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fredbassettTitle : Unlucky for Some
Author : fredbassett
Original Fic : Otherworld Investigations Series
Rating : 15
Characters : Briana Wakelin, Dennis Smith
Copyright Notice : These characters are mine, all mine.
Spoilers : None
Summary : Written for the original fic challenge, Tooth and Claw
A/N : I am aiming to write a series of drabbles or ficlets set in my original fic ‘verse for weekly prompts. I’m trying for ficlets this month to see if I can extend my word count in this ‘verse a bit.
The black cat stared at us with an expression that could best be described as inscrutable.
I knew better than to engage in a staring match with a cat so I looked around the room, checking how many ways in and out we had to contend with.
The patio doors were closed, so were the windows. There was a serving hatch from the kitchen through to the room we were in, so I shut it.
“OK, close the door as well,” I told my Apprentice.
Dennis did as he was told, then set the large cat box down on the floor. The look on his face said it all, and I can’t say I blamed him. This was almost certainly a job for the RSPCA, not paranormal specialists, but the householder had been adamant that he wanted us to remove the cat that had taken to visiting his house and, in his words, ‘creeping him out.’
“I thought black cats were meant to be lucky,” Dennis murmured, eyeing the creature warily.
“Mr Dean claims this one isn’t.”
Since the cat had started appearing, Mr Dean claimed that it had tripped him up and he’d fallen down the stairs, fracturing his wrist, on another occasion he said it had got into his bedroom and sat on his face, trying to smother him in his sleep, or so he thought. On top of that, both his computer and his laptop had suffered catastrophic failures – no pun intended – and his girlfriend had dumped him. Having spent some time being harangued on the phone by Brendan Dean when he had tried to haggle over the costs, I can’t say I blamed her, but he’d been adamant. The cat had to go, then afterwards he wanted a full cleansing ritual performed on the house and a set of bomb-proof wards. And he wanted the whole lot at a knock-down price.
The animal had really got him spooked. He’d wittered on with a host of other complaints about it as well and had claimed no one in his street had any idea where the cat had come from or who owned it. Looking at the creature – all glossy fur and sleek lines – it certainly didn’t look like a stray. The cat stretched out a long hind-leg and started to groom itself, unconcerned about our presence.
Despite the almost universally accepted view that black cats were lucky, tradition actually runs pretty contrary on the subjec, and it wasn’t unusual for us to be called in, generally in country areas to ward houses against entry by cats, and sometimes dogs, after a death in the family, especially if the deceased was going to be there in their coffin the night before the funeral, during a traditional laying in. A lot of people still didn’t want to take the chance of a cat jumping over the corpse and so putting the soul of the deceased at risk. At risk of what, I was never quite clear, but logic and superstition didn’t exactly go hand in hand. If they did, Dennis and I would have a much lighter workload.
“Is this a good time to mention I’m allergic to cats?” Dennis muttered.
I grinned at him unsympathetically. “I don’t remember that on your CV.”
“You’ve never seen my CV,” he pointed out with perfect truth.
He was right, I hadn’t. I’d taken him on as my Apprentice six months ago at the annual Guild Hiring Fair, when I’d been under instruction to do my civic duty or run the risk of my Licence being suspended. As usual, I hadn’t done much in the way of homework on any of the prospective candidates, and had ended up with Dennis more or less by accident. But, as he’d helped save my life on at least two occasions since, I didn’t think I’d made a bad judgement call that day, CV or no CV.
Dennis stared at the cat without liking, which struck me as odd. I’d seen him work with animals on several occasions and he’d always given the impression of someone who had a genuine empathy with them, which was useful in our line of work, but something about the black cat had clearly got him spooked.
Large green eyes regarded both of us calmly and then the cat shifted position slightly and started grooming its other hind leg. A set of long, white claws extended for a moment from black velvet sheaths before retracting again. Maybe Dennis was right to be wary. Those claws could do a lot of damage, and the cat wasn’t exactly small, either. I began to wonder if we’d brought a big enough carrying box.
“Bri…” There was no mistaking the note of warning in Dennis’s voice.
I blinked sharply. The cat stared at me, its green eyes glittering with malice. I was halfway through a Spell of Protection when it slammed into my chest, claws outstretched, slashing for my face. Dennis was faster than me, knocking me sideways and grabbing at it with both hands, flinging it off me so that it slid across the dining room table, those same claws leaving deep furrows in the smooth oak finish.
Mr Dean had been right and just because I’d taken an instant dislike to the bloke on the phone I’d gone into this job with the wrong attitude and bloody nearly lost an eye in the process.
A moment later, we were both backed against one wall, throwing up whatever we could muster by way of Protection. Whatever we were facing, it wasn’t a cat. It had now expanded to something twice its previous size and looked more like a giant rat than a cat. A thin, hairless tail lashed from side to side and its lips were drawn back in a snarl to display a set of yellowing fangs.
