Chapter Text
I suppose I should start at the beginning. My name is Marianne. I’m a detective. I’m a tailor/seamstress as well. I like the second job a lot better than the first. And no, I’m not in the phonebook.
Don’t look at me like that. Its kind hard to put on a resume that your client base consists of Drow, Goblins, Mermaids, Gnomes, Dwarves, assorted fey and whatever mystical f***ery gets thrown at me on a nightly basis.
It also doesn’t help that thanks to circumstances I will be getting into later, I’m kind of stuck looking like a thirteen-year-old, even though I’m just a few months shy of sixteen.
But, I’m getting ahead of myself. I have a story to tell and it starts with a client who approached me with a rather sizeable problem he needed to have handled quietly….
------
Andre Bourgeois paced back and forth across the surprisingly empty lobby of the Le Grand Paris Hotel. The sun was less than an hour from setting and he knew Chloe were running dangerously short on time.
The portly politician ran his hands through his gradually receding hair as he glanced furiously at his watch.
CLANK!
His head perked up as he shot me an annoyed look as I slammed face first into the hotel’s automatic door.
“Ow! It’s times like this I wish I showed up properly on cameras…” I muttered darkly as I massaged my slightly flattened nose.
“Where have you been? It’s almost sunset!” the portly politician sputtered indignantly.
“I got tied up with important business. And your parking attendant was an ass. He wouldn’t let me stow my vespa in the hotel garage.” I replied sourly.
Andre twitched and let out a tired sigh as I walked past him. This was an old argument. This time of the month was stressful for everyone involved. Everyone’s temper got a little shorter the closer it got to the full moon. And as much as it sucked I, more often than not, had to be the cool head in this situation.
One elevator ride to the penthouse suite later, I winced as I heard something that was probably worth more than all of my worldly possessions combined smash against the wall.
I hesitated before giving the door a sharp knock.
I had to fight the urge to jump back as the hardwood door was wrenched open and a familiar blonde shot me a molten glare.
Chloe Bourgeois. My client.
“Where have you been? I don’t like being kept waiting!” the blue eyed girl snarled.
“Sorry. I had some business that ran a few minutes longer than I expected.” I replied.
It’s true. The weekly ultimate Mecha Strike III tournament is serious business. And I have a title to uphold. And sometimes time gets away from me when I’m tearing my roommates limb from limb. We’re cutthroat like that.
“How utterly Ridiculous! Let’s get this over with!” the taller girl huffed.
I stepped out of the way and gave the blonde a courtly bow as she stomped past.
The two of us walked down the hall and stepped back into the elevator. I pulled a small silver key and inserted it into a hidden slot under the call buttons.
The elevator descended as the two of us stood in stony silence.
I was sure it rankled her something fierce. She was my former bully and I’ve had the…privilege (for lack of a better term) of knowing her since école. The two of us HATED each other. I was the baker’s daughter. She was the child of the soon to be mayor. And whenever we were in the same room, someone ended up worse off. On the first day we met I got my front baby teeth knocked down my throat and she got a black eye and a bloody nose (neither of us are sure who threw the first punch). The two of us were like a pair of rabid wolverines if we were left unattended.
DING!
The door opened without preamble, revealing a bare concrete room with cheap halogen lights along the ceiling and a set of heavy steel bars that cut the room in half.
“You’re suite!” I smirked, opening the cell door.
The blonde bared her teeth angrily at me as I shut the only entrance behind her.
Without another word, Chloe stripped off her ratty pink sweats, kicked off her cheap flip-flops and tossed the bundle of clothes to me as we waited the last minutes before nightfall in silence.
Chloe paced back and forth as I examined the ceiling.
“Sooooo, in an effort to try and cut through the awkward silence; is there anything you’d like to watch before the main event happens?” I asked innocently.
The blonde shot me a guarded look as she inched toward the cell door, “I’d ask for an episode of the Vampire Diaries, but you’d probably shank me on general principle. So, I’m willing to settle for Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.”
