The stop at the HMH had been quick. I got in, stole all their chloroform, found their stash of tranquilizer guns, and got out with in a matter of minutes. I didn't see anyone; I didn't set off any alarm. It was just in and out.
Just for fun, I left a note telling Grace that I'd found my match, but that since I wasn't in her care when it happened she wasn't going to get squat for all her time, energy and frustration, spent trying to keep me in the HMH. I thanked her for the stash of chloroform and the tranquilizer guns that I found close to the solitary confinement cell. I signed it with a flourish that I knew would make her angry, and at the bottom I "sincerely" apologized that the griffins landed in her rose garden and destroyed everything. I also informed her that she was out of meat.
That was fun, but there was no challenge to it. They didn't have nearly as many guards there since I was gone, and that made getting in and out child's play.
Breaking into the castle on the other hand, that was going to be a challenge.
I didn't really look like a bugler, if anything I looked like a kid dressed up as a ninja on Halloween. My pants were loose and made out of a stretchy material so that if I did get into a fight it wouldn't destroy them, but I had to wrap the bottoms with something to make sure they didn't catch on anything. Because I wanted as much of my skin covered as possible, I was wearing a long sleeved shirt with gloves. That just left my face and hair. It would be impossible to miss my blazing red hair if I left it uncovered and I didn't want anyone to see my face. Ski-masks were uncomfortable and hot though; instead, I wrapped my neck and head in a long swath of black fabric. Only leaving my eyes uncovered. I was covered from head to toe in black to make it easier to move in the shadows, that didn't mean I didn't feel ridiculous because I looked like the bad guy off a cheep Jackie Chan movie. The only things that ruined the allusion we're the black backpack slung over my shoulders and the two small tranquilizer guns at each side.
The only thing that made me feel slightly better, was that the princess of the elves also looked like an extra on a movie that people only watch for the ninja fight scenes. Even that small condolence was kind of ruined by the fact that I couldn't see her at all when she didn't want to be seen. If she stepped into the shadows, even knowing exactly where she was at, I couldn't tell if she was really there. Nobody would ever know that she was dressed so ridiculously.
I shook my head, trying to forget the fact that if someone saw us now they would remind us that Halloween was a long ways away. It was time to focus on the job at hand.
Sora and I had to break in to Kenrick's office, find the files that he had on all the packs that he controlled, figure out which one was for the place they were keeping the dragon child, and get out, hopefully without killing someone. We were going to need to take out all the guards that patrol the outside of the castle, if we didn't one of them might realize that something was off. Werewolves have a good sense of smell they might be able to tell that not everyone who'd been looking at the castle had been a wolf, or even a wild animal. That or, we might have to knock one out to get in and another guard could stumble onto his body. Not one could be left standing, at least outside. That's where the tranquilizer guns and chloroform came in.
The castle was bigger than I remembered but perhaps that was just because I wasn't planning on breaking in and taking files from the king's personal office last time, and breaking out is much easier than breaking in, you only really need to worry about the part of the castle you were in.
If this was going to go smoothly we wanted as little contact with the people inside as possible. Opening all the doors and going through the rooms wasn't a good option. There was a way to make this easier, though. I just had to figure out what that way was.
The floor plans would be nice, but that would probably require breaking into the builder's pack.
I thought about the problem for a minute before turning to where I thought Sora was hiding, "We're going to need to take out all the guards on the outside except one. That one needs to be young and inexperienced. If we can scare him into telling us which room is the king's office it will make this a whole lot easier. If we can't do that then we need to find a servant that is more afraid of us than they are of the king," I said through the black cloth covering my face, "When it's time to go I want you to go right and knock out all the guards you come across. I'll go left. I want this to be done in no more than fifteen minutes. We want to avoid new guards coming out and finding their fallen comrades."
Sora nodded and pulled something out of her bag, "I know you do not wish to kill anyone, however these could be useful for intimidation purposes," she said handing me the long bundle and pulling out one for herself.
A small smile made its way onto my face as I pulled out the pair of double swords. It was a bit over kill, especially with my current choice in clothing, but it would add to my ability to terrify anyone that we came across. I strapped them onto my back and nodded to Sora to let her know I was ready.
