I wiped the sweat off my forehead. I had put in nearly twelve hours of work, using every iota of my shapeshifter strength and speed. Kate had helped, especially with cutting things, but I wanted my scent all over this place, not hers, which was why she was wrapped in plastic, and I wore a tank top and a pair of capris, sweating and leaving my scent signature on everything.
“Almost done,” I promised again.
Kate turned. A moment later I heard it too, some sort of rumble at the front door.
“I got this,” Kate said and went out with a determined look on her face.
A moment later I glued the last strip in place and stuck my head out.
Kate stood by the door with her arms crossed.
That was an anti-Curran pose. What the hell was the Beast Lord doing here?
I padded to the door.
“First, you didn’t come home.” Curran’s voice held zero humor. “Second, I’m told that my mate is lingering in Raphael’s house. There can’t be any good reason for you to be here.”
“Are you spying on me, Your Furriness?” Kate asked.
“No,” I said, stepping into the doorway. “Jim has Raphael’s house under surveillance.”
Curran looked at me, then looked at Kate.
“Revenge,” Kate said. “I’ll explain later.”
Something hissed. The three of us looked up. A dark shadow rose on the neighboring roof, and I recognized Shawn, one of Jim’s people. Speak of the devil. “He’s coming,” Shawn hissed. “Raphael’s coming.”
Oh shit.
“Help!” Kate held her arms out.
Curran grabbed the biohazard suit and ripped it in half, stripping it from her. Kate thrust the suit into the nearest trash can.
I ran inside the house, locked the front door, ran upstairs, lowered the attic ladder, climbed into the attic, pulled the ladder up behind me, and dashed along the beam to the corner over the living room. My surveillance nest waited for me. I’d bugged the entrance and every room in the house, and now the images from the house filled my tablet. I was going to record this for posterity. I plugged the earpiece in.
Curran and Kate stood by the door.
“I can’t believe you decided to come down here and check on me,” she said.
“The guy once handed you a fan and told you to fan yourself if the sight of his naked torso was too much.”
“That was like a year ago. Will you let it go already?”
“No.” Curran grabbed her and pulled her to him, kissing her. “Never.”
She kissed him back and smiled.
Awww. Kate and the Beast Lord sitting in a tree…
The sound of a car pulling into the parking lot.
I scooted on my pallet of plywood. Showtime.
Raphael approached. My heart skipped a beat. He looked good. He was also carrying something long and wrapped in canvas.
“Hello,” Raphael said.
Now that I looked closer, he seemed a little tired. There were slight bags under his intense blue eyes. Yeah, those sleepless nights of breaking into people’s apartments and rearranging furniture must be killer.
“Hi,” Kate said with a big fake smile.
Don’t overdo it, woman. Come on.
Curran just stared. Jesus Christ, those two couldn’t lie their way out of a paper bag.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” he asked.
“We have something important…to discuss,” Curran said.
I hit my hand on my face. Brilliant, Your Majesty. Not suspicious at all.
“In private. Inside,” Kate said.
Raphael looked at Curran then slowly at Kate. “Please come in. I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner. For some reason all of the plumbing in the Clan Bouda House came apart and my mother called me.”
“What do you mean, came apart?” Kate asked.
“I mean that every coupling and fitting in the house has been pulled open,” Raphael said.
“I didn’t know you were in the plumbing repair business,” Curran said.
“I’m in the good son business. I couldn’t leave my mother in the house with no running water.” Raphael opened the door. “Some idiot likely pulled a prank. It’s a house full of boudas.”
“What’s this?” Kate asked pointing at the bundle.
“An apology for being a selfish asshole.” Raphael unwrapped the canvas, revealing the instantly identifiable shape of a high-tech compound bow: low-tech bows were bent outward, like a crescent, but this bow’s center bent inward, toward the archer. I zoomed in. Lightweight, a hollow carbon fiber riser with the telltale Celtic knot grid pattern, dampers to absorb the recoil vibration, ornate cams, string suppressors…Oh Jesus Christ, he was holding an Ifor compound bow. Sleekest, leanest, meanest bow on the market, with pinpoint accuracy and a vibration-free shot delivered in complete silence. It wasn’t a bow, it was death wrapped in a dream and twenty-first-century engineering. They were made in Wales by a single artisan family, one at a time. I had been trying to buy one for ages, but there was a waiting list a mile long and UK buyers were given a strong preference. How could he even get one? Where?
