by Helen Harper
Monroe shook out his fur, transforming back to human before standing upright and facing me. ‘That wasn’t an accident,’ he said grimly. ‘No way.’
Chapter Sixteen
We argued all the way home. Monroe was far more shaken by my near-death experience than I was.
‘It wasn’t Lucy,’ I insisted.
‘We already know she’s intelligent. It could easily have been her.’
‘And how exactly would she have loosened a chimney stack? She’s a baby.’
‘A baby,’ Monroe growled, ‘with giant friends. Friends who will be incredibly pissed off that we killed one of their kind. We can’t assume that the shadow beasts don’t possess intelligence to match our own – or the desire for revenge.’
I sighed. ‘I’m not denying that they might be very clever but do you really think they’d perform such an underhand move? If they wanted revenge for what we did to Lucy’s mother, they’d just attack. It was dark and we were on our own. Even if only two of them had banded together to fight us, it would have been touch and go for us to win.’
‘I’m not saying it’s not unlikely. I’m saying that it’s a possibility and that bringing Lucy back with us again is asking for trouble. Serious trouble.’ He scowled down at her, as if expecting her to whip out a dagger and start stabbing me with it.
‘You’re jumping at shadows,’ I told him. ‘Literally.’
Monroe crossed his arms over his chest and stopped, turning towards me. He was oblivious to the fact that he was stark bollock naked. I couldn’t work out whether that was a good or a bad thing. Good – I got to gawk at his naked body. Bad – right now he didn’t care. ‘You have an analytical mind,’ he told me. ‘You can’t expect me to believe that you think what happened back there was just bad luck.’
‘I don’t,’ I said quietly. ‘I just don’t think it was anything to do with Lucy.’
‘Then who?’ The words were already out of his mouth by the time he’d worked out who I was thinking of. His jaw tightened. ‘Barrett.’
I didn’t answer immediately. I didn’t have any proof. My self-doubt and suspicions were becoming crippling. Perhaps I only needed to pin the blame on someone other than Lucy.
I sighed and looked at my feet. ‘He’s the only person with any motive,’ I mumbled.
Monroe stared at me. ‘I thought you liked him.’
‘He charmed me initially,’ I admitted. ‘But that doesn’t mean I don’t think he might have wanted to get rid of me. I was asking him several awkward questions earlier. And it was his main bodyguard who spotted Lucy in the first place.’
‘Boyce didn’t imagine her, though. She was definitely there. You’re holding the proof of that.’
I shrugged. ‘Maybe he saw an opportunity and took it.’
Monroe was struggling to contain himself. Patches of dark red fur kept springing out all across his body. ‘Then let’s go and ask him about it.’
‘No.’ I was adamant. ‘Without actual proof, we’re going to make ourselves look like idiots. And if Fab and his goons had nothing to do with this, then all we’ll do is annoy them. We need them and the supplies they can offer. Besides, he wouldn’t have attempted murder because of a few questions. If he’s ultimately responsible, there must be another underlying reason. We need to find out what.’ My gaze hardened. ‘Without making our suspicions obvious.’
‘And if we prove that it wasn’t him?’ Monroe asked quietly. ‘Then what?’
‘Then we should be thankful that his intentions towards us are genuine,’ I shot back.
His blue eyes dropped to Lucy, who was blinking at him from the crook of my arm. ‘That’s not what I meant,’ he said.
I sighed. ‘I know.’ I drew the little shadow beast closer. She let out a tiny purr and nuzzled my elbow.
From up ahead, Felicity came running towards us. ‘What the fuck was that? I heard some sort of loud crash. It echoed all the way up here. What happened?’
I glanced behind her. Other people had obviously heard it too; faces were appearing, gazing out from behind the barricade, nervous about what they might see.
I spotted a figure wearing a hazmat suit. I couldn’t tell for certain, but it appeared to be Boyce. Damn it. I’d wanted to be able to watch his face when he heard the news that I was still alive. From a distance – and with that hazmat suit on – I had no hope.