Sora and I went our separate ways, both of us moving from the shadows of one tree to the shadows of the next, not letting anyone know that we were there. If it wasn't the middle of the night I might be more worried that someone would sniff us out, but everyone out here was going to be tired and they won't expect us.
When I saw my first guard I sunk up behind him and covered his mouth and nose with the chloroform covered rag. He only struggled for a second before the drug took hold and I lowered him gently to the ground before darting back into the shadows of the mercifully close trees.
I didn't stop to look at him after he was down, I had a time limit.
Inexperienced guards were hard to find at the castle but eventually I came across a group of three guards, two who looked like they'd been here awhile and one that was getting directions from the older ones.
Looking at the newbie, I almost felt bad for what I was about to do, almost. He didn't look much older than me with his wide brown eyes, shaggy blond hair and a surfer's tan. Every little noise was making him jump, even the sound of his instructors telling him what to do startled him.
Quietly I pulled the two tranquilizer guns out of their holsters and aimed at the two older guards, feeling extremely grateful that I was ambidextrous. I pulled the triggers, wincing at the slight pop that they made. The two older guards fell to the ground, both with tiny darts protruding next to their hearts.
I saw the young guard's eyes widen at his fallen companions and I knew that we'd chosen the right person. He was terrified already.
Right as I was about to step out and take care of him, meaning make it so he wouldn't scream, Sora stepped out of the shadows and put her hand over his mouth. She put her head on her shoulder and I could only assume she was talking to him soft enough that I couldn't hear.
Sora nodded in my direction and the guy started nodding his head quickly. With his confirmation, she started whispering again and he pointed to a third story window and started to talk quietly when Sora let go of his mouth.
"Very good," Sora said patting his head affectionately with the hand that held it as she reached down and grabbed her chloroform covered rag to knock him out.
"He says that it is on the third floor, directly in the middle of the north wall."
I nodded at her and we walked to where our griffins were tied up. We could climb or take an inside passage, but both of those would take more time and going inside would expose us to the possibility of running into someone who was competent.
After mounting, I guided Dragon to the window and had him hover by it. It was shut and locked and I didn't have time to pick the lock.
"Paranoid old man," I grumbled as I looked at it, "Who locks a third story window?"
"Someone who was afraid of supernatural enemies," I answered myself after a second of thought.
He was going to get some surprise when he realizes that it was a human who broke in.
Sora whistled quietly and motioned me over to another window on the third floor. I guided Dragon over to Ray and looked into the room in front of me. It appeared to be a personal bedroom but there wasn't anyone in it. How convenient, most people don't worry about locking their windows when they lived on the third floor.
I slid the window up and crouched on Dragon's back, getting ready to jump in.
"You take Dragon and Ray over to the office's window. I'm going to go over there and open it for you. We can tie the leads to something in there, they should be long enough for that," I told Sora before jumping through the window and rolling to soften my fall.
I stood up and looked around to make sure there wasn't anybody in here. My shoulders relaxed a little bit as I realized that I was alone and I started to walk toward the door.
As I put my ear to the door, listening to make sure there wasn't someone on the other side, I noticed the picture on the bedside table. It was of a child Eros and an older lady. The older lady was hugging him from behind and smiling at the camera while Eros was sticking out his tongue. There were a few more sitting on the desk but I couldn't see them in this light. Without really thinking about it I walked over to pick them up. I'm sure Eros would appreciate having them.
It was slightly tempting to take a look around the room, because it was obviously Eros's, but I didn't have time for that. I had to content myself with the pictures.
When I turned around I realized that I was no longer alone in the room.
The woman from the picture was standing just inside the doorway looking at me with curiosity shining in her bright purple eyes. If I was being honest, the picture didn't do her justice but I could tell she'd been crying a little bit. Tear streaks went down her slightly pink cheeks and there was a certain wetness to her sorrowful eyes. As she looked at me, though, a thoughtful look took the place of the sadness.
"That's an interesting thing for a thief to take," she commented with a raised eyebrow.
I tilted my head to the side and looked at her before straightening my head and bowing, "Queen Eva," I said before trying to move around her. If there was one thing that I was not going to do, it was knock out Eros's mom... Unless she attacked first.
"Will you give something to Eros for me?" she asked stopping me in my tracks, "It's his birthday in a few days and I don't want him to think I've forgotten him. It's in here."
