Adapt Or Be Crushed (The Exceptional S. Beaufont Book 9)

by Sarah Noffke

  “True.” Sophia returned her full attention to Lee. “Anyway, thanks for helping with this one. Mother Nature informs me that the water supply in Scotland will recover, thanks to your efforts, which means the sheep will too.”

  “Yum.” Lunis licked his lips.

  “Oh, so that broad was Mother Nature?” Lee asked. “I knew she looked familiar.”

  Sophia shook her head. “Yeah, she’s the one who keeps things going round and round on this sphere we all call home.”

  “I should have gotten her autograph.” Lee pretended to feel around in her jeans. “Hey, if I find my autograph book, will you get me another meeting with her?”

  Sophia laughed. “Yeah, right. That lie has been exposed. Try another one another time.”

  Lee backed toward the Barrier and smiled broadly as she patted the sword on her back. “That’s a promise, Sophia Beaufont. Until our next adventure.”

  Sophia nodded to her friend and waved while watching her retreat. “Until our next adventure. Try not to get yourself into too much trouble until then.”

  Lee scoffed. “Where’s the fun in that?”

  “There is no fun without a little trouble,” Lunis stated definitively.

  Lee turned and picked up her pace, appearing antsy to get home. Although she wouldn’t admit it, Sophia spied homesickness in the woman’s eyes. She suspected that the first thing she’d do upon returning to the Crying Cat Bakery on Roya Lane was hug her wife and be grateful that she had another day left on Mama Jamba’s planet.

  There was nothing like an adventure with Sophia and Lunis to make people thank their lucky stars they were still alive.

  “Oh, hey,” Lee called over her shoulder as she paused beside the Barrier, which shimmered for those who could see it—those inside the Gullington.

  “Yeah?” Sophia perked up through her building exhaustion.

  “Do you know why assassins are so good at dating?” Lee asked her.

  Sophia smirked and nodded good-naturedly. “Why is that?”

  “Because we know how to take someone out.”

  Sophia and Lunis laughed with the assassin baker and waved, watching as she strode through the Barrier and disappeared through a portal—until the next adventure.

  Chapter One Hundred Eighteen

  Sophia spent the next twelve hours in a comatose state. Even when she awoke and told herself that she needed to get up and back to life, dreams sucked her back into the world of sleep where she was its prisoner. Her subconscious wouldn’t release her until it was ready. Then she was more than groggy and felt much like a zombie as she made her way to the portal for the House of Fourteen.

  During the time she’d been held hostage by her subconsciousness trying to make her body recover from the many recent adventures, Liv had sent Sophia a barrage of messages. Most were probably meant to annoy her with things like:

  “Soooooophia!”

  Or: “So-what-are-you-doing-phia?”

  The youngest sister started to wonder if Liv had taken a page out of Lee’s joke book. If so, she was probably in trouble.

  However, the latest messages from Liv explained why she was vying for her sister’s attention. Plato the lynx had moved the Great Library and was ready for them to “fetch” the new librarian. That wouldn’t be like a dog running after a ball, but probably more of a diplomatic mission in negotiations. Sophia wasn’t trying to be negative. She recognized that a job done properly for the Dragon Elite, or the House of Fourteen, or any governing agency in the magical world would involve lots of red tape, some bloody wounds, and probably a few or more close encounters with any types.

  “Anything else would be boring,” Sophia said to herself while stepping into the portal closet that connected the Castle at the Gullington to the House of Fourteen in Santa Monica.

  “Talking to yourself is a sign of things…” a familiar voice said in the darkened compartment where Sophia stood and waited for the portal switch to happen and send her into the House of Fourteen.

  She would have tensed if she didn’t know that standing next to her in the dark was none other than the lynx who had recruited her for this next mission. “Do you make it a habit to hide in dark closets and try to scare unsuspecting people you’ve asked for help?”

  “Habit is such a specific word,” Plato stated in the dark. “I happen to be here at the same time as you. It’s not like I go around stalking you regularly.”

