Landslayer's Law Read Online Free

cluttered cubby walled on two sides by shelves bearing an assortment of spare-stock magazines and newspapers, as well as several boxes of returned publications sporting such evocative titles as Busty, Manshots, and Shaved Orientals.
    “So what’s the deal?” he demanded, even as Alec plopped the cage on the relatively uncluttered surface of the owner’s desk and fumbled with the latch. Then: “Hey, you’re not gonna let that loose in here, are you?”
    “No choice,” Alec countered, as wired as Scott had ever seen him. Evidently the occupant of the cage was clawing him through the barred front, thereby complicating its own release. A release it apparently craved in no uncertain terms, to judge by the screeches and very unfeline whistles issuing from within, which sounded like a bobcat trying to mate with a bagpipe and a flute.
    “Thank God!” Alec sighed, as the door finally opened.
    “You may thank me instead,” Scott shot back, then, in spite of the fact he’d seen it numerous times before, gaped at what had just stepped onto Midge Lee’s green felt desk pad.
    Not a cat—entirely—at the moment. Or more precisely, it seemed to have begun as your basic orange tabby—the head had clearly been short-muzzled and green-eyed when it emerged. But already the nose was growing longer, the fur assuming a ruddy tinge, the eyes shifting to yellow-gold. And the forelegs—well, they’d started out standard old Felis domesticus issue: round, soft, and furry; only now they were bare and scaled from the elbow joint down (and feathered for another joint above it), ending in what closely resembled the claws of a good-sized raptor. An eagle perhaps, or something more exotic, like an African secretary bird.
    As for the tail (which had now joined the rest of the beast in the cold electric light of not-quite-day), it was exactly like that of a small red fox—as indeed (save the front limbs), was everything else.
    Scott exhaled a breath he didn’t recall holding, and as if on cue, so did his accomplices. “Well,” he began preemptorially, “which of you lads would like to explain why you felt compelled to bring the fuckin’ enfield in here, right at shape-shiftin’ time?”
    “Not ‘the fucking enfield,’” Alec corrected. “ Aife, since that’s her name. And we brought her here because—well, basically, we had no choice.”
    “Would you like to explain ?” Scott repeated, leaning back with his arms folded expectantly.
    “Shouldn’t have to,” Aikin grumbled from the corner.
    “You don’t have to explain the critter,” Scott conceded wearily. “I’ve seen it a time or two, even in that shape. What I wanta know is how two bright lads like you happen to be luggin’ a patently magical animal around downtown Athens, when you know the damned thing changes from Aife-the-housecat back to its enfield secret identity at dusk and dawn. I still don’t understand that,” he added. “Why it has to change, I mean.”
    “Don’t ask me !”Alec spat. “That was Mr. Lugh’s bright idea!”
    “It has to do with keepin’ brain patterns imprinted, or something,” Aikin supplied. “And with keepin’ McLean on his toes by remindin’ him this is a magical beast he’s got custody of.”
    “ Don’t remind me,” Alec groaned. “Doesn’t help that she’s also my girlfriend.”
    “ Was your girlfriend,” Aikin amended. “Lover, anyway.”
    Alec bared his teeth and shot Aikin a warning look which took even Scott (who knew how wimpy Alec usually was) aback.
    “Sorry,” Aikin grunted. “As to what we’re doin’ here—uh, actually, it was an accident.”
    “A stupid accident, okay?” Alec admitted. “See, Aik’s been bugging me forever to let him do some before-and-after X-rays of our furry friend here”—he patted the now complacent enfield encouragingly—”so anyway, a bud of his who’s in vet school finally found a slot when he could zap her with the nukes off the record, and—”
    “You told