The Bewitched Box Set

by W. J. May

  Annette slipped a pen from her pants pocket and wrote Jeremy on the palm of her hand and slipped the pen back in her pocket.

  So professional, she chided herself.

  “Stand up,” said the big guy, using his fingers to motion for the girl to stand.

  She did as instructed and the vampire wrapped his arms around her. He looked down into her face and Annette watched as his light colored eyes turned jet-black, with no whites at all. Gleaming white fangs were suddenly on display, and he tipped her head back by grabbing her hair, and with a seemingly gentle move, he sank his fangs into her neck.

  “Oh, gross,” Annette said with a shudder, then realized she had said it at the exact same time as the big guy.

  A man’s yell interrupted her peeping and Annette tore off toward the backyard, where she found Christian pointing a gun at a very pissed off-looking wolf. It was snarling, drool swinging from his jaws, its legs stiffened in an attack stance.

  Annette pointed her gun in the direction of the wolf, and as she grabbed Christian’s coat jacket to pull him toward the gate, the big guy Annette had seen in the window came barreling out the backdoor, standing on the back stoop, staring.

  He looked at the wolf, then to the two agents. Then he did something odd. He addressed the wolf. “What the hell is going on here, Donny?”

  Crap!

  The wolf turned its head and looked at the large man, then back at the agents and continued to growl.

  Annette put her hands up in mock surrender. “I’m sorry, man. We were just leaving.”

  The large man stepped off the stoop and took a couple of steps in her direction. She couldn’t decide who to look at, him or the wolf, who was still snarling, but not moving.

  He shot Annette a murderous look. “What the hell are you doing in my yard, bitch?”

  “We’re cops,” she said. “We were chasing a suspect down the street and thought we saw him go into your yard. Clearly he is not here, so we will be leaving.”

  Just then, Jeremy the vampire came out through the backdoor, and looked curiously at the scene in front of him.

  Not wanting to be recognized, Annette quickly turned around and yanked Christian by the sleeve and shoved him through the gate and into the car.

  * * *

  Chapter 10

  Christian was biting his nails, not that he had any left. SAC Al Cartwright was reading over their incident reports, and Christian was nervous he was going to be reprimanded for the incident, although he wasn’t sure what for. He was irritated that Annette was sitting coolly next to him and seemed to be unbothered by the seriousness of the situation. He wished he had her confidence. He looked over at her, annoyed at her pristine appearance when he could barely pick out matching clothes this morning, he was so distracted. Her red curls were pinned up at the back of her head, her dark blue pantsuit, neatly pressed.

  “Well, kids, what have we learned here?” Al asked, removing his reading glasses and setting the report down, his eyes flicking between the two of them.

  Annette cleared her throat. “After I’d calmed down and Agent Estes and I talked, I believe what we walked in on was a blood donor’s house. I suppose if a human gives up their blood voluntarily, it’s not really a crime, right?”

  “As long as he doesn’t kill her by accident,” Al said.

  “But you said she seemed coerced by the big fellow,” Christian said to Annette.

  “Well, he was definitely her pimp. What else she gives up besides blood, we’ll probably never know.”

  “And the wolf?” Al asked.

  Annette took a deep breath. “Well, I staked out the house the next few nights after that.”

  Al and Christian both looked at in her shock. Taking in their faces, she waved her hand and added with a slight laugh, “Don’t worry, I stayed in my car. Anyway, I believe the home belongs to shifters. The girl is human, probably the girlfriend or wife of the big guy, and I believe he makes money off the vamps by loaning out his girl as a blood whore.”

  “That would make more sense,” Al said. He slid the typewritten report back toward Annette. “Revise your report and add that in.”

  Christian looked lost in thought. “Do you think vampires can drink shifter blood?”

  Annette knew the answer, and it was a big, fat no. Not that she could tell him that she had interrogated a vampire in 1920 who told her it tasted like bitter poison and he would rather die again than drink it. So instead, she smiled. “I don’t know, but we do know the vampires and shifters don’t get along too well, so I can’t imagine a shifter would let a vampire take blood, voluntarily or not.”

