FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 20 - Truth Hurts

“LUCAS!"

I screamed the wolf cub's name at the top of my lungs and barreled out of my hiding spot in the hallway. It had taken everything to wait until Mordecai left. I ran to the banister and peered down at the cub laying on his front, naked. Flashes of what Duncan had done to me so many years ago came flooding back.

I saw Tri running down the stairs but I did him one better, vaulting over the side and letting my hands grip the beam, swinging until I could land at a crouch on the stack of boxes before finally jumping onto the ground. I rushed over and dropped to my knees, sliding up to him and gingerly touching him.

“Please…no no no not again please no no." I kept repeating as my vision blurred. In Lucas's place was the body of Avery. The images kept flashing back and forth and I took a deep breath, clenching my teeth.

Focus, Simon, a familiar voice echoed in my ear. You can deal with your emotions later. Focus on the boy, he may need you.

My heart skipped a beat and I looked up, seeing the swish of a ringed tail going down the hallway. It had been the voice of my teacher, another person who died for me.

I rolled Lucas over onto his back. His eyes were closed and his muzzle open, tongue lolling out the side. I didn't see any blood and I was confused — it sounded like he landed pretty hard.

Tri walked up to us and sighed. “Simon…"

“Shut up!"

“Simon, he's fine."

Lucas's eyes opened up and his tongue snapped back into his muzzle. He grinned up at me and sat up slowly, wincing as he braced his arm and sighed. “Mostly okay," the boy said.

“What…how?" I was holding Lucas by his arms and staring into his eyes. I was patting his arms and chest but felt nothing out of place. He was fine and healthy.

“I've been teaching him martial arts, Simon," Tri said. “Lucas, what was the first thing we practiced?"

“How to fall!" the cub answered with a grin.

“Even from that high up?" I asked, incredulous.

“It still hurt," Lucas grumbled, “but it worked just like if Mr. Tristan threw me head over heels. You just…move your body a certain way."

“It also helps that the pup is made of rubber." Tri kneeled down next to us. “Lucas, you should've remained hidden, I told you—"

In an instant Tri was on the floor, his muzzle bleeding. I had punched him hard. I was up on my feet and standing between him and a very scared Lucas.

I watched as Tri rubbed his lip and checked his fingers for blood. “What was that for?!" he shouted.

“Don't you dare get angry with me, you fucking traitor!"

I rushed over and punched Tri again as hard as I could. His eyes were wide and his head bounced off the floor. I heard him groan. But a moment later he rolled his body to the side and got up on his feet with a grace I had seen before.

Rut and Fiz moved like that. It was so obvious.

“Simon! Stop!" Tri held his hands up as I closed the distance between us, my fist up near my head and jabbing outward just like Tin had shown me. I used my agility to my advantage.

The problem was…Tri was in a league of his own.

The marble fox was on his toes and bouncing out of range, dodging with a practiced grace that I don't think even Tin could replicate. My punches went by him every time, his hands were at his side. If he was as good as his brothers, I would never get another hit in.

“Simon, calm down," he said patiently, his face matching his voice in calmness. Then I saw that his breathing was steady, and he dodged my fists with minimal movement, not even breaking out a single drop of sweat, watching me…observing me.

I could tell. He was bored. And that made me even angrier. I sped up, trying my best to outthink the marble fox. I was no fighter, I would never be, I didn't want to hurt anyone, and Tristan knew this.

Exhaustion accumulated in my muscles as I kept moving. Tri was wearing me down on purpose. I slowed down and stopped, leaning forward and panting as sweat beads dripped from my head.

“Did you calm down enough to listen to what I have to say?" the fox asked, crossing his arms.

“How can you work with him?!" I screamed as loudly as I could, teeth clenched and standing upright. I was seeing red at the corners of my vision. “He's a monster!"

Tri, for his part, looked legitimately confused. His head tilted in that way when he was trying to understand something complex. He wasn't putting the pieces together. “I know he's a businessman and is into some dubious ventures, but he is not a monster. He's been donating money to St. Andrews since he arrived in the city."

“You don't see it! How could you…you don't have all the pieces to this puzzle." I started regaining some of my composure. My fists lowered and my hands unclenched. I had punctured my palms with my claws.

I looked over at Lucas who was sitting there with his hands in his naked lap and looking confused and sad. I swallowed and sighed and took my hat off. I shrugged out of my suspenders and then unbuttoned my shirt, peeling it off and putting it around Lucas' shoulders.

