“Katrina, this is my Gramma Ruby,” Molly told her. In a lower voice she said, “She’s harmless, don’t worry.”
Katrina didn’t know what to make of that until the old woman stopped right behind the chair she was sitting in. She jerked when she felt the woman touching her head.
“Look at that hair,” Gramma Ruby mumbled. “White as mine only you a young woman. You are a woman, aren’t you?”
It took Katrina a moment to realize the woman was asking if she was like Joey and his friend Ilia. “Yes.”
“Let go of her head,” Molly griped as she rose from the couch. “She’ll think you’re checking her for head lice or something.”
“That your real color, girl?” Gramma Ruby wasn’t going to be deterred.
Since Katrina had no idea what the woman was doing and she didn’t want to insult anyone, she nodded and waited for the woman to be finished.
And within seconds the old woman was. She swatted Joey on the shoulder to get his attention. “This your woman?”
Joey grinned up Gramma Ruby with genuine affection. “I hope so.”
“You don’t know?” Ruby asked.
“Gramma Ruby, this is Katrina.” Molly walked around the chair and attempted to steer her grandmother in the direction of the couch. “Leave her alone now.”
The old woman went along but she stared hard at Katrina the entire time as they walked around the chair. “You scared of all this here?”
Crap, now what did she say? Although the woman appeared to be old and eccentric, Katrina didn’t miss the fact that she was being incredibly frank in asking her what she thought of their odd little world.
Katrina decided the truth was best. “A little.”
“You know what they are?” Ruby went on, her eyes darting from Ilia to Joey and back again.
Katrina nodded. She did know that.
“Well, you here anyway. Need to get over being scared though. I know just what would do the trick.”
“Oh, no you don’t.” Molly’s tone held a hint of motherly warning. “She just got here. Sorry, Katrina.”
Katrina nodded again. No harm. The old woman freaked her out a little, but apparently it was just her way.
“Renard, go get Tiger’s carrier and bring him in here to Joey. She’s got to go home now. I’m going to get you back to your room, Gramma Ruby. Tell our guests bye.”
Gramma Ruby nodded to Joey, her gaze friendly. When she glanced at Katrina, again, she was staring at her hair. She approached Katrina and to her surprise, stooped to give her a hug. Ruby pulled back and a tiny burst of pain erupted from Katrina’s scalp.
The woman grinned at the several strands of Katrina’s long blonde hair that were clutched in her hair.
“Ruby, come on!” Molly was clearly losing patience. “You okay?”
Katrina rubbed the small patch of scalp. Why was the woman so obsessed with her hair?
Joey rose from his chair, patting her shoulder. “I know you’re tired. We’ll get Tiger and get back home, okay?”
Home. Under the circumstances, she would have thought his use of that word would sound like a mockery of what it really represented. Yet her entire being relaxed at those words, as if she really were going home. At the moment it was all she had and it certainly wasn’t without appeal. In a Twilight Zone sort of way.
Chapter 4
“This is going to shock you,” Joey warned her.
Katrina took a drink of the tea he’d made for her, enjoying its subtle mint flavor. She sat curled in one of the plush chairs in his living room. Joey’s house was only a couple of blocks from Ilia and Molly’s and just as nice as theirs. Katrina loved the wraparound porch and the tall windows. The interior could use a little more decoration, she thought, but all in all it was a very nice place.
“Considering what I’ve been through the last few months, I don’t think there is much you can tell me that would shock me, Joey.”
Joey leaned forward on the couch to rest his elbows on his knees. His dark eyes searched her face, his expression guarded. “Up until last year, Katrina, I lived in a laboratory.” His deep sigh filled the room. “It was the only place I’d ever known. I was created there.”
Katrina’s mind spun with questions at his admission, but she didn’t want to push too much. She didn’t have to know everything right at this moment. The look in his eyes let her know that he was watching her reaction closely, looking for acceptance or rejection. Her acceptance, she sensed, was important to him and she made the decision to try and listen with an open mind.
“You were created?” she asked, trying not to use a negative tone.
Joey nodded.
“Like a test tube baby?”
“Exactly. Only there was no mother who carried me inside her. I grew in incubators and machines until I was ready to enter the world like any other infant would.”
“So you were a human as a baby, right?”
Joey smiled a little at that. “Right.”
“Were there others like you?”
“Yes. One of them is here. Alex. You’ll meet him. We escaped together. Rather, he was already planning to escape and he let me tag along with him.”
Katrina set her glass aside, thinking through what he’d told her so far. He’d been created in a lab? If she hadn’t seen the things she had already, she might not have believed him.
As it was, she had no reason not to believe him. And he was watching her with such hopeful eyes. That alone had her heart squeezing in her chest. “Who created you, Joey?”
“We’re not sure,” he explained. “The only thing we do know for certain is that they will kill us if they find us. They’ve already tried a couple of times.”
“Sure, you’re proof of their misconduct.” Katrina nodded. “I just can’t help but wonder why they would create you that way, half man, half leopard. What did they hope to accomplish?”
