Monstrous Intent, page 15
I glance down at my rumpled clothes. I haven’t taken a shower yet today and I’m positive I haven’t even looked in the mirror since before we were threatened with murder but suuuure.
“What do we do with our houseguest?” I ask.
“Roger? Well… I have an idea. Get me the shears.” Lake looks absolutely evil when he says this.
I stare at him long enough he just sighs.
“Fine. I’ll get them myself,” Lake decides.
I watch as he grabs the shears and Emma lets out a noise.
“You… you used my kitchen shears?” she asks in horror as the realization of what those shears have gone through dawns on her. “I… I used those to cook yesterday.”
“Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” Lake says. “I washed them after I licked them clean. How much cleaner can they get?”
I really hope Lake is joking but it’s impossible to tell. Poor Emma is regretting everything again as Lake merrily heads off with a “RRRRRoger, I’m coming.”
Quickly, I get up to follow him down to where Roger is staring at us in horror. “Please, Declan. Please. I know we’ve butted heads in the past, but please.”
Lake won’t be deterred. “I’m going to tell you a story, Roger. A story about a little piggy who went to the market…” Lake falls silent for a long moment before looking at me in shock. “Christ!”
“What?”
“I never realized that meant it was going to slaughter! I always thought it meant it was going shopping!” he says.
“What kind of monster are you?” I ask in disbelief.
“My world has changed… what is this? My childhood is a lie.”
“Lake, stay on task.”
“Right.” He clears his throat, shows off the shears again and goes, “Roger, we’re going to let you go, but I need to tell you something first. The people on the board aren’t humans, they’re chimeras. You might think I’m lying to you but know that when they give you and your hunters orders, you need to second-guess them. And when you finally decide that maybe I’m right, and the people you’re following blindly don’t have your best interests at heart, think of me and let’s see if we can help each other out. Got it?”
Roger stares, incapable of admitting if he’s got it or not. Honestly, he just looks horrified. Lake lowers the shears and cuts the tape free from his arms and wrists before pulling a pillowcase over his head.
“Ready to let our fledgling fly?” Lake asks.
“Please don’t push me off a cliff,” Roger begs.
“Not literally fly,” Lake says. “He’s such a worrywart. So unnecessary.”
We take him outside and I put him in the back seat with Lake. I get in the driver’s seat and Emma gets in the passenger seat.
“Try to keep your hood up in case anyone sees us,” I tell Emma. I know Roger has seen her face, though it’d be hard for him to place her, but if the others saw us driving into town with her, it’d put her at risk.
About five miles from the cabin, I pull over and Lake drags Roger out.
Roger is stiff as a board as he stumbles, terror emanating from him even though I can’t see his face. He’s mistakenly convinced that it’s a cliff he’s going off even though I don’t actually know of any cliffs in the area. “You’re not allowed to take the pillowcase off. You better start running,” Lake says, but the way he says it makes it sound like he’ll be following along. Like this is part of a chase that Lake is eager to be on.
Roger shoots out, running faster than I thought the man could run. And out of the large open field that currently sits empty, he finds the single tree and runs face-first into it. He hits so hard he flips down onto his back.
Lake quickly gets in the car. “Don’t say anything, just drive.”
“Is he even alive?” I ask.
“Shhh… just drive.”
“Should we check?”
“Drive, just drive. Just… drive. God, I love it when you just drive away from my victim who still isn’t getting up. But he’s fine. I’m sure he’s fine,” Lake says while nodding wildly. It tells me that he’s actually not quite sure, but as I drive off I notice Lake staring out the back window. “Oh, he twitched. He’s good.”
While I’m not sure if Lake could actually see him twitch from this distance, I give Emma an encouraging thumbs up so she knows that he’s A-OK and we didn’t just murder a man.
Oddly, she looks less than convinced, but really, I think that’s just her own opinion.
“I want to stop by my place,” Lake says.
“Why?” I ask.
“I… have a pet and I can’t just let him starve to death.”