‘Everything is fine,’ Monroe said brusquely. ‘It was just an old building that had taken too much damage. Part of it fell away. It wasn’t anything to do with us.’ He didn’t look at me. ‘We weren’t even close at the time.’ He clearly didn’t want to draw anyone else into our conspiracy theories. I appreciated that. Unfounded gossip and insinuations could do a lot more harm than good.
‘We found Lucy though,’ I said cheerily, holding her up.
Felicity’s face relaxed into a smile. ‘Hey, cutie.’
Lucy purred louder; Monroe frowned harder.
‘Anyway,’ I said, ‘we should get in.’ I nudged Monroe. ‘We should go and find Julian and tell him that Lucy is back. Don’t you think?’
He flicked me a narrow-eyed look. ‘Yes,’ he said finally. ‘Let’s do that.’
We walked up past the barricades. I made an effort to smile at everyone. Monroe didn’t have it in him; he simply glowered, unable to bluff. When we passed Boyce, who’d reappeared from inside the tent, I did my best to scan his face behind the visor. All I registered was surprise.
‘Why is your boyfriend naked?’ he asked.
Monroe paused next to me. He stared at Boyce with an expression that would have made any other person cower. Boyce simply stared back – until Monroe threw up his head, howled, and shifted yet again. His massive wolf form landed on all four paws directly in front of the guard. This time Boyce stepped back. It took every ounce of willpower I had not to crow with glee.
‘That’s why,’ I said. ‘It’s difficult to change into a wolf and retain all of your clothes at the same time.’
Boyce hadn’t taken his eyes from Monroe. ‘You sleep with that … thing?’
‘Oh,’ I said, ‘I do a lot more than that.’ I ran my fingers lightly down Monroe’s furry spine. Then the pair of us turned and walked off in the direction of the town hall.
Julian was giving Monroe a run for his money in the grimness stakes. The groove in his forehead looked deep enough to hide buried treasure. ‘The shadow beast will have to be locked up.’
‘We have a cage,’ I told him. ‘She must have unlocked it herself somehow and got free.’
‘Or,’ Monroe said, ‘someone else unlocked it and let her out.’
I grimaced. It was still a possibility. ‘We’ll put a padlock on it. I’ll keep the key. She won’t get out again.’
‘Is it strong enough to hold her?’
‘Yes,’ I said.
Julian waited. I rolled my eyes. Unless I started to turn furry, Julian would never quite believe anything I said.
‘Yes,’ Monroe agreed. ‘It’s strong enough. For now anyway.’
Julian nodded, apparently now satisfied. ‘You don’t let her out of your sight. Not at any point. Not for anything. If you have to leave her, you get someone else to watch her. And you still have to work on a way to hand her back to her own kind.’
‘Fine.’ I folded my arms. ‘You don’t have anything to worry about, though. Not as far as Lucy is concerned.’
‘You named her Lucifer for a reason,’ Julian said.
‘It’s just a name. Fabian Barrett calls himself Fab but I’m not sure anyone else is convinced of his fabulousness.’
‘You might be surprised.’
Unfortunately I wouldn’t have been. I already knew in what high regard everyone held him. He’d not been here for forty-eight hours and he was already the wonderful conquering hero. ‘Yeah,’ I sighed. ‘Okay.’
Julian started to pace up and down the room. ‘There’s a great deal that Barrett can offer us,’ he said. ‘It’s good that you were able to show self-restrai
nt and not accuse him outright.’
Monroe bristled. ‘I was an alpha when you were still learning to write your name, Julian. Just because you deal with the day-to-day management of this enclave doesn’t mean the rest of us are idiots who have to be constantly ordered around. I’m not your underling.’
Shit. It had been a long time since Monroe had been so antagonistic. ‘Why don’t we all take a deep breath?’ I suggested.
Julian held up his palms. ‘What I meant was that I’m not sure I would have been able to show such restraint. We’ve worked to achieve a peaceful equilibrium across the enclave. All of us have. Anyone who seeks to disturb that peace by attempting to kill another deserves to have their throat torn out. No matter who they are.’ He glanced at me. ‘Especially when the creature being threatened is the most powerful magic wielder we have.’
Monroe grunted. ‘I’m glad that someone is finally speaking some sense.’
