by Laura Wylde
“Agreed,” said Lenny, listening in. He still hadn’t gotten over being hit by a beer bottle and called a parrot. It made me wonder if his portfolio of her was a little colored by his reception. I shook off the thought. Lenny was impulsive, but he was rarely wrong.
Daniel rubbed his eyes the way he always did when coming up with a plan. “We’re going to take this threat very seriously.” He shook Jack awake.“I want you and Lenny to take the first shift guarding the apartment. Jamie and I will patrol the surrounding area. Do not let Tanya leave the apartment until we know what we’re up against. I don’t even want her to talk to Miss Crandon in the hallway.”
“Sure thing,” whistled Lenny, taking off his jacket. Underneath, he was wearing a shoulder strap, laptop sized bag. I waited for an explanation. “Oh, yeah. When I was doing my fly-around, I stopped at the station and picked up my laptop. I need it, boss.”
Daniel muttered, “just once can you do what you’re told without improvisation?”
“I’ll keep an eye on him,” promised Jack. “Jamie’s too soft. He lets the kid get away with everything.”
Daniel didn’t say anything as we went out to the street and got into the unmarked car. It wasn’t the most discreet vehicle around, a black, two-year-old Lexus, but it blended in with the Manhattan district. I looked at him uneasily as he turned the switch and the big, interceptor engine sprang to life. “Is Jack right? Am I too soft on Lenny?”
He made one of those quirky faces he uses when he is willing to let things slide. “He gets things done. Because of Lenny, we now know that there is a good possibility a siren lives on the top floor and we have an ally with the prostitute. We also know where to go if we want to sunbathe naked,” he chuckled.
I thought about the deck chairs, the battered sofa, the remains of afternoon cocktails. “Do you think Tanya goes up to the roof?” I asked hesitantly.
Danial gave me a puzzled frown. “And if she does?”
“I was just thinking, it must be a beautiful sight.”
Tanya
After such an eventful night, I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep at all, but I did. As soon as I laid back on the couch, my eyes closed, and I found myself drifting into delicious dreams. In my dreams, I was swimming in a warm, blue ocean with undefined shapes swimming alongside me, their bodies brushing gently against mine. It felt sensual, without true form, and when I awoke several hours later, I felt remarkably refreshed.
I woke to the smell of spices brewing in a pot. I pattered out to the kitchen and saw Jack hovering over the stove, peering at his concoction. Spread out on the counter were the bottles of ginger, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, a box of Earl Gray tea and the pitcher of orange juice. Looking at his mess, he began putting away his ingredients and cleaning the counter. “Have you ever tried Russian tea? No? It’s very good. I believe a phoenix invented it. We definitely invented pumpkin pie. We’re very fond of our spices.”
He ladled two cups of the brew and set them on the kitchen table. I sampled it. The tea was good. “Where’s everyone else?” I asked, looking around. I wasn’t alarmed. It just seemed odd to be alone with this gorgeous hunk of man without an escort. He may be pumping virtues but mine were at a low ebb.
“Daniel and Jamie are on patrol. Lenny’s taking a nap on your bed.”
I peered around the corner of the open door to my bedroom and saw the ginger-topped kid sprawling, his shoes off, his arms wrapped around a pillow. “He certainly knows how to make himself at home,” I remarked.
“He does that,” Jack agreed.“He enjoyed the hippie era too much and never wanted to see an end to it. I hope you don’t mind.”
“He’s cute. He’s adorable. I know he’s at least two hundred years older than I am, but it doesn’t seem that way. He seems like a youngster who’s been out on the street so long, he’s forgotten his table manners.”
Jack chuckled and sipped at his tea. He had closely clipped, tightly curled hair, and a carefully manicured goatee. When he sipped his tea, he tucked the end of his goatee under his chin with one hand and the cup elegantly propped with the other. “You should have seen him with the French Resistance during World War II.”
