Andrew

The city was still asleep around him when he left the embassy the next morning. Overhead the moon was just beginning to give way to the glow on the horizon, promising a warm sunny day to come. The chill of the evening had yet to give way. It was mid-June, and the truly hot summer weather had yet to arrive, but Andrew knew that once the sun rose in the sky, today would feel like it. As he jogged through streets nearly devoid of vehicles, he breathed in and out in a comfortable pace.

Without anyone he needed to pace, his legs stretched out as he ran on, the sidewalk flowing by like water beneath him. He moved so fast the pavement seemed to blur and blend together into one smooth surface, though he knew it to be rippled with cracks and bumps. Buildings flashed by on either side of him, there and gone too fast for him to read signs. The slap of his shoes on the ground echoed briskly off the storefronts, but always behind him.

He ran on and on, with no particular destination in mind. Not yet, at least. There was still an hour to go until he was supposed to meet up with Karri. He fully expected that his morning jog with her would help relieve some of the stress of day-to-day life, as it had the evening before. That wasn’t why he was running now. No, now he was running to work off the stress of having to run with Karri later.

This is silly. Working off the stress about going to do something that will help you work off stress.

Andrew understood the irony of course, but how could he not be nervous about seeing her again? Early in the morning. Alone. Nothing was going to happen, he was well aware of it, and yet…

And yet there was always the possibility. Just the idea that perhaps he would get to explore this strange newfound connection with her was enough to ensure that he hadn’t slept at all the night before, tossing and turning in his bed as visions of her long blonde hair and perky lips kept flashing through him. He saw her bright blue eyes staring down that slim pert little nose of hers at him, despite the fact that he towered over her, having well over a foot of height advantage. Not for the first time he wondered how she managed that effect.

He kept a firm glance at the time, however, his analog wristwatch faithfully clicking along. It wasn’t something he wore often anymore, but he hadn’t been sure where it was he was going to end up that morning, and being late wasn’t an option. Without realizing it, his run brought him back by the embassy. Glancing down he decided that changing his sweat-soaked shirt might not be the worst idea he’d ever had. There was still fifteen minutes until he was supposed to meet Karri.

Plenty of time.

Ducking inside, he headed directly to his room and doffed the wet garment, pulling out a replacement and tugging it over his head. Satisfied with his appearance he headed back down the hallway and then down one of the staircases to the lobby. He’d almost reached the bottom step when the big double doors blew inward under a mighty blow.

Andrew came to an abrupt halt as four shifters strolled inside. There was no doubt in his mind that they were shifters. No human could have blown open the doors like that, not on their best day. The first one in seemed to admire the place, his head craning this way and that as he looked over the embassy. Approaching the reception desk, he dragged a finger along it in a seemingly contemplative manner. Andrew wondered if the leader had even noticed him standing there on the stairs, so dismissive was his attitude.

“Can I help you?” he asked, uninterested in playing games. He already had a sneaking suspicion as to why they were there.

“Can…you…help us? What an interesting question,” the leader replied in a mocking voice.

Was he high? Andrew couldn’t quite fathom how the man could be so confident. Judging by his walk and his build, he figured him to be a wolf shifter. Andrew wasn’t exactly intimidated.

“Yes. Can I help you?” He repeated the question in a different voice, this one no longer helpful, but instead cold and unwelcoming.

“I dunno boys, can the outcast help us?”

The other three snickered at the apparent joke. Andrew, for his part, just rolled his eyes outwardly. He knew what they meant by the insult, but he wasn’t about to let them see that it got to him. That would be the wrong course of action. Wolf shifters preyed on weakness and reaction to their general assholeishness. If he let on that their words affected him in any way, it would only intensify.

“If not, then please leave,” he said calmly. “Only shifters who have been approved by both myself and the Guardian Headquarters are allowed into Cadia,” he added. “So if you leave now, I won’t be forced to look up whether you have the proper forms filled out or not.” He adopted a false smile. “Almost everyone screws up the forms,” he said, making his first threat.

Only one of the intruders appeared even remotely worried by his words, and even then he was quickly reassured by the others.

“Oh don’t you worry,” the leader said. “Our forms have been filled out properly.” He paused. “In triplicate!” Apparently that was uproariously funny, as they all laughed.