“Weeb.” I snorted, cuing up the first episode.
We watched in semi companionable silence as the sun sank lower until it happened…
“HURK!” Chloe gagged, lurching backwards.
I stowed my phone and I leaped away from the cell as the Blonde’s transformation took hold. It wasn’t a pretty picture. Chloe collapsed into a ball of agonized misery as her body began to swell like an overfilled balloon, her leg bones audibly/repeatedly shattered and reformed, reversing the knee joint. A fine coat of light blonde fur crept over the girl’s body as her ears migrated to the top of her head and became triangular. I winced in sympathy as her face bulged out. Her nose merged with her mouth to form a rectangular snout as a long curly tail grew like a weed just below the small of her back.
With the transformation complete, the now pony sized werewolf laid in a twitching heap on the floor of the cell. This was the point where I had to be on guard. Werewolf Chloe had two basic settings.
The first being semi normal. While I wouldn’t call this version intelligent by any means, she was at least smart enough to stay in one place and not try to escape. It also helped that ear scritches were this Chloe’s kryptonite.
The other version of her was the problem child. She was a feral beast that did not like being locked up, and anyone who tried to get in the way of her hunt for fresh prey was torn to pieces. I made the mistake of sticking my arm in the cell the first time I encountered her. I spent the next several hours wrestling the massive lycanthrope single handedly after she broke out of her cell (mostly because it took a week for the left one to grow back).
As I waited for the werewolf to stumble to her feet, I watched with bated breath. I had specifically asked the mayor to reinforce the bars of the cell with something strong enough to hold his daughter. Ideally, a silver lined cell would have stopped Chloe cold. But the risk would have been too high that she would have hurt herself. So steel would have to do.
Chloe huffed and whined as she stumbled drunkenly to her feet. She looked around the cell and sniffed the air.
“Well, she’s not trying to bash the door down, so it looks like Feral Chloe has taken a back seat tonight…” I thought wearily as I prepared to wait the night out my summer math homework (which I would have finished several days earlier, if I hadn’t been distracted by a troll that had taken residence under the Lock Bridge). While I might be taking online classes, that does not mean I was exempt from the wonderful world of schoolwork.
I pulled my Algebra book out of my backpack and sat cross legged on the floor. I spared Chloe one final glance as I tried to puzzle out the mystery of quadratic equations.
As the hours passed and I lost myself in the world of mathematics, the werewolf nudged her snout against the floor and sniffed the bars curiously.
I really should have paid attention as she paced back and forth, butting her head against the bars.
“Ok, so I think I’ve solved this 4x squared BS, so what the heck is the square root of Y…” I mumbled.
The blonde watched me curiously as I scribbled away on my scratch paper.
“Argh! Maybe it’s three? No that’s not right…” I grunted, crossing out over half-hour’s worth of work.
The blue-eyed werewolf let out a playful yip as she ran in a circle chasing her own tail.
CLANG!
We both froze as the lycanthrope slammed into the door of the cell, causing the entire structure to rattle wildly.
The blonde let out an animalistic snarl as I got cautiously to my feet. The pony sized wolf backed away from me until she was flush against the rear cell wall.
“Calm down, princess. I don’t know what set you off, but I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m just here to keep you in one…”
CLONG!
“YACK!”
The moment I got in front of the cell, Chloe threw her entire weight against the door and tore it off its hinges, dropping more than a hundred and fifty pounds of metal plus nearly a half ton of werewolf right on my head.
The werewolf scrambled off me, letting out a happy bark as she sauntered to the elevator. Chloe examined the array of buttons curiously as she hiked herself up and rested her forepaws against the wall, poking the panel with her sensitive snout.
CRRRNCH!
CLANG!
I let out an annoyed groan as I heaved the door off, lifting the entire thing above my head and hurling it to the side. It took only a matter of second for the inch long gash in my scalp to knit back together until not even a scar was left.
