by Geonn Cannon
"I-I don't... I don't know who you are. Last night? Last night I was here. I've been here f-for... wh-who are you looking for?"
"Dale Frye," Ari said. "This is his place."
"I don't know who that is. This is my house."
She raised her eyebrows. "You're Dale?"
"I'm Luke! Luke Becker. This is my house, and I don't know... Are you wearing my clothes?"
She winced and sucked in a breath through her teeth. "I am. Gee. Don't you hate it when people take things that don't belong to them?" She stepped around the counter and he backed away from her. The bottle of Captain Morgan was on the counter with only enough for one more glass clinging to the bottom. "Hey. Where are the keys to the TV room?"
His eyes moved to the right. "Uh."
"I want to watch TV, sexy. And I thought I'd free those girls you had kidnapped in there."
His anxiety and confusion evaporated in an instant. His awkwardness became anger, and he stood up a little straighter. She saw realization dawning in his eyes.
"Wait a second. You're the woman who was at the baseball field."
"Yep." She grabbed the Captain Morgan by the neck and swung it upward. Becker deflected the blow, knocking her arm back as he brought his half-full glass around and tossed it at her. Ari ducked and it shattered on the back of her head, sending a torrent of warm liquid down over her.
Becker rushed her, using his arms like braces to keep her from moving to either side. She hit the fridge hard enough to knock the wind out of her, coughing as Becker backed up and punched her in the side of the head. Ari's vision exploded in sparks as she dropped to her knees in front of him. He grabbed a handful of her hair and bent down, his breath hot on the side of her face as he spoke.
"This is over. It's finally over. And I won."
Ari punched him between the legs.
She put all of her strength behind it, delivering the blow with enough force that Becker toppled backward. The scent of alcohol floated around her like a pungent cloud, blocking any other smells so effectively that she felt as if she'd been muzzled. Becker opened a drawer and pulled a knife, swinging blindly as he lunged at her. Ari ducked toward the stove and grabbed one of the coiled burners. She pulled it off and used it as a shield. When he thrust the knife at her, Ari caught it on the curved metal and twisted to get it out of his hand.
Becker stumbled off-balance trying to keep hold of his weapon and Ari punched him in the face. His glasses broke and he fell, landing unceremoniously on his ass. He looked up at her, dazed, and Ari tossed the burner onto the stove. It landed with a clatter and Ari moved closer.
"It is over. You lost."
She took a dishtowel off the counter, lifted his arms, and bound his wrists to the door of the fridge. It wasn't going to hold him long, but she hoped it would be enough of a trap for her to do what needed to be done.
Ari snagged the padlock key off the hook next to the kitchen door and hurried back to the TV room. She got the lock undone and pushed the door open, taking the lock with her so Becker couldn't just lock her in with the girls if he got free. The room was sparsely furnished, with a couch along one wall and an armchair in the other. The TV was in the corner, set at an angle so it could be seen from most points in the room.
Lucy Chabot was sitting on the floor with her back to the couch, her knees drawn up and her arms resting across them. Her head was tilted to the side, her cheek fat where it rested against her arm. Melody Scott was laying on the couch like she had been drugged, obviously bored and frightened by her long ordeal. Lucy turned toward the door when it opened, but Melody only shifted her eyes away from the TV with disinterest. When they saw her, however, they both perked up.
"You're not him," Melody said. Her voice started flat, but just three brief syllables Ari heard the beginnings of hope stirring.
"Nope. I am definitely not him." She scanned the small room and saw two coats - one burgundy and the other blue - tangled in a pile in the corner. "Get your coats, ladies. I'm taking you both back to your parents."
Chapter Twenty-four
Melody moved with renewed vigor, tugging on her jacket before helping Lucy into hers. Ari heard Becker banging and clattering in the kitchen as he tried to free himself. She didn't want to rush them, didn't want them any more scared than they already were, but if they didn't leave soon Becker would be back into play. She kept her voice as calm as she could.
"Okay, girls. You got everything?"
"Yes."