Andrew had always thought wolves had a weird sense of humor. Now he was confirming it.

“So, what’s the game then?” he asked, leaning against the railing at the edge of the stairs. His nonchalance wasn’t faked. These men weren’t here to fight him; they were here to threaten him with what might come. That was all he could fathom they would be doing. They weren’t going to fight, he felt confident of that.

“Game? There is no game,” the leader hissed. “This is real life. Where actions have consequences.”

His suspicions about their reason for being there had just been confirmed. This was the goon squad sent to tell him to watch his back, that if he didn’t do something for the political masters, he would suffer greatly. Apparently Al had further-reaching contacts than he’d been led to believe. The response had come a full two days before he’d expected it. Somehow word must have been sent back to Cadia about his punishment for Al before Al himself had even left. After all, he’d been tossed aboard one of the few tractor trailers to enter Cadia just the evening before.

That was fast, even for angry politicians.

“Right. Real life. Actions have consequences. Actions like leaving Cadia with forged permission papers?” He paused, pretending to be lost in thought. “I wonder if you know the consequences for being within the boundaries of Cloud Lake without permission.”

The wolves looked at each other. Andrew almost snorted. Pathetic. They had come in here expecting him to just bend at the knee and submit. To them? A quartet of overgrown mutts? Fat chance.

“No, I didn’t think so,” he replied. “So you see, the punishment for that infraction is to be decided upon by the resident shifter official in Cloud Lake.” He bared his teeth in a predatory grin. “That would be me.”

Wariness began to enter their body language now, as they realized their mission wasn’t going to be as easy as they’d been told.

“Are you sure it’s you guys who didn’t do something wrong?” he asked casually. “Being sent here so that I’d deal with you, instead of your masters back home being forced to take action?”

“No,” the leader said, finding a bit of a backbone. “You see, you’re right. On all accounts.”

Andrew’s eyes narrowed. He had missed something, judging by the way the confidence was growing in the leader once more.

“The only detail you’re missing, or should I say, that you’ve got wrong, is just who that senior official is,” he replied coldly. “It might be you for the moment.”

Ah. So they were after him to resign. Again. He sighed in frustration. The constant demands for him to resign, the reminders that he’d been awarded that position because they had been forced to, not because anyone thought him worthy, it was all starting to weigh heavily on him.

Andrew didn’t regret what he’d done to get his position. Not in the slightest. He’d do it again if necessary, and he’d fight even harder to get others to follow his course of action. But the consequences of his actions had been farther reaching than he’d expected. Even now, two years later, he was still feeling them.

That was the mistake the wolves made, really. They shouldn’t have brought that up. With their unspoken threat came a flood of memories and emotions that he couldn’t control. Including one in particular: Anger.

“Oh you think so?” he snapped. “You think can just come into my house, and threaten me? You think that just because you’re fresh off the reservation that you’re the big bad new kids in town? Well, I have news for you! YOU’RE NOT!” His voice was an unhinged roar by the end of his little tirade, the noise filling the lobby and spilling down the hallway.

He heard several doors open, but his attention was focused on the four wolves now slowly backing away from him.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he snapped.

Before the wolves could answer, Andrew moved. One moment he was leaning casually against the railing. The next he was in the midst of the wolves, launching an attack that he was positive they didn’t see coming. Lashing out with an open fist, he quite literally slapped the nearest shifter silly. The blow split lips and flung the wolf to the ground, where he crashed hard, not having had time to get his hands up to slow the fall.

Before he could reach him the leader ducked out of the way. Either he was much quicker on the uptake than Andrew had initially given him credit for, or he had been ready for this to happen all along. It didn’t seem likely given the inevitable outcome, but it wouldn’t be the first time someone had picked a fight with him without realizing just how powerful gryphons truly were.

He spun as a weight landed on his back, another of the wolves having leapt at him while his back was turned. His arms reached up and over his head, grabbing onto whatever he could find. Then he bent at the waist and pulled with his arms. Chunks of flesh were ripped from him as the wolf—this one had shifted—was ripped from his back. The massive three-hundred-pound animal hit one of the marble columns and fell to the ground, whimpering in pain, though it wasn’t out of it yet. Andrew was hoping to discourage rather than hurt.