“Ok, I was hoping we’d be able to play nice tonight. Just you, me, and algebra. Then maybe we could bond over some Netflix and Chill. But that went, right out the window when you threw a cell door at me, didn’t it?” I growled angrily as my teeth grew into shark like fangs.
The werewolf narrowed its eyes and circled me, baring her teeth in a savage snarl.
Chloe let out a lupine screech as she lunged, slamming her entire weight into me, and nearly dropping me onto my back.
CRACK!
“YIPE!”
I gritted my teeth and drove my knee into her vulnerable underbelly before heaving her across the room.
Wolves were pack hunters. While a single wolf could bring down easier prey, numbers were necessary to handle something more dangerous.
I like to think I’d fit into the second category.
Chloe shook her head and gave me a scathing glare as she stumbled to her feet.
She bunched her legs and lunged, jaws ready to tear into my throat.
As I tried to swipe the bitch out of the air, she feinted and went low. My eyes widened in horror as she sank her fangs into my thigh and heaved.
I flew across the room and slammed into the call buttons with a crunch of shattered metal.
The doors sprang open as Chloe leaped over me and into the elevator with a happy doggy grin.
“Oh no you…” I growled as…
CLUNK!
The door closed in my face.
“Don’t do what you just did. D***n it! Outsmarted my something way lower than me on the proverbial food chain. The captain will never let me hear the end of this.” I groaned as the elevator began to ascend to the upper floors.
I gritted my teeth as my body dissolved into mist. I hated using this particular ability. It left me half blind and deaf. Most of the time it was only through dumb luck that I managed to get where I needed to go.
I flowed frantically around the elevator shaft until I figured out how to wrap around the central cable. It took me far longer than I would have liked to drift up the elevator shaft and out the rapidly closing door on the ground floor.
I barely managed to reform one of my arms to try to grab her back legs. I just missed latching onto the little bitch by about a hair.
Chloe bowled over her shell-shocked father as she leaped out into the warm Parisian night.
“W-what just happened?!” the portly politician squawked.
“She smashed though the cell. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get your daughter back before she sinks her teeth into someone.” I babbled as I ran after her as fast as my newly reformed legs could carry me.
“Come on, which way did she go?!” I groaned, looking for any sort of clue. The few people on the street had already either scattered or hid in the few still open buildings the moment the werewolf made her presence known.
Gritting my teeth, I ducked into a nearby alleyway. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Chloe had already gotten too big a head start, so finding her from the ground would be all but impossible. She had too many hidey holes to duck into, even against my enhances senses.
So that left hunting her down from the air.
The shadows seemed to come alive around me as they enveloped my body like a cocoon. Semi warm flesh gave way to feathers. Arms became wings. Legs became, well, smaller legs. My face was dominated by a wickedly hooked beak that was more than capable of tearing into flesh. In a matter of seconds, I had become my second favorite alternate form: A peregrine falcon. An airborne predator easily capable of spotting and divebombing its prey at almost two hundred miles per hour.
I took an awkward hop-skip forward as I spread my wings and booked it into the air as fast as my little birdy body was capable of.
I wheeled through the air as I desperately attempted to spot the fleeing werewolf. Every second she was free was an opportunity that she could bite someone. Chloe wasn’t in her right mind right now. Even though she was smarter than usual, she was still operating on instinct. And I didn’t think that kind of situation would end well for anybody.
Best case scenario, Chloe’s cage would have two occupants next month.
Worst case scenario…there’s very thorough cleanup crew that’s responsible for making sure the magical community of Paris isn’t exposed. And the last thing any of us wanted was Chloe being swept under the proverbial rug, never to be seen again.
Several minutes later, I narrowed my eyes as I spotted a shadowy figure leaping along the roof tops of the fourth Arrondissement.
“How did she even get onto the rooftops? It’s not like she can climb a ladder! Aw, screw it. I’m a bird, time to hunt like one.” I thought archly as I lined up with my target, tucked my wings, and dove at her like a f***ing bullet.