I looked at what appeared to be not much more than a boy fresh out of the police academy. It was easier to see him as an Eagle scout than a war veteran. “He fought the Nazi’s?”
He finished his tea and smacked his lips with satisfaction. “Actually, a necromancer was the target. He was a Nazi sympathizer and had summoned a considerable number of golems and chimera to help in Hitler’s war. We don’t usually have a problem with chimera. Some are closely related to griffins; and griffins can be very noble; if they don’t become corrupted by greed. It’s true they can be bribed.”
“Griffins can be bribed?” I asked curiously, thinking about the number of proud, European family crests that carried a symbol of the griffin. I grabbed my notebook and scribbled in it, my journalistic ears perking up.
“Unfortunately, yes. That’s why they were passed over as guardians. But they don’t cause any problems, and form strong attachments and loyalties, which keeps them basically moral. The chimera doesn’t have any common characteristics though. They are a combination of three or more species, making individual personalities unpredictable unless they have been manipulated by a necromancer. Necromancers are very skillful at creating new monstrous creatures and in turning stone into animated humans. Lenny’s job was to infiltrate Nazi lines and find the necromancer. The only way to do that was to join the French resistance. We knew the facility was located somewhere in the Black Forest on the French and German border.”
He paused. Lenny was starting to stir on the bed but taking his time in showing active signs of conscious life. I wasn’t ready to let this story go. I had already started readjusting some of my thoughts on creature classification, now the history buff in me was aroused. I had heard many stories about Hitler’s dabbling in the occult, and here was solid testimony, solid proof. “Did you find the necromancer? Did you destroy him?”
“We did. The facility was exactly where we suspected it would be, Selvestovia.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it.”
“You won’t find it on a map. Selvestovia is located so close to the conversion point between our realms, it can be seen by humans from a solitary point of access. It was declared a neutral zone after the Great War because it was too close to the boundaries of the two realms to risk active engagement. Most of the time we could keep too many undesirables from crossing to this side through a spy network, but now Nazi’s controlled the region. It was a touchy situation. We could not cross the neutral ground without breaking the non-interference treaty, and the Nazi’s had Selvestovia surrounded with their troops.”
“Wouldn’t harpies and ogres be helping the Nazi’s? It seems it would be to their advantage.”
“Hah. What makes you think other species are interested in your politics?” Lenny was up. He wore only his tee-shirt and pants, without shirt, belt or socks. His arms swung when he walked, his biceps rolling. He opened the cupboards, found a box of sugar-coated cereal, and sat down with it.
“Would you like some breakfast?” I asked.
“Got it covered,” he answered unconcernedly. “None of us wanted another Great War. The treaty has worked for centuries. Selvestovia is neutral grounds. The only law that governs it is non-interference. No species groups together against another.No army maintains order. It’s every creature for itself.”
“So, legally, you couldn’t enter the facility as an army?”
“Not as an army. Not even against the Nazi’s, but we could hunt individual humans living in the neutral zone. Humans aren’t bound by our nether laws, but they aren’t protected, either. Once the allies began pushing back the Germans, we were free to stalk the necromancer. It was a glorious battle. It took four days to win, but in the end, he was defeated. He had spent all his magic. We shackled him and buried him deep in the tunnels where he is guarded by Cerberu
s.”
“What about the golems and chimera?”
“They were his creations. We destroyed them.” He stopped eating long enough to check his cellphone. “Ah. Boss is calling. Give me a minute.” He opened his laptop, scrolled through, and read out some coordinates into the phone. “That’s all I’ve got right now. I need an hour, maybe two. Keep your eye on the west end of Central Park. A griffin was spotted there last week, and we don’t know if he is a friendly or a mercenary.”
Instead of returning to our conversation, Lenny continued scrolling through his laptop and dialing phone numbers. After what seemed like forever, he sat back with his arms crossed behind his head and a self-satisfied smile on his face. “Well,” he said. “It seems our nightclub owner’s real name is Russel Lovejoy, and he’s a badger.”
