“I borrowed it from a guy,” Phoebe answered without a lick of guilt. Then he caressed his daughter’s cheeks in both hands and turned serious.
“We couldn’t just barge in through the front doors, y’know? We were able to follow the Alexis family’s carriage thanks to the dove you set free, but things got trickier from there. We made a couple of people outside and inside the ruins take a little nap and stripped them of these robes that are seriously in bad taste.”
He cast his gaze toward the unceasing ruckus.
“His Excellency, Lord Linus, and I came down into the ruins. Lady Michaela and Johanna are waiting in the carriages outside.”
Apparently, this was a full-scale rescue mission.
Rock was moved to tears as she thought of each person who had come for her.
“You’ll reach the main sanctuary if you return down the path I came. You can’t miss it—the hall’s full of benches.”
Phoebe jabbed his thumb over his shoulder, pointing out his path. The main sanctuary room was probably the same space she’d passed on her way here. She’d seen the cultists with their heads bowed in prayer there.
“His Excellency and Lord Linus are tearing the place apart as we speak. The plan was to scare the living daylights outta the cultists until they ran for it, which seems to have gone swimmingly. It’s safer there now. Go to him.”
“Okay. Thank you, Father.” Rock nodded, then shared the information she had obtained during her time there. “By the way, I ran into Krister here.”
Phoebe furrowed his brows.
“Krister? Was he in one piece?”
“He’s alive. He said they broke his leg when they kidnapped him.”
“And here I thought he’d willingly joined their ranks,” Phoebe said sarcastically, but he couldn’t hide his smile. He was probably relieved to hear the other tailor was mostly okay.
“I met with him in this area earlier. He might still be around here somewhere.”
“Should I fetch him while I scout out the area?”
Phoebe seemed keen on looking for him, so Rock quickly let him know what he needed to watch out for.
“Watch out, Lord and Lady Alexis are further in. They’re with someone called the bishop, who seems like a child to me.”
“A child?” Phoebe raised an eyebrow but shook his head, seemingly deciding it was best not to think about it. “I’ll just look for Krister right now. Go find His Excellency in the sanctuary.”
“I will. But try not to get hurt, Father.”
Rock trusted her father’s skills, but she still worried about him.
“I won’t get hurt,” Phoebe answered her worry with confidence. “We’ve gotta get home and open up shop before the dust settles.”
“You’ve got that right. I’d hate for everyone to think we ran away from paying rent.”
Keeping the shop closed for days was horrible for business.
If we get home safe, I need to quickly get business going again and make back our losses.
“See you later, Roxy,” Phoebe said, lowering his arms so she could leave. But after looking down at her face like he was loath to part with her, he closed the gap between them and pecked her on the forehead.
The sensation tickled a laugh out of her.
“That’s embarrassing, Father.”
“You did it first. I’m just getting revenge!”
After that light exchange, father and daughter temporarily parted with a smile.
Rock broke into another run toward the sanctuary.
The ruckus sounded as loud as ever, and she even heard beastly howls. It was kind of funny, trying to imagine Ebel and Guido trashing the place, given their usual demeanor.
Thinking about them filled Rock with joy.
She was dying to see him and thank him.
Phoebe’s directions accurately led her straight into the sanctuary.
The room she’d passed through mere hours ago looked like a disaster site with all the benches smashed to pieces. Nothing was left standing. The werewolves had trashed everything from the tapestries covering the limestone walls to the rugs and even the altar.
Only two figures loomed in that destroyed space—both sharing the same black fur, triangular ears, sharp fangs, and golden eyes.
The two werewolves turned toward Rock in unison as she bounded into the room.
“Roxy!” one of them howled, his golden eyes flaring open.
Rock knew it was him. It didn’t matter how many werewolves were around, she’d never mistake his velvety voice.
She dashed toward him, jumping over the debris in her path. She nearly tripped over a broken bench, but by that point, two furry arms had already wrapped her in their secure embrace.