SCHNIKT!
“YIPE!”
I extended my talons and sliced a meaty chunk out of the back of Chloe’s head, nearly tearing off one of her ears.
The werewolf whirled around as she tried to spot her attacker. But I had already ascended and was ready for another run.
“Pilot to bombardier, we are locked on target! I'm ready for another pass!” I thought gleefully.
I might have been enjoying this a little too much.
Chloe whirled around at the last second, teeth bared and ready to snatch me out of the air and turn me into Peregrine nuggets.
I pulled out of the dive so quickly that I swore her teeth combed through the feathers on my belly.
The shadows wrapped around me as I tumbled out of the air and managed a semi dignified three-point landing.
“All right princess; enough is enough. I know you can understand me. Either you come back to the hotel, or I drag you back. At this point, I’m partial to either option.” I frowned.
The blonde werewolf regarded me cautiously before she took that one choice I never expected.
She turned and ran.
The werewolf whirled around and dashed across the rooftops as fast as her paws could carry her.
“Oh no you don’t! You are not getting away again!” I snarled, running after her.
The shadows enveloped me again as I started running on all fours. My new dire wolf body was as canine as Chloe (even though I was head and shoulders shorter than her, much to my chagrin). My coat was snow white and I was a respectable eight feet long from snout to tail.
The two of us bounded along the rooftops, Chloe just managing to keep out of my reach.
Without warning, the werewolf banked left, and I nearly skidded off the edge of the apartment complex.
The tips of my claws skittered along the ledge as I scrambled back.
“Sneaky little bitch!” I mentally growled, whirling around, booking it after her.
As I loped along, I kept my nose in the air as I followed the other wolf’s scent.
The werewolf’s trail took me almost a block and a half away to the edge of the Arrondissement.
I sniffed the air and looked over the edge. My eyes narrowed at the sight of Chloe perched on a fire escape several stories below, her snout pressed against the window. The emergency exit was decorated with a myriad of potted plants. Even from a distance, I could tell that Chloe had taken an unusual amount of care not to disturb them. Her tail wagged eagerly as she stared into whatever room was on the other side of the window.
“Huh. Maybe I was worried over nothing. It doesn’t look like she’s going to hurt anyone…” I mused thoughtfully as I returned to normal.
The werewolf stepped back; tail hiked in the air as she prepared to leap through the window.
“I hate it when the universe is tries to prove me wrong!” I blanched, leaping over the ledge towards her.
Chloe yipped happily as she backed to the edge. Suddenly, the fire escape rattled wildly as the world went sideways. I wrapped my arms around her waist and yanked the werewolf into the air.
------
The formerly sleeping girl was jerked awake by the sound of shattering pottery and clattering metal.
The redhead scrambled out of bed and dashed to the nearby window, only to gape in horror at the dozens of shattered pots that had previously contained her prized flowers.
“Son of a bitch…” Sabrina Raincomprix groaned as she wrenched the window open and grabbed an armful of plastic bags to dispose of the shredded remains of months of hard work.
------
The two of us spiraled through the air as I locked my legs around her torso. Chloe kicked and wiggled madly as she tried to squirm out of my grip.
WHA-BANG!
The blonde’s body jerked and spasmed as her skull impacted the ground from four stories up.
I unwrapped my arms and legs and toppled over backwards, resting against a nearby fence.
“I’m gonna need the mother of all Bloody Mary’s after tonight, heavy on the AB negative…” I thought blearily.
I stumbled to my feet and stumped toward Chloe’s unconscious body.
“Rrrrrrrrr” Chloe growled as the aforementioned unconscious body twitched.
I froze as the blue eyed werewolf stumbled drunkenly to her feet.
It was that at moment I remembered two things.
Werewolves were stupidly resilient. Conventional weapons meant jack against a lycanthrope unless you went for serious overkill.
Second; Chloe had a pretty hard head, even in human form. Doubly so during the full moon.
