Revenge: A Ghost Cats Story

by Jaycee Clark

  “Yeah, a college student that works for me.”

  “Great, you can handle her then, because I don’t do the tears and the there-there thing.”

  “Isn’t that a surprise,” Reya muttered. “Mica? What’s wrong? What happened?”

  Dena turned back and motioned Mica inside. “Don’t let the storm in.”

  Mica wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and reached into her coat pocket. “Did Charles call you yet?”

  “No, why?”

  Her face crumpled and she cried again. “It’s so horrible. Someone was found at the shop. What if I’d gone back? I was terrified it would be you and…and…and…”

  Reya reached through the doorway and jerked Mica in. “What? What are you talking about?”

  Mica shook her head. “Someone found a body at our shop.”

  “Are you high?” Reya asked.

  Mica’s face was streaked with tears.

  Dena suddenly asked. “How did you know she was here?”

  Mica frowned. “She told Charles if he needed her, this was where we could get her if she wasn’t at home.”

  Dena’s brows furrowed. “So how do you know what happened at the shop and why didn’t Charles call here?”

  Mica shook her head. “I don’t know. I have no clue. I just…”

  “Put your hands where I can see them,” Dena lashed out.

  “What?” Mica and Reya asked at the same time.

  “Now, Mica, put them where I can see them.”

  Mica nodded. “Okay.”

  She jerked her hands out of her coat and fired a shot so quickly Reya didn’t realize what happened until the gun was pointed at her.

  “Mica?”

  Reya glanced quickly at Dena, saw only her legs from behind the huge arm chair, but blood seeped in a stream across the tiles.

  “Mica?” the college girl asked in Reya’s own voice. Then before Reya’s eyes, the spiked haired girl slowly began to change. Morphing.

  Whoever or whatever she was, she was a morpher.

  The face changed into that of herself, with her own voice. “Oh, Lo, how lovely to see you again.”

  Reya stumbled back.

  The face and body changed to Charles. “Reya, would you date a fifty-two-year-old?”

  She bumped into the other armchair. The form changed into a dead body on the floor. A face she didn’t know or recognize. Then the form shifted, melding into boots and jeans and a white button-down. Blood pooled over his chest.

  “Lorenzo!” Without thinking, she rushed forwards, then stopped.

  Think, she had to think.

  His form still lay at her feet. No. Her heartbeat slammed the blood against her ears. No. No. It couldn’t be. She would know if he were gone. She would know. She would.

  A cold wind blew through the house.

  “Lorenzo!” she screamed in her mind. This wasn’t happening. Her breath panted out and she closed her eyes against the nausea. She was powerful. She was. So stupid not to have stayed in shape.

  Reya sensed a blur of movement and shot her eyes open and her hands out, throwing a shield up, but it was too late.

  Something slammed into the side of her head, and her world tilted.

  “Lorenzo,” she whispered as she fell.

  All she could see were the boots. His boots as she tried to pick herself up off the floor.

  “We’re going on a little trip,” Lorenzo whispered in her ear.

  The cold seeped deep within her until blackness closed over.

  Chapter Nine

  Lorenzo pulled up in front of Reya’s shop and knew he should have told her, but he didn’t want her here.

  An urgency pulled at him. Was the new vic someone she knew? And now in her damn shop? Rage roiled through his blood.

  Just as he opened the door an image flashed white hot in his mind.

  Reya backing away. No. No. It can’t be.

  His house. His chairs. The tiles.

  “Lorenzo!” she screamed.

  Her voice echoed within his soul.

  “’Bout time you got here,” one of the guys said.

  Without a word, he started the truck and shoved it in gear. His tires squealed on the asphalt. “Please, please, please.”

  He never should have left her. Never. Just like before. Damn it.

  He tried to bring the image back, even as his cell rang and the radio sputtered. He flicked the radio off and sped through town, narrowly missing one car.

  He reached deep within him and shoved his power to her. He couldn’t see her, and all he could feel was the deep cold of death.

