Blood Moon Cat Clan

by Bevill, C. L.

  “I prefer kitty…raw,” the voice finally concluded and went to work on the door again.

  Sage said a dirty word and the grate popped off. With a groaning scream the metal cover skittered into a corner. She bent over and tried to jam herself into the opening. It took her about thirty seconds to realize she was too large.

  Oh craptacular.

  Something deep within her spoke. Change, Sage.

  It took Sage another few precious seconds to realize what had happened. Her cat was speaking to her.

  Change, Sage. Your cat form is smaller and more flexible.

  Sage began to strip even while the exterior door was bending with the onslaught of an unseen monster.

  The onslaught paused briefly. “Oh kitty, you really shouldn’t.” The voice was darkly amused.

  Sage thought some particularly nasty words. Shirt and pants were followed by underwear and reluctantly, the cameo ring. She knelt on the floor and tried to clear her mind. Emma had discussed the voluntary change. It was a way of the mind making the body do what she wished. She’d changed only twice before and the first time had been horribly involuntary.

  Apparently the stress of her situation brought out the feline in her, because the change undulated over her in a wave of excruciating discomfort. Bones and flesh rearranged themselves in a manner that enabled the cougar to come out and take over. When she was done, the thing at the door made an appreciative sound.

  “I like that just as much as the other, kitty. Probably taste gamy. I love gamy.”

  Sage hissed at the door.

  The thing started to say something else, but there was a rumbling growl echoing in the outward area. It culminated into a static roar. The smaller room shuddered with the reverberating noise.

  The thing at the door said, “Oh nuts.”

  Something else was on the other side of the door, and it didn’t sound very happy. In particular, it didn’t seem happy with the thing that had been clawing her door open.

  “Kitty?” the horrible voice said. “Maybe I let kitty go instead?”

  Sage hissed again and glided for the hole in the floor.

  *

  The behemoth which propelled itself out of a large, black cavity in the wall, had a vast gaping beak. It heaved itself halfway out and its maw loomed open in a flash. Three snakelike beasts shot out of its mouth and attempted to snatch onto whatever was in its path.

  Per jumped back. It irritated him that he jumped despite the fact he had already been out of range.

  The Reaper laughed. “I think the writers of that movie, you know the one with Kevin Bacon, were down here before they wrote the script. But don’t worry. That big guy just stays there and gets fatter and fatter until he explodes. There’s lots of stupid things that walk down these passages for it to eat and they forget to stay on the left side. If it had been really hungry it would have snatched you up.”

  “You could have warned me,” Per snarled.

  “You weren’t close to it. Besides it would have spit you up. It prefers reptilian to eat. Something about the body temperature throws it off. That movie made me laugh, speeding under the ground until it burst up and snatched a living thing. You’d never see one of these things moving faster than a foot an hour.”

  Per glanced over his shoulder. The thing and its snakes had retreated into the gloom. A disgruntled grumble ricocheted after them.

  They’d been walking for about thirty minutes. So far he’d seen a few interesting things. There had been a bug-like critter walking on the ceiling. It was similar to a very large cockroach with glowing orange eyes. The Reaper hadn’t been concerned and ignored it.

  Likewise he’d ignored the little girl sitting near an intersection of blackened tunnels. She appeared like a typical child about to go to school to learn whatever elementary school-aged children learn. Her little white shirt was starched and her plaid skirt was neatly arranged. She even had on knee-high white socks and petite Mary Jane shoes. Her big blue eyes stared up at Per as if she was asking for help.

  There was a teensy eight-year-old human girl wandering about in Under.

  The incongruence of the girl in the underground setting startled Per, and he started to say something to her, but she’d opened her mouth and smiled at him. He wouldn’t have noticed it, but the smile kept getting bigger, and the mouth opened as wide as a basketball. It had been filled with very large teeth. Her claws elongated as she smiled, and she rattled them down the wall. Her eyes shifted into slits glittering with explosive purple flares. They’d passed her by, giving her sufficient accommodation.