"Okay. My name is Ari. I'm going to call the police and they'll come take you home."
Lucy said, "You're not supposed to call the police except in an emergency."
Ari smiled, remembering Jenna's reluctance to use her mother's phone. "It's okay, honey. I have permission."
She ushered the girls out ahead of her, trying to remember if she had seen a phone in the kitchen. They had just crossed the threshold of the TV room when something crashed and clattered to the tile floor and she heard Becker falling to the ground with a shout of victory. She put her hands on the girls' shoulders and stopped them from continuing on.
"Okay... new plan. Come on, this way."
She turned the girls toward the greenhouse and urged them to move faster. They hurried past the laundry room and Ari slammed the door behind her once they were inside the empty glass cube. There was a dial on the wall to operate the lights, and Ari twisted it until the light was intense enough to turn the glass walls into mirrors. She knew that Becker should have been able to get to the greenhouse from the kitchen, and only one thing would have delayed him.
He was arming himself.
The greenhouse door didn't lock from the inside, so she guided the girls to the exterior door. They went outside into the cold, the girls huddling together as Ari looked for something to block the door with. There was nothing that would stop a man of Becker's size, so she gave up looking and began to examine their escape options.
The truck was at the top of the driveway. They would be out in the open for far too long, and Ari didn't feel like tempting the man who shot Brandon Kent from across a baseball field. Their only real option was the woods. She was still wearing the underwear and T-shirt, her feet no longer cozy in the snow-soaked socks, but she wasn't about to strip naked in front of two kids no matter what the danger was.
"Girls, I want you to close your eyes. There's going to be a dog here when you open them again, and it's going to be wearing this collar." She touched her throat. "I want you to grab hold of the collar and get on the dog's back. You won't hurt it, okay? Just hold on tight and cover your faces."
Lucy nodded and, a few seconds later Melody did as well. They put their arms around each other and covered their faces. Ari quickly shoved down her boxers and pulled the T-shirt over her head, transforming as she dropped to her knees. She remembered her socks too late, her feet twisting and shaping inside the cotton.
The door to the greenhouse opened and Ari turned to face the exit. With the light reflecting off the interior walls, she could see Becker but he couldn't see her. He was carrying a rifle in one hand, reaching out with his other hand to open the door. He was moving fast since, in his mind, Ari and the girls had started running as soon as they were outside. Ari crouched on her forepaws and timed it.
Becker pushed the door open and continued forward. Ari lunged and slammed her weight into the door, knocking it back into his face. Becker recoiled and tripped over his feet, falling flat on his back and lying dazed. Ari spun and barked at the girls.
Melody jumped, looked at Ari with wide eyes, and then looked at the discarded clothes. She scooped them up, tucked them into the front of her coat, and hooked her fingers on Ari's collar. She hunkered down as Lucy did the same, then rose with an extra hundred pounds weighing down on her. She was big as the wolf, but carrying two riders was pushing her strength to the limit. Her breath wreathed her head in thick clouds of fog as she steadied her feet under her passengers. Lucy was practically hanging off Ari's side, and Melody had her leg hooked
over Ari's hips.
Ari was nearly to the woods when Becker slammed through the door again. She heard him cock the rifle and braced for impact, but he didn't fire. His neighbors might be far away, but a gunshot would carry. Ari slipped between two trees and let the shadows obscure her. She heard Becker shout a curse and knew he was giving chase.
The woods weren't really woods at all, more of an undeveloped strip of land between neighborhoods. Ari shoved through the scrub and found spacious stretches between trees. Snow had accumulated in waist-high drifts around the trees, nearly drowning Ari as she tried to shove through with the girls. The trail she was blazing through the snow would make it impossible to evade Becker, so Ari stopped after a few minutes to think of a new plan. She ducked down and lowered her head, grateful when Melody took the hint and let go of her. She tugged the clothes out of her jacket and held them out, and Ari took them in her teeth. Melody seemed to understand what Ari was and turned Lucy's head away.
Well aware of Becker's pursuit, Ari forced her way through the transformation faster than she should have. She tugged the shirt over her head and stepped into the underwear.
