that baseball bat except bash in the brains of the couple on the couch.
Chapter Eleven
Magical helmet of Perseus or no magical helmet, maybe it was time I turned back into a human and intervened before brains got splattered.
The girlfriend on the couch turned her head, alerted by the creak of the floor beneath Rosario’s feet. Unfortunately, it wasn't the levitating sports equipment that she first noticed.
It was the lizard on the wall.
“Oh my God! Jesse!” She leaped to her feet, covered her mouth with one hand, and pointed in my direction with the other. “There's a huge bug on the kitchen wall!”
Bug? How stupid was this girl?
Jessie's reaction was not what she was hoping for. Without even looking away from the television, he said, “Leave the stupid bug alone. It'll go back outside on its own.”
“No,” she shrieked. “You got to go kill it now.”
Jesse sighed, lazily swiveling his big meaty head in my direction. “Where is it?”
“There!” She continued to point.
“That ain’t no bug, dummy. That's a lizard.” Jesse was on his feet.
“Lizard!” she gasped, then promptly started screaming her head off.
Meanwhile, the floating baseball bat silently floated closer to the couple along the dark wall.
I had no choice. I needed to immediately transform back into my human form before Jesse squashed me.
Unfortunately, I was not in a good location to do this. Unless, I could scurry toward a clearing along the wall, I was going to land on a counter full of dirty dishes and beer cans.
“Jesus, calm down, May,” Jesse b
arked, shutting her up and heading my way.
The floating baseball bat rose into swinging position.
Trying to hurry, I closed my eyes and concentrated.
Jesse was more than halfway across the room when I transformed and came crashing down onto the counter.
“Holy shit!” he sputtered, jumping back, totally freaked out.
May started screaming again.
Who could blame them, I suppose?
“Hi.” I smiled. “Sorry about this. I can pay for the broken dishes.”
After Jesse stopped swearing, he said, “Who are you and what the hell are you doing here?”
“Duck!” I yelled, as the baseball bat swished through the air toward his head. Jesse managed to duck at the last possible second.
I grabbed an open canister of flour off the counter and threw it at the baseball bat. The flour clung to the invisible outline of Rosario, making her look like some powdery ghost. She was so surprised to be unmasked that she dropped the baseball bat and scurried backwards.
“Jesse!” May was pissed and confused. “Is that...is that your ex?”
“How should I know?” Then he looked at me. “What’s going on?”
“I'm just here to find her.” I pointed at Rosario. “She stole a very important item that belongs to someone I know who would very much like it back.”
May gaped at Rosario, her eyes on the helmet. “Is it that big ugly hat?”
A second later, the back door exploded open.
Stryker and Clive marched in. It took Stryker about half a second to size up the room, zoom in on the helmet, and stride toward Rosario.
“Who the hell are you?” Jesse said, trying to sound like a tough guy. “You all need to get out of my apartment.”
“Happy to go, brother,” Stryker replied coolly. “After I get what I came for.”
“Oh no, you don’t,” I said to Stryker. “I got here first.”
“Honey, it’s not who’s first. It’s who ends up with the goods.”
He had every intention of stealing this job from me.
We both squared our attention on the flour-covered Rosario. When she felt the weight of all our eyes on her, she emitted a little high-pitched squeak, then bolted toward the front door.