  “Don’t you?” Sophia challenged.

  “Depends on my schedule,” he countered.

  Sophia opened the portal door when she was certain that the process was complete and stepped into the dim hallway of the House of Fourteen, where thankfully there was no one present. Plato strode through after her, his white-tipped tail flicking above him.

  “I happened to be commuting at the same time as you,” he continued while looking up at her with his intense green eyes.

  It was still perplexing to Sophia that the little, seemingly unassuming feline was probably one of the most powerful beings on the planet, save for Mama Jamba and Papa Creola, of course. That was still saying a lot.

  “So what’s talking to myself a sign of?” Sophia asked the lynx.

  He sat and stared up at her while blinking.

  “Probably that you need a friend,” Rory Laurens said as he came around the corner of the hallway.

  Sophia pointed down at the lynx. “I have friends. I was talking to him.”

  Rory arched a bushy eyebrow at Sophia and shook his head. “You’re as deranged as your sister, talking to that creature.”

  “But he does talk back,” she argued. “You’ve heard him, right?”

  Rory shook his head. “Again, you and Liv suffer from the same hallucinations, it would seem.”

  “But your mum is Bermuda Laurens, the chief expert on magical creatures. You must know that lynxes can talk, right?”

  “I know what I’ve seen and heard with my eyes and ears,” Rory stated, his expression stony as usual.

  Sophia glanced down at the lynx. “You make a habit of trying to make us look crazy, don’t you?”

  “I think you do that all on your own,” Rory cut in. “Anyway, Liv mentioned you’d be coming through the Gullington portal about now. She asked me to escort you to where she is.”

  Sophia groaned. “I’m not nine years old and can find places on my own. She does realize that, right?”

  “Probably not,” Rory countered. “But I was here and headed that way, so I offered to drop you off, so to speak.”

  “Oh, are we meeting here in the House of Fourteen?” Sophia looked between Rory and Plato for answers.

  “Why are you looking at the lynx?” Rory questioned.

  “Well, because he’s the one who is assigning us the next mission,” Sophia explained, then saw the look of disbelief on Rory’s face and sighed. “How are you Bermuda’s son, one of Liv’s best friends, and a delegate for the House of Fourteen, and you still don’t believe in the mega ultra-powers of the lynx?”

  “It’s more of a ‘see no evil’ thing,” Rory explained as he led the way down the hallway. “If you give credence to the lynx, then he has more power. And his is not a power I trust, not even now.”

  “Wait, I thought that if you saw his magic, it diminished it,” Sophia stated, confused.

  “Yeah, that’s different than what I’m talking about,” Rory said.

  “So he’s like Santa Claus?” Sophia giggled. “If you don’t believe in him he ceases to exist, but if you catch him in the act of delivering your presents, his magic is zapped?”

  “Something like that.” Rory led them down the stairs. “Liv wants to meet you at a bar and grill down the street.”

  “So why couldn’t she just say that?” Sophia asked.

  “Because she’s Liv and likes for me to run errands for her,” Rory complained. “But also because my mum has a message for you that she wanted only me to give you.”

  Sophia halted in the corridor, holding her breath sudden
ly. “Yeah, what is it?”

  Rory looked down at her, the giant so much taller than her. Then his eyes slid to the lynx at her feet.

  Sensing that he wasn’t welcome for the next part of the conversation, Plato strode down the next flight of stairs and disappeared at once. Sophia thought this was ridiculous, even for Rory to buy. He knew enough about the lynx to know that even if he was out of sight, he was always present, hearing any and everything he wanted if he so desired.

  After a moment, Rory leaned down. “It’s about the memory that Mum believed had been tampered with. She’s working on recovering it and wanted me to pass along to you that she’s close. Really close, but it will take a little longer.”

  Sophia nodded, feeling hopeful. “Tell her thank you, and that I appreciate her help with the exploding sheep.”

  Rory gave her a questioning look. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but let’s hope you mean that in a figurative sense and not a literal one.”