“Cover me!” I told Dennis, trusting to his ability to hold the Ward I’d hastily thrown up, while I mustered a workable Banishment Charm. Whatever it was had caught the pair of us in a strong Glamour the minute we’d walked in, Dennis less so than me, but only marginally. He’d been edgy since we’d left the office and, with hindsight, I suspected his precognitive abilities had kicked in, but neither of us had picked up on the signs.
I made the sign to avert evil with my right hand and chucked the Charm at the creature with as much force as I could muster. It chattered angrily and shrank to at least half of its previous size. That was a good start. I pressed my advantage with something stronger, resisting the temptation to use fire against it. Not here, surrounded by way too many things that would quickly turn the whole house into a messy insurance claim. I’d just have to stick to more conventional methods. I bent down and pulled out the iron knife from my leg sheath. It was a moot point whether that particular knife came under the dispensation for legitimate tools of the trade, but I’d got away with it so far. I reversed my grip, taking hold of the blade and throwing it hard at the creature. When it came to throwing things, Dennis could leave me standing, but he had his hands full – metaphorically speaking – keeping the wards up, and even I couldn’t miss at this distance. Or at least I hoped I couldn’t.
The rat-thing abruptly shrank again and the knife ripped a deep gouge in Mr Dean’s expensive wallpaper. So much for my abilities. I took a deep breath, spread the fingers of both hands and let myself reconnect with the Wards.
“You’d better show me how it’s done,” I told Dennis, as I took over control of our defences.
We needed to take this bugger down before it got out of the house and disappeared. I wasn’t sure what it was, apart from nasty, and I didn’t want anyone else to find out the hard way.
My Apprentice dug his hand into one of many pockets and pulled out a small but powerful catapult. It was better in confined spaces than his slingshot, but he was equally deadly with either. He put a stainless steel ball bearing in the thick elastic, drew it back and let fly. The first one took the creature in the body before it could do its shrinking act and a second projectile followed the first only seconds later, this time striking bone with an audible crack.
The cat – rat – or whatever the hell it was, abruptly disappeared. The second ball bearing had been a killing stroke and in death, the creature had returned beyond the Veil.
I still had no idea what we’d been facing, and I wasn’t looking forward to explaining the damage to his dining room table and wallpaper to Mr Brendan Dean, but the warm rush of adrenalin eclipsed that for the moment as Dennis and I grinned at each other and went to retrieve our weapons.
And the next time my Apprentice told me he was allergic to something I wouldn’t be quite so quick to take the piss.
Author : fredbassett
Original Fic : Otherworld Investigations Series
Rating : 15
Characters : Briana Wakelin, Dennis Smith
Copyright Notice : These characters are mine, all mine.
Spoilers : None
Summary : Written for the original fic challenge, Tooth and Claw
A/N : I am aiming to write a series of drabbles or ficlets set in my original fic ‘verse for weekly prompts. I’m trying for ficlets this month to see if I can extend my word count in this ‘verse a bit.
The black cat stared at us with an expression that could best be described as inscrutable.
I knew better than to engage in a staring match with a cat so I looked around the room, checking how many ways in and out we had to contend with.
The patio doors were closed, so were the windows. There was a serving hatch from the kitchen through to the room we were in, so I shut it.
“OK, close the door as well,” I told my Apprentice.
Dennis did as he was told, then set the large cat box down on the floor. The look on his face said it all, and I can’t say I blamed him. This was almost certainly a job for the RSPCA, not paranormal specialists, but the householder had been adamant that he wanted us to remove the cat that had taken to visiting his house and, in his words, ‘creeping him out.’
“I thought black cats were meant to be lucky,” Dennis murmured, eyeing the creature warily.
“Mr Dean claims this one isn’t.”
Since the cat had started appearing, Mr Dean claimed that it had tripped him up and he’d fallen down the stairs, fracturing his wrist, on another occasion he said it had got into his bedroom and sat on his face, trying to smother him in his sleep, or so he thought. On top of that, both his computer and his laptop had suffered catastrophic failures – no pun intended – and his girlfriend had dumped him. Having spent some time being harangued on the phone by Brendan Dean when he had tried to haggle over the costs, I can’t say I blamed her, but he’d been adamant. The cat had to go, then afterwards he wanted a full cleansing ritual performed on the house and a set of bomb-proof wards. And he wanted the whole lot at a knock-down price.
The animal had really got him spooked. He’d wittered on with a host of other complaints about it as well and had claimed no one in his street had any idea where the cat had come from or who owned it. Looking at the creature – all glossy fur and sleek lines – it certainly didn’t look like a stray. The cat stretched out a long hind-leg and started to groom itself, unconcerned about our presence.
Despite the almost universally accepted view that black cats were lucky, tradition actually runs pretty contrary on the subjec, and it wasn’t unusual for us to be called in, generally in country areas to ward houses against entry by cats, and sometimes dogs, after a death in the family, especially if the deceased was going to be there in their coffin the night before the funeral, during a traditional laying in. A lot of people still didn’t want to take the chance of a cat jumping over the corpse and so putting the soul of the deceased at risk. At risk of what, I was never quite clear, but logic and superstition didn’t exactly go hand in hand. If they did, Dennis and I would have a much lighter workload.