“Do you think she’ll like it?” Raphael asked.
“She’ll love it,” Kate said. “But I don’t think buying her things will work.”
For me! The bow was for me! I dropped my tablet.
Raphael glanced up. “Did you hear something?”
Oh crap.
“No,” Curran said. “Can we come in?”
“Of course.” Raphael wrapped the bow back up.
I switched to the foyer camera.
The door swung open.
I held my breath.
Raphael stepped inside.
I tapped the screen, splitting it in two and zooming the right half on his face.
Raphael opened his mouth and froze.
The entire house was covered in purple ultra-long shag carpet. It wasn’t just purple, it was bright, vivid, psychotic grape-purple. It made my eyes bleed after a mere five seconds. Medrano Reclamations had pulled miles of it out of some warehouse they had reclaimed, and Stefan had sold the entire lot to me dirt cheap, because nobody in their right mind would ever buy it.
I had covered everything: the floor, the walls, the ceiling. The elegant couches, the dark rough-wood coffee table, the swords on the wall, the fireplace. I had wrapped the logs in the fireplace.
Raphael just stood there and stared, his face a mask of utter shock.
Behind him Curran froze in place. Kate put her hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh.
Slowly Raphael walked inside over what once had been his pricy tile and now was just a sea of cushy, hideous purple, and looked at the kitchen.
The island was a block of carpet. I had wrapped his pots and pans hanging from the frame identical to the one he had installed at my place. I had wrapped the frame. The fridge. The stove. The butcher block, each knife handle wrapped lovingly in the purple nightmare.
“Wow,” Kate said. “I had no idea you liked carpet so much, Raphael.”
“What is it that you wanted to discuss?” Raphael asked, his voice monotone.
“We’ll do it later,” Curran said. “You’re obviously too tired. Come on, Kate.”
She hesitated. “But…”
“We need to go and do that other thing we need to do.” He pulled her away and they went out. The door clicked shut.
Slowly, as if in a dream, Raphael opened the carpet-sheathed cabinet. A stack of carpeted plates looked back at him. I didn’t have the time to do absolutely everything, so I had only done the plates. I knew he would open that cabinet. That’s where he usually went first.
Raphael drew his hand over his face.
Slowly the shock drained away from his face. He inhaled deeply.
That’s right, darling. Drink me in.
He went back into the living room and checked the windows, one by one. Slowly, unhurriedly he made his way upstairs to the master suite.
I switched to a different camera.
The bed was purple, too. He locked the windows and walked into the bathroom. The tub was carpet. The toilet was carpet. I had cut carpet into a long strip and threaded it onto the toilet paper holder.
He turned and finally noticed a mirror, the lonely spot in the synthetic moss that had sprouted all over his apartment. On it I had written in red lipstick, “Your personal padded room.”
Raphael raised his head and looked up. An evil smile curved his lips. He was almost unbearably handsome.
“Andreeaaaa,” he called, his voice seductive and wicked.
I gulped.
“I know you’re here.” His voice was like a purr wrapped in a growl. “You could never resist seeing me take this all in.”
Bastard knew me too well. I tried to breathe quietly.
His shoes came off. He stretched.
“Andreaaa…”
His voice sent tiny caresses all over my skin.
Raphael raised his face and inhaled, sampling the air. He seemed slightly feral.
“I’m going to find you,” he promised.
Oh no.
He followed my scent out of the master suite.
“You can’t hide from me. I know you, I know how you think. I know you’re watching me. Did you wire the house?”
He was hunting me.
Fear dashed through me, mixed with delicious excitement. The tiny hairs on the back of my neck rose.
He reached the attic.
My heart was beating a thousand beats per minute.
He reached for the cord.
Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.
The attic’s ladder slid down.
I took a deep breath.
Raphael put his foot on the first step.
I leaped up, tore my surveillance screen away from the cables, and tried to hurl myself through the attic window. And ran right into bars. Trapped.
Raphael’s head appeared in the attic doorway. He saw me.
I dropped my stuff and braced myself.
Slowly, lazily he climbed the stairs. One step, two…
“You’ll never take me alive,” I told him. It felt appropriate.
He stepped into the attic. “You got it all wrong. The plan is for you to take me.”