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My Entry to the contest Hook to Book and Nanowrimo Prep |
| The ground squelched as Shoshana Cox walked toward the corpses. Blood seeping up over the tops of her boots. The gore was everywhere. Five deer slaughtered -- decapitated and disemboweled, right next to a children’s playground. The senseless massacre caused Shoshana’s hackles to rise. They had to get this scene cleaned up before the news teams came out. She didn’t want them warping the story for their own political agendas. They would try to blame Satanists, which were fiction, or blood witches, which weren’t, but it wasn’t either group. A newly turned werewolf, undetected by the pack had gone on a rampage. Tracking the noob had been simple. Shoshana had shifted to her wolf form and followed the scent of blood and bile. Now, the new lycanthrope was tranquilized and sleeping in the back of the secured truck, and she was ensuring that the clean-up team didn’t leave any deer bits about for some unsuspecting five-year-old to find in the morning. The witch on their clean-up team would take care of the blood as soon as there were no more body parts lying about. But in the meantime, the smell of the carnage was beginning to set her on edge. “Hey! Cox,” came a voice from behind her. A young man wearing the blue uniform of a council enforcer was walking toward her. His spicy scent told her he was a witch, although not a strong one. She turned back toward the scene. He wasn't pack, so she owed him no honorifics. “Councilor Hoyt is looking for you.” Flaring her nostrils, she flashed him her best ‘go die’ stare. “Hey! Don’t shoot the messenger!” he exclaimed, backing away from her and almost falling onto the blood soaked grass. “What does Hoyt want?” she growled. "I-I don’t know,” he stammered. “He just told me where to find you.” “Go tell Hoyt, I’ll be there after I’m finished cleaning up,” she said, turning back toward the crime scene. “He seemed – She looked over her shoulder, allowing him to see the wolf lurking behind her eyes. This scene was gory and a lesser pack member would have given in to hunger already. She didn’t need some office peon provoking her. “I’ll just let him know you’ll be in as soon as your done here,” he stammered as he backed away. Giving him a curt nod, Shoshana turned back to the job of making sure the neighborhood children wouldn’t be traumatized by finding Bambi bits on their playground. An hour later, Shoshana pulled into the station house. Driving with the windows down had helped clear her head of the scent of meat. Entering the locker room, she pulled her backpack out of her locker and rummaged around for clean clothes. Opening the front pocket of her pack, a funky smell of sweat and mildew assaulted her nose. She pulled out a crumpled t-shirt she’d forgotten to wash. Shaking it out, she inspected it for any sign of mold. Seeing no black dots, she put it on. After scrubbing her nails to remove the remnants of blood and gore, she headed upstairs to Hoyt’s office. “Hi Marianne,” she said, approaching Hoyt’s assistant’s desk. The petite brunette was typing frantically and biting her lip. “Hey Shoshi, go on in. He’s expecting you,” she said. “What do you mean there is an ‘e’ in noticeable?” she asked her computer screen. Chuckling at the assistant’s comment, she went into her boss’s office. “Shoshana,” Hoyt said, looking up from his laptop. “Come in. Have a seat.” Hoyt’s desk sat in the middle of the room with two dark-red leather chairs in front of it. To the right of his desk was a wall of bookcases covered with books, pictures, and knickknacks. The other wall was floor to ceiling windows. There were framed pictures behind his desk of enforcer squads, family and prestigious people he’d met, and on the same wall as the door was a large sofa. She’d always liked Hoyt’s office, it was luxurious without being pretentious. “What can I do for you, boss?” She asked, sitting in one of the burgundy chairs. “How was the playground?” He asked. The way he winced, he knew it was bad. “It was horrific,” she sighed. “Five deer mindlessly slaughtered, gore everywhere.” “At least it wasn’t a person.” “True. That’s what saved Garett’s life tonight. Pack law is strict.” “And for good reasons,” said Hoyt. Opening a drawer, pulled out a folder and set it in front