"Girls..." Melody turned to face her and Ari pointed. "Go straight through the trees. When you get to the street, go to the first place they have lights on and ask them for help." She saw Becker coming toward them. "Stay together. Just find someplace with people and ask them to call the police. Go, go..."
Melody took Lucy's hand, looked back toward the man lumbering through the snow toward them. Becker's face was beet red, his hair falling limp around his face as he high-stepped through the drifts. His glasses were fogged up, blinding him while at the same time making him look like a cartoon villain. When the girls were gone, Ari ran at Becker. He saw her coming through the condensation on his glasses and swung the rifle up.
"You stupid--"
Ari jumped and slammed into him before he could finish his thought. The gun swung up and hit him in the chest. Ari grabbed the barrel and twisted, throwing her weight to the left and pulling him down with her. She landed hard on her side with him on top of her, her vision filled with his strained expression, the spittle on his lips and the crazed eyes behind glasses that had been knocked askew. The snow partially cushioned their fall but Ari didn't give him a chance to recover. She gripped the gun like she was on a bench press and shoved up, slamming it into his jaw. The blow dazed him enough that she was able to take it from his weakened grip. She tossed it aside and Becker reared back to deliver a punch with all his weight behind it. The blow kinked her neck back, and her teeth caught on the inside of her bottom lip. She brought her hands up inside the brace of his arms, sweeping outward and taking away his support.
When Becker collapsed on top of her, Ari bent her knees and fitted her feet in the hollow of his hips. She shoved backward and he was knocked back. She scrambled away from him, kicking up plumes of snow as he lunged for his rifle. She doubted she would be able to match him physically, but she was going to do everything in her power to keep him occupied until the girls could get somewhere safe.
She turned to face him, crouched low in a fighting stance made ridiculous by her trembling knees and the pallor of her exposed skin. Blood trickled down her chin as she motioned him to come at her. Becker kept the gun low, trying to catch his breath as he scanned the clearing around them.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Ariadne Willow. Nice to meet you. Put down the gun, asshole."
He looked down at it, then swung it up as if he had just remembered what it could be used for.
"Why would I do that?"
"Because if you shoot me, police are going to descend on this neighborhood like the wrath of God."
He shrugged. "I can still get the girls. I can still salvage this."
"Yeah? You go to all this trouble to get away clean and you're going to risk having a police report like that lying around? Neighbors report a gunshot, dead body of a private investigator lying in the woods a hundred yards from your property... you think you'll be able to get Melody away from here with something like that hanging over your head?"
Becker bared his teeth and then angrily tossed the gun away. "Fine. I can kill you quietly."
Ari curled her fingers in a 'come on' taunt, rolling her shoulders as Becker moved toward her. He was still outside of arms' length when a large gray stone rebounded off the back of his skull. His head was thrown forward with enough force to knock off his glasses and Ari saw his eyes were wide with surprise. He spun slowly to see Melody standing at the edge of the clearing. Her face was bright pink above her burgundy jacket, tears glistening on her cheeks as she reared back to toss another rock.
"Leave her alone, Uncle Luke! Leave her alone!" Her voice was little more than a shriek as she let the second rock fly. Becker's arms came up to protect his face and the rock bounced off his forearm just beneath his elbow. Ari rushed him from behind and jumped, bringing her left arm up and bending it so that the fist was braced against her neck. When she came down she slammed the elbow into the back of Becker's neck just below the base of his skull.
Becker went down on his knees and Ari's weight pushed him the rest of the way to the ground. She slipped her arm around his neck and grabbed her wrist with the other hand. She pulled and Becker choked and flailed, blood matting the back of his head where Melody's first rock had hit him. Ari bared her teeth as she tightened the noose of her elbow until his body went limp. She kept up the hold until she was certain he wasn't faking, then she let him go and pushed herself up on all fours.
When she lifted her head she saw that Melody was still frozen in place, her shoulders shaking with the force of her sobs.
