Sequel to Tricks with Cats and Dogs
Halloween is supposed to be a night for safe scares and harmless tricks, but for Colin and Barney it became a night of terror -- and romance.
Barney and Colin barely survived their night of supernatural danger. This morning they’re braving the wizard’s house one last time -- or so they hope. If they find the books Barney needs to master his new abilities and make it out safely they should have a respite. They totally deserve ice cream.
A shrill sound interrupted him. Colin, whistling a warning as he had promised.
Barney zipped the bag and hurried to the window.
Colin was below, no longer concealed by the nearby trees, and he pointed urgently when Barney appeared. Then he pointed at his chest and made beckoning motions with both hands.
Right.
Barney tossed the sack of books out the window. Then he turned back into a cat and perched on the sill.
Colin held out his arms.
Barney put his ears back nervously. The ground seemed farther away now that he was upstairs than it had when he proposed this escape route.
He felt the magic that permeated the house shiver into wakefulness the way it always did when its Master crossed the threshold.
He jumped.
For a second he was pressed to Colin’s chest, then he was sprinting through tall grass, then he was running zig-zag between the trees, heart frantic with panic.
Only for a few minutes. Then the terror ebbed and he slowed.
Colin. Where was he?
Darting from tree to tree and trying to stay hidden, Barney edged back toward the house.
A minute later Colin came jogging along the bike trail, sack of books over one shoulder.
Barney turned back into a man and threw himself on Colin.
“I’m sorry!” he whimpered into Colin’s collar. “I didn’t mean to leave you! Again! My run-away took over!”
Colin stroked his hair. “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine. Nothing happened.”
“But it could have.”
“Then it would be easier for you to rescue me than for both of us to escape.”
Barney sighed and relaxed into Colin’s embrace. Strange, to take so much comfort from the touch of someone he’d only met last night.
“We should get out of here, though,” Colin said after another minute of hugging.
Colin had left his car on the far side of the wooded area, which was only about thirty feet across, with a trail along its center that ran to the county park. It only felt like being in the woods because the trees were old and their foliage dense. This had been the edge of town before the woods were cleared for the new development where Colin and his family lived. The other side, where Barney had lived with his Master, was the oldest part of town, from farming days. Or so Barney had gathered in his two years of being human.
“I would like to see a farm someday,” he mused as they walked.
Colin looked confused, but said, “Okay, we can stop and look at one on the way to my college. Put your clothes on before we step out of the trees.”
“Right, no being naked in the street, I remember.”
He was pretty used to being clothed by now. Master had insisted on it.
Colin would probably let him be naked more.
No, not let, he reminded himself. Colin had said he wasn’t Barney’s master, that Barney didn’t need a master. That Barney could be a wizard.
Barney stopped in the middle of putting his pants on to hug and kiss Colin again.
Colin blushed, but he smelled happy and he hugged Barney back, stroking his bare hip.
Then he murmured, “Later. Let’s get out of here. I’ll feel better when we’ve put a few miles between us and that house.”
