by Paula Knight
“Right after I’d given her the necklace Charlie?” Cat asked. “I don’t think so.”
It was now clear that they were talking about her. About what happened the night before. But how could they have known…
The note.
She had been right about the note. It must have been Cat who patched her up and wrote that note telling her to go to work.
“Ok,” Charlie said, “so...that’s suspicious but it doesn’t mean…”
He stopped mid-sentence and the room on the other side of the door went deathly quiet.
“What is it?” Cat whispered.
“There’s someone at the other side of the door,” Charlie said.
Diana, eyes wide at having been called out quickly stood up and knocked just as Cat opened the door to her.
“Diana,” he said, “come in. Close and lock the door behind you.”
He sounded hurried, almost frantic. Diana did as she was asked.
This office, Charlie’s office, looked much more what she had expected from a CEO. The white walls were accented with modern paintings that provided a small splash of color. Charlie was leaning casually on a large glass desk next to the window.
“How much of that did you hear?” Cat asked just after Diana clicked the door’s lock closed.
There was no use pretending not to know what he was talking about now.
“Enough to make me wonder what the hell’s going on,” Diana said, straightening up and crossing her arms in front of her.
Charlie let out a sharp laugh.
“You nabbed a feisty one, Cat,” he said, “I like her all ready.”
Cat didn’t look at Charlie. Instead he kept his eyes fixed on Diana.
“It’s...it’s hard to explain…” he began.
“Try me,” Diana answered arms still crossed.
“All right,” Cat said indicating a chair in front of Charlie’s desk. Diana moved past him and sat on the edge of the chair. Deliberately forcing herself not to get too comfortable.
“It started years ago, no one knows when,” he said.
“Cat,” Charlie said rolling his eyes, “do we really have to go through the whole thing?”
“If we want her to understand,” he said, “then yes.”
“Okay, fine,” Charlie said, “but if you want to get her to the reservation, there’s not much time.”
“No one’s taking me anywhere until I know what’s going on,” Diana said sternly. Charlie threw up his hands exasperatedly, moved behind his desk and flopped down in his chair.
Cat looked at Charlie, rolled his eyes at him and continued.
“Diana, do you remember that story I told you when I gave you that necklace?” he asked.
“The one about the old salt woman,” Diana answered.
“Yes,” Cat said. “My grandfather told me she would come back one day when our people needed her most. What I didn’t tell you was that my family has been waiting for her for generations.”
“You said it was just a legend,” Dana said warily.
“I lied,” Cat said, “I didn’t think you would believe me, you still may not but, it’s important, very very important that you do.”
“What will happen if I don’t?” she asked.
“Oh, you don’t wanna know that,” Charlie said with the same smirk on his face he’d worn when he first met Diana.
“Oh, I think I do,” Diana said looking fiercely at him. “If this has something to do with whatever attacked me last night I think I have a right to know everything.”
“We may not be able to tell you everything,” Cat said.
“Why not?” Diana asked defiantly.
“Because we don’t even know everything,” Cat said.
“Ok,” Diana countered, “then tell me what you do know.”
“We know that my family has been waiting for a long time…. for you,” Cat said.
Diana stared at him wide eyed for a moment. Then shook her head as though to clear out what she had just heard.
“For...me?” she asked.
“Yes,” Cat answered, “the white salt woman. The one with the soul of the cougar. She’s you.”
“That’s not…”
“Possible?” Cat asked, “Tell me. Did you feel the talisman?”
“Did I feel…?”
“Last night,” Cat said exasperatedly, “did you feel the talisman burning your skin before you saw the cougar?”
Diana remembered the way the white cougar had become hotter and hotter until it had finally burned against her chest when she saw the black panther staring at her from the balcony.
“Yes,” Diana finally answered, “yes, I did.”
Cat nodded.
“I know,” he said. Then he reached beneath his shirt and took out a talisman almost identical to the one he had given Diana just one day before. This one was not white, but tanned yellow.
“Mine burned too,” Cat said.
Diana, eyes wide, still not daring to believe what she was seeing, Diana reached out a hand and looked towards the talisman.
Unlike with the marble necklace still around Diana’s neck, he closed his fist against the yellow charm and pulled it away from her.
“What does it mean?” she asked.
“We all have them,” he said, “they burn when a predator is near.”
“Who is we?” she asked.
“Well that takes some more explaining,” Cat said.
“Oh my god,” Charlie said, “you don’t have to go into all of it, just show her.”
“We can’t do that,” Cat said turning to him, “not yet, not until she…”
“Well if you won’t, I will.”
Diana screamed as Charlie disappeared and in his place, stood a large black cougar.
As it padded its way towards her she frantically rushed back towards the door.
“Diana, wait!” Cat said moving towards her.
Diana stopped. She noticed, for the first time, that he was moving with a slight limp which had not been there the day before. As he reached out a hand and Diana saw scars like claw marks on his arm.
Then, her frantic mind remembered the note left on her dresser, ‘don’t trust anyone,’ it had said.
