by Amelia Jade
“I’ll give you once last chance to leave, before I break your spine,” Andrew snarled angrily.
“Oh, that’s good,” Myles said. “But I’m not here to fight you. I come in peace, actually.”
Andrew snorted. “Somehow I doubt that.”
Myles fiddled with something on his shirt, but Andrew couldn’t tell what it was. Some sort of black object.
“I do, actually. Believe it or not. I have a message from—”
“I’m done with messages. Leave peacefully, before you leave in pieces.”
“You really need to lay off the threats, man! I’m not here to fight you, though I will defend myself if you attack.”
Andrew snorted and took a step forward.
“Andrew,” Karri called from above warningly, but he shook her off.
No, this was it. He should have dealt with Myles back in school, when the other shifter had been the class bully. He should have just broken his neck the first time they’d fought in school. Andrew had won handily, but in a moment of hope, he’d let his opponent survive. At the time he’d thought that perhaps Myles might calm down as he got older, smarten up. Basically become less of an ass.
The humiliating defeat had had the exact opposite effect, unfortunately, turning Myles into a sadistic creature who picked on all those around him. It was time someone stopped that.
“You might want to listen to her,” Myles said lightly.
“Fuck off. I said go.”
“You also might want to listen to me.” Once again he fiddled with the object on his shirt. What the hell was that thing?
“I’m through listening to you. You have until the count of five to leave.”
“You know,” Myles said, “I don’t believe throwing someone out of the Cadian embassy, let alone a Cadian citizen, is going to help you out.” He paused thoughtfully. “In fact, can you throw me out? Do you have that right?”
Andrew growled and stepped forward again. “Right or not, I’m going to do it, and I’m going to ensure that you break your neck when you land. Like I should have done fifty years ago.”
Myles just laughed lightly again. “Oh Andrew. You haven’t changed at all. Still such an anger-filled being.”
“Only where you’re concerned. You kidnapped Karri. You’re going to pay for that.”
The other gryphon shifter covered the object on his shirt as Andrew spoke, rubbing his hand back and forth until he was done.
“Listen, are you going to let me give my message or not?”
Andrew sneered. “I’m going to go with not.”
He had barely finished speaking before he launched himself forward, twitching muscles flinging him across the distance to the other shifter faster than a human could blink an eye. Myles was ready for the attack though, pivoting with Andrew’s leap and tossing him into one of the columns near the entrance. Marble cracked and fell to the floor as Andrew slid down it, dazed. He’d never remembered Myles being that good before.
Someone’s been training. Well, I won’t make that mistake again.
Closing slower this time, he took a moment to reach out to try and bash one of the wolf shifters as they went for his guards, but the wily man ducked below the attack and then danced out of range. Everyone was well aware that Andrew wasn’t going to shift focus from Myles to anyone else.
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” Myles said. “You could let me talk and—”
Andrew went on the attack, launching a flurry of blows that looked fancy, but were more designed to give him an idea of his opponent’s capabilities than do any actual damage. In fact, not a single one of them was intended to land. What he found out from them though, was that Myles had a tendency to drop his head to the right when avoiding a blow that could be avoided by ducking to either side.
He let fly with another right-left combination, setting Myles up for the attack he wanted. Myles bounced back out of range and then back in, just in time to see the right jab coming straight at him. With his momentum still carrying him back toward Andrew, the other gryphon could do nothing but duck to one side or the other. With there being no time to think, he was forced to rely on reflex alone, which carried his head down and to his right-hand side.
Which is exactly where Andrew’s true attack, a devastating left hook, caught him square in the jaw, the jab being merely a feint designed to get him to react. Myles swayed back and out of range, shaking his head to clear the stars he had to be seeing after such a blow.
Truth be told, Andrew was slightly shocked his opponent was still on his feet. He’d hit him hard. Hard enough it should have leveled him, at least momentarily. There was the sound of little objects making a sound like tink-tink-tink off the ground in front of Myles. It took Andrew a moment to realize they were his opponent’s teeth, knocked loose from the punch.
“You’re going to pay for that,” Myles spat, sending one bloody tooth in Andrew’s direction.
“Yah yah yah. Whatever you say. Let’s just get this over with, shall we?” he replied, tired of the constant banter. It served no purpose.
The two circled each other, looking for an opening or a mistake from their opponent. At one point, with Myles’s back to the street, Andrew’s eyes focused on some action he saw outside.
Figures.
The human film crew that had once been so interested in the building across the street was now pointed directly at the embassy, likely capturing everything they could about the shifter fight happening inside.
Around him the lobby was being destroyed as the three bear shifters fought twice their number of wolves. It was a fairly even fight at the moment, but all it would take was one bear shifter downing a single opponent to turn the tide. For now though the wolves seemed content merely to occupy their larger cousins, perhaps trying to tire them out, wear them down until Gray or one of his men made a mistake.
Unlikely, he thought. Andrew knew how hard Gray pushed his men. They were in peak physical condition. It would take a lot.