I cleared my throat, vaguely embarrassed by Julian’s indirect praise and somewhat mollified too. ‘All I have is a suspicion. There’s no proof.’
‘So,’ he asked, ‘what would you suggest we do next?’
‘We investigate. Quietly. We don’t want to arouse Fabian Barrett’s ire, not when we can use him to bring in the supplies we need. But we need to find out if he’s the one responsible and if so, why. We also need to know what he’s planning to do next.’ I tapped my mouth thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps talk to Boyce some more and see if we can get him to say more than he should.’
‘You’ll need to get him on his own.’
I nodded. ‘I can come up with something.’
‘That’s all well and good,’ Monroe said, ‘but we all know where the real information is going to be.’ He paused. ‘Barrett’s tent. We have to get inside that tent.’
My darling monster was right but we couldn’t just waltz inside. ‘He won’t let us in because we’re not suited up,’ I pointed out. ‘And it’s guarded 24/7, regardless of whether he’s inside or not. We need to find a way in so we can get a proper look around.’
Julian rubbed his chin. ‘Any ideas?’ he asked.
‘I might have to involve a few others but, yes,’ I said with a shrug. ‘I have an idea or two about how to get inside.’
‘Seduction?’ he enquired mildly.
Monroe drew himself up, sudden fury emanating from him in angry waves. I laid a calming hand on his arm. ‘Please,’ I said. ‘I’m far too good to have to resort to anything like that.’ I smiled, although inwardly I was cursing. Now I’d have to think of something else.
Chapter Seventeen
In truth, the best bluffers are those who limit their lies. You have to choose your moment and pick your battle – and make sure that your opponent wholly trusts you first to be assured of success. Unfortunately, I doubted that Fab’s guards would ever trust me. I’d already burnt those bridges the day before with my pointed questions. However, I had some very good friends who were even better at the art of the bluff than I was. Not only that, but I reckoned I could kill two birds with one stone.
The next morning, when Monroe bit his tongue and offered to escort Fab to the Travotel so he could meet Timmons and have a look around, I already had a good idea as to how I would proceed.
‘You know that Anna will be royally pissed with you,’ Lizzy said. ‘She wanted the Travotel to be kept secret for now.’
‘I know. But Fab is already aware of the hotel’s existence. There’s no point in keeping him away from it when he knows it’s there.’
‘How does he know it’s there?’ she enquired, munching valiantly on an apple that was clearly too bitter for consumption. Every time she took a bite, her face contorted.
I wrinkled my nose. ‘Apparently I told him.’
Even Julie looked surprised at that. ‘You? But you’re good at keeping secrets, darling.’
‘It’s why I don’t entirely trust him.’ One of the reasons, anyway. I hadn’t told either of them about last night’s perilous misadventure with the chimney stack. I glanced at them both. There was no need to cause a panic just yet. ‘But I trust you guys with my life. No matter what you may think of Fabian Barrett, you know we can’t be too careful. All I want to do is get a sneak peek into that tent to find out more about him and why he’s here.’
‘But won’t you contaminate his tent if you go inside?’ Lizzy asked, chewing at her bottom lip.
I looked at her. ‘Contaminate it with magic, you mean? With the one thing that has made us all more powerful? It’s not hurt any of us.’
‘We don’t know about the long-term side effects though,’ she said.
‘Now you sound like him.’ I drew in a breath. ‘I’ll be in there for no more than a minute or two. I doubt I can do much damage in that time. But if you think that I’m being unfair on Fabian Barrett and risking his health or his life unnecessarily, then feel free to speak up. You know I’ll listen.’
Julie shrugged. ‘Hey, I’m all for sneaking around behind Fabian Barrett’s back, darling. The long-term side-effects might do him some good. Maybe he’ll grow horns like Lizzy.’ She smiled. There was an edge of nasty glee to her voice. Whatever had gone on between her and Fab in the past, she certainly didn’t think very much of him. ‘That’d be fun to see.’
Lizzy frowned at her. ‘I’m not here for your entertainment,’ she said. She shrugged at me. ‘But you know me, Charley. I’ve got your back no matter what. I don’t see how your plan is going to work but I’m with you all the way.’
