Holiday Mates: Short Stories (Supernatural Enforcers Agency 5)

by E A Price

“Magic, m’boy.”

  “Why didn’t you magic your way out of the grip the tiger had on you?” said Penny.

  His smile faltered a little as he rubbed his ear. “I swear that female worked for the Spanish Inquisition in a former life. But we’re getting off topic.” He turned a thousand megawatt smile on Boris, Penny and the young, gawky man. “The SEA caught me doing something I, ahem, shouldn’t have been doing…”

  “What was that?” Penny grinned thinking of the possibilities, and they only became more lurid as pink dusted his cheeks.

  “Not important,” he said a little too quickly. “The point is that by ancient leprechaun law…” he paused while Penny tried not to wet herself laughing. “By ancient leprechaun law,” he said a little louder, “I have been caught, and before I can be free, I must perform three acts to better the lives of my captors. Since the tiger doesn’t want anything, you three will have to do.” He looked at them in turn. “Ah, yes, I see what you all want.” He cracked his knuckles. “This won’t hurt a bit.”

  Penny backed away as he started chanting something in, what? Gaelic?? Her penguin flapped in panic. Colors started whipping through the air. “Holy crap! He really does have his own rainbow!”

  “Now hang on a minute!” shouted the bear.

  Bright rainbow light hit them all square in their chests. Penny staggered backward. She heard a roar, and instantly she was tucked behind Diaz’s large frame.

  Seamus tipped his hat to her and disappeared with a pop. Diaz snarled and spun around. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” He ran his hands all over her body – all over. “I’m fine,” she said in a daze, before squeaking when he came to a very private area. Her penguin fluttered coquettishly, and Penny gave her an inner eye roll – neither the time nor place.

  Boris helped the blinking young man to his feet. “What’s your name, son?” he boomed.

  “W… Winston Strong.”

  The huge bear made sure the young man was okay.

  “What the fuck was that?” demanded Diaz.

  Penny gave him a sour look. “A leprechaun.”

  *

  Later that day…

  Diaz gave her a worried look. His jaguar paced restlessly. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  Penny gave him an exasperated look – one he knew all too well. It was the same look she threw his way when he was trying to get her to sneak out for a quickie during her niece’s dance recital.

  She inhaled another poppadum and gave him a greedy smile. She could eat almost as much as him – and that was saying something. At first, she seemed to think he’d be put off by how much she devoured, but she couldn’t have been more wrong. Seeing her tiny mouth stretch around huge quantities of food only made him harder. A month ago, when they’d entered a hot dog eating contest for a lark, he thought he’d died and gone to heaven. If they hadn’t been disqualified for making out, one of them might have won.

  It was true they’d met during a hostage situation where he had been fortunate enough to be tethered to his surly little penguin, and had managed to grope her to his jaguar’s content. Best Christmas ever. What had started out as instant attraction had easily grown into something much, much more. It was at the point where he couldn’t imagine his life without her. And it was why seeing her hit by magic had him and his jaguar antsy.

  “I’m fine,” came her muffled response as she tried to sample every dish at once. “Try the butter chicken; it’s gorgeous.”

  His beast wasn’t satisfied, but he didn’t want to ruin their evening. Indian cuisine was Penny’s favorite, and while eating it, she made the most incredible orgasmic little sounds that could only be rivalled by the sounds she made in bed.

  “Ummm,” she moaned. “This mango chutney is heavenly.”

  Diaz smiled as he tried it. “Mmm, it’s pretty good.”

  “Pretty good?”

  “I can think of one way it could taste better.” He waggled his eyebrows and leered so that she could be in no doubt as to what he meant. They’d tried it with ice cream, but she’d said that was too cold against her skin. Perhaps mango chutney would work better…

  He caught a flash out of the corner of his eye and noticed a table of businessmen staring at Penny. He scowled at them and even flashed his fangs. They noticed him and then… nothing. They kept staring at Penny.

  His cat grumbled. Diaz pulled her around the booth and took her mouth in a very thorough, mango chutney flavoured kiss. It left her sighing and her eyelashes fluttering.

