Legal Beagle (3 page)

05 Sadie’s Blog

I’m nervous. Not about the verdict I’m delivering today. Poe is as guilty as a defendant can be, the entire hedgehog massacre captured on camera with a couple of fearless zombie witnesses to back the gruesome images up.

I’m nervous about what will happen after Poe is safely behind bars, and his vamps have sworn their allegiance to hopefully a less demented leader. Will last night’s eight-hour fuckathon with Wright be my last?

I brush my hand against his as we walk from the car to the courthouse. Although vamps surround the building, their dead-eyed gazes fixed upon me, it is the always-hungry-for-intrigue press stopping me from clinging to my young officer.

Mate
! My beagle doesn’t understand what is going on. She wants to play.

Heck, I want to play. I deserve a normal life, safe from threats, and free to love the man I can’t live without. Why am I making these sacrifices?

And then I see Poe staring out the window, appearing relaxed and confident, like he is already set free, and I know why. Other judges might be swayed by the vamp’s threats and bribes but I won’t be. I glance up at Wright, his gaze watchful, his lips pressed into a thin white line. No matter what the costs, I’ll do my duty to society.

Poe’s lawyer breaks from the black leather-clad herd, approaching me. He is a little weasel, literally and figuratively. The weasel-shifter is deep in the vamp’s pockets.

“Judge Sadie.” He has the nerve to greet me like I’m his friend. Wright takes a step closer to me, his body heat rolling off of him in comforting waves.

“Ferris, anything you have to say to me, you can say in the courtroom.” I continue walking up the steps.

The lawyer matches my stride. “Relax, your honor, everyone” -- he smiles for the cameras -- “knows you have a healthy respect for the law, and would die rather than make a wrong judgment.”

The threats are so thinly veiled, they might as well be buck-assed naked. Wright growls a warning, placing his hand on his gun, his bullets containing liquid sunshine.

I deliberately bump into him in an attempt to calm him down, while secretly getting off on his over-protective badass cop demeanor. “In the courtroom, Ferris.” I pass through the separate entrance, reserved for judges, leaving the weasel outside.

As a police officer is standing beside the security guard, the chief must have gotten a whiff of what would go down, sending more protection. I nod, murmuring a good morning to them both. Wright’s greeting is a grunt, echoed by the grinning officer.

“Sadie.” Wright leans into me as we walk to my chambers.

I know what he’ll say, what all my former lovers have said. Wright will beg me to “just this once” put my safety first, but there’s never a “just this once” as I’m a judge, and my job’s always dangerous. Those other lovers couldn’t handle the risks, and they’re no longer in my life. I thought Wright was different, but he isn’t, and that hurts. “I won’t be influenced, Officer.”

Wright stops, placing his hand on my arm. “I know that, Sadie. It is one of the reasons you’re such a damn good judge.” He scowls at me, his blue eyes glittering with that spark of danger I love. I love. Hell. I love the big cop, and he is okay with who I am and what I do.

“I want you to carry this.” He hands me a lady gun. It is heavy, loaded with bullets and ready to be shot.

“Wright.” I open my robes, tucking it into my waistband, the steel cold and foreign against my skin. “Do your job and that’s it.” I can’t tell him to let me die, as he has as much honor and professional pride as I do, but I don’t want him to take unnecessary risks to save me. “No superhero stuff. The city needs good officers like you.”

A loud snort comes from behind me. I turn. A scary-looking officer emerges from an alcove. I don’t see Officer Drake very often in my courts because, partnered with Wright, they go after the biggest, baddest perps, and those type of criminals normally end up dead, rather than arrested.

“Officers like that jackass” -- Drake hooks a thumb at Wright -- “can be replaced. What the city really needs is more fuckin’ honest judges, and we’re not about to lose any damn ones we do have.”

This sounds like a vow. I stare at Wright’s bad-tempered partner, overwhelmed with emotion.

“I thought you were sipping margaritas.” Wright grins.

“Do I look like I sip margaritas? Fuckin’ sissy drink.” Drake shakes his head. For all the cussing, there’s obvious affection between the two officers. “I’m here ‘cause Sarge told me my partner is about to get his incompetent ass waxed by a bunch of bloodsuckers. Hell, you and your new girlfriend” -- his gaze settles on me, and my cheeks heat up -- “are the talk of the precinct. Everyone is all abuzz.” He waves his fingers, rolling his eyes.

Oh, lord. “Does everyone know…?”

“I’m a cop. You’re a judge.” Wright’s casual tone is belied by the nervous tick in his cheek. “We couldn’t have kept our relationship secret for long, Sadie.”

“Especially when you fuck in a courtroom full of security cameras, screaming your fool heads off. They have audio, jackass.” Drake chuckles as he strolls away.

I push away my embarrassment to process what this means for my career. “So he’s here because I’m your lover.” The decades risking my life on the bench, upholding justice, means nothing.

