The Witch and the Jaguar Read online

  3

  Surprised at the turn of events concerning Bryce and Jane, Erin and Bryce went in to get some wine, her brother tagging along, annoying her. But then their boss got a call, and Erin was afraid of what that meant. Someone was in trouble.

  Sure enough, Martin's brow furrowed. "I'll send some agents right away."

  Her brother growled, indicating he was ready to go.

  "You just got back from your mission," Martin said to James.

  "I'll go with him," Bryce said, surprising Erin, though if he were trying to make brownie points with her, he was earning them.

  "You aren't even on the payroll," Martin said.

  Erin was sure Martin would put him on the payroll to account for his work with them, if Bryce was allowed to go. Then again, he was a cop, so Martin couldn't stop him. She figured Bryce could be a tremendous asset for them.

  "I'll go." Erin didn't know what came over her to say so when she'd really needed a break.

  Bethany nodded. "Me too."

  "You don't even know what the assignment is yet," Martin said, frowning at them. "And you two just got off a mission also. Are all my agents workaholics?"

  No one else volunteered to go since there were already four of them that had, and though Martin could assign any of his agents who were at the party tonight, he knew it was always better to send ones who were eager to do the job.

  "We have a family of jaguars who have had a break-in. Their home is near here. They have three children who are two-years old."

  James had already left to shift and dress.

  Bethany said, "I've got a gun in the car."

  "I have one in mine," Bryce said. "And a sword." He patted his sword.

  Martin handed his gun to Erin. "Be sure to bring it back in good working order."

  She saluted him, and, surprising her, Jane gave James her gun. No one better ever try to come here to rob them at a shifter Halloween party. They'd be dead meat.

  "Human robbers?" Erin asked Martin as he followed them out to the vehicles.

  "Human. The jaguar family only managed a call to me. They were afraid to call the police and have them botch the job. We use a lot more stealth," Martin said.

  Erin prayed they could rescue the family without any of them getting hurt. The husband and wife weren't agency cats, so they weren't trained like the agents were for taking down enemies in a hostile situation.

  Bethany was driving her car and Erin went with her, while her brother rode with Bryce in his truck. She suspected James was going to give him the third degree about Jane.

  "What do you think about his story? Bryce, I mean?" Bethany asked, as a way to lighten the tension-filled mood they were both feeling, hoping everything would turn out the way they wanted it to. "I believe his story. Anyone who would face-down your growly brother in his jaguar form has my vote. Besides, the jaguar is a hot musketeer."

  "I agree about Bryce's story. He wouldn't have any reason to lie, or he could easily get caught up in it. And Bryce didn't face down my brother only because Martin was making my brother behave either. Bryce came over to watch us long before that."

  "Are you going to date the guy? I mean, anyone who would make such a drastic career change in hopes of seeing a she-cat who is in the same branch as him has to be rather…intriguing to you. Not to mention he helped you out with taking the bank robbers down. I keep visualizing the two of you, you in your witch's costume kicking butt and him swinging his sword as a musketeer."

  Erin smiled. "Yeah, that had to have looked like a movie scene." She wondered if anyone in the bank had managed to capture video of it. It seemed nowadays everyone recorded a video for everything. She checked her phone. Sure enough, there she was kneeing the guy in the jewels and she got to see how swiftly Bryce moved, first ensuring she had the guy under control that she was dealing with, before he sprinted to take down the other guy, who was aiming to shoot at her, but hesitated, looking as though he was afraid he'd hit his partner. And then Bryce was swinging his sword, striking the robber's gun just right to knock it out of his hand. Bryce looked like he must have had lessons as precise as his movements were.

  "I have to admit no one has ever offered to leave a job just so he could date me. You don't think he had too many beers tonight, do you?"

  "No. He was nursing the one beer the whole time." Bethany glanced at Erin's phone. "Video of the action?"

  "Yep, in living color."