“Is this a good time to mention I’m allergic to cats?” Dennis muttered.
I grinned at him unsympathetically. “I don’t remember that on your CV.”
“You’ve never seen my CV,” he pointed out with perfect truth.
He was right, I hadn’t. I’d taken him on as my Apprentice six months ago at the annual Guild Hiring Fair, when I’d been under instruction to do my civic duty or run the risk of my Licence being suspended. As usual, I hadn’t done much in the way of homework on any of the prospective candidates, and had ended up with Dennis more or less by accident. But, as he’d helped save my life on at least two occasions since, I didn’t think I’d made a bad judgement call that day, CV or no CV.
Dennis stared at the cat without liking, which struck me as odd. I’d seen him work with animals on several occasions and he’d always given the impression of someone who had a genuine empathy with them, which was useful in our line of work, but something about the black cat had clearly got him spooked.
Large green eyes regarded both of us calmly and then the cat shifted position slightly and started grooming its other hind leg. A set of long, white claws extended for a moment from black velvet sheaths before retracting again. Maybe Dennis was right to be wary. Those claws could do a lot of damage, and the cat wasn’t exactly small, either. I began to wonder if we’d brought a big enough carrying box.
“Bri…” There was no mistaking the note of warning in Dennis’s voice.
I blinked sharply. The cat stared at me, its green eyes glittering with malice. I was halfway through a Spell of Protection when it slammed into my chest, claws outstretched, slashing for my face. Dennis was faster than me, knocking me sideways and grabbing at it with both hands, flinging it off me so that it slid across the dining room table, those same claws leaving deep furrows in the smooth oak finish.
Mr Dean had been right and just because I’d taken an instant dislike to the bloke on the phone I’d gone into this job with the wrong attitude and bloody nearly lost an eye in the process.
A moment later, we were both backed against one wall, throwing up whatever we could muster by way of Protection. Whatever we were facing, it wasn’t a cat. It had now expanded to something twice its previous size and looked more like a giant rat than a cat. A thin, hairless tail lashed from side to side and its lips were drawn back in a snarl to display a set of yellowing fangs.
“Cover me!” I told Dennis, trusting to his ability to hold the Ward I’d hastily thrown up, while I mustered a workable Banishment Charm. Whatever it was had caught the pair of us in a strong Glamour the minute we’d walked in, Dennis less so than me, but only marginally. He’d been edgy since we’d left the office and, with hindsight, I suspected his precognitive abilities had kicked in, but neither of us had picked up on the signs.
I made the sign to avert evil with my right hand and chucked the Charm at the creature with as much force as I could muster. It chattered angrily and shrank to at least half of its previous size. That was a good start. I pressed my advantage with something stronger, resisting the temptation to use fire against it. Not here, surrounded by way too many things that would quickly turn the whole house into a messy insurance claim. I’d just have to stick to more conventional methods. I bent down and pulled out the iron knife from my leg sheath. It was a moot point whether that particular knife came under the dispensation for legitimate tools of the trade, but I’d got away with it so far. I reversed my grip, taking hold of the blade and throwing it hard at the creature. When it came to throwing things, Dennis could leave me standing, but he had his hands full – metaphorically speaking – keeping the wards up, and even I couldn’t miss at this distance. Or at least I hoped I couldn’t.
The rat-thing abruptly shrank again and the knife ripped a deep gouge in Mr Dean’s expensive wallpaper. So much for my abilities. I took a deep breath, spread the fingers of both hands and let myself reconnect with the Wards.
“You’d better show me how it’s done,” I told Dennis, as I took over control of our defences.
We needed to take this bugger down before it got out of the house and disappeared. I wasn’t sure what it was, apart from nasty, and I didn’t want anyone else to find out the hard way.
My Apprentice dug his hand into one of many pockets and pulled out a small but powerful catapult. It was better in confined spaces than his slingshot, but he was equally deadly with either. He put a stainless steel ball bearing in the thick elastic, drew it back and let fly. The first one took the creature in the body before it could do its shrinking act and a second projectile followed the first only seconds later, this time striking bone with an audible crack.
The cat – rat – or whatever the hell it was, abruptly disappeared. The second ball bearing had been a killing stroke and in death, the creature had returned beyond the Veil.
I still had no idea what we’d been facing, and I wasn’t looking forward to explaining the damage to his dining room table and wallpaper to Mr Brendan Dean, but the warm rush of adrenalin eclipsed that for the moment as Dennis and I grinned at each other and went to retrieve our weapons.
And the next time my Apprentice told me he was allergic to something I wouldn’t be quite so quick to take the piss.
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no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 03:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 05:51 pm (UTC)I like the look at Briana's day to day work, though I am curious as to what the shapeshifter is *g*
no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 05:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 08:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 09:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 09:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 09:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 01:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 08:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-19 11:07 am (UTC)LOL at the damage they caused and all the charms they had to throw at the 'cat' *G*
no subject
Date: 2011-05-06 09:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-06 09:29 pm (UTC)