Home for Horny Monsters Ch. 108

"They've known each other long?" asked Cyrus.

Dirk shrugged. "Maybe. I never heard him mention her before this job, but that doesn't mean anything. Darius is entitled to his privacy. But he called her before we even landed."

"Yet another piece to the puzzle." Eulalie sounded angry. "Oh, good. Looks like some more guys just--"

The earpiece went dead in Cyrus' ear. He tried not to react and just looked out the window at the trees. Dirk continued jabbering for nearly twenty more minutes, driving the suburban down dirt roads that Cyrus never saw in the first place. After a little bit, he pulled out his phone and saw that he had no signal.

"Yeah, you won't get any reception out here," said Dirk. "The whole area is off the grid, both electronically and magically. Nothing in and out without our say so." The suburban passed between a pair of massive boulders and emerged in a small depression in the side of the mountain. After a trio of descending switchback turns, the suburban stopped next to a cliff face.

"I don't understand," said Cyrus. "Where are we?"

A door in the mountain opened up, and the suburban drove inside. Cyrus was stunned to see that well over a hundred SoS men milled about, chatting amicably with each other and eying the suburban with curiosity.

"This place isn't one of yours," answered Dirk. "And now I can tell you a bit more about why we're here." He pulled the vehicle into an open spot and put it in park. "This place is a few decades old, used to belong to some weird fucks who ran a historical society back in town. Whole thing was off the books, only that witch knew about it."

"That doesn't explain why we're here, though." Cyrus got out and frowned. He spotted a few members of the Order milling about, but what worried him was the caliber of weaponry being installed by the entrance. "Are those gatling guns?"

"They are, they are." Dirk exchanged a fist bump with a guy who opened up the suburban and pulled out the ammo crates. "So the first thing you should know is that there's a mole."

"What?" Cyrus had already pulled the earpiece from his ear. It was useless now. "A mole?"

"Yep. We don't know who it is, but someone has been monitoring all of your shit. Well, the Order's shit. That Caretaker guy has someone working for him, but we can't figure out who. This is a 'We know they know' situation, so we've been trying to drop false intel. Those armored cars you saw earlier? Decoys. When we nab some monsters, they're going out on different transports while those ones take off. And we're not being paranoid, we've already found tracking devices on them. Come, this way."

Cyrus' heart hammered in his chest. This was certainly a surprise he hadn't expected. "I have so many questions," he stammered.

"I bet you do." Dirk led Cyrus through a pair of double doors that led into a long corridor. "From the beginning, we've been operating under false orders. That Director guy knew from the get go that any mission we had would be compromised. In reality, we were never after some stupid magic book, but the guys in the field don't know that. It was all a facade."

"For what reason?" Cyrus asked.

"Intel. That Caretaker guy, he's the real target. Apparently, he's a pretty slippery fuck." Dirk pulled a keycard out of his pocket and handed it to Cyrus. "You'll need this to move through the facility."

"Thank you." Cyrus pocketed the card. They came up to the first checkpoint, which was monitored by an armed squadron of men. They stood at attention when they saw Dirk, who used his own card on the door. After two more checkpoints, they were in a stairwell, going down.

"I hope you've been paying attention, 'cause this place is like a maze." They got to the bottom of the stairwell and used the card to gain access to a long, concrete hallway. Every ten feet, there was a steel door with a locking mechanism on the front. "So you and your people will be down here. Well, your former people. We needed them for this part."

"I still don't understand what--" Cyrus voice trailed off when he saw sister Laurel and a couple of knights come out of one of the rooms. Her wild eyes lingered on him for a moment, then she scowled at Dirk.

"What is he doing here?" she asked.

"He works for the Sons of Sin now." Dirk tilted his head toward Cyrus. "So play nice."

"Does the Director know about this?" asked Laurel with a slight snarl.

"Nope. But you can call him if you want. Might have to hike for a couple of hours to get a signal, but be my guest." Dirk moved to the doorway and looked inside. "Is this room ready?"

"It is." Laurel eyed Cyrus with suspicion, but gestured into the room. "The central cage will contain most Class 3 entities, but it will be perfect for the banshee."

Cyrus moved to look into the room and bit his lip. In the center was a glass cage covered in silver threads and an entrance in the middle.

"What about the goblin?" asked Dirk.

