I gave him a double thumbs-up and mouthed, “Classy.”
The prince, princess, and their friends seemed stunned by the number and variety of animals—well, trapped shifters—that swamped the small clinic. They gaped at the packed room.
The princess spoke first. “Thank you. And I’m glad to see everyone’s safe.” She turned to Heidi, who immediately dipped into a curtsy—again.
Prince Harry lifted both palms and looked between Will and Heidi. “Thank you both for such… er… enthusiastic welcomes, but please, no more curtsying or bowing—we don’t need any special treatment.”
Iggy, the little flame, scoffed. “Speak for yourself.”
“Everyone’s alright, though?”
Heidi grinned and nodded. “Yeah, these dudes showed up at the door and tried to bang their way in, but your landlady turned into a dragon, and she breathed fire and everything!” She bounced the sloth on her hip and patted its back. “It was insane!” She grinned as I blew out a breath of relief. “We booked it down your fire escape and got here about an hour ago.”
I nodded, my stomach still tight at the thought of what might have happened if Mrs. Kim hadn’t saved the day. Never thought I’d be thinking those words about my scary landlady.
I told Will and Heidi how Madeline had gotten me into the palace and that I’d explained the whole situation to the royals.
The princess beamed. “We’re here to help! Hank and I can change into animals and Francis into a bat, of course.”
Will blinked at the princess, still apparently stunned to have royalty in his clinic. “Of course.”
Princess Imogen set Iggy’s lantern on the coffee table littered with old magazines. She settled into a hard chair beside the kangaroo. They looked at each other, then the princess turned back to Will and Heidi.
“We’re going to sneak down into Ludolf’s lair with Jolene—in disguise.” Her eyes shone—she was looking forward to this. “Then we’re going to help her steal the files for all these shifters.” She gestured at the flapping, hopping, and napping animals around the room.
Prince Harry nodded, his eyes darting to the baby alligator at his feet. “Mm-hmm… and then the palace healers should be able to brew up cures, once we know what ingredients originally went into the curses.”
Will nodded. “Sure, sure.” He looked to me, his lip curled back in a snarl. “And everyone thinks that taking the prince and princess and a celebrity vampire into Ludolf’s lair is a good idea, hm?”
I lowered my voice to a whisper and rested my only slightly throbbing foot on the bottom rung of the stool. “It’s obviously a horrible idea, but it wasn’t mine. They volunteered, okay?”
“Oh!” Will threw his hands up and took on a mocking tone. “Well, if their highnesses volunteered to go on a suicide mission, then we should definitely let them.”
I glared at him.
“Is this what we sound like?” Iggy used a little flame arm to gesture between himself and the princess.
Wiley shrugged. “Kinda.”
The princess and her flame flashed their eyes at each other. “Yikes.”
Heidi giggled. “If you think that’s bad, you should see Jolene and Daisy.” She turned to Maple and said as an aside, “That’s her boyfriend’s police dog.”
The two of them stood together. I followed Maple’s gaze upward and jerked, startled.
Will let out a strangled cry. “Gah!”
18
PARTING WAYS
Cat hung upside down from the light in the center of the ceiling, his bat wings extended and trembling. He craned his upside down head this way and that, his dark, globular eyes reflecting the room. He grinned broadly, all his sharp teeth bared.
Will threw himself against my side, cringing. “What in the shell is that?!”
The parrot and the bat flapped around Cat in a circle, over and over again, while a small group of animals gathered on the coffee table, straining to reach the monster, their eyes blank and mouths agape.
Heidi bounced on her toes. “They’re sooo cute, they love him.”
I leaned closer to Will, our eyes still glued to Cat and its group of worshippers. “From what I gather, it’s a mind control monster.”
I slid my gaze to Will and found him staring at me. “Oh! Is that all?”
I flashed my eyes at him and leaned close, barely breathing my words. “And I thought we were an odd bunch.”
“I heard that.”
Will and I jerked our heads up to find Francis the vampire staring at us and sitting on his girlfriend Rhonda’s lap. Well—almost. He hovered right above it.
Francis lifted one perfectly sculpted brow. “Vampire hearing.” He then leveled us with a look so cold, goose bumps prickled my skin.
I pressed my lips tight together, my stomach clenched. He wouldn’t eat me in front of all these people… would he?
Then he threw his head back and chuckled with his deep voice, Rhonda cackling along with him. She pointed. “You should’ve seen your faces.”
Francis pressed a long, pale hand to his middle as he laughed. Rhonda suddenly sobered and sniffed. “But in all seriousness, we should move all these shifters out of here and into the palace before the gangsters show up, yes?”
Heidi hugged the sloth tighter to her side. “You—you’re here to take the shifters?” She gazed into the sloth’s shiny black eyes.
“You’re both coming with us though, aren’t you?” Maple looked from Heidi to Will.
Prince Harry nodded his agreement. “You must come stay at the palace.”
Will held very still for a long moment. I could almost hear him telling himself to play it cool. “Well… if you insist.”
I smirked. Will had grown up in the lap of luxury, and I knew he missed his silk sheets and fancy imported soaps. He was probably doing a happy dance on the inside at getting to stay at the palace.
Prince Harry shook his head. “From what I saw of Jolene’s apartment, I don’t think you’ll be safe anywhere but the palace. At least until this Ludolf fellow is behind bars.”
Francis rose, hovering above the linoleum, and Rhonda stood after him. “I heartily agree.”
The princess put a hand on her hip. “I thought
