Making Monster Girls 3: For Science! Read online

  I stared down at her, raised a single eyebrow, scoffed softly, and then nudged her with the toe of my shoe.

  “I have to warn you,” I started. “But the Duchess doesn’t take consorts, male or female. I doubt she would be interested in speaking to you.”

  “Don’t touch me, foul beast!” Kelara roared. “I see what you are. You stand by your master like a trained dog. You are nothing more than a dirty, salivating, flea-ridden consort! You are trash! Garbage! How your Mistress puts up with you, I will never know!”

  “Enough,” Daisy boomed. “You dare speak to my consort this way? Stand up and face off with me, you coward. I will rip you limb from limb for insulting my property!”

  “My hands have been trained by the best masters in all of the capital,” Kelara shouted.

  Josephine gasped, pushed past me, gripped the turban-wearing woman by the thin shoulders, and guided her in a different direction.

  “O-Oh, Kelara, I-I’ll… I’ll introduce you to the Duchess now,” the blonde stammered.

  “I thought you weren’t going to?” the tattooed woman asked.

  “I-I… I changed my mind!” Josephine chuckled, turned, and then mouthed to us over her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

  I stood with all of my women around me, kept my eyes glued to Josephine’s back, and then turned to the three of them. Daisy fumed with her hands curled into fists at her side, Valerie looked sick to her stomach, and Rian, though her hands looked ready to fight, chuckled lightly to herself.

  “That was the strangest person I’ve ever encountered,” the imp-woman tittered. “Though it was a bit scary, I thought that Daisy and her were really going to fight here in the middle of the party.”

  “I should’ve kept myself calm,” the brunette breathed. “I’m sorry, Charles, I acted out and embarrassed you.”

  “It’s alright,” I smiled. “You didn’t embarrass me. If anything, Kelara embarrassed herself and us.”

  “A female consort…” Valerie repeated. “What a strange notion. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

  “Neither have I,” I agreed. “No wonder everyone was gossiping about her, she’s quite a… character.”

  “Do you think she could be dangerous?” Rian asked. “She didn’t look like it, but you can’t tell with some people.”

  “I… I don’t know,” I admitted. “Just as you said, you can never tell by just looking at people.”

  “Great, just great,” the feline-woman grumbled. “Another person we have to worry about being on our tail.”

  “Ah, I wouldn’t worry about it just yet,” I grunted. “She seems more interested in prostituting herself than she is in disrupting our personal mission.”

  “Look, Charles,” Rian whispered, pointed through the crowd, and bounced on the balls of her feet. “Lucien! He’s all alone in the corner! It looks like he’s had a few drinks, too! He’s swaying on his feet like a madman!”

  “They only just got here,” Daisy sniffed. “Could he have drank that much already?”

  “Oh, he doesn’t look so good,” Valerie frowned. “His face is all green, and he looks like he’s going to be sick at any moment.”

  “The drunker, the better. Rian, get ready,” I grinned wickedly. “This is our chance.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  I kept my sights on Lucien as the blond man wobbled on his feet, hiccupped, blinked blearily, and then slumped toward the wall. I smirked to my three women, reached into my suit jacket’s pocket, gripped the vial of the truth serum, and then scanned the room for a server with a full tray of drinks. A man clothed in a black suit with a royal blue mask waltzed through the crowd with a silver tray with two drinks on it, and I chuckled under my breath as I raised my index finger in his direction. The waiter’s eyes connected with mine, he nodded his head, changed his route, and headed straight for us.

  “Perfect,” I grunted. “Let’s get this party started.”

  “What about us, Charles?” Valerie asked. “What should we do while you’re questioning the scientist?”

  “Enjoy the party,” I smiled. “I’ll whisk Lucien away to one of the back rooms where no one can see us, but I want the three of you to enjoy your time while we’re here.”

  All of my women smiled at the server, but Valerie giggled lightly, snatched the tray from his hands, and then scoffed down her nose.

  “We’ll be taking these. Thank you,” the feline-woman sneered. “And bring back another round in a few minutes. We’d like to get good and drunk before the night ends, and I want you to keep ‘em comin’! If you see an empty glass, you need to refill it immediately.”

