The One's You Love (Cat Johnson Chronicles Book 2)

by Katerina Degratte

  “Maori!” I run towards her with tears in my eyes. I can’t lose her.

  The bullet, not looking like it hit a vital spot, but nicking the shoulder.

  “Why are you guys standing around here doing nothing!” I yell at the group of about twenty soldiers that ran in. “Fix her!” I demand. I’m not sure how she even got through the building. “Why did you come here?” I rub Maori behind the ear. A few men running towards her with a first aid kit, and something to slow the bleeding.

  “Tiger told me tonight that the guy posing as Colin wasn’t him.” She coughs. “I ran over to try to protect you as soon as I found out. I’m sorry I didn’t know sooner.” Her eyes droop closed, and I hit her slightly across the face.

  “We got it out!” one man yells, holding the bullet up triumphantly. As others are working on cleaning and sealing the wound.

  “It’s going to hurt a bit, but they're going to stitch you up good as new Maori.” I give her a hug, heartbroken to see her in so much pain as the antibiotics hit her. Then the sharp pain of the needle tugging along in her side. “How's my brother doing?” I ask, as a few other guys have gone over to access the damage with Colin.

  “We’re going to take him to the lab and run a few tests. We don’t know the full extent of damage that monster did to him.” A guy with the name tag saying Josh answers.

  The shapeshifter appeared to be gone, I notice. Must have escaped through all of the commotion.

  I turn towards Raven. “Can you keep an eye on her while I go with Colin so he can get checked out?” She nods. I follow after the two men holding him up as we make our way upstairs.

  “Cat, I’m sorry,” the guy at the front desk apologizes, but I have no words for him right now. “I didn’t realize it was so bad.” If he would have listened, he would have realized.

  We make our way into the lab. One of the soldiers pulling a makeshift bed out from the wall. While the other two gently lay Colin down. We had makeshift beds around the building in case things like this happened. The main scientist looks devastated, but not at Colin. Hank has a bloodied left eyebrow, and a few bruises here and there.

  Hank cries, “He took my reports on all the animal resizing. I nearly had it right for Maori to change how we could do things, but he stole them!” Looking at his own arms, as if anguished that he wasn’t strong enough to fight off what happened. He was known for his brain though, not for being brawn. “Now I’ll have to start everything back from scratch, and I don’t even know where to begin.” He frantically pulls his fingers through his hair, glancing up at Colin, and I. He straightens his posture as if this is the first time he realized anyone else was there. “Apologies. Who is this fellow?” He glances towards my brother.

  “We need you to check him out, sir. Brian gave him who knows what while he had him trapped.”

  “That’s who took all of the cat related stuff,” Hank informs us. Of course it was him. He wanted to ruin my chances of having Maori back in my arms, where things were right. Wanted to ruin my life, as he thought I ruined his. “Why did he do this?”

  “Because I ruined his chance at a college scholarship,” I growl, wishing it were some type of joke. Something other than being reality.

  “I didn’t ask for your witty remarks, Cat.” Seeing the serious expression on my face he winces. “How?”

  “He put flesh eating worms in my locker.” My eyes on Colin, as he takes out a stethoscope to try to get a read on pulse, and all that good stuff.

  “How was that your fault?” Hank asks, perplexed.

  I shrug.

  “I can give you a call when I’m done testing your brother and let you know what's up,” he offers “So you don't have to sit around for hours just waiting.”

  I shake my head. I already feel bad enough for not being there for him as is. I can at least stick here with him now.

  Tom comes in. He was one of the men storming the Brian’s room earlier. “Maori’s still in the basement and seems to be taking treatment well. I think we can rearrange that to be her hangout spot.” Some good news. I now won’t be putting my life in utter danger every time I want to see her. “It will increase the food bill by quite a bit, but I figure it's the least we can do for Maori.”

  “Can I have his phone?” I ask the scientist guy as he gets to work on Colin.

