Page 28 of Moody as a Minotaur

It had to be the hunters.

Which meant they had either followed me home or they’d found out where I lived some other way. Either option took time and effort.

Van had also found three more listening devices hidden throughout my home. He didn’t remove any. Not yet. But knowing they were there was like getting a pebble wedged in my hoof. It didn’t seem so bad in the beginning, and you thought you could manage. But the longer it was there, the more annoying it became until it was embedded so deeply that you had an abscess and couldn’t walk anymore.

The coffee I’d guzzled on my walk home was churning in my stomach, and my lungs couldn’t quite suck in enough air. What if they’d broken in when I was there? Would they have killed me in my bed?

I needed to buy more antacids.

Van beckoned me to my backyard, where he didn’t expect them to have placed any devices. Crisp yellow and brown leaves littered the grooves in the labyrinth walk I’d made in the grass. Walking along the twisted path usually soothed me, but now I wished I had a proper maze back here too, so I could hide in its center right now.

“Don’t panic.” Van spoke quietly as he squeezed my shoulder. “It doesn’t mean they know you are a supe. Hunters are always recruiting. They may have snooped around because you were asking questions and seemedinterested in what they do. This could be a good thing. An opportunity.”

I harrumphed and wished I believed him.

“Are you sure nothing is missing?”

We walked through the house a few times, so I could evaluate each shelf.

“They didn’t take anything,” I said, shaking my head. So, what did that mean?

“And nothing you have suggests you’re a supe. Your…” Van waved to the house as he searched for the right word. “Your displays don’t have any supernatural references. Your apartment upstairs?—”

“Which I still can’t believe they didn’t find,” I muttered. The whole situation was making my skin crawl. Someone had been inside my maze. I shuddered. I needed to change the configuration of my shelves. Pronto. I needed a new maze. I needed a more complex route through the downstairs. I might need to move to a larger place to accommodate all that. Or I could build some additions. I could do a lot with an additional four feet all around the house.

“It’s safe,” Van continued, as if I hadn’t spoken.

“The maze is a dead giveaway…” Anyone who knew anything about minotaurs would know about our love of mazes.

“I think most humans would assume you’re a hoarder.”

“I’m not a hoarder,” I bellowed. Both anger, and fear if I was being completely honest, were eating away at me. “And would a hoarder move the kitchen to the second floor?”

“I hear what you’re saying.” Van raised his hands to placate me. “But minotaurs are rare. Hoarders are much more common.”

I grunted.

“Do you want to move to a safe house until we get to the bottom of this?”

“No.”

Being in a strange place wouldn’t make me feel better. I wanted my home with its maze. But I wanted a better maze with more twists and turns and dead ends. Until I could make those improvements, I had the motel. I spun on my heel and stomped off toward the Tarbeck. I didn’t bother locking the door. Why would I? Apparently, hunters waltzed in regardless of whether the place was locked or not.

When I got to my office, the first thing I did was call the local locksmith to change all the locks on my house. I agreed to the upgrade they suggested without batting an eye. They’d do that work on Monday. I contemplated asking them to come out now, but decided it would be better to wait until the hunters left on Sunday.

I really hoped they didn’t change their minds and decide to stay longer.

Unfortunately, the little mom-and-pop lock company wasn’t equipped to deal with the motel and the other security measures I wanted, so I wasn’t surprised when they referred me to another company from the city. Within an hour, I had everything in motion. By Christmas, the room keys would all be replaced, and cameras and sensors would be installedeverywhere.

But even with all of that, I still didn’t feel safe. I wasn’t sure when I would ever feel safe in my home again.

Still, I needed sleep. Just a little bit. And if I could grab some shut eye today while there were witnesses around to keep watch, that’s what I’d do. I settled on the sofa in my office and shut my eyes. I really wished I had some shelves or room dividers set up in the reception area, so my office wasn’t quite so vulnerable. But at least I wasn’t home alone, where hunters could storm my house without being seen.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t sleep, but I did rest with my eyes closed for a bit. I’m not sure it helped, but it couldn’t have hurt. I wasn’t used to feeling this distracted. When I worked on my miniature scenes, I could forget about the rest of the world. The hours ticked by without me noticing.

But my mind wouldn’t settle today. It was too busy with visions of camo-clad strangers wandering through my maze, touching my things, cackling as they invaded my home, coming at me with sharp hunting knives.

Every time I opened my eyes after another failed attempt at sleep, I checked the time and glanced out the window to see if the hunters had returned or if Parker was on his way.