“Ebel! I knew you’d come!” Rock cried out, throwing her arms around him. Ebel rubbed his wet nose and furry cheek against her head.
“I’m so glad you’re all right, Roxy!”
“I’m perfectly okay, thanks to you,” she answered, gazing into the golden eyes just above her.
Even the color of those eyes, which was unique to werewolves, were beautiful and precious when she associated them with him. Of the several different werewolves she’d met, only Ebel’s visage was special to her. Unable to resist that beloved fluff, Rock returned his nuzzle by rubbing her cheek against his.
“Thank you so, so much…for coming.”
“You are my light. I can’t live without you,” Ebel said, his voice trembling with every emotion.
A surly sigh echoed behind the hugging couple.
Rock looked over her shoulder to see the other werewolf giving his broad shoulders a cynical shrug.
“It would’ve been entertaining if you picked wrong. How could you tell just by his voice?”
That whining voice undeniably belonged to Guido Linus.
“Roxy would never mistake you for me,” Ebel retorted with absolute confidence and looked to Rock for affirmation.
“Hmph! You say that when even we can’t tell each other apart in the mirror?” Guido snorted, sounding a little jealous, which got a laugh out of Rock.
“I can’t tell your faces apart, but I know Ebel’s body.”
“Right, you’ve measured me in this form before, too,” Ebel said, backing her up with a wolfish nod.
But Guido was the kind of man who wasn’t satisfied unless he got the last word. His nostrils flared with a second snort.
“And what kind of measuring was that? Can you swear before God that that was a chaste act, Ebel?”
Rock and Ebel instinctively looked at each other when they heard his quip.
“I’m sorry,” Ebel said with a chuckle to the blushing Rock. “Guido can’t help feeling embarrassed and awkward around you.”
That probably had something to do with the quarrel they’d had before Michaela’s birthday party. Not only did Rock not care about that anymore, but she was actually grateful to the Linus siblings now.
“I am truly grateful to Lord Linus and his sister,” she said from within Ebel’s arms.
“You should be. Make sure you tell Michaela the same thing,” Guido shot back.
Seeing as he was still hung up on his younger sister, not much had changed since he’d become a werewolf.
After celebrating their safe reunion, Rock told the two werewolves about running into Phoebe and the information she’d shared with him.
“Father went to search for Krister.”
“…Is that the other kidnapped tailor you told me about?” Guido asked Ebel.
“Yeah.” Ebel nodded, then placed a furry hand on his chin. “Still, a bishop…? I guess it’s not all that strange for a cult to have clergy.”
“I have a lot to ask that little pipsqueak.”
Anger seeped from Guido’s voice, the fur between his flattened ears standing on end.
Rock felt the same way, and she was sure Ebel did too. The Werewolf Brotherhood could never be forgiven for disrupting so many lives.
Maybe putting the squeeze on th
e bishop would lead them to the truth about the abominable Brotherhood and its curse.
They were facing both a crisis and a golden opportunity.
“Let’s capture them alive,” Rock declared, and Ebel laughed.
“Your bravery is admirable, but you should leave the ruins first.”
“Because you’ll only slow us down.”
That last remark, obviously, came from Guido.
Rock couldn’t deny it, so she reluctantly agreed.
“Everyone will be out of sorts if you get hurt—especially me,” Ebel proclaimed as he lifted Rock into the air with both arms. After gazing longingly at her with his golden eyes, he closed his fang-filled mouth and rubbed it against her forehead in a doglike kiss.
Rock cracked up laughing.
“Father just did the same thing to me.”
Ebel’s eyes widened with shock before he burst out laughing too.
“Looks like he beat me to it. In that case, I’ll find another place to do it when we get home.”
“Another place? Like?”
Ebel turned toward Guido without answering Rock’s query.
“I’ll bring her out to the carriage first.”
