Chapter 20 – Lisa McCarty and Dan Rossi

After cleaning everything from the breakfast, Aniya took the extra cell phone in the kitchen drawer and gave it to Nick. After saving her number there, they all followed her outside and entered the taxi that was already waiting for them.

At the wheel was the same taxi driver that took Aniya last time to her company, with his absurdly large moustache and dark eyes. He smiled into the rearview mirror and asked, “Nice to meet you again, young Miss. Where to?”

Anna Kent was on the seat next to him, and she answered on Aniya’s behalf, “Remember what I told you last time? No babbling where you picked us up, and no babbling where you dropped us off, understood? Don’t make me regret calling you instead of someone else! Take us to the company where you took Miss Aniya last time.”

“Understood, young Miss, my lips are sealed.”


During the ride, they were all silent, thinking about what was ahead of them.
As soon as the taxi entered the City, Anna Kent turned on her phone to check her email, and Nick Kerrish waved at Jack Holland, who had exited the taxi and was now standing in front of the same cafe where he had been waiting the previous day.
While Aniya was looking at her phone and answering a few comments on her I.ns.ta.gram account, Lisa McCarty leisurely took an elastic band from her purse and tied her hair in a ponytail. She then took a small plastic bag with a blue flower inside and calmly sniffed it, putting it behind her right ear with a smile.

Aniya was watching her the entire time and asked, with a puzzled look, “Are you really going with me and with that flower in your hair?”

“Yup, and it’s not in my hair. It’s over my pretty ear, see? Unless you want to fix me a pretty hairstyle and put the flower in a very visible place.”

“No, let it be there if you want, but try not to take someone’s head off with that sword that you made Nick bring for you, will you?”

Lisa smiled as she touched the sheath of the katana Nick had brought for her from the secret room when he went to get the gun for him. “If they don’t annoy me, I will behave, but if they try something fishy, they might lose a finger or an entire hand. Let’s see what happens.”

Aniya mumbled as she returned her attention to the phone, “Dumb redhead, always causing trouble…”

The phone vibrated, and Aniya frowned at the several missed calls from her mother and a few text messages from her father, asking where she was and if she had forgotten where they were supposed to go. With a sigh, Aniya made a call, “Hello, father. I was heading to the company. Yes, we can meet there. I think I will arrive in fifteen minutes, probably. I will wait for you in the lobby, then.”

Aniya then looked at the rear mirror and asked the driver, “Can you take us to my company in five minutes or less?”

“Sure thing, young Miss, we are almost there.”

Aniya sent a message to her mother, just to say she was about to meet with her father, and put the phone inside the purse again, just when the taxi stopped in front of the main door. Anna Kent paid the driver plus an extra, and exited the taxi with Aniya and Lisa, while Nick stayed and asked the taxi driver to park ahead to wait for Aniya’s ride so that they could follow her.

As the taxi driver parked in the corner of the building, he looked at the rearview mirror and asked, with a puzzled face, “Mister, you really want to follow that young Miss? Because I don’t want to make her angry at me, considering what a good tipper she is.”

“Well, it was hard, but I convinced her this morning to let me follow her. I don’t trust the people she is going to meet. She is very confident in her abilities in case of danger, but I don’t want to risk it.”

“She’ll meet... some kind of criminals?”

Nick shrugged and leaned back. “They don’t consider themselves criminals, but I don’t like them nor their methods. Let’s wait and see. You just need to follow the car that will drive her, and I will leave when we get there and you can go. No need to wait for me because I don’t know how long their meeting will take.”

“As you say, Mister, but if you decide otherwise, I am available.”

Inside Aniya’s company, she was peacefully seated on a couch in the lobby, looking at the televisions behind the main desk, which were showing a new advertisement for Calvin Klein with two male models using the smartwatches that Aniya’s company developed. Lisa was next to her, dialling home, but when she gasped, Aniya turned to face her, noticed how pale she was, and overheard her whispering, “Are you alright? Yeah, everything turned out fine. Aniya was able to wake me up. No, I am not joking. It was weird and awesome at the same time, but are you sure everything is alright? No, I am not going home right now, unless you ask me to. I am going with Aniya to meet some people. Sure, after lunch. Bye.”

Lisa kept staring at her phone, with Aniya in silence, waiting for her. She then lifted her head and spoke in a low voice, “A beast attacked my house during the night. The alarm turned on, and the lights in the garden pointed straight at him because my mother insisted on having the security company guys install lights activated by motion detectors. My father shot him a round of silver bullets at his chest and stomach, but that damn thing got away, destroying a few bushes as he fled.”

Aniya held the hands of her friend and felt her trembling. “It wasn’t your fault, you know? If you were there, you would be restrained and unable to help anyone. Do you think it was that reporter your father told me about? The one that threatened him?”

“I bet he was. When I put my hands on his neck, I am going to squeeze until his eyes pop out! How dare he attack my parents? What was that guy thinking?”

“Adrian Gordon. Your father said that was his name. I guess it’s a good thing that we are going to meet a group of hunters. Maybe they know something about him. I wouldn’t mind paying him a visit to ask him if he was the one to harass your parents last night.”

