Part 29
I hadn't paid much attention to the Human cops, aside from noticing that the blond had beautiful brown eyes, and the brunette was pissed about something.
I was nervous. Crap, I was more than nervous. I was having some kind of paranoid fit, I think. The other jobs Heero and I had worked were just minor, everyday things. Some misuse of Magic and a couple of handholding things. This was a real mystery. I hadn't read the notes. I didn't want to prejudge anything, because I do jump to conclusions sometimes.
I wanted so much to be cool and professional, like Heero, and not act like a goof. So far, I was only managing to be stiff and formal. Heero seemed to understand, though. He'd smiled at me and given me a quick wink just before speaking to the cops. I'd feel a lot better doing what I came to do.
The house was just a house. It was large enough to be called a mansion, I guess. Very beautiful, inside and out. The garden was just as beautiful, every bit as lush and well cared-for as the gardens at the Castle. Which thought reminded me of my little embarrassment of a few weeks ago.
I pushed that away, though, and walked the path that wound through the carefully tended plantings. Nowhere did I find anything to chat with. That's unusual; even the best places attract rodents and reptiles, which then attract larger predators. Not here, apparently.
I sat down and put out a call for information. If anything within three hundred yards were so inclined, they would know I was ready to listen.
Animals are a lot like Humans, and the rest of us, Magical or not, I suppose. We generally like to talk and hate to listen. When I was young, I never shut up, according to my aunt and uncle, but I've grown more circumspect since leaving the Clan. I learned to listen hard and pick up on the things that were said without words. And to listen carefully to whatever the lower creatures had to say, because I never knew when something would come in handy.
I knew I might have to wait a while. Small creatures take a while to cross large distances. I thought of music and began humming to myself. Beach Boys songs, if you're interested. Don't ask me why; I have no idea. I just found it pleasant.
After a bit, I noticed a garden toad approaching. I greeted him and he hopped onto my hand.
Strange things were happening around this house, he told me. Odd, frightening things. The Humans who lived in the house were gone by violence. A malevolent presence had claimed this territory, and the ordinary creatures had left for their own protection.
I mentioned that I had felt nothing during my brief time in the house.
~No offense,~ the toad told me, ~But even you won't sense it until it is ready to strike.~
The dark-haired cop wandered up then and said something rude and silly. I ignored him for the most part, although I did ask him to move, as his cigarette was bothering both of us. For his part, he didn't argue, just moved downwind of us. He soon wandered back to the house.
~That one,~ said the toad with a "rrrptttt", ~Doesn't believe in anything he can't see or touch.~
"He's... um... aggressively Human," I said in apology.
Our conversation continued for several minutes longer. Then the toad said something that made me go cold right down to my toes.
~It is aware. ~
I swallowed, and set him gently on the grass, thanking him absently. He hopped quickly away.
The dark-haired cop -- what was his name? Latener? -- was smoking on the terrace, still looking pissed and more than a little lost.
I wasn't interested in him, though. I felt something in the air that hadn't been there earlier. Something dangerous and evil. And hungry.
Heero and the other cop were still in the house, and the evil was there as well...
Moving. Not static, not waiting for its prey to come to it, it was moving toward its prey.
And I didn't give a damn about my pride or myself then.
I ran for the house.
"Are they still in there?" I yelled.
"Yeah," he replied sourly. "Upstairs."
Shit!
I didn't want to go in. I was scared and rapidly approaching shitless. I leaned in the door and yelled for them to come out, that I had something. Then I began urging Latener away from the terrace.
"Because I'm telling you!" I snapped when he wanted to get mulish with me.
Heero came out while I was trying to get the cop to stay put.
"Duo, what's up? You found something?"
"Yes! It's still there! Heero, it's there and it's moving! Where's the other guy?"
"Ryo's coming now," said Latener. He was looking at me as if I had multiple heads.
I looked up through the glass wall of the house. Ryo was coming down the stairs, but something else was also moving, in his direction.
He wasn't going to make it.
I didn't think. I just ran toward the house. Heero was after me an instant later. I don't know if he could see it; didn't matter. My info, my bust, my fault if anything happened. Heero is wicked fast, but he can't catch me in a sprint.
I was across the yard, the terrace and through the doors just as the cop stepped from the last step and turned into the living room. From the corner of my eye, I saw it.
I nearly froze on the spot. I'd never seen anything like it; never even heard of anything so surreal. It looked and moved vaguely like a toad, greyish-brown and lumpy, with ropes of slime hanging off it. It had mouths all over its forepart and long skinny appendages that waggled like searching arms and it left a juicy trail behind it to a huge pit in the living room floor.
I grabbed the cop, spun him around and yelled for him to get back up the stairs. We couldn't go out the back doors, and the front door was blocked as well. For a moment he protested, then he saw it.
"Mother of Christ..." he whispered, staring. Then his gun was in his hand.
"No! Just get up the stairs! Just go!"
"What are we going to do?!" he yelled back.
I paused a few steps above the main floor. I swallowed and realised my knees were shaking.
"Hell if I know..."