“You made the wrong choice,” the leader laughed as he came at Andrew, only to pull away as the gryphon swung, realizing too late it was a feint.

The fourth wolf hit him low, still in his human form. Angry at himself for being played so terribly, Andrew spun as if trying to catch the attacking wolf, but like he’d expected, it was already long out of range. That was how wolves took their prey down. One wolf distracted while another darted in. When their target reacted to that, the initial wolf changed from distraction to attack. They would repeat this over and over again until their prey went down.

It worked excellently with unintelligent wild animals. A trained gryphon shifter was another matter entirely. Even as Andrew whirled to try and hit his unseen attacker, he didn’t stop. Instead, knowing what was currently coming at his rear, he continued his spin and delivered a vicious spinning backfist to the leader. He’d hoped to connect with the other man’s head, but he hit the shoulder instead.

The power of the blow blew the other man off his feet and across the lobby. The human-form wolf shifter impacted upon the side of the building. Drywall collapsed as the force of the punch actually put the wolf into the wall. Andrew didn’t have time to admire his handiwork though, as the other three wolves were coming at him, all of them now in animal form.

“Stay back!” he shouted, putting up a hand to stop the guards and other embassy employees from coming to his aid. There wasn’t any need for it, for starters. The fight was almost over, though the wolves didn’t know it yet. But secondly, he didn’t want any of his staff to face repercussions for their actions, either. They didn’t deserve to be punished for his mistakes.

The trio of wolves came at him at once from three separate directions. Finally they were learning, deciding to act as one instead of individual pieces. Unfortunately, they’d clearly never fought a gryphon before, nor witnessed one fight. Andrew watched them come, and as he did, he closed his eyes, focusing on the animal within him. He allowed it to come to the fore, imbuing him with its fullest strength and speed.

Reining himself in, he didn’t move as fast as he could, nor did he punch as hard as he could. It was unwise to give away one’s fullest talents unless absolutely necessary, and now wasn’t one of those times. Instead he made use of his increased reaction times the most. The first wolf couldn’t even blink before he darted forward, extending his fist as he lunged like a fencer. The animal yelped as it was flung back the way it came.

Andrew had used his left hand to hit the leftmost shifter, extending his left leg as he went. Now he finished the lunge, shifting all his weight forward. A twitch of his muscles changed his direction, timing up his sideways move perfectly with the oncoming wolf. His right arm shot out as he sidestepped in that direction. The blow took the wolf in the head.

All around him the room moved in slow motion. The wolf was just starting to react to his attack on its companion when his right fist blew it up and out. Andrew didn’t stick around to watch, however. He landed on his right foot and spun, bringing his left foot around in a whipping kick.

Things sped up and he watched in real time as his kick smashed the muzzle of the final shifter in upon itself. The animal seemed to pause in midair before the energy he imparted upon it with his kick reversed its direction and flung it straight into the back wall of the lobby.

Andrew’s foot hit the ground and he stood up straight, taking a deep, calming breath.

“Throw them in the cells,” he commanded as the trio of embassy guards finally rushed down the stairs, released from their hold by his gestures at the fallen wolves. Andrew walked over to the fourth one, intending to lend a hand. He grabbed the shifter by the neck and pulled him unceremoniously from the wall.

“Like you said, actions have consequences. Now you know them.” Then he flung him in the direction of the stairs in the back left corner that led down to the jail cells. The wolf wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, there was no question about that.

The only question that was running through his head now, was what the hell had they been thinking?

“Gray!” he barked.

“Yeah boss?” the bear shifter asked, poking his head up the stairs as he came up, taking the last wolf shifter and tossing him down the stairs to the other two men under his command. Then he ascended the rest of the stairs and walked over to where Andrew was now studying the scene of the fight as if he could discern something from it.

“You know what that was all about I presume?” he asked.

“A?”

Andrew nodded. “I’m assuming so. They talked about actions having consequences and shit like that, though I’m sure they envisioned the whole thing going a little differently.”

“Probably,” he agreed. “I don’t think they intended to start a fight with you.”

“Maybe,” he agreed with a shrug. “But they didn’t start it.”

Gray goggled at him. “Are you serious, boss? You just assaulted them for no reason?”

“They threatened me,” Andrew said nonchalantly, as if his word was good enough to prove anything. “I didn’t appreciate it. So I did to them what they would have hoped to do to me. That’s not the point.”