The werewolf glared hellfire at me as she bared her teeth in a savage snarl.
“RAWG!”
I let out a strangled scream of pain as Chloe dove and tackled me to the ground, her fangs sinking into my collarbone as her claws shredded through the meat of my belly.
I wheezed and sputtered as I tried to pry her off. But the werewolf had a death grip on my carotid artery, and I knew she wasn’t going to let go until I either passed out from blood loss or died.
I scrabbled for something, anything that could smack her hard enough to unlock the hold she had on my jugular.
My hand wrapped around something cold and metallic. I heaved it into the air and brought it down onto Chloe’s still healing skull.
CLONG!
“YIPE!”
The werewolf’s jaws sprang open like a Pez Dispenser as she collapsed in a twitching heap on the alley floor.
I could only blink in surprise at the shiny new aluminum baseball bat clutched in my one useable hand.
“I do not get paid enough for stuff like this.” I groaned as I tucked my improvised weapon into my belt loop and grimaced at the tattered remains of my favorite shirt (A vintage misfit skulls concert T that I had gotten for a steal on E-Bay from someone named Rock_’n_Roll_King_100).
I grabbed the now fully unconscious werewolf and hiked her over my shoulders. As I slumped out of the alley and into the thankfully deserted streets, the bite wounds and claw marks had already mostly healed. My chest was pretty much one giant scab and my shoulder was still a pile of shredded meat. But those issues would be sorted out with a bit of time and some of the good stuff.
-------
The streets were thankfully deserted as I glared at the automatic doors of the Hotel Le Grand Paris, almost daring them to try and keep me out.
SHINK!
They opened without preamble.
“That’s what I thought.” I mentally crowed.
Needless to say, the mayor was beside himself as I lugged his concussed and unconscious daughter through the threshold.
“What happened!?” the overweight man sputtered, alternately cupping his daughters face in his hands and gaping at the shredded remains of my upper torso.
“Chloe led me on guided tour of the rooftops of the fourth Arrondissement. She nearly turned me into kibble after I caught her trying to break into an apartment through the fourth story window. I was forced to defend myself.” I replied dryly.
“Will she be ok?” the politician whimpered.
“Just…give her a few hours of rest and she’ll be up, about, and in everyone’s faces come sunrise.” I answered wearily as I limped to the elevator. The next several seconds were spent in blissful silence as we descended to the underground cell.
Half the bars were torn off at the base and the remainder had been twisted into knots. The door was still torn off its hinges and rested at an angle against the far wall.
Without many options, I hefted Chloe off my shoulders and set her down on the floor of what used to be her cage.
While I wasn’t willing to admit it in front of a client, getting mauled took more out of me than I’d like. I was dead on my feet and ready to pass out at any moment.
I spared the unresponsive blonde and final glance before I slumped wearily in the corner.
I let out a sigh of relief that my backpack hadn’t been shredded in the melee, and by extension, the precious contents it contained.
Speaking of which, I pulled out a plastic pouch that held one of the most important substances known to my kind.
Red Ambrosia…otherwise known as Blood.
I sank my fangs into the spout, wrenched the stopper free, and took a nice looooooong sip.
As the iron scented fluid slid down my throat. It was like my soul (or rather what was left of it) sang a holy chorus.
My shoulder finally started to knit together properly: tendons reconnected, bones were refused, and the shredded and much abused flesh and muscle regrew to the point where note even a scar remained.
My stomach and chest were much the same. The massive cuts and abrasions that Choe had oh so graciously unto gifted me faded into a flat stomach and pectorals.
My meal finished, I got back to the dirty business that was schoolwork. As much as I would have like to close my eyes and take a well-deserved rest, I still had a half-finished Algebra assignment to contend with. C’est la vie, I suppose.
It took only an hour for me to give up the ghost and drop off into a well deserved (if somewhat unrestful) sleep.
----
I felt a shiver run down my spine as I skipped along behind my parents. Christmas was only a few short days away and the snow fluttered around me like a wintery cloak.
