BY: Crystal
Disclaimer: The things, characters, and ideas in this story are not mine, they belong to and are by Laurell K. Hamilton, or The Berkley Publishing Group. Plus, there are ideas from J.K. Rowling and Jim Butcher that do not belong to me, either. This is a parody and is only written for entertainment until the next book comes out. I'm not making any money of this at all. Rating: Some bad words.
The Lambert-St. Louis International airport was packed when I got
off the plane. To me, it looked as if everyone in St. Louis was going
somewhere. It was warmer here than in London for mid-July. I had to
remove my duster because it was so hot.
My name is Colter Gravits ,and I work for the Wizards Council. They had sent
me here to stop the Lady Vesamis's evil plot. I didn't know why they picked me, because
being a minor mage, my power was not as good as the Aurors�. From what
I understand, and by the letter the high elders gave me, Vesamis was
the granddaughter of Ladner. She was finishing up where her
grandfather had left off, planning on taking over the lycanthropes,
forcing them to serve her in the grand army of the night. She had come
together with the rogue humans that the International Government
were still looking for. They had been involved with another dark lord, but
he had been killed when he had tried to kill the youngest of the Aurors.
The Auror had been sent to the mage's hospital and was still in a coma when
I left London. Apparently, Vesamis got a hold of some of Glow-worm's
hair, �cause she'd been going around making people believe she was the
real Alexandra Jane McGregar Montgomery. I was to undo her plot and expose her for what she
really was. Vesamis was using a polyjuice potion to keep Montgomery's
form.
I headed toward the nearest restroom to check my clothes and
hair, just to make sure I looked presentable. I didn't have to go get
my luggage, �cause everything that belonged to me was in the big duffel
bag swinging from my shoulder. I threw the bag onto the sink counter
as I checked my appearance in the mirror. My hair was black and long;
it went past my shoulders. The black strands were pulled back into a
ponytail. My eyes were green, and my skin was tan. At six feet, I
weighed over 160 pounds, but it was all muscle. My face was an oval,
with high cheekbones and a few lines around my eyes. The suit I had
picked out made me look older than my 33 years, but it was the only
one I had. It was a grey suit with a white stiff-collared shirt. The
tie was also grey, and my loafers were a shiny black.
After going over my image for the third time, I grabbed my bag and headed
out the door, back to the main lobby of the airport.
I had an appointment at ten o'clock this morning with Anita Blake. The
high elders had made the appointment with her boss, saying that they were
sending someone to St. Louis to get an old member of the council
raised, to find out where he placed some of the old ancient scrolls he
had been trying to translate. She was sending one of her people to pick me
up at the airport. So, I had to be on the look out for a male that was
5ft 3in with dark rich brown hair. The council told me that his name
was Micah Callahan.
Glancing out among the crowd, trying to find the
man I was looking for, I noticed a guy that fit the description
standing at the receptionist's counter. Walking over to the desk to
stand beside him, I waited for him to finish asking the lady behind the
lectern his question. When he was finished, I tapped him on the
shoulder. He turned to glance at me, and I got a better look at him. He
was slender in a muscular way, with a triangular face, almost too
delicate for a man's features. His nose was perfect, while his mouth
was wide, with a bottom lip that was full in a sensual face. He almost
looked feminine, and it freaked me out, that Ms. Blake lost her heart
to a girly man. But what really scared me to death were his eyes. His
eyes were what made his face, because they were the eyes of a great
cat.
Then a thought hit me: this man was no ordinary guy, but a
were-leopard. I never had been scared of lycanthropes until after
seeing my best friend Charles killed by a bunch of rogue
lycanthropes. Since then I'd tried to avoid them due to safety
reasons. I got my courage up and asked, "Are you Micah Callahan?"
"Yes, who wants to know?" he asked.
"Hi, I'm Colter Gravits. I believe you are to be my escort to Ms.