Lisa squeezed the sheath of the katana that was on her lap. “If it was him, I am going to take his arm and his head next. Dumbass, going to my house as a beast…”

Aniya bit her lower lip. She could see how angry Lisa was, and that was never good. She was often a goofy person, but every time she got angry, she was almost unstoppable.

Before Aniya could say anything, Dan Rossi entered the lobby and went to meet the two women with a puzzled look that he turned into a forced smile as he approached. He faced Aniya and asked in a casual tone, “Hello, young ones. Are you ready to go, Aniya? Davis is outside, and my friends are waiting for us.”

Without a word, Aniya got up, and Lisa jolted to near her, with a slight smile, “Good morning, Mister Dan. I will escort Aniya during the meeting with your suspicious friends. I hope that isn’t a bother.”

Dan Rossi frowned and was about to say something when he noticed the blue flower behind Lisa’s ear. He glared at it, and stuttered, “P-pretty flower you have there, Lisa. Since when did you like flowers so much?”

Lisa took the flower and took a slow sniff as she was answering, “This pretty thing? It’s my favourite flower, Aconitum. You and your Hunter friends might know her as wolf’s bane, and it has always been my favourite flower ever since I was little. I don’t have a bush of these in my garden because my mother always says the smell is sickening, but I always liked them.”

Dan Rossi glared at Aniya, and he almost shouted, “You told her? Are you nuts? Don’t you know we-”

Lisa interrupted with a tilted head, “What, that your dumb friends thought I was a beast that goes killing around every full moon? I am rather interested in knowing who the dumbass was to spread such rumours, because I want to show him or her how much of a beast I can be if someone spreads lies about me. I hope it wasn’t you, because if it was, Aniya is about to become fatherless.”

Dan Rossi noticed how Lisa was casually holding the sheath, but with her right hand on the grip and her other left hand holding the sheath with the thumb already pushing the guard, enabling her to draw the sword as soon as she wanted.

Aniya raised one eyebrow at her father and asked, “Well? It was you that spread those rumours about Lisa? Because I am also very interested in knowing who it was, and I intend to find out how many innocent people your friends have already framed for some sort of hidden agenda.”

Without stopping staring at the hilt of the katana, Dan Rossi spoke, “We are an honourable group, and we don’t spread rumours. We check and double-check every bit of information we get. I don’t know what happened in Lisa’s case, but I also intend to find out.”

Aniya winked at Lisa, making her relax, at the same time that she grabbed her father’s arm, “Since we have the same objective, what about if we go to our meeting to meet your friends and find out why anyone would suspect that Lisa could be a dangerous flesh-eater beast?”

They both walked straight to the front door, with Lisa right on their heels. Outside, Davis was waiting for them, and he opened the door of the limousine. He seemed surprised to see Lisa smiling at him, but he quickly recovered his seriousness.

She entered the car after winking at him, and sat right in front of Aniya, staring at Dan Rossi with a serious look that made him feel uncomfortable. “Are you really going to glare at me like that the entire way? Really?”

“I just want to be sure you don’t try anything weird that forces me to take your head and ruin Aniya’s pretty dress, just that. You may be a highly trained Hunter, but to me, you are just a pervert that always enjoyed a bit too much looking at my cleavage and my butt. I used to pretend not to notice, but since Aniya told me you were a Hunter and your group thought I was a crazy beast and wanted to arrest me and kill me, I lost the tiny bit of consideration I had for you because you were Aniya’s father. Now, you are just a pervert who is going to die if I see you glancing at my boobs even for a split second.”

Dan Rossi spoke, and his voice sounded harsh, “Don’t push your luck, little girl. You are no match for me. I eat Werewolves for breakfast, I am more than capable of-“

Before he could finish his sentence, Lisa drew her sword at light speed and pushed the tip against his Adam’s apple. “Careful, old man, you were not the only one that trained your entire life. I may not be as fast or as good as Aniya, but I can perfectly end your miserable life in a heartbeat, so I advise you to be very careful with your words.”

Aniya kept on answering the comments on her phone and said, in a casual tone, “You were asking for this, father. You knew that eventually, Lisa was going to be fed up with your perverted stares, but you kept on pushing your luck. After what she found out, it’s no wonder she hates your guts. Now, what about you being a good boy and, instead of risking losing your head, you tell us where we are going? Because you know very well how much I hate surprises.”

Lisa quickly retrieved her sword and sheathed it, waiting for his explanation as well. While rubbing his neck, Dan Rossi explained, “We are going to meet a group of Hunters, and if they approve of you, they might allow you to join their squad. Hunters normally work in groups of five, and they are missing a member who died on a mission two nights ago when they were trying to capture a group of Werewolves. The Squad of Hunters approached the house those Werewolves were using as a hideout, and while two Hunters were injured, one died. I am not sure if they will let Lisa see their faces, but since the wolf’s bane does not affect her, I am also interested in knowing who informed the Hunters that she could be a Werewolf.”

Aniya nodded, “I see. Don’t worry, Lisa is going to be my administrative assistant because every Hunter has one. I don’t want to get somebody that I don’t know or trust. She will also be near me, just in case one of those Hunters in that Squad has some kind of weird idea. I don’t care what you say about the honour of a Hunter or the sacred duty. I don’t trust my life with someone I don’t know. You may like to gamble with your life, but I don’t.”

The Flesh-Eating Werewolf
Detail
Share
Font Size
40
Bgcolor