  “She prefers coyotes,” the Reaper said. “They come down here all the time, attracted by all the weird scents. She’s like a little population control device for coyotes. And she looks like a Catholic school girl.”

  Pausing at another set of tunnels, the Reaper started to say, “Here’s where we?” but Per caught Sage’s scent again. Per launched himself in the direction drawn there as if pulled by an attached bungee cord.

  “I guess you know,” the Reaper’s words drifted after him. “Don’t tell that other shifter I told you!”

  Per didn’t bother to answer because he could taste Sage’s scent in the air. There was the spiciness that was her individuality and there was blood and fear, too.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Six

  Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea. - Robert Heinlein

  The tunnels were dark and lifeless until Per ran past something in a cubby hole. It seemed as though the otherworlders who lived Under made a living off attacking unwitting passersby. It reached out to grasp him with spider-like arms. Per jumped sideways while knocking two arms away and dimly observed the thing was like a giant spider. Half woman with two gaping mouths dripping with venom, it lunged at him.

  “Fuck me!” he shouted and he was past.

  Spider people. Worm people. Creepy little girl people. So where’s the snakes?

  The spider creature ducked back into its cubby, an abnormal wail following Per as if it was disappointed about its near miss. Three tunnels later, he paused and stopped. Sniffing the air, he caught the increasingly resilient scent that was uniquely Sage’s. Quickly stripping off his clothes, Per began the change before the t-shirt cleared his head, and it ripped into waving lengths of shredded cloth, dropping away from undulating flesh.

  A minute later, a 480 pound Panthera tigris tigris stood there. Black and orange-yellow stripes revealed the Bengal tiger dwelling within the man.

  Per was well aware the heavier, stronger cat within him was better suited to fight off any thing lurking in the blackness of Under. The feline was also better suited to track Sage’s scent. The striped form took only two seconds to determine the correct path and swirled into the darkness like a ghost.

  Three minutes after that, Per found the chamber with a monstrous form tugging and yanking at the door. Pausing at the chamber’s entrance, Per ascertained Sage wasn’t under its claws. She wasn’t in immediate danger, and he could take a moment to figure out the best avenue of attack. Based on what Per could hear and smell, he knew she was inside the room behind the door.

  The thing was something else out of a nightmare in this underworld full of the cream of horrid dreams. Its form was over six feet tall and vaguely humanoid. Gray-mottled skin emerged from loose clothing covering its oddly shaped form. Long legs and long arms twisted outward like some fanciful street performer on Halloween. Intently, it paused and stared inside the little window at the door.

  Looking at Sage. Trying to figure out how best to get to her.

  “I like that just as much as the other, kitty. Probably taste gamy. I love gamy,” it said, as if highly amused. The sound was grating and low-pitched. The words sunk into Per’s consciousness as he heard Sage’s violent hiss.

  She’d changed inside the interior room. She was afraid. The monster outside threatened to kill and eat her, or perhaps just eat her. Per didn’t even try to preve
nt the growl pouring forth from his massive jaws any more than he tried to prevent the substantial roar that followed.

  The thing turned toward Per. Its enormous eyes stared at the tiger, knowing Per was bigger and stronger than it was.

  “Oh nuts,” it said.

  Per stalked forward. His head was down. His tail twitched in anticipation. He didn’t care what the thing tasted like, as long as he could tear its intestines from inside it and fling them in the place farthest away from Sage. Another unrestrained growl followed.

  “Kitty?” the horrible thing said, backpedaling rapidly. “Maybe I let kitty go instead?”

  I don’t think so, Per thought savagely as he heard Sage hiss again.

  His powerful back legs bent, and he charged forward. One claw slashed at the thing, and it twirled away from him.

  “Didn’t harm her!” it shrieked. “Wasn’t going to do anything to her! I swear!”