“No! No! No! Anything by this! I don’t want to live through this again!”
It was that moment that something caught my eye: a bright pink party dress with ruffled sleeves and a layered tulle skirt.
It was way out of my price range, but a girl can dream, can’t she?
“Don’t stop, you little idiot!”
I was so mesmerized by the gown that I didn’t notice two things.
First being that my parents hadn’t realized I’d fallen behind.
“Run! Please, for the love all that’s good and pure, run and don’t stop!”
The second being the dark skinned hand that reached from the nearby alleyway and gripped my shoulder.
“EEK!” I squeaked as I was pulled into the shadows.
My vision swam as an iron hard grip locked around my throat as a hand covered my mouth.
“I’m so sorry. But, my hunger comes first.” A softs spoken voice purred in my ear.
“MRPH!” I squealed, thrashing in the mystery person’s grip.
“Please, stop! I was just a little girl, what did I do to deserve this?!”
BANG!
I let out a whimper of pain as he cracked the back of my head into the unbreakable bricks.
“Better make this quick.” The shadowy person hissed.
The last thing I saw was the stranger’s vampiric fangs flashing in the dim light as he sank his teeth into my neck.
The world went black.
That was the moment Marinette Dupain-Cheng died an ignoble death, and six months later the girl who would come to be known as Marianne was born.
----
My eyes snapped open as I lurched to my feet, drenched in cold sweat. I half expected to feel my heart jackhammering in my chest. It took several second for me to realize that my torso was heartbreakingly still.
“Damn it. Even my own brain has it out for me…” I groaned weakly as I glanced into the shattered cell. Chloe was curled into a tight fetal position as her body set itself to right. Her arms and legs shrank as her paws became feet and hands. Her tail withered away to nothing. The shaggy carpet of blonde fur faded away into soft skin.
“YaggghhhhhhsssssSon of a bitch!!” the Mayor’s daughter howled as her higher brain functions snapped back into existence. The transition from beast to (wo)man was always disorienting, or so I’ve been told.
I grabbed a soft terrycloth robe off a peg by the elevator and draped it over her trembling body.
“Good Morning, Chloe. Think you can walk, or do you need my help?” I asked flatly.
Under normal circumstances, I would have been more sympathetic, but after being mentally duct taped to the front row seat of my own siring, my wellspring of patience had run dry.
Chloe hissed as she tried to climb to her feet, only for her legs to give out and leave the girl in a quivering heap on the cold hard floor.
“I got this…” my employer hissed.
“No you don’t. Get on.” I sighed, squatting with my back to her.
Chloe huffed darkly as she wrapped her arms around my neck and I locked my arm under the blonde’s quivering thighs.
It was a bit of a challenge since I was so much shorter. But we eventually piggybacked our way into the elevator and up to the girl’s suite. I ended up having to do the mother of all juggling acts to keep Chloe from face planting on the floor while trying to unlock the door. By the time I kneed the thing open, the blond was half asleep and drooling on what was left of my t-shirt.
I eventually managed to get her settled on the bed and was about to leave when the other girl whispered, “I didn’t hurt anyone, did I?”
“No. You smashed through the cage and knocked me for a loop. But I followed you every step of the way. You didn’t have the chance. The closest you came was when you almost broke into an apartment near Le Marais.” I shrugged.
The color drained form Chloe’s face, “Y-your sure that’s where it happened?”
“Pretty sure. Why?”
“That’s where my friend Sabrina lives. I had to cancel a spa day with her because I forgot to keep track of the moon.” The blonde gulped.
“Shit. I guess it makes a little more sense why you were so hellbent on getting there. It got a little dicey, but I’m pretty sure she didn’t even know you were at her window.”
“Damn it. I hate this! What did I ever do to deserve turning into a monster?” Chloe scowled.
