| CHALLENGE PART 10 ________________________________________________________________________________________ When the pain subsided I let my body relax. I opened my eyes to find a very large cat standing over me, I could only assume it was Nathaniel. He was beautiful and sleek. His coat looked like velvet and was a deep reddish black. He leaned down and licked my face, his tongue warm and rough. He rubbed his cheek along mine. He was so soft. I tried to get up but things didn’t seem to work for me. When I looked down I saw two large black paws on the floor where my hands should have been. I tried to scream but what came out of my mouth was even more frightening – the sound of a cat’s screaming roar. The sound from the woods the night I woke up without my memory came to me again – it was the same kind of scream I had heard that night. The cut on my arm came back to me; the phone call and the note came back to me. It all made sense now and I was furious. Someone, a werecat of some sort as far as I could tell by my hands… I mean paws, had attacked me and left me on the side of the road that night and had since then been stalking me. I hopped up on the bed so I could look at myself in the mirror. Looking back from the mirror was a large black cat, leopard by the darker black rosettes dotted along the coat. Nathaniel jumped onto the bed next to me and I swatted him hard down and across the face. He let out a cry and jumped back off the bed curling his tail around his back legs and crouching down as far as he could on the floor. I hadn’t meant to hit him but it was more like an instinct. I got off the bed and padded around to where he was crouched. I leaned down and sniffed his neck – it still smelled like him except the earthy scent was stronger. I put my nose under his jaw and nudged it upwards until he raised his head. I licked hi a few times in apology. The door suddenly crashed open and Zane came running in, stopping short obviously surprised to find cats instead of people. Nathaniel started walking to him but stopped when Zane spoke. “Nathaniel!!” He sounded angry. “What the hell have you done?” I didn’t like his tone of voice and I certainly didn’t like him using it on Nathaniel. “We told you to be careful with her.” Nathaniel made an apologetic sound deep in his throat. Zane took a couple of angry steps towards him and I acted. I found myself standing between cat and man, my feet spread wide to brace myself. I bared my teeth and growled low and deep in warning. I stepped towards him continuing my warning growl. He took a step back. I kept moving him back until he fell on the couch. “Rachel?” he asked hesitantly. I growled at him again in response. “I assume you are aware what’s happened to you and that you didn’t know before otherwise you would’ve told us, right?” I gave him the leopard’s equivalent of an angry meow. “Ooooh k. I think we need to get the two of you out of here for the time being.” He stood up. I snuffed my nose in the direction of my purse that had been next to him on the couch. “Women,” he said as he grabbed my purse and held the door open. “Let’s go kitties.” I growled at him yet again. I turned to look at Nathaniel who was crouched down behind me and threw my head in the direction of the door. He got up and followed me out. I was looking out the back window of Zane’s car as we slowed down in front of a big warehouse that had fanged clowns on top of it and a large sign proclaiming Circus of the Damned. We pulled around to the back of the building and parked. Zane let us out of the car and we quickly walked to the back door. He unlocked the door and we slipped inside. There was a heavy door to our right that we stopped in front of. Zane knocked loudly and moments alter the door was opened by Jason. “Hey man, no pets allowed,” Jason said smiling. I stepped from behind Zane and growled at him causing the smile to disappear from his face. “Who’s your new friend?” he asked tentatively. “Jason, may I introduce Rachel.” The look on his face was priceless. “Holy sh… what the ……?” he stammered. “We need to talk to Anita… or Richard… hell, we just need someone.” Zane said pushing past Jason and heading down the stairs with the rest of us following closely behind. ________________________________________________________________________________________ PART 11 INDEX |