“All ri—” Guido stopped in the middle of answering, his pointed ears flicking forward. “No, wait. Someone’s coming.”
Right after he said that, Rock also heard the sound of hurried footsteps. She looked over her shoulder with a start to see someone rush into the desolated sanctuary.
“Where are you planning to take my daughter?”
Placido Alexis, dressed in the blue robe, asked that in a growl of suppressed rage. His expression brimmed with anger as he glared at Ebel holding Rock.
Lauretta staggered out into the sanctuary behind him, her face whiter than a sheet.
“Aaah! Roxy!”
She let out a scream that sounded like ripping silk when she saw a werewolf about to make off with her niece.
Rock felt her heart sink when she saw Lord and Lady Alexis.
She’d hoped to leave without running into them again, because she knew it’d cause strife if they saw her.
The way they saw it, some rampaging werewolf was in the middle of abducting their precious niece.
It didn’t help the situation that they were standing in a space that no longer looked anything like the sanctuary, with mountains of debris from shattered furniture and clawed tapestries. The hall was deathly quiet, now that the people who prayed there had all fled.
Who would ever believe these werewolves were capable of reason?
“Darling, Roxy is…Roxy is…!” Lauretta clung to her husband’s arm in horror.
“I know. Stand back. It’s going to get dangerous.”
Placido pushed his wife behind him and stared down the two werewolves. His expression was threatening as he spoke. “I was wondering who we were dealing with when I heard there was a rampage, but you seem awfully docile.”
Placido didn’t seem scared, even when he was facing two werewolves. It was quite the opposite. His golden eyes had narrowed to slits as he assessed them.
“I don’t know who you are, but you will unhand my daughter,” he ordered in a low, threatening voice. “You understand me, don’t you?”
The two werewolves exchanged looks with the same gold eyes.
Rock didn’t know what was communicated between them, but Ebel quietly answered Placido.
“…She’s not your daughter.”
Both husband and wife gaped at him.
“That voice… You’re Count Mateus?!”
“I knew it! Your eye color really is…!”
“Yes, Lord Alexis. They are the same as yours.” Ebel’s gaze was concentrated on Placido as he held Rock in his arms like a precious jewel. “What differentiates us is that I was cursed against my wishes and obtained this power without ever wanting it. Still, I am happy that I have the power to save her.”
Rock silently clung to Ebel’s chest. His fluffy black fur was warm.
“You call this saving? You’re just abducting her!” Placido raved. “I won’t go easy on you, even if you are a count, if you dare take my daughter away!”
“That’s exactly what you did to me several days ago. I am merely returning her to her parent, as she requested of me.”
Lauretta and Placido had no intention of listening to Ebel’s side of things. They shouted at him in unison.
“We merely took back our rightful child!”
“Her parents are right here! We are her parents!”
Placido was one thing, but Lauretta also seemed to think they had legitimate reasons for kidnapping Rock.
This only saddened her.
Her aunt’s thoughts and feelings were extreme and insane, yet also pure. Her yearning for her deceased sister was being used by some malicious force.
And because of his deep love for Lauretta, Placido was also being manipulated.
“You’ve both lost your minds!” Rock shouted back at her aunt and uncle.
Indescribable apprehension and fretfulness surged within her, even though she was safe in Ebel’s arms.
I can’t let them get any more involved with the Werewolf Brotherhood. I can’t let them stay here.
Something within her warned her of that.
“It doesn’t matter what reason you might have, taking someone against their will is unforgivable!”
Lauretta stepped back as if she’d been struck by lightning when she heard Rock’s reproach.
“Roxy…?”
Placido looked over his shoulder, his brows snapping together when he confirmed his wife’s shattered expression.
“Stop it, Roxy! If you keep this up, I won’t forgive even you!”
He was trapped by his fanatical obsession with protecting his wife.
It didn’t matter what was said—none of it would reach him now.
Likely because of the curse lurking within the ruins.