“I don’t think they originally created us, Katrina. I think they created a copy of something they found out in nature.”
“So that’s what you meant about some of you being born into the world?”
“Yes. Alex, Nicole, and I were all created in that lab in New York. Somehow they got DNA from another of our kind, someone who was naturally born this way.”
“Who is Nicole?”
“She was in Alex’s litter. She’s married to Vitali, Ilia’s brother.”
Litter? Wow.
“Where are they from?” Katrina went on.
“The Kerenskys are from Serbia. They have a sister named Nadia who moved here. She’s married to another Serbian, Mikhail. They have a son together and they have a nanny from their country, but I don’t know for sure if she’s one of us. I suspect she is.”
Katrina was asking a lot of questions when she hadn’t intended to but she just couldn’t help herself. They were popping into her mind faster than she could think.
“So that son will be like you guys?”
“Right.”
“The Kerenskys are naturally what the men at the lab made you to be,” Katrina reasoned.
“That’s right. They’d never had any dealings with the scientists though. They have this whole legend of how they came to be. Vitali even has some spooky painting in his home. He told Alex the whole thing one night and Alex told me. It’s all about barbarians and dark magic. Creepy stuff.”
It was fascinating to Katrina to learn that there were creatures like them existing in the world and the world was completely unaware of them. They knew the moment some politician made a joke that could be misinterpreted or got a blow job under his desk, but they didn’t have a clue that these leopard people or werewolves existed. Incredible.
“So you can just change into a leopard whenever you feel like it?”
“When we feel threatened, yes, we can change. Sometimes anger will bring it on. The biggest problem is sex.”
“Sex?”
“We can only mate with our own kind, Katrina. Mating with a human will bring on the change
as well. You have to realize that there aren’t very many of us. For some of us, having humans for lovers is our only option. Not that it’s a sacrifice.” Joey winked at her on that last bit.
“Wait.” Now she was confused. “I’m human and you’ve made love to me.”
“I know. I’m able to avoid changing when I make love to you with drugs. The scientists in the lab developed pills that prevented us from changing as an experiment. Somehow, Alex was able to smuggle a bunch of these out when we escaped but that supply won’t last forever. We need to find some way to replicate the pills. If we can find a way to do that, we can live free of this half-life shit and just be like normal people.”
What an awful situation for them to be in. It had to be a bleak existence.
“You were able to change to fight the werewolves.”
“Well, we can fight through the pills’ effect if we are endangered. We figured that out fast.”
“And then you just change back?”
“Not just.” His expression darkened on that note. “In order to return to our human form, we have to kill.”
Kill? Shit.
“Kill what?”
Joey shrugged, appearing uneasy now. “Killing a human is guaranteed to work. According to Vitali and Ilia, killing a large animal works just as well. That would work in a pinch and there are a few farms up here. I can’t imagine the farmers would be very happy.”
Katrina now understood the seriousness of their plight. Unless they were lucky enough to find someone of their own kind to be with, they had to secure the drugs the scientists developed or be alone. Otherwise they’d be forced to kill and that would put them at risk. With today’s forensics they could be discovered easily if they were suspected of killing livestock, wild animals, or worse, humans. If the world found out about them, disaster was certain. She couldn’t imagine what would happen to them.
“How many of you did they make?”
“There were three primary litters. Not many of us survived. Once we were old enough, they injected us with hormones, threw us into the breeding room, and let us have at it. Then they didn’t have to create others. They just let us fuck each other silly and each year the females produced young. Every January it started to coincide with the mating cycle of leopards in the wild. Even now, without them shooting me full of that shit, it’s a hard three months to get through. It’s like being unbelievably horny and nothing you do brings you release or relief.”
“What did they do with the babies?”
Joey’s expression held a hint of sadness. “I don’t know. They kept the males separate from the females. I never saw them.”
“You could have children that…”
Joey nodded slowly.
How scary. Was it the government doing that to them? Independent researchers playing God? Well, she was glad that Joey was out of there. They would be on the lookout for the men who’d made them just as she would be on the lookout for the werewolves. In that, she completely sympathized.
“I wonder what they intended to do with you,” Katrina said, thinking out loud.
“I think about that all the time, Katrina. I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
Okay, now they were getting really gloomy. Katrina had enough of gloom and desperation over the last few months to last a lifetime. She had a roof over her head, food to eat, and she was starting to feel safe.
“Are you all black cats?” Katrina grinned at him.
Joey nodded, his expression brightening a little.
“With your blonde hair somebody might expect you to be, you know, one of those gold leopards with dark spots. Like you see on Wild Kingdom.”
Joey chuckled at that. “I actually like that show. We’re all black, though I don’t know why exactly.”
“Well, you’re all here and safe now. You’re working together to have more of those drugs made. Do that and you guys can be like normal people, just like you said.”
Relief slowly crept into his face as she spoke. “We are all safe here now.”
Joey rose from the couch and approached her. She wanted him to, so she stood and waited.