“It kinda is though, boss. You’ve started a fight now. You let your anger get the better of you, and now they’re going to make you pay for it.”

Andrew knew he was right. He’d known it even before he’d thrown the first punch. Starting a fight had been the wrong decision. But the wolves had provoked him, reminding him of why he was here and his status among the rest of Cadia. He couldn’t have let that go.

It wasn’t in his nature.

“Don’t worry, I’ll watch my back,” he assured his friend. “That wasn’t my question, however.”

Gray just shook his head, the frustration evident upon his face. But he didn’t protest any further. They were good enough friends that the bear shifter knew when it was pointless to fight his boss.

“Okay fine,” he said, clearly exasperated. “What’s your question?”

“Why wolf shifters? And why only four of them? That just makes no sense,” he said. “Not on my worst day could four of them bring me down.”

Gray looked over Andrew’s shoulder, indicating the ripped and torn skin of his back. The blood had soaked the shirt and was seeping into his pants.

“Those are skin-deep only and you know it,” he snapped. “We’ve all had much, much worse. There’s just a lot of them so it looks like a lot of blood.”

“There is a lot of blood, boss,” Gray said. “You need to change your shirt, and you need to eat. After going for that run earlier, then the fight? You’re going to crash now that the adrenaline is wearing off.”

As if his words had been a switch, Andrew yawned. Shit, the bear was right.

“My question?” he said, heading for the kitchen. Food was a necessity right now.

“Well, wolf shifters are obvious,” Gray mused, following along. “Al is a wolf shifter. You start with your own before sending in a hired goon.”

“Valid point. Why only four of them?” he asked, snagging some leftover chicken from the night before from the fridge and chewing down on it without hesitation.

Gray hesitated in his answer.

“Ou’ wi’ i’b,” he said around the food, gesturing for Gray to speak his mind.

“Well…what if they sent only the four because they didn’t want to overwhelm you?”

Andrew frowned his confusion.

“Okay, look at it this way, boss. Al’s family and friends are well connected back home, right?”

He nodded.

“So, Al comes home, everyone hears about the punishment and what Al did. The family have been embarrassed by you personally. They need to do something about it. But they can’t just eliminate you for doing your job, right? That wouldn’t go over well with all their rivals. So, instead of sending a full pack to take you down, they send four. Four of their kind that perhaps aren’t in favor right now. That have something to prove. That might be more belligerent than some of their better operatives. Follow me so far?”

Andrew did, indicating his friend to get on about it.

“Well, those four come here with a message from their bosses. They’ll say or do anything to get in favor. So the bosses tell them to send you a message, knowing that you’ll overreact. They also tell the wolves what the message was supposed to be.”

“I don’t get it,” he said, swallowing another hunk of grilled chicken.

“So now you’ve beaten up their shifters, starting the fight, as anyone will be forced to attest to. And the politicians back home say that they sent the quartet to come and apologize to you and to Cloud Lake officials even maybe. But you went and beat the piss out of them. Now they can claim you’ve got a vendetta against them. You attacked a peaceful apology group. They could even go so far as to say you framed Al, and that he didn’t actually do anything you said he did.”

“That’s preposterous; what about the girl who it happened to?”

“They’ll claim you bought her off, or that she was mistaken who it was. Maybe they’ll say it was you instead, or that it was another human.”

Andrew cursed. Gray was right. He wouldn’t put something so conniving past the political animals—figuratively and literally—back home. They were vicious. This would be just like them. He didn’t think Karri would have a problem testifying in his name, but she might not want to expose herself either.

Shit. Karri.

Andrew looked at his watch. He had missed his appointment with her to go jogging. Anger coursed through his blood once more as he realized the wolf shifters had just fucked up his life in more ways than one.

“I doubt the wolves will be the last people they send after you either, boss,” Gray added as he poked his head inside the refrigerator, looking for food of his own.

Damn. He was right. Okay, two things to do now.

One, figure out the end goal of the politicians back home, if it was just his removal, or if they wanted him dead, and try to figure out how long until they sent another group after him.

Secondly, and arguably more importantly, he needed to find a way to apologize to Karri.

“Come on Gray,” he called, leaving the room. “I need your detective skills.”