His mind was momentarily distracted by such thoughts, and Myles took advantage of it. The shifter charged at him wildly, abandoning all semblance of technique. His shoulder took Andrew in the stomach and the pair went down hard, crushing marble tiles beneath them. Kicking up a knee, he tried to dislodge the wild man, but it didn’t work. Myles slipped up around Andrew’s back, locking his arms under his neck before he could stop him.
Whoever has been training him is damn good. Andrew was no slouch at hand-to-hand combat, but he’d just been schooled. Badly. If he couldn’t find a way to get Myles off of his back, and soon, he was going to pass out.
But Andrew knew all sorts of tricks. The move Myles was pulling was one that would work great…in a ring with rules. Unfortunately, he’d also wrapped his legs around Andrew’s waist, to give himself better leverage. In the real world, that was a recipe for disaster. Forcing himself to hunch over and ignoring the black beginning to creep in at the edges of his vision, Andrew reached forward and grabbed one of Myles’s feet.
He smiled, and then wrenched it as hard as he could. There was a pained scream as bone, ligament, tendon, and probably even the Achilles muscles all broke and ripped at once. Air flooded Andrew’s lungs as Myles instinctively released his grip, and just like that, the fight was over. Without hesitating, he latched onto the other foot and repeated his move.
Then he rolled lithely to his feet, poised over Myles’s neck as the other shifter lay facedown on the floor howling in agony. Andrew dropped to his one knee, letting all of his weight descend into the point of his kneecap. It landed square on the back of his enemy’s neck. Bone snapped and the fight was over.
The wolves knew it too. They darted from the room faster than the bears could follow, leaving their fallen leader behind.
He stood up, looking down at the dead gryphon shifter as his shoulders heaved up and down, pulling in lungfuls of fresh air while he steadied himself, the adrenaline of battle still singing through his body.
“Is that it?” G
ray asked, coming up to stand next to him. His one eye was rapidly swelling shut, and he cradled one arm gently.
“I have no idea,” Andrew answered as Karri came up next to him. “This just makes no sense. We’re missing something. Something big.”
He reached down and flipped Myles over, grabbing the little black object from where it had been attached to the other shifter’s belt. “What is this?”
The object was a slightly curved shape, thin like a stick. It had a solid black plastic knob on one end, and a more squishy foam on the other. Two wires trailed from it to a little black box clipped to the back of Myles’s pants.
“It’s a microphone,” Karri said, taking it from him. “But why…”
She looked up suddenly. Andrew followed her eyes across the street to the human film crew, who were now looking back at them nervously. Nearby, multiple police sirens began to scream, drawing steadily nearer.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Karri said.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Karri
She stood at his side as what appeared to be every police vehicle in Cloud Lake arrived at the foot of the embassy. Nervous-looking police officers in riot gear piled out of a special weapons and tactics truck, lining up in front of their more normally dressed comrades.
“I am officially confused,” Andrew said from next to her, his hand finding hers and giving it a squeeze. “Let me go talk to them, see if we can diffuse this situation, okay?”
He didn’t wait for an answer, striding forward. The police immediately leveled their guns at him. She watched as he paused, raising his hands palms open and to his sides, gesturing that he came in peace. Karri wanted to tell him to stay inside the embassy, that he would probably be safer there, since to her knowledge the police couldn’t enter a foreign embassy, but he didn’t seem to care. He walked outside and then stopped.
“I’m here,” he called. “Let’s talk. I’m not interested in any trouble.”
Karri watched as one of the officers came forward. She recognized the man, though she didn’t remember his name. Even in a small town like Cloud Lake, there were still ten thousand residents, more than she could ever memorize. He carried himself more calmly than the rest, and didn’t have a weapon pointed at Andrew either. Both of those were points in her book.
“Captain Gardiner,” Andrew said, obviously recognizing the other man. “Can you tell me what’s going on? I’m no threat to you; you should know that.”
The police captain looked disdainful, shaking his head. “No, I don’t know that.”
Karri saw the way Andrew’s body language shifted as the captain spoke. It was tough to explain how she knew, but it was obvious to her that Andrew had seen the man as a friend, but now he was seeing him as a potential enemy instead, simply based on what he’d said.
Or perhaps how he’d said it. Something tipped Andrew off that the situation is changed. Just what the hell is going on here?
Andrew spoke again. “You don’t?”
“I didn’t think so. But you’ve racked up quite an impressive list of things in the past twenty-four hours. I have no choice but to arrest you for them.”
“Such as?”
“Resisting arrest, for starters.”
Andrew looked around. “I haven’t resisted. What are you talking about?”
Captain Gardiner gestured past him, toward where Karri was staying mostly hidden behind one of the marble columns, peering out just enough to be able to see. “That man in there was sent on our behalf, with a message asking you to come peacefully to the station. As you are a representative of Cadia, we asked one of your own citizens to request you come in of your own accord. You went and killed him. Sends a pretty powerful message, don’t you think?”
Karri’s jaw dropped open at the twisting of the facts, but before she could say anything Andrew spoke once more.
