03 - You Only Live Nine Times (21 page)

Plans were put on hold though, as Leslie walked into the room grinning only to let out a high-pitch shriek.  “Igor!  What are you doing?  Thtop!”

“No,” grunted the bear.  “Mark not love Leslie.  Mark not live.”

She scurried over to him and pulled at his arm.  He abruptly pulled back and sent her flying across the room.  He howled as he saw what he had done to her and ran to her, knocking over Isis in the process.

“Leslie…” he whined.

“Isis!” cried Raf.  He relaxed when she nodded that she was okay.

Leslie moaned and rubbed her head.  Igor reached a brawny hand to her face, and she whimpered and ducked away from him.  Then Raf and Isis witnessed first-hand something that no one else in the world knew – Igor Kazinsky was actually capable of crying.  Tears rolled down his cheeks as Leslie quivered in fear before him.

“Igor love Leslie.  Igor not hurt Leslie.  Leslie not cry.”

She hiccupped and gaped at him in shock.  “What do you mean, Igor?”

“Seriously?  You didn’t understand what he meant; he talked so slowly all of us got it.” 

A triumphant Isis stood over them training Raf’s gun on the two of them.  After been knocked to the ground, she had found a better angle to slice through her ropes.  While attention was drawn to Igor and Leslie, she had managed to sneak up on them with her natural feline grace and had swiped the gun out of the back of Igor’s jeans.

Igor snarled, and Isis growled in return.  “Not one move, ginormo, or I start shooting.”  He huffed but then froze as the gun wavered towards Leslie.  “You might be able to walk away from a bullet wound, but I doubt your girlfriend can.”

Raf worried Igor was about to lunge; he doubted there were enough bullets in the gun to even make a dent in the undead bear.  But Igor softened as Leslie curled her hand around his.  “Don’t,” she whispered. 
And holy hell, he actually listened!
  He sunk back down to the floor and was sitting next to Leslie as quiet as a church mouse.

Isis waited a few beats, just to check he wasn’t going to do anything, before moving back and slicing through Raf’s ropes.  Raf jumped up from the table, and they hugged, although Isis didn’t remove her focus from their now apprehended grave robbers.

“I love you,” Raf breathed.

“I love you, too,” murmured Isis.

His heart beat ferociously, and the love, the connection between them seemed almost palpable.

Not wanting to miss out, Igor decided to press his suit again.  “Igor love Leslie.”

She stared at him with her huge eyes.  “But why?”

The question seemed to stump him, and he fell silent with a grumpy frown on his face.

“How could you do thith to Mark?” she asked, oddly more curious than sorrowful.

“Leslie,” said Raf, gently.  “That guy Mark didn’t love you.”

Leslie looked confused for a second, before shaking her head obstinately.  “No, we were meant to be together.  I’m thure of it.”

Igor let out a moan like a dying animal and Isis snapped at him to pull himself together.  “Look Leslie.  Mark was a tool.  He got killed because he was banging someone else’s wife.  Your lawyer paid him money to stay away from you and not take out a restraining order against you.  Okay?  He didn’t want anything to do with you.  You just thought he did because you’re crazy beans, and you haven’t been taking your medication.  And as for this whole bringing people back to life thing – it’s incredibly dumbass crazy.”

Her burly bear protector let out an affronted roar, but Leslie kept her hand on his.  She closed her eyes, digesting Isis’ words.

“Geez, have you ever thought about being a therapist?” teased Raf as his finger slid down her back.  He should probably find her some clothes to wear.  But she didn’t seem in the least embarrassed by her nudity, and nobody else in the room seemed to notice.  Maybe he should just enjoy it for a little while longer.

“Nah, too much talk about feelings.  I’ve only had two jobs.  This one and before that I was a lifeguard.  I still have the red costume and everything.”

“Really?”  Oh, that stirred something in him.  “Maybe one day you can run down a beach for me slowly?”

“Only if you ask me nicely.”

Leslie let out a long breath and opened her eyes.  “You’re right.  We were never… he wathn’t… I jutht thought… you’re right.”

Isis tapped her foot.  “Glad that’s cleared up.”

The doctor rubbed her forehead.  “I’m thorry for what I did, Igor.  Killing you and then bringing you back to life.  The tiger’th right, that wath dumbath crazy.”

The bear clasped her hand.  “No.  Igor was bad man.  You killed bad man.  Igor better now.  Igor love you.”

Tears poured out of her wide eyes.  “You do?” 
Hell, she actually looked flattered by his admission
.

“Igor love Leslie.  Leslie is… lovable.”

