Monstrous Intent, page 18
I take my new Lake deterrent, and the moment I’m out the door, I pull it on. I feel absolutely ridiculous and look horribly dreadful but it’s all worth it to get a good look at Lake’s disgusted face.
“God, you’re still sexy,” he says. “That is some true power to look sexy wearing even that.”
Fuck.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
DECLAN
“Stop looking at me.”
“What else am I supposed to look at?” Lake gives me this beaming smile. “My eyes are just drawn to your little danglies,” he says as he starts flicking some of the leather fringe on the shirt. Honestly, the shirt has done everything but keep him away. “Do you like it when I flick your dangly-doos?”
I wave at the Hillford DRD building that we’re currently parked outside of. Our plan for today is to wait for someone of worth to leave the building before we question them and possibly stop them. I need Lake around to tell me who the chimeras are; otherwise there’s absolutely no reason I’d have him here with me. “Will you focus and pay attention?”
“Honestly, it’s highly unlikely. I can use my supreme hearing to tell when someone is exiting the building, and then I will use my super ultra-sexy hunter to tackle them to the ground while I root you on,” he says, still playing with the stupid leather bits.
I smack his hand off and he grins at me. With a sigh so he knows I am beyond irritated at this point, I wave at the building again. “Please stay focused.”
“Fine.”
Lake sits back in his seat and stares at the building for a few minutes as I notice he begins fumbling with the bottom of his shirt, then starts picking at a string on his pants, digging his nails into it repeatedly. Either he has absolutely no patience or he’s still having trouble since last night.
So what happens when he hits his limit in this body? Could he force a shift and then kill himself because of the band? Although, it has been years that he’s been like this, so I’m sure he knows how to deal with it even if it’s a pain to do so.
“How do you usually deal with this shit?” I ask as I wave at him.
“You’ve been doing a lot of waving lately, like you think simply by making your arm tassels dance you won’t have to use the power of speech.”
I glower at him. “Your problem that you told me about last night. I can tell you’re antsy.”
“Oh. Finding ways to expend energy helps. Sometimes I run, sometimes I go find someone to fight, and sometimes I find someone to fuck. We could have sex?”
“No.”
“We could fight?”
“After we’re done here, I would love to kick your ass,” I decide, although the way he was able to pick that hammer up makes me question if maybe I wouldn’t win in a fight if he was going all out. He’s not as used to fighting in this body, so maybe I’d still have the upper hand.
He gasps.
“What?” I ask.
Lake points out the window where I see a small black chimera about the size of a fox slink around the corner. It has more fur than the average chimera, with two thick foxlike tails as it slinks down the road, looking like it’s prepared to eat the next thing that looks at it. “It’s so cute!”
“It’s not cute, go kill it,” I say.
He shifts narrowed eyes onto me. “Why would I kill the harmless tiny little chimera? It’s a low subspecies and it’s doing nothing wrong,” he says as he turns back to see the small creature snatch a bird out of the air and tear its head off.
“So cute,” I say dryly. “Go kill it.”
“You go kill it,” he grumbles.
“I will,” I say as I go to get out, but he grabs my wrist in a vise grip. “What are you doing?”
“It’s really cute,” he says, like that’s a valid reason not to murder it.
I look back at the bird corpse that was left behind because it’s found something more fun to hunt. “Look at it, it’s stalking that man,” I say as it hunkers down and stalks toward a man who is too busy staring at his phone to even notice.
“It’s like a little kitten, it’s perfectly fine. It’s not like it can actually eat a human,” Lake says a moment before the “little kitten” pounces onto the man’s back, wrapping its paws around his neck and chomping down right on the top of the man’s head.
“One moment, please,” Lake says as he exits the vehicle and takes off running after the screaming man who is busy fleeing down the street with a monster strapped to his head. It’s a good thing Lake’s quite fast, otherwise I’m not sure he’d have ever caught up to the man who is putting some impressive distance between us while giving the thing he’s afraid of a free ride.
Instead of immediately killing the creature, Lake grabs it by the scruff of its neck and tries to pull it off, but the monster is still attached to the man. I roll down the window so I can hear the yowls of displeasure from here.
Really, I should help, but it seems like he has it under control as the monster flips around and latches on to Lake’s face.
“No! Stop! I’m trying to help you!” Lake says.
God, I could watch this all day if it weren’t for the people running in fear, drawing attention to Lake. With a sigh, I get out of the car and hurry down the road at a run just as the thing leaps off Lake’s face, hisses, and swipes at him before scurrying down into the dark alley. Just as I turn to shoot it, Lake grabs my wrist.
“M-My beautiful face,” he says as he touches his cut cheek.
“Yes, I’m going to go avenge your face by murdering it.”
“Declan… please… in my final moments, I need to touch your quivering pecs. They give me strength,” he whispers.
“You’re not distracting me from killing it. It literally attacked you and you still want to save it. It tried eating a man.”
“It was hungry!”
“If it was hungry, it wouldn’t have left the bird carcass. It wants to eat a human.”
“No! Just love me. You should accept me so I can gobble you up every day. Your new name should just be Yum—oh shit.”
