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My Ratty Luck	By : Helbling Category: Anita Blake > FemmeSlash Views: 2501 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Anita Blake series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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I was on the edge of my seat by the time we arrived in front of my house. I could see the flashing red and blue lights of the cruisers, but there didn’t seem to be any activity. We skidded to a halt, and Micah and the other man got out while Jason got out my chair and tried to reassemble it, with limited success. One of the men approached Micah.

“Doesn’t seem to be any forced entry, looks like she hasn’t come by yet.” He said. He was taller than Micah by about a head and mildly attractive although his dress sense was awful. A sea-green-themed Hawaiian shirt with a black mourning tie topped cobalt blue suit trousers and on his feet were white Adidas trainers with the three strip emblem done in red. The entire look made me struggle not to wince. Micah didn’t seem to notice.

“Does that guy always dress like that?” I whispered to Jason, as he finally got the chair unfolded enough to plonk me into it. See, I told you he’d get out of the precious china phase.

Jason nodded, grinning at me. Micah, it seems, heard me as well, as he flashed me a ghost of a smile over his shoulder. The fourth man in our party was prowling up and down my porch accompanied by the second policeman. He jogged back to us just as Micah was making introductions.

“Zerbrowski, this is Katherine Maguire, or Kat, as she’s known.” I gave him a nod and held out my hand. He shook it, nodding back at me. The fourth man spoke to all of us.

“There’s a fresh scent trail into the house that’s of a female that’s not Kat.” He said. Him saying my name made me realise I still didn’t know his. I’d need to find that out, can’t thank someone for doing a mad dash to your house properly if you don’t even know their name.

“She wouldn’t have to force entry,” I said bitterly, kicking myself for trusting her. “She’s got a key.”

The man frowned at me. “There doesn’t seem to be anything out of place, from what we can see. It’s not trashed or anything.”

“Boobie-trapped?” Asked Micah. Zerbrowski nodded.

“Probably, if her record is anything to go by. Wanted to get you before you had a chance modify your will, now that she’s truly screwed up any chance of salvaging her relationship with you. We should go in first and check it out.” I nodded and handed him the key.

“By the way,” I called out, “don’t open the door to the kitchen without me, my animals are in there, and can get…” I paused, wondering how to phrase it. Jason completed it for me.

“Territorial.” He said. I smiled my thanks.

Zerbrowski and the other cop were approaching the house with guns draw and pointed skywards. I shivered a bit – the sun had set and there was a chill in the air suddenly. A leather jacket unexpectedly dropped, seemingly from the sky, onto my head. I pulled it down around my shoulders and stared up at the fourth man in the group who appeared to have dropped it on me. I had to stare up a long way. If he wasn’t six foot, he wasn’t far from it.

“Thanks,” I said, quietly.

“S’ok, you looked cold. Guess you can’t exactly warm yourself up by moving around in those things.” He gestured to my chair.

I liked him immediately, both for giving a person he didn’t know his coat, and for addressing the issue of my disability directly rather than dancing around it. I grinned at him. “It sometimes works if you’ve got enough space to roll back and forth, but no, other than that, I’m sunk to a life of woolly jumpers.” He snorted in amusement. “I’m sorry,” I continued, “but I don’t know your name.”

“I’m Merle,” he said, voice rough. He looked like some of the older bikers that had used to ride through my home town on their way to Brighton every so often. His long greying hair had been tied back in a ponytail at some point since leaving the Coalition’s headquarters, and his eyes looked silver. He was wearing leathers that secretly I coveted, but for now I contented myself with admiring his jacket. We fell silent again as we all watched Zerbrowski’s other half put the key to the door and go inside. Zerbrowski followed. From inside the house I could still hear barks, and my heart leapt. Thank god, they were ok.

The cops came back out. “Ground floor seems clear. Do you want to come and calm these pets of yours, they sound like they’re hurting themselves trying to get out.” I nodded and started rolling forwards.

“We’d better stay here,” said Micah, “we don’t need them any more scared than they are.”

I nodded and went up to the house, and into it. I reached the kitchen door, and realised that the cops had retreated into the living room just in case. Sensible people. I opened the door, and was hit by a flood of animals. I held my hands out and as many of them wriggled onto my lap as possible as I looked them over.

Aside from the hackles, there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary, until I realised both Jem and Murphy were limping. Opening the kitchen door fully, I saw the bottom of the door was cracked and splintered, with blood staining the tips of the wooden spikes. They’d repeated the ‘throwing themselves at the door’ trick, as the door handle was round and Tom couldn’t pull his usual trick. I cooed to them while checking them over. There didn’t seem to be anything serious, but I’d feel better if I could give them a proper look once they’d stopped wriggling their happiness at seeing me.

Zerbrowski’s voice came from behind me. “Everything ok?” I nodded as Pig gave a ‘wuff!’of greeting and scampered down the hall, tail a-wagging to say hello. See, my babies are not bloodthirsty monsters all the time.

“Nothing that’s not self-inflicted from trying to escape,” I said, pulling the door further open so they could see the damage to the base of it. Zerbrowski whistled as he rubbed the belly of an ecstatic Pig who was writhing on the floor.

“Determined critters,” he said grinning both at me and the happy little terrier. I could see in his eyes he was struggling not to break into baby talk. He stood up reluctantly and motioned to his partner and they went upstairs.

Pig wriggled upright, and tried to follow when he caught a glimpse of Jason and the others standing hesitantly outside. I gave them a big thumbs up, while Pig gave a questioning ‘wuff!’ and scampered outside to see who they were. Tom followed him.

