Xander vol.1 Transmutation (13 page)

“
They took it all …” the
Professor stammered. He looked over at the two covered bodies of
his young female colleagues, his face twisting into that of
despair. “She killed them. Christ, Cynthia has children,” he wept.
Glover gripped his shoulder, trying to steady the man and keep him
focused.

“
Focus, professor. This is
how you can help them now,” Glover offered. “A woman did
this?”

Hughes shook his head,
recalling the events that happened only a few hours ago.

“
Not alone. She had
Cynthia’s neck in her hand when I walked in. I caught the end of it
… I watched Cynthia’s body fall to the floor beside
Paula’s.”

“
Did she take the
equipment? Who was with her?”

“
I didn’t see the men that
moved the equipment. But I heard them speak to her on an intercom.
She answered them, walked up to me, winked, and left.”

“
What did she look like?”
Glover asked, taking out his small notepad and pen.

“
Tall, long black hair.
She had fair skin, and blue eyes.”

“
How old would you say she
was?”

Hughes shook his
head.

“
She didn’t look a day
over twenty.”

Glover nodded with some
hesitation. Someone so young being able to pull something like this
off. Was it possible? He patted Hughes’ shoulder, giving his best
look of compassion.

“
Thank you, Professor.
Please, go home and be with your family.”

The Professor nodded,
shakily pushing up his thinly framed glasses. He thanked Glover
before walking away towards the lab’s exit, taking a last look at
his colleagues before leaving with his head low. Glover sighed as
he stuck his notepad into his back pocket, while making his way
over to his partner, who was kneeling beside the bodies.

“
Got anything we could
use?” asked Roland.

Glover crossed his arms,
giving a shrug.

“
He gave me a decent
description. We’ll have to call him in for further questioning.
He’s still pretty shaken.”

“
Yeah, well I don’t blame
the guy. Get this. Cause of death?” Roland said, unzipping the body
back he was knelt in front of to reveal Cynthia Brown.

Her once firm, mocha skin
was now pale and wrinkled, riddled with moles and imperfections.
Her once raven black hair was now grey, and slightly curling around
her aged face. Her skin sagged, and her body looked frail. On her
lab coat, her ID badge was clipped onto her left breast pocket. Her
photo captured her in her youth, which was only hours ago. Her skin
firm and glowing, her smile and eyes bright and inviting. Roland
looked up at Glover’s shocked expression before standing up to join
him.

“
Old age.”

Standing in the slowly
rising elevator of Maverick’s apartment, Jared’s thoughts were
beginning to race. After his conversation with Liz, he’d finally
taken it upon himself to check in on Maverick at his apartment. He
hadn’t returned any of his calls, and for him to just disappear
like that had him spooked. He felt he was obligated to at least see
if he was okay. Of course, there was no guarantee that Maverick
would even be there, but Jared wanted to see if he was at least
still a resident of the apartment.

The elevator dinged, and
Jared stepped out into the artificially lit hallway, looking down
into the end of the hall at Maverick’s front door. He wanted to get
this over with. He wanted to hear what Maverick had to say for
himself. But reaching the door, he found himself hesitant to
knock.

What if Liz was right?
What if Maverick was dead? What if Saphora had killed him? It would
certainly explain Maverick’s disappearance. Would he be the one to
discover Maverick’s body? Jared suddenly found himself tense and
unsure of what to do next. But not knowing, he decided would be
worse than finding a corpse.

“
Maverick?” he called out,
then waited a few moments. “Maverick!” he shouted again when he
heard no response.

He listened intently,
leaning towards the door in order to try and pick up on any
movement from within. And to his relief, he heard it. It was very
faint, but he could hear the footsteps on the other side. He
smiled, waiting for the door to open, relief washing over him at
the sign of life. But after over a minute of being left outside,
Jared’s relief soon turned into anger.

“
Come on, Maverick. Open
the door,” he bellowed loud enough to be embarrassing.

But this time, he was met
with silence. The footsteps had stopped, and so had his patience.
He scoffed, stepping closer to the door.

“
I know you’re in there.
Open the door!” he said before raising his balled fist and banging
it against the door.

And when he did, he was
surprised to see it swing open. It hadn’t been locked. Hell, it
hadn’t even been closed all the way. Jared’s face spiraled from
confusion to embarrassment as he realized that maybe Maverick had
been waiting for him to come in. He placed his hand on the edge of
the door, opening it further as he stepped in before closing it
behind him with a gentle click. But as he looked around, he didn’t
see Maverick, and his understanding of the situation fell apart
again.

“
Maverick?” he called out
unsure.

He stepped further into
the mists of the messy living room, which was covered with
scattered books and water jugs. Again, there was no answer, and
again Jared felt his anger boiling.

“
Come on, Maverick. Enough
of this. Get out here,” Jared demanded, tilting his head to the
side to peek into his empty bedroom. “What’s with you, anyway? It’s
like you –“

Jared stopped in the
middle of his sentence when hearing the hollow thud of a jug
falling to the floor. Jared spun around, ready to catch Maverick in
the act of sneaking. But what he saw made his blood run cold.
There, on top of the island counter, was Loni, the overgrown
lioness that had found her way into the café. She was perched low
on the counter, her breathing slow and steady as she stared Jared
down. His breathing went from angered to panicked in the instant as
he took an uneasy step back. Immediately, his hands raised,
offering the feline peace.

“
W-Whoa there … Nice
tiger,” he pleaded. Loni snarled, dipping her head forward.
“Lion!
Lion
… So
sorry,” he corrected in a plea. “Nice lion.
Lovely
lion.”