  Sophia pursed her lips and gave him a regretful look. “I wished I did. But thanks to Bermuda, the problem has been solved, and the dragons will feast once more.”

  Chapter One Hundred Nineteen

  Plato met Sophia at the door to the House of Fourteen without a word, just flicking his tail back and forth.

  “You think that little ‘I can’t talk’ thing is cute, don’t you?” she asked the lynx who refused to speak.

  They walked in silence until he led her to a bar and grill where he disappeared at once.

  Sophia sighed and strode into the busy restaurant to find her sister in the crowded place. Thankfully, Liv had found a booth toward the back where there weren’t many people, and they had some privacy.

  “Oh good,” Liv exclaimed upon seeing her. “You haven’t been eaten by monsters who were poisoned by friends!”

  Sophia accepted the hug her sister offered and dismissed the people playing pool who gave them strange looks. “You and I have the same kinds of friends, don’t we?” she asked Liv when they both took seats on opposite sides of the booth.

  “I’m afraid we do.” Liv hid a smile.

  “Your cat is so strange and tried to make me look like a fool earlier,” Sophia made the disclaimer right away when they sat down.

  Liv nodded without missing a beat. “Good to know that he doesn’t show me any favoritism in that regard. So what are we having? The usual one of everything?”

  Sophia’s stomach rumbled as if trying to reply for her. “That would be great. I woke up, rolled out of bed, and made it here.”

  “Another all-nighter at the Dragon University then?” Liv asked over the menu with a pursed expression.

  Sophia nodded. “Yeah, I spent the day in Wyoming followed by displacing a body of water at the Gullington so I could fix Scotland’s water problem.”

  Liv lowered her menu all the way. “I thought the Scots were drowning in water. What’s their water problem?”

  “I think the problem is that they have so much of it that if someone infects it, there are far-reaching effects,” Sophia answered.

  “Oh.” Liv drew out the word. “You have enemies like mine. They’re crafty and rude and probably never let you have a day off.”

  “Never,” Sophia agreed.

  “Well, we eat and leave,” Liv stated. “Our enemies can wait until we get back to torture us with their pranks.”

  “Where are we supposed to go?” Sophia asked. “To find this librarian now that the Great Library has been relocated…which I didn’t get the whereabouts of.”

  Liv nodded. “Me either. I’m on a need to know basis with Plato. He’s supposed to be here fashionably late.”

  “That’s weird,” Sophia said as the waitress approached to take their order. “He was right with me at the front.”

  “That’s not weird,” Liv said under her breath. “What would be weird is if he didn’t disappear and reappear as if trying to scare the hell out of us every single time.”

  Chapter One Hundred Twenty

  Right on cue, as soon as the waitress left with their order, which she didn’t believe was for only the two women, Plato appeared with a sly smirk on his face. He was in the far corner of the booth where no one but Sophia and Liv could see him.

  “You owe me two hundred dollars for a new bedspread,” Liv said to the feline as soon as she set eyes on him, bypassing any pleasantries as she narrowed her eyes at Plato.

  “You owe me years of therapy for bringing that thing home,” Plato fired back.

  Sophia glanced between the two. “What did you do? I’m lost.”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Liv seethed, not taking her eyes off the black and white lynx.

  “She brought vermin into the house,” Plato argued.

  “She’s a kitten, and she has a name.”

  Sophia shot a gaze between the two. “Anyone going to tell me what’s going on?”

  “Well, I was minding my business, trying to be a helpful member of society—”

  Liv laughed loudly and cut the cat off. “Try that line on someone who knows you better.”

  “Anyway, I was doing as I said and Liv brings home this monstrosity of a creature.” Plato inched back like he suddenly saw the plague in front of him.

  Liv shook her head. “I found a kitten when I was fighting demons in Montreal. I planned to take her to Rory’s the next morning, but she seemed so cozy cuddled up on the sofa that I figured what could the harm be?”

  “And…” Plato said with obvious irritation in his voice.