“Oh, Igor!”  She threw herself at the huge bear; her tiny body was enveloped by his giant arms and they began kissing.

“Ugh!” exclaimed Isis.  “So sick and wrong!”

Raf turned her face away from him.  He figured they wouldn’t be going anywhere.  Instead, he focused on pressing kisses into Isis’ hair.  “You okay?” he murmured, running his hands over her, checking for injury again. 
Hey, another might have popped up since his first check
.

“Fuck no!  This whole thing is so fucking weird!  I can never un-see this.”  She cringed at she caught sight of Igor and Leslie kissing and cuddling.

He chuckled as he clutched her body a little tighter.  “Yeah, can’t argue there.  I love you, though.”

“Yeah, me, too.”

And just to make the day complete, the SEA tactical team chose that moment to burst into the lab.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“You and a human?”  Avery smirked and handed her a t-shirt.

Isis snatched it and pulled it over her head as Ms. Kitty harrumphed at the lioness.  “So what?  Hmmm, this t-shirt feels a little loose.  Someone been hitting Happy Heart Donuts a little too hard?”  She fluttered her eyelashes at the lioness.

They were back at the SEA offices.  The SEA tactical team, led by a particularly brusque arctic wolf shifter called Lake and Smith, the tiger shifter who gave Isis a very wide berth while pretending he wasn’t covering his crotch, arrested Leslie and Igor.  They brought the couple back to the SEA to work out just what the heck was going on.  Of course, when Isis was hurrying to Leslie’s house she called for backup.  She didn’t wait for backup to arrive; her honey was in trouble and time was of the essence.  But she called for it. 
Hey, she was cocky, but she didn’t think she was invincible.

Leslie unsurprisingly confessed to everything.  Shooting Igor, reanimating him, stealing Mark’s body, trying to reanimate him, stealing more body parts, and trying to reanimate Mark again before finally technically taking Raf and Isis hostage.  Igor wouldn’t talk except to say ‘Igor want Leslie’. 
He was an undead bear with a one-track mind.

They found the remaining body parts – the parts she didn’t use - in Leslie’s freezer.  She said she was keeping them in case she needed them.  That made everyone shudder.  She had Igor dispose of the human arms, though because she didn’t need them again.

There wasn’t much for Leslie to confess about her crimes.  She admitted that she used a special perfume – her own concoction – to try and hide their scents at the graveyards.  She didn’t want anyone catching onto them too quickly.  But she lamented the fact that she lost her work locker key while trying to maneuver a particularly large corpse. 
Lamented because she’d left a banana in the locker it was sure to have gone nasty by now
.  She told them that after she had revived Mark, she had arranged for them to leave the country.  Then she was planning on writing a letter to the LLPD confessing her crimes and also providing money to cover the damage they had caused to the cemeteries, as well as tidy sums to give to the families of the corpses.  It was going to be an apology for digging up their dead loved ones.  She was still planning on doing that to make up for any emotional distress she caused.
  As Leslie said, she was crazy, but she wasn’t rude.

Other than stealing bodies, the duo hadn’t really hurt anyone.  Well, apart from Igor himself who Leslie did actually murder.  But it was plain to see –
due to his howling declarations of love
– that he bore her no ill will on the subject and when finally prodded into talking, refused to admit it was Leslie who shot him.  Isis grudgingly admitted that they weren’t planning on killing or even hurting her or Raf, and the only bruises she sustained were from when she stormed into Leslie’s house, shifted to her tiger and attacked Igor.  Yes, she had been the one to make the first bite.  Not that it did her much good; the guy was strong even for a freaking bear.  Perhaps he’d become stronger in death.  Stranger things had happened.  Or had they?
The jury was still out on that.

At that moment, the director was pondering what to do about Leslie and Igor while Isis was borrowing some of Avery’s lion-sized clothes. 
Big, butted lioness.
  Isis had borrowed Raf’s t-shirt for as long as she could stand seeing other females eyeing her man’s naked chest appreciatively.  Finally, her need to keep the bitches’ lusty eyes in their heads was enough to outweigh how much she enjoyed being enveloped in her mate’s scent and had begged some clothes from Avery.  She really needed to keep more clothes at the office.

And yes, her
mate
.  She admitted it – freely.  They may not share a bond yet, but he was hers and watch out any female who tried to take him.  Ms. Kitty was eager for a little claw action.

Avery shook her head, completely ignoring the jibe about her getting fat. 
It was a thing they did.
  “Nothing, I like him.”  Isis growled unhappily at that.  “It’s just I thought you said humans were weak, that they weren’t up to the job of being shifters’ mates.  You hate humans.”