I’m ashamed to admit I had to bite my tongue. Hearing the same words I had mentally cried out only a short while before was almost more than I could take. I was tempted to mention the time she dumped paint in my hair during art class. The end results weren’t pretty. I came to school the next day with a shaved head because the stuff was so matted in that not a single strand of my luscious locks could be salvaged.
Chloe must have read my expression, “OUT!” the blonde snarled as I scurried out of the room.
-----
Andre Bourgeois’s eye twitched as the person on the other end of the phone delivered… displeasing news.
“No! You listen to me! You promised me that your little alchemical concoction would tame the beast, not make it smarter!”
A beat.
“No! you listen to me, my daughter ended up breaking out of her cell because the compound you provided me didn’t do as advertised!”
The mayor let out an angry snarl as the person on the other end of the line delivered a blistering reply, “You do know what breach of contract is, don’t you? And I expect the payment I provided to be returned with interest.”
A curt retort.
“You don’t want to know what I’ll do if you cross me. Oh, what the hell, I’ll tell you anyway! Do you know how many spell casters live in Paris? Almost a quarter of the worlds population. And what would happen if I instituted a ban on magical exports to England? Especially if I made it known that it happened because your little cabal nearly got my daughter killed because you provided me with substandard products? Your client base would dry up and your entire family would be destitute.”
Stony silence.
“I’m glad you understand. I’ll be expecting my money in a weeks’ time. And this will be the last time I contact you. If you try to strong arm me, or if I find any Grahm de Vanily in my city, there will be consequences.” The portly politician snapped, hanging up the phone without another word.
Chloe’s father slumped, realizing that the old adage was true: Heavy is the head that wears the crown…
Knock! Knock! Knock!
“Enter.” He said flatly.
I smiled weakly as I stepped into the Mayor’s office.
“Sir?”
“Your payment will be wired in full into your account. I’ll see you next month. Good day.” The hotel owner said.
“Um, Monsieur? There’s actually something more I’d like to discuss. If I’m going to keep Chloe safe during the full moon, I need better facilities and equipment. Le Grand Paris just isn’t going to cut it. She too strong to rely on conventional methods. Chloe’s already broken out of her cell twice. And there’s too many people around to deal with her safely if it happens again. I’d like to try searching for magical means to keep your daughter contained and someplace off site to do it.” I winced.
“So in other words you need time and money?” he replied wearily.
“Sorry. I wish it hadn’t come to this. But I’m doing this with Chloe’s safety in mind as well as everybody else’s.”
“Very well. I suppose I’d rather have my daughter away from here and safe during the full moon. And as a bonus, I won’t have to explain to my constituents why I have a dungeon built under the hotel…”
-------
An hour or so later…
It was nearly six in the morning when I stumbled onto the Liberty. The chaotic little houseboat wasn’t ideal, but he rent was cheap, and Captain Anarka Couffaine didn’t ask too many questions about where I disappeared to at odd hours.
The sound of gentle guitar music drew me in like a sirens song as I slumped into a chair at the kitchen counter.
“Good morning.” Luka smiled softly as he nudged a cup of sugar and espresso heavy ambrosia next to my nose.
“Thrnkx. Grtnybrkst?” I grumbled into the Formica.
I cracked open one eye as he nudged a plate of bacon and eggs next to my head.
“You have officially earned the title of my favorite Couffaine.” I smiled sleepily as I dug into the meal and sucked down the brown ambrosia.
“Any plan for today?” the teal haired teen asked.
“Lots and lots. Gotta charge my phone, get a change of clothes, and check in on Aurore; see if she’s made any progress. And Nadja’s been trying to get in touch with me for the last day. Pretty sure she wants her gown and probably needs me to do a job that I probably would have looked into already if I hadn’t been tied up with Chloe.”
“How’d that one go?”
“She broke out of her cell and nearly turned me into kibble. Not sure if this is some kind of weird werewolf thing, or if there’s something going on. On top of that, I have to find somewhere away from the hotel I can keep little miss Richie Bitch during the full moon and a magical way of keeping her there. The next month is going to suck.” I groaned.
