Unfamiliar (Unfamiliar Series #1)

Chapter 32

"I'm...an Unfamiliar." 

A long pause of silence follows as I find myself speaking in a hushed voice, like saying it too loud will alert the nearest person who wants to kill me.

And maybe it just might. 

I push the paranoia down that threatens to swallow me. I have to trust that she will help me. 

Officer Marshall sits back heavily into the couch, her eyebrows arching high across her brow line as she exchanges a quick glance with Garret. Since Astrid has introduced me to telepathy, I can almost believe that they're speaking telepathically as well. Several expressions flit across their faces between the two of them before Officer Marshall clears her throat and looks at me. 

"Kara-."

"I know that it sounds crazy, but please hear me out before you judge me," I nearly beg her when I hear the disbelieving tone in her voice. 

She frowns and looks to Garret again, who shakes his head at her as he rummages through his shoe box. There is a pause as she takes a breath, a slow even one as she sits up and clasps her hands in her lap. It's like a switch has been flipped as she seems to put on her best, professional attitude.  

 "Okay, I'm listening," she says in an even, steady voice. 

"Just give me a second, I've only conjured another person's familiar a few times before," I explain.

When she nods at this, I reach out to conjure her familiar as I let my energy open up. It's like seeking out a thread in complete darkness, a subtle thing to sense. I feel the same twinge that I had felt when I controlled the other familiars on the field and in the gymnasium. I pull the thread in my mind, unraveling it as I begin to bring her familiar into existence. 

There's a flicker of its outline beside her before it solidifies. The familiar, a cheetah, looks just as shocked as its caster, its rounded ears flicking and tilting uneasily. Clear, amber eyes scan the room and its pupils dilate when they focus on me. It makes a low trilling noise in its throat, its whiskers flaring. 

Officer Marshall sits up slowly, her movements tinged with unease. With her eyes remaining on her familiar, she looks to Garret, her mouth opening and closing several times. It's almost funny to see that she's suddenly at a loss for words. 

She finally reaches out and touches her familiar, her hand shaking slightly as she strokes the cheetah on its head.

"Flora," she whispers dazedly before she looks to me, her eyes alight with wonder.

"I believe her," Garret says as he looks from Officer Marshall to me and shrugs. "I mean, there is no other explanation."

Officer Marshall nods once, then twice and blinks at me. There is a newfound respect in her eyes and I am instantly grateful for it. No fear, no hatred, just...confusion and wonder. 

 "So tell me what it means to be Unfamiliar," she says in a low voice. 

I sit up straighter on the couch, clasping my hands in my lap as I chip at the edge of one of my nails, picking at the dark blue paint I had tried to apply earlier today. I take a breath to steady myself before I speak. 

"It's dangerous," I sum up for her, "Unfamiliars are blamed for a lot, there are cults out there who...want to wipe witches like me out."

Officer Marshall gets to her feet then, her movements quick enough she nearly startles me as she steps over and takes a seat on the couch next to me. There is an intensity in her gaze that I wasn't expecting, and in it I solemnly realize just how dire this all was. My life was in danger and my fingers become unexpectedly cold at the climbing panic.