CHAPTER 12

"What did you buy me?" Lily asked, then ran her fingers over the wood. "I'm guessing it was expensive."

"I haven't bought anything. Tink or Beth must have ordered it." He made eye contact with Beth, who stood nearby with Sulyvahn.

"Wasn't me," she told him.

"Must have been Tink then?" He looked at the packing label, but it didn't have a return address. "At least, I hope it was her." His luck with random packages on his doorstep wasn't great.

"Should we open it?" Lily asked, her tail appearing over her shoulder. It looked like she was going to wedge it into a gap in the wood when the crate shifted on its own. The party came to an abrupt stop as all eyes now rested on the mysterious delivery.

"I think we should definitely open it," Mike said, taking a step back. "But not inside. And definitely not without backup. Everyone, stand back." He held up his hands and walked in a circle. "I don't want anyone getting caught up in this. Yuki, where are you?"

"Here." The kitsune had been sitting up on the porch. She already had a pair of shimmering spheres of ice in her hand that were swirling around and forming into a pair of icy spikes.

"Abella, I need some—" The gargoyle landed behind him with a solid thump. "Muscle," he finished.

"I'm on it," she said, then grabbed the lid. Tink appeared with Kisa in tow, both of them looking very concerned.

"No time like the present," Mike muttered, then knocked on the crate. "You can come out with your hands up, or we can just set this thing on fire. Your choice."

Whatever was inside the crate thumped on it loudly. It sounded like Morse code for an SOS, so Mike nodded at Abella, who then sank her fingers into the wood and pulled.

A diaphanous white substance made a thick ripping sound as Abella lifted the lid, and her features went from confusion to horror. She immediately tried to force the lid back on, but whatever was inside was now fighting her, and the crate was bouncing around on the sidewalk.

"Kill it!" Abella cried, her eyes falling on Mike. "We have to kill it!"

Shrieks of panic went up from the party-goers. The centaurs, now expecting battle, rushed for whatever weapons they could find. The temperature in the air dropped as a large icicle formed over the crate, ready to drop at a moment's notice. Tink and Kisa grabbed Mike by the hands and pulled him away, but Lily was now at Abella's side, who was trying to force the lid shut again.

"Wait, what? Wait!" Lily's face went from serious to concerned as she suddenly fought against Abella, wedging her tail into the box. "Abella, stop!"

Abella shook her head vehemently, and then used her wings to shove Lily to the side. Lily looked to Mike for help, her eyes pleading.

Mike ran up to the crate and put his hands on the other side. Whatever was rustling around inside was becoming frantic, and the wood creaked as Abella used her thumbs to press nails back into the wood.

"Mike?" This was from Yuki, who was waiting to drop the icicle. "What do you want me to do?"

"You don't understand," Abella growled. "The thing in this box, it is dangerous, more dangerous than you can ever know. We had these in France, they killed thousands of people."

Mike wanted to trust Abella, to let Yuki drop the icicle, but the look of panic on Lily's face gave him pause. He looked from Abella to Yuki, then back to Lily.

"This one is different," Lily promised. "You have to trust me."

Abella snorted, and Mike paused. He hadn't come as far as he had by making assumptions, and clearly whatever was in this box needed to get out. Abella wanted to kill it, Lily wanted to let it out, but the choice needed to be his.

He decided to follow his gut. Placing his fingers on the edge of the lid, he looked at Abella and shook his head.

"Help me open it," he told her. His words seemed to stun her, for her hands slipped off the lid and it burst open from inside. A humanoid figure leaned over the edge of the side and coughed, then took a deep breath. It was a woman with dark black hair that hung over her head, and she looked up to see everyone standing around her.

"Did I make it?" she asked in a tiny voice.

"You sure know how to make an entrance," Lily said from her spot on the ground. "Probably would have been better if you had called first."

Mike tried to step around to get a better look at her, but his hands were stuck to the lid by the sticky, silken material. When he pulled them away, he realized that the same material he had seen earlier now clung to his fingers, and his heart slammed in his chest once he realized what it was.

"If you'll make some room," said the newcomer, and she pulled herself out of the box. Her pale torso came easy, but where her butt should have been was a large, shiny black surface that kept coming out of the box. Mike felt his heart racing now as several legs appeared and stretched out, allowing the newcomer to stand and look around.

Cries of alarm came from multiple directions, and the stranger suddenly looked uncertain. Mike took a few steps back, fighting the panic that had taken root inside of him. It was an old and common phobia, one that took him back to his own traumatic childhood that included weeks on end sleeping in the unfinished basements of distant relatives and old family friends.

"Eulalie?" Dana pushed her way through the centaurs, her eyes wide in astonishment. "Is that really you?"

"Uh...yeah." Eulalie drew herself up to her full height, now standing over Mike. "This was very...last minute, and...um..."

Dana ran up to Eulalie and embraced her tightly. "It's so good to see you!"

Mike took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself. His mind was struggling to reconcile what he was seeing, but somehow, Lily and Dana seemed to know who she was.