  "Cool. I'll have to watch it after we get this situation under control. Bryce seemed really friendly the last time I saw him. Friendly in an agreeable way, not that he was looking to date someone at the time, just that he was enjoying being around other jaguars at a party. You know, it has to be hard to work with a human police force and all your friends are…well, human. It's nice being around our own kind so we can talk about business and jaguar issues."

  "True." Erin took a deep breath and exhaled it, preparing herself for the fight ahead that she was certain they would face.

  It took them about ten more minutes to reach the home that was out in the country like the other. Big blown-up Halloween decorations, the cute kind for their little ones, Erin imagined, were lit by lights, bringing Halloween cheer to the house. It made Erin feel bad about what was going on inside the house. She prayed they were able to get in before these creeps did anything to hurt any of the family members.

  As soon as they parked way out, they saw a van sitting in the driveway. When the rest of their team joined them, Bryce said, "I've got my badge on me."

  Erin glanced at his musketeer costume. At least he had ditched his beautiful cape and plumed hat, but he still didn't look much like a police officer. He was still wearing his sword, which might come in handy, like it had earlier today.

  "If we have to, we take them down permanently," James growled.

  "Yeah, of course," Bryce said. "No argument with you there."

  Then they all split up and moved toward the house. James indicated he was going around the back side of the two-story home. Bethany went to the east and Erin went to the west while Bryce was wearing his badge, heading for the front door.

  As soon as Erin reached the side window that looked into the laundry room, she tried the window and found it unlocked. She whistled low to let the others know she found a way in, if they hadn't. She didn't wait for anyone though and pushed up the window as slowly as she could. Before she could move some logs over so that she could climb into the window, Bryce was there, helping her up, his hands securely on her hips. Then she slid in, trying to avoid a wastepaper basket full of dryer lint beneath the window and landed softly on the floor. She quickly moved the wastepaper basket out of the way. The door was closed to the laundry room, but she could hear a woman and kids crying in the direction of what she suspected was the living room, while the mom was trying to shush them through her sobs.

  "I'm not going to ask you again. Where's your safe?" a deep-voiced male said.

  "I-I don't have a safe," the homeowner said. “I told you that already. I gave you what cash we had.”

  Erin slowly opened the door and heard Bryce move in right behind her. She hoped Bethany and James were either coming or had found other places to safely enter the house.

  She pushed the door open wider, listening to hear where everyone was. She heard someone upstairs, the family in the living room, a man with them there, and someone else down the hall from where she was.

  Then she heard a slight thump behind her and turned to see her brother in jaguar form leaping through the window into the laundry room and landing on the tile floor. She motioned to the stairs up on her right and moved out of his way, so he could take care of the vermin upstairs.

  They needed to get rid of whoever was down the hall too. She hoped there were only three men, but then she heard someone getting something out of the fridge. She suspected the family wasn't eating at a time like this.

  Bryce whispered to her, "I'll take out the man down the hall. Wait here for the rest of us to take out the others
. Sounds like there may be two more."

  She nodded. If she hadn't worried her actions could hurt the family, she would have gone in shooting, just to take the men down before they could injure or kill anyone. But there were at least two more culprits and she didn't want to provoke them into shooting the family.

  She heard someone cry out upstairs and a thump down the hall sounded from the direction where Bryce had gone. She hoped he’d taken the bad guy out and not the other way around, but if the bad guy had knocked out Bryce, she was certain he would have shouted they had company.

  Instead, a man rushed out of the kitchen, gun in hand. At that point, she couldn't wait. When he saw her, she didn't have any choice but to shoot him before he could hit her. She fired two shots, and he went down. It appeared she'd killed him. But they still had another man in the living room with the family.

  Her brother tore down the stairs as a jaguar, and he looked fiercer than she'd ever seen him. She knew the man in the living room wouldn't hesitate to shoot the jaguar. She thought he wouldn't try to use one of the family as a shield against a jaguar, not like he would against someone armed with a gun. Her brother had the right idea. And even if the perp did use someone as a hostage, her brother would aim the deadly swipe of his paw at the shooter's head and kill him that way.