  “Yes, Mistress,” the man replied. “I’ll keep an eye out and bring over your refreshments as soon as you need them.”

  The waiter forced a smile, bowed so low that his nose almost brushed the ground, straightened up, turned on his heels, and then marched off toward the serving table. I chuckled under my breath, glanced around to make sure no one else was watching, reached out, and stroked the cat-girl’s soft cheek. The gorgeous ash-blonde held the tray close to her body, glanced around at the aristocrats standing around us, and then ushered me over.

  I held the vial of truth serum in the palm of my hand. It had fermented during its time in the small container, and the once clear liquid was now a dark, emerald green. Valerie held out the glass to me, and I peeked around me once more before I uncorked the vial and then dumped all of the serum in. The liquid in the glasses looked to be champagne, the green serum intermixed with the lightly golden alcohol, darkened it for a second, and then lifted back to the original bubbly gilt hue. I lifted the glass, swirled it for a second, peered into the flute to make sure it was thoroughly mixed, and then rested it back down on the tray.

  The champagne looked a little different, almost as if it had a few droplets of oil added, but from the drunken state Lucien was in, I was sure that he wouldn’t notice at all. I gripped the edges of the tray, took it from Valerie’s hands, and then handed it over to Rian. The red-skinned imp-woman nodded once, took it from me, placed it surely on her palm, lifted it a little higher than her shoulder, exhaled slowly, smiled, and then turned toward the place where Lucien stood.

  “Good luck,” Daisy whispered.

  “Yes, you’ll do great,” Valerie cheered. “He won’t even know what hit him!”

  I placed a hand on Rian’s shoulder, gave it a tender squeeze, and then pushed her lightly forward. The black-haired beauty sighed under her breath, squared her shoulders, and marched forward with her head held high.

  “There she goes,” the stunning brunette murmured. “I wonder if he’ll question her at all… Oh, I’m so worried.”

  “There’s no reason to worry,” the ash-blonde giggled. “He’s blasted drunk. I doubt he even remembers where he is right now.”

  “You never know,” I warned. “He may be more cognitive than we think. Let’s watch and see what happens.”

  All three of us turned, huddled together in a close half-circle, and watched as Rian approached the scientist. The blond leaned sleepily against the wall, hiccupped loudly, placed the back of his hand over his mouth as if he were about to vomit, and then stumbled forward toward Rian. The horned-woman stepped closer, her lips moved, and Lucien cocked his head, closed one eye as he concentrated, and then replied.

  “Can anyone read lips?” Daisy murmured. “That’d be helpful right now.”

  “Oh, oh, oh!” Valerie bubbled. “I can!”

  The feline-woman clutched her chin, squinted her eyes, nodded along as Lucien spoke, and then parted her lips.

  “Butt two chew chant?” the feline-woman repeated. “Mime fizzy.”

  “…What?” the stunning bear-girl gasped. “There’s no way he said that.”

  “That was a nice try, Val,” I chuckled. “But he said: ‘what do you want? I’m busy.’ Rian just offered him the drink, saying ‘this is for you,’”

  “Ooooooh,” the ash-blonde breathed. “That makes more sense, let me try one more
time, okay? Maybe I can get it right this time.”

  “Maybe Charles should do it instead…” the bear-girl muttered.

  “It’s alright,” I tittered. “Valerie, go ahead. If you get anything wrong, I can just tell you.”

  We all turned once more, faced Rian and Lucien, and watched their mouths move silently from across the room.

  “Okay, here I go, ‘A sink?’,” the ash-blonde spouted. “buy bar blew birthing abductee?”

  I threw my head back, laughed at the ceiling, and patted Valerie on the back. The feline-woman scratched her cheek, giggled under her breath, flushed a light pink, and leaned in closer to me.

  “That wasn’t close at all,” I snorted. “Oh, science, how did you get all of that?”

  “I just looked at his lips!” the cat-girl explained. “It’s pretty easy if you concentrate hard.”

  “You’d think with your acute cat ears,” the bear-girl giggled. “You’d be able to hear them from all the way back here.”