of him. “Shoshana, what do you know about the Upper Court?” “The Upper Court? Dragons? Next to nothing.” “Raina, the current Queen of the Green Flight, has asked for our help.” “Oh?” “Fifteen years ago, her daughter was stolen.” “Wait, stolen?” She could feel anger crawling through her. She pushed herself the edge of her seat and tried to keep from yelling at her boss. “People are not property. They are kidnapped not stolen. Why weren’t we contacted fifteen years ago?” “Queen Raina’s father, King Cedric, refused to allow the Green Flight to have any contact with the outside world. The only thing they were allowed do was suppress her memories and trap her in human form.” Hoyt’s frown indicated his disapproval. “He just abandoned her?” Shoshana was mortified. On top of the kidnapping, a shapeshifter trapped in one form was tantamount to imprisonment. “What’s changed?” “King Cedric is dead. The Queen has located her daughter and when the time is right she wants to bring her home,” Hoyt said. “Sounds good, what does this have to do with the All-World Council? Are we escorting her?” “No, it’s more complicated than that. Currently, the Queen is fighting off a coup attempt. She’s afraid that if she brought her daughter home, she wouldn’t be able to keep her safe.” “I can understand that.” “She has it on good authority someone close to her has leaked information about her daughter to her enemies. She’s asking for our help to protect her daughter.” “So, it’s a babysitting gig?” “Kind of,” Hoyt laughed. “Anyone can do that? Why are you pulling me in for this?” “It’s an important babysitting gig.” Hoyt steepled his fingers in front of him. “Shoshi, this is our first chance to interact with the dragonkind. Our future relationship with them pivots on this going well.” He picked up the folder, handing it to Shoshana. Inside was a picture of a young woman with long, curly, light red hair and green eyes. She was wearing exercise clothes and standing by an SUV. Shoshana guessed her height to be around five-foot-ten. A name on the inside of the folder read Teagan Rose and there was an address underneath. “I still don’t understand. Why aren’t the dragonkind protecting her?” “Teagan doesn’t know what she is. Raina doesn’t want her daughter to know she’s being followed and you aren’t to tell her she’s a dragon.” It had been two weeks since Hoyt had given Shoshana the task of watching Teagan. In the last fourteen days, she’d followed Teagan to school, work, the gym, and the store. It was a tedious assignment. She approached the van where Shay, her partner, was taking her shift babysitting. “Anything interesting happen today?” She asked, taking a seat next to Shay. “Well instead of going to school and then the gym, she went to the gym and then school.” “Glad to see her mix it up,” chuckled Shoshana. “I’ll talk to Hoyt, the Queen is obviously being – She’d been about to say paranoid. A shadow on the screen monitoring the outside of the building caught her attention. “What’s this?” she asked, narrowing her eyes. A tall figure stood outside the apartment complex looking up toward the balcony that led to Teagan’s flat. After a moment, the figure walked to the wall and started climbing up the brick face. “What the hell?” Shoshana hissed, hurrying out of the van. Rushing to the building, she was just in time to see the shadowy figure pull itself up onto Teagan’s balcony. She punched in the security code for the apartment complex and rushed up three flights of stairs. Breathing heavily, she hurried to apartment three-o-eight. She listened at the door. Hearing nothing, she knocked. There was still no sound. “Damn it,” she hissed, taking out a set of lockpicks from her back pocket. In seconds, she had the door unlocked and rushed inside. The apartment was dark and a hooded figure stood just inside the sliding glass door. Startled by her entrance, the intruder stood frozen for half second before turning and jumping off the balcony. She rushed forward not knowing what to expect. Seeing nothing on the ground, she turned back to the apartment to leave and chase down the intruder. The doorway was blocked by a familiar tall red-head. “You'd better have a damn good reason for being in my apartment or else I'm calling the cops,” Teagan said. Word Count: 1486 |
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