“You okay?"

“Yeah," he said, swallowing. “I don't think he wanted to actually kill me. He dropped me with a little push."

“He probably wanted you to live with a broken leg or arm or something." I sighed and checked his legs again just for good measure. I knew a little bit about medicine from Rut and Palmer, but nothing anywhere close to a doctor. Honestly I just needed to keep my hands busy. They were shaking.

“What's going on, Simon? You're scaring me." Lucas's voice was soft, his little hands grabbing my face and making me look at him. Tri stood where I'd left him but his tail wasn't moving. He was ready to move again should I decide to attack.

I sat back on my rump and sighed, running a hand through my headfur and looking at the two of them. I motioned for Tri to come over and sit down. He obliged.

“For the record, I'm still pissed off at you, but…I'll tell you what's going on," I said.

Tri sat in silence and let me tell the tale of Spring Heeled Jack, starting from that fateful night of “ghost hunting" that changed my life forever.

I never had to tell this story in its entirety before. Well, besides in this journal. Most people who were involved already knew Mordecai and what he could do, and I only had to fill in the blanks. Lucas and Tri, on the other hand, didn't know that side of Mordecai, or at least not as intimately as most people from New York City who had met him.

I told them of my life as a chimney sweep in London, what I did for a living and how I was a lot like Lucas back then. One night when my friends and I were ghost hunting we found something much worse. A monster.

I told them about Alister. About Bensley being murdered. About Avery…and how I found him. How we found out who this murderer, Spring Heeled Jack, was. And how that monster kept my best friend and former lover alive as his personal manservant while I tucked tail and ran away.

I started talking about New York City when Tri held up a hand to stop me. “How did you meet my brothers? Are you sure that they're related to me?"

“Mordecai doesn't do anything by happenstance. He learned about Rut and Fiz when he mistook Fiz for me and attacked him. Both of them almost died fighting him, but Fiz…I think Fiz could have finished it at the end there. He was probably just playing with Mordecai and got hurt because he underestimated that man's ability. It wasn't until their second encounter that he got more serious."

“They really are alive?" Tri asked. “Father told me that they perished in a fire. They started it and burned down the whole town to ash. When the fire settled, their corpses were found." His expression clouded slightly. “But he never seemed saddened by their death. He said they were flawed anyway…"

“Flawed?" Lucas piped up.

“Father said they were too close. Something about…they would just lean toward their strengths which were complementary to each other. Together they were perfect, but when you broke them up, they made mistakes."

I nodded. “It's true that they're very close. They're also…eccentric, but they are good people. I met Fiz in jail and he took a liking to me, so when Rut bailed him out, Fiz asked him to pay for my bail too. The cops thought we were the same suspect because our fur is nearly identical, so it was mostly his fault that I was even arrested to begin with."

“So Mordecai knows about them?"

“He hates them. They injured him."

Tri frowned. “So the man found me through research, and decided…what, to mess with them through me? Just because he hates them for injuring him?" He shook his head. “That's hard to believe. I mean…do you have any idea how much money and resource had to be spent for him to find me, their younger sibling, who is living on the other side of the continent and never had any interaction with them? He must've had to hire an army of detectives sifting through public and private records from dozens if not hundreds of institutions!"

“Mordecai is insane, Tri. His logic isn't always clear. But my guess is that either you play a role in his scheme in some way, or he wants to take some kind of revenge on you for what they did to him. You couldn't tell how angry he was?"

“I thought it was just my usual wit and charm that set him off."

I chuckled slightly at Tri's remark. With this man, it was difficult to tell if he was candid or sarcastic. “He's a skilled businessman, inventor, and from the bluest of blood families in England. He knows how to keep himself composed. When he shows extreme emotions, it's because all that control is either turned off or slipping. I think the only reason he didn't outright murder Lucas was because he couldn't think of a way to explain it if the police got involved."

“Lucky me," Lucas said blithely, rolling his eyes.

“But you never explained why he's after you. What makes you so special?"

“Hell, I'd like to know the answer to that myself!" I paused when Tri looked at me admonishingly—right, we were in a church. I cleared my throat. “I've considered that for years. I'm nothing compared to him. I'm agile, sure, but he's smarter, richer, better connected…but the only thing I know I've done differently from anyone else was that I saw him kill."

“So you're a witness and he wants you dead?" Lucas asked.

