Familiar

Chapter Five

We finished up at the coffee shop and when I finally pulled my phone out of the bag, I realized it had been hours, and I had four missed calls and several voicemails and text messages from Tanya. Oops. I really had not noticed how long we were talking. I wasn't sure that was a good thing or not. As he drove me back to my house, I realized there was one thing that he still hadn't brought up. The fox I saw.

"The night before, when I met you," I mulled the words over in my head carefully before I spoke. But Ryan glanced at me, and I could tell he was listening. "You said that the fox I saw, you said you didn't think that it was just nothing. So, what do you think it is?" He was quiet for a moment, but obviously thinking.

"I think," He glanced at me again as he spoke. "It's connected with the spell." I frowned, not understanding.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for starters, the fox only showed himself after you started doing the spell, right?" I nodded. "Okay, has the fox ever acted really strange around you? Done anything that's not normal animal behavior?" I immediately remembered how it had rested its head on my lap. Not exactly typical of a wild creature.

"Yes," I answered without bothering to elaborate. His hands flexed on the wheel. "What do you think it is?"

"Do you know the term familiar?" I frowned, puzzled for a moment.

"Do you mean like in the stories, of witches with their," I waved my hands to try and find the right term. 'spirit pet things'? Ryan laughed gently at my terminology.

"Yes, their 'spirit pet things', and if I had to guess that fox - it's yours." What? I thought that couldn't be.

"But that doesn't make sense. They're just from stories, the can't be real-" I stopped talking when Ryan gave me a pointed look.

"Oh, right. I guess." We had just been talking about a spell to resurrect people from the dead. I guess I would have to accept that 'familiars' were possible too.

"Do you have one?" As soon as I had finished speaking, I regretted it. Ryan's face contorted for a moment, as if in pain, and he tightened his hands on the steering wheel.

"Had." He answered curtly. There was no way I was asking him to explain further. Whatever happened must have been bad, really bad. Ryan reached over and turned on the radio, confirming my suspicions that this topic of conversation was over.

We arrived at my place a few minutes later, and as he parked the car I started wondering what I was supposed to do. Should I invite him in? Should I just leave? Thankfully, Ryan saved me from my momentary panic.

"I have to get up early tomorrow, otherwise I'd come up and say hi to Tanya, but I'll walk you to the door." He opened his car door, and as I moved to unbuckle my seatbelt, he spoke quickly. "Wait, don't move." I unclicked my seat belt but stayed in the car until he got to my side and opened the passenger door for me.

"Thank you," I said politely as I took his hand and he pulled me up.

"You're welcome." He answered as I stood facing him. His mouth opened, and he stared at something over my shoulder.

"Wha-" I started to turn around, but he put a finger to his lips shushing me, then motioned with his head to turn around. I did as instructed, and a few feet away on the opposite side of the car stood a fox on the sidewalk. Watching.

"That's your familiar," Ryan whispered to me. At the sound of his voice, the fox's ears pinned back, obviously a warning of some sort. "And protective." Ryan chuckled slightly to himself.

"I don't understand. Are you sure it's not just an animal?" He gave me a look that suggested I was crazy.

"No animal would display signs of protectiveness like that without its own little ones around. And it can understand more than you'd think."