“No, I don’t,” frowned Isis.  “I’m half human.”

Avery almost swallowed her tongue in surprise.  “You’re half human?!”

“Yeah, didn’t you know?”  Isis pulled on a pair of pants, making a show of how baggy they were in the hips, causing Avery to snap that they were supposed to be baggy - that was the style.

“And no, I had no idea about you being half-human.”

“Huh, I’m sure I mentioned it.”

“Un-freaking-believable,” Avery muttered to herself as she walked out the locker room, almost tripping over Raf, who was standing outside waiting for Isis to reappear.  Avery beamed at him as she walked past him.  Stupid lioness. 
Grrrr
.

Finally ready, Isis joined him, and they walked together to the elevator, hands entwined.  She sneered at anyone who dared show surprise at her behaving so lovey-dovey.  They’re just jealous, sniffed Ms. Kitty.

“Well this was all a bit anti-climactic,” complained Isis.

Raf quirked an eyebrow at her.  “Really?  We caught two grave robbers, solved our case, stopped a woman from reanimating a corpse and solved the mystery of a missing, dead Russian bear shifter gangster.  Not exciting enough for you?”

“It’s just usually my cases end with a shoot-out, or a fist fight or a high-speed chase.  They don’t usually end with my perps declaring their undying love and slobbering over one another.” 
Images that would haunt her worse than her mother.

“What do you think will happen to them?” pondered Raf.

“From talking to the director, I think the worst for Leslie will be another spell in the nut house.”

“You’re so sensitive,” he commented, sarcastically, but not meanly.

She carried on, unperturbed.  “I doubt it though.  She seems quite rational at the moment.  I reckon as long as she takes her meds, she’ll be okay out in the real world.  Although, I already asked Lake from tactical to confiscate all her antique guns – we don’t want any more of those hanging around her house.  Last time she got the urge to use one she ended up with an undead boyfriend.  I wouldn’t wish that to happen to her a second time.  As for Igor, I’m not sure.  Prison might not be the safest place for him.”

“You think other prisoners might attack him?”

“Given who he was, yes, but that’s not what I meant.”  No, he wouldn’t have any problems beating off other attackers; he was built sturdier than a mountain.  “He’s not the same person anymore.  Being locked up might freak him out.  No matter what Leslie says, his mind isn’t what it used to be.”

“Not exactly a bad thing considering how he used to behave.”

“True, but locking him away from his beloved nerdlinger doctor might send him bananas.  I mean, even more than he already is.” 
He was already pretty cuckoo.

“Are you saying you think we should just let him go?”

“Oh, no!  Hell no!  Nobody wants him on the loose.  I was thinking of house arrest or something.  Keeping him off the streets, but also away from too many strangers.”

Raf kissed her nose, and she blushed from the tip of her freshly kissed nose to her simpering tigress, while simultaneously managing to glare at a passing penguin shifter who was paying them just a bit too much attention.  “What was that for?”

“For being compassionate towards them.  It would be easy just to dismiss them and send them to jail, but you’re being… kind.”

“It’s not that big of a surprise!” she spluttered. 
Jeez, anyone would think she ran around trying to cancel Christmas.

“No, it’s not, you’re sweeter than you want people to know.  Just another reason I love you, and why you’re wonderful.”

Isis and her tiger preened at the compliment.  But she did feel a need to undercut the sugariness.  “You do realize that you’re the woman in our relationship, right?”

“Just as long as you don’t introduce me as your bitch, I’m fine with that.  But I do have a confession to make.”  He slid his arms around her waist.

“Yeah, me, too,” she admitted with a nervous laugh.  “You first.”

Raf hung his head.  “In high school, I wasn’t just in the chess club.  I was also in sci-fi club.  We used to go to the conventions.  I always dressed as Dr. Who.”  He peeked a look at her and was alarmed by her stony face. 
Fuck, he was only joking
.  He didn’t really think she’d care that he loved sci-fi. 

“I see.”

“You don’t actually mind, do you?”

“I’ll get over it,” she sighed.  “Of course, given that I am being incredibly understanding of your deep, dark secret, you have absolutely no choice but to accept and understand my secret.”

“Uh, okay,” he said, slightly baffled.

“My dead mom was psychic and that means I can see my dead mom’s ghost and she’s haunting my apartment.  She’s the chill you felt when you were there - she walked right through you.  She doesn’t plan on going anywhere, so it looks like she’s going to haunt both of us.  Plus if we ever do have kids – which I’m not sold on and we may not be able to have anyway – most likely they’ll be able to see her, too.”

“Wha…?”

“Oh, it feels good to share!”