Murder Mittens

by R. J. Blain

  No, there was nothing at all creepy about an invitation to walk in the woods near a cabin at night. Nothing creepy about it at all.

  Thanks to the pixie dust, I couldn’t even crack a snide joke about it, as someone that happy wouldn’t behave like that. I would just unleash the bad jokes on Sebastian until he found some sinfully sexy way to shut me up.

  Once I finished my job, I would have to inquire with the CDC if it was normal to fall into a severe state of lust. Then again, perhaps the idiot had dosed me with more than just pixie dust.

  As far as I knew, their device didn’t detect aphrodisiacs.

  Poor Sebastian, destined to be ravished.

  “That sounds nice,” I replied, smiling until my face hurt. At least the pixie dust helped on that front. I could handle smiling, especially when I thought about the various ways I could tenderize my target.

  “Don’t mind the staff. I have two maids right now, and they stay here during the week. They’ll probably be upstairs.”

  I bet the maids were pregnant, and when I took a sniff, they’d smell of fear, especially if they were being forced to pretend they were maids. What I smelled in the cabin would determine my next steps. “Oh, sure. It must be hard for them to get here.”

  “It is, and their husbands travel for work, so they’re almost never home.”

  How convenient for him. “I see.”

  Loureni led me into the cabin, which had a rustic decor, and not a speck of dust marred anything, lending credence to his story he had two maids in residence. A spacious kitchen took up one side of the space, and a huge sitting room with a fireplace dominated the rest of the first floor of the cabin, with a curving stairwell leading upwards. “Lori, Yvonne, we have a guest.”

  I kept behind him, taking note of the shoe rack, which had several pairs of women’s shoes in three different sizes, which matched the theory of a female accomplice and two victims.

  Two heavily pregnant women waddled down the steps to the second floor, and they reeked of fear.

  Like me, both women had scarred faces, although they’d gotten off lighter than I had.

  When they caught sight of me, the stench of fear warped to worry.

  It made me want to sneeze.

  “Yvonne, you will prepare a room for her while I give my brother a call. She has medications that need to be monitored, and Kenard will want to meet her immediately. Lori, make a pot of tea, and keep our new guest company. Vanessa, why don’t you go with Lori and make yourself comfortable? I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  Both women looked stricken, but they covered their dismay with admirable speed. One went upstairs, and the other joined me, wringing her hands in front of her.

  “This way,” Lori whispered. All-in-all, outside of her being a few inches taller than me, we were interchangeable, right down to a slight overabundance of mammary material, slender builds, brown hair, and scarred faces. Stefan headed up the stairs.

  I waited until he was gone to lift my head and sniff the air. The whole place reeked of fear and pregnant women, and I thought I caught a faint hint of old blood. “You don’t want to be here,” I stated in a low tone, soft enough only she could hear me.

  She sucked in a breath, her eyes widened, and she glanced up the stairs. “Run while you can.”

  I smiled. “Oh, don’t you worry your pretty head about me. I’m your guardian angel today, sent courtesy of the FBI and the CDC. If you want out of here, just play along.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Deadly serious. Did he kidnap you?”

  “Just like he kidnapped you. But you should be drugged. With pixie dust. He grabbed me first, then he took Lori. He usually keeps us drugged, but we’re now late enough in our pregnancies he doesn’t want to risk it.”

  “Is he the father?”

  “No. His brother. That’s why he’s calling him.”

  “Will you verify this with an angel?”

  “Without hesitation.”

  “Are there any children?”

  Lori grabbed a kettle off the counter, filled it with water, and set it on the gas stove before lighting it. “There are, but they aren’t here. They’re with Stefan’s woman. She’s caring for them right now. If they don’t get along well with their father, he dumps them somewhere.”

  What a fucking asshole. “Alive?”

  “We think so. We don’t know what happened to their mothers. They weren’t right for Stefan’s brother or something. Or they outlived their usefulness, I guess. They disappeared.”

  “How long does it take for his brother to get here after he calls?”

