Cat's Paw

Excerpt

It was too hot to think. With my air conditioner broken, I had opened all of the windows in my bedroom in an effort to let some cool air inside. To my knowledge, this was the hottest night of the year, and the humid air was making it difficult to breathe.

Outside, even the sounds of the crickets were stilled as if they were too affected by the sweltering heat to care. I sat in the picture window in my circular room and ran a frosty glass of iced tea across my forehead. In difference to the heat, I wore only my thin cotton tank top, stolen from a past lover. The white cotton hung just long enough to cover my bottom, not that I needed any covering at all, isolated in woods as I was.

This house, this Victorian castle, was all that I had of my Aunt Lavina. The dear woman passed the property to me after her death a few years ago, and now I had the time and money and decided to visit the old place.

“There are strange thing in those woods,” Betina, the woman I hired to manage the property in my absence warned me when I first arrived. “Your aunt was a strange one, living out here all alone, but you're a young pretty thing. You need to go to the city and meet a nice young man and settle down.”

I laughed off her concerns. Soon she departed and I settled down to take in the atmosphere of my new abode.

But then the air conditioner broke in the middle of the night and here I was, trying to keep cool on the hottest night of the year.

I sat on the thick cushion of the window seat and looked out over the tall trees to a midnight blue sky. There, suspended above the trees, slightly obscured by passing clouds, was the most beautiful cherry moon I had ever beheld.

I watched, transfixed by this glowing orb, until the heat and humidity of the night was forgotten. Time was forgotten. I don't know how long I sat there, staring up at the moon, glass of tea melting in my hand, but suddenly I wasn't alone.

The largest, handsomest tomcat I had ever seen sat just outside the screen, standing on a tree branch, staring at me.

“Pretty kitty,” I murmured to it. “Are you lost?”

He stepped closer to the window so that I could view his majestic form closer. He was black with unusual streaks of gold running throughout his shiny coat. His bright green eyes shone in the moonlight and his tail almost hypnotically waved from side to side as he assessed me.

“Go home, pretty kitty,” I said. “There are bad things in the woods tonight.”

Instead of leaving, he came closer to the window, resting one paw against the screen. Not knowing why I did it, I placed my hand against the screen too, exactly where his paw rested.

Without warning, he dug his paw into the metal of the screen and with one mighty pull, yanked it right out of the window.

I let out a surprised shriek and fell back, the glass of ice tea falling and drenching my cotton shirt. The startling contrast of cold against my hot shin and my fear made my nipples harden. I ignored that and watched as the cat strolled into my room.

What is going on here? I wondered as I watched this creature settle down on my cushion.

As if daring me to move him, he stretched himself out and looked at me.

As I observed him in disbelief, his body began to glimmer and shine. I watched amazed. His limbs grew longer, seeming to take on human form as a bright light surrounded him. With a flash so bright it burned my eyes, the cat was gone, and in its place was a man.

“What the hell?” I gasped, shivering in the puddle of my tea and wondering if I was dreaming.

He tossed his long black/gold hair over his shoulder and reclined again on the cushion in all of his well-endowed naked splendor. His body was large and muscular and his dark skin looked as if he'd spent hours lounging in the sun. He lay there unabashedly naked, his large flaccid member resting against his thigh, his green eyes focused solely on me. “You called me,” he purred.

“I did what?” I nearly screamed.

“Your yearnings and you hunger called to me, Blood of Lavina.”

“You knew my aunt?” I cried. What was going on here?

“You called to me, Blood of Lavina, and I have answered your plea.”

I knew that this wasn't some sick joke. This man was real, and he was sitting right there on my window seat.

“Do you not know, Blood of Lavina? Do you not honor our pact?”

“What pact?” I screamed. “What is going on here?”

Sensing my confusion and with head tilted to the side in feline curiosity, he observed the expression on my face.

“You do not know, young one?” he murmured as he rose to his feet.

Instinctively I backed up. Strange cat-men were not something I ran into in the city and I didn't know how to take this one.

“Be not afraid, Blood of Lavina. I will not harm you.”

“Stop calling me that.” I screamed as I backed away from him, my heart pounding furiously in my chest. “My name is...”

“Mine.” He cut me off with assurance. “You belong to me now.”