by R D Martin
Whirling around, Cat sat back on its haunches and stared at Ronnie as though daring him to attack again. It was a challenge the monster didn’t pass up. With a massive swing he brought his fist down toward the animal. With the same ease it had shown before, Cat dodged to the side once more. For Cat, this was just another game, and he didn’t lose games. Taking a quick peek to make sure his human was doing well, Cat brought out his claws.
The thing about familiars, the thing even some of their humans forget, is the first job of a familiar has always been to be a protector. It begins when they first bond. As children, young magic users are a danger to themselves and others. The familiar absorbs the wild magic young casters spell before they’ve learned proper control. As it absorbs the magic, the familiar becomes more magical itself. Later, after its charge is grown and in control, the familiar uses the stored magic to cast spells of its own. That’s the upside of being a familiar. The downside, however, isn’t pleasant. If a familiar uses all the magic it has stored, it reverts to being an ordinary animal, unable to talk or even think as it did before. Worse yet, if its witch dies and the familiar has already lived beyond the normal lifespan of its species, it’ll die too.
Bella watched Cat lean forward and, like a lion on the savanna, roar. Instead of a high-pitched mew, a noise loud enough to have come from an actual lion rolled over them, echoing about the apartment. A wave of pressure followed the bellow, pushing back against Ronnie and sending broken furniture and small objects flying away as if caught in a windstorm. Before the echo of the roar disappeared, Cat jumped, propelling himself straight at Ronnie’s face with his claws extended.
As Cat flew, Bella witnessed her familiar do something she’d never seen before. For a brief second, everything happened in slow motion. It looked as if the cat was stretching itself, becoming longer as it leapt with the front half of its body moving faster than the rear. While it stretched, the cat grew, becoming larger than she’d ever seen. Surpassing the size of a large dog, her familiar continued to grow until it struck Ronnie in the face. Cat, her Cat, now stood almost as tall as a horse’s shoulder, and the rumbling growl coming from its chest thrummed strong enough that she could feel it across the room. Oddly, even though it had grown to such massive proportions, it still looked the same as it had before. It was still Cat, just bigger.
Moving almost too quick to be seen, Cat slapped out with his front paws, taking Ronnie in the head and hip at the same time. The double impact sent Ronnie spinning in the air like a propeller for a moment before slamming down on the floor in a heap. Before Ronnie could pull himself together, Cat pounced again, landing on him with all four paws.
If the impact hadn’t been enough to damage the monster, his claws were. Holding Ronnie down with his front paws, Cat started raking his back claws on the man’s chest. Back and forth, the claws dug in, tearing flesh and cloth with equal ease. Even muffled under the weight of the giant cat, she could hear Ronnie’s screams of pain.
Cat leaned forward, jaws wide and ready to give the final coup-de-grâce by tearing off Ronnie’s head, but stopped. His head snapped up and, giving her a look that could only be interpreted as confusion, he flew off Ronnie. Sailing across the room, Cat tried to right himself, but his massive size and the small area worked against him. Slamming into the far wall hard enough to crack the drywall, Cat hung in the air for a moment before dropping to the floor with a solid thud and only missing Heather by inches.
A moan, coupled with heavy breathing, dragged Bella’s attention away from Cat and back to Ronnie, who was levering himself off the floor. Her attacks might not have done much damage, but Cat’s had. Ronnie’s chest was a shredded mass of flesh and bone. Something dark oozed from him, evaporating in a cloud of black steam before it could touch the floor. Without thinking, she sent another spell flying across the room at Ronnie. Great white electric arcs flashed around him as the spell hit, encasing him in a cage of energy that grew tighter around him until it was almost a second skin. Most of the energy appeared to do nothing and fizzled out. When the magical energy touched Ronnie’s ruined chest, however, the result was exactly what she hoped for.