  “No more than an hour, but you’re the first time he’s brought a woman over. It’s usually some business associates of some sort, or Stefan’s woman. She doesn’t like us all that much.”

  I bet, and I could guess why. “Does the woman have family that comes to visit?”

  That would cover the minimum I needed for the implicating her politician relative—or not.

  “No, I don’t think so. She’s standoffish. I think she’s estranged from her family.”

  “And Yvonne?”

  “She cries all the time because she wants to go home.”

  Well, she’d be going home if I had anything to say about it. “Where are the knives?”

  Lori pointed at a magnetic rack on the wall, which had a collection of nice knives.

  “Do you sew? Or, more importantly, got a good pair of sewing shears?”

  “We do. I mean, we aren’t all that good at it, but we have shears meant for sewing. I don’t know if they’re any good.”

  I’d settle with one of the knives or my claws. Or both. I set my purse and my laptop bag on the counter, pulled my shirt over my head but left my bra on, which wouldn’t be destroyed when I went from human to infuriated lynx hybrid on a mission to murder. I kicked off my shoes, opted to sacrifice the pantyhose, and decided the rest of my attire would either survive or it wouldn’t. She stared at me with wide eyes, and I embraced the wild side of my virus, who wanted Sebastian and wanted him right now. Fur sprouted from my skin, my muscles expanded and contorted, and my bones creaked and popped as they took on mass and altered shape. I flexed my hands, which had turned into a blend of human and lynx paw armed with long, lethal claws, which I retracted and extended.

  I allowed myself a purr and gave myself a shake, pleased the skirt Sebastian had picked for me had survived. I held a claw to my lips to indicate Lori should be quiet. She nodded.

  I grabbed the largest knife of the lot, which would do an excellent job of killing a defenseless human man who expected a docile little lady of a secretary rather than a hybrid lycanthrope.

  Well, almost a hybrid lycanthrope. I resembled a furry human with paws and oddly shaped legs, but I worked with what I had.

  I waited around the corner in the kitchen, listening for the arrival of my victim. If I did my job right, he wouldn’t realize he’d been hit before he died. On that front, I did well as a paid killer.

  As far as murders went, I’d enjoy his death more than I should.

  Heavy footsteps came down the stairs, and I peeked around the corner to confirm it was Stefan.

  It was.

  He reached the bottom step, and I lunged out, slashing the knife across his throat. To make certain he never bothered anyone again, I reversed my grip on the knife and plunged it into the top of his head while he fell. While his body gasped and convulsed when he hit the floor, his eyes stared at nothing, and the first stages of death took hold. I wiped the blade off on the back of his suit. At the top of the stairs, the other woman stared, her hands over her mouth.

  “Hello, Yvonne. As soon as our next guests arrive, you’ll be going home, so why don’t you go gather whatever you want while I hunt?”

  “What are you?”

  “I’m a lycanthrope. I’m also a bounty hunter, to be specific.”

  “You’re not a wolf.”

  Damned wolves. “I’m a lynx.”

  “You’re
a cat?” She stared at Stefan’s body. “He didn’t even have time to scream.”

  “Well, that is the idea. It’s rude to draw out a murder.”

  “You really killed him.”

  “Well, he deserved it for drugging me and dragging me out here. And since I’m guessing you two ladies aren’t here of your own free will, he definitely deserved it.” I grinned, skipped to the kitchen, and washed my hands and the knife. “It’s extra rude to stab multiple people with the same knife without cleaning it first.”

  Yvonne joined me in the kitchen, her eyes wide. “We get to go home? We really get to go home?”

  “That’s the idea.”

  “He said he’d kill us if we tried to go home or contact anyone.”

  What an asshole. “Well, he won’t be doing that. It’s pretty hard to kill somebody when you’re dead.”

  “No kidding. What about his brother?”

  “Make yourself a nice, warm drink, ladies. This show is just getting on the road.”