“If you need someone to do some footwork for you, I’m free for the summer.” The guitarist offered.
“You are a god among men. I’ll get back to you as soon as I get today sorted.” I sighed as I got to my feet.
“Up for a jam session before you go?” the elder of the two siblings asked innocently.
I froze.
Damn that boy. He knew me too well. I really needed to unwind, and a nice bit of music would be just the thing. Technically I had the entire day. So…
“You’re on. Usual stakes?”
“Loser does the winner’s chores? You know it.”
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Several minutes (and the world’s quickest shower) later, I looked at the barely visible image of myself in the mirror, something wasn’t quite right.
Long black hair (plus the temple to tip pink streak I recently had dyed in)?
Check.
Big blue almond shaped eyes (from my maman’s nearly 100% Chinese branch of the tree)?
Check.
Full cupids bow lips (a gift from my father’s side of the family)?
Check.
The nose stud in my right nostril plus the industrial bar in my right ear? Which was 90% my choice. The remaining 10% was thanks to one wild night that pretty much cemented my status as a boat kid.
Check.
Very male upper torso?
There it was.
“Girl day it is.” I shrugged, rewrapping the towel around my torso as the shadows enveloped me.
I shivered as my internal and external anatomy shifted around (and in some cases disappeared entirely) as my face changed from the angular cheekbones and more prominent nose to the softer features I had been born with.
I grabbed a pleated peasant skirt and an off the shoulder blouse from my half of the closet as I tossed one of my discarded boots at the still sleeping lump under the covers of the other bed.
“Up and at ‘em, Juleka. Times’s a wasting and we need you to judge.” I chirped happily.
“Why? Just because you don’t need to sleep doesn’t mean you have to torture the rest of us!” the younger of the two siblings hissed.
“Hey, if you want to sleep the day away and miss out on me and Luka going at it, as well as visiting Rose; That’s your business.” I smiled innocently.
The still sleepy goth froze as she contemplated the pros and cons of going back to bed vs. seeing her brother potentially get his ass kicked. And we can’t forget how visiting her crush factored into the decision.
“I long for the day you fall in love so I can hold it over your head.” the taller girl huffed petulantly, slipping out of bed.
“Not gonna happen.” I replied as I simultaneously juggled my violin case as I tried to finagle a pair of gladiator sandals onto my feet.
My roommate bolted down the remainder of my coffee in one shot as she grabbed the garment bag hanging from a hook by my bed side.
As the two of us made our way back into the galley, Luka smirked as he finished the last minute tuning of his favorite guitar.
I shot the taller boy a glare as I pulled one of my few luxuries out of the case: Crescent Rose.
She was as acoustic violin with a matte black finish, only broken by a pair of silver crescents framing the neck along the upper quarter, and a single blood red rose that I had hand varnished above the chin rest.
She was my baby. My second passion, only beaten out by my dream of being a fashion designer.
It took only a few moments to finish tuning before I settled in, and we began to play.
Sweat began to bead along my forehead as I teased every note I could out of her strings.
Luka was in the same boat as I matched him note to note.
He picked up the tempo.
I matched him.
I tried changing the pitch.
He was right there with me.
The two of us butted heads every second of the way until the final note dropped.
“Well?” I panted as we looked at Juleka expectantly.
The goth sipped her second cup of coffee silently as she looked form one of us to the other.
“It’s a tie.” She said simply.
“Really?” I groaned as Luka nodded knowingly.
“Eeeyup. Both of you kicked ass, plain and simple.” The taller girl shrugged.
I shook my head Two hundred concerts…Two hundred ties…I still couldn’t get the best of Luka.
“I’ll get you next time.” I chuckled.
“You can try.” He chuckled as I grabbed the garment bag and made my way out of the ship and into still waking city.
Hi! My name is Marianne.
I’m many things.
A seamstress.
A detective (though some would describe me as more of a mercenary).
A vampire.
And this is my story.