Hilary and the Beasts, Part 51

That was when they all heard the pounding on the door. “Open up, buddy! We know you’re in there!”

Mackie’s eyes widened. “Tell ‘em we’re not at home! We moved to Jamaica! We…”

Suddenly, the door slammed open, revealing six men in black sweaters and caps, all of them mean, ugly, and twice the size of Bear. “I surrender!” Mackie immediately threw up his hands. “Take whatever you want! Take the silverware! Take the china! Take me! Just don’t hurt us!”

Hilary groaned as she raised her hands. “Dad, please. Calm down.” She turned her glare to the men. “What do you want with us? We’re poor. We have nothing to steal.”

The largest man pulled out a gun. “We don’t want nothin’ but your time. You ain’t goin’ nowhere, sister. We’ve just gotta keep an eye on you until midnight.”

“But why?” Betty clutched the book Bear made her. “Why us? What have we done?”

Maple made a face. “I think I can guess. Someone wants us outta the way, like in those gangster movies Warners is doin’ now.”

“Now, gentlemen.” Hilary tried to reason with them. “You don’t want to hurt us. You just don’t want us to leave.”

“Our boss,” the biggest smirked, “said we could do what we wanted with ya if any of ya stepped out of line.” He aimed his gun at Hilary. “I don’t know about Pops, and that little one in the back is kinda skinny, but the red-head and the chick with all the makeup ain’t bad.” 

Mackie made a face. “Pops?”

“Skinny?” Betty glared at him. “I’m not that thin!”

That was when Hilary heard the distinct sound of a giant eagle’s wings landing gracefully on their front lawn. “Eagle!” Maple grinned. “Ain’t no other bird make a sound that loud!”

Indeed, they saw a yellow beak peer in first, followed by a familiar white head and two whiskey-brown eyes flooded with horror. And then…nothing else moved. He let out a frustrated squawk, but his wings were wedge tightly in the door. 

“Oh, for the love of…” Maple pushed past the dumbfounded goons and grabbed his stuck wing. “Let me help you. Hey, C.J!” She saw her younger brother staring at those massive wings with his mouth dropped open like a fish. “Could ‘ya give me a hand here? He ain’t a little chick no more! And watch his wing, ok? They’re sensitive.”

“Um, yeah. Ok, sis.” C.J grabbed his other wing. “We’ll have you out in no time, uh, sir. On my count, Maple. One and a two and a…”

It took both of them tugging at him together, but they did finally manage to wedge Eagle into the room. He wore his good black silk shirt and trousers again, but Hilary couldn’t help noticing how badly shredded they were. There were tiny bleeding cuts under his feathers, but his beak was set in a grim line, and that frustration had blossomed into pure fury. 

“Oh boy.” One of the goons aimed his gun at Hilary. “Try anything, Feather Duster, and the old dame gets it.”

“Old?” Hilary shrieked. “I am not old! I am…well seasoned! And that “feather duster” has more intelligence in its little claw than all of you morons have in your tiny pea brains! Or have I said too much?”

“Shaddup.” The little fat goon in the barely-fitting black suit shoved a gun at Hilary. “How’d ya like a snoot full of this?”

Furious, Eagle let out a sharp shriek and wildly swung his wing at the man’s gun, knocking it from his hand. Hilary leaped for the gun as C.J tackled another man. Maple hit the third with a pillow. Victor knocked two more men down with his wings, his furious squawks cracking windows and rattling china.

Mackie slammed the smallest on his chin…and reeled back, rubbing his bruised fist and cursing a blue streak. “What the hell Is your fist made of iron?” His eyes widened over the man’s shoulder as Eagle grabbed the smallest man and tossed him out the door. “And what in holy HELL is that? Where did it come from?”

“The mansion.” Maple grabbed Eagle’s wing and dragged him to her father. “Daddy, this is Eagle, my a-fianced. I never loved a guy more. Don’t worry, Daddy, he’s brilliant, and he only hurts people who fight dirty.” 

“Uh, uh, uh…” Mackie gulped, but he did finally reach for Eagle’s wing. “My…er, boy…it’s wonderful to meet you. I think, anyway. Maple, are you sure about this?”

Maple nudged him so hard, he nearly ended up in his chair. “Daddy, you’ll hurt his feelings!” Eagle started to wave his wings again. “He says that someone needs to tie up the jerks, an’ someone else needs to call the cops.” Her eyes widened as his wings swung wider, dropping feathers and slim shards of colored glass everywhere. “And we need to get to the mansion right away? Pavla’s boys are there? Those slimy monsters?” Her eyes widened as Eagle squawked in horror, flapping his wings against himself. “You were the one Mrs. Fox sent to get help?” 

Betty nodded, her eyes wide. “I’ll go get that rope. There’s twine in the kitchen. C.J, why don’t you call the police?”

Eagle had just finished holding the twine with his beak long enough for them to wrap it tightly around the men when C.J came back, his dimpled face grim. “The police are on their way. I called Doug Thompson, too. He said the FBI agents are on their way to the mansion, along with more police. He’ll meet us there, too.”

Maple frowned as Eagle quickly waved his wings around, his squawks now fast and bone-rattlingly loud. “Whoa, boy, down! I can’t understand you when you talk that fast!”

“How can you understand him at all?” Mackie made a face as he sneezed all over the stout knot on the biggest goon. “All he’s doing is waving his wings around!”