  I made use of the cabin’s bathroom to shift into a full lynx, and I took my hunt outside. I waited for Stefan’s brother and his woman to arrive using the Audi as cover. The two pregnant women packed what little they had and wanted to keep, which I assumed was maternity clothes. I had no idea if Stefan or his brother had given them anything worth keeping.

  I had no idea how long it took, but headlights approached, illuminating the driveway and approaching Stefan’s Audi. The vehicle came to a halt nearby, and two figures stepped out. I recognized both from the pictures Sebastian had showed me. To my surprise, the woman was the driver, putting the man in easy range of my claws and fangs.

  “Stefan?” Kenard asked. “What is so important you dragged us out here? I don’t have all night.”

  No, he didn’t. I waited for the man to come closer before I erupted from my hiding place, tearing my claws into his chest and closing my jaws around his throat. The delicate bones of his neck crunched between my teeth, and to make certain he went down without a fight, I gave a single shake of my head. Using the corpse as a launching pad, I leaped across the car, landing on the woman with all four of my paws, and shredded her before taking a bite out of her throat.

  I liked when my prey didn’t even have a chance to comprehend they were about to die before I finished my work.

  I took the time to ensure they were truly dead before I headed for the cabin, stood on my hind paws, and rang the doorbell.

  Lori opened it, peeked outside, and let me in. “You’re covered in blood. Are you okay?”

  I bobbed my head and dropped down to my paws.

  “Are they okay?”

  I shook my head.

  “Good. Come to the bathroom so I can help you rinse that off. Wearing their blood can’t be comfortable. Yvonne? She’s done.”

  “Her phone is ringing. Should I answer it?”

  “You better. And when you do, ask what we’re supposed to do with a lynx. What do lynxes eat? Should she shift back to human? Can she? How does this even work? Is she okay being a lynx?”

  Goodness. The pregnant woman asked a lot of questions.

  Yvonne came down the steps, and she held my phone to her ear. “Hello? Who is this? Uhm, do you know the woman who owns this phone? She’s a lynx right now. Is it okay for her to be a lynx? Is she hungry? How do we tell when she’s hungry? She doesn’t eat people, does she? Oh. Good. She seems fine? You are fine, right? The gentleman on the phone wants to know.”

  No, I was not all right. I needed Sebastian to come scratch my itches. I forced myself to shift to my borderline hybrid form so I could talk without giving the pregnant women a scar-filled show. I held my paw out for my phone, which she handed over. The display informed me Sebastian had called. “Meow, Mr. Mane.”

  “Really? Meow? Are you all right? The CDC updated me with your tracking information and your drug reports. Are you aware you’ve been drugged with quite a few things?”

  “Is one of those things an aphrodisiac, or is the pixie dust just going for my throat? I’m hungry for lion,” I growled at him.

  He chuckled. “That is why I called. The rep over at the CDC didn’t think the neutralizer would handle it. I’m on the way, and I should be there soon. What’s the situation?”

  “I’m done my job, although you’ll have to confer with the women for the location of the children. I opted for quick, brutal, and efficient, and I didn’t leave them alive long for questioning. I spoke to one of the women, confirmed she was not there of her own free will, and started with the killing. As I’m done the killing, I’m starting with the showering, because blood isn’t a good look on me, and I feel dirty covered in creeper blood. Once I’m done with the showering, I’m expecting to drag my lion off somewhere questionably private.”

  “Excellent. Good job. We have the counter for the drug with us, so try not to work yourself up too much before I get there.”

  I hissed at the unfairness of it all. “But what if I don’t want the counter? What if I want my handsome lion? What about my needs, Mr. Mane?”

  “I’m sure you can have all of your needs handled after the drugs in your system have been neutralized. Including the aphrodisiac. You could have a heart attack if they leave all those drugs active in your system.”

  Well, that didn’t sound like a good time. “I’m so disappointed right now.”

  “I’ll make it up to you later.”

  “You better.”

  Epilogue: She’s obviously innocent.