  Al nodded. “Good point.”

  As they were dismissed, Annette briefly wondered if Howie, the dead shapeshifter, had pimped out his human wife this way.

  ∞∞∞

  “What’s this?” Leo asked, pointing to the small slip of paper Annette handed to him. He threw back his whiskey and signaled Rick for another.

  “The address to the local shifter-slash-blood-whore’s house.”

  He studied the paper and nodded. “Wanna tell me what happened?”

  She started at the beginning, her excellent memory not leaving out a single detail.

  “That was stupid. A shifter and the head of the local vampire clan together in one house? You trying to get this kid Estes killed?”

  She shook her head. “Not at all. I had no idea shifters lived there. I thought it was a simple blood donor stop-off. I never dreamed a shifter would loan out his girl to a vamp.”

  “Times, they are a-changin’, girl,” Leo said, staring into her amber-colored eyes intently.

  She turned her head to the side. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  He ran his finger along the edge of his shot glass. “It seems the shifters and vampires are getting along better these days. I think they’re calling some kind of truce, sort of an us-against-them thing.”

  She broke his stare and gazed absently at the couple on the dance floor of the small bar. They were dancing slowly to an instrumental ballad played by the live band, and she put her hand up to her mouth. “I see. That would make sense, I suppose.”

  “Pearl came to see me last week,” Leo blurted out.

  “Who?” she asked, still staring off into space.

  “Howie’s sister, you know, of the shifter you killed.”

  Annette’s eyes snapped back to his. “Well I’ll be damned. That’s why he looked so familiar to me in that diner. I knew he was a shifter, and aside from his thoughts, I couldn’t figure out how I knew... I just did.”

  “You got instincts, kid.”

  “Wow, what’s it been, ten years since you heard from Pearl?”

  He nodded. “Yup. Shocked the hell out of me, too. Didn’t even know she was still around. But she sure came out quick when she wanted answers about her brother.”

  “So what did you tell her?”

  He shrugged. “That her brother shifted in front of two feds and then attacked, and they shot and killed him.”

  “And she bought that?” Annette asked incredulously.

  Leo laughed. “It’s the truth, isn’t it?”

  A smirk kicked up on the side of her mouth. “A very loose version of it, I suppose. It’s what we told the BSI.”

  “Never let the facts get in the way of a good memo,” he said with a salacious grin.

  She laughed. “So what are you going to do about her?”

  “There’s nothing to do, she won’t be a problem.”

  Famous last words, Annette thought.

  ∞∞∞

  Annette couldn’t help herself; she had to stake out the shapeshifters’ house again. This time, though, she brought Christian along, and had asked Leo to stay in a car nearby in case she ran into trouble.

  This was more than a stakeout. She planned on approaching the shifters this time, unbeknownst to poor Christian, who thought he was in for another night of magazine reading and flirtatious banter.

  “Does Al even know
we’re out here?” Christian asked, peeling a sunflower seed from his mouth and flicking it into the car’s built-in ashtray.

  Annette smiled and nodded. “Of course he does. He doesn’t care if we do stakeouts. It’s not like he has to pay us overtime.”

  “Yeah, about that. I have a life, you know.”

  Annette snorted. “Really? Am I keeping you from a hot date on a Friday night?”

  This is my Friday night hot date, Christian thought... and Annette heard.

  Annette bit back a smile. “Really? What’s her name?”

  “I can get chicks, you know,” he said with mock sincerity.

  Annette wasn’t buying it. “I know you can, a young, good-lookin’ guy like you.”

  Christian’s face flushed red. He was glad it was dark in the car and Annette couldn’t see. “You think I’m good looking?”

  She studied him for a minute. “Yeah. You know, you kind of have a James Dean thing going on.” She pointed at him with her finger making circles at his face.