Loni gracefully leapt down
from the counter, her eyes never leaving his. Jared shook his head
taking another step back. His foot crushed a water jug, startling
him with the sudden noise and making him fall back onto the floor,
hitting the back of his head on the coffee table in the process and
rendering him unconscious.

Loni paused, stared at the
now limp body that laid on the floor before slowly going closer.
She lowered her head, starting from his hand and making her way to
the curve of his neck, sniffing along the way. She didn’t smell
anything of Athena on him, rendering him useless. She did however,
notice his face, as the human that gave her the powdered cake. She
morphed, now kneeling beside him with a look of only slight
disgust.

“
Hmph. Stupid human,” she
mumbled to herself.

********

“
Will
someone
tell me just what the hell
is going on in this town?!” Officer Johnson bellowed as she stormed
into her office, where officers Glover and Roland were
waiting.

Roland shot to his feet
from the chair he was sitting in, wiping his face clean of what was
left of the powered donut he was eating. Glover turned around to
meet Johnson’s angry eyes. He smiled at her, his arms
crossed.

“
I take it you’re having
just as lovely a day as we are,” Glover teased.

“
I’ve got human wrecking
balls taking down malls, I’ve got lions roaming the streets, and
I’ve got twenty-four year old women dying of old age! I’m having
a
splendid
day,”
she spat. “I’m losing control of my town, and I want to know why,”
she demanded.

That was when the calm and
collective voice of Agent Elba filled the room, drawing Johnson’s
attention behind her. He closed the door behind him, from which he
had moved in front of as he sighed.

“
You’re not the only one,”
he agreed.

Johnson’s shoulders
slumped upon seeing him. She groaned, exaggeratingly rolling her
eyes as she perched her hands on her narrow hips.

“
Oh,
great
,” Johnson exclaimed. “You,
again. Are you here to tell me that more aliens are behind all of
this? Because that would
really
make my day.”

“
That’s exactly what I’m
here to tell you,” Elba nodded, folding his hands behind his back
and standing with a military swagger. Johnson groaned, turning back
around towards her team and throwing her hand in the
air.

“
Great,” she huffed. “More
un-file-able paperwork. Make my job harder, why don’t you. I still
have Jones’ family up my rear end. And now I’ve got to explain to
tax payers why they need to shove out money for the mall – and
their community college. Only I can’t because there’s no
paperwork!”

Elba waited patiently for
Johnson to finish before he stepped closer, her lips pursed in ill
consideration.

“
We’ll take care of all
that,” he offered. Both Roland and Glover looked over at the Agent
with raised brows, while Johnson took her time in turning back
around to look at him. Her eyes showed her obvious
skepticism.

“
You’ll take care of it,”
she repeated almost mockingly. Elba nodded. “For what price?” she
questioned knowingly. Elba shrugged, stepping forward
again.

“
Cooperation.”

Johnson scoffed, nodding
somewhat.

“
With what?”

“
We need to make some
house calls to our foreign friends.”

********

“This will have been my
third outing for this, you know,” Xander pointed out as he followed
Nora down the streets of Clemming towards a clothing store she
wanted to take him to.

Xander was still in need
of clothing, as it was made apparent by the turning heads of the
people walking beside them. Mothers pulled their children away from
him as he waved. He frowned, looking at Nora, who was looking
straight.

“
Your people fear
me.”

Nora scoffed, shaking her
head.

“
Have you seen your
outfit?” she countered. Xander looked down at himself, studying his
own attire. He frowned again, arching his maroon brow.

“
What’s wrong with my
outfit? I’ll have you know that this is the finest fabrics on my
side of –“

“
It’s not about the
fabric. It’s about the style. Which here – you don’t have. But
don’t worry, I’ll help you.”

Xander scoffed.

“
I beg your pardon. And
what training have you to dress a man of royalty?” he asked
skeptically as they approached the door of the small
shop.

Nora opened it, holding it
open for him to walk through. She rolled her eyes, shaking her head
as she looked around the quaint clothing store. She let the door
close behind her as Xander stepped in, immediately overwhelmed with
the mixture of culture in such a small area.

His mouth fell almost
theatrically agape as he stepped further into the shop. He spun
slowly around, taking in all the different types of clothing and
people that suddenly surrounded him.

“
More than you – trust
me,” Nora assured under her breath as the door clicked.

She watched him with
somewhat of a smirk as he continued looking around.

“
How can you choose
anything out of all of this?”

Nora gave a shrug and a
slight sigh as she gently pushed Xander forward.

“
Oh, will you just
shop?”

“
There are entirely too
many choices,” Xander complained as he was lead towards the male
area of the store, getting several looks of curiosity and wariness
as he went.

“
Find something you like,”
Nora offered.

Xander grumbled as Nora’s
hand left his back, allowing her to walk around and stand beside
him. He glanced around at the small, but overwhelming selection
before him. He picked up a random shirt, holding it to his chest
and looking down at it. Nora raised a brow, watching him in
admitted amusement.

“
You look like a fish out
of water. You think you can handle finding your size while I look
around?” Nora teased, getting a look of defiance from Xander as he
put the shirt back.

He shooed her away, making
her giggle as she walked off towards the women’s section. She made
her way to the small selection of wigs with a sigh. Scanning them
over and their wacky colours – pink, blonde, orange, blue. She
wondered what she would look like in any of them. Then frowned when
she thought about the fact they she may need them moving
forward.