Nine Lives: A Paranormal Adventure (Bad Tom Series Book 3)

by Jill Nojack

  Well, I do look hot.

  But no time to linger. It's time to open the shop. I shed my costume and fold it neatly, then stack it on the bed with Blackie's hat on top.

  I open the shop, get Nat to work, and survey my domain. Everything seems to be in order when my back pocket buzzes.

  I check my phone. It's Dan calling. I've been ignoring his calls for a long time now, but…well, why don't I speak to him? We had a lot of fun until that horrid ex-friend of mine seduced him. He would never have behaved that way on his own, I'm sure.

  Blackie looks straight at me with an encouraging expression. Yes, I'm sure that's right. I haven't given Dan a fair shake. For the first time in months, I swipe right to pick up the call.

  "Hi Dan."

  "Cass? I'm so glad you answered. I've been going crazy with us apart. I know it looked bad the last time I saw you…."

  "Yes, it did, but…" I realize I don't know what I want to say to him. Where the hurt used to be there's just a hole. Why was I ever angry in the first place? "Why don't you come over some time?" I say.

  Where did that come from? Blackie worries at the hem of my jeans playfully. Oh, who cares, right? All I can think about right now is Dan's smile, his close-cropped blonde hair, and great abs. So unlike Tom with his long, messy hair and skinny legs.

  It's funny, I never thought of his legs as skinny before. I mean, he's lean, but I always thought he was fit. See? Falling out of love is easy once you can see a man's flaws. And how could a dog person possibly love a cat person? It just couldn't happen.

  In fact, I'm beginning to think all of that Tom business was just infatuation.

  Dan? Now, Dan has a lot to offer.

  I've been prowling around downtown since early morning, and Cat is starting to protest. He wants to slip into the alleys and backyards for a hunt, but I need him to stay vigilant.

  Gillian has her car parked at the end of the street where she can see the action. Our plan to break Cassie free of Anat's influence isn't brilliant, but its the best we've got. Basically, it's the same thing that failed with Robert: I'll try to lure the dog away.

  From my hiding place in the shadows in the alley across from the shop, I have a front row seat to watch Cassie finishing her opening routine for the day through the big front display windows. The black pup she's adopted sits at her feet.

  Then Nat comes out from the back, carrying a stack of boxes. She unpacks them quickly and arrays their contents on an empty shelf and goes into the back again. She's dressed in the same clothes she was wearing yesterday except for a pair of Cassie's comfy slippers. Bunny slippers. Cute on Cassie. Frightening on Nat.

  She's been at the shop all night? Great. Seems like Anat is closing ranks, keeping her minions close together.

  It's torture waiting for the shop to open, but Cassie unlocks the front door soon enough. My target, the small black beast that accompanies her, frolics at her heels.

  The first customer arrives, and I slip in with her, hiding behind her legs the best I can and then slipping around to the back of a set of shelves.

  Nat hasn't reappeared, but Cassie is behind the counter, talking on the phone. I strain to catch what she's saying.

  "I know. I've missed you, too."

  Who is she talking to? I poke my head out from behind the shelves as far as I dare and point my ever-so-sensitive furry sound scoopers right at her.

  "Yes, I would. I'd like to see you, Dan…why not tonight? Mmmmmm…oh, I remember…."

  My world shatters: I scrunch low, pulling in further from the world, my traitor ears pulled back now, low to my head. I don't want to hear any more.

  Then, from around the far side of the counter, Cassie's demon dog comes into view, teeth bared. Man, did he pick the wrong time to mess with me.

  Cat's hackles rise to answer the dog's ridiculous, tiny growl, and the fleshy sheath around his claws retract. Come and get us if you dare, midget monster mutt. We're ready for action.

  I take a quick glance over my shoulder to the door for my way out—this needs to go to plan now. No, I'm trapped in here until that door opens again. My only immediate option is to go skyward to safety. Without a hitch, I'm two shelves up on the narrow end cap, and the pup can leap uselessly in my general direction as much as it wants, but it's not getting to me.

