Chimera and the Cat Burglar (FUC Academy #46)

Chapter 13

Chapter

Thirteen

Back behind the women’s side of the jail, Willy fought against the net that held him. His captor made haste toward the men’s side of the jail while Willy jostled in her net, his paws and tail sticking through the mesh.

He scratched at the mesh. “Yowl!”

“Animal Control is looking for you,” the woman said with a shush.

Willy swatted at her legs and pressed his whiskers through the mesh, begging for freedom. “ YOWL !”

“Hold on a little longer.” The woman upped her pace, her heels click-clacking on the outside walkway that wrapped the buildings.

Where was she taking him? Back to jail?

The growl he emitted next caused her to finally stop and hold the bag up to face level. “Cadet Tagger, that’s enough. I’m Suzie Khue, a FUC plant here at the police agency. Had you stayed in your cell a bit longer, I would have gotten you out. What’s more, you would have been released, regardless, because the charges have been dropped.”

Did he hear her right? “Meow?”

“I’d be confused, too, but play along until I get things figured out and ditch that mean, menacing Officer Merl Rotty.” Suzie removed him from the net and tossed it under the bushes fronting the station.

Willy squirmed in her arms, pushing against the woman who tried to tuck his sleek, black body under her sweater as if she could hide a twenty-five-pound Bombay.

She gripped him by his nape, and his legs dangled midair. “Hold still. You’re not making hiding you easy.”

It wasn’t like Willy could shift back into his human form with law enforcement deputies marching between the parking lot and the station and Officer Rotty looking for him. Not to mention, he’d ditched all his clothing and frowned at tacking on an indecent exposure charge.

He was in enough trouble as it was.

As soon as he found a private place and regained his human form, he’d place a call to Alyce?—

A man dressed in a white coverall stalked toward them. “Let me give you a hand with that mangy stray.”

Mangy?

Before Suzie could protest, the animal control officer gripped Willy with gloved hands and heaved Willy into the air, inspecting the space under his tail.

“It’s a stray tomcat in desperate need of neutering. Look at the size of those?—”

“Yowl!” Willy twisted, and his body shook. Things were going from bad to worse, and he had flashbacks of evil DIC.

“You found my bad, bad boy!”

Boo?

Willy’s heart warmed, and his stress melted at the sound of Boo’s voice.

The love of his life pulled him into her arms. She snuggled her face against his shoulder. “I missed you so much!”

She smelled like spring sunshine, after-shower rainbows, and the kind of happiness that brought tears to his eyes.

Damn, his love for Boo was downright magical. His world was perfectly rosy if she held him and told him she’d never leave his side.

“I’ve been looking all over for you,” Boo purred. “I take my eyes off you for one minute, and you wind up frazzled, but I’m here now. I’m not going anywhere.”

The story was a flat-out lie. Well, most of it. Not the frazzled part.

Suzie looked choked up as she brushed her cheeks.

The officer rubbed his chin and rolled his eyes as if he could see right through Boo’s BS.

Willy nuzzled Boo. “ Meow, meow, meow, meow. Meow, meow, meow, meow . Meow, meow, meow, meow. Meow, meow, meow, meow .”

Damn, he meant every word.

He loved Boo with all his heart. She was his home .

“As you can see, my baby isn’t a stray at all, and I’ll square everything away with licensing as soon as we’re finished here.”Boo batted her eyelashes. “We are finished, aren’t we, Officer Rotty?”

They’d put their love for each other on display, which not even the officer could deny.

Merl cleared his throat and tucked a card into Boo’s hand. “Information regarding neutering, vaccinations, and licensing is on the back.”

Boo touched Merl on the sleeve. “Will do, officer. I appreciate your concern. Willow Wisp can’t have wild animals breeding uncontrolled and upping the populations of unwanted pets.”

Satisfied, Merl waddled away, hitching up his coveralls as he went.

Willy let out the breath he’d been holding. Whew, that was a close one.