“No. Drake doesn’t blow smoke up anyone’s ass, even one as fine as yours.” Wright tugs my robes closed, fussing over me with a caring I haven’t felt in years. “The boys are protecting you because they respect you. Our relationship doesn’t change that.”

Our relationship went public, and the cops still respect me. I place my hand in Wright’s, hoping I didn’t use up all my good luck for the day.

06 Wright’s Blog

We enter a courtroom divided by color. The vamps gunning for my Sadie are decked out in black leather, and standing behind their nutjob boss. The police are in uniform, the blue looking downright cheery alongside the bleak black. They’ve volunteered their precious off-duty time to protect the judge they respect and the woman I love. If I was a girl, it would bring a tear to my eye.

But I’m not a girl, so I grunt and tell them they’re all fuck-ups and advise them to stop with the bad banging-a-judge jokes, before Sadie hears them and throws their no-good asses in jail for contempt of court.

Everyone rises as Sadie takes her bench, and my chest expands with pride. She is so small yet so powerful, a woman any man would be pleased to call his, and she’s mine.

“This court is now in session, the honorable Judge Sadie presiding. You may be seated,” the bailiff instructs the court. Asses hit chair seats, the rumble like thunder, a warning of the storm to come.

I stand behind Sadie, my arms crossed, my legs spread. It is me at my most threatening. She rambles through the usual bullshit about how she gave the case much deliberation -- everyone in the courtroom knowing Poe is guilty and deserving of a stake through his non-beating heart.

The vamp snickers throughout the proceedings. He thinks he’s getting a free ride and with any other judge, he might, but this is my girl, and my girl doesn’t take shit from anyone. She’s a badass beagle, bent on justice, and when Poe finally realizes this, courtesy of the life sentence about to be handed to his eternal ass, he’ll be pissed.

I catch Drake’s eye, ensuring he isn’t daydreaming about cottontails. He nods, putting a hand on his gun. There’s no one I’d rather have positioned to the left of us.

Sarge places himself to the right, creating an effective crossfire. The damn big blood demon he calls partner looms over him, standing too close for any straight man’s comfort, making me wonder why Sarge doesn’t tell him to fuck off, but my friend can be a pussy sometimes, and although he complains about his partner, he does fuck all about his overbearing attitude.

“Will the defendant please rise?” Sadie relays in her tight judge voice, making my cock twitch.

Poe slaps his lawyer on the back, like the verdict is a big joke. Laughter ripples through the undead contingent.

“The court finds the defendant, Virgil Poe, guilty of thirty-two counts of first degree murder.”

All laughter and talking ceases, silence falling in the courtroom like a shroud of impending doom. Poe’s mouth drops open, revealing his fangs, and I long to put a bullet into him, but as much as I’d like to, I can’t kill a vamp for showing the teeth his maker gave him.

The moment hangs, my senses heightening. I smell the cinnamon scent of Sadie’s skin. I hear her soft breathing. I feel every notch of detail on my gun handle.

“The defendant, Virgil Poe, is hereby sentenced to life imprisonment in a maximum security paranormal facility,” Sadie bravely presses forward.

“You bitch!” Poe screams, and all hell breaks loose, the vamps flying at Sadie in a synchronized attack. Fuck, I hate vamps and their irritating thought-sharing.

I start shooting, dusting vampires like it is a professional sport. Sadie, determined to be the judge to the end, whacks her gavel, calling for order in the court. There is no order, the vamps closing in on her.

“Sadie, shoot your damn gun,” I bark at her, placing my arm around her waist and swinging her out of harm’s way. A vamp flies past my left ear, his claws ripping into my shoulder.

Fucking hell, that hurts like a motherfucker. I set Sadie down, and plug some liquid sunshine into the bastard. He bursts into flames, screaming like a little girl at a teeny-bopper concert. I can’t sit back and watch him burn into ash, as other vampires are making a run for the grand prize of killing my woman.

Drake, Sarge, and the boys all have guns blasting, picking the vamps off. Sadie is shooting too, but she’s adorably precise, lining them up carefully before pulling the trigger, still grasping her gavel in one hand like it will protect her. “Shoot your fucking gun, Sadie!” I holler at her. She may be a damn good judge, but she’d make one dead police officer.

There is a temporary lull in attacks and that is worrying because Count Crackula -- their crazy leader -- remains alive. I glance over at Drake, and his expression is as troubled. Vampires aren’t known to retreat.

They don’t retreat. They surge forward en masse, overwhelming our defenses. I’m targeted by three of the elders, vamps so fast and powerful they dodge my bullets easily. In the melee, I get separated from Sadie. I fight through vamps to get to her side, but Poe gets there first.

07 Sadie’s Blog

I see Poe flying toward me, and I panic, because although it’s a dog’s life, it is the only life I have, and I’d prefer to keep it. I shoot, but I suck big time with a gun, Wright’s constant growling not helping my aim, and I miss, causing Poe, that cold-blooded killer, to grin.

