Leopard Moon

Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE

            Kess went from sleep to waking immediately, eyelids flying open and eyes already searching the room for danger. It was a trained response by now. No more for her the slow slide into wakefulness. Nope, she was ready to fight or flee as soon as her eyes opened these days. She forced herself to lie still in the bed, trying to calm her breathing. Something had triggered her waking; one thing she had learned in her months on the run was that you listened to the little instincts that told you something was off. Ignoring them could cost you your freedom. Or worse.

            The room she was in was empty. It was a long-term rental motel room, grungy and beat down from hard use. She slept with the lights off, but her pupils were larger than strictly human now so she had no trouble seeing in the dark. She slid off the bed, crouching next to it--letting it shield her--still trying to figure out what was wrong.

            She heard it then—the scuff of shoes against cement outside her door. Keeping low, she slunk over to the door, ears straining for another sound that might give away whoever was outside. She was grateful the dilapidated window unit wasn’t on; it would have masked the sound with its wheezing and mechanical death rattles. She heard the doorknob turn. It was loose in the setting so it always jiggled a little in the door. It was one of the built-in alarms of the room, alerting her to uninvited guests in the middle of the night.

            Kess grabbed her jeans off the rickety chair and slid them on, then stuck her feet into the shoes she’d been waiting tables in last night. Her bag was packed and ready to go. She’d gotten wise after the first and only time she’d had to run with what she had on her. Now, she was always ready to move.

          She stopped and listened again. Nothing. It could be a thief looking for easy pickings or it could be someone looking for her in particular. Neither possibility made her want to stay one minute longer. She didn’t want to risk a look out the curtained windows in case someone was still out there. She pulled the duffle’s strap over her shoulder and edged over to the dresser. Keeping as low as she could, she stuck her hand behind it and removed the duct tape that secured a plastic bag to the backside of the dresser. The bag held her spare sets of papers and a stack of cash for emergencies. She stowed everything in various pockets and crept to the bathroom.

            There was a window above the plastic tub/shower combo. It was part of why she went with a room on the end of the row. She’d already made sure the window was in working order when she first took the place; now she slid it open and popped out the screen. It made a slight clatter when it hit the ground, followed by the muffled thump of her duffle bag. Then she hoisted herself up on the small ledge and slithered through awkwardly. She stopped her controlled fall out the window by catching herself on her hands, the gravel of the lot digging into her palms. It was early morning, and the horizon was beginning to glow with the coming dawn.

            She was in a narrow alley between the two rectangular motel buildings. Her car was parked a couple of blocks away. She didn’t like the walk, but it also kept her car and lodging separate from each other and she tried to do this wherever possible. She scooped up her bag and was slinging it over her shoulder when a man came around the corner from the back of the building. She froze.

            "Kestrel Saleh?"

            Damn. Her real name. He wasn’t a wereleopard, at least not one she’d know from her clan, which meant that he was probably one of the many private investigators her father had tasked with finding her. He was tall and bulky, dressed in a pair of khakis and a polo shirt, maybe in his mid-forties. She probably couldn’t outrun him, not with the bag and her shoes, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t try.

            She spun around and took off, pounding around the corner and trying to pick up speed when she was at the front of the hotel. He caught her arm after only a few yards. He pulled her backwards, towards his chest.

            "FIRE!" she screamed. "FIRE! FIRE!"

            His hand clapped over her mouth, cupped so she couldn’t bite down. He was still trying to pull her backwards, but she saw some lights coming on in several of the rooms. If she could break his hold, she could probably make a run for it when people started sticking their heads out of their rooms to see what was going on.

            Her shoes had a heavy, chunky heel which she dug into his shin as hard as she could and dragged down the front of his leg. She heard him curse and his hand came away from her mouth. "FIRE!" she shrieked again, pretty sure that she would sprain a vocal chord with all of the screeching she was doing. His grip hadn’t loosened, so she stomped down on the top of his foot near his instep, grinding that chunky heel into the soft leather of his shoe.

            His hold relaxed and she jerked aside, sprinting away as doors opened and her neighbors began filing out to see where the fire was. Adrenaline gave her an extra burst of speed and she crossed the few blocks of empty parking lots and closed businesses in a matter of minutes, checking for pursuit all the way there. She was panting when she reached her car, flinging her bag and herself inside. She struggled to get the key in the ignition because her hands were shaking.

            Kess pulled the car into the street, not really sure where she was going, knowing only that she couldn’t stay where she was. Soon her father would know and that meant Sek would too. She’d need a new car, in case the P.I. reported this one, or new plates, but she’d worry about that after she’d put some serious miles between herself and California. Once she had some space she could figure out where she was going next.

            She hadn’t even been in California three months.