Cyrus grabbed the man's wrist to get his attention. "Wait," he said, fighting hard to keep the tremor from his voice. This wasn't some casual facility put together in just a couple of days. Everything in the room had been there for a while. "Does this mean--"

Dirk grinned. "This place was built to be a prison," he said, gesturing toward the cage. "Everything up until this point was intel, but you knew that already. We needed the enemy to think we were after something else. But in reality, we've always been after the monsters in that house. Did you think we were just going to toss them in a truck and negotiate a surrender? Hardly. This is where we plan to keep them, forever if we need to. Can't have them running around wild. If they end up being of no use to the Order, there's a black market for them if you know the right people. We've got a list of potential buyers we can call."

"I was just as shocked as you were," said Laurel. "This place is completely hidden so nobody will ever find them here. Once we have some members of Mike Radley's family, he'll do whatever we tell him to do. He doesn't need to know that he'll never get them back."

Cyrus wanted to scream, to tell them they were insane. What they were about to do was evil, plain and simple. With no way to let Eulalie know where he was, all he could do was swallow his words and nod.

"That's right, he doesn't."

"Good man." Dirk clapped Cyrus on the shoulder. "You'll be our liaison on this. Once we capture these things, it will be your job to make sure they stay alive and don't escape. You'll answer only to Darius and Elizabeth, once they get here."

"And when will that be?" asked Cyrus. Maybe if he had time, he could break out of here and hike to where he could get a signal. Or find another way to send a message to Eulalie to let her know what was about to happen. The moment anyone was captured, they would be whisked away to vanish forever.

Dirk grinned. "With any luck, they've already begun."

The balcony door was open, which allowed the sound of the pounding surf to echo throughout the master suite. Beth leaned over the balcony, scowling down at a sight which once brought her indeterminable joy, but now contained nothing but dark threats. She could both see and sense the merfolk in the bay, swimming in small patrols on the off chance she would be dumb enough to walk down there.

Ever since her attempted abduction, she had remained in her room. Beth had been lucky to only sustain some scrapes and bruises. She cursed the merfolk for their ignorance, but knew her hatred was really for Captain Francois, who had deceived them. Scanning the horizon for signs of his magical ship, she once again wondered what it would be like to wrap her hands around his neck and squeeze until the veins stood out along his--

"Gah!" Kisa yelled from inside the suite. "Stop, you're doing it again!"

"Sorry." Beth turned away from the railing and walked inside to see Kisa frantically turning off the kitchen sink and mopping up water with a towel. She had changed out of her maid outfit into a yellow bikini top with matching shorts, the facade no longer necessary now that Beth was around. Originally, she was going to head home, but Lily had beat her through the portal and it was decided that Beth shouldn't be alone in Paradise.

"You need to relax," Kisa declared, throwing a scowl in Beth's direction. "I get why you're pissed, but I'm tired of cleaning this up."

Concentrating, Beth pushed the uncontained water back into the sink in an effort to help. Once it looked like the kitchen was mostly under control, she checked the bathrooms and the shower. One toilet had overflowed, but that only took another minute of concentration to levitate the water back into the bowl. She was disappointed in herself that her anger kept getting away from her in bursts of magic and water pressure, but was secretly pleased that she had become so strong.

Reassured that the flood was officially contained, Beth walked back out into the living room to help Kisa take the stack of wet towels to the nearest laundry basket. She looked toward the balcony and sighed. With more than a little sadness, she closed the sliding door.

"I need to find something else to do." She looked at Kisa. "Any interest in card games?"

Kisa made a face that made it clear she had absolutely no interest in card games. Carmina, who currently sat atop Kisa's head, made the same face. Lily had left the fairy behind when she had gone through the portal to connect with Mike.

"Fair enough. Were you watching something on tv?"

This time, the cat girl nodded. "I was catching up on a bunch of movies from the early two thousands." She picked up the remote and unpaused her current film. "This one is about a girl who finds out she's a princess."

"Anne Hathaway is a national treasure." Beth sat on the loveseat and sighed. No stranger to the Princess Diaries, she allowed her mind to drift some more.

About ten minutes later, Kisa's phone buzzed and she looked at it and grinned. "Coded text from Tink. Here." She tossed the phone to Beth. On the screen was an eggplant emoji followed by several sweat drop emojis. While she stared at the phone, her thumb slipped a bit and she accidentally dragged more of the conversation into view. In the span of only a few seconds, she managed to see at least two shared sexual fantasies regarding Mike as well as three pictures of Tink's butthole.

"I don't get it," she said, referring pretty much to the whole conversation, but mainly the emojis.

"Coming soon." Kisa grinned and held out her hand. "I need to reply."