  Cassie can, though, once she gets to an angle where she can spot me. She walks out from behind the counter, coming to see what's got her demon dog in such a frenzy. I pull in small. I don't want her to catch a glimpse of my tail and hurry it up.

  The shop bell signals someone's exit or entry just in time. I launch myself toward the door and fly over the dog's head, landing right in front of the opening and dash outside before the incoming customer has time to let go of the handle.

  Is the pup even behind me? If it didn't chase me, the plan is already sunk. I can't stop to look. And then there's a yap a few feet behind that tells me it made it out of the shop, too.

  Cassie's voice rings out above the yelping. "Damn you, Tom! Stay out of my life!"

  This time, I need to take care of business. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

  First option is to run the beast into traffic. But no, nothing coming from either direction. I bolt across the street with the pup in hot pursuit, but how far will it follow me? Will it get far enough away from Cassie that I can face it down and take it out by shifting and punching its lights out with big, man fists?

  Wait, there…that's what I need.

  I head for the alley across the street, where the thudding and thunking of items landing in the hopper signals that the weekly trash pick up is currently in progress down the cross alley behind. If I can maneuver this right…

  I dart across the street and through the alley, the damned dog following close, yapping all the way. I could outpace it if I want, but its stupid barking lets me know exactly how close it is so I can keep its attention without getting nipped.

  I hope Gillian doesn't miss her cue. But there's no time to worry about that. I've get hell on my heels.

  I veer to the right at the end of the alley with the whining sound of the garbage truck hydraulics keening in my ears from the left. Perfect. A set of stairs up to the small loading dock at the back door of the bakery is directly in front of me, and its dumpster is on the other side. Cat's prowled here thousands of times. He knows the lay of the land. I rush up the steps and hope I'm still being followed. I take my leap of faith.

  Cat sails out across the top of the half-empty open dumpster from the end of the stair landing and hits the other side with his paws curled around the hard metal. Nothing to grab onto. But I can't fall into the thing. He hooks his paws around the lip and gives a mighty pull, his back claws scritching frantically at the unyielding metal beneath them.

  His strong back legs push us up and outward as he works them against the side of the bin, pulling upward with his cupped paws. We're out the other side with one last leap onto the concrete pad below.

  I turn, hackles still raised, ready to bolt.

  The pup isn't so lucky. He doesn't have nifty cat paws to pull himself out of the mess he's jumped into.

  His useless yapping goes unheard in the squealing of the hydraulics as the sanitation truck slides its hooks in and skewers the dumpster on its forks, ready to raise it. Soon, it'll be dumped and crushed. I say good riddance to bad rubbish.

  Oh hell. No way.

  Not when victory is this close.

  The pup comes floating out of the hopper before the forks turn it for emptying. Behind him, Nat's standing on the loading dock I vacated such a short time ago, her right hand stretched out toward it, beckoning. An identical black puppy with a red bow affixed over its right ear slobbers at her ankles.

  Our eyes meet. Hers are blank and Nat-less.

  I'm no coward, but I'm no match for her powers, either. She's sorcery on steroids. Even Gillian would think twice about taking her on unless she had no other choice.

  I grab my chance to run while she's still occupied. Here'
s hoping she stays focused on saving the dog and doesn't shift her magical attention to a small, swift cat with only one life left tearing away from her down the alley.

  ***

  I make a dash for the waiting car which is right where we planned it would be. I jump in through the open back window and judder through the shift. My morphing brain registers that Cassie isn't in the car: another part of the plot gone wrong. I start to speak even before I've finished my transformation. Nothing could be more urgent.

  "Natalie. She saved it," I force out. But it sounds more like a Cat's yowl than human speech. A tortured "Yaaah gaaah heaow."

  Gillian looks back at me across her shoulder with wide eyes, her mouth open in a surprised gasp. I rushed up on her so quickly and silently I doubt she even knew I was there until my limbs started slamming against the seats as I transformed. "By the Goddess, Tom! You scared the life out of me."

  "I failed. Natalie rescued it. Did you hear me?"

  I grab the waiting pair of sweatpants off the back seat and cover myself.