Eva rushed over to the bed and pulled a small box out from under it.
Without waiting for me to answer she unzipped my backpack and put the box at the bottom.
I turned and bowed to her before walking to the door again, feeling very awkward with the whole situation.
"Tell my son I miss him and I love him," she said as I put my hand on the doorknob.
I looked back at her briefly and saw the look of hope she was giving me from the center of the floor. She had pulled out a locket from under her shirt and was clutching it while she stared at me as if I were a hero instead of the person who broke into her house.
"Of course, Queen Eva," I mumbled, feeling mildly guilty, before opening the door and walking down the hall to Kenrick's office.
A sense of relief filled me as I got out of the hallway and into the nice empty room, where I didn't feel so vulnerable or crowded. When you're breaking in somewhere having even one person you don't know in the room can be a bit overwhelming, and walking down the halls is a dangerous endeavor. Nice empty room were much more comfortable.
After turning on the light, I quickly went over to the window and opened it for Sora.
"I am going to stay out here and let you look. Dragon is misbehaving," she said quietly as Dragon tried his best to put a hole in the bricks of the building.
After nodding quickly to show that I'd heard her, I started to pull open the drawers to the filing cabinet behind the desk.
The top three drawers had the finance files just for Kenrick's pack, not even for any of his underling packs, just the one he directly ran. The next drawer I opened contained information on all the HMHs but nothing else. In the next one there were three files labeled SMH. I wasn't sure what that stood for, but if the "MH" in HMH stood for "mate house," then it stood to reason that these files would contain something of a similar nature. So, I pulled the first one out and was shocked to see the location on the cover, The Hamptons. The title page labeled it the file on a Special Mates House and stated that it contained witches, elves and exotic shifters. Not what I was looking for. On the second file it proclaimed the location as Hollywood and said it had dragons, elves and nymphs. Just to make sure, I checked the last file but it said that it only contained exotic shifters so I picked up the file for the Hollywood SMH and grabbed the pictures I'd taken from Eros's room.
Before I could get out the window, though, the door flew open.
I sighed in frustration. Why couldn't people just be asleep at three in the morning?
"What are you doing in here," Kenrick asked, his whole body shaking.
If I hadn't had my head wrap on I would have given him a duh look. As it was, all I could do was hold up the file, making sure he couldn't see which one it was.
He started walking toward me with threatening steps, the shaking going through his frame getting significantly worse. Kenrick's steps were slow and dramatic, making the best word to describe it, stalking. In all probability, he didn't realize that there were griffins waiting to take me away. He thought I was trapped on the third floor of his castle, so while he tried to be scary I shoved the file and the pictures into my backpack.
"You're a thief," he growled as stopped in the middle of the floor, unable do keep walking because of the shaking that wracked his frame.
Unashamed, I just shrugged.
"Who are you working for?" his question was barely understandable and I think he bit his tongue trying to get it out. He was barely holding his wolf in check, and he was only doing as well as he was because he had some questions for me.
I didn't have it in me to be afraid. Scars marred my leg, going from my ankle to my stomach, I had the reminder of claws going down my back, there was every reason for me to be terrified right now, but King Kenrick did not scare me in the slightest.
"Be still," I commanded with my head held high.
The tremors, signaling that Kenrick was about to change, slowed dramatically. Kenrick looked at me with shock in his blue eyes but he was still able to shift. The shaking hadn't stopped completely.
Something in me didn't want to accept that, "I said, be still," I commanded again, with more force this time.
He stopped shaking all together and looked at me with a mixture of horror, awe, wonder and just a little bit of pain. That pain somehow made me believe that his wolf was crying in the corner of his mind, unable to help his human half. Not wanting to do that to the poor creature I gave him one last command,"Sleep."
"What are you?" Kenrick asked.
I hadn't realized it until then, but Sora had been sneaking up behind Kenrick. She pulled her gun out of its holster and hit him over the head with it.
"I do not know about her," Sora said with a glare toward Kenrick's still form on the floor, "but I am an elf and I do not like you."
"Be glad he doesn't know who you are. If he did that would have been a political nightmare," I joked as I walked toward the hovering griffins.
We were already in the air and on our way to Hollywood when the alarm bells started blaring behind us.