“Like he hasn’t already been starving to death? It’s been days.”
“I had the landlord check on him but he refuses to eat for her, and I don’t trust anyone else with him.” Lake pops into the middle and stares at me with more conviction in his eyes than I’ve ever seen. He obviously cares about his pet, and hell… I could see those monsters killing it just to get back at him.
“Fine. You know they might be watching.”
“True. And they might know about us. Hell, Patrick could have told them about our sexy love affair,” Lake says.
“We don’t have a love affair,” I remind him.
“Oh… that’s disappointing,” he says. “Anyway, we’ll leave our getaway car with our pet and sneak in. When we have Sir Reginald, I’ll give her a call and she can grab us in the getaway car. It’ll be fine.”
“I can’t believe we’re risking our lives for this,” I grumble, but it is what it is. As soon as we have Lake’s pet, we’ll be out of this city and headed for Hillford, three hours from here. Hopefully, we’ll be able to stay ahead of them and keep the upper hand.
When we get near Lake’s apartment, I pull over in a crowded parking lot so the car will blend in and turn to Emma. “Last chance to back out.”
“I’m in,” she says, determined.
“Our hope is to get in without being spotted, but if we are, I need you to be prepared to pick us up, okay? Keep your face covered. Make a mask out of your shirt if you need to. I don’t want them aware you’re assisting us.”
“Got it,” she says as I get out of the vehicle with Lake.
“We really should be going back to my place to get weapons instead,” I say, unsure how “Sir Reginald” is going to be of use to us.
“But Sir Reginald…” Lake says, looking sad.
I shake my head, realizing that he’s an idiot, but he’s prepared to go to great lengths for “Sir Reginald.”
Leaving the vehicle behind, I keep moving. Lake is determined as he walks, actually being serious for once. I can tell he’s listening and looking as we keep going, waiting for the ambush to occur.
“I don’t see anyone yet,” Lake says.
“Probably didn’t think we were stupid enough to go back,” I say as he reaches the apartment building and slips inside without an issue. I follow him over to the elevator which he presses before freezing.
“Shit, no, I think I sense something. Get to the stairs,” he says as he slides past me and yanks a door open. I move with him as he walks inside the stairwell before I grab a broom and ram it through the handle on the door we’d just passed through. It wouldn’t stop a monster but might slow them momentarily.
He’s moving fast and silently. It’s like his footsteps don’t even make a noise, and honestly, it’s impressive. Even with my years of training as a hunter, I feel like it’s impossible to fully eliminate all noise when moving with speed, especially in an echoey place like a stairwell, but Lake is moving silently and skillfully, making me question just how good this man is at fighting. He looks determined as he holds a knife—where the fuck did he get that knife?
“That’s my knife,” I whisper.
“Huh? This knife?” he asks, like there’s another knife in the equation.
I pat my side where the knife was in its place not long ago. “You stole my knife.”
“Whoopsies,” he says, then blows me a kiss and scurries on up the stairs.
How the hell did he get my knife without me even noticing? It knocks me off my game when he does things like that. He’s so at ease and goofy that I find myself letting my guard down before he does something like this.
Thankfully, we don’t have to go very far before reaching the floor his apartment is on. Before even pulling the door open, he stops and listens for a moment. “I think we’re clear. They were probably watching us from outside and aren’t in here yet,” he says as he pulls it open and takes off running.
I follow behind him, watching our backs and the location of the elevator. He slides his key in and unlocks the door before stepping inside. I’m surprised when Sir Reginald isn’t at the door to greet us, but then again, I don’t remember seeing him last time either. I suppose maybe “Sir Reginald” is a cat who isn’t the fondest of strangers. Hell, I’m not quite sure how traveling with a nervous cat is going to go.
“Sir Reginald, I’m home, baby,” Lake says as he runs straight for his bedroom while I creep over to the window and pull back a curtain enough to look out. I don’t see anyone on the ground but as my eyes go up, I see a glint of something a moment before I dive back and the window cracks.