"Sweetheart, go get--"
Lucy appeared through the scrub, leading a uniformed security guard by the hand. He looked confused by what was happening, but the confusion vanished in an instant. He let go of Lucy's hand to draw his Taser, aiming it at Ari. She showed him her palms and slowly sat up on her knees. Before she could offer assurances that she was on his side, Melody broke her paralysis and ran across the clearing. She threw her arms around Ari and the impact nearly knocked her over. Ari met the guard's eye.
"Can I put my hands down to hug her?"
"Uh. Sure."
Ari hugged Melody as the guard moved to check on Becker. Ari's adrenaline faded and the pain of every transformation, the fight she'd just had, the exhaustion of running with two seven-year-olds hanging off her collar hit her in a wave. She held on tight to Melody and closed her eyes, grateful for the chance to relax. Behind her, she heard the guard calling for backup.
"We didn't stay together," Melody said against Ari's neck.
Ari chuckled. "You did the right thing, honey."
"When can I go home?"
"Soon. Really, really soon. I think you've been gone long enough."
#
The police flanked both sides of the wooded area, one team focused on Luke Becker's house while the other acted as the command center near the site where he was arrested and the girls were recovered. Ari was questioned by the first officers on the scene, and again by the first detectives. When she was finally cleared of any wrongdoing, she was given a pair of coveralls and boots from the crime scene unit.
The detective in charge was a woman named Amy Hensler. Ari approached her and suggested maybe the girls could wait somewhere warm until their parents arrived, and the detective agreed. Ari escorted them across the street to a strip mall that was glowing in the gloom with soft and inviting light. The first shop in the row was a frozen yogurt shop.
Lucy tugged on the cuff of Ari's sleeve. "Can we have ice cream?"
"It's ten degrees out here." Ari looked down and saw the hope in the girl's eyes and crumbled. "Ice cream, huh? Why not. You want ice cream, Melody?"
"Yes, please."
Ari smiled and led them into the shop. The girl behind the counter had obviously been watching the drama across the street. She tried to act disinterested, but she had the same wide-eyed awe of someone w
ho was playing it cool when they crossed paths with a celebrity.
"Hi," Ari said. "I don't have my wallet--"
"It's fine. On the house. Looks like you three had a hard enough night." She looked down at the girl clutching Ari's right hand. "Are you Missing Melody?"
Melody pressed against Ari's side, trying to disappear into her shadow. "I'm Melody Louise Scott."
The clerk smiled brightly, almost giddy at the realization that the long citywide nightmare would have a happy ending after all. "Well, a lot of people are going to be very glad you're okay. You can have whatever you want."
Melody was quiet for a moment, no longer the rock-hurling beast that had saved Ari's life. Finally she said, "Pink."
Ari smiled. "Do you want sprinkles?"
"Gummy bears."
Ari and the clerk both laughed. Ari put her hand on top of Melody's head. "I like the way you think, girl. One strawberry with gummy bears, please. And..."
Lucy said, "Can I have chocolate and vanilla?"
"And a swirl."
The clerk smiled. "Coming right up."
They took their ice cream to a booth. Melody and Lucy sat on one side and Ari sat on the other. She tried to disguise how badly it hurt her to move, but she'd been beaten up rather badly over the past few hours and the smooth plastic seat of the booth wasn't exactly helping. She rested her arms on the table and rested her chin on her crossed arms. The shop felt impossibly hot after running around through the snow for an hour. She broke out in sweat that evaporated as her body acclimated to the normal temperatures.
The girls were almost finished with their ice cream when the door opened and Dale came in. She spotted Ari and let out a breath she'd obviously been holding for a while. Ari slid aside so Dale could sit next to her.
"Are you okay?"
Ari nodded and took Dale's hand. Dale put her head down on Ari's shoulder, and Ari sagged against her as the girls ate their desserts. A few minutes later a uniformed officer came to retrieve them, and Ari reluctantly handed them over. After everything she'd gone through to save them she was reluctant to just let them go again. But the Chabot and Scott families had arrived and were understandably eager for a reunion.