Guido stepped forward when Rock reluctantly bit her tongue, knowing she couldn’t reach them.
“Ebel, it looks like we’re gonna have a fight on our hands.”
Placido’s frigid gaze shifted to Guido when he heard his voice.
“Lord Linus…you’re one too, then?”
“I apologize for not greeting you as a fellow wolf the last time we met,” Guido snarked, then whispered to Ebel. “You’ve got baggage to handle. Go. I’ll take care of things here.”
Needless to say, the baggage he was referring to was Rock. Ebel’s pointy ears flicked back in annoyance, despite Rock not minding the dig.
“Don’t say it like that. She’s not baggage! She’s my treasure.”
“I’m not buying time so you can flirt. Go on. Get outta here.”
Guido shooed them away with his furry hand. Sharp nails glinted on his fingertips.
“…Thank you,” Ebel said after a second’s pause.
“I won’t let you leave!” Placido howled. “You can’t have my daughter! I’m taking her back!”
He pushed Lauretta away to protect her and leaped off the wrecked floor.
His body rapidly gained mass as he flew through the air.
The blue robe and the rest of his clothes burst off his swelling torso and limbs. His hair and face transformed as if swallowed whole by a wave of rippling, black fur, and in the instant Rock blinked, a puissant werewolf appeared. His eyes remained the same golden color, but the gaping maw of bladelike incisors and canines proved he was no longer human.
By the time his muscular legs landed with beastlike agility on the floor, Placido’s body had fully transformed into a werewolf that looked just like the other two.
“Darling!” Lauretta screamed.
Her scream was not one of fear but a warning signaling the bloody fight about to ensue.
Whether he’d heard her or not, Placido charged straight at Ebel and Rock.
“What’re you still doing here?! Go already!” Guido howled, grabbing the charging Placido before he could reach them.
&nbs
p; The two werewolves collided head-on, and bones cracked as their fists slammed into each other. When Guido brutally slammed his fist into Placido’s face, Placido staggered and quickly regained his balance, tearing Guido’s ear with his claws.
Lauretta let out another ear-piercing scream as a small amount of blood splattered around them.
“Stop it! Just stop it!”
“Ebel!”
Rock looked up at Ebel to put a stop to it too. At this rate, no matter who won, injury to both sides was inevitable. The fight between werewolves was too brutal, unforgiving, and terrifying.
“…I know. I’m sorry.”
The werewolf face she was so familiar with tensed with determination. She heard what sounded like his fangs grinding together before he nodded.
“Stay here. I’ll put an end to this now!”
He gently placed Rock behind a toppled bench and then bounded to join the fight.
“Be careful!”
Rock crouched behind the bench and watched the muscles in his broad back ripple as he ran.
She could understand why Lauretta kept screaming. She was unbearably worried about Ebel too. But she didn’t want to see Michaela saddened by the result of this fight—and she obviously didn’t want to devastate Lauretta either.
The battlefield instantly turned in their favor, with Ebel joining the werewolf scuffle.
Not even Placido could hold his ground against two werewolves. His arms were pinned behind his back by Ebel, and when he finally shook him off, he had to contend with Guido coming at him from the front.
In the blink of an eye, Guido had Placido knocked to the ground, thrashing to get his pinned arms free.
“Let go! Let go of meeee!”
He must’ve taken a few punches to the mouth because he spat blood as he howled at them. He was breathing heavily, his body trembling with the effort.
Even Guido and Ebel’s shoulders rose and fell with their ragged breaths as they tried to hold him still, and clumps of blood had already begun to solidify in Guido’s fur.
“Are you trying to shame yourself this late in the game, Lord Alexis?!” Guido roared.
“There’s nothing to be ashamed of!” Placido spat back through shaky breaths. “I’m fighting for the people I love!”
He struggled even harder to escape but couldn’t free himself of their grip.
The Werewolf Count and the Trickster Tailor, Volume 2 Page 18