Chapter Forty-Seven--Prisoners To Pay The Piper

Chapter Forty-Seven--Prisoners To Pay The Piper
I squirmed under his stare.

“All right.”

I kept my insider information to myself. I doubted he’d be too happy about the essence of jaguars spilling his secrets left and right.

My stomach started to churn, a sensation that had appeared too often lately. As if the lurking danger crept closer. Could someone really sense bad stuff coming for them?

I laughed bitterly to myself. Was I still in denial about something so trivial as a dread radar, after all that had happened?

Carmen walked out of the house with hesitant grace.

“You’re back,” she said flatly, eyeing me.

I plastered a smile on my face. Remorse scored me. How could my cat have treated Carmen as a threat?

I was a little preoccupied with new sensations. I hadn’t recognized her. Wow. My cat sounded guiltier than I had.

“Hello, Carmen.” I shifted from foot to foot.

“Ahh, hi, Kat.”

Kalvyn climbed to his feet. “She will not hurt you now,” he said quietly.

Carmen bristled, chin lifting, eyes narrowing. “I wasn’t worried she could hurt me.”

Arrogance does not become her. But I will forgive the slight. The cougar doesn’t understand what we are.

I smirked at my cat’s indignant tone. “I’m sorry, Carmen. I wasn’t myself when I woke up.”

“That’s one way of saying it,” Kalvyn snickered.

I elbowed his side, amazed by my appalling strength. He actually flinched. “I wouldn’t have hurt him either.”

She studied me, paying particular attention to my face. Whatever she saw, disturbed her.

Voices reached us, far before Lexi and Roman barreled around the back of the house. Lexi jogged ahead, ignoring the restraining hands of her protectors. Kalvyn discreetly stepped in front of me.

Who was he protecting? Lexi, or me? Though I couldn’t blame him, a stab of hurt pierced my heart.

Lexi danced around our trio, as Roman walked a slow, menacing circle around us.

“I’ve been waiting forever and a day for you to wake up, girly. What the hell?” Lexi sang.

“Language,” Kalvyn reprimanded.

“Hell is not a swear word.”

“It is now,” he said.

Roman stopped in front of me. I met his gaze. My cat moved to the forefront. He fell back into a crouch, hissing. His neon orange eyes dilated. “What the fuck is she?”

“Hey! How come he can swear?” Lexi whined.

“Haven’t you figured it out yet, tiger?” My cat said through my mouth. “I have risen from the ashes another being.”

Behind my voice, another echoed. Everyone froze. Kalvyn’s chest rumbled.

You’re scaring them, I said.

They need a healthy dose of fear on the occasion. I told you they would accept you, but they need to be able to accept what you and I have become.

And how do you propose to do that?

The opportunity will come sooner than expected.

Lexi skirted Kalvyn, and touched my cheek. “Your eyes are green. Like mine and Kalvyn’s.”

I jerked. “Shouldn't they be?”

“Our research showed no hint that should happen during a change.” Carmen shifted uncomfortably. “Syber and I checked again."

“So, now I’m a freak?” I burst. Of course, I’d already figured that out, but having someone else articulate that, however hesitantly, cut to the quick.

Kalvyn whirled, cupped my cheek, then stroked my arms. “Never that. You already know you’re different. They do not understand yet, but they will.”

“Different how?” Roman snapped. “She isn’t like us.”

Kalvyn’s lips quirked into a proud smile. “No. She is not.”

A thump came from the direction Lexi and Roman appeared. Syber hefted two poles on his shoulders, connected to a large steel box. Dorian carried the back on the other end of the structure. I was reminded of times of old, when queens and kings were carried on perches by slaves.

But this wasn’t royalty. These were the slaves. Or prisoners.

My nostrils flared. Their scents weren’t something I’d ever forget, and now that I had supernatural senses, their stink made me sick.

Anger flared. Whether it was the cat’s or mine, who knew. Extreme hatred added to caldron of emotions I’d become. Flashes of my last night as a normal human poked at the fire searing my breast.

A thunderous noise stilled the forest. For a long moment, I searched for the cause, only to find it was me who roared. Kalvyn caught me as I launched, and I snapped at his hands.

Rippling snarls answered me out of long silted holes in the side of their cage, although much weaker than I.

The world darkened around me, my focus narrowing to a pinpoint to those two beings within the six reinforced sides.

The faces of the past, every bitch and asshole who tormented me ran in my mind. A cinema of trauma they inflicted during my childhood, when I’d been too scared, too helpless to fight back. Everyone who had me hiding in shadows and corners to escape the scorn. All of those who shunned me for events beyond my control. Who shaped the woman I was today.

I wasn’t helpless any longer. I wasn’t weak. I wasn’t alone.

I wanted their deaths more than anything in my life. I needed to see their blood pour over the ground in rivets. I wanted pain. I had to inflict the same shit-storm that what others had done to me. Now, I had the power to do so.

It was no less than they had intended for me.

I stilled. My growling died off. I was silent. My cat sat in my brain and watched, plotted. Debated the best way for vengeance. Her acute emotion merged with mine.

Syber and Dorian stopped in front of me. They unceremoniously dropped the box at an angle, then righted itself onto its side, upturning the occupants, no doubt in a crash of climbs. Cries of shock were music to me.

I didn’t blink. I didn’t breathe.