  Even so, she rushed forth to help rescue the rest of the family and get them out of harm's way.

  Shots were fired outside, and Erin realized Bethany was still out there. Someone must have tried to get away. Erin recognized the sound of the gunfire. Only Bethany got any rounds off. Erin was glad she had stayed outside to get the last of the culprits, if that was the last of them.

  Bryce was right beside Erin as they bolted into the living room.

  The mom and kids were terrified that her husband was being held as a shield against the swipes of the angry jaguar. Erin swept up two of the kids and hollered at the mother, "Come with me. How many of them are there?"

  "Four men and a woman."

  Erin rushed the mom, who was carrying one of the crying triplets, and the other kids down the hall, out of harm's way in case the robber's gun went off and struck the kids or mother accidentally or on purpose. "Stay here."

  Erin hurried back to the living room to see her brother trying to reach the robber as he kept the homeowner in front of him. Bryce fired two shots, one that struck the robber's arm and he dropped his gun, and the other round hit the robber in the head. He dropped to the floor, dead.

  They had to kill them all. The men would have told the police they had seen a jaguar in the house. And if someone had investigated the crime scene to see if he'd been telling the truth, they would have found lots of jaguar fur in the house, proving what the men said was true.

  Even so, they would have had to come up with a story about how the man upstairs had been killed by a single blow to the head, when no one had used a weapon on him.

  Before Bryce reported any of this to the police, he and James went outside to check on Bethany and make sure there were no more robbers in the area who just hadn't been in the house at the time. Erin checked over the family to make sure they were all right. They were terrified, which was understandable, but no injuries, thank God.

  Erin got on her phone after the family was all situated on the couch. "Martin, the family is safe.” She explained how it all had gone down. “How do you want to handle this?"

  "We'll clean it up. We could try to explain how you had saved the day, but I'm sure it will be easier to just make it all go away. I'll send in a cleanup team. I'll call in a Guardian team to take the family in for the next couple of days while we clean everything up."

  "Thank you." She relayed the information to the family as her brother, Bethany, and Bryce rejoined them in the house. Erin was glad the cleanup wasn’t part of their job description. Just taking out the bad guys was. Or arresting them, if they could. In this case, it just wasn’t feasible. Sure, her brother could have gone up the stairs as a human, but he hadn't made a sound as a jaguar, and so he had the element of surprise. If any of them had walked up the stairs as humans, he could have made the steps creak, alerting the gunman that someone was sneaking up there and he could have fired on her brother before he had even made it to the landing upstairs. And that would have alerted the other robbers to come out shooting.

  They waited with the family until the Guardian agents would arrive, a married couple who took in jaguar families in crisis. The Guardians had lots of counseling training, so they could help the family overcome the ordeal. In the meantime, Bethany and Erin cuddled with two of the kids in their arms, while their mom rocked the third toddler in hers. Dad had gone upstairs to wash up and change clothes because he was wearing the blood of the man Bryce had shot and killed.

  The family was grateful to them, and Erin was so relieved they had saved their lives. Once the Guardian agents had arrived, they helped everyone to pack, then carried the family away in a van. Another two vans showed up with the cleaning teams to get rid of all the vermin and evidence left behind shortly after that. Their job done, Erin and Bethany headed back to the party in her car. James, who had shifted and dressed, rode back with Bryce.

  Everyone was ready to enjoy the rest of their Halloween, and Erin had wished she'd truly been a powerful witch so she could have used some spells to get rid of the bad guys in a more interesting way. But she knew, that no matter how much fun she might be having at the party, when shifters were in trouble, she would drop everything to rescue them. She really respected Bryce too, for his handling of the situation, both with regard to protecting her brother and the jaguar the robber had held hostage. And earlier, at the bank too. She was glad, now that she knew he hadn't been the cause of James and Jane's breakup, that Bryce was joining the JAG branch. She hoped Martin would let her work with him too.