The bellow of pain issuing from Ronnie was almost a balm for her anger. This thing had beaten her neighbor, attacked her, and hurt Cat. Uttering a single word and putting as much force behind the magic as she could, she sent the spell flying at Ronnie again, though this time aimed at his chest. The explosion of dark ooze and black steam was incredible and threatened to fill the entire room. The scream from Ronnie was satisfying in such a visceral way that the shivers of pleasure it sent up her spine almost scared her.
Taking another step forward, she prepared another attack. Ronnie, already on his knees, raised a hand as if to block the spell. Bella, knowing he had no hope of doing so, chanted the word of power and concentrating with all her might, enacted the spell. Instead of the rush of energy she should have felt, she felt… nothing. Eyes wide in shock, she cast her vision inward, desperate to find out why the spell failed. She had enough energy left for at least one more, she knew, so why hadn’t it worked? Her frantic search brought her the answer.
The healing spell, the one she’d used to keep her neighbor alive, needed more energy than the battered woman could give, so she adjusted the spell to use her own strength. She hadn’t planned on the extended fight with Ronnie and, pouring everything she had into her own defense, she’d forgotten. The magic hadn’t, though, and it prioritized her first spell over every other one. All her magic was now being poured into her neighbor, leaving her defenseless.
Ronnie stood, the smug smile returning to his face. As far as he was concerned, evidently, this fight was over. He’d won and the woman in front of him was dead. A similar thought was also winding its way through her mind.
Before he could touch her, however, a growl from across the room caught his attention. Turning his head so as not to lose sight of the soon to be dead girl, he watched the cat rise and turn toward him.
Cat’s distraction was just enough for her. Snatching an object from nearby, she brought it down on Ronnie’s head in a furious swing. The glass object shattered, but the blow was hard enough to make Ronnie stagger back a few feet, giving her some breathing room.
Ronnie’s eyes darted back and forth between the witch and her familiar. Either one alone was one thing, but both of them together gave him pause. Snarling at Bella, he lunged to his right, leaping through the door and into the hallway.
Uncaring of her lack of magic at the moment, she followed him into the hall. Catching sight of him, she was surprised to see black smoke roiling from him, filling the hall with an acrid stench that caused her stomach to turn. In less time than it took to blink he was gone, leaving nothing behind but a dark soot that stuck to the ceiling and part of the walls. Before she could do more than turn around, the fire alarm overhead sounded, piercing the quiet of the hall and waking all the building’s residents.
Sighing with relief, she returned to the apartment, glad to see Cat was back to normal. She would have a hard enough time explaining the door, but a cat the size of a draft horse would be just too much.
Walking over to Cat, she reached down and picked up the feline.
“Who’s a good boy, then? Who’s a good boy?” She knew Cat hated the baby speech but would put up with almost anything if it came with either a good scratch or food. The animal purred for a moment, then reached out a paw and smacked her on the head, though lightly and with no claws.
“What did you drag me into? I could have been hurt and it would be all your fault. And I’m still hungry and I’m missing my shows.”
Odd as it was, Cat’s complaints had the effect of making her feel somewhat better. It was nice to know that, no matter what happened, Cat never changed. She snuggled a little deeper into the beast’s fur and, ignoring the stream of complaints, sighed again as pain and fatigue washed over her. She was, in fact, so tired that she almost missed the last thing her familiar said.
“What was that?”
she asked, dragging her mind back to the present.
“I said, where is Samantha? I don’t see her, or even sense her. Weren’t you supposed to pick her up?”
Shocked she’d forgotten the child, she dropped Cat and started searching. There weren’t too many places a child could hide in the sparsely decorated apartment, and by the time the first neighbor had wandered in after having spotted the front door off its hinges, Bella had gone through the entire place.
Standing in the middle of the living room, overhead light flashing from the fire alarm and neighbors asking each other if they knew what was going on, she stood on the verge of tears. Not from the pain, not from the attack or even her anger. No, her tears were for Samantha. A little girl she thought of as family. A little girl who was gone.
