Page 28 of Hellhound AU

“You didn’t bake them?” I asked. Fuck. I’d had Ethel’s cookies, and they were fucking amazing.

“Nah, but Ethel gave me the recipe, so I can make some for you, boo.”

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. “Ah, no thanks. I mean, that’s okay. We have a lot to do and no time for baking. Anyway, we have to get going. Sitting out here is probably suspicious. I saw a diner a few miles back. We can grab food there.”

Riley must have caught on, because she had a wicked look on her face that meant trouble. She took another bite of cookie, then mumbled, “Mmmm, so good. Too bad Rowan said theywere all for me. I’msurewe can find time for you to bake for him, though.”

I gave her a nasty look, then turned around as Milo started the car.

Fucking sisters. Such a pain in the ass.

12

Author’s Note:

No animals were harmed in the making of this scene. Although people may die, animals will not, so no worries. Spoiler alert: all the dogs from the fighting ring will be fine and will go on to lead happy lives in my fictional universe.

MILO

Rowan’s sister was apparently a harpy. And not like an annoying woman who complained or nagged too much, but anactualharpy. With wings and talons and feathers.

It was fucking awesome.

I knew I should be a little more shocked or whatever, because, hello, she had a normal upper body (with the addition of wings), but she also had bird legs, and it was kinda crazy to look at. But mainly, it was fucking awesome. What was even more awesome was thinking of busting a dog fighting ring with anactual harpyto help.

“So maybe you could swoop in, teeth bared, wings out—oh, do you have any kind of screech or anything?” I asked.

Riley leaned in close across the table, as excited as I was about our forming plan.

“I can make men’s ears bleed,” she crowed proudly.

Rowan was sitting back, arms folded, looking decidedly disapproving. That didn’t stop my strawberry milkshake from pressing his leg against mine, though, so that we were still touching under the table. It was super sweet. And kind of comforting, because a part of me did think that maybe I was having a really crazy hallucination.

“Perfect!” I gushed. “So somehow we’ll get you inside unnoticed, and then you can fly out of the rafters all screechy and fierce and shit. Do we start the killing right away, you think?”

“Hmm, probably not. There may be innocent bystanders there. I’d think they’ll mostly run screaming, though. Whoever stays will probably have a vested interest in the dog fighting orthe dogs, and thus we have our guilty parties.” She looked proud of herself.

“You guys…” Rowan started.

“So Rowan or I can man the door and let people out, and if they look suspicious maybe we’ll just taze them.” I shrugged.

Did I feel bad thinking about tazing “innocent bystanders”? Eh. Because, you know, they were at an illegal dog fight. How innocent were they, really?

“I don’t think—” Rowan started again.

“Hush,” Riley interrupted. “I promise we won’t kill any innocents, okay? And people won’t think I’m real, anyway. They’ll think it’s a costume and theatrics put on by some animal rights group.”

“Maybe we could tap into their sound system or something and announce that the fight is officially over. That way innocent people are likely to head out because they won’t want to get stuck with some animal rights activist stuff going on,” I suggested.

Yeah, I knew having Riley swoop in as a harpy probably wasn’t thebestidea, but damn, it would be so much fun. You have to have a little fun, right? These people deserved to be terrorized for their actions. Even the spectators weren’t really innocent in my mind, but I did get that we couldn’t just kill everyone. Plus, if we set up a bomb or something in order to wipe everyone out, we would end up taking out the dogs, too. That kind of defeated the purpose. We were on a mission to save the poor pups.

Our food came at that moment, and we all ate quietly for a bit. I’d ordered a strawberry milkshake just to tease Rowan, and he’d gone an adorable shade of red. It wasn’t until we made a big dent in our food that he spoke up.

“So I like the loudspeaker idea. We’ll announce that the fight is being broken up by some animal rights group. Most spectators will get out of there because they won’t want a fight or legal issues.”

“Yeah, but what about evil spectators, brother dearest?” Riley asked. “We just gonna let them get away?”

“No. I can, like Milo suggested, wait outside the door. I can incapacitate anyone who’s truly evil.”