“Guys!” I shouted after them. “Be nice!”

“We are!” Came an indignant shout from Jason. I laughed and wheeled myself towards the door, deliberately going slowly so the two injured dogs wouldn’t have to strain themselves to keep up.

“Not you,” I shouted, “them!!” I rounded the door to see Pig still a-wagging, and Tom still purring and rubbing himself round ankles, and the three men looking very panicked about what to do. Micah looked at me.

“Why aren’t they scared?”

I looked at Pig, who was doing his best to entice someone else to scratch his tummy, rolling all over the drive. “I think,” I said slowly, “they go by what I feel. I’m happy and relieved that they’re ok, and so they’re reflecting that.”

Jason was reaching out a hesitant hand to Tom, who rubbed his cheek against it vigorously. Lucy seemed to have taken a liking to Merle as she loped over to him. He watched her suspiciously as she sniffed at his boots, before dropping into the classic rump up ‘play with me’ position. Micah had given into Pig, but Murphy had also waylaid him, and was receiving a scratch behind his ear for his trouble. I struggled not to laugh. All three of them had an air of clumsiness about them, as if they hadn’t done this before.

Jason gave a sudden booming laugh, and scooped up Tom to his chest. The old cat upped his purring and went about scent-marking Jasons chin and nose. “Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve stroked a cat?” He was grinning at me.

“Erm,” I guessed, “a while?” He laughed again.

“Not since I became a werewolf!!” He laughed again, and held Tom up to his eyes and baby-babbled at him. No reservations about appearing dignified with Jason. Tom was purring so much he sounded not unlike a Harley Davidson.

Smiles were breaking out from all three men as they played with their new-found friends. I guess Lillian hadn’t been exaggerating when she said animals were afraid of us.

“We can’t find anything.” Came a voice from behind me. Zerbrowski was coming from the house towards us. He did a double take when he saw the fuss the animals were getting. “I thought they were supposed to be afraid of you?”

“Apparently not.” Said Jason, still grinning his head off. From the way he was holding Tom, I almost expected him to break into a quick step.

“Traitor.” Said Zerbrowski to Pig. Pumpkin stood on the arm of my chair and chirped at him. Zerbrowski obliged and held out his hand for him to scent-mark.

“We could check it over for scents?” said Merle, making it a question to both Micah and Zerbrowski. They nodded. He looked at me. “Wanna come and check there’s nothing out of place?” I nodded and motioned Jem to stay as we walked up to the house. Zerbrowski came with us, as Pumpkin continued ride shotgun and chirp at him.

As we got inside the house Merle took a deep breath of air, and walked up the ramp without hesitation. I followed, and Zerbrowski brought up the rear. At the top of the ramp Merle stopped and frowned.

“What?” Said Zerbrowski.

“She didn’t go anywhere except here.” He said, pointing to the bathroom door.

Zerbrowski shrugged. “We checked it, couldn’t see anything. Kat?”

I nodded and wheeled forward. Sure enough, the bathroom looked like it hadn’t been touched. “Is her scent anywhere in particular?” I asked Merle.

He nodded and pointed at the bathtub and my lift-chair beside it.

How I bathe is a matter of some awkwardness. There’s a plastic chair attached to a plastic pole and a bunch of mechanical stuff beside the tub, which itself is about twice as tall as the usual bath tub. What I have to do is load myself into the chair, which will then lift me up, swivel and lower me into the water. When I’m done, it does it in reverse. The machinery in it was relatively simple, so I’d made sure I knew how it worked. The second Merle pointed to it, I had a brain flash.

“I know what she did,” I said grimly. I rolled over to the chair, and pulled the cover off the mechanics. Sure enough when I checked the support on the main spring, the back half was missing. I pointed it out to the other two. “She removed the support.” I said. They frowned. “It means,” I explained, “that when I next used it, it would have lifted me into the air, but when it swivelled, it would have collapsed and dumped me into the bath, and I’d-“

“Have no way of getting yourself out of it.” Finished Zerbrowski. He sighed. “You’d have drowned. Son of a bitch. I’ll get the others down here and have some photos taken and have it dusted for prints. Do you have the address she gave you, although she’ll be gone by now.”

“In the bureau downstairs. Second drawer, black book.” The cop nodded and dashed downstairs, removing his phone as he went. Merle was sniffing around again.

“It was just her here, I’m sure of it.” He said. “But, we can’t be sure she won’t be back. You can’t stay here.”

I nodded. “I’ll be able to find a hotel that takes animals, I’m sure.” I said, but Merle shook his head.

“No, you can’t be on your own, you’re too vulnerable. I’ll go discuss it with Micah. You pack, enough for a week or so.” He ran off downstairs again.

I looked at Pumpkin, still sitting on my lap. “Well, babe,” I said, “let’s go break some suitcases out of retirement.”

Packing for me was relatively simple. I’m low maintenance. Some clothes, underwear, hairbrush and a couple of towels, and I was done. I had to double back for my toothbrush. The animals were more difficult. I need their food and water bowls, along with enough dry and wet food for all of them for seven days. When you’ve got seven animals, that’s a lot of food. Not only that, but also their bedding, brushes, and some antibiotics for Jem and Murphy. They needed a whole other bag for it. By the time I got out of the house again, there were 2 more cars in the driveway. One was a cop car. The other was a limo.
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My Ratty Luck