Being a Hero

Chapter 20

The song for this chapter is "Wolves" by Sam Tinnesz.

"Never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake." –Napoleon

*Cal's POV*

This seemed way too easy. I didn't like it. Our target—one Amelia Wellward—couldn't hurt a wasp that got into her house, let alone Li or I. I was beginning to suspect that police report Jeronim had given us had been written by a powerphobe. Her ability was a glorified green thumb. The flowers in her garden were blooming out of season and far more prolifically than seemed natural, but after two days of surveillance, we'd seen no evidence of her being able to weaponize her power.

To make things even simpler, the lady was deaf. All we had to do was wait for her to take out her hearing aids when she got home from her interior design job, and she'd never know we were coming until we tranqed her. In and out in ten minutes with no one the wiser.

But that wasn't what we wanted here. We needed something to draw the Haven heroes. Jeronim wanted to know how long it took them to mobilize. That was why we approached the house through the low-fenced garden and waited to do so until one of Amelia's neighbors came walking up the street with her pug. I made sure to snap as many rose branches and trample on as many purple, white, and pink flowers as possible with my clawed feet.

The effect was immediate, bringing the black-haired super screaming out the back door, "Get out of my garden! This is private property. Don't you dare touch my peonies," She added with a slight lisp when I would have taken another step. She was halfway to us when she finally seemed to register my lycanthropic appearance and Jade's mask. She stopped between a patch of ranunculus and a swamp rose bush, and I rather enjoyed watching her anger melt into fear. "I heard about you two on the news...What do you want?" She asked, taking a small step back.

I flicked one ear in the direction of the retreating dogwalker, satisfied to hear her calling 911. Jade said simply, "You."

Amelia stood there waiting for an answer. I sighed. She'd left her hearing aids inside, and she couldn't very well read Jade's lips through a face mask, now could she? I suspected she couldn't lipread me either with my current conformation. "She can't hear you," I growled, trying to remember the proper signs for what we needed to say. I'd tried learning sign language and could usually figure out the gist of what Selena said, but it had never really stuck. Li Jing was fairly fluent though.

With a subtle nod, Jade switched to rapidly signing. I thought I caught the gesture for an apology, but the confusion on Amelia's face only grew. She stared at Jade's hands for a minute before looking between our faces. "That's...not American Sign Language. You're from Europe, aren't you?"

Sign language is different depending on the country? Frustrated, I decided on another way to enlighten her. I shifted to fully lupine and sprinted towards her.

Amelia yelped and stumbled backward over a clump of purple-silver leaves. As she fell, she raised her arms to shield her face. I was whipped off course by the lash of thorny branches. So, her power can be used to fight. Interesting.

Amelia stumbled back to her feet, reeking of fear. Jade was on her a split second later. Her punch caught Amelia in the side of the chest, but my partner's usual combo was broken by her footing shifting under her. She was standing in a patch of those purple-silver leaves, which were now twining and clinging about her ankles like a den of angry snakes. I lept away from my own patch of ranunculus when one of the long-stemmed blooms tried to wrap around my neck.

The tight-knit rose bushes unfurled thorny branches, reaching to snag and snare. Ground plants were grasping and writhing. The trumpet vine climbing the trestle by the house flailed as if furious we were out of reach of its woody vines. Even the birch tree by the sidewalk was groaning and leaning threateningly.