What if Cat was not the one who had written that note? What if everything he had told her was a ploy to get her alone so that this...thing could kill her?
She felt Cat’s hand close firmly on her wrist and she gasped and tried as hard as she could to pull away from him as she reached for the locked door.
“Charlie,” Cat said still holding Diana in a vice like grip as she struggled against him, “change back now!”
Diana stared, eyes wide as the black cougar disappeared and Charlie stood in its place. His stupid cocky grin still present.
“At least she knows,” Charlie said.
“It...It was you!” Diana exclaimed pointing at Charlie still working against Cat’s grip on her wrist. “...you...you came after me last night...you…”
“No, he didn’t,” Cat told her firmly.
“I don’t believe you,” Diana said between clenched teeth as she worked against his hand to pry him off of her, “and let go of me!”
Finally, she stomped on his foot and in shock, he let go of her wrist. She unlocked the door and rushed out of it into the hallway.
She could hear him calling after her. Ignoring his cries, she rushed towards the employee only break room and locked the door behind her.
Diana made for the locker which held her purse. Quickly, she put in the combination and gathered her things from the inside. Once she had her phone and purse in hand, she sunk down into a chair by the small table to catch her breath.
There, she tried to work out what to do. She could not go back into the hall. She knew Cat would be there waiting for her. Perhaps with his black panther friend, intent on finishing her off.
At that moment, she heard a pounding on the door.
“Diana,” Cat said through the locked door, “please
, let me explain.”
Diana didn’t answer. She looked wildly around for a fire exit. There had to be one somewhere. The front door could not be the only way out.
“Diana,” Cat called again, “I’m coming in.”
Diana’s heart began to pound inside her chest. She stared at the lock on the door as it turned and clicked open. It was as though she was frozen to her chair. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t breathe.
The door opened and Catahassa walked in. She stumbled backward as he closed the door behind him and turned the lock. Trapping her.
“Stay away from me,” she warned him fiercely. Though, she was very aware that she had nothing with which to back up her threat.
Catahassa stayed back by the door and put his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
“It’s just me,” he said, “I promise. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Why should I believe you?” she asked stepping back further from him until she nearly collided with the cabinets at the back of the break room. Cat did not move towards her but kept his hands up and stayed near the door.
“There were two creatures at your apartment last night,” he said, “one black, one yellow.”
“Yes,” Diana said uncertainly.
“The black one attacked you,” he said, “the yellow stopped it.”
“It looked that way,” she answered.
“It looked that way because that’s what happened,” Cat said.
“How do you know?” Diana asked.
“Because I was there.”
Cat closed his eyes and Diana watched in awe as the tall, athletic man before her disappeared and transformed into a small, yellow mountain lion.
She nearly screamed again until she looked into the creature’s eyes. These were the same eyes that she had seen locked in battle with the black panther. This was the creature who had saved her.
She took one step towards it. As she did, the mountain lion sat back on its haunches and closed its eyes.
She took one step closer as the cougar disappeared and Cat stood fully formed in its place. He opened his eyes and looked at her.
She realized, for the first time that his eyes were the exact same shade of black as her animal saviors’ had been.
“It was you,” she said, “you saved me. But how did you…?”
Once again, Cat pulled out his talisman. The yellow charm that was nearly identical to the white cougar pressed against Diana’s chest.
“They’re connected,” he said holding the charm out to her.
Diana came close enough to touch the charm. She reached out towards it and, this time, he did not pull it away from her.
As her fingers brushed against the talisman, the necklace next to her chest, glowed warm against her skin.
It was not the harsh burning that she had felt the night before. It was not a sharp kind of warming. It was a calm, comfortable feeling that spread through her entire body.
When she took her fingers from the little charm, she noticed that her journey towards the necklace had taken her within inches of Cat. They were so close now that she could feel his breath on her cheeks.
She let go of the talisman and looked up at him. He was staring down at her with an odd expression. Diana could not help staring in his eyes, the eyes that had saved her. They seemed to pull her in. Exactly as they had done when she had first seen them staring out at her from the cover of a magazine.
She stood up on her toes and brought their lips closer. She closed her eyes.
His lips met hers. It was slow at first, gentle, hesitant. Then, as Diana opened her mouth to welcome him, he wrapped his arms fully around her.
Vaguely, she felt the warm glow spread from the talisman against her chest and through her entire body as his hands moved from her back, to her hair, then along her hips. Finally, they wrapped around her waist.
Just as they did, there was a knock on the door.
“Cat,” Charlie’s voice called out from the other side of the door, “Amanda says we’ve got company. If we’re going, we have to go now.”
Cat moved away from Diana and hurriedly unlocked the door to the breakroom. He opened the door and, at that moment, Diana felt the warm glow from her talisman disappear to be replaced by the harsh, burning sensation she had felt the night before.
Cat turned to her and grabbed her hand.
“We need to go,” he said.