  Lorenzo chanted words he’d forgotten he’d remembered. He called on all his cats.

  Reya opened her eyes and felt the rain on her face. She looked through her lashes at the woman on the rock. It was raining.

  Pain pulsed through her head and she dared not move. She heard one of the growls. Not a cat’s growl, but one from her nightmares.

  A wolf.

  Something else as well. She could sense them. They were not the wolves of her nightmares. They seemed…lesser somehow.

  She waited, listening to the woman.

  “My followers. This is a great day. A great day indeed. Do you see the woman before you?”

  Murmurs filled the air.

  The wind roared across the plains with a vengeance. Whistling just behind the figure. She narrowed her gaze to see in the darkness and hoped the others wouldn’t know.

  Whistling, the wind… Darkness wasn’t relieved behind the figure, the leader. Whoever or whatever the thing was. She stayed still.

  “This, this woman is our great enemy. She is the Lioness of this Mountain Cat order. She always has been. It was her lover who killed Sael, ripped his body apart piece by piece. It was because of her that Sael was killed. Now we shall avenge my brother.”

  Selinna…

  Relief slid through her at the words. Sael was dead.

  Darkness beyond. Where were they?

  Lightning staked down not a hundred yards away and thunder shook the ground. But she saw, and Reya knew. The gorge.

  She tried to see along the ground and in the distance she could see the cars, cars from the highway as they crossed the bridge over the chasm. But it was miles over to the highway…

  She couldn’t be too far from Lorenzo’s ranch.

  This time she closed her eyes, left the shield up and channeled straight to Lorenzo… The gorge, the house, the bridge.

  Lorenzo jumped from his truck and didn’t even bother to cut the engine. He flew to the house. The door stood open. He decided now was not the time to be a human. He concentrated and shifted in one smooth motion feeling his tendons, ligaments and muscles changing over the changing bones. He stopped and shook his head, the world different, sharper now in his cat form.

  He smelled blood and hurried into the house, the night’s rain roaring closer. He saw Dena on the ground. Reya!

  He turned and raced outside, the cold wind rippling along his fur.

  In the barn he found others. Darrell was hurt, barely alive. He went to him first. Lorenzo licked his friend’s face, nudged him and then growled, batting at Darrell’s hand until he called forth his friend’s beast. When shifted, they could heal much quicker than they could as humans.

  A noise at the door had him crouching low.

  “Lorenzo?” someone asked.

  He could hear other voices outside. Then a growl and purrs. His cats.

  “Shift,” he commanded them. “We’re hunting.”

  An image pierced his mind. He could feel the rain on her face, see the lightning, the gorge, the bridge and cars in the distance.

  They were still on his land.

  He roared out of the barn and took off across the valley towards the point where he knew them to be. It was a place he’d always liked to go to think and it had a path that led to the bottom of the canyon. It was on the border between his ranch and his neighbor’s. They’d both used the trail.

  “Sir
e?” one of his asked.

  The rain sheeted down upon them, cooling against his skin, but doing nothing for his rage.

  He looked to the side and saw Charles, sleek, if a bit older than most in both cat and human form. He owed the man much for keeping an eye on her. “We hunt to kill. They’ve taken Reya.”

  Charles turned and roared to the others. The message was passed. There would be no mercy.

  Reya watched and listened. She heard the roars even over the rain.

  Silently, she shifted, wincing against the pain the shifting brought. She really shouldn’t wait so long in between shifts. It wouldn’t hurt so damned much if she shifted more often. Standing on four paws, she crouched, waiting. “You would do well to remember who comes for you. Last time I checked, you were nothing here.” She rose and stalked around the woman. Now she could see her clearly. Not Mica, but this woman who had always hated her. Always hated her. Why, she had no idea. It wasn’t as if Reya had ever wanted Sael, and Selinna had always been jealous. Something was wrong with that picture.

