Page 20 of Whiskers on Kittens

Ah, was there anything more lovely than a wolf who understood his place in life? In a way, I pitied Mr. Goody-Goody; he was about to get a good view of me at my worst.

He was also about to get a good view of me at my best.

“For some reason, I think we’re being used by the Christian pantheon, and we’re not just going to be rescuing a litter of kittens. If these photographs are any indication, we’re going to be busting a big party of traffickers—and we might even get a chance to recover the kids before they’re distributed to the various rings.” I pocketed my phone and rubbed my hands together. “I hope you’re ready for some counts of criminal mischief, Easton, because the instant I get some addresses of participants, I’m going on a heist bender. You can stay home and sulk if you want—or you can come along for the ride. I don’t care, but I’m going to be busting into places I shouldn’t be and gathering evidence any way possible.”

“If you’re targeting mobsters, I honestly don’t care what you do.”

Excellent. “We might make a good bad boy out of you yet, Mr. Goody-Goody.”

“I doubt that, Miss Winfield. Do not make me arrest you for crossing the line.”

My virus adored the idea of him getting rough and pulling out the cuffs. I scowled; if I played the game, he won—and my virus wanted to toss him a few scraps to indicate she had him in her sights. “If you can catch me. Can some goody-goody cop actually keep up with feline perfection? Sure, you might be big, fluffy, and packing muscle, but I am beauty and grace and willing to kick kidnappers in the face.”

“Your rhythm is off.”

“Give me a break! At least I limited it to the kidnappers this time.”

“While you make a good point, let’s limit the violence to only when it’s absolutely necessary.”

I hissed at him and got into my car, buckling my seatbelt and questioning why I had decided to be nice to the cop, letting him drive.

He got behind the wheel and shot a wolfish grin my way. “Is that a no?”

“It’s a clear warning I need lunch before I decide you count as food.”

“If you say so. Where am I taking us?”

I gave him the address of the hotel I’d picked in Toledo, hoping the place could handle a hungry pair of lycanthropes. If not, I could always order pizza.

I had some regrets over the hotel in Toledo, although my virus delighted in the small room with a queen bed. The bed would pose a problem. We’d have to get nice and cozy when it was time to get some sleep. Once he was inside, I closed the door and set the deadbolt. “In my defense, this was the only room left at this hotel. While I’m evil, I would normally pick a double or connecting rooms in a situation like this. However, this chain has a good reputation for keeping bedbugs at bay, and nothing pisses me off more than bedbugs. I’m allergic, and my fur gets patchy.”

“You’re allergic to bedbugs?”

“Yep. When you travel as much as I do, bedbugs are an inevitability. Once I learned I’m allergic, I check for them and have a practitioner trick up my sleeve to help protect me from them. The problem with my trick is simple: I’m not a strong practitioner, so I can only handle a small area before I’m tapped out for a while. I can eradicate the bedbugs from this bed and around it, but that doesn’t stop the bastards from attacking from other vantage points. I will be using my trick because the last thing you need is me dealing with an allergic reaction. And once my fur gets patchy? It’s game over. I become one angry kitty.”

“As someone who has suffered through patchy fur, I understand your complaint and hope we do not have to deal with that.”

“My house is properly warded against bedbugs. If they come into my home, they have approximately five minutes to live before there’s a pulse and all bedbugs are slain. I pay a thousand a month for that. Some people call that a huge waste of money, but I call it common sense. It also kills fleas, lice, termites, and other nasty pests that might damage me or my home.”

Easton chuckled, hooked his head, and placed his bag at the foot of the bed. “Fleas are awful, and if I had a thousand dollars a month I could spend on making sure there are no infestations, I’d pay it without hesitation. Fleas are a constant battle in my apartment building. I’ve gotten it contained in my unit, but the neighbors aren’t diligent with their cats and dogs, and those little shits spread like wildfire. I do take my cat to the vet every other month for a flea treatment just to be sure she’s okay. I spend probably forty a month on flea sprays to make sure they don’t come back as often.”

I shuddered at the thought of him living in a flea-infested apartment complex. “On one hand, I should warn the vampires, but on the other hand, I want to see what happens when one of them gets bitten by a rival blood sucker. Of course, I can’t promise you won’t find your apartment emptied of all your belongings and a succubus ready and waiting to drag you off to her lair to remove you from any flea infestations. Vampires do not like anyone or anything encroaching on their turf, especially fleas.”

He laughed, checked out the bathroom, and prowled around the hotel room, stopping at the window to peek out the curtain. “On the surface, it looks like a nice city.”

“And then you realize there might be a large-scale trafficking ring operating the local airports?”

“Yep.”

Bracing for a dispute, I said, “We’ll help everyone we can, but in reality, we have one job. That is to see that litter of kittens home for Christmas. If we can get a bunch more kids heading home for the holidays, I’m willing to toss the extra hours into it. But it’s important we concentrate our efforts on the kids we know we should be able to save as long as we don’t fuck this up.” I winced, hating myself for the brutality of my edict. “Don’t get me wrong. I want to see as many children home as we can, but we have a solid chance of getting the entire litter home if we play the game right. I won’t sacrifice their safety and security, not when I know if we stay on our course we can get them home. I’ll take as many detours as we dare along the way, but every detour needs to, in some fashion or another, lead to those kittens.”

“Generally, I agree with you. We deal with this at the station often. Do we catch the crook we know we can nab or do we gamble on a bigger fish? Most of the time, we go for the easy catch—and we ignore the bigger fish, aware if we detour, we might miss the one conviction. A conviction in hand is worth more than a chance at someone else. I don’t always agree with it—especially not with how the CPD operates. But I’m starting to suspect the CDC specifically put me on your case knowing what type of work you do and wanting you to take aim at the CPD.”

That I could believe without hesitation. “All right. You’re probably going to have to give me some insights on how investigations should work.”

“I wish I could help you with that, but I can’t. In the force, I’m a grunt worker. I do patrols, I respond to active cases of theft or anything that involves someone physically fit. I haven’t been bumped up to detective status nor do I get to work with the detectives. I’m passed over because they want my hybrid form readily accessible for when brawn is required.”

I scowled. “Are you saying neither one of us has any idea how to run an investigation?”