  “Then what did he say, then?” Valerie grinned. “I bet mine was closer!”

  “He asked, ‘why are you serving me?’” I guffawed. “How in science did you get abductee out of all that?”

  “I read his lips!” the ash-blonde protested. “That’s exactly what he said! I bet I’m right, and you’re wrong.”

  “No, he definitely said what Charles repeated,” Daisy giggled. “I have to agree with Charles, how could you not hear that from this far away? You have feline ears.”

  “No,” Valerie shook her head. “If we were the only ones in the room, totally, or even if there were half of the aristocrats here, I could. Right now there’s too much interference, too many voices bouncing off the walls and echoing back.”

  “That’s understandable,” I nodded. “What about you, Daisy? I know that your hearing was about average when we first examined you. Has that changed at all?”

  “Not that I know of,” the brunette uttered. “But I’m not sure if I’d notice a change unless it were drastic. I can only hear the voices surrounding us, the clatter of high heels on the floor, and the clink of glasses. My sense of smell, on the other hand… I can smell almost everything in this room, the food, all of the aristocrats’ perfume, and underneath that, their skin’s natural scent. I can even smell things outside, too, there’s a window on the left side of the room that’s about halfway open, and I know for sure that a wild deer is wandering through the forest about ten yards from the manor.”

  “You… you can smell all of that?” Valerie gasped. “That’s so amazing! I can smell pretty well, but anything beyond the radius of ten feet from us, I can’t.”

  I turned my attention back to Rian and Lucien, watched their lips move, and then repeated what I heard back to Valerie and Daisy.

  “I came with a group of ladies,” I echoed Rian across the room. “One of them thought you were attractive. She would like to have a consort contract with you. You don’t have to answer right now, but she asked me to offer you this drink as a sign of goodwill.”

  “What is he saying?” Valerie whined.

  “He says, ‘I’m a scientist, not a consort, nor will I ever be one, but I will accept the drink nonetheless. Tell her thank you, but I can’t accept her proposal,’” I murmured. “He’s still talking, but he’s very drunk, so it’s hard to understand what he’s trying to say.”

  “But hey,” Daisy offered. “He took the drink! Oh! He took the whole tray.”

  “He said, “Brunn boar puh compass,’,” Valerie grinned. “See? It’s that easy.”

  “One for the Duchess,” Daisy giggled. “I could pick that one out by myself. Oh, look. Rian’s on her way back. Hopefully, Lucien doesn’t watch her come back to us through the crowd.”

  “No, he won’t,” I uttered. “He’s too intoxicated to pay attention to anything like that. Honestly, I’m surprised he’s even upright. I bet I could sweep him away right now, and he would spill his guts to me without the truth serum.”

  “I don’t know about that, Charles,” the gorgeous brunette breathed. “From the way he acted around you last time and from looking at him right now, I doubt he’d say anything to you. He’d see you and then immediately clam up.”

  “You’re right,” I agreed. “Alright, here comes Rian. He doesn’t even have to drink all of it, he just has to take a sip of it, and the truth serum will work its magic.”

  “That was pretty easy,” the black-haired imp-woman chuckled. “I’m almost surprised that he took it so easily. I didn’t even need the cover story. He grabbed the drinks before I could explain everything.”

  “I may not like him,” I grunted. “But I know what it’s like to be in his position right now. He’s one of the few men at this party. He’s not a consort like the other male guests and me, and he’s not a server. He’s on a strange plain of ‘in-between.’ The aristocrats don’t see him as an equal, but he doesn’t see himself as a lowly consort either. He’s distinguished as a scientist, but he’s no different than a consort attending to his Mistress. Edony summoned me many times to parties like this, and all she wanted to do was parade me around in front of her peers like some sort of prized pony or something like that. She’d either do that or threaten me with death if I didn’t finish the project on time.”

  “She is such a horrible woman,” Daisy hissed. “I can’t wait for the day when you give us the approval to capture her so she can become our sister...”

  “Speaking of the Duchess,” Rian broke in. “Here she comes, and, oh, boy, she doesn’t look happy.”