  "Rescued the puppy?"

  "Yes. I nearly lured Blackie away from Cassie, but Nat managed to save him at the last minute. Take off! Get us out of here!" The tires squeal as Gillian revs the engine and peels out of the parking space. "I'd really hoped she was just playing along. Spying. It's bad enough Anat has Robert, having someone as powerful as Natalie on the side of the enemy…"

  "No. No. It doesn't really bear thinking about," she replies as she stops briefly at the cross street to look both ways. "But I've got a surprise for you that should lighten your mood. Let's get home and see if there's a silver lining in this cloud."

  ***

  Gillian pops open the trunk and there Cassie is, trussed up and gagged.

  I know I broadcast my feeling of horror to Gillian as I dart a look sideways at her. She doesn't look like some deranged psycho. She still looks like the same pleasant, pudgy, not-at-all-Norman-Bates Gillian I've always known. But there's no way Cassie deserved this. She's not making any noise. And she's not moving.

  What did Gilly do?

  Her reassuring hand comes down softly on my shoulder. "Tom, I know it looks bad, but it's not like she was going to come willingly. I was barely able to overpower her with my magic; if I hadn't taken her by surprise when you lured her canine companion away and Natalie followed the both of you, she would have been too strong for me. I had to immobilize her."

  I start to untie her. Gillian's hand moves swiftly from my shoulder to my wrist to stop me.

  "No, let me wake her up first, and we'll see if she's going to continue to fight us. She's becoming a powerful witch, Tom. If she doesn't want to be here, she can give us a lot of trouble."

  I know she's telling the truth. But this is Cass, my Cass, and I can't stand seeing her this way much longer.

  Gillian passes her hands over Cassie's eyes, and they open. She looks terrified, then she looks from Gillian to me, her eyes pleading, and a tear forms and slides down one cheek.

  I can't wait. And we're miles away from her demonic pet now. Everything I've seen tells me they have limited range and have to be able to make visual or physical contact to keep the bond going.

  I don't care what happens. I remove her gag. "I'm so glad you're safe. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

  She says, "I…I thought you guys were planning on hurting me." She looks from Gillian to me again and then down at her bonds. "You're not going to hurt me, right?"

  "No, no…we just have to be sure you're you again, sweetie," Gillian says, while I stand there stunned that Cassie could think I'd hurt her. She must know, after all we've been through, that I'd fight with every fiber of my being to never cause her harm no matter what Anat might do to me.

  "Okay," she says, relaxing, words pouring out of her. "Would you mind getting these ropes off me, then? And what happened to me? I feel like the thoughts I was having were mine, but they were so…twisted. And Nat? That was really weird. Nat never does what anyone tells her to do. And she was all like, 'let me help you with that, dear' and 'what would you like me to do next'. Scary." She shudders. She's definitely my Cassie again.

  I lift her out of the trunk and Gillian lays her hands on the wrist and ankle ties in turn. The bonds fall away.

  "I'm sorry. I'm sorry we had to do this," I tell her, apologizing again. What else can I do?

  "No, I know there's something going on. I can feel it. When I was in that trunk, it was like a haze lifted. I'm pretty sure I'm missing great big chunks of the last few days. And you two, you're not really…" She looks from me to Gilly, appraising. She shifts uneasily in my arms.

  "No. There's nothing between us. What you saw was some kind of projection related to the dogs. Anat did it."

  "Anat?" she questions, her brow furled. Her eyes turn to Gilly. "You got rid of Anat." Her eyes narrow, suspicion slipping over her face again before it relaxes back into curiosity.

  Gilly says, "Sort of, sweetheart. She's definitely changed from what she was, even though her motivations apparently haven't. Tom didn't think there was any reason to tell you."

  I take a deep breath, then say, "At the time, it seemed like a good decision. And I really thought I'd taken care of it."

  "Okay, you guys have a lot of explaining to do, but first…." She kicks her feet and pushes against me with her hands. "You can put me down now, Tom. I have a killer headache. I need a nap."

  I set her on her feet gently but reluctantly, and she follows Gillian, who heads into the house.

