Cat's Out - Book 3

Chapter 1 - lie cat lie

Normally, when you give a guy like Moloch the cat's equivalent of the finger, you expect some immediate retaliation.

Not so. Grant and I enjoyed a quiet afternoon of watching the Tigers lose, and then finished our date at the Frosty Freeze. Really, we need to expand our culinary palettes. With that thought in mind, I go for the peanut twister.

Grant, however, is still not in a cheery mood. "So when are you going to tell me what's going on?"

He deserves to know. After all, I nearly got him killed over my dealings with occult gang members. But what can I say? Well, you see, I'm a shapeshifter--do you like cats?--and this guy wants me to help him kill drug-adicts. No idea why, but there's demons involved.

"It's complicated," is what I settle on. Lame. I'm so losing him. At least I almost had a real life.

"No kidding." He dips into his own sundae. "Let's see. Your sister was killed. A good friend of mine is almost killed. You keep making trips into the worst parts of the city. You hit a 86 mile per hour fast ball over the left field wall. And you had to meet this gang leader at a Tigers game to tell him...what?"

Boy, he's nosy. "I can't really explain--"

"Try."

All I wanted this year was to play baseball and enjoy the two week tanning season in Cherry Hill. I have to tell him. I may lose him. But aren't I about to do that anyway? Besides, he's no doubt on The Resurrections radar. They'll come after him again. I have to tell him so he can be careful.

I take a deep breath. "Okay. Here's the thing--I'm not like other girls."

He looks at me as if he's about to leave me and a perfectly good sundae sitting at this table while he peels out of the parking lot.

"No." I press on. "I mean, I can do things. You know that. But there's more. I'm strong for a reason. Something happened to me. And now this guy, Moloch, wants to use me." I take another deep breath. Just spit it out! Okay, I can do this. So long, potential soulmate. "I'm a shape--"

"Grant!"

Oh bother. We turn to see Teen Action Barbie sashaying her way through the tables.

Grant nods. "Hi Kari."

I grunt. I think. Maybe it was a hiss.

Kari invites herself to the party and plops her perfectly rounded keister between us. Okay, she's a high percentage of bench closer to Grant than to me. She turns to him, showing me the back of her French braid. "I haven't seen you all summer!" she says.

"Summer's only a week old." Grant tries to see past her to me. "And I think you saw me here last Saturday."

"Half over." Kari makes a tsk-ing sound. "Football camp will be here before you know it." She turns to me. "And you probably have--what?--band camp or something?"

"Cheer," I say. "But I'll probably skip it."

"Oh, cheer! How sweet. And where is it you're going back to at the end of the summer? Or sooner."

"Cherry Hill." I vaguely notice that my spoon is bent almost to the breaking point in my hand. I relax.

"Cherry Hill?" Kari laughs. "Sounds like a home for old spinsters!" She laughs harder.

Grant, bless his heart, tries to save me. "It's a nice town. Right on Grand Traverse Bay."

"Ohh," Kari says. "I've been up there once. Told Daddy never to take me again. I honestly don't know how anyone lives that far north." She presses her fingers to her mouth to stifle another laugh. "That would explain why they're so frigid, though!"

If her jokes get any worse, I'm going cat and shredding the top layer of tanned skin. "I like it," I say. "The snow tends to keep away self-centered sluts."

Silence. So deep that my cat hearing could pick up shuffling critters from the other side of the strip mall. I take note to avoid that Krogers supermarket.

Kari is speechless. Which totally makes my rudeness worth it. Finally, she finds her voice. "You need to watch your step."

"Or?" Oh please oh please let me use her for a scratching post!

"Or I'll see to it that you can't take a step around here in peace. I've got more friends than the entire population of your shit town."

Grant tries to ease the tension. "Darla and I were just going." He stands and holds out his hand for me.

I look at it. Then at Barbie. I stand and say, "Oh, wait, we didn't get you any ice cream." The sundae is halfway tipped over when Grant pulls me away hard enough to avoid a chilly bath for Kari. But she knows my intent. The glare is almost as good as the sundae hat would have been.

We ride in silence and Grant drops me at my house. We don't kiss this time. Hard to engage lips over the wall I've built with my own little paws. The little trist with Kari broke my willingness to spill the beans to Grant. I'm such a scaredy cat.

After shutting the car door, he meets my eyes long enough to say, "Be seein' ya."

I think I've just been dumped.