  Assholes could be in no doubt as to who she belonged to now. Yet… their eyes were still riveted to Penny. She moaned again, and one of them licked his lips. Licked. His. Fucking. Lips.

  Diaz felt his chest tighten as he struggled to contain the ferocious jaguar within. But then he noticed something. It wasn’t just them. A lot of the males were looking at her. In fact, all the males in the restaurant who weren’t with a female were looking at her, plus the middle-aged guy who was obviously out with his mother. His mother did not look pleased that she was no longer the center of his world. Even the waiter was casting Penny longing looks. The dope just dropped a whole tray of drinks over a customer. Not to worry, the customer was too busy ogling Penny to care.

  “Something’s off about this place.”

  “I know. They should serve Peshwari naans. I think I’m going to complain to the manager.”

  “No, it’s the customer, they’re… off.”

  Penny looked up, and all the males went back to their food. “Seems fine to me.”

  “All the men in here are rubbernecking you.”

  Penny snorted. “You’re exaggerating.”

  “Okay, all the single men in here are rubbernecking you.” His jaguar growled. And worse, they didn’t seem to care that Diaz was obviously her boyfriend.

  “Please, women look at you all the time, and I don’t complain. Well, not out loud. Or at least not out loud very often. Okay, maybe I complain about your neighbour a lot, but she is obviously trying to get into your tight, tight pants.”

  “She’s married,” he muttered as he surveyed the other males.

  “But obviously a skank.”

  “She’s not my type.”

  “What is your type?”

  He turned to find her enormous silver eyes staring up at him with curiosity. She bit her pink lip, and her cheeks flushed.

  “Cute, stubborn penguins,” he crooned before kissing her again, much to her delight.

  It was just disconcerting that they were also everyone else’s type tonight.

  *

  Boris slapped at the gator shifter’s boots. “Feet down,” he rumbled.

  Caleb sneered at him, and Boris gave him a cold look until he complied. Good night guards were hard to find. He was sorry when Amadeus, the previous vampire night guard had opted to give his girlfriend all his money and follow her to Canada to join a hippy commune. Apparently being two hundred years old didn’t make you smart or immune to a flirty smile.

  He stood up a little straighter as Cecile, one of the directors of the SEA and a swan shifter came out of the elevator. She stopped and threw them both a warm smile.

  “Have a good evening, both of you,” she trilled in her musical voice.

  Boris nodded stiffly, and Cecile blushed lightly before gliding out the door to the parking garage. The gator never took his eyes off the portable TV. Boris’ bear withheld the growl; watching TV was something Boris would never consider doing while on duty.

  After waiting twenty seconds, Boris grunted at Caleb and followed her. He kept a steady distance, waiting until she got to her car. When she did, his bear nodded, and Boris turned back to get to his truck. So lost in thought, he almost missed the yelp of surprise. It was so soft, so sweet sounding that he nearly mistook it for the wind. His bear howled, sensing danger, and Boris spun to find Cecile grappling with someone dressed in black.

  Boris dropped his duffle and with a roar akin to a war cry, bolted towards Cecile. He tore away his clothes as fu
r, fangs and claws pushed forward. By the time he reached them, he was an enormous Kodiak bear and threw his full weight into the man attacking Cecile, ramming him into her car, forcing him to drop his grip on her arm.

  She dropped to the ground and let out a whimper as she rolled onto her back. The figure in black crumpled immediately, falling unconscious from the blow. With an effort, the bear ignored him to tend to the swan shifter. Her eyes widened as he leaned over her, and it took him a moment to realize it was because he was still in his bear form. He tensed and allowed the shift to take over. Bones and muscles snapped back into place to reveal Boris.

  He knelt on the ground and propped Cecile up. “Injured?” he demanded gruffly.

  Boris started running his hands over her body, checking her, until he noticed she was watching him with wide eyes and he stopped.

  Under his intense gaze, she ducked her eyes. “I feel fine,” she murmured and started trying to stand up.

  He gripped her shoulder. “No. Need ambulance.”