Chapter 6
The paramedics assured Bella that her neighbor would be fine as they wheeled her away on the stretcher. Standing out in the street, along with everyone else forced to evacuate the building, she felt strung as tight as a wire and was more than a little relieved when the building’s super told the residents they could all return in. The false alarm was being blamed on a surge in the system and no one was in any real danger.
The line at the elevator was enough to make her take the stairs, an opinion shared by several younger residents. Arriving at her floor, she made her way to her apartment, passing the gaping hole into Heather’s apartment where police were taking pictures and scratching their heads over the baffling robbery. They’d accepted her story about finding the door blown open and, seeing her neighbor on the floor, rushing in to give aid. They’d even issued an AMBER Alert for Samantha. But they could still not figure out a reason for all the damage. Bella knew telling them the truth would only get her locked up, so thought it wiser to play dumb.
Closing her own door, she leaned against the wall and took a deep breath. It felt as if a day had passed rather than hours since she’d walked across the hall and she was still trying to make sense of everything. Questions swirled in her mind as if on an endless loop. Some answers came easier than others. Above all, one question plagued her the most. Where was Samantha? Before the firemen and police arrived, she’d only had a few moments to consider the question. Now alone with nothing but her thoughts and Cat, she couldn’t think of anything else.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Cat said, interrupting her thoughts.
“You do? Mind sharing?”
“Sarcasm doesn’t become you.” Cat’s tail swished irritably.
“Sorry. It’s just…”
“I know. You’re sorry you haven’t even thought of feeding me yet.” Purring, Cat rubbed against her legs in a way that, had she been walking, would have tripped her.
“What? No. That’s not…”
“Of course it’s not, silly girl.” The exasperation in Cat’s voice was clear. “You’re thinking of Samantha. Where is she? Is she frightened? Is she in danger? And above all, you’re wondering if there’s anything you can do to help, though right now you’re almost too tired to think.”
“Then why did you say…?”
“Because I’m hungry. What other reason is needed?”
“You’re always hungry.”
“And it’s your job to feed me. I propose a compromise. You feed me and I’ll do the thinking for you. Seems a fair solution to me.”
Bella gave a sigh. Cat had always been smug and selfish, but he’d saved her tonight so was perhaps entitled to a bit of leeway. The expression on Cat’s face seemed to agree with the thought.
Pulling some leftover turkey from the fridge, she put it in the microwave just long enough to take the chill off before setting the plate on the table opposite her. She’d learned long ago that leaving the plate on the floor was a great way to make sure her familiar never touched it. He refused to eat like an animal. She’d barely pulled her hand away before Cat jumped up and dug into his meal.
Resting her head in her hand, she watched Cat devour the food and let her mind drift. Cat had been right on all accounts, well, all but one. She was worried about Samantha and wondered if there was anything she could do. What he hadn’t mentioned was how scared she was of doing anything. Facing goblins and trolls was one thing. They were small creatures of small magics, and if she was honest with herself, so was she.
Having grown up knowing about the supernatural world and the huge variety that lived in it, understanding she was just something small and too insignificant to be noticed by all the big things, was comforting. Old gods and worse roamed the earth and the spaces between light and dark, and there were plenty who could step on her without even realizing it.
Tonight had been a prime example. Whatever Ronnie was, it hadn’t been human. He, or it, wasn’t a shifter either. Her knowledge of shifters was limited, but one thing they all had in common was that their magic, the ability to shift, was internal and required nothing other than willpower to change form. Well, willpower and sometimes a special condition. Werewolves could shift anytime but needed the full moon to go full wolf, whereas were-voles could only shift if they had access to soil. Keep one of them indoors and it would spend its entire life as a human.
But what was Ronnie? And, more importantly, would he come back? He’d almost killed her, and she’d been helpless to stop him. His strength was overpowering and if he returned she knew there would be nothing she could do to stop him. As the thought sank in, it sent chills down her spine. Hugging herself for warmth, she started rocking back and forth in her seat.