“Dad, hush!” Maple waved him away, watching Eagle’s fluttering wings. “Mrs. Fox sent you, because they were all over Troll and Bear, and you were the only one who could get out?” She brushed the remaining slivers of glass off one of the many tiny cuts on his wing. “You ran as fast as you could and flew out a window? That’s why the glass?” He nodded, swinging his wings at the door. “And you want us to go help them.”

“You better believe we’re going to help them!” Hilary roared. She turned to her quaking father. “Dad, the Ford had BETTER be running. We’ll never get a cab at this hour on New Year’s Eve.”

“It’s running.” C.J put an arm around his quaking father. “I was the last one who drove it.” 

“We have to get out there!” Betty’s eyes filled with tears as she drew Bear’s book into her arms. “Hilary, I know who Bear is. I think…I’ve known for a while, but I didn’t want to admit it to myself. He was so different…”

Her older sister sighed. “And I know who Troll is. I think I’ve also known for months, and I also didn’t want to admit it because he's so different now.” She looked up as police sirens were heard. “But that’s water under the bridge. Maple, get Eagle out of here. We don’t need to explain him to the police. Take the back door. It’s wider, anyway.”

Maple nodded and flung her arms around his neck. “Ya hear that, Eagle? We’re gonna go for our last flight.” Even as she rubbed his wing, there was a small burst of black magic. The mahogany feathers under Maple’s hand shrunk slightly, became smaller, less sharp and more…more bird-like. 

Eagle let out a horrified squawk, staring at his shorter wings with whiskey-eyes that now had a hint of feral yellow in them. “Damn it to all hell!” Maple yelped, her brown eyes widening. “I think I know who you are, and what’s goin’ on, too. We’ve gotta get in the air, before there ain’t nothin’ left of ya to ride!” She shoved him out the back door and into Hilary’s garden.

They got Eagle out just in time. Just two minutes after he took off into the crystalline winter night sky, Maple clutching his back, a whole squadron of Pittsburgh’s finest burst through the same doors where the goons had turned up just a half-hour before. Questioning the goons didn’t prove to be very useful. All they could tell them was a pretty lady sent them and promised to pay them good money if they kept the family living in the house from going anywhere before midnight. They weren’t even supposed to harm them, just keep them from escaping. 

The moment they sent the cops off with the goons and promised to give statements in the morning, Hilary bundled her father and remaining siblings into the Ford. Thank heavens the motor turned over and sputtered for a few minutes, but did finally run. Mackie pushed the old rust bucket to its breaking point, doing his best to avoid the many traffic cops and drunk drivers heading to nightspots downtown or their own family parties for their own New Year’s celebrations.

Hilary leaned out the window at several intervals to check on Maple and Eagle. To her horror, he seemed smaller and smaller every time she gazed into the ebony night. It looked like Maple was still hanging on, though, nuzzling his neck and listening to his confused, feral squawks and hisses. 

“Dad!” Betty gasped when they nearly skidded out on a patch of black ice. “Be careful! We don’t want to get there dead!” She clutched Bear’s book for dear life, her knuckles turning as white as the snow on the lawns. 

“Princess,” Mackie’s protest came out as a near-whine, “I’m doing the best I can and still obey the speed limit. The high temperature today was 29. I can’t help it if Pittsburgh doesn’t do its duty and clear the roads!”

“Could we argue about this later?” Hilary pointed as the Ford skidded on Millionaire’s Row. “Dad, it’s at the end. If the gates don’t open, ram them.”

“Hilary!” He protested as he skidded past sprawling homes with enormous turrets and fanciful gingerbread trim. “This is an eighteenth-hand Ford, not a battering ram! If I tried that, we’d be on the ground in two seconds!”

Thank heavens the gate still magically opened for them, no ramming necessary. Everything seemed the same from the outside, but…Hilary still shivered as she stepped onto the porch. The lights were blazing, but no one was around. There wasn’t even the smallest murmur, as there had been when they arrived in January. 

“I don’t think we’re going to get even the semi-warm welcome we received back in January.” Hilary pulled out a gun. “We need to be on our guard.”

Her father’s chocolate brown eyes widened under his round silver spectacles. “Hilary Bloom, where in the hell did you get that? You don’t know how to shoot a gun!”

“I got it off one of the thugs. He won’t need it where he’s going. I wasn’t going to shoot it. I just want it to look good.” She turned to the trio behind her. “You know the plan? C.J, as soon as we get in there, you handle the lights. Betty, Dad, come with me. I saw Maple and Eagle in the sky. They should be here shortly, if they aren’t already here.”

Mackie trembled on the bottom step. “Um, you know, Ginger Snap, I think I left the Ford running, and the oven is still on at home, and I forgot to turn the living room light off. I’ll meet you after all this is over…” 

“Dad!” C.J grabbed his arm. “We’re going to need all the help we can get here!” Betty rolled her eyes and swatted him with the book. “Besides, you turned the Ford off. I saw you take the keys. I turned the living room light off myself, and no one has touched the oven since dinner.” 

It took the three of them to drag Mackie up the stairs and in the front door. Thank goodness it was unlocked. It fact, it jutted open like it had been forced. Jagged holes gaped where the knob and lock had been. Ignoring her unease, Hilary shoved the three of them through the door before following. 

The moment they got in, Hilary directed C.J to the basement, where the light switch was. Mackie looked up, sneezing loudly the moment his son hurried off. “Do you girls hear that? It sounds like…like…”

Betty gasped as animal roars echoed through the house, shaking its very foundation. “Bear!” She dashed off, following the familiar sound. It was all Hilary and their father could do to keep up with her. “I think I hear them in the ballroom!”