Page 28 of Monsters of Mayhem

“Yes!” Ratchet whirled around on me, his feet making soft circles in the sand. “I’ve got her. She must just be landing. It looks like she’s landing at the Oakland airport nearby.”

“Good. Let’s make sure we get there first before she has time to escape. If we know she’s landed, then she’ll have to go through the front door of the airport.”

“If she just got the signal, then it means the planes just coming down now.”

I took a deep breath and stretched my back, allowing my wings to come out. It was time to go and get Laney and find out exactly what was going on. If I had to show her my monster self to get her to agree to go, I was willing to do it.

“Let’s get there fast,” I said.

Ratchet was a step ahead of me, already up in the air by the time I powered my wings up and flew up to meet him. We could see the plane just hitting the tarmac now. It would be easy enough to get to the gate. Alameda was only a few minutes from the Oakland airport.

“Is your plan to tell her we’re supernatural?” Ratchet asked.

“No, but I’ve got to tell her we need to find Caroline.”

“What do you think we should do?” Ratchet asked. “I mean, she might not want to take us to see Caroline. It’s not like she didn’t escape from you.”

Just the thought of those words made the blood boil in my body. I knew I was a monster, but the one person who had always accepted me, may have been Caroline and now she was running from me. It was an idea I hated to think about. It was a grim reality I needed to face, though, especially before we saw Laney.

“You’re probably right,” I said, as much as I hated it.

“The only way it’s going to work is if you tell Laney what’s really up,” Ratchet said. “If you explain to her the truth then maybe she’ll help Caroline.”

“So, we grab Laney, we tell her the truth and we get her on board,” I laid the plan out. “With Laney on our side, Caroline stops trying to run from us and understands she needs to be under protection.”

By the time we got to the airport, we landed on the tarmac and immediately used magic to take on the guise of luggage handlers. We ran up the stairs to the side gate and onto the gangway where the customers were just coming off the plane.

“Do you see her?” I asked.

Ratchet looked down at his phone.

“She should be right here,” he said, looking around.

I gazed at the crowds of people walking through the rooms.

“There,” I said, pointing out a curly redhead walking away through the crowd. “That’s her.”

Ratchet smiled. “I would recognize that booty anywhere,” he said.

I rolled my eyes. “Is that all you ever think about?”

“Where she’s concerned, I mean really, she’s got curves that go on for days,” Ratchet said.

“No, I haven’t checked out her booty. If you remember, I was married to her best friend. Last time I checked, even for a monster it’s still a pretty creepy thing to do, checking out your wife’s best friend.” I muttered.

“Yeah, but there’s no problem with your best friend checking out his best friend’s wife’s best friend,” Ratchet said with a grin.

“Just get her,” I said. “Put away your flames,” I said. “There is still some smoke rising from your shoulders.”

Ratchet moved quickly through the crowd. I slowed down a little bit, knowing whatever late night talks Laney and Caroline had, had probably included me and probably weren’t too favorable. I didn’t really expect to hear a good word from Laney about me, but Ratchet might stand a better chance. I knew the two had never dated, but there had always been a little something between them that couldn’t be denied.

I kept about ten paces behind them, going slowly as Ratchet sidled up to Laney. I could just make out what he was saying.

“Laney, hey, hello,” Ratchet said, just as his clothes changed from the airline worker’s attire to regular jeans and a black T-shirt.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Laney said, immediately looking around and spotting me. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“It’s not what you think,” Ratchet said, putting his hand on her wrist.

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