"Reply with--" Beth had handed the phone back, which prompted Kisa to immediately pull her bikini top down and snap a quick selfie. "Is that...do you two talk like that all the time?"

Kisa shrugged. "Not this much, but figured someone is probably monitoring our texts so they may as well get an eyeful."

"Ah." It was definitely not the kind of friendship Beth had ever had with someone else, but their logic was sound. Regardless, the meaning was clear. Mike was going to be here soon and then she and Kisa could leave. She hoped wherever they went next would be friendlier. Hopefully it had a beach.

Beth's stomach rumbled, and she patted her belly. "You hungry?"

"I could eat." Kisa picked up the room service menu off the table with her feet and snatched it with a hand. "I'll have the fish sandwich, extra fries, and see if they'll do a rum and coke. Or rather, Lily will have those things." She held up Lily's tracking bracelet with her other hand.

"They will." Beth took the menu from Kisa and picked out what she wanted. After a quick phone call to the main desk, she flopped back on the couch and watched some more of the movie with Kisa. Anne Hathaway was on her way to a beach party with friends when Beth heard the knock on the door.

"That was fast," said Kisa.

Beth stood and walked to the door of the suite. Her hand was almost on the knob when her instincts screamed at her to get away. She hesitated, then looked at Kisa with wide eyes.

"Just a second!" she yelled. "Let me get a robe on!"

Kisa narrowed her eyes at the door, then gestured toward the patio. She and Beth moved silently toward it, then pushed the sliding glass open to step outside.

"Where can we go?" asked Beth.

Kisa moved to the railing and hopped onto it. Balancing carefully on her feet, she took a step back and slid down the exterior of the patio, her claws digging into the concrete surface.

"I can help you down," she said.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Beth whispered as she put her feet on a sidetable so that she could step over the side. The catgirl took her by the hand and grunted, her bicep bulging as she supported most of Beth's weight.

The door of the suite exploded off its hinges, revealing the disheveled silhouette of Captain Francois and a pair of mer-warriors standing behind him. The man shook his head at the sight of Beth hanging over the edge.

"There's nowhere you can go," he said. "I'll--"

Beth found a small decorative groove in the concrete and lowered herself out of sight. The patio below them came into view, and Kisa growled as she helped lower Beth to the railing below. Beth nearly slipped, but managed to jump forward and miss a nearby lounger.

She turned around and held up her arms to help catch Kisa. The catgirl dropped into a crouch and hopped forward, tucking into a roll and then standing.

"Okay, so maybe there's somewhere you can go," shouted Francois.

"You shouldn't even be here," replied Beth as she moved across the empty balcony and tried to open the slider to the vacant room. The door was locked. Carmina attempted to squeeze herself between the panes of glass, but they were too close together.

"The merfolk were very insistent that I be allowed to retrieve you." There was a grunt, followed by the sounds of flesh on metal. Captain Francois lowered himself down, the muscles in his arms bulging. "So make this easy on--"

Kisa smashed a chair into his legs, causing the Captain to fall. He dropped by, but instead of a satisfying scream, there was a loud clang from below. Beth ran to the ledge and looked over. Francois was holding onto the railing of the next floor below, his knuckles white. Down on the ground, a small retinue of merman gazed up at all of them, surrounded by armed Order personnel. Aurora stood nearby, uncertainty and concern on her face.

"What an idiot," Kisa muttered at Beth's side. Francois had already pulled himself to safety.

The catgirl picked up another chair and swung it into the glass door hard enough that it shattered. There was a brief moment of hesitation as the women realized that they were both barefoot, so they carefully skirted the glass and made their way across the suite before unlocking the door. The bracelet on Beth's wrist immediately lit up, as did the one that Kisa carried.

"Well that sucks." Beth and Kisa stepped into the hallway. "Looks like hiding won't be an option. For me anyway." She looked out the nearest window and saw people milling about. "Should we go up or down?"

Kisa opened her mouth to reply, then stared off into space for a moment. A wicked grin crossed her features. "Neither. We need to get to the other side of the building."

"Why?"

The catgirl grinned. "So that we can meet up with Mike."

Starting next chapter, I intend to break the HFHM record for property damage.

Thank you once again for dropping in and being part of my own, personal journey as a writer. Please don't forget to leave some stars, tell your friends, and maybe even ruin a family get-together by shouting plot points over the relative who irritates you most.

But above all else, take a moment today to do something kind, whether it's for a friend, a loved one, or even yourself. Positivity undoes negativity, it's one of the things I remember from math class!

Until next time, monster fuckers!

~Annabelle Hawthorne