A Tale of Two Goblins - By H. P. Mallory Page 0,81

showing yourself?” she snarled at the shadow and spat at him in disgust.

“You want to know who I am, bitch?” the shadow demanded.

“Are you deaf?”

The shadow laughed a thick and ugly sound. It ricocheted through the cave, echoing into a thousand repetitions until I wanted to clamp my hands over my ears. But, I couldn’t—my hands were still firmly secured against the cave wall.

“How about a few hints first?” the entity asked but didn’t wait for a response. “Six years ago you got me locked up in Banshee.”

“You’ll have to do better than that,” the woman scoffed. “I’ve sent a lot of criminals to Banshee, you dumb shit.”

The entity was suddenly up in my face, its hand wrapped around my throat, tightening its hold. I couldn’t breathe and felt myself flailing against him.

Focus on her, I told myself.

Picturing the woman, she was suddenly before me, the shadow man’s hand wrapped around her throat as he leaned into her.

“Domestic violence,” the shadow started. “Beat the shit out of my stupid girlfriend. The next thing I knew, this pretty little fairy with her long gold hair was in my face, threatening to shoot me if I didn’t cooperate.”

And suddenly I remembered. I remembered it as if it were yesterday. Images of another time, years ago came pouring into my head like jumbled film reels.

The bastard attacked his girlfriend, yes, on the basis that she’d argued with him. He beat her up so badly, she ended up in Splendor Hospital for weeks. I wasn’t even sure she was going to make it through the ordeal. But, she was a Swan Maiden which meant she could take the form of the swan and, when she did, the swan helped heal her injuries. Had she been any other creature, aside from a vamp, she wouldn’t have survived. After I visited her countless times, urging her to tell me who did this to her, she finally squealed and I went after the bastard.

I called for backup as I left for her boyfriend’s house which was in the middle of the projects of Splendor, in a seedy little dump known as The End Of The Road which was fitting because it was located at the end of the town limits of Splendor, situated at the base of a large mountain. But, even the beauty of Mount Magnus couldn’t detract from the filth of The End Of The Road. Trash lined the dirt streets and the craggy outlines of burned-out trees with only crows as tenants gave the place a haunted, doleful feel, as if Nature had given up on the hell-hole.

The arrest, itself, wasn’t difficult. I merely knocked on the ramshackle door and as soon as the bastard answered, I went into detached cop mode although I wanted to pound his face in. The smell of dog was thick in my nose which meant he was a were. Wolf or not, he was a masochistic son of a bitch, needing to feel like a big man so he beat up his swan girlfriend. It was doubly bad because Swan Maidens were known for being nothing but placid, beautiful and elegant in their subservience. Needless-to-say, I hadn’t believed his excuse that she’d argued with him—swans didn’t argue, they just didn’t have it in them.

I detested men like him and it was all I’d been able to do to keep my temper in control. Even though it might have been hard to believe, my temper had actually cooled over the years. Back then, I was a firecracker and just about anything could and did set me off.

“Are you Osric Cassius?” I asked and my voice was cool but calm.

“Yeah,” he answered and scoffed down at me, like I was anything but a threat. He was sorely mistaken. “Are you here to ride me in your hot little cop outfit, slut?” he snickered and eyed me up and down until I wanted to vomit right then and there.

“No, you asshole,” I started, feeling my famous temper rising within me. “I’m here to arrest your pathetic ass for putting your girlfriend in the hospital.”

It wasn’t traditional cop lingo but I was new back then and not exactly traditional. Quillan had worked with me over the years on my temper and I’d come a long way.

Osric laughed and lunged at me. I pulled my Op 6 out and before he knew what to think, he was staring down at the gun, probably wondering if I was trigger happy and hoping the answer