  I expect her to set up house with me in my room now that she knows there's nothing up between me and Gilly, and Gilly does, too, I guess, when she leads her there to sleep. But when I rush into the room first to pick up the clothes I didn't bother to put in the hamper, she asks for her own room. She doesn't even glance at me. Gillian obliges her immediately, without a question.

  Cassie doesn't care about the dirty clothes on the floor. Anat has played a winning hand again: even though I have her back where she'll be safe, Cassie still doesn't trust me.

  I take out my wallet and check the all-important receipt is still there. I feel an urgent need to reassure myself it hasn't been magiced away somehow, too. It's still there, and as long as it is, I know that ring will someday find a home on Cassie's finger.

  ***

  "Don't leave me behind," Cassie says, her look pleading.

  "You're safer here, Cass," I tell her. "We need to keep you hidden so Anat can't snatch you back."

  "So, you're just going to leave me alone? Exposed?"

  Gillian jumps in. "Hardly exposed, sweetheart. I can ward this room so well that the Goddess herself wouldn't be able to get into it. I've lived here so many years that my essence permeates the very walls. Any wards I place around it should be impassable."

  Cassie looks doubtful. "But…"

  I shake my head. "No buts. I know you don't trust me right now, and I don't blame you, because I made a bad mistake keeping you in the dark about what really happened to Anat, even if I did it because I thought it was best for you. But please believe me when I say it—I would rather lose my own life than put yours at risk. You'll be safer here."

  She looks into my eyes, seeking, and I guess she finds what she's looking for.

  "Fine," she says. "But I don't have to like it. What's so important that you have to break into Robert's place for it, anyway?"

  "I forgot about the invisibility suit when I moved back to the shop. It's in a closet there. And it might help us find out what's going on."

  Her face squinches, and her shoulders tense. I know she's thinking about where the suit came from: it was Kevin's, and he used it to peep on women, including Cassie. I start to move toward her for a hug, but her look tells me to stay where I am. Reluctantly, I step out of the room so the witches can do their thing.

  Gillian wards the room from the hall as Cassie's quieter voice begins the chant to ward it from the inside after the non-magical lock tumblers click. Then, outside, Gillian does some more herb-burn
ing and hand-waving around the perimeter of the house. That pup has no chance of getting to Cassie tonight.

  Still, I'm distracted. It's not good enough to free Cassie from Anat. We need to free Robert and Natalie, too, before I can get off this adrenalin rush I'm riding.

  ***

  "It's a little spooky out here in the middle of the night, isn't it?" Gillian asks, her words whispered and overwhelmed by the croaking frogs in the nearby pond, even though we're crouched in the damp brush so far out on Robert's property that there's no way he can hear us or spot us.

  "It's the best time of night. The night things have woken up. I sense them around us." I sample the fragrant air in a long whiff and the musky animal scent fills my head with images of the hunt. "And smell them." I breathe a sigh of longing before I grab my senses back from Cat.

  She looks at me a little surprised, her eyes wide in the scarce moonlight. "I guess I didn't realize how much of you is Cat even when you're you."

  "He's a part of me." I shrug. And with only one of his lives left, he's a part I need to take good care of. My demon-goddess enslaver Anat or Eunice or whatever she wanted to call herself made sure of that when she tied my life to his.

  "We're getting close to the first boundary." She stops for a minute, two fingers in the air, like she's pope-waving to her followers; she gestures with them from side to side. "It's just here and it's active…yes…oh my, that's clever." She beams with admiration. She just can't stop admiring Robert's handiwork.

  She goes on, "It allows entry by a person's intent. Because we have no intent to harm the occupants of the house, we should be able to step through easily. Now, if Anat is actually in the house, well…that could create a problem. Because we certainly mean to harm her."

  She steps forward again, slowly, and I follow.

  "Yes, that's fine," she says. "As long as we don't mean harm to anyone within the circle, we should be able to pass through it at any time. You won't have trouble with this one tomorrow assuming that Anat still isn't present. And you have no intent to harm Robert or the pups?"