Time is a funny thing. When you have a headache, five minutes seem like an eternity. When you’re trying to prepare for the otrokari celebration, make two additional guest suites, one for the vampires and the other for the merchants, and pacify a melodramatic seven foot tall hedgehog-like chef convinced that his fish will become inedible because it has to wait an extra hour in the refrigerator, three hours go by in a blink.
I hurried to the front room. The sun had set, the day burning down to purple embers in the west. Twilight claimed the streets, painting the floorboards of the hallway in cool blue and purple. We had less than fifteen minutes before the celebration started. I made it just as George walked down the stairs. He was wearing an indigo doublet that set off his pale hair. Jack followed him, dressed in dark brown leather.
“The House Meer is incoming in ten minutes,” I told them.
“Good.” George smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile.
The magic of the inn tugged on me. Something was happening in front of the building. I stepped to the window. In front of me the long stretch of Camelot Road rolled out before turning, and on the corner, half-hidden by the enormous prickly pear the Hendersons refused to trim, a police cruiser waited. Oh great.
“Problems?” George asked.
“Officer Marais’ intuition never fails.”
George glanced at his brother. Jack shrugged and pulled off his shirt, exposing a hard, muscled frame.
“Jack will take care of it,” George said.
That’s what I was afraid of. “Please don’t hurt him,” I said.
“The guy is ruining your life and you want me not to hurt him.” Jack’s pants followed. He kept going, and I kept my gaze firmly on his face.
“Officer Marais isn’t trying to ruin my life. He’s trying to do his job and keep the neighborhood safe.”
“Fine, fine.” The last shred of clothing landed on the floor. “I’ll be back in time for the fireworks.”
Jack stretched and then his body broke apart. Fur spilled out. For a moment he almost appeared to be suspended in midair, then his body twisted, crunched, knotted on itself, and a large lynx landed on my floor.
Okay. That was certainly interesting. What the hell was he? He wasn’t the Sun Horde, that’s for sure.
“Could you open the back door please?” George asked.
The back door swung open and the lynx shot out through the kitchen into the night. Something banged. A screech echoed through the inn.
“It is enough I put up with the dog. Must I have cat hair in my food as well?” Orro yelled.
He’d missed his calling. He should’ve become a Shakespearean actor instead.
Beast barked, clearly offended.
“My apologies.” I turned to the wall. “Screen please. Front camera feed, zoom in three hundred percent.”
A screen sprouted on the wall giving me a detailed view of Officer Marais’ car and its owner, leaning back in his seat.
Something thumped the cruiser. It rocked on its wheels.
Officer Marais sat up straight.
Another thump.
Another.
Officer Marais swung the door open and stepped out, illuminated by the glow of the nearby street lamp, one hand on his gun. He stepped around the car and checked its rear.
The crape myrtle bushes in the yard across the street rustled.
Officer Marais turned smoothly and stepped away from the car. The bushes rustled again, shivering, as something moved away from the car toward the street light.
Marais followed, his steps careful.
A lynx emerged from the bushes and sat on the pavement.
Officer Marais froze, his hand on his sidearm. His face told me he was calculating his odds. He’d walked too far from the car. If he turned and ran, the lynx would catch him.
Now what? If Jack attacked, Marais would fire, I had no doubt of it. “Your brother might get shot,” I warned.
“Jack is a man of many talents,” George said.
Well, that didn’t answer anything.
The lynx stretched, his paws out in front of him, turned, and flopped on the road on his back, like a playful house cat.
Some tension left Officer Marais’ stance. The line of his shoulders softened.
Jack rubbed his big head on the pavement and batted at the empty air with his paws.
“Hey there,” Marais said, his voice hesitant. “Who is a good cat?”
Jack rolled over, sauntered over to the nearest bush and rubbed his head on it.
“Good cat. You’re a big guy, huh. Did you escape from someone’s yard? People should have more sense than to own wild animals like that.” Officer Marais took a careful step back.
Jack whipped about. His furry butt pointed at Officer Marais, hit tail went up, and a jet of pressurized cat spray drenched Marais’ chest.
Oh no.
“Aaa!” Marais leaped back and jerked his gun up, but Jack had vanished as if he never was there.
“Sonovabitch!” Marais shook his left hand dripping with cat urine. “Damn it all to hell.”
His face stretched, as if he had just taken a gulp of sour milk.
He looked down on his chest and gagged. “Oh Jesus.”
Next to me Sophie clamped her hand over her mouth and made some strangled noises.
Marais tried to hold on to his composure.
His chin quivered. He gagged again, bent over, and dry heaved.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or to feel bad.
“Oh sweet Jesus.”
Officer Marais straightened and marched to his car, his face contorted. The cruiser’s lights came on as the engine roared into life and the big car tore out of the neighborhood.