like that and wear it for Ken. I’m sure he’d love the slits at the top.”
“IT’S NOT A—oh, screw you.”
Ashi stormed out of the apartment, heading for the stairwell. He’d ask Analie to get Christoph to shut up. The ape seemed to listen to her, sort of.
* * *
Analie squealed as Freddy’s text informed her of his arrival and bounded to the door.
Ashi stepped into the first floor hallway in time to see Analie burst out of her apartment and make a beeline for the front door. He jogged to catch up with her.
Analie threw open the front door and yanked Freddy inside, who was holding a large box, with a shout of, “I’ve been waiting since forever—I’m so glad you’re here—I have sandwiches and lemonade—I’m so glad you’re here!”
Freddy grinned and set the box down, hugging Analie tightly. “Missed you, too. I brought the Amberguard artifacts.”
“I wanna see! C’mon, let’s go to my room.”
Analie picked up the box and grinned at Freddy, whose smile was quickly fading. He was staring at something over her shoulder, his expression suggesting he was watching Death himself approach.
No, something worse than Death.
Ashi stared at Freddy, then pointed at him and said, “You. What are you doing here?”
The shift was almost instantaneous. Analie caught a glimpse of hair sprouting, of his muzzle pushing outward, his clothes splitting, and then suddenly—kitty.
“Holy crap!” Ashi screamed.
“Aourgh!” Freddy yelped, several hundred pounds of tiger scrambling backwards on four paws, leaving gouges in the polished hardwood as his claws scored it in his haste to get away from Ashi.
Ashi backpedaled faster than his center of gravity could keep up with and fell on his ass. Still screaming, he butt-scooted backwards down the hallway. Analie dropped the box (a little voice in the back of her mind shrieked that the contents were probably fragile) and grabbed a double-handful of Freddy’s scruff, hauling him along with her. She bolted out of the foyer, into the apartment, to her bedroom door. She spun around and faced Mouse and Sebastian, holding her arms out to bar them from hacking Freddy to tiny, stripy pieces.
“He’s having a stress reaction and is completely harmless!”
She shouted louder than was necessary, trembling. Probably because she was trying to convince two shadows with swords not to kill her best friend.
Sebastian panicked, dropping the sword and backpedaling with remarkable speed until he was fetched against the far wall. As a fairly newly turned vampire, he wasn’t as fast as John or Mouse, but it was impressive nonetheless.
Mouse, on the other hand, had the razor-sharp sword edges of her own and Sebastian’s dropped weapons aimed at Freddy’s throat before the last word made it out of Analie’s mouth. Her eyes were blazing a feral red, fangs fully extended as she moved to protect her home.
The only thing that stopped her from decapitating the large cat right off was Analie screaming at her and throwing herself in front of it.
“It’s Freddy! Mouse! It’s Freddy! He’s a shifter! Don’t kill him!” Analie screamed, still holding her hands up. This was the most terrifying experience of her life to date. Probably for Freddy, too. His muzzle was pressed against the small of her back and he was shaking harder than she was.
Mouse was battling the instinctive urge to fillet anything that came through the door against Analie’s reassurances. Normally, she would’ve acted regardless and dealt with the consequences and dead bodies later. The fact that he was a freaking Siberian tiger didn’t help matters any. He looked like a huge threat, in more than one sense of the word.
Sebastian managed to collect himself to a degree, though he didn’t pull away from the wall. “Mouse, it’s okay. I think. Step back.”
Mouse made an almost unheard growl-type sound in her throat, whispery soft, and slowly stepped back, withdrawing the swords in a sudden smooth movement. She held them at the ready, red irises remaining focused on Freddy, not looking away for an instant while Sebastian very slowly, very cautiously, pulled away from the wall.
* * *
John poked his head out of his apartment, staring down the hall at the quivering Ashi by the stairwell.
“What the hell was that?”
Ashi opened his mouth to respond, but the only thing that came out was a thin keening sound.
John cocked his head, listening to Analie’s screams. He curled his lip, unsure exactly what the girl and her friend were up to, and not entirely sure he cared. Since the screaming stopped, and there were no sounds of battle