I looked from Lenny to Jack, whose eyebrows went up in surprise. I failed to see the significance. “He’s a basketball player?”
“No,” explained Jack, while Lenny did a few knee slaps and chuckled as he continued to search his data base. “It means that Russel Lovejoy shapeshifts into a badger.”
“Is that bad?”
“It means he has a bad temper, but he’s not a killer. Also, badgers hate harpies and harpies hate badgers. They both nag and quarrel.”
“Russel Lovejoy first worked as a bouncer for an uptown social club. It’s where he first met Bunny Walters. He saw her potential as a star attraction in the way she drew men to her but didn’t know she was a siren. All he knew was if he could win her over, he could start a nightclub with her as the main attraction.”
I was horrified. I was just beginning to feel some attachment to our badger neighbor. After all, I even had an Uncle Stu who was crabby and obnoxious all the time, but never contemplated murder. Now I was being told my upstairs neighbor was under the spell of a siren. “He didn’t know? Is she planning to eat him?”
Lenny gave a short bark, but Jack let loose with a wonderful laugh. It rolled straight up out of his belly and rang musically from his mouth, as he reached across the table and squeezed my hand in his. “Oh, my dear. You are precious. You have so much to learn. Badgers can’t fall under the spell of sirens. They are tone deaf. All he was seeing is opportunity.”
“That’s right,” agreed Lenny. “By the time Russel learned she was a siren, he also knew her weaknesses. She liked drugs. She liked to drink, and she was getting careless. The night she slipped up, Russel was waiting for her. He helped her disappear. He created a new identity for her and to be on the safe side, a new one for him. He opened his new nightclub with her as the main attraction, but with the alcohol, she had lost her pitch. She can still sing, but there’s no magic. All because he badgers her.”
I let out my breath. “Then I guess she’s in good hands. It sounds like karma to me.”
Lenny gave a little grunt and went back to his phone calls. Jack went into the living room, sat at a sofa end with his feet propped, and his hands over his chest. After a few minutes, his head lolled back. Of the three of us, he was the only one who hadn’t napped since the night before. I guessed even a phoenix needs to rest now and then.
I began to feel a little restless. I usually started my day with a quick jog at this hour of the morning and grabbing a latte on the way home. I felt completely out of rhythm. I washed the few dishes that were in the sink, whipped up enough scrambled eggs for the whole gang, and wrote out a grocery list. “I think I need to go shopping,” I told Lenny. “If you’re going to take up residence here, you’re going to need food.”
“You don’t have to go. Just give me the list and I’ll phone it in to Secure Services. We do it all the time. They deliver right to your door.”
“I’d just like to get out and get a breath of air if you don’t mind.”
“I do mind. Daniel said you should stay inside until he gets back.”
The whole big, scary monster thing was fine when I thought they were humoring me. Now that they were handling it like the mafia had tagged me, it was starting to feel annoying. “I’m not a prisoner.”
Lenny sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. His liquid brown eyes found mine. They were soft and pleading. “You are in danger. Daniel will be back soon. You can talk to him.”
It’s very difficult to argue with soft and pleading. I frowned to let him know his answer was disagreeable, even if he wasn’t, and pulled a half-dozen books from my wall-to-wall shelf and piled them on the table. By the time Daniel and Jamie returned, I had a thick tab of coded bookmarks scattered throughout the books, and the code references listed on my notepad.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Not that I didn’t appreciate my current company. If ever I felt I needed a full bodyguard, they would definitely be among my first picks. It’s just that I’m not a house sitter. I’m high energy. I took state championship for the mile run during my high school days. I was a competitive swimmer. I’ve joined bicycle marathons. Hanging out in my apartment all day just wasn’t my style.