“Dead judges don’t need guns.” He wrenches the weapon from my grasp, tossing it across the courtroom, hitting my poor bailiff in the noggin.

That leaves me with only the gavel to defend myself, and I swing it with both hands, hitting Poe again and again and again, while twisting to avoid his cold hands. “I said order in the court!” I yell, venting all my anger and frustration and fear. This is my court, damn it, and he dares to disturb it.

“You fucking bitch.” He catches the head of the gavel, and yanks. I don’t let go, hanging onto it with the tenacity of my inner beagle, and the wood cracks, the sound as loud and sharp as the gunfire around us.

“You die now.” Poe drags me against his body, and I feel his cock pressing into my thigh. The sick bastard is turned on by the prospect of killing me. He bends down, the tangy scent of blood and death making my head spin.

I can’t die. I have too much to live for. I have Wright to live for. My fingers tighten around the broken gavel handle. “No, you die.” I ram the improvised stake with all my shifter strength into his chest.

Poe laughs, the annoying gurgle making my fingers itch to slap his pale face. “You missed, Judge.”

Oh hell. I did miss his heart, the gavel handle sticking out of his undead body. Poe’s extended claws dig into my arms, but I don’t feel any pain. I don’t feel anything at all. My world is soft and hazy, and I’m resigned to my death, ceasing to struggle as his head lowers, his teeth pricking my neck.

Poe jerks against me once, twice, three times, his eyes widening in disbelief. “What the f --?” His body bursts into flames, his hands burning my skin.

I fight to free myself, while the burning spreads. I smell the charring of my own flesh. I kick and scream and head butt his chest, and finally, I break out of his grasp.

“She missed, but I didn’t, asshole.” Wright stands several vamps away, his face grim, a gun in both hands. “Your leader is dead,” he yells. “Fall back and live, or fight and die.”

There’s silence as the vampires thought-share, talking among themselves. It isn’t much of a debate, the discussion over in less than two minutes, the vampires exiting the courtroom in a rush of flapping leather, leaving my policemen protectors looking stunned. Triumphant grins spread on their tough faces, but I can’t summon up a smile.

“Wright.” I whisper his name. He looks as hellish as I feel, covered in blood, but he’s alive, so alive. I want to go to him, tend to his wounds. I can’t. The wounds on my body have zapped all my strength, and my knees give way.

“Fuck, Sadie.” Wright catches me before I hit the floor.

“Mate,” both my human self and my beagle whimper, my world draining of all color.

“Someone get a doctor or a vet or someone to help her,” my officer hollers, his blue eyes dark with concern.

“Tell her to shift, asshole,” a voice I can’t place at the moment advises. All I know is the man with his arms around me, my mate.

“Sadie, shift, love. Come on, shift.” Wright pushed back my hair, unsticking the tendrils from my burned skin. His action must have hurt, but I can’t feel it as my entire body aches. “You can do it.”

I can do it, but if I shift, everyone will see my animal. They won’t respect me. They -- The blackness closes in on me, the human weak and hurt and not healing fast enough to save herself.

The beagle springs free, my body shrinking in size, shifting into the beast I am. It is too late, as I’m shrouded in the darkness of death, but if I’m in doggy heaven, why can I hear the humans talking?

The soft fabric of my robes are pulled away from me, and I blink up at Wright. Other officers crowd around us, silly expressions on their normally taciturn faces.

“Awww… she’s adorable,” the one Wright calls Sarge croons, scratching me under my chin.

I’m not adorable
. I yip at him, wagging my tail so I don’t scare him. I’m a wild animal. I try to lift my front right paw, but the skin is tight and pain shoots through my little body.

“Come here, puppy.” Wright carefully gathers me in his arms.

Mate
! A zing of excitement breaks through my pain. I wag my tail with renewed enthusiasm, telling my mate how happy I am to see him with a series of short, blunt barks.

“Ahhh… Sadie.” Wright chuckles, and I lick his open mouth, my actions drawing a round of “fuck no’s” from the surrounding cops.

Wright doesn’t care. “I love you so much.” He rubs his nose against mine.

“Damn it, Wright,” Drake rumbles, and I growl at him because no one speaks to my mate like that. “I didn’t come here on my day off to hear you sweet talk a fuckin’ dog.”

“Says a guy who’s fucking a bunny,” Wright grumbles. He looks unhappy and worried, while I’m so very, very, very happy, so I lick his face some more, and his smile returns. “You deserve sweet talking, Sadie. You are such a good puppy.” He kisses me right on the muzzle.

Mate
! I squirm with happiness. I’m alive, and I have my mate. The only thing that would make this day better is if my mate had a ball.
Ball
? I ask with a bark, tilting my head in clear question.

Wright laughs.