Blake's office this morning," I informed him, while holding out my
hand in a shake position.
He glanced at me from head to toe with a serious look in his eyes. It
was one of those glares that said, �If you make one wrong move, I'll
tear you apart'. Then without warning he grabbed my hand and shook
it. "Nice to meet you Mr. Gravits. Well, we had better get going.
Anita doesn't like to be kept waiting for her appointments," he said.
"I'm sure she doesn't," I replied with a smile.
He began walking to the doors and over his shoulder he asked, "Do you
need to pick up any other bags at the baggage carrier?"
I shook my head and answered, while patting my bag, "Nope, just got
this one bag. I like to travel light."
He glanced at me and shook his head in understanding, then continued
toward the entrance doors. I followed, trying to keep up with his fast
steps, trying not to fall over my own two feet in the process. We
exited the building and walked out into the morning sun. The parking
lot was crowded, and there wasn't an available parking space anywhere.
Micah headed to the left and down three rows of cars. He came to a
stop in front of a vine colored mini-van, unlocking the locks with an
automatic lock from his keychain. I moved around to the passenger's
side and got in. He had started the engine as I pulled my seat belt
over to snap it into place.
We pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward the I-70 east bound
from Edmindson. I rode with the window down, trying to keep from throwing
up. I got carsick very easily, and sometimes it was so bad that I refused to get into another
vehicle for weeks. Mr. Callahan kept looking at me with an amused
smirk on his face. I bet you he found my distress funny and was
enjoying every minute of it. Five minutes later we turned onto I-170
going south bound to Olivette. Twenty minutes later, he pulled onto an
off ramp that went right onto route 340 and left onto Olive Blvd.
Micah made the left turn onto Olive Blvd. He continued down the road
and past Olivette, going toward University City. Two minutes later,
Micah pulled into a parking lot that housed a huge office building on
the left hand side of the road. He pulled into a parking space in front of
a multi-layer building. It was a few stories high, but no too tall.
Micah cut the engine and got out of the van. I followed him walking toward
the double-doors of thebuilding. Once inside I discovered a small lobby
that was painted white, with nature paintings hanging all over the walls and a security
guard's desk. There was a directory to my right beside a set of
elevator doors. Micah punched the button for the elevator and it
slowly came down to stop on the main floor. The doors opened, we got
in, and took it to the third floor. We entered a hallway that went
straight back with offices going down either side of the floor. As I
walked by I noticed that there was a plastic surgeon, two lawyers, one
marriage counselor, a real estate company, and, across the hall from
Animators Inc,. stood a psychologist�s office.
If you asked me, this was a strange place for a company that raised
the dead for a living to be located. I followed Micah in through the
door of Animators Inc. and stopped in my tracks. It looked like a
jungle in there. The office was set up like a doctor's office, with a waist
high desk that was surrounded by a counter for the
receptionist, while the rest of the room was the lobby part that went
around to meet three doors: one on the left, one on the right, and one
beside the receptionist's work space. The walls were done in a pale,
pale green with small oriental designs done in green and browns. The
carpet was thick and done in a soft green, while plants hung
everywhere. There was a potted plant known as the Ficus Benjium
growing by the right of the door, wrapping its leaves around the legs
of a chair. There was a second plant in the far corner, with smaller
plants taking up the rest of the corners.
I glanced over to the desk to see Mr. Callahan talking to an elderly lady,
before coming back over to sit down in the chair by the door. He looked at me and said,
"You might want to have a seat. Anita's going to be awhile. Seems
she's got another client ahead of you."
With that he said no more and I took a seat in the only other chair available
in the lobby. I waited for almost an hour before her office door came open
and the client she was with came out. The receptionist nodded her head at
me and I got up to go into the office of Anita Blake Vampire Hunter and Executioner.
God help me this was going to be one bumpy meeting. I put my hand on
the knob and said to myself, �Well, here goes nothing' and entered the
room.