  Selinna was different now, her eyes still a dark green, almost black, her hair shorter, but her face was scarred. When had that happened?

  Reya licked her lips. The shifting for her had not been as easy as she wished. “You always were jealous, Selinna, of Sael. You were jealous of me. Come to think of it, you were jealous of just about everyone.”

  She looked out over the group and realized they were larger than she expected, but still rather small. Werewolves and coyotes. Ahh…

  “You’ve been a naughty girl, Selinna,” she chided. “The coyotes? You’ve really lowered yourself.” She turned to one who snarled at her. “Tell me, did she share with you her absolute hatred of your kind?” She circled him. “I bet she lets you coyotes do all the dirty work, tells you something along the lines of you being the true soldiers.”

  The idiot nodded.

  “You poor thing, she’s going to kill you when you’re done serving her.”

  “That’s not true,” one of them said.

  Reya laughed. “I must commend you, Selinna. You’ve managed to do what no other wolf leader would ever lower themselves to doing. You went to bed with the enemy.”

  “Isn’t that the pot pointing to the kettle?” Selinna jumped down and shifted into a black wolf, her green eyes showing. The woman shifted as easily as she’d morphed into the other humans, slick and smooth as liquid silver.

  How had she not recognized the woman, recognized the beast even as she thought it friend?

  “I never willingly slept with your brother,” Reya snarled.

  “You’ve become so complacent with the times, Reya. You never even knew it was me. I kept waiting, you know, kept waiting for you to look at me and really, really see. To at least sense. Mica the grad student, Mica your friend was a lie. You’ve gotten slow and stupid.”

  “Did you? I guess I had better things to do.”

  Lightning flashed, again all too close. Thunder shuddered down the mountain.

  They circled each other. The others backing up, making a larger circle around them.

  “Did you ever know he slept with me?”

  “Your brother? That’s not something I would brag about, Selinna.” Still they circled. Come on, Lorenzo. I can take her, but not all of them!

  Then she heard his voice. Part of her had been terrified that Selinna had morphed into him because she’d killed him.

  “Wait for me.”

  “I’ll try.”

  “No, you little slut. Your precious Lorenzo. Did you know it was me in his bed in Paris? It had taken me that long to hunt the bastard down and I would have killed him if you hadn’t shown up.” The last growled across the air between them.

  “Really? Well, lucky for me and him then. You’re not the only bitch he’s slept with, you know.” She stopped, crouched low. “For that plan alone I could kill you.”

  They sprang at each other, claws and teeth ripping fur and flesh. She used her tail to bat at Selinna, ripped her claws down the wolf’s back pleased when she heard her scream. Reya roared as Selinna’s jaws clamped onto her neck, stinging where they locked. She twisted onto her back, planted her feet against Selinna’s belly and threw the wolf off.

  “Did your brother die painfully?” she asked. “I hope so. I’ve prayed so. I rejoiced when I heard he’d died. Sael was evil and never deserved to live.” Reya realized they were closer to the edge than she’d thought. She danced closer, taunting. “Come at me, puppy, and let’s dance again.”

  She was waiting. Selinna sprang through the rain at her. Reya waited, waited until the last possible moment and then used her own momentum to catch the wolf that landed on her. Again she twisted, rolled and sank her own teeth into Selinna.

  The wolf howled and clawed back. Reya felt her own skin rip open, the sting of the rain strangely exhilarating.

  They fought and bit, clawed and danced. At last…

  This time Reya was on her back, prayed it would work and waited until Selinna sprang onto her again. She was ready.

  Reya caught Selinna in the soft underbelly with her back paws. Still she rolled up and shoved her legs out.

  The wolf howled as she flew over the edge and down into the dark depth of the canyon. Her relief was short lived.

  The growls and barking calls tightened around her as they all drew closer.

  Then he was there, leaping over all them to stand in front of her.

  Roars filled the air as the werecats met the werewolves and werecoyotes.

  He broke two of the wolves’ necks. She tossed another off the side of the cliff.

