Night Cat | Night Cat #1 (CURRENTLY EDITING)

Night Cat - Chapter 13

I Need Some Answers.

“Are you sure you’re alright sweetie?”

My mom stood in the doorway, her hand on the light switch. I sighed. Was she really expecting me to answer this question again? It was probably the millionth time she’d asked me that in the past hour.

From where I lay curled up under my large duvet quilt, I nodded. “Yes Mom. I’m fine.” I gave her my most angelic smile. When that didn’t work and she still looked uncertain, I added, “Really Mom, I’m fine. I’m just still a bit groggy from the drugs they gave me, but other than that, I’m fine.”

She bit down on her lower lip for a moment, before going, “You’ll call me if you need anything?”

“Yes, Mom.” I hated the fact that she was so worried. The worst part was that she had to deal with all of this herself. If my dad had been here, they would have taken turns in stressing out. But he was away on business in Montreal, so my mom had to deal with all my crap all on her own. Yeah, I was definitely wining the Best Daughter Of The Year award. Not.

“Okay then. Goodnight sweetie.” She flicked off the light and shut the door behind her and I was plummeted into darkness.

Until I reached over and clicked my lamp on, that is.

There was no way in hell that I was going to be able to sleep. Not after all that had happened today. I knew myself well enough to know that, with all the crap that had happened in the past twenty-four hours, I was just going to toss and turn in bed without getting any sleep. So I figured that I might as well get some answers.

I crawled into a pair of jeans, threw a hoodie over the camisole I was wearing and brutally pulled my hair into a tight ponytail. I was just about to climb out my bedroom window when I remembered a crucial part of my plan. I retracted my head and walked over to my bedside table where I’d left my phone. Once I’d skimmed through a couple of texts wishing me a speedy recovery, I sent one to Xander.

The woods. Now. We Need to talk.

I wasn’t planning on waiting for a reply. I shoved my cell phone into my pocket and then snuck out through my window. A cold breeze toyed with a strand of my hair, plastering it to my face. Cautiously, I moved across the porch roof until I came to the trellis. Another cold gust blew through my hair, and I shivered, thankful that I’d worn my warm hoodie instead of pulling a tee over my cami like I’d originally wanted to.

Slowly, I descended down the trellis, landing quietly on the wooden floor of the porch. I glanced up at my bedroom window, praying that my mom wouldn’t decide to pay me a visit. At least not until I got back.

I ran over to the edge of the woods and stood there for a few minutes, debating whether or not I should shift into my Cat-form. I decided against it. My head was still slightly throbbing and I had no idea what kind of an impact all that medication would do to leopard-me. So I braved the depths of the forest as Human-Avery – something that I never would have done had I not been so determined to get answers.

As I trudged forward, the day’s events kept replaying in my head over and over again, like some annoying DVD that had gotten scratched. I recalled how Xander had punched Keegan. How Keegan had then punched Xander back. How the two of them then began throwing each other around my room. How two male nurses had to literally pry Xander and Keegan off each other.  Xander’s bleeding nose. Keegan bruised eye. I also remembered how, when the nurses began dragging Keegan away to get his bruised eye looked at, Xander had yelled, “I know everything. Stay away from her.”

“I know everything”... Those words kept echoing in my mind. To anyone else, those words would have seemed harmless. Anyone would have just figured that Xander was talking about my fight with Keegan. But I heard that threatening, yet protective, tone in Xander’s voice. He knew something.

The sound of a twig snapping pulled me out of my thoughts. I spun around wildly, looking for the source of the noise. When I couldn’t find it, I was tempted into shifting, just to be on the safe side. That’s when the throbbing in my head started up again. I shook my head, deciding to ignore the noise and continue walking. It was probably just an animal.

I was right. It was an animal. But it definitely wasn’t a friendly one, let me tell you that.

I was only a couple of feet from the river, when suddenly; a large cat dropped down from a tree and landed only a few feet away from me. The bobcat.

Every muscle in my body screamed for me to run, to shift - to do something. But I couldn’t. I was frozen. Whether it was from the shock or the fear that was coursing through my body, I didn’t know. All I knew was that I was incapable of movement.

The bobcat advanced on me, a hungry look in his eyes. I shivered as it closed the gap between us with only a few short steps. As I looked into the eyes of the beast that was about to rip my throat out, a light flicked on in the back of my head.

Those eyes... I’d seen them before. Those startlingly familiar green eyes...

That’s when I realized that I was just about to learn what Xander had meant when he’d told Keegan that he knew “Everything”.  My hunch was confirmed when the Bobcat shifted into its human form in front of me.

Even though I’d already figured it out, a million years of preparation couldn’t have stopped what I was about to witness from shocking me to my very core. Because when the Bobcat shifted, I saw, with a heavy heart, that... It was Keegan.