  Without hesitation, Per hurtled his considerable body upon the thing. It surprised him with its force as it rebounded with amazing strength. Grappling with the immense feline, it turned with the huge weight and threw the 480 pound animal against the door. The door crashed open and impacted with the ground as the hinges failed. Not wasting time looking at Sage, Per shot back outside and found the thing sprinting down one of the other tunnels.

  The warning roar following the thing could likely be heard for miles.

  Per huffed and surveyed the area for other dangers. He could smell other things and the distinct scent belonging to the outlaw were, Martinez.

  For the moment, no one was there.

  Good. Now as for Sage.

  Per padded over the fallen door and saw the last of her golden tail slithering down a hole in the floor.

  His tiger face fell. Then he roared a last time as he realized Sage couldn’t possibly know he was there to rescue her.

  She’d rescued herself…for the moment, because who knew what else was down beneath them where she’d gone.

  Furthermore, Per couldn’t follow Sage down the narrow passage even if he changed back into his human form. There was no way a 200 pound man was squeezing into that hole, much less a 480 pound tiger.

  Damn. Damn. Damn!

  *

  Sage heard the thing outside her door cry, “Didn’t harm her! Wasn’t going to do anything to her! I swear!” as she worked her head and shoulders into the hole the missing grate had exposed.

  A moment later, something came crashing through the door. Sage was halfway down and struggling to force her feline shape further into it. She couldn’t see what it was or what it was up to. When something didn’t slash at her flanks, she took it as tacit permission to wiggle harder.

  There was another roar seemingly right behind her. Her cougar shape worked even harder, pulling with her front paws, her claws clutching for grip on the walls.

  She began to fall as the walls spread out. Gravity did its job. She heard yet another roar as she descended into full obscurity.

  The carved-rock bottom of the passage hit her like a Class 5 hurricane, stopping her tumble with startling abruptness. It hadn’t been that far down.

  Sage shook her feline head and chuffed. She stumbled to her feet and checked her perimeter. It was a hewn tunnel, much rougher than the chamber she’d been locked within. Two directions stretched away into abject darkness.

  Martinez’s words came back to her, as they had an increasingly repetitive way of doing lately. There is much more to this world than shifters. Things a thousand times more horrible than you can imagine.

  Eenie, meenie, minie, moe.

  She picked the left one and set out before whatever was above could come after her. As Sage entered even gloomier darkness, something made her falter. There was a certain smell wafting down from above.

  What’s that?

  Her head perked right up. Her nose sought out the fragrance and narrowed on it. In the cat’s vision it was almost a visible aroma trail. It wasn’t a bad scent. In fact, it was all musky heat attracting the cat part of Sage. She shook her head to cast it aside. Even if there wasn’t something up there larger and creepier than the thing who’d been about to break in and eat her a la tartare, she wasn’t going back up into the ceiling of the tunnel, some ten feet above her.

  The roar of the thwarted creature rippled down to Sage, and inwardly she shuddered. It didn’t matter what it smelled like, it sounded like a badass in the land of all badasses.

  Turning back to the leftward tunnel, Sage set on her path. She would use her nose and hunt down some passage that led upward. When she was safe, she could change back to a human.

  Sure, I’ll be naked in the middle of some place in California, but then they’re probably used to that.

  *

  Per roared into the hole, hoping against hope that Sage would hesitate and hear the persuasive tone in his call. He would have changed back into a human, but there was too much danger in this place to do so. He couldn’t chance being caught in the most vulnerable point of a change.

  Options. Per studied the hole. Not digging through that. Have to find another way down. Find my m-uh. Find Sage. Find a way back to the surface.

  Per paused to paw at Sage’s clothing. He doubted Martinez would have left her with a cell phone. Besides the obvious fact that Martinez wasn’t stupid, Per thought it was unlikely a cell phone would have a signal down here. He could have tried his cell phone, if he hadn’t left it with his clothing in a distant tunnel not too far away from a spider creature with two very large mouths.

