Chimera and the Cat Burglar (FUC Academy #46)

Chapter 15

Chapter

Fifteen

Willy couldn’t believe how this night was playing out. Willow Wisp’s mayor, Richard Joystick, gripped a pistol in one hand and held Cecilia Bombay by the neck with the other. Her green eyes reflected the aurora’s starburst of colors, which had risen to the heavens. The poor woman’s legs trembled as if her knees were about to give out. But that half-inch barrel pointed at Willy looked the size of a cannon.

“Get away from my mom!” Boo shouted. She gripped Willy’s arm. “We have to do something.”

Willy projected his voice. “Put the gun down, Mayor Joystick. Reuniting the statue and stone doesn’t have to end in anyone getting killed. Let’s talk this out.”

Richard dragged Cecilia through the grass, weaving around the array of headstones as if dancing in Stonehenge. “The time for talking is over. I’m minutes away from owning the key to a portal that can take me anywhere I want to go.”

The words sounded like the ramblings of a madman. Richard had been mayor for years. Willy had never known another mayor since his birth. And no one had ever suggested that Richard was out of his mind.

Willy recalled the effect the statue had on him earlier in Alyce’s office. Is that what was happening to Richard? He reasoned that if he was able to snap out of it—to some degree, though it was debatable, considering he’d still taken the statue from FUCN’A and brought it to the cemetery—it could be possible to talk Richard down. “You don’t want to do this.”

“You know nothing of what I want. Now, hand it over, or else.” The mayor clucked his tongue and pointed the business end of the wooden-handled pistol to Cecilia’s temple.

“No!” Boo cried, and her face paled.

“Don’t do it,” Cecilia shouted. “If Richard gets his way, he may rewrite history.”

Richard shook the woman. “Shut your mouse trap, Cecilia. You’ve been lying to all of us, telling me you didn’t know where the stone had disappeared to when your daughter had it all along.”

The fiery aurora continued burning up the heavens. Willy shielded his eyes from the blinding light. It was doubtful he could shift and pounce on Richard now without risking Cecilia.

“You’re right,” Cecilia shouted. “I had it, and I buried it where I knew Boo would find it. She’s a smart girl like her father. I knew she’d eventually put together the puzzle pieces because she’s the best daughter a mother could have. I admire you, Boo.”

Willy dared a glance at Boo and spotted the emotion gathering in her eyes. The bittersweet moment shoved Willy into protective mode. He would save Cecilia and reunite mother and daughter if that was the last thing he did.

“I said shut it, Cecilia.” Mayor Joystick locked his grip and pulled Cecilia closer to the glowing statue and the gaping hole that continued to grow in front of Thom Bombay’s tombstone. Pieces of earth spilled from the edges, filling a seemingly never-ending hole. From where the mayor held Cecilia, he couldn’t reach over the pit to grab the artifact.

Willy winced when a significant portion of the lawn fell into the hole. “Stand down. Please.”

Richard skirted the opening, trying his best to reach the object. “Retrieve the statue, and hand it over.”

Willy padded forward, his toes connected to the network of roots below the earth, the energy of the moment sparking something inside of him. With every passing minute, he felt his chimerism narrowing to something more than he’d been. Something he needed to become to save the woman he loved and her mother.

And it scared the hell out of him.

Willy asked, “What is it you really want, Mayor?”

“Money may be the root of all evil, but I’ll never be wealthy and powerful enough. I’m tired of being mayor. I want to rule the night.”

Darkness? From history, Willy pictured rulers like Genghis Khan and Vlad the Impaler.

Willy’s hair stood on end at the idea of the mayor ruling. He’d seen madmen in charge, like DIC, that horrible power-obsessed doctor who’d stripped Willy of his silverback DNA and replaced it with a menagerie.

Willy took another step forward, inching closer to the mayor. If he could convince the mayor to let go of Cecilia, he might have a chance at disarming him. “How about a trade? Cecilia for me?”

“No, Willy,” both Cecilia and Boo said in unison.

Boo begged, “Willy, please. There must be another bargaining chip.”

Willy dared a glance at Boo. Her big green eyes held a pleading look.