“What?” I ask.
He points. “The guy currently heading down into the subway is the guy we’ve been waiting for,” he says as he takes off at a run. “Try to look casual.”
“Me?” I ask, keeping pace as I look over at the clawed man, scratches across his face, blood oozing out from multiple wounds. “You want me to look casual? What about your face?”
Lake takes a swipe at it which does nothing but smear the blood all over his face. “It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine.”
“Oh, it’s fine,” he repeats as he hurries down the stairs, so I follow him, but I don’t see the man anywhere.
“Shit,” I say as I start looking through the throngs of people.
“He went this way,” Lake says as he takes a quick right before reaching the turnstile which I debate jumping, but with so many people watching, would we get held up?
“Excuse me, darling, family emergency, may I cut?” Lake asks a woman at the front of the ticket line.
“Go ahead,” she says as he slips in front and buys the tickets with ease before handing me one.
“Looks like he went eastbound.”
“How can you tell?” I ask.
“I can smell him.”
“That’s not unnerving,” I realize as I run after him.
I can hear the train squealing to a stop, but I still can’t see it. The transit system isn’t known for its long delays, so passengers have to be in the area to make it. When I reach the platform, I have to push through people who’ve just exited to even get close to the train.
We might miss him, which isn’t the end of the world, but it’d force us to lie in wait another day. And another day of waiting is just another day that we’re sitting ducks, waiting for them to come to us when we currently have the upper hand.
Lake shoves me hard, pushing me through the closing door. We slam into some man who’d been standing too close to the door and looks ready to put up a fight.
“I’m so sorry,” Lake says, and while I’m almost positive a normal Lake could have pulled this off, a Lake who appears to have just taken on a mini cougar makes the man decide to go to the other side of the subway car. Hell, maybe that’s why the woman at the ticket booth backed away as well.
“Okay, so I think he’s that way,” Lake says as we start moving. “I shouldn’t go with you because he could probably smell me. But don’t get too close, just pay attention to when he gets off and give me a call.” He waves at the phone in his pocket that Emma picked up for us.
“Got it,” I say as I walk over to the door between the cars. And though we’re not supposed to go through them, especially not while moving, people still do it enough that no one looks at me funny as I pass from this car to the next one. Once inside, I look around, but I don’t see the man in the red coat anywhere, so I move to the next and lean against that door before looking into the next car.
I have to lean quite a bit to see him, but I finally catch sight of the guy. He’s too close to the door to pass through. If he happens to know what I look like, he’ll immediately be put on edge, so I remain leaning against the door as I pull out my phone to text Lake.
Me: He’s two cars back, close to the door, so I’m staying in this car. Can you tell me anything about him?
Lake: If you’re not venturing any closer, I’ll come to you.
I glance up as the door opens and Lake walks over to me. There are enough people in here that he has to squeeze in tight against my body to find room, and I find myself having to try to ignore his close proximity.
“God, I love your fringe. I’m drawn to it like flies to a light,” he says.
“Shit,” I say as I realize I’m still wearing the stupid shirt. My plan had been to take it off before any human ever saw me again, but the whole mess with the chimera threw me off. “Just… stay focused.”
“Focused is my middle name. Now what did you want, my scrumptious man?”
I ignore that. “Who is this guy?”
“Oh, right. His name is Nightflyer Two Thousand.”
I stare at him.
“Fine, it’s Samuel. I just wanted it to sound cool for you, Declan,” Lake says. “Dammit, I try so hard and—”
“I just can’t even focus with the blood smeared across your face. It’s like you decided to finger paint with it,” I say as I grab his shirt in one hand and snatch a handful of his hair in the other to hold him steady as I wipe at drying blood that will get us attention. Thankfully, no one is paying us any mind in the corner.
“You’re babying me,” Lake says with doe eyes. It’s the most irritating thing I’ve ever witnessed.
“No, I’m helping us keep our cover.”
“My heart,” he says as the train slows to a stop at another station. I peek through the window, but Samuel is still seated as more people get on, packing us in closer.
“Oh no, there’s nowhere to stand, I wonder what I should do,” Lake says, sounding absolutely fake as he presses in until his groin is practically sitting on my thigh.
The power it takes to not think about his dick pressed against me is impressive. I feel like I should get the shiniest gold star in my life for the restraint I exhibit as I stare Lake right in the eyes while his… stuff is trying to distract me.
“What else can you tell me about him?” I ask as the train starts moving again and Lake stumbles off balance, proceeding to grab onto my fringe to keep himself upright.
“Your fringes saved my life,” he whispers.
“Lake, focus,” I say.
“Fine. I would consider him kind of like a guard, you know? Like he doesn’t really have the brains to have much pull, but they keep him around because he’s loyal and he can fight.”
“What level?”
“Four.”
Dammit. Why do they all have to be such high levels? “Okay, so we find out where he lives and then we…?”
“Politely knock on the door, ask him if he’d be so kind as to tell us all of their secrets, and presto. All done.”
“All done, my ass,” I say as the door I’d been leaning against to avoid Lake’s package pressed against me opens up.