  Something made a little tinkling noise as it hit the stone floor. Per gently moved it with a claw. It was a petite gold ring with a cameo figure on it. The well-worn cameo had a tiny gold wire necklace with a diamond in it. It looked old. It looked as if someone had worn it daily for years. It looked as if it was something Sage valued.

  And she’d left it because she was afraid of what else was coming in the door. A human changeling who doesn’t know much about our world. She doesn’t understand at all. Emma was trying to ease her in before Martinez got to her. Hell.

  Per could still smell Sage’s fear. He saw the discarded grate and could see splotches of her blood.

  Carefully, he maneuvered the ring with a claw and with more luck than skill he looped it over a lower canine. It slid on as if made to fit. It might get broken in some random bite, but Per knew he might be able to give it back to Sage. She shouldn’t have to lose everything.

  Returning to the exterior room, Per sniffed carefully. He found a place where her scent seemed stronger and disappeared into the gloom.

  *

  Sage heard things as she padded through the bleak tunnels. Sometimes she saw distant lights flittering along. She came to understand that some sort of bioluminescent bugs were darting along the tunnel’s ceilings. She stopped to watch some as they gathered near some moldy growth on the roof.

  They glowed greenly in the dark, and she could see they looked like tiny little fairies. Their wings were iridescent and beat frantically. Their miniscule bodies were similar to a very small woman’s body. They paused in their pursuit of the moldy growth to glare indignantly at her, as if she was spoiling their meal. They didn’t seem particularly surprised to see a full-sized cougar wandering the tunnels, but Sage thought she wouldn’t be surprised to know there were other weres down here.

  Emma had told her there were other paranormal creatures, some much more paranormal than she was. The thing tap-tap-tapping at her prison’s door, talking about lobsters and bibs, for example. She hadn’t been able to see it, but it smelled like death and sounded as if it were horror personified. And based on its language, it wasn’t exactly restricted to the underground.

  The little radiant bugs flew down to examine her and Sage froze in place. Didn’t they understand felines eat all kinds of meat? Her stomach rumbled, but she wasn’t about to eat a bioluminescent, paranormal creature that looked like Tinker Bell with green skin. For all she knew, they would grow fangs and claws and slice h
er to ribbons before she could sprint away.

  She wished she could ask them a question but they quickly flew away from her and vanished into the black of the tunnel. They flowed into a crack in the ceiling above her head and vanished around a curve.

  Sage looked about slowly. Maybe they know something I don’t.

  Continuing in the same direction she originally chose, Sage padded carefully. She perked her ears up and listened.

  I have to use every inch of the cat’s instincts. I have a better chance of survival. What’s going to happen when Martinez returns and finds me missing? Will he think I escaped and go to kill my roommates and then my parents? Oh God, I need to get out of here.

  Martinez implied Emma was safe. Sage thought Emma cared about her, enough to want to secure her safety as well, but Sage didn’t trust lightly.

  If Emma doesn’t know where I’m at, how can she help me? And how far is Emma willing to go? I can’t count on her. But if I get out of here, I can make a phone call. I can get her to protect my roommates, maybe warn my parents to leave town. Like Dad will go for that. More likely he’ll beat Mom for answering the phone.

  Sage chittered. The sound bounced around the walls and disturbed her.

  I sound like a…cougar. Imagine that.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Seven

  A cat bitten once by a snake dreads even rope. - Arabian Proverb

  Under was a labyrinth of passageways and a collection of oddball magicks permeated every inch of rock. Per could smell the dark sorcery undercurrents even while he caught suggestions of animal enchantments. He could almost see the magicks floating in the air like magical twinkling currents.

  No wonder it’s under Hollyweird. This is where all their ideas come from. “Need an idea? Let’s go wander around Under. See all the para-abnormality.” “Yeah, I’ll bring hot wings. You bring the Bud.”