  “I told you to wait for me,” he growled.

  “I’ll have to work on listening to you.”

  The battle didn’t last long. Lightning flashed and strobed. Thunder ripped though the valley just as the claws did. Blood filled the air as the dead wolves and coyotes lay on the ground. One of them growled out, “The elders will not be pleased with you, Lorenzo.”

  Lorenzo leaned down low. “The elders will understand when I explain that you were killing innocents and leaving them for humans to find. When that happens, the humans become involved. We’ve never liked them involved in were affairs.”

  The old wolf laughed. “I told her not to bring them in. They were new, not known of our ways. They turned and wanted out. She had the werecoyotes kill them.”

  The old wolf took another breath and died.

  “It’s time to go home, Reya.”

  She stood there, panting. “Selinna? Of all the damn women you had to pick to sleep with. Why in the hell did it have to be her?”

  The other cats circled them as they walked home, guarding them.

  Apparently it was time to come back to the pride, but she wasn’t certain she was ready.

  “You’re mine. Don’t forget it.”

  “Yeah, well considering I just killed one of your girlfriends, I’d say you better not forget it.”

  The rain washed the blood away and by the time they returned to the house, most of their wounds were healed. Both she and Lo batted Dena’s beast to come out so that she could heal herself. Darrell was carried into the house by two other werecats who had shifted back into human form. There were more cats than she realized here, more than she’d come into contact with previously.

  “There is much for us to talk about,” Lorenzo told her.

  Apparently.

  Chapter Ten

  The cave was damp, but then it always was. Winter was coming on and food would be harder to find. She had no idea why she couldn’t shift, but for now, her powers held her captive in wolf form.

  That was all right. Her time would come…if the winter didn’t kill her off first.

  One day she would gain her vengeance on those she hated.

  One day…

  Reya stood in the shop looking at Charles.

  “What?” he asked, still scrolling through whatever held his attention captive on the computer screen.

  She shoved a
piece of hair behind her ear and looked out the window. Autumn hung heavy on the air, the mountainside a quilt-work of gold, red and orange, aspens broken by the dark green of pines. Snow had already fallen on the higher elevations.

  “N-nothing.”

  “Your nothing weighs more than I do. So what?” he stopped what he was doing and gave her his attention.

  “I just thought… I thought I remembered seeing you that night, out on the plain. At Lo’s.”

  Charles only smiled at her and turned back to his computer. “About Lorenzo, have you put that boy of out his misery yet and moved in with him?”

  She noticed he never answered her question and maybe she was better off not knowing.

  “No.”

  “Why not? What are you waiting for?”

  She sighed and leaned against the counter. “I don’t know. Everything is so new, in a way. We’ve gotten so used to being apart and part of me is…” Again, she looked out over the mountains.

  “You two are mates. Simple. Period. You can live here in town if you want. He can live out at the ranch and in the meantime you’re both wondering why you’re apart. Seems pretty stupid to me.”

  “I don’t want to be owned.” She shrugged. “We’re taking things slow. We want to get to know each other again.”

  “That, my dear, is piece of trash trying to pass as art.”

  Lo thought her view of going slowly was a load of shit and maybe he was right. Maybe it was just an excuse.

  But they were together, regardless, and time would tell if she wanted that to be permanent. Did she want it to be? Hadn’t she already promised more or less?

  “Maybe you should ask yourself what you really want?”

  She knew what she wanted. “Peace.”

  “And you’ve had that by yourself?”

  No. She didn’t need to answer him though.

  “If you’re taking it slow, can’t you just as well take it slowly with him as without him? I mean, by all means, keep your little place here in town if you must. Your safety net, if you will. Or keep it as a place to go to get away occasionally. And then take another step away from your net and rent the damn thing so you’ll have some mad money. Neither of those things means you can’t still stay with him, get to know him, the two of you together.” He wiggled his brows. “Learn each other’s little secrets that you might not know.”