Carrie Vaughn - Kitty Raises Hell

But she’s drawn to him.

“I’ve never seen you like this,” he says. “What a beautiful creature. Not that I expected anything different.”

She growls low.

“You can’t hurt me. You know that, I think. Somewhere in there you know I’m your friend.” He crouches, offers a hand. “Kitty. It’s Friday. You have a show to do, don’t you? You need to come back.”

His voice lulls her. But the anger that drew her into this shape lingers. Who is he to tell her this?

“Kitty. Shh. Shh.”

She glares and meets his gaze. “Go to sleep. I’ll watch over you. You’ll be all right. Shh.”

Pacing, she stumbles. Her body is succumbing to the spell of his voice even as her mind panics. But her other half agrees with him. Sleep. We have work to do. We have to sleep.

He reaches to her, but she won’t approach him. Nearby, there’s a shadow made by foliage, as close to a forest as she’ll find here. She curls up in this spot, folding her legs, putting nose to tail. Tries to keep an eye on the man of death who crouches nearby. But her eyes are heavy, and they close.

I awoke groaning, clenching my limbs, because nothing smelled right. Nothing seemed right.

Vampires, there were vampires here, and I was all tangled up in the sheets, and...

Naked.

I was lying on dried grass, covered with an overcoat that smelled like Rick.

The whole episode played through my memory on fast-forward. The demon, Roman, Changing, Rick. He was sitting nearby, within arm’s reach, hands holding his knees.

He glanced at me. “Hello.”

I didn’t have to get drunk and hungover anymore to wake up pissed off and groggy. I had this instead. I groaned again, rubbed my face, and decided against sitting up just yet.

“How much do you remember?” he said.

“Most of it, believe it or not. What did he do to me? He said those words, pushed me over the edge. I didn’t know vampires could do that.” But it wasn’t just him. I remembered the rage that had spurred the final Change, and that rage had been all mine.

“That isn’t part of a vampire’s power. Roman has something else, some kind of spellcraft, maybe even a form of hypnotic suggestion. It was probably similar to what he used to repel the demon.”

“You saw all that?” Now I did sit up, awkwardly keeping the coat around me. I was probably really lucky Rick had been around. I might have gone running off into traffic or something.

“Yes. I’ve been keeping an eye on Roman. On both of you,” he said.

“Oh.” He had probably seen us talking the other night, then. Right on the edge of plotting against him. “I guess I should say thanks. For the intervention.”

“And I suppose I should apologize. For thinking you really would go along with him against me.”

I sighed. “It’s been very frustrating not feeling like I have a say in the matter. Feeling like I’m at the mercy of both of you.”

“There’s so much more to this than you know, Kitty. Who he really is, what he is—I’ve met vampires like him before, and they’re dangerous. You have no idea how dangerous. Their manipulations have dozens of levels—I can’t explain it all to you.”

I smirked. “Spoken like a true vampire. ‘You puny mortals couldn’t possibly understand.’”

He ducked his gaze and chuckled. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I thought I was protecting you. Sheltering you from people like him.”

“Keeping me in the dark isn’t protecting me,” I said.

“Obviously,” he said. “Still, his offer must be tempting, now that he’s proven he can deal with this thing with a snap of his fingers.”

“Yeah.” I wondered who was going to die tonight, now that the demon was even more aggravated. “I’m not through yet. We’ve got a plan. Maybe it’ll actually work.”

“Can I help?”

“Just keep keeping an eye on Roman.”

“I’ve only found him when I’ve followed you, but I’m working on it. I need to know where he came from and what he wants.”

I huffed. “I can tell you that—he wants to get his greedy little paws into Denver.”

“But why?”

We could keep asking that question, drilling further and further back for every answer we came up with.

Headlights appeared as a car turned the corner, driving slowly as it edged along the alley.

Rick stood. “Hold on a moment.”

I looked around. I hadn’t gotten far from the parking lot. Across the street and down the block, we sat against the row of shrubs and fence that divided the condo from the rest of the neighborhood. The car stopped nearby as Rick flagged it down. It was Ben’s car. The lights went off, then Ben stepped out.

Relieved, because I felt a little safer now, I went to meet him.

“I called him,” Rick said. “I hope you don’t mind.”

Ben looked relieved, too, his lips in a thin smile. “I found your clothes and bag by your car.” He held them up to show me.

Ah, clothes. “Thanks,” I said, leaning into him in an awkward hug—his hands were full, and I was busy holding Rick’s coat around me.

“Are you okay?” Ben said.

“I think so. Just a little shook up.”

Then came shock and panic—I didn’t have my watch, I didn’t know what time it was. It was Friday night and I was supposed to be working right now, not running around naked.

“What time is it?”

“You have an hour,” Ben said. “Get in, I’ll drive.”

He handed me my clothes and got back in the car. I was left holding clothes in one hand, using the other to hold the coat closed, and contemplating how I was going to manage the next few minutes.

I looked at Rick. “You saw me naked, didn’t you?”

“Maybe just a little.” He quirked a smile. Sheesh.

With a long-suffering sigh, I decided to let it go. I handed him his coat and started pulling on my jeans and shirt. The vampire turned his gaze skyward and politely pretended not to notice.

Ben, however, leaned out the driver’s-side window and watched.

“Okay,” I said, finally ready to go. “I’m hoping this’ll all be over tonight, one way or the other.”

He nodded. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.” I flashed a smile, then jumped in the car, and we drove away.

Ben was smirking. No, he was positively leering.

“What?” I said, a little put out.

“You’re awfully cute, you know that?”

“Is that supposed to be a compliment?”

He just kept grinning, all the way to the station.

I was exhausted, itchy, annoyed. My skin still felt like it should have fur. I couldn’t have been asleep for more than an hour—not enough time to sleep off the Wolf. Part of me glared out, shoulders up, head low, like a pacing animal.

“Hey. Keep it together,” Ben said outside the KNOB building.

I took a deep breath and tried to shake it off. Jules and Tina were already there. It was time to get to work.

I trailed Grant’s blood potion around the station building, then left open jars of it inside, at the bottom of the stairs, the door to the elevator, and the entrance to the studio. I made Matt keep a jar near his console. The whole place stank with the sickly, rotting smell of it. The butcher who was supplying me had started to look at me funny.

However, this would keep us safe only here. The creature had made it clear that if it couldn’t have me, it would create chaos elsewhere. Protecting myself seemed so futile.

“You’re expecting trouble,” Matt said. The smell was so strong that even he, a normal human, was wrinkling his nose at it. “What kind of trouble?”

“It’s under control. Don’t worry about it,” I said flatly. Like that was totally convincing. Ben, smirking from the chair he’d settled into near the door, seemed to agree.