  Cecile shook her head vehemently and then winced. “No, perhaps if Lucie is still around…”

  Lucie was a hedgehog shifter and one of the nurses who worked in the building. She generally didn’t have a lot to do as most of the occupants of the building relied on their individual healing abilities. But she came in handy in case one of the human members of the SEA ever got a papercut, and she was very good at mediating situations. Usually, ones that involved her volatile wolf mate who at any given time had about sixty-eight arguments in the wind.

  Boris nodded and scooped her into his arms. She squeaked and wrapped her arms around his huge shoulders.

  “Sorry,” she muttered while loosening her grip.

  He gave her a long look while ignoring the longing growls of his bear. Her lithe form felt very snug against his large body.

  Feeling heat rising to his cheeks, he quickly looked down at her attacker. He was a pale-featured youth who no one would honestly give a second glance. Boris kicked him for a good measure – he was out cold. He would surely have liked to teach the boy a few manners, but Cecile came first.

  First he would make sure Cecile was safe and uninjured.

  Then he would deal with the intruder.

  Then he would think up some cruel and unusual punishment for Caleb for letting the intruder get past him on the security cameras. Not to mention the idiot parking attendant. Fuck, what was even the point of having security if they let any Tom, Dick or Asshat in there?

  *

  “Did you see that?” snapped Diaz.

  Penny frowned. “No, what?”

  “That guy in the convertible actually slowed down so he could snap a picture of you with his phone.”

  “Maybe he was snapping a picture of you,” she retorted saucily. “You are pretty darn sexy.”

  Well, there was no denying that, but Diaz was adamant that the man was looking at Penny.

  His jaguar was nearly tearing his fur out. It wasn’t his imagination. Men were overly interested in his penguin. At first, he thought he was just being sensitive. He was protective of Penny and no, he didn’t like it – or more like downright loathed it – when any male looked at her, but usually it wasn’t this bad. Hey, he couldn’t fault anyone for finding her attractive. He just didn’t want any of them to find her attractive.

  He’d been suspicious at the restaurant. Paranoid when three waiters almost got into a fight over who got to help her don her coat. (It was solved when Diaz growled at the three pangolin shifters and he was the one to help her with her coat.) Furious when one of the businessmen asked if she was busy later. And now that she was getting eye-fucked as she walked along the street, he was pretty freaking incandescent with rage.

  A courier went past on a bike, slowed down when he spotted Penny, let out a long whistle and then promptly crashed into a parked BMW.

  “Jeez, should we check if he’s okay?” asked Penny, hopping from foot to foot.

  “No,” spat Diaz, who felt that the young man wasn’t even getting a smidge of what he truly deserved. “Let’s get out of here – now.”

  He took Penny’s hand and virtually ran all the way home.

  *

  “No, let go! It’s my purse!”

  The robber pulled out a knife. “Take it easy, Grandma,” he sneered. “Just give it to me and I won’t hurt you.”

  “The hell I will!” yelled Ethel Winklestein.

  “Fear not, dear lady, help has arrived!”

  Ethel and her robber both stopped in the midst of their tug of war to watch as a man in a costume, and a cape ran towards them. The robber instantly hooted with laughter and even Ethel, despite the situation, couldn’t hold back a guffaw.

  Wolfman ran up, trying not to pant because his suit was heavy and he hadn’t run anywhere since being tortured by Coach 'dickhead' Dikter in high school.

  “What the fuck are you supposed to be?” chuckled the robber.

  Wolfman struck a suitably heroic pose with his hands, balled into fists on his waist, cape flapping in the wind – or would be flapping if there was any wind. “I am Wolfman. Here to save the city from… hey, stop that!”

  The robber, bored already of Wolfman, resumed his attempt to free Ethel from her purse. It had to be noted that Ethel was a wily, old coyote shifter and this was the robber’s first time.

  “I said… wah!”

  Wolfman, on attempting to stride toward them, managed to slip on something he later suspected to be dog waste. He landed on the ground hard, hitting his head. The robber almost doubled over with laughter. Ethel took the opportunity to hit him over the head with her purse, repeatedly until he yelped, gave in and ran away.