What were his options? He had to believe in himself. “Trust me. I have a plan.”

Willy didn’t have time to think it through, but he had to take the chance to resolve the situation. Boo gave him a subtle nod as if telling him she believed in him doing the right thing.

Blind faith.

The ground cracked underfoot, and the sod split under Willy’s feet.

He hopped, trying to reclaim his balance, any landing a poor option.

If he fell toward the mayor and the portal, he could potentially save Cecilia, but it yielded an uncertain future if he should fail at saving her.

If he stepped backward toward Boo, which gave him no chance of saving Cecilia, Boo would forever be heartbroken without the mother she’d just reconciled with.

“I believe in you, Willy. I believe in us forever.” Boo’s eyes watered. “Love is worth sacrificing for.”

Did she want him to stay with her or for him to take out the villain?

The ground rocked violently. It could have been nine on the Richter scale.

Boo sprang toward her mom, but Willy leaped, the two colliding. Boo fell to the side.

Bang!

The gun fired, and a bullet whizzed past Willy’s ear.

Cecilia shifted into her feline form and disappeared from the mayor’s grasp.

Before Richard got off a second shot, Willy launched himself and tackled the man, sending him to the ground.

Grrrr . Willy pinned Richard’s weaponed hand. “It’s over, Mayor.”

“Over? The fight has just started.” Richard hissed, and his body shrank under Willy, lengthening. His skin mottled, turning a dark yellow with purple dots that lined both sides of his slithering form.

WTF is happening?

Was Mayor Richard a closet shifter?

The more Willy scrutinized the shifter, the more he realized that the man was more like him, not precisely a complete snake shifter but some form of chimera.

Willy tightened his grip on the mayor’s torso, but the man thinned further, and the weapon landed on the ground.

Willy kicked the pistol and watched it disappear into the shadows.

The mayor slid free of his trousers, and his legs fused.

Willy shuffled backward, trying to get a better grip on the man, but the mayor’s sidewinding, serpentine thrusts hindered Willy’s hold.

“What are you?” Willy demanded.

Richard’s forked tongue jabbed at the air as he rose. “It’s not what I am, but who I am.”

“Well, you want to fill me in?” Willy’s mind spun. The aurora lit up the sky, casting strange shadows, and he swore that they slithered over the headstones.

Slithered?

“Snakes!” Boo kicked, and a snake flew past Willy, its body gyrating like a wonky boomerang.

More snakes crawled toward them, at least a dozen hissing asps striking the air.

“Stop this madness, Mayor!” Cecilia called out from her perch on an overhanging branch.

Even if Cecilia rejoined the fight, they would still be outnumbered, as the number of vipers mounted.

Unless Willy shifted into his chimera form and unleashed his beast.

Willy wasn’t only a feline shifter. He was unique, altered, and he’d never pushed his DNA to the limits. He’d come close when he’d broken the safe to retrieve the statue, but he’d controlled his hulkish form.

Now, Willy scratched his head, remembering his history classes and collecting clues about the existence of a snake god named Apep who sought to destroy the sun god. Bastet, a feline shifter, was rumored to have killed Apep with her knife.

If Willy could convince his legs to move, they’d have a chance at defeating the mayor.

The circling snakes stood on their tails, slithering and gaining speed, narrowing their striking distance.

Now or never.

Willy allowed his chimerism to take over, trusting that his body would morph into a shield that could defend against snake bites.

Feathers of steel took over his epidermis. Before his avian mutations swallowed his voice, he gave the order. “Save Willow Wisp! Destroy that statue.”

“I’ve got your back, Willy Tagger!”

Alyce?

Fuck’n A. Alyce was there with backup, the llama shifter looking fierce in her black leathers as she led the FUC agents, and Willy counted a baker’s dozen. Even Professor Condor participated, swooping down from the sky and piercing the snakes with his powerful talons.

A double Fuck’n A, Monster Johnson was leading another five Special Ops agents.

The powerful teams targeted the snakes, which emitted a cloying musk scent. A rhumba of rattlesnakes slithered out from the rocky outcroppings dotting the cemetery.