“Fucking hell,” I cry at the narrow escape.
“Did you get shot?” Lake asks as he dips out of the bedroom and runs for the kitchen as the sniper takes another shot, likely at Lake this time.
“Not yet!” I say. Here I was expecting chimeras to be after us, but it honestly makes more sense for the hunters to be. The chimeras wouldn’t want to give away their position unless they had to.
Lake trots back to the bedroom, ducking past the windows as he goes. I can see the hunter who is hiding on a roof, using some kind of wall to his advantage.
I left my rifle in the car, so all I have is a handgun which does little to help the situation when they’re so far away I can barely make them out. And even if I could… would I shoot them? They think they’re doing what they’re supposed to. They have no idea what’s really happening here.
Suddenly, I get a weird feeling. Like what if Sir Reginald is neither cat nor dog but a monster? A lesser monster like the one I’d fought at the park that can’t shift to a human. To a crazy chimera like Lake, it’d just be like having a pet animal. Dear god, I’m not toting a monster around. I have enough monsters to deal with.
“Are you ready?” I ask as I run into the bedroom where Lake had run off to and gasp. Like shock literally forces my body to gasp. “What the fuck are you doing?” Is this worse than a lesser chimera? This is worse.
Lake freezes where he’s at, a plastic container of water in one hand and a net with a flopping fish in the other. “Getting Sir Reginald. What the hell does it look like I’m doing?” he asks a moment before he ducks as a bullet tears through the window in the bedroom.
I feel as if the words I want to say have left my body. “S-Sir… Reginald… I risked my life for a fucking fish?” I growl. This has to be a joke. This has to be the biggest joke Lake has ever told.
Lake gasps as he plops Sir Reginald into the container of water he must have dipped out of the massive hundred-gallon tank that seems to be a haven for his single stupid fish. “Sir Reginald isn’t just any fish. He’s… Sir Reginald. Screw you and your prejudices, Declan,” he growls as he starts rummaging around.
Another shot sounds and this time it goes straight through the fish tank. Water pours out, soaking my shoes as I jump back.
“A fish. A… fish… LAKE, IT’S A FISH. Just like eat it or something!”
Lake gasps again. “You are the real monster here!” he says, sounding defensive.
“You got your stupid fish. Now what are you doing?”
“He needs a heater and a filter! I have a small one in here somewhere. And he needs his favorite leaf. He likes to sleep on his leaf. Can you grab it?” He tries to hand me the fish’s food but when I refuse to take it, he sticks it in his pocket.
I look into the tank where a stupid rubber leaf is suction cupped to the side. I stab it with my knife before presenting it to him.
“A little harsh but thank you,” he says as he pulls it off my knife.
“This is what I want to do to you right now,” I say.
“You wanna poke me with something long and hard? I mean… sounds fun, but it seems like someone isn’t too happy that we’re here, and oh! I found it!”
I look down into the container where the fancy betta fish is just chilling inside. I swear it looks up at me with its beady eyes as my entire body is filled with rage at this ludicrous scenario.
“A fish,” I whisper.
“Yeah, he’s cool, isn’t he? He looks all fancy when the light hits him just right,” he says as he pops a lid onto the container. “Can you poke some air holes in it?”
“Gladly,” I say as I stab the container, disappointed my knife doesn’t reach the fish. Even more disappointed when my knife misses Lake’s hand.
“Ha ha, I think you trimmed a little hair there. Thank you. I didn’t like that hair,” he says as he looks down at his hand.
“You’re welcome. Now I’m leaving, and I hope you don’t make it.”
“God, you’re cute,” he says as he slips past me and takes off through the door, toting his fish. “Stop being so slow.”
A fish. I came up here, risked my life, and destroyed my sanity… for a fish.
A fish that’s likely going to be dead by the time we reach the car at the speed Lake is going.
A fish that I will fry up for breakfast after this.
A fucking fish named Sir Reginald.
What am I doing with my life?
