The Midnight Watch

Chapter 22

I'm sorry! Sorry it's been so long! I've been away without Wi-Fi. It was...dreadful. *sniffle sniffle* Never again. Ever.

The door was answered by an elderly woman, who looked hardly capable of standing upright, let alone committing homicide. She squinted at us through ebony-rimmed glasses.

"Yes?"

I coughed back surprise and confusion, but Kai offered a friendly smile. "Hi. We're from the Moon Guard. Is everything okay?"

"Why wouldn't everything be okay?" she snapped. Okay, so this one obviously wasn't the nice grandma type. She sounded incredibly defensive.

He pointed at the bloodstains with a half-shrug. She scowled and tried to shut the door in our faces, but Becky slipped her foot in the way.

There were suspicious sounds of furniture moving and running feet coming from behind her. I shuffled sideways to peer down the dark hallway. One of the shadows moved, and I knew someone else was in.

"I hurt myself," the woman said shakily, "while gardening. Now, I thank you for your concern, but I really must-"

"Could we take a look inside?" I asked sharply. Every second she delayed us, the fugitives got a little further away.

"Well, that depends. Do you have a warrant?"

"Do we need one?" Kai raised his eyebrows. He gave Becky a firm nudge, and she got the message, striding around to the back of the house to cut off any escape routes.

A loud crash eliminated all of my doubts. Someone was trying to escape the house, and that gave us probable cause to break in, as far as I was concerned. My hand slid to the hilt of a blade, and I took a step forwards. "Ma'am, if you could move out of the way..."

She bristled in the way only old ladies can. "No, I couldn't. I have a bad hip."

Kai sighed, resigned to having to wrestle a senior citizen. "Move. Unless you want to be arrested too."

"This...this is harassment," she protested firmly. "I can report you, young man."

She couldn't, but I'm not sure she knew that. Kai was the prince, and immune to criticism even he had been doing something wrong, which he hadn't. As far as we knew, she was protecting a murderer. We could have quite legally rugby-tackled her by this point.

Kai didn't resort to anything quite so extreme, though. He gently, but firmly moved the old woman to one side, taking care to support her weight. That left the corridor clear for me to dash past. And I did so, drawing a long knife as I did so. When dealing with shifters, you can never be too cautious.

It was dark enough in the house that I had to squint. Every shadow resembled a crouching person, every flicker became movement. I turned into a messy living room, and the hairs of the back of my neck stood up.

"Sav, behind you!" Kai shouted.

I whirled, bringing the blade up instinctively. But before it could cross my body, someone slammed into me. I fell hard, my arm colliding with a coffee table, and my head hitting the side of a sofa. My attacker groped blindly for my throat, and squeezed.

He was clumsy and slow, but heavier than me. It took two attempts to throw him off, using emergency procedures from training. He hit his head against a wall in the scuffle, and slumped to the floor, dazed. I scrambled to my feet, despite the pain in my muscles. My attacker blinked to awareness, and found my blade brushing his throat.

Kai, quite sensibly, had found the light switch. As a bulb flickered on, I could see my surroundings properly for the first time. The person who had so ungraciously tackled me, was a just a boy. He was maybe eighteen-two years older than myself, and stocky.