“This man kidnapped a human woman, and then came here to fight me,” Andrew said, but Karri felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. This was too well coordinated to be random. There had to be more than that.
“Nevertheless, my point still stands,” the police captain said. “Then on top of that, we have video footage of you breaking into a private residence and kidnapping a human woman from within.”
“That’s so incredibly inaccurate I can’t even laugh at the ridiculousness of your statement,” Andrew said. “I was rescuing her from him. Hell, she’s right here, she’ll tell you.”
He gestured and Karri walked out. “It’s true, Captain. Andrew brought me here to save me. I was being held at that house against my will.”
The captain didn’t seem to even slow down. “There is additional footage of you shifting in city limits. Twice. Can you explain that?”
Andrew hesitated. “Yes. Time was of the essence. Karri’s life was in jeopardy and I needed to get to her quickly, and get out of there, before any more threats to her life were made.”
The captain nodded. “Speaking of threats to her life, I also have a missing persons report that was filed by the girl’s father late last night. He alleges that you forced her to run off with you against her will.” The policeman shrugged. “This is a lot of evidence piling up against you. Enough that I unfortunately am forced to place you under arrest. Whether you’re telling the truth about the woman or not, you’ve shifted inside our town limits. We have it on video. That’s a major felony.”
Karri hadn’t said a word through the whole thing, too stunned as the hits kept coming against Andrew. This, she realized. This was Al’s plan all along. He’d known Andrew would never resign, so he’d plotted it out to ensure that the gryphon would be disgraced and forced from the position.
And her father. Could he have been working with them? That seemed preposterous given her father’s feelings toward shifters. It just had to be a coincidence, but one that had put the final nail in the coffin. All of the above offenses and perhaps some money into the captain’s pocket, and all of a sudden they had a seemingly airtight case against Andrew.
“What happens now?” she asked as Andrew stood there silent.
“Now?” he asked, and she heard the defeat in his voice. “Now I go peacefully with them, until they can arrange for an escort to take me back to Cadia I suppose. Someone will be appointed to replace me as ambassador, and life will continue on.”
She heard the way he’d talked about someone replacing him. It was clear that Andrew understood what was going on as well. They had been played masterfully, used like marionettes without even knowing that the entire time they’d been digging their own graves.
“Unbelievable,” she muttered. “How did we let this happen?”
“We got cocky,” he replied, folding his hands behind his back as several officers in riot gear approached. “I’m sorry, Karri,” he said, looking over his shoulder. “We should have had that talk long ago. Now I fear we’ll never be able to.”
She watched him go, unable to respond, for once at a complete loss of words. Victory had seemed at hand when he’d won the fight against Myles. Now it had all come crashing down around them as their enemy played his true hand.
The police filtered away once Andrew hopped in the back of the captain’s squad car and was whisked away to the station. She could sense the relief coming off of them in palpable waves. None of them had wanted to do this, she suspected.
“Hey,” she said, calling out and catching the attention of one of the nearer officers.
“Yes, miss?” he responded politely.
“How come nobody is calling this out for the big farce that it is?” she asked, unloading all of her suspicions without preamble.
The officer looked distinctly uncomfortable. “Well, because it’s not a farce, ma’am,” he said, looking pained. “After all, there is footage of Andrew shifting inside the town. That can’t be faked.” He paused, looking away, but Karri didn’t miss the anger that flashed in his eyes. “I suppose one could interpret him going into the house to be seen as him kidnapping you. It�
�s technically possible to see it that way.”
“But you don’t agree.”
“I follow orders, ma’am,” he said, fixing her with a look that said she was right, but he couldn’t come out and say it.
“As do the rest of the force,” she said, tilting her head in acknowledgment. “Would you say that the majority of your fellow officers agree that technically the footage could be interpreted that way?”
There was a pause as he thought about it. “Yes. The captain is, unfortunately, positive about it, as are several others. They see things differently than the rest. They can see things that we sometimes miss,” he said.
“Ah, I think I understand. They’ve been exposed to things that allow them to see this way?”
The officer nodded. Although they hadn’t come out and said it, Karri had all but confirmed that the captain and some of his underlings were being bribed to act on Al’s behalf.
“Thank you for the chat, officer. It’s been very eye-opening.”
“Sorry I couldn’t do more to be of assistance.”
“You’ve done plenty,” she said, heading back inside to where Gray waited.
Her brain was already spinning. The captain was deep in Al’s pockets. Nothing was going to change that really. Andrew was going to be forced to resign in disgrace and go back to Cadia. She would never see him again. That was unacceptable. What could she do, though? She had to get some of the charges against him dropped, enough that would make the case against him seem less clear-cut.
Almost immediately Karri knew what she had to do. It would mean she was giving up something she desperately wanted.
But in return, I’ll get something I think I need…
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Andrew
The ride to the police station was uneventful. He’d kept expecting the captain to make threats or something, but in reality, nothing happened. They didn’t exchange a single word. Then again, they didn’t have to. Both parties knew what was going on. Andrew was aware now that this had been Al’s plan all along.