  “Sure.”

  Message me when you get home safe. - Dad

  I’m home safe. - I message back, pretending to be my brother. The last thing I need to do is let him know that even before he started being in my care he got kidnapped. I was Colin’s caretaker now, but dad was still checking in every now and then.

  “There’s a chair in the corner if you want to sit?” Hank offers.

  “Thanks for taking care of my brother, Hank.”

  “You didn’t see the doctor, did you?” He comments at my appearance, motioning towards the cat ears and tail. Shit how the hell could I have forgotten about those? There’s no way would I let him experiment on me.

  I’m about to say something, but someone walks in holding a squirming Charming. He jumps down next to Colin for a moment to join him on the cot, rubbing his body against him. I guess someone took the liberty of getting him from my place once they knew I was staying here.

  “See, Cat? That's how a human should feel warmth wise.” Charming purrs. Charming was looking like he was going to take a nap next to Colin.

  Great. I don’t need more reminders of how I ignored the obvious with Colin.

  “What's wrong with him?” Charming asks with a frown as I pick him up. I place him gently in my lap.

  “A bad man got to him.” Is all I say, as Charming looks at Colin with sympathy.

  Chapter 22

  Maori

  I feel someone pouncing on me, and the jumping is increasing. Is one of the spiders fucking with me? I bat the nuisance with my paw and hear a familiar yelp.

  “Maori, I just wanted to say hi!” It's Charming standing face to face with me. “I missed you!” He smiles.

  Why is he here? I thought I was in the woods, with Tiger. But as I listen to the environment around me, it doesn’t sound like the woods. Instead, it's silent except for Charming’s bouncing glee. I look around, blinking the sleep out of my eyes. The walls are tall, being a several feet taller than me. I stretch out and stand. A huge overflowing food bowl, and water dish in the corner. Is Tiger here too? He followed me out of the woods, but as I look around the spacious room, he’s nowhere in sight. “Tiger!” I call out.

  “No, not Tiger. I’m Charming.” He sprints over to the food dish, trying to climb into it and steal a few pellets. The fucker.

  Cat walks in through the abyss that once was doors, before yours truly wrecked them. They’d be fixed soon enough.

  “Am I going to return to normal size today?” A wisp of hope in my voice. The look on her face has fallen at that question. So that would be a big fat NO. “What happened?”

  “This morning, I was supposed to greet you at the woods, and we were going to go to HQ. Instead I had Susan wake me up from a dream. She warned me about the shapeshifter that took Colin’s spot.”

  “Can I become Maori’s size?” Charming asks Cat. He attempts to climb up my back, and it’s clear my body seems more like a playground to him since I’m so big. This’ll get old fast, but for now I’m enjoying his company.

  “As I was saying, it turns out Colin was kidnapped by Brian. And on his way out he made sure to destroy and steal all the things that could be helpful to turn you back to normal,” Cat sniffs.

  Bloody brilliant. So now I’m stuck being an oversized house pet.

  “At least here you’ll have access to more things, but …” She pauses, and I stare at her impatiently while I wait for he to continue. “Hank may need to take some of your blood.”

  Gross. “You know I hate needles.”

  “It’s the only way to experiment, and get you back to normal size.” Hell, would being this size really be that bad? “Maori. I’m sorry,”
Cat’s voice shakes, as it looks like she’s about to cry.

  The look on her face tells me there's no way out of this.

  “Tiger went here with me. Do you know where he is?”

  “I haven’t seen him. I can ask around since I haven't left the building.”

  Right Colin.

  “How’s he doing?” She frowns.

  “He’s stable but he hasn’t been woken up yet.” Cat frowns, as she throws herself into my side. We’d be a comfort to each other.

  Chapter 23

  Jack

  “She’s alive!”

  If you enjoyed the book The Ones You Love, the story continues in A Cat-Tastrophy!