He pulled her from the break room and down a hallway next to it that she hadn’t noticed before. Charlie followed behind them.
“So, Amanda’s in on this too?” Diana asked.
“Of course,” Cat said, “she’s my sister.”
Diana stopped dead in the hallway before they reached the exit door. Cat turned back towards her and said, “Diana, please. We don’t have time to get into it now. I promise I’ll tell you everything once we start on the road.”
Diana looked into Cat’s eyes once more and nodded. She allowed herself to be lead through the door to a back alley.
There, a bright red Mercedes waited for them. Amanda stepped out of the driver’s seat.
“You don’t have much time,” she said handing the keys off to Cat, “They’re close.”
“Thanks,” he said to her. He moved past Amanda and into the driver’s seat. Amanda stepped away and then turned to Diana. She gave Diana one last full glare before she turned back to Cat and said, “I hope you’re right about this.”
“I hope so too,” Cat answered from the car.
Amanda looked Diana up and down one last time before she moved back to the exit door and into the building.
“Come on,” Charlie said to Diana, now taking the hand that Cat had dropped and leading her towards the passenger side door.
Charlie stopped before he could open the door. His body suddenly became rigid and tense.
Diana had to look over his shoulder to see what had caused him such distress.
When she saw what was on the other side, she screamed.
The second black cougar she had seen that day stared at her, haunches pressed downward licking its lips.
This cougar was several times larger than Charlie had been as a panther and there was a ferocity in its gaze that Charlie simply did not possess.
Diana felt herself being shoved into the Mercedes. The car door slammed behind her.
“Go!” Charlie shouted to them, “I’ll hold it off.”
“Catch up with us at the Westward Crossing,” Cat called back before gunning the car and taking off down the dark alley way and out towards the busy street ahead.
Diana looked back in the rearview mirror. Charlie had disappeared and now she saw two black cougars locked jaw to jaw. She gasped when she saw the large, fierce looking cougar swipe its large paw and knock Charlie to the ground.
“Don’t worry about Charlie,” Cat said as they turned a corner on the busy street and he slowed the car down. Clearly hoping to blend into traffic, “he knows when to retreat. He’s just trying to give us time to get away.”
“Who was that?” Diana asked. Cat looked over at her quizzically and she rephrased the question. “I mean, the other cougar, who was that?”
“We don’t know,” Cat answered, “definitely female. The largest ones always are. Probably a Navajo.”
“You mean other tribes can...do...what you do...too?” Diana said, unsure of the proper term for what she had seen.
“Shift?” he asked supplying the term for her, “yes.”
“But,” Diana said, “you said that the whole...salt woman...cougar...thing was a Zuni legend.”
He gave a derisive snort.
“You whites are not the only ones who like to appropriate other cultures,” he said, “shifting is an ancient knowledge given to the Zunis. It takes years of study and practice to be able to master it. Years ago, Zuni traitors gave our ancient secrets to the Navajo tribe so that they could use it against us.”
“Why would they do that?” Diana asked. She knew that the Navajo and the Zuni�
��s had a bit of a...difficult history. But as far as she knew, the tribes had never been in a full out war. And she never imagined that they would use Zuni culture as a weapon. Then again, she could never have imagined any of this.
“Why do humans do anything?” Cat asked as they turned a corner and set out on the road towards the open freeway, “you’ve studied Anthropology. You must have seen enough human wars and skirmishes throughout the centuries to understand.”
“Different cultures value different things,” Diana said. She had never believed in simple answers. Especially to questions about human nature.
“On the surface,” Cat answered, “but, in the end it boils down to one thing. Humans fight each other for power.”
Diana tried to think of a rebuttal to that. Some war or conflict that had some other motive. That would prove Cat wrong.
Still, when you got right down to it, she had to admit that he had a point. In every major conflict she could remember either from history or her anthropology courses, power over something or someone had been at the very heart.
Rather than admit this however, she decided it was best to change the subject.
“Why do they want me?” She asked.
“Because you have the blood of the Salt Woman,” Cat said.
“The...what?” Diana asked. “You mean the Salt mother? The one from the salt lake?”
“Yes,” Cat answered.
“But that’s not…”
“Diana, I think we’ve gone way beyond impossible at this point, wouldn’t you say?” Cat asked.
Diana opened her mouth to give him some kind of response to this but she found that she couldn’t. She found that, after everything that had happened to her that day, she couldn’t combat anything with logic or reason or even science.
Still, she could not accept this. The idea that she was some kind of...goddess reincarnated or something...it was laughable. She didn’t have any remarkable traits. She had no skills in fighting, she had no religion or spirituality to speak of, and she hadn’t even been the best in her class in school.
There was nothing, absolutely nothing to distinguish her from any other person on the street.
“How do you know it’s me?” She asked, “I mean...how do you know that I’m this...reincarnation or whatever.”
“We don’t know for sure,” Cat said, “but the fact that you were attacked, and the fact that you felt the glow of the talisman make a very strong case.”