When I finally reach the last step of the stairs on the second floor, Lake is waiting for me. “What the hell took you so long?” he asks.
“I’m sorry. My brain is short-circuiting after I rescued a fish.”
“It’s just because you don’t know Sir Reginald that you don’t get it,” he says before holding the container up. “Look at him.”
God, I hate that stupid little fish face.
“Eh.”
Lake looks genuinely offended. “He’s cute!”
“Just go.”
“I’m going,” he says as he pushes through the door onto the second floor and steps into a hallway identical to the one we’d just been on. He starts rushing down the hallway and beating on doors. It takes him three doors before one opens, and as the man goes, “Hello?” Lake shoves him back and slips into the apartment.
“Excuse me, I’m just using your balcony to exit. Thank you very much. Aw, you have such a cute dog!” he says as the chihuahua in question shrilly barks at the sudden intruders. The tiny fucker skips past Lake and goes right for me, chomping down on my ankle as I race after Lake.
“Ow, let go! Dammit,” I growl as Lake throws the balcony door open while I run with a ten-pound menace attached to my leg.
“Princess! Princess!” the man yells as I look down into the eyes of Princess Death herself.
“Just gently pull her off!” Lake says as he climbs up onto the railing, like that’s the simplest solution. I’m inclined to just jump off with the dog attached and wish it luck, but I reach down to pull her off and she moves as fast as lightning and chomps down on my hand instead.
“Christ!” I yell as the menace sinks her teeth in while I holler. “Get your damn rat off my hand!”
The man is horrified but runs over and grabs Princess who is doing a death shake to my hand now, or at least trying to. Every time the man pulls, her teeth sink in deeper. Lake rushes up and gently pets her. “Baby, let go,” he says, and the damn thing listens to him, but I think out of pure terror more than anything.
Bleeding, I rush to the balcony and look down at the jump below. There’s a small delivery truck parked under us that Lake majestically leaps down on while cradling his fish. I climb up onto the railing and leap just as the delivery truck pulls off.
I find myself flailing through the air, the road looking quite painful below me before I land in Lake’s arms.
“I gotchu, big boy,” he says like catching a man well over his weight with ease is an everyday thing. He sets me down on my feet and picks up the fish he’d set down. “You’re welcome.”
“For what?” I growl a moment before I see a hunter and shove him out of the way of an oncoming bullet.
“Aww, you just protected me! That’s so sweet!”
“We’re eating that fish for dinner.”
“Not Sir Reginald!”
I lift my gun and fire in the direction the shot had come from, purposely missing because I can’t kill them when they don’t know what they’re doing. They think they’re helping people by hunting down a murderous monster.
“You’re such a brave boy, aren’t you, Sir Reginald?” the “murderous monster” coos as he runs across the street.
If only they knew what kind of monster they were actually shooting at. A man slips out from around the building and I realize it’s Patrick a moment before I aim my gun at his head.
“What the hell are you doing, Declan?” he asks.
“Patrick, you need to look into who is running the board. I’ve seen a lot of evidence pointing to the board being run by chimeras,” I say.
Patrick shakes his head. “No, Lake is the chimera. They’ve given us proof. You’re helping the monster.”
Of course he’s not going to be persuaded that easily. “Patrick, please listen to me. I know it’s hard to comprehend, but the board is being controlled by monsters.”
He seems uncertain as he shakes his head again. “They showed us a video of Lake killing Jameson.”
“Did they show you the part where Jameson shot him first?”
Patrick hesitates. “Declan, I don’t know, but I do know that you’re making a mistake helping him. He killed Roger too.”
“Roger’s not dead, I took him,” I say.
He looks at me in shock. “What?”
“Patrick, please, just watch yourself. You don’t want to wind up dead at the end of this because you realize you’re playing for the wrong team. Talk to Roger, please. I’ve already let him go.”
He seems conflicted before pulling out his radio. He shakes his head before making a call to his team. “I think I see them on the west side,” he says, which is the opposite direction of where we’re at.