  Available for order here: A Cat-tastrophy

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  Author thanks

  Dear Reader,

  Thanks for spending the time reading ‘Cat Johnson Chronicles: The One’s You Love’ The cats characteristics were based on my own two babies.

  If you enjoyed it, please leave a review.

  Cat Johnson Chronicles Book 3: A Cat-tastrophy Excerpt

  Chapter 1-Cat

  Emerald cat like eyes that stretched out nearly to the irises, edges rimmed in a circle of black; giving me a natural cat eye without effort. It almost looks like I’m wearing makeup, but that isn’t the case. It’s just the natural beauty of a cat. If anything, it’s surprising that my eyes look so perky with the lack of sleep that graced me last night. Every sound, every movement, or even the stray breeze - having me pouncing back up on the balls of my feet.

  My new cat ears twitch at a sound. Ah yes, more of Hank’s ramblings. When they pop out, they’re large, cat-like, and inky black, which matches my new tail. “After all the tests we’ve run, it seems like your vitals are essentially normal. Despite the odd-looking appearance, it hasn’t affected your health.” Could he have been figured out before I was tested on like a lab rat? Great, so at least I don’t have to worry about dying from this endeavor. “When did you first start to notice the change?” Hank probes. I know if I listened to him, taken his advice, and just saw the doctor maybe this wouldn’t have happened, but life got in the way preventing that. Life always get in the way.

  I sneer at the scientist Hank, but that just leads him to scribbling more notes in his pad. I wish I could rip it from his palms, and turn that sorry excuse of a notepad into confetti. That’d be fun. At least there would be some excitement in here then, instead of all of this doom and gloom. God, I was sounding like Charming, if he had the less then peppy attitude.

  “What this time?” Trying to keep the temper out of my voice, as I tried to shoosh the chaotic thoughts to a quiet corner in my brain.

  Hank replies, “Your teeth.”

  I feel the urge to shoot back a mean comment, laying ready to strike on my lips. How many times had I heard that comment growing up, what’s wrong with xyz?

  “They look almost like cats,.” He tilts his head to the side. Finger reaching out like he’s going to poke at one, but taking it back after seeing the sizzling glare that could burn water. “The canines are sharper. Can you pull back the gums so I can get a closer look at the ones in the back?”

  I pull my cheek back, feeling like I’m at a dental place instead of HQ at this point.

  “The back one’s are slightly sharper as well.” He murmurs.

  I run my tongue over the teeth, testing the back one’s to see if it’ll cut. Nope. Maybe if I rub harder. “Are you sure I’m not a vampire kitty?” I tease.

  “Your eyes would be red then not green.” The words go right over his head for the most part as he continues his study. “Not quite as sharp as the canines though.”

  Are vampire kittens really a thing? I close my mouth, continuing the game, until I feel a sharp pain.

  “Ouch.” I pout.

  “What happened?” He looks stricken. As if he’s worried these changes will cause some bad side effects that could cause me ill.

  “I was just testing them out.” I look off to the side, not wanting to see the look on his face while I was admitting to doing something stupid. With a quick thought I run a finger over my tongue. “Still human like there,” comes out muffled, as my finger is still on my tongue.

  Hank raises an unimpressed eyebrow. “Try to be more careful Cat, this is a serious situation.”

  Meh. I had enough seriousness for the night, and early morning now. I was up to my ears in issues with what’s going on. HQ changing passcodes and locks all night, because I was fretting about the possibility of him coming back, and finishing what he started. I had to make sure my loved ones were okay, while I was still around.

  I can tell from his pleading expression that he’s dying to run more tests. We’ve been through so many already, though. I’m much stealthier now than that clumsy girl I once was. I’d have to work on speed, could run super-fast for a short distance. That wouldn’t help much in a chase, if I didn’t catch them right off the bat. Vision is better in dimmer settings, which is great due to my vision being pretty shitty to begin with. I even had to take my contacts out. And those few just were the tip of the iceberg.