  He smiled at her and studied her face. His eyes trailed down to her full, cherry-red lips then back up to her yellowish-brown eyes framed by eyelashes coated in dark mascara. That was the only makeup she seemed to wear, though, and Christian liked that.

  A light in the shapeshifter’s house flicked on and Annette’s eyes flipped from Christian’s face to the house behind him. She pointed. “Look.”

  Christian turned to look at the house and saw that not only the porch light was illuminated, but the living room light, as well. Then, as luck would have it, a familiar black town car pulled up into the driveway, as if on cue.

  “Wow, we sure got lucky,” Christian whispered, pointing at the black sedan.

  Annette shook her head. “No, I figured Jeremy would show up again tonight.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because vamps have to feed at least once a week. Although they do indulge more than that quite frequently,” Annette answered.

  “And you know this, how?” Christian asked.

  She exhaled dramatically. “Did you not pay attention at the academy?” She was lying. They didn’t teach this at the academy, she just knew it from years of experience.

  “Uh, yes I did but I don’t remember that. And I took notes.”

  Of course you did, Annette thought.

  He turned his head and looked back toward the house, where the large shapeshifter from the other night stepped out onto the porch to greet Jeremy. They didn’t shake hands, but they seemed friendly enough. The shifter opened the screen door and ushered the vampire in with a flourish. His eyes scanned the dark street before going back inside, closing the door.

  “C’mon, let’s go look in the window,” Annette said, tapping Christian on the shoulder.

  “Seriously?” he said, looking at her as if she were crazy.

  She nodded. “Yeah, c’mon.”

  Christian didn’t want to, but he couldn’t wuss out in front of his female partner. Plus he worked for the BSI now. This is my job, he thought to himself.

  He drew his gun this time, following Annette and feeling kind of bad for letting her lead. They snaked up to the front window and slunk around the side of the house with their backs against it.

  Annette peered in and saw the same scene as before. Human girl in a white bathrobe and the shifter with his hands out. The vampire placed several bills into his outstretched palm.

  Now, Annette had obviously never seen the big guy shift – she just assumed he was one by the way he had spoken directly to the wolf the night they’d been discovered in the backyard. They had yet to discover if a shifter, while in human form, could communicate directly with one who was in animal form. She suspected so, by the way he had spoken to the wolf.

  She knew she was taking a big risk sleazing around the house the way she was – and dragging Agent Estes with her, but her confidence was a bit more bolstered thanks to Leo being in the car down the street. She had spotted his Ford about an hour ago as she was talking to Christian. Leo was insanely strong and was a very old Immortal who took shit from absolutely nobody. She’d only been in the Chicago coven for a couple of years, but in that time, she had seen him literally tear off the heads of vampires and break the necks of shapeshifters, both in human form and animal form. The thought made her shudder, but she knew Leo had her back. Always.

  As Jeremy bit down into the human’s neck, the large shifter watched with disgust then walked into the adjoining kitchen and busied himself in there, but Annette could see he was still keeping an eye on them. She motioned for Christian to watch, and as he peered in, the vampire, with his mouth still at her neck, began to untie her robe at the waist and opened it. His pale hands trailed up her flat stomach to her bare chest and that’s when all hell broke loose.

  Christian let out a gasp when the large shifter moved unnaturally fast back to the dining room area of the small house and grabbed the vampire by his wavy black hair, slamming him to the ground.

  Jeremy recovered and hissed at the shifter, who then shifted into a large tiger, his clothes exploding off of him into bits, and lunged at the vampire. The human female, although she seemed drowsy from the bite, sort of shook her head and snapped back to reality, and as she saw the vampire backhand the large tiger, she let out a blood-curdling scream.

  Another male appeared from a hallway off the side of the kitchen. He was tall and thin, with long, scraggly hair and bad teeth. His eyes widened as he observed the brawl and quickly morphed into the gray wolf Annette and Christian had witnessed the other night.