I exhaled, surprisingly relieved. I knew that Julie wouldn’t hesitate because I knew she didn’t like the billionaire; the fact that Lizzy still trusted my judgment, even when it came to our potential saviour, was heart-warming. ‘Sleight of hand,’ I said, ‘It’ll work. Let’s do this.’
I hoisted Julie onto the rooftop beside me where we had a perfect view of the tent below – and the two guards posted outside it. As far as I could tell, neither of them had moved a muscle for quite some time. Frankly, it was a wonder they hadn’t been given jobs outside Buckingham Palace, or as those mime artists dressed as statues in busy shopping precincts. I supposed that Fabian Barrett paid better.
‘Did I ever tell you,’ Julie hissed in my ear, ‘that I hate heights?’
I grinned at her and waved to remind her to keep her head down.
A moment later Lizzy appeared, waltzing down the street as only she could. ‘Hey, boys!’ she trilled. ‘How’s it hanging?’
Both guards’ heads whipped towards her. She held up her hands. ‘Whoa. No need to look so fierce. I’m only here to say hello. I’m no shadow beast.’
‘Move along,’ Boyce growled.
She gave him a sympathetic glance. ‘You must be hot in that outfit. You know, the magic isn’t really all that bad. You might like it.’ She tilted her head and let a shot loose from her fingertips. It burst into the sky in a shimmer of magical stars. ‘See?’ she beamed. ‘Ready-made fireworks.’
‘We’re not here to chat,’ the second guard said. ‘We’re on duty.’
‘Yes.’ She nodded vigorously. ‘I hear you did a great job of keeping a look out for Lucy last night. Goodness only knows how she got free. She was locked up in her cage. She’s a canny wee thing.’
‘A dangerous monster like that shouldn’t be allowed to roam the streets,’ Boyce said. I couldn’t see his face from my position but I could well imagine his glowering expression.
Lizzy simply gave him her most disarming smile. ‘Haven’t you heard?’ she asked. ‘We’re all monsters. Even you. That’s what Charley says.’
Uh-oh. That hadn’t come out quite how I was hoping. I grimaced.
‘She said I was a monster?’ Boyce asked, his tone icy cool.
‘She says we’re all monsters. We all have the potential for evil inside us and all of us are someone’s enemy.’ She shrugged. ‘She’s pretty smart.’
‘You seem to hold her in very high regard.’
Lizzy suddenly looked serious. ‘Oh, I do. Probably i
n the same regard that you hold Mr Barrett.’
There was a beat of silence. ‘You’re right,’ Boyce said shortly. ‘We are all monsters in our own ways.’
‘But,’ she replied, ‘at least we can all live in peace and support each other.’
Boyce seemed to watch her for a long time. ‘Is that what you do here?’
‘Of course.’ She sounded surprised. ‘Isn’t it obvious? We protect each other. We look out for each other. That’s what communities do.’ She offered him another smile. ‘We even welcome strangers wearing odd clothes into our midst.’
‘We thank you for your welcome.’ Boyce waved at her. ‘You should go now.’
Deflated, Lizzy’s shoulders sagged. ‘Okay. I suppose you do have to take care. Especially with all those nasties around.’ She glanced about her and dropped her voice. ‘The rats are the worst.’
The second guard stiffened visibly. ‘Rats?’
Lizzy’s eyes went wide. ‘Oh, yes. They’re big bastards as well. And they carry all sorts of diseases. I’m not sure those suits would protect you. If one of them bit you, their teeth would easily break through that hazmat material. We constantly need to make sure that there aren’t any more round here. The last thing we need is for them to attack any of us. Or any of our crops. You never see just one rat, you only ever see hundreds of the wee fuckers banding together like the rodent mafia.’
Both guards’ heads twisted this time, searching for signs of rats. I rubbed my palms together in delight. Excellent.
Lizzy smiled benignly. ‘Can I get either of you two a drink? We have several pubs. There’s a nice home-made wine which goes down a treat on a hot day like this.’
‘We are fine.’ Boyce paused before adding as if it were an after-thought, ‘Thank you.’
She grinned and waved. ‘You’re welcome.’ Then she wandered past them, looking for all the world like she was out for a casual stroll.
