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“Famous and fabulous.” Ivy flicked her long, red hair off her shoulder.

“You forgot ferocious,” I told her.

“No one doubts your ferocity, Leda.” Drake sat down at the table. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Ivy,” he declared, setting a black-and-white box in front of her.

Eyes twinkling, Ivy lifted the lid. The box contained a magnificent assortment of fancy chocolates, decorated with sparkles, sprinkles, and swirls.

“Hey.” I gently nudged Nero with my elbow. “You forgot Valentine’s Day.”

“No. I did not.” His brow twitched. “I have something far more adventurous than chocolate in mind.”

His words made me very, very curious.

“Choco!” Sierra squeaked. “Gotcha!” She hopped up and grabbed Ivy’s box of chocolates. Then she ran off, trailing giggles and squeals.

As she left, Angel returned. And she came bearing gifts.

“Wow, thanks. You shouldn’t have,” I said as my cat dropped a dead rat at my feet. “Really.”

When it came to presents, I vastly preferred chocolate to dead rats. Where had Angel even found a rat? The Legion had strict anti-pest measures in place at all of its facilities.

“Say, Leila, you don’t happen to have a pest problem at your castle, do you?” I asked her.

“No. Of course not.”

The rat chose that moment to scurry out of the hall. Apparently, it wasn’t dead after all. Angel took off after the rat, and Sierra took off after Angel. A moment later, lots of crashing noises echoed down the hall. Totally in sync, Nero and I jumped out of our seats and rushed toward those noises.

We found Sierra in the magic lab, standing beside the duct-taped machine.

“Kitty,” she cooed with big, green eyes.

I followed her gaze to Angel. But Angel wasn’t alone. She was currently battling it out against a big, black monster.

CHAPTER 5

THE SHADOW CAT

Like Angel, the monster was an abnormally large cat. But it wasn’t white; it was as black as night.

“Hey, shadow cat! Leave my Angel alone!” I shouted at the black monster when it nipped at Angel’s leg, eliciting a howl and a hiss from my cat.

Angel whacked the shadow cat hard in the face, and it started sparkling like an onyx rainbow.

“Those sparkles are disturbingly familiar,” I muttered.

Angel spun around and pounced on an empty patch of air. Except it wasn’t empty at all. A fat turtle suddenly appeared. Angel struck the turtle again, and it started glowing green.

“It appears your duct tape was ineffective,” Nero noted, his voice perfectly level.

“Yeah,” I agreed as Angel revealed another sparkly smoke creature. “The beasts never left. The machine in the lab simply revealed them. And when we turned it off, we couldn’t see them anymore.”

I shivered at the thought of all the creepy creatures that we still couldn’t see. Angel’s tail was swishing back and forth, sharp and agitated. She could obviously sense the creatures. And like the machine, she could make them visible to the rest of us.

As usual, Nero and I were on the same page. “We need to have Angel reveal the rest of the beasts,” he said. “Then we’ll know exactly what we’re up against.”

Unfortunately, Angel was too busy to help us at the moment. She and the shadow cat were engaged in a rolling, growling, scratching fight for feline supremacy.

“Maybe we should turn on the machine again,” I suggested as Leila and Basanti came to a running-stop beside us. “At least that way, we’ll be able to see the creatures.”