  "Hey, thanks, man, for not shooting me back there," James said to Bryce as they drove back to the house.

  Bryce cast him a sardonic smile. "It wouldn't have done me any good when I want to date your sister."

  "You really never dated Jane?"

  "Not a day in my life. She's just a good friend. We've been friends since we were kids. She thought I should come to the party last year to meet others like us who are also into policing the bad guys. I didn't know she was planning to breakup with you. I've always thought I could help our kind by being on a human police force, but last year when I went to the party with Jane, I started to see things differently. Like, how much I wanted to be with our kind, the comradery you all have as both jaguars and a police force." He motioned his arm in the direction of the house they were leaving. "And things like this. Working together as a team, a jaguar force to be reckoned with, aiding others of the shifter kind. Hell, wearing a jaguar coat while taking out the bad guys. I never imagined doing that in the line of duty."

  "Yeah, it's one of the perks of being a jaguar." James paused. "Since you're such good friends with Jane, did she tell you why she broke up with me?"

  "Only that she wasn't ready to settle down and you seemed to be much more interested in rushing into it. Hell, I don't know. Women are a mystery to me."

  James laughed. "They sure as hell are."

  "So you don't mind me dating your sister?" Not that Bryce felt he had to ask permission of Erin’s brother, so he wasn't sure why he asked. Though he probably did so because he was going to be working with them and he wanted to get started off on the right foot.

  "Not that I have any control over what my sister does or doesn't do, but as long as she wants to, I don't have any problem with it. Just don't tell her you asked me first."

  Bryce smiled.

  When they returned to the party, several said they were glad they’d resolved the trouble without any of the family being injured and the agents and the police officer had been safe. The party had been at a standstill while everyone waited to hear if reinforcements had been needed to be sent to the family’s house.

  Salutes and drinks were offered to the agents and the offi
cer. Then the party resumed. Music began to play and several of the agents began to dance.

  “Would you like to dance?” Bryce asked Erin, setting his empty wine glass down on a table.

  “Yeah, sure.” She noticed that her brother was talking to Jane, and she wondered what that was all about. But what really surprised her was when James began to slow dance with her.

  “Looks like Jane and your brother might be getting back together,” Bryce said.

  “Or not. She might just be showing him some gratitude for taking care of the hostage situation and returning to the party unharmed.”

  “You believe that as much as I do.”

  “You’re right.” It was hard for them to hide their true feelings about another jaguar. They watched for cues, much more aware of body language and facial expressions, not to mention smelling emotions also. Her brother hadn't dated but a few women since the breakup, but only one-date affairs. He was still totally hung up on Jane, even though he didn't mention it to Erin. He didn't need to. All it took was for them to be in the same room together, and he looked so hopeful Jane would say something to him.

  Bethany was dancing with an Enforcer agent when James left Jane off at one of the tables of food and came over to speak to Erin.

  “Hey, tell Bethany that I’m going home with Jane,” James said.

  Erin couldn’t believe it, but she was glad he was getting back together with her, if that’s what they both wanted. Unless it didn't work out or this was a one-time deal.

  “Okay, sure, I’ll tell her.”

  When James left the party with Jane, Bryce said, “Bethany doesn’t have to drop you off at home either. I can take you.”

  “Why, how sweet of you. Would you mind if we stop by the grocery store on the way home? I need to pick up some milk and a new broom.”

  Bryce smiled at her witch’s costume. “A new broom, eh?”

  She laughed. "You don’t want to know what happened to the last one.”

  He just raised his brows and smiled, looking as though he really did want to know. “I’ll be giving two weeks’ notice at my job on Monday. Martin said I’d be in training for a couple of weeks after that. I thought if you weren’t on assignment in the meantime, we could go out.”