I stumble back, nearly falling through the door if it weren’t for Lake’s grip on me. I turn my head to look Samuel right in the eyes, but he’s not looking at me. Nope. He’s locked eyes with Lake and shows that he recognizes him by the extremely apparent surprise written across his face.
“Lake?” he asks.
“Oh hey, buddy. Weird seeing you here. This is my boyfriend. We’re eloping. Planning on getting married, but we want to, you know… ride some subway cars first. The boyfriend is a transit whore. You know? Just loves trains. He has me dress up as Thomas the Tank Engine and stuffs me full of… coal…”
I’m going to be real honest and say that it takes me far too long to comprehend anything Lake has just said. He’s almost stupefied me into being off guard.
Samuel seems to also be shocked still as he stares at Lake like he’s grown a new head.
Then he reaches for Lake and without hesitation, I smack his hand away, not wanting Samuel to touch him. Why? I have no idea. What the hell am I doing?
And then the man does the absolute last thing I ever thought he’d do in here.
He shifts.
Right there in the goddamn car packed full of people. I’m so dumbfounded that I just stand there until Lake tears me away while yelling, “Run!” to the people who’d been sitting or standing there waiting for their stop.
Pure chaos erupts as people flee for the upper cars, trying to escape the creature as I grab for my knife and gun as someone slams into me, ramming me into a pole.
Samuel is nowhere near as large as Sy or Basil, but that means he’s quicker. His appearance and size are reminiscent of a large lion as he lunges for us, making me realize we’ve made a mistake coming here.
“Declan, what are your thoughts on two chimeras?” Lake asks.
“Two too fucking many?” I say as I look over at a second chimera that’s moving into the subway car, having heard the commotion and decided to join in.
Now that the people have nowhere to go, they’re knocking into us any time I almost get my weapons ready.
“Get down, under the seats!” Lake shouts, which semi works until the second chimera jumps onto the seats, rushing for us. This one looks similar to the first, body the common black with scales and patches of fur over various parts. She tackles a man to the ground as the humans seem to realize that they’re completely boxed in, allowing pandemonium to take over. I draw close to the creature, ready to put either one of them down before they get a chance to hurt anyone else. I would love to shoot them, but there are too many people surrounding me, so the smallest movement could end with me missing my shot.
Samuel swipes out at me, striking impossibly fast for such a small space, causing me to dodge his hit by slamming into a woman who screams. I calculate his reach, his teeth, everything I can to make sure I don’t end up on the wrong side of any of it. I dodge another strike and rush in, driving my knife across his chest, missing his throat by inches. He growls as he shifts his weight to lash out again when someone hits the emergency brake.
I’m made aware of this by the way my entire body is thrown off balance, having been stabilizing myself for the forward movement. People fall into me and the other creature takes the opportunity to leap onto us. Her body weight throws me back and the people closing me in tight keep me from being able to swing my weapon without harming someone around me, but they also keep me from hitting the ground from her weight alone.
Lake moves in out of nowhere and drives the new knife I’d gotten him right into the female’s back. She screams out and pulls away as Lake shoves me hard toward the door.
“We have to get out so you can fight them in an open space,” he says, but the issue is that everyone is trying to get out all at once.
Lake starts shoving people harder, moving them out of our way as Samuel dashes toward me. Lake slides between us, taking the hit as we’re shoved through the door. Jumping down onto the tracks isn’t the easiest feat I’ve ever encountered with all the cables and shit purposely there to keep some idiot from falling over it.
But as I’m trying to go over it, Lake decides that instead of climbing over the railing we should leap on top of the train like we’re in some action movie. At least it’s not moving or it would’ve been a hard pass for me. And boy does it not stop there because as the creature comes barreling toward me, Lake grabs my shirt and heaves me into the air.
The stupid fringe shirt from hell immediately starts choking me as I flail around, wondering why I get to be choked during this expedition. Maybe this is why I prefer working alone?
Finally, I snatch a hold of the edge of the roof just as Samuel grabs onto my leg, trying to drag me down. Seeing as all of the humans have decided that they shouldn’t escape through the door the monster is currently filling up, I aim my gun. He dodges quickly, but I still manage to get him twice in the side. I know it’ll take more than that, but hopefully, that’ll slow him down.
Lake finishes pulling me the rest of the way up onto the roof and starts running. “Did I ever tell you how much fun it is to hang out with you?” he asks. “You just make my life delightful.”
“Save your energy and run,” I say. “We need some distance between us.”
Neither of them are jumping up onto the roof of the train, which is honestly making me a little concerned. What if they’re slaughtering the whole train car of humans while we’re running across the top of a train playing action hero? This damn tunnel is so dim that it’s hard to even tell what’s happening, until I hear them and realize they’re down on the tracks.
“Stay focused, I hear another train coming,” Lake says as he urges me on with him.
“What if there are people on the tracks?”
“Then they better get off them or they’re not gonna look too hot,” he says, which is definitely not helpful at all. He must see me hesitating because he gives me another tug. “Honestly, I don’t see anyone. They probably remained inside once the chimera left.”