  “Come on, dear,” said Ethel soothingly as she helped Wolfman to his feet.

  “Did I save you?” he asked while rubbing his head.

  She gave him a sympathetic smile. “Not exactly, but you provided a nice distraction for me to clock him over the head. And look, I even managed to steal his wallet while he was trying to run away from me.”

  Ethel held it up proudly. She was quite the pickpocket back in the day. “That’ll teach the little bastard.”

  “Oh.” It appeared he might have actually aided in a different crime to the one he was trying to prevent.

  “A for effort, though,” said Ethel encouragingly. “But maybe next time you should watch where you step.”

  *

  “Sorry about the dent in your car,” rumbled Boris.

  Cecile smiled at him while trying to ignore her swooning inner swan. “I can hardly blame you for that.”

  He shrugged, and his grip tightened on the wheel. When Boris tackled her assailant, he used so much force he left an enormous dent in her car. Which made it even stranger that her young attacker had fled the scene so quickly. Getting hit like that by such a big, strong, muscled, impressive… she was getting off track. Getting hit like that would put even a shifter down for the count. Although she did concede that perhaps he was a vampire. She was a bird shifter and therefore not gifted with the same heightened sense of smell as other shifters. Vampires could look like everyone else. And that could explain why he hadn’t shown up on any security cameras either entering or leaving the garage. Perhaps he glamoured the cameras. Some vampires developed abilities like that. Her own boss, Juliet could talk to animals – although it wasn’t something she bragged about and would prefer it kept quiet.

  “Thank you for driving me home,” she said tentatively.

  He shrugged again, and then threw in a grunt.

  Cecile blushed and looked out the window. She should not find his monosyllabic, rough nature sexy, but dang it, she virtually turned into pudding every time she saw him. Thankfully, he seemed completely oblivious to her little crush. It had all started a few months ago when she first saw his hulking form escorting a crocodile shifter out of the building, none too gently. For some reason, instead of being annoyed at his roughness – which was her usual reaction – her inner swan had sighed, her heart went ‘
bada-boom’ and her lady parts… well, the least said about what happened down there, the better. And since then, her infatuation had only gotten worse.

  But while her swan urged her to make a move on the gorgeous bear, Cecile held back. She was thirty-eight and with two bad marriages behind her she wasn’t interested in trying for a third. And he definitely wasn’t her type. She liked neat, thin, sleek swan shifters. The bear couldn’t be more different to them if he tried. Although, her swan was keen to point out that perhaps that was a good thing. She’d married two swans, and both those relationships ended disastrously. Perhaps a little variation was called for.

  Her eyes roved over his body, taking in his stern brow, dark narrowed eyes, magnificently muscled arms covered in tattoos – tribal patterns she believed - and down to his large hands – one sporting a tattoo of a wolf and the other, a heron.

  “I like your tattoos,” she said, softly.

  Surprise flared in his eyes as he briefly looked at her. “You do?”

  “Yes, particularly the heron and the wolf. Is there some significance to them?”

  He glanced down at his hands and flexed his fingers. “Foster brother and sister.”

  “Oh. Well, they’re lovely.”

  He grunted again, but he seemed a little less tense, and she dared to try and make some small talk.

  *

  “Fuck off!” howled Diaz as he slammed the door. His beast roared.

  Penny frowned as she sidled up to him. “Who was that?”

  “Ira from across the hall.”

  She gaped at him. “You mean you just told your eighty-two-year-old sweetheart of a neighbor who walks with a cane to ‘f’ off?”

  “No, I just told the demented old perv who lives across from me to fuck off.”

  Penny folded her arms over her chest. “And what did he do to deserve that?”

  “He asked if you were here and wanted to know if you’d be interested in going on a date with him to his sixty-year college reunion!” He was shouting by the end because the more he thought about it, the angrier he became.

  “They have sixty-year reunions? Wouldn’t attendance be really…”

  “You’re missing the point!” he snarled as his jaguar clawed to get out and rip the old human a new one. Or a new everything.