“It’s your lucky day, Cadet Tagger.” Suzie patted Willy’s head. “Looks like both of you have another life, another day. Try not to find yourselves jailed again any time soon.”

After thanking Suzie, Boo sighed. “That was a close call. Luckily, my mother dropped her charges against both of us.”

Cecilia to the rescue? What were the odds?

“Let’s find a place for you to shift,” Boo said. “I have your clothes and a plan.”

The public restroom located in the park centered in town, a block from the police station, gave Willy the hiding spot he needed to shift and dress.

More importantly, upon exiting the restroom, he set his lips on Boo’s and kissed her like he hadn’t seen her in a decade. “I love you.”

“I know,” she purred.

He wrapped her in a hug. “And thank you for rescuing me before that monster cut off my balls.”

“You’re welcome.” Boo held his hand, and they walked back to the police station, where their vehicles were waiting. Boo had the keys for both, and she handed his over.

“We should probably check in with Alyce,” Willy remarked. “I’m sure she’s tracking us and is aware that we never made it to the Bluetique.”

“I talked to her right after we were released. She knows what happened.”

“All right.” He fiddled with his van keys. “Where to?”

“I want to see if we can talk to Zeb. I’m certain he knows way more than he’s letting on.”

Willy scratched his head. Could everyone have an important part in this mission? He asked, “In what way?”

She looked hesitant to explain. Finally, she said, “My mother backs Ginnie’s story about a portal beneath the town. My mother says the portal took my father.”

“That makes no sense.” Willy looked at her doubtfully. “Are you really believing any of that?”

“I don’t know. But I do think that everything is coded. Zeb Earhart is an anagram for Zebra Heart, which is this stone we’re supposed to track down.” She pulled the necklaces out from under her shirt. “And I’ve had the key all along.”

“Are you sure that’s the one?”

Boo nodded, and her eyes watered. “You’ll think me morbid, but I dug up my father’s gravesite back when I was, you know… After finding other graves empty, I just had a feeling about his, and sure enough, it was empty… except for this necklace.”

“That’s a strange coincidence.”

“Is it though?” she asked, tilting her head. “I believe the Bastet statue belongs to my family, and if the stone belongs to the statue, then maybe my father had located it and held it until he could find the statue. Or maybe the stone had stayed in our family, even after the statue was stolen.”

“That’s why you know so much about the statue…” Willy started piecing the picture together.

“Yes,” she admitted. “I’d even toyed with the idea of stealing the statue for myself. Honestly, I’m glad someone else stole it first, because things turned out better this way.”

“Boo!” Willy shook his head in disbelief. “After all this time, giving up a life of crime and almost becoming a FUC agent, and you would have given it all up for some statue?”

“I had the misguided thought that if I had it and gave it to my mother then maybe that would finally be the thing to reconnect us.”

“It’s not like she could have displayed it in her museum! Not a stolen artifact!”

She nodded. “I figured it would stay in the family vault.”

“Why?”

“Look, I know now it’s a bunch of folklore and legend, but all that talk Ginnie was doing about a portal and such? She’s retelling my family history. We’re protectors, keeping our homes safe from whatever threats exist, and centuries ago the Bastet statue was among the items we kept safe. Or, rather, we kept the world safe from. ”

Willy took a deep breath, glad that the statue was locked away in Alyce’s vault and that Boo’s misguided plan had not come to fruition. “You are a more effective protector when you’re working for FUC.”

“I know.” She hung her head.

“Well, what’s done is done. Now, do you want to tell me why your mother dropped the charges?”

“We made some sort of breakthrough, I guess. We’ll see how it goes, but for the moment, there is a truce.”

“Okay.” Then, Willy remembered something he’d yet to share with her. “Tal Basta isn’t a person. It’s a location in Cairo, which I believe are the coordinates Zeb, or whatever his real name is, whispered to you. Tal Basta is a Bastet temple.”

Boo’s green eyes widened, and her mouth fell open for a moment. She removed the necklace and tucked it into her pocket. “It’s all coming together, but what are you thinking?”

