I prep the reagents: black mercury, fire-ash, powdered garnet stone, bone oil, and two drops of my own blood. Once prepped, I arrange the items around the femur, then draw the living sigil in salt and squid ink across the tile floor beneath the desk.
The ancient symbol gleams with potential. Almost there...
I step back, exhaling slowly. Tomorrow night, I complete the rite. It needs a full day to cure, to take hold, so to speak. Black magic can never be rushed. The dark entities must find me again and move through me again, binding the spell to every cell in my body.
Years ago, I stood before my family and the council and performed the complicated ritual to summon demons, a ritual that included me sacrificing a small animal, a ritual that signaled I was ready to take the next step, as my bloodline demands. If I want access to the trust fund—and I really, really do—I must continue what they started... and that is to create more monsters to feast upon mankind. Upon god’s worthless creations.
Billions of dollars are waiting for me.
Tomorrow, I will become what I always wanted to be, perhaps more than I wanted the money. The raptor had only been a tester. It was not my true destiny. I was not locked into the beast, as awesome as it was. Not unless I went through a full moon transformation, which I hadn’t yet. No my shifting had been done willingly. No, the raptor was chosen because of convenience. A new exhibit at Craig Park had brought to me the perfect opportunity. Once I saw its success, I could upgrade. Interestingly, both creatures would be available to me. I only needed to see the creature I wanted to turn into within the single flame. Raptor? Or T-Rex? The choice was mine. Certainly both would have its uses. Take tonight. A raptor on a killing spree could break into anywhere at anytime... and go where a giant T-Rex never could.
The possibilities were endless, and so very exciting!
But first, I need to deal with that little thief. I return upstairs, shrug into a clean shirt, and make myself a protein shake. I sip slowly, staring out the kitchen window to the darkened street beyond. It would be easy to wait. To let her snoop a little more. To let her get in close... then pounce.
But no. This needs to be finished.
She touched what is mine, that which is sacred to my family. Does she have any idea how long that book had been on this planet, and its pedigree of owners? She needs to understand there is a price to pay for meddling.
I set the empty glass in the sink. I’ll hunt her down in the morning. Her place of work, perhaps. Let her think she’s safe for now, then I’ll show her what it means to meet arealpredator.
Chapter Nineteen
It’s just past 9 a.m., and I’m already on my second cup of coffee.
My sneakers are propped up on the desk as I read a breaking story about a violent attack at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, where a valuable T-Rex femur had been stolen and one guard was killed, while another clung to life at a local hospital.
Apparently, security saw someone dressed in one of those hyper-realistic blow-up dinosaur costumes, as popularized on Japanese prank videos. Only this guy wasn’t pranking anyone for laughs. Whoever was inside the suit had attacked the guards with what they think was a machete or an ax.
I think back to Mark returning with a long box. Yes, definitely big enough for a massive T-Rex femur.
Just what in the Michael Crichton is going on here?
Well, if itwasMark, then we don’t just have a killer on the loose... we’ve got an infected survivor or two. The dead guard wasn’t the problem. A shifter bite doesn’t bring you back to life. No, it’s the guy that survived that could carry on the infection. And now, there could be a literal Tyrannosaurus Rex roaming the streets of Fullerton in the next few days or so.
Apparently, turning into a raptor wasn’t good enough for him. I didn’t know a person could turn into two different kinds of shifters, like choosing a character in a video game.
From the news report, the attacker had been dressed as a ‘raptor.’ Probably should have followed him instead of swiping his book. If so, one person might be alive today. Well, I couldn’t have known what he had planned for last night. How could I? Though I can sometimes receive what I think are normal psychic hits, I certainly hadn’t gotten one about last night. But now I know... follow this guy at all costs.
I consider who to go to next. Max? Yeah, probably. Allison? A solid choice, but she’s just now getting home from her radio gig. And Kingsley’s stuck in court this morning. At the very least, I can run all this past my right-hand girl, Tammy, who should be back any minute now with our morning Starbucks fix.
At this moment, my office door opens, and I fully expect to see Tammy using the front entrance, rather than parking in the back and entering through there. But no, it’s a tall guy in a hoodie. Broad shoulders. Haunted eyes. I know those eyes.
Ah, crap.
I start to rise just as my inner alarm explodes in my head. As he shrugs off the hoodie, his torso extends, ribs cracking, arms and legs lengthening, skin hardening into scaled armor, teeth sprouting like knives from his skull. When he growls, the walls shake. Hell, so do I.
“Shit!” I grab my water bottle and squeeze. It bursts open, the cap flying off.
The exploding water coalesces in mid-air, hardening, stretching, and becoming a sword made of clear ice, sharp as sin. I grab the handle just as the creature lunges, dive sideways, and watch as his jaws snap shut where my head had once been just a nanosecond ago. But my chair doesn’t make it, and explodes. The computer monitor also gets caught in the crossfire of teeth and shatters into digital confetti. My desk darn near collapses under the weight of the creature.
As he shakes his head angrily, stuffing from my headrest flies everywhere, I teleport directly behind him, slashing my ice blade across his back. Blood spurts and scales go flying. He roars and turns, tail whipping. It clips my shoulder and sends me flying into a far bookcase.
Whoa, mama!
That tail’s going to be a problem. I flip to my feet, sword still in hand.
“Someone’s gonna pay for that chair and monitor, asshole. And I know where to send the bill.”