  Thanks to the drugs I’d been given, my virus levels dropped to dangerous levels. Twelve hours after killing the Loureni brothers and their accomplice, the CDC’s surgeons did the equivalent of skin me alive, applying grafts to most of my body while a surgeon replaced the damaged bone in my cheeks, shaped to be as natural as possible.

  A week of constant exposure to Sebastian had been enough to flip the polarity of my blood, allowing him to meet the CDC’s standards to be a blood donor for a lycanthrope under sedation. Between my virus levels being so low and the procedure itself, I lost two days of my life. Once I began emerging from unconsciousness, I got to enjoy the highest grade of pixie dust to keep me from causing trouble.

  As the spa in our hotel in Chicago employed and worked with lycanthropes, they agreed to handle the application of creams and work with the surgeons to make sure I emerged with minimal scars.

  The procedure worked, although I’d have a few thin scars near my hairline, on my wrist, and along my sides. Most wouldn’t notice them, and in a few years, time might work its magic on them and help them fade.

  A week after the operation, I emerged from the pixie dust haze in the suite, which had a disconcerting number of wrapped presents and gift bags littering every surface. I yawned from my place on the couch, stretched out with my head on Sebastian’s lap. “Why are there so many presents?”

  “You like presents, and I wasn’t allowed in the spa for your treatments, so I bought you presents while I was waiting. Some presents are from the family of the women you rescued. You’ve been exceptionally well behaved at the spa even drugged, so you got extra presents from the staff. I think the CDC has been adding to some of the presents on behalf of the women you rescued. They were able to lead the police to the children, we were able to clear the politician of wrongdoing, and they were willing to undergo angelic verification regarding their kidnapping and rape. We got leads on some other accomplices, and they’ve been apprehended. Unfortunately, one has already been killed while in prison, as it had gotten out he was murdering women post-delivery. The Loureni brothers were giving the women to this crook of a surgeon, who would deliver the infants through cesarean section before killing the women and studying their reproductive organs before dumping the bodies. It turns out even hardened criminals don’t approve of that sort of behavior. It would have been more merciful if you had been the one to kill him.”

  “If I don’t have a fixed face, don’t tell me about it for a while.”

  “Your scars are gone, an
d you’ve passed your last exam. The creams did their work, your virus levels are still low but recovering, and I’m to take you home for a week of general relaxation. The CDC has submitted medical leave documentation to your work in case you don’t actually want to quit.”

  “I definitely want to quit.”

  “Well, you have a month to give notice, then. They cited an emergency operation without notifying your work of the nature of the surgery. Unfortunately, your boss knows your parents, and the notice was put in yesterday.”

  Crap. “Have you spoken to my parents?”

  “Only enough to tell them you were fine and recovering, and that you would tell them about it yourself as soon as you are ready to travel. That can be as early as tomorrow. Tonight, I’m to fulfill all of your needs, and we’ll leave in the morning. I also got you a lot of products from the spa for your skin, as you’ve likely never cared much about it before now, so I assumed you had a lot of makeup to make your face disappear but not a lot of products meant to keep your skin healthy.”

  I rolled off Sebastian’s lap, got to my feet, and went to the bathroom to check the mirror.

  I’d seen the woman staring back at me in photographs, images of what might have been if only I hadn’t been caught in a fire as a child. I touched my cheek, which was soft, warm, and smooth beneath my fingers, no longer bearing any sign I’d once faced death so many years ago.

  I couldn’t tell if I wanted to laugh or cry.

  “Is this really me, Sebastian?”

  He joined me in the bathroom. “As I can verify I have not been taking any woman to my bed other than you, yes. That’s really you. In case you were curious, pixie dust does turn you into a lion-hunting fiend, your words. That was part of why I was evicted from the hotel for your treatments. You kept trying to hunt me, and unless I left the building, you would not be deterred. I enjoy being the king of your jungle.”

  I bet he did. “Was it as good for me as it was for you?”

  “With you that high on pixie dust? You were just fine. How do you like it?”

  I regarded my new face. “Nobody is going to flinch anymore, Sebastian.”