As soon as Lenny and Jack left, I had a new set of ears for pleading my case. What was more important, it was the boss’s ears. “Look, Sergeant Richards,” I said, setting a cup of the Russian tea Jack had made in front of him. “I’m going into my last year of studies. After this class, all I’ll have left is my practicum. I need to go to the library. There were two books the library promised would be in by today that had been checked out for three weeks. I need those books.”
“I can call the library and have the books put on hold. They’ll be there when it’s safe to go out.”
I tried again. “Let me do a quick run down to the library. You can follow to make sure I’m safe, but I can guarantee it will be challenging for you to keep up without your wings.”
“Do you think so?” He said, his eyes twinkling like cracking ice. “I’d like to find out, but not today. There has been too much suspicious activity in Central Park. We can’t risk it.”
“Harpies?”
“That’s what we’re trying to determine. It’s a favorite place for shape-shifters who just want free roam at night. Most of them are harmless.”
“Like shape-shifting badgers?”
“I suppose they aren’t the most pleasant shape-shifters you can run into, but coyotes are worse. They’re far more devious.”
“Are they dangerous?”
“They’re thieves. But gargoyles have been spotted there before, so it’s considered a hot spot.”
“Sergeant…”
“Call me Daniel.”
“Daniel.” I rested my arms against the table and leaned forward. “I can’t do this. I can’t sit around my apartment all day. You’ve got to help me out.”
His eyes slid over my collection of books. “Why don’t you start with what you have? If you have any questions, you can ask one of us.”
I looked at the notes I had been scribbling since first arriving home. To anyone else, they were chicken scratch, but I had practiced my own form of shorthand from years of attending seminars and lectures, so could quote almost word for word what the different officers had told me about fantastic creatures just through their casual conversations. It was a lot of new information and I was anxious to see how well it stacked against my research. I supposed I could begin, then fill in the blanks later.
Daniel retired to the couch for a nap, while Jamie prowled around the kitchen checking out the groceries Lenny had ordered. I’m glad it was going on their tab. The refrigerator was stuffed with yoghurt, fresh fruit, caviar and tiny shrimp, and the freezer full of ice cream and vegetarian pizza. I supposed their bird-like tastes didn’t lean greatly toward red meat.
He returned to the table carrying a jar of caviar and some crackers, confirming my suspicions. They liked to snack. Jamie popped the crackers into his mouth with the same relish Lenny had shown toward the dry cereal. He finished half the jar, then offered me some. I shook my head.
He got up to return the jar to the refrigerator, then glanced over my shoulder at the words I was typing. “No, th
at’s not quite true. The Sasquatch and the Yeti don’t belong to the Bear Clan. They share the same territory, but they are distant cousins. The bigfoot species carries some of the characteristics of the bear, but it’s more closely related to primates. That’s how you offended the Bear Clan.”
“You know about that?” I felt indignant. I had heard of government spies, but this was ridiculous.
“It just came up as a yellow flag, but we still had to check it out. We have to know who your enemies are. Fortunately, they are not the Bear Clan. To be clear, Bigfoot is a separate species with both Ursidae and primate genes. It’s highly intelligent, but doesn’t think like a human, or a bear, either. It can cross between both realms.”
“Does it have magical powers?”
“Well, people say they can turn invisible, which isn’t quite accurate. They’re just able to move easily between the realms. They’re physically very strong and very ancient. The Bear Clan though; they are shape-shifters. They perform an important function; safe-guarding the wilderness. They take their job pretty seriously, so they’ve made a few enemies, but they’re loyal to their friends.”
I altered my description carefully, picking through my words to avoid offending any Bear Clan readers. I began to wonder just how many other woodland animals were shape-shifters, carefully watching the people from the cities who had unwittingly stepped into their stomping grounds. I began cross-referencing my Native American lore, while Jamie continued to hover over my shoulder making comments like, “well, that’s inappropriate. Europeans sadly misunderstood ravens,” and “you will never understand shape-shifting felines. Nobody understands them. They are the best hunters, but they also love art, music, civilized things. So, they cultivate both prey and magnificent artists.”