AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’m in his room, but I’m human?
The two states couldn’t coexist. I was human in the 1920s. I was a cat, a familiar, when I first climbed into this room and met Charlie.
Suddenly, I remembered what happened; Winnie drugged me, and Mary dragged Savida home. They hurt him by performing a spell to take something from him. I gathered the others to find him and then consented to a spell so I could tell all I knew. It all came to me in a bright, colorful flash of pictures, and I sighed in relief.
I wasn’t human in my lifetime again. Somehow, Daithi had turned me from a cat to human.
Overwhelmed, nauseous, and confused, I sat up and tugged the sheet dangling from the bed over my naked body. I glimpsed something in the corner of the room and double took.
In the mirror, I saw myself.
I stared back at the gaunt reflection. My hair was wild and tangled in a honey cloud around my shoulders. Dark circles swallowed my eyes. Violet and wide-open with shock and fear, they were identical to the expression I wore moments before my death.
I spiraled into memories of the frightened girl I used to be. I remembered the fear of hearing his footsteps, the turn of a lock, and his laugh. The pain of his fists and feet crashing into me, breaking more than just bone, but hope, heart and spirit. I remembered the color of the bruises. The smell of his breath. The longing to die.
I saw Margaret Claudia Smith, daughter of a war hero turned abusive drunk, a nurse turned victim. And I hated her. She was weak and fearful, and she was dead.
Dead. Dead. Dead.
I crumpled into myself, shuddering and panting and unable to catch my breath. I closed my eyes, hoping the overwhelming sensations around me would dull. Hot tears skated down my face, tasting of salt on my trembling lips.
“Little Cat, calm yourself,” a voice said softly. I remembered the purple eyes. Zaide was here. I opened my eyes to see him reaching for me, and I automatically retreated from his grasp. Which gave me a better view of his whole body.
His golden skin was unlike the tan a human could get as it almost glittered in the small strips of light let in by the curtains. Deep purple scars, the same color as his eyes, glowed and pulsed across his broad, chiseled chest. They littered his body, some leading up to his neck and to just below his right eye. Some leading down, down—I stopped. My eyes went wide as I looked at the largest erection I had ever witnessed.
I squeaked and snapped my gaze back up to meet his eyes, and I realized I was so distracted I hadn’t noticed him approaching again. He grasped my shaking hands, and I jolted.
Suddenly, I fell into the feeling of his rough palms against my soft skin. The room quieted. I could hear our heartbeats, both hurried but calming. I lost my fear in the patterns and swirls of his purple irises. My breathing settled. I felt more myself. Less frightened. I continued to take deep breaths, focusing on the feeling of safety.
I startled when Charlie and Daithi charged into the room, my screaming having gathered the attention of the others in the house.
“Jesus Christ,” Charlie exclaimed and covered his eyes. “For fuck’s sake, Zaide. Put your bloody dick away. Now isn’t the time for a boner.” Zaide grimaced and covered his hips with the sheet lying on the floor where he slept. “Why the hell are you naked anyway?”
“That’s how I sleep,” he replied with a furrowed brow.
Daithi coughed delicately. “I don’t think Zaide meant anything sinister.”
“Say that to the monster under the sheet,” Charlie hissed.
Zaide’s face paled as understanding hit him. “I would never.”
I squeaked when I attempted to talk, and all eyes turned to me. Charlie handed me a glass of water from the bedside table. I thanked him with a small smile and tipped the entire contents down my throat. The cold rushing down my neck, quenching my thirst, was a sensation I didn’t realize I had missed until that moment.
“What did you do to me?” I croaked. My hand went to my throat, and I massaged my disused voice box.
“It seems I have turned you human,” Daithi said calmly.
I was suddenly furious. He spoke to me as though I didn’t already know that. Like I was just a stupid cat. I hissed. Or I did the human equivalent. “I can see that. But thank you kindly for informing me of what is most obvious.”
“You’re posh,” Charlie stated with a puzzled expression, which had me tightening my lips to stop a chuckle from escaping.
Mood swings were not something I missed.
I ignored him and turned my attention back to Daithi. “You were only supposed to make me talk, not turn me human. Turn me back,” I demanded.
“We will. As soon as you tell us what happened to Savida,” Daithi agreed, and I was so relieved I sighed and sagged. I noticed from the corner of my eye that Zaide’s fist clenched.
“It’s a long story, but I’ll tell you.” I looked carefully at Daithi and noticed the tiredness etched into his face. I sympathized. “Is he okay? He was breathing when I got to him. You have saved him, haven’t you?” There was silence, and I swallowed hard. “He’s dead?”