  “Why don’t we do one more test?” He offers, as I feel a flash of rage run through me. The needles and pricking, caused my skin to rash out more than usual. “Don’t stress, I’m not going to stick you with more needles.” Hank reassures.

  Shouldn’t tests be run on Colin, to try to get him to wake up? He’s in the room next to this one, as after a test or two Hank determined having my comatose brother around was too distracting for me. Also he wanted his office back, so he was relocated to a hospital like room. Charming also liked to try to help and give his own input, so he got relocated to Maori’s room. What am I going to tell Colin if he wakes up and finds my nickname is becoming more of a character trait of my body? Was I going to turn into a fully formed cat? How would that affect things? How big of a cat would I be? Would I grow smaller to a normal sized cat, or be closer to Maori’s size?

  “What is this test?” I try to pull out some false enthusiasm, but Hank sees right through it. “It hasn’t been going on long, just little changes since that night that mainly got overlooked. Some itchiness, but I figured it was just allergies from the woods.” The look I’m getting from Mr. Science guy says he thinks it’s very important, and that I should have mentioned it. He’s too polite to comment out loud though.

  “I want to try to see if you can get into a Zen state, to return you to some form of normalcy. Realign the body, and chakras and all that.” Not words I’d expect from him.

  It takes everything I have to not laugh at that suggestion. How am I supposed to chill out when everything is blowing up around me? When I’m overstressed, and exhausted since its 5-fucking-am. Getting a text from my dad earlier in the day, that he was going to be in town one of the next few weekends to catch a movie with Colin. Of course the image of Colin agreed to it, because the real him is the movie buff. But what exactly was supposed to be done if Colin doesn’t wake up?

  “I know that seems impossible right now, but try to close your eyes and meditate.” Hank does so himself to try to get me into the spirit of this experiment. Holding his arms around him so it makes a circle. “Just close your eyes, and breath in and out.”

  Making a show of it, I cross my legs and close my eyes, and that just brings a flurry of images to my mind. The bullet nicking Maori’s shoulder as I feel like my heart will burst into a million pieces. Her blood getting on my shirt, the unbearable pain of the transformation.

  My eyes shoot open. “I don’t think I can do this.” My words don’t move him, though, as his arms. His face painted with an expression of disbelief.

  “Did you even try?” The judgmental question is slewed out, throwing daggers at me.

  Of course I tried.

  “Maybe it would help if I put on some peaceful music?” Hank uncrosses h
is arms, calculating. “Some ocean sounds, maybe?”

  Fighting it was useless. “How about forest sounds instead?” I don’t think ocean sounds would help tonight because then I’d just be imaging Maori getting a bullet wound, then drowning. Damn my mind.

  He nods turning around to open a cabinet that’s behind him, and pulls out a retro looking stereo. I didn’t realize he listened to music, always seemed to be involved in work. “Cat I am human; I do like music.” I must have had an expression of disbelief on my face to render that comment. He plugs it in to an outlet underneath the counter, turning what must be the volume control up. Soon, the sounds are enveloping me, noises sounding closer than they’ve ever been.

  Loud forest sounds, just as scary. “Maybe not as loud?” I suggest, grimacing. I can’t relax like this.

  “Interesting. Must be the cat reflexes. Never mind, then.” He does as obliged. “Try to think back to a happy memory before all of this ever happened. Something about Maori, maybe?” While making sure not to focus on the fact that she was shot? I hated having to jump through all these hoops before I would be authorized to see her. “Good, relax.”

  Maori. A silly, albeit annoying memory when I first got her.

  “Mommy, wake up!” Her young, full of energy body pounces on me. Maybe this was a sign I shouldn’t have let her nap so much during the day. It was hard to wake her up when her tiny little kitten body was curled up on me, though. She looked too damn adorable to disturb those moments of peace. Could have stayed like that forever. Except now she was less willing to do that as she was fully charged up for night kitty shenanigans.