The Ghost Lioness of Phantom Moon

Chapter 5 - Cleaning Wounds

Ellie knelt beside the girl and asked,

“Who is this?” the girl sat up with tears streaming down her face.

“Her name is Aya when she’s in this form. In her human form, her name is Nova. She’s really nice and takes care of us when our mommies and daddies have to work. I don’t know what happened today. All our mommies took the other kids to the town for a big lunch, all the daddies stayed here. I was sick this morning, so I couldn’t go. I wanted to see Nova earlier, so I came here to her house, but she wasn’t inside. I heard sounds from behind her house in the trees and went to look. I was so scared when I saw all of them hitting and kicking Nova. She was in her human form, but she was in really bad shape. Like worse than them beating her up. She changed forms and Aya started getting beat up. I couldn’t even scream I was so scared. I ran and tried to look for help, then I found you and the nice man at the entrance.” she answered. She turned back to Aya and started crying again. Ellie stood and went to Caelan’s side.

“What will we do? I’m guessing this Nova is the person we were looking for.” she asked. Caelan nodded.

“As soon as I saw her, I felt like I had found the person I was meant to find. I certainly wasn’t expecting someone who can change forms. That’s a new one. Let’s get her inside and I’ll go deal with those men.” he replied and went to the girl.

“Hello. My name is Caelan. May I help to get Aya inside her house? Ellie can help to clean her wounds so they can start healing. Can you help? I need someone to pick her tail up so it doesn’t get caught in the door.” the girl smiled a bit and nodded.

“I’m Jessie. I want to help. Thank you Mr. Caelan, thank you Miss Ellie.” Jessie said with a small bow. She helped Caelan and Ellie carry Aya inside and laid her down on the living room floor. Jessie took Ellie to the bathroom where Nova kept a first aid kit for when the kids got the occasional scrape or cut from playing outside. Caelan went to the entrance where the mob of men was waiting for him. Many of them still looked angry, others looked ashamed.

“Any of you want to tell me just what the hell you thought you were doing?” he asked when he got to the mob. The first man that spoke to him stepped forward.

“We were getting rid of a monster. Who knows how long before it turned on us and ate our kids.” the man said. A flash of anger lit up Caelan’s eyes.

“So, just because she has the ability to change her form, that means she’s a monster? Am I understanding that correctly?” Caelan asked in a calm voice. The men nodded.

“Let me ask you then, how long has she lived here?”

“Little over fifteen years, give or take.”

“How long have you known about her other form?”

“Five days. I saw her coming out of the woods five nights ago covered in blood. She was in that beast form, then changed to her human form, and went inside her house. Took me that long to get word out to all these guys and get a plan together for how to kill a monster like that.”

“Has she ever, in the entire time she’s been here, done anything to make her seem a threat to the children here?”

“Well, no. It hasn’t, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t. Maybe it was just trying to gain all of our trust before it turned on us.” One of the men from in the mob said,

“Why are you arguing with a kid, John? Let’s just go and finish the job. The damned thing was almost dead anyway I bet.” John turned toward the man and glared at him.

“Do you not know how serious this is that a nobleman is here, Drew? Shut up and let me handle this.” John said. He turned back to Caelan.

“I apologize for my neighbor. His little girl has been spending a lot of time with that thing lately, so he’s a bit more angry about it.” John chuckled a bit. Caelan snapped.

“You think this is a joking matter?! You think it’s acceptable to call a young woman a thing and a monster?! You are all the monsters if you thought it was necessary for a mob of twenty men to gang up on one woman and beat her nearly to death! I report you all to Scotland Yard for this! Better yet, I should deal with you myself, as it seems this could fall under my jurisdiction.” he shouted. John scoffed.

“You might be a nobleman, but you have no power over us all the way out here. What, you gonna sic the Queen on us?” he laughed. The others laughed behind him. Ellie approached Caelan with blood on her clothes. The men stopped laughing and stared in shock and horror at the young woman. She had a smile on her face, but it was a dark sadistic smile. Caelan smiled at her and pulled her into a hug.

“I take it her wounds are clean?” he asked.

“They are, and they’re healing incredib;y fast. She woke up before I left to come meet you here. Jessie is with her. Nova is talking with her and trying to calm her down. Poor girl thought she was going to lose one of her best friends.” Ellie sighed sadly. She turned her attention to the group.

“I heard what you said about my husband not being able to do anything to you out here. On the contrary. He could do whatever he wants to you because of who he is. Yes, he is Caelan Promos, the Earl of Phantom Moon, but he is also the Queen’s Watchdog. He takes care of the lowest of the low for the Queen, the ones Scotland Yard can’t touch because of a lack of evidence against them. If things get messy while he is dealing with people, let’s just say I’m not the sweet little girl I appear to be.” Ellie moved so quickly that the men didn’t see when she pulled two rapiers from under her loose dress and held them at the throat of John. Their eyes widened and John gulped. He raised his hands in surrender. Ellie glared at the others and they followed suit. She smiled and returned the swords to their sheaths. She lept backwards and landed right beside Caelan. A clapping of hands made Caelan and Ellie turn around. Nova was walking up to them with Jessie by her side.

“That was some very impressive swordplay, Lady Promos.” Nova said when she stepped toward them. The men held looks of shock, anger, and hatred on their faces. Nova glared at them and growled. A few of them paled and stepped backward.

“I’m glad to see you’ve recovered, and so quickly. How are you, Miss Nova?” Caelan asked. Nova bowed deeply to him and Ellie.

“Thank you for asking, Lord Promos. I am very well. Thank you, Lady Promos for cleaning my wounds.” she replied.

“It was no problem. There was something we needed to ask you. May we return to your home? It seems the others are returning from their trip to town.” Ellie replied and gestured to the group of women and children. They all had confused expressions on their faces. Nova nodded and said,

“I think that would be best. Please, follow me, Lord and Lady Promos.” Nova turned and led Caelan and Ellie to her house. She asked Jessie to go and tell the woman what had happened. She nodded and ran to her mother.