  A blurring fast fight was on – the shapeshifters seemed to be getting the upper hand but the vampire was holding his own. The female was screaming and had her arms wrapped around herself. She seemed to be conflicted on what to do, whether to run out of the house or help her boyfriend in the fight.

  Annette ran to the front door with Christian on her tail and threw open the front door and fired two shots into the low ceiling of the small home. The fight suddenly stopped. Plaster dust from the hole rained down on their heads. The tiger, the wolf, and the now very bloody, disheveled vampire stopped and stared at her – along with the human female who yelled, “Help them, please!”

  Christian walked to her and sat her down in one of the dining room chairs. “Sit and be quiet.”

  Annette produced an ID. “Department of Justice. What the hell is going on here, mister?” She directed her question at the vampire. “Do you have a permit for these animals?”

  He stared at her, dumbfounded, then a small smirk found his face as he wiped blood from his mouth with his finger. “No, officer, I don’t. Perhaps you should call Animal Control and have them picked up. They are quite the menace, as you can see.”

  “They’re not animals!” the human female screamed.

  Annette raised her eyebrow at her, amused. “Then what are they?”

  “Donny, Andy, help me out here!” she yelled at the tiger and wolf.

  They were still frozen, staring at Annette, who was clearly nervous, the attack from Howie in Lincoln Park still fresh in her mind.

  Just then, Jeremy blurred out of the house at superhuman speed, leaving a wisp of air in his wake. He stormed into the town car and it squealed off down the street.

  Donny slowly turned from a wolf into a very thin, naked man. Andy, however, lunged at Annette in his tiger form but Annette was ready for him.

  She ducked, rolling once on the ground and getting up. “You need to show yourself as human, or I promise you, I will shoot you.” She was up and had her gun aimed at the tiger. The tiger lunged at her again without thought.

  Christian fired a shot at it and missed.

  Before she could get a shot off, though, Leo burst through the front door and surprised the large cat, tackling it and snapping its neck. He threw it to the carpeted floor of the small house.

  The human female screamed at the top of her lungs, a shrilly, devastated, blood-curdling scream.

  Donny yelled, “No! Andy!”
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  Christian was still with the human female and had his mouth open.

  They all watched in horror as Andy’s orange and black stripes turned into tanned human skin and his other features turned into a naked human male, lying motionless on the floor.

  The female ran up to him.

  “Carol, don’t touch him! He needs to heal!” Donny screamed, holding her back. He looked up at Leo, Annette, and Christian and said, “Who the hell are you people and what are you doing here?”

  “Like I said, Feds,” Annette answered, trying to maintain some sort of semblance of control while she was shaking.

  “Wait, I know you two, you were in our backyard a few weeks ago.”

  Christian stood up. “That’s right. We’re with the Justice Department.”

  “Well you need to get out of here. You’ve already seen too much,” Donny said, pointing at his friend. He seemed to have absolutely no shame that he was standing there as naked as the day he was born.

  “Trust us, son, we’ve already seen plenty long before tonight,” Leo answered.

  Christian looked from Annette to Leo, then back at Annette. She could hear his frantic, jumbled thoughts as he tried to make sense of how Leo, whom he’d only met once in her hospital room, not only seemed to know all about shifters, but had been strong enough to kill a tiger with his bare hands. Christian knew he wasn’t BSI.

  He would get answers tonight, even if it killed him.

  Donny reached down and put his ear next to Andy’s mouth. “He’s still breathing, but barely.” He looked at Carol, who had tears streaming down her pale face. Two bloody holes were leaking down her neck.

  She nodded and laid her head on his chest.

  “Ma’am, do you know this shapeshifter?”

  She lifted her head and looked at Leo a little surprised. “Yes, he’s my husband.”

  Annette lifted an eyebrow at her. “And you let him loan you out to vampires?”

  She nodded and wrung her hands. “We needed the money. But I don’t give up no sex. I knew he was feelin’ me up, but I was in a trance and couldn’t stop Jeremy. I’m always in a trance when he bites me.”