“Stop it,” said Cat.
“What?” Bella snapped her attention back to the present and focused on the familiar. “Stop what?”
In response to her question, she witnessed Cat do a second thing she never thought possible. He rolled his eyes at her.
“Stop worrying. You’re sitting there, somewhere between tears and exhaustion, and worrying so much that it’s putting me off enjoying my meal.” A quick look at the plate confirmed that, if he hadn’t enjoyed it, at least he’d eaten everything, since there was no sign of it left.
“I know, but I—”
“No buts, girl. What have I always told you?”
“Dunno. Feed me?”
Cat’s stare said it all.
“I just don’t, I’m afraid, I…”
“And that’s it. Isn’t it? You’re afraid.”
Hearing someone else say it, even if that someone was Cat, was more than enough to confirm it. A lump welled in her chest even as she tried to fight back the tears threatening to overflow. Knowing she would break down if she tried to speak, she chose instead to nod.
“Good. At least you’re smart enough to admit that. I was losing hope.”
Jumping across the table in a graceful leap, Cat landed in her lap. She pulled the feline to her, hugging him against her chest. His purring vibrated through her, and though it didn’t solve any of her worries, it made her feel a little better.
“What am I going to do?”
“Don’t know,” he replied. “I know what I’d do. I’d forget this whole mess and find a warm place to nap. There’s nothing that can’t be solved with a good nap.”
“That doesn’t help me, though. I’m scared and I, I…”
“What, may I ask, are you scared of?”
“I’m scared of that thing. That… that… Ronnie. What if he comes back? I couldn’t do anything about him. If you hadn’t been there, I would be dead!”
“Well, you wouldn’t have to worry about him at all then, would you?” The look on her face told Cat his gallows humor might not have gone over as well as expected. “Look,” he said, this time a little more somber, “there’s nothing you can do to stop him from coming back. That’s his decision to make, not yours. He may be on the other side of the door right now.” Hearing those words, she squeaked and, hugging Cat even tighter, turned toward the front door.
“Or,” Cat continued as though he’d not been interrupted, “or he may never come back. Like I said, it’s his decision and you don’t have
the time or energy to deal with it until he does.”
Bella relaxed a bit, letting go of some of the tension she’d been holding on to. Cat was right, she couldn’t spend the rest of her life waiting and wondering. Loosening her grip on him, she settled back into her seat.
“So what do I do, then?” she asked again. Talking about her fear might have lessened it, but it didn’t make coming up with a plan any easier. Ronnie aside, she still had too many unanswered questions in her head.
“About what?”
“About what? About this. About everything!”
Reaching a paw up, Cat slapped her on top of the head.
“Stop shouting. One question at a time, remember?”
“All right,” she said, though she felt herself becoming exasperated with the familiar. “Why did Ronnie attack Heather?”
“Dunno. Next?”
“What does he want?”
“Same question, same answer. Next?”
“Fine. Where is Samantha?”
“Dunno.”
“What do you know?”
“I know how to find her. Other than that, not much, I’m afraid.”
“Wait, what? You know where she is? Why didn’t you say so? Where is she?”
“Dunno.”
“But you just said—”
“I said I know how to find her, not that I know where she is. Look around. This place is littered with her junk. Don’t you think we may be able to use some of it to find her?”
Cat was right. Looking around, she saw signs that the girl spent almost as much time here as at her own home. Not that her apartment was a mess, but there were little things here and there. Drawings, small toys, all those little items kids carry and seem to leave behind. Everything she needed to find the girl was here. Snatching up a bag of items she’d meant to send back, she rummaged through the contents to find something, anything that might be personal enough to connect with the girl. Forgotten toys rained down onto the floor, bits of paper, even what looked like a long stick wrapped in strips of leather, though where she got it was anyone's guess. There had to be something here.