Willy’s mind crowded with scenarios, leading to one clear thought. “I’m thinking we need to talk to Zeb.”

Boo reached for Willy, taking his offered hand and lacing their fingers. “This necklace is sentimental to me. I don’t want to give it up, to put it with the statue to be held in some museum when it’s… well, when I feel like it’s rightfully mine. ”

“Let’s talk to Alyce, see what she says.” Willy had enough experience with the woman that he knew Alyce would hear them out.

Boo nodded. “Maybe. I’ll take my own car and meet you there, okay? I want to run by my apartment and change first.”

Locked inside the grimy jail, Willy understood wanting to redress. “Sure thing.”

Willy drove to the Academy, his foot depressed against the gas pedal until he cruised through the gates and parked.

He paused just outside the WANC entrance. Both students and staff filtered in and out of the doors, as nocturnal shifters—owls, bats, foxes, raccoons, opossums, skunks, etcetera—attended their classes.

He continued until he reached the director’s office, which was empty. Her assistant, Eliza, wasn’t at her desk, and Alyce wasn’t at hers, either, though both doors were open. He figured that meant they’d be back soon, so he entered, taking a seat across from Alyce’s desk.

His eyes were drawn to the closet.

Suddenly, he was standing, striding over to the closet as though someone used him like a living puppet. All other thoughts left him as his body and mind were overtaken by the overpowering urge to see the statue…

To touch it.

His heart jack-rabbited in his chest as he opened the closet, spotting the safe.

Willy checked the safe, finding it locked. There was no surprise there. But that didn’t stop his efforts. His hand moved automatically, punching in a guess at a code—a code that didn’t open the safe.

But that didn’t stop him. He was strong.

More robust than a silverback.

Chimera strong, and possessing the ability to morph his body into a King Kong beast.

Willy gritted through the shift, his bones elongating and his muscles bulking to perfection.

He wrapped his arms around the safe and squeezed.

Pressure built behind his eyeballs, and his muscles shook as he strained to break the safe.

He wasn’t sure where his power came from. Perhaps it was his altered DNA or his adrenaline kicking in, like when a father saves his child by lifting a car.

The hinges snapped, and the door lock crumbled.

He wasn’t a father, though perhaps one day Boo would bless him with a child, so he couldn’t attribute his strength to love.

But something drove him to connect with the statue. Something he couldn’t explain.

As he stared at his monstrous reflection in the destroyed safe, he sucked in a breath.

The golden phallus-shaped Bastet statue with the hole for the missing stone shimmered.

Electricity seemed to skitter across his skin, and the lavender aura mesmerized him.

The artifact called to him, begged him to covet it, to follow the energy that left him mindless and singular in his desires.

Forget the mission.

Forget Boo.

Forget the innocent lives threatened by the powerful artifact.

You’re the Chosen One.

Willy reached for the statue that spoke to him.

The euphoric waves that rushed over him were better than bananas foster and sex.

“Willy, don’t let the magic steal your mind.”

Boo’s voice filtered through the magic.

“Willy, I’d die all over again if I lost you.”

Her voice grew stronger, louder, reaching the center of his brain.

“Willy, look away. Come back to me.”

The touch on his shoulder barely registered.

When he glanced across, thinking Boo was standing beside him, it was an illusion.

He’d only been inside Alyce’s office a few minutes, but he gasped as he spotted the artifact in his clutches. The floor beneath him seemed to spiral like he was about to fall into a time portal.

He blinked, trying to erase the threat.

He wasn’t a monster.

He wasn’t covetous.

Willy deposited the statue on Alyce’s desk, and the strange mind trick that had encapsulated him faded away.

What was that? He didn’t know, but what he was certain of? The statue wanted him to take it back to the Willow Wisp cemetery.

He had to do it. There was no other choice.

But he could at least take some precautions.

Willy found the gloves Alyce had used in her desk drawer. He squeezed his hands into them, grabbed the statue, and bolted from the building, toward Boo, toward their happy future.