“No, I think I'm the only person alive who he wouldn't hurt. At least right away. Something snapped in him. For some reason he wants me as a trophy or a prize. He desires me and I don't mean just sex."

“Hmm," Tri rubbed his chin in thought and looked down at the floor. “You saw him murder someone when you were a boy, and evern since, he has been after you. Is that correct?"

“Story of my life, pretty much."

“My guess is that the emotional high he felt from committing the murder—perhaps his very first one—somehow linked to you. He probably sees you as some kind of pleasure or release, something that is so rewarding."

“He hates anyone who gets in his way. When he saw me with your brothers, he went completely insane. He was angry at them that I was spending time with them. The same with Tin — who Mordecai also captured and tortured. I was able to free him."

“Someone's a hero," Lucas said calmly. “But how? I mean…you said he doesn't leave loose ends?"

“Gideon told me. My friend — his manservant. Mordecai likes to play with people before he outright kills them. Tin was still alive when I found him with some bad wounds."

“I hope you realize that this tale of yours is rather far-fetched." Tri looked at me square in the eyes, as if to assess how much of my story was true.

I rolled my eyes. “You want to talk to Tin? He'll tell you everything he went through. You want to talk to your brothers on the phone in the Arc? They'll do the same. This is real, and this is serious. Mordecai doesn't know I'm here, otherwise he would have already made his move."

“There's been no reports of Spring Heeled Jack in San Francisco—"

“The DRAGON!" Lucas shouted with a gasp. “Do you…think that's him?"

I slowly nodded my head. “He's modified his costume. He's doing something, trying to sow some kind of unrest among the immigrant populations. The Dragon has only attacked people in the Hispanic community, right?"

Lucas nodded.

“And he wasn't seen nearly as much until he started those murders?"

Again the wolf cub confirmed.

“He's doing this on purpose. He's letting himself be seen so people know that the Dragon is behind the murderers."

“And because the costume looks Chinese," Tri chimed in, “they're going to assume the murderer is from Chinatown, such as its resident, or at the very least something close to it."

I nodded. “He's upending the balance in the city for some reason. I don't know why. I don't know what it gains him even if he's running for political office."

Tri and Lucas were both quiet now. “Do you understand now why I don't want you working with Mordecai?" I said to Tri.

“Even knowing all this," the marble fox said, “I can't just stop working with him, Simon. If he's as clever and crazy as you make him sound, he'll probably make my life a living hell if I don't offer to him what he wants."

I glared at Tri but had to remind myself that the fox didn't know about what had happened to me. I quickly pushed the negative feelings down and cleared my throat. “I know. But he'll definitely turn on you if you — we — keep going down this path."

“We?" Tri asked, tilting his head to the side. “You were ready to kill me a few minutes ago. Now you're okay with all this?"

“You didn't know. It's not like I told everyone why I'm here in San Francisco. Right now he's weakest here, far from his connections and influence, but he's still the handsome, rich, and charming monster that he was in London and New York. And he used those to his advantage in making inroads all over this city."

Tri rubbed the back of his head uneasily. “That's my fault, but that was what he wanted. In exchange for helping me get weapons for the resistance, he wanted to be introduced to people I knew in the city."

“Momma said you were too charis…charis…carismático," Lucas said. “She thinks you have the Devil's charm."

The marble fox chuckled. “If she thinks I'm the Devil, then why does she let you hang out here with me at the church?"

Lucas held up two fingers. “One, there's holy water everywhere. She says just throw some on you and run if you get weird. The other is that she thinks the Devil wouldn't take me 'cause I'm a lot to handle."

“That's true," I added, finding myself smiling at the mental image of the cub wreaking havoc down in Hell and beyond.

Lucas grinned from ear to ear and wagged his tail. He exhaled slowly and then rubbed the back of his head. “Are you two done fighting? You two are friends, right?"

I looked at Tri in the face and swallowed. I was going against my instinct here to keep him at arm's length, but he was the younger brother to my friends. Not to mention he and I were close, intimately. He also knew Mordecai and could help me. Tin was still having issues when thinking about the caracal, so I didn't want to subject him if I could avoid it.

“I'm calm now, and yes, things are okay. At least from my point of view."

“You owe me for those punches," Tri said flatly. “But you can make it up to me by telling me about my brothers."

“I can do that." I looked at the clock on the wall. There was still plenty of time before I had to go back to the Arc. “How much do you know about throwing knives?"