His mouth slanted down over hers, claiming her with a kiss that wiped her mind clean of all else. It was different from the patient, nurturing kisses he’d treated her to before. This kiss was demanding, masterful. It revealed the darker, dangerous side of the man who was now her lover.
That kiss and the heat that had built in her body while they’d been talking combined, sending pulses of pure heat racing through her blood. With an urgency that surprised her, she wanted him. She needed him now.
Katrina began to kiss him back with a demand that equaled his and he crushed her to him. Joey went wild, primitive, tearing at her blouse and jeans. He growled low in his throat with the same desperation that she felt while he rapidly shed his own clothing.
Roughly Joey turned her away from him so that she was facing the filmy, white curtains covering a large picture window. She caught a glimpse of the fading sun while she stood there in the grip of the most powerful lust she’d ever experienced, aware that anyone walking along the street right now would get quite a show. Joey’s rough hands pulled her back against him, the feel of his naked flesh pressed tightly to hers a powerful sensation that made her pussy walls quiver.
Katrina’s skin quickly heated and Joey’s -- pressed against her back -- was like flames. Joey bent her forward and thrust his cock fully into her until his balls slapped against her.
Oh, yes. He stretched her, filled her in a way that made her desperate for more. When he began to move within her, she gasped in pure pleasure. The angle at which his cock filled her pussy was amazing and devastating, hitting sensual triggers inside her that she never knew existed.
Her hands clutched at the arms of the chair she’d been sitting in as pleasure and pain collided. His mouth and hands were everywhere and his cock was so deep inside her, she didn’t know if she’d ever be free of him. It took her a moment to realize the high wails all around them were coming from her.
“Will you stay with me, Katrina?” Joey’s voice was harsh behind her.
“Yes!”
“Even knowing what I am?”
“Yes! Don’t stop!”
Drops of perspiration beaded on her forehead and ran down her sides. The sound of their bodies slapping competed with their moans and cries as they filled the living room.
“Come for me, Katrina!” he yelled.
Her pussy closed around him like a fist as he began to pound into her furiously. Katrina screamed as her body trembled and pulsed. The orgasm ripped through her with an intensity unlike anything she’d ever felt before. It shook her to her core.
Joey wasn’t finished with her. Dropping to his knees behind her, he buried his mouth into her overly sensitive cunt. With great patience, he licked and sucked her. When she didn’t think she could take more, he tongue fucked her until she came again. Nearly mindless with ecstasy, Katrina felt her shaking legs give way until she dropped to the floor before him.
Not giving her a moment to rest, he stretched out on the floor, pulling her body on top of his. Her mind was still spinning when he seated her on the hot, rigid length of his cock. Joey slid into her until she could feel him at her womb.
“Ride me!”
Eagerly, she did just that, though she didn’t have much strength left. Joey’s fingers dug into her hips, moving her on him and lending her his strength. He groaned when her hands clutched at his chest, his hips bucking beneath her in a way that created the most delicious friction against her clit.
Joey threw his head back and shouted his release. Katrina came again only a second after that, the orgasm tearing through her while his seed shot up into her. They thrashed and cried out until they slumped against each other in a warm, damp pile on the floor. The sound of their ragged breaths floated on the air.
“You know,” Katrina pointed out when she was able to breathe again. “That’s the third time we haven’t used anything --�
�
A sharp, thumping sound outside the front door had Joey’s head jerking up and Katrina’s heart lurching in her chest. It was too odd a sound to be someone knocking. It was only a single noise before the sound of soft footsteps fading.
Apparently without a care that he was completely naked, Joey bounded off the floor, viciously yanking the front door open. Katrina watched him look around for several seconds before something caught his eyes just outside the door. He raked a hand through the rumpled locks of his tawny hair. The look on his face became very grim.
“What?” Katrina asked. “What is it?”
“Nothing,” Joey barked, slamming the door.
Katrina wouldn’t accept that. Whatever it was, he couldn’t keep her from seeing it. Grabbing his long sleeved T-shirt off the floor, she pulled it on and made her way to the door. Joey watched her, putting up his hands to block her.
“Katrina, no.”
Being small had some advantages. She managed to dodge around him and make it to the door, throwing it open before he could stop her.
Her heart slammed in fear when she saw the bloody patch of black fur pinned to the doorframe just outside the door with a hunting knife. Katrina had no idea what it was supposed to mean exactly, but one thing was crystal clear.
It was a threat.
Chapter 5
Vitali Kerensky nodded to Joey the next morning when he entered the hardware shop, quietly asking a younger man working at the cash register to watch things for him. Joey followed him through the small, tidy store filled with tiny, metal parts to a door at the back.
The room beyond was generous in size. A desk was off to one side and there was a simple counter with a coffee pot, toaster oven, and a small microwave. A wooden table sat at the room’s center. The men Joey wanted to talk to were sitting there.
Ilia Kerensky, who owned the hardware store with his brother, sat with his arms folded across his chest. Joey had always like Ilia. He’d always found him fair and easy to get along with.
Leopard Tails: Alchemist Page 3