  “Of course, she doesn’t,” I chuckled. “She just met that Kelara woman. Knowing Edony, I’m sure that it wasn’t a pleasant interaction. Especially with how the only female consort acted around the other aristocrats.”

  “She was indecent!” Daisy gasped. “Utterly horrible! I cannot believe that Josephine let that woman in.”

  “I’d have to guess that she had to,” I grunted. “Josephine is a proper lady. She upholds her standards no matter what, but… the other aristocrats love a commodity, something totally out of the ordinary, a scandalous affair, and Kelara seems exactly like the distraction they needed.”

  “I hope we never have to encounter that disgusting abomination ever again,” the brunette sniffed. “I can’t believe such a woman exists.”

  “Whoa, tone it down,” Rian joked. “You sound so much like a snobby aristocrat right now.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” the bear-girl jumped. “I guess I slip into that persona so easily when around other women like this. I hate it, and I’ll try hard not to speak to any of you like that ever again.”

  “I don’t mind,” the red-skinned imp-woman laughed. “It reminds me of the gentle ribbing my siblings used to give me when I was still an imp. Not only that, but you never speak to us that way. You only do it when around other aristocrats.”

  “It’s just…” Daisy paused. “That Kelara woman… she gave me the strangest feeling in the pit of my stomach. Maybe it’s a premonition or something like that, but when I looked at her, I felt sick to my stomach…”

  “Our gut instincts are the best warning that our bodies can give us,” I explained. “If you feel uncomfortable around her, I trust your senses more than my own. How did the two of you feel?”

  “She gave me the heebie-jeebies,” Valerie shivered. “Even looking into her eyes made my skin crawl. I want to push it off to nothing more than a bad first impression, but I don’t think that’s it.”

  “I have to agree with my sisters,” Rian stated. “There is something that isn’t right with her. It’s not even the fact that she’s a female consort that bothers me… When I looked into her eyes, there was something predatory… almost animalistic there behind their color. It wasn’t like I was looking into the eyes of a human, it was like…”

  “Like staring down a starving animal,” the feline-woman trembled. “And watching the saliva drip from its canines. When I was still a cat, I was attacked by a few stray dogs, and when they stared me d
own, their eyes looked exactly like Kelara’s.”

  “Never mind that for now. We’ll discuss it on the ride home,” I breathed. “Oh, science, how am I going to get him away from the Duchess? I should’ve acted sooner… I knew there was a distraction that got him away from her, and I didn’t take the chance!”

  “We can pull it off, don’t worry,” the feline-woman assured me. “Look, look, look! He’s taking his first sip, here we go!”

  I turned my head and narrowed my eyes on the scientist. Lucien straightened at the sight of Edony, sipped his drink, and his half-closed eyes slammed open. The serum was already working, all it took was a single drop, and the scientist would be ready to spill all of his secrets to me.

  But I still had to get him away from Edony.

  Lucien murmured something over to the Duchess, and Edony’s violet eyes slashed over to him before she seethed something into his ear. From the way the scientist jumped, I could tell her reply wasn’t cordial. From the way he pressed his lips together desperately, I could tell that he was fighting the urge to speak any of the truths he held inside, but the Duchess didn’t seem to notice. The blond man shifted, cleared his throat, gripped the tray with the other glass of champagne in his fingers, and offered the other flute of golden liquid to her. Edony glanced at it, huffed, rolled her eyes, crossed her arms, cocked her hip, and then snatched the glass of champagne from the tray.

  The blonde aristocrat took a sip, grimaced, glanced down at the flute of alcohol she held in her hand, gulped down the sip she’d just taken, placed the flute back on the tray, and snatched away Lucien’s drink.

  “No, no, no,” I grunted. “Oh, science! What is she doing?”

  I took a step forward, my heart hammered in my chest, but Valerie gripped me by the lapel. I glanced in between the feline-woman and the Duchess, and I felt sweat bead on the surface of my forehead.

  “Let go, please,” I urged. “I… I have to stop her! That’s not for her!”

  “Charles,” Daisy gasped. “She already swallowed it… You can’t stop her now. It’s already in her system.”