Suzie had shown up, too. Her team of ten members formed a solid perimeter around the cemetery to keep humans from witnessing the shifter extravaganza.

Willy recognized locals, including Ginnie, who’d joined Suzie in de-escalating the frenzy from the on-lookers.

Merl?

Officer Rotty wielded his net, swooping up one asp after another and depositing their writhing forms into a gunnysack. “Water snakes. The tunnels under the city are crawling with these. Might be time for a little flame-throwing barbecue down there.”

Willy gulped, and then a piercing blow to his back knocked him to the ground. The unexpected stab cut through bone and reached his lungs. He struggled to breathe, gasping. “ Gr-Gr-Gr-Gr-Gr Gr-Gr!”

“I am a backstabbing serpent. Nothing I haven’t heard before.” Richard hissed and exposed his bloodied fangs.

Rolling onto his back, Willy self-healed as best he could and bit back the pain. His chimerism, and that mad DIC, had saved his life, giving him unheard-of healing abilities.

Willy stared at the mayor. This man was out for blood.

In the serpent’s eyes, Willy caught a glimpse of his form. He was as bulky as a silverback, his feathered coat as smooth and iridescent as a falcon, but more shocking was his head, somewhere between a horned oryx and a lion.

Willy gulped. He was superb, threatening, and those tiny wings that had been nothing more than an afterthought gave him the ability to fly. No. To soar.

But, without working arms and hands, he was powerless to grab Apep as he stood over him.

Willy panted on the ground, needing time he didn’t have to heal fully.

“Willy!” Boo called out.

“You can’t save the queen now, beast.” Richard struck out at Boo, his serpent speed as fast as the lightning that suddenly struck the aurora.

“No.” Willy ignored his pain and punched upright.

Richard constricted his body around Boo’s neck and backed her toward the open grave by working his muscular tail.

Willy morphed his fanged mouth enough to plead breathily, “Let her go.”

“She’s my lucky charm. If I have her, I have the power.” Richard—Apep—dragged Boo closer to the flickering aurora and the open grave.

DIC had overpowered Willy, but Willy had helped to send him behind bars for eternity.

If Willy was involved, he’d never let anyone control him again or hurt an innocent for their heinous proposes.

Willy sprouted long cylindrical horns, and his feet sprouted talons. He bobbed and weaved, using his fighting skills to fling asps and rattlers and to keep Apep off balance as the FUC team backed him up, taking out the mounting nests of the snakes.

Boo screamed, “Now!”

He hadn’t seen her knife, which she always kept close at hand. The one she nervously clicked in her pocket that day he’d first seen her in the auditorium. Both the necklace and that blade made her feel safe.

She fought to stay with him just as much as he fought for her.

She stabbed her knife into the snake’s throat, and the Mayor’s hold on his shift wavered.

Willy pushed out hands at the tips of his wings, and his mouth turned to keratin, giving him a beak that could tear off pieces of Apep’s flesh.

Boo continued to stab the snake as she clawed at his scales, slicing his flesh until she broke free.

Willy had only a moment of relief over Boo’s escape before the ground shook and headstones began to topple.

In human form, Apep twisted and thrashed on the ground. His blood stained the lawn, but still, he reached for the statue with his forked tongue.

“It’s mine. I need the power,” Apep gurgled.

“Never, Apep!” Willy shouted.

In cat form, Cecilia leaped from a branch and sank her teeth into the mayor’s neck.

“You don’t taste like chicken.” She yacked and spit. Then bit again. “It’s time for you to resign as mayor of Willow Wisp!”

Hissssss.

Cecilia dug her claws deeper.

Richard proclaimed, “You’ll never break me.”

Boo appeared alongside Willy, the two sharing a look before pouncing on Apep and knocking Cecilia to safety.

Willy pummeled Apep and tore at his flesh with his beak, forcing out words as he said, “Your slippery snakehood is over.”

“You can’t kill me,” Apep hissed. “I’m a god.”

“There are no gods, only evil men who prey on those ruled by fear.” Willy rasped before putting an end to the evil mayor.