  “Clark took a liking to her, and now he doesn’t want her to leave,” Liv said in a rush.

  “It appears this is where we part ways, Liv Beaufont,” Plato stated matter-of-factly.

  “It appears,” Liv said absentmindedly. “After you pony up for the comforter of mine that you ruined after said kitten entered the apartment.”

  “I’m all tapped out or I would,” the lynx said smugly.

  “Then it appears you can’t leave until you’ve paid your dues,” she stated.

  “Speaking of dues—”

  Plato’s words cut off when the waitress trotted over carrying a tray that overflowed with various food platters.

  “Your friends not here yet?” The waitress looked around like the sisters had been stood up.

  “I’m afraid not,” Liv answered. “We’ll take the food, and they can eat it cold. Serves them right for being late.”

  The waitress nodded with a contemptuous expression on her face. “It will. And you show those boys. If they can’t be on time, then they don’t get their supper hot or you wearing a bow in your hair.”

  Sophia and Liv exchanged wide-eyed expressions. It wasn’t until the waitress left after depositing all the plates on the table, leaving no room for anything else that both sisters let out relieved sighs.

  “Bows in our hair?” Liv shook her head. “Is that what’s wrong with me? Usually, I barely manage to clean the blood out from under my fingernails before Stefan staggers through the doorway, hungry and tired after hunting demons.”

  “That’s your problem.” Sophia laughed and pulled at the nachos, trying to make a perfect bite. “Bow first. Clean blood second.”

  “When do I empty the bits of ground bones from my boots?” Liv settled back in the booth as a sense of relief fell over her.

  “After you throw the kitten off the balcony.” Plato reappeared at the table.

  Chapter One Hundred Twenty-One

  “You have to take the kitten up with Clark,” Liv informed the lynx and dove into the pile of breaded chicken strips. “Oh, hot!” Liv dropped the piece of food and sucked on her finger.

  “Orrrr…” Plato said, a devilish quality to his voice.

  “Or take it up with Clark,” she repeated and went back for the chicken strip, obviously not having learned any lessons from her first attempt.

  “What’s your problem with kittens?” Sophia smothered guacamole on her chip.

  “Besides that they’re untrained an
d don’t know how to do anything properly?” Plato asked.

  “Yes, besides that.” Sophia laughed.

  “They’re notoriously bad luck and do something to my mojo,” Plato answered.

  Liv lowered her chin. “Take it up with Clark. He has his heart set on keeping this kitten.”

  “What he needs is a girlfriend,” Plato said dryly and looked at the table of food with judgmental eyes.

  “Seems like we should get down to business before you pop off for some mysterious reason.” Liv licked her fingers before going for the garlic cheesy bread knots.

  “My reasons are never mysterious to me,” Plato argued. “And I think we better hurry before you two suffer a heart attack.”

  “I think someone is jealous that he can do so much, but too much tuna and he barfs all over the rug,” Liv teased.

  “I didn’t have too much! That tuna was old,” he stated.

  “Then what’s your excuse for all the times before?” Liv questioned.

  “My stomach hates me,” he said irritably.

  “Finally,” Liv said with satisfaction and grabbed one of the sliders, “a perk to being a magician that you don’t have.”

  “Suck it up while you can,” he said smugly. “You have to sleep at some point.”

  “And that’s when you’ll barf in my boots again, right?” Liv mocked.

  “Can I help it if that’s the only convenient place around when my stomach acts up?” Plato questioned.

  Liv glanced sideways at Sophia. “And the little lynx never sleeps, so he always has the upper hand.”

  “I think I’ll count myself lucky that Lunis and I can’t share a bedroom anymore.” Sophia laughed.

  “You should,” Plato remarked. “This one snores something awful. If I did sleep, it would never happen with someone around.”

  Liv laughed at this and drained her beer. “Okay, you called us here to sell us on your pyramid scheme. Go ahead, give us your best pitch.”

  “To recruit the next librarian for the Great Library,” Plato stated as if he hadn’t heard the joke.