She stiffened, and plastic creaked as her hand clenched around the video-game controller. “I told you I don’t want to talk about my family.”
“I know. This isn’t about them.” I pressed myself close to Marc, indulging my need to touch him as much as possible before he left.
“What then?” Kaci’s forehead wrinkled, her youth-pouty lips tensing. On her left, Jace put down his controller and watched, ready and willing to help in any way he could.
“You told me earlier that you remembered seeing some human hikers in the woods. Do you remember seeing a man and a woman a few days ago? Somewhere near here?”
Kaci nodded slowly, her gaze drifting toward her lap. “I don’t know how long ago that was, though. I lost count of the days a long, long time ago.”
“That’s okay.” Jace scooted to lean with his back against the bed behind him. “Just tell us what you remember.”
“I don’t…” The controller fell from Kaci’s hands to land in the ring created by her crisscrossed legs.
I waited for her to continue, and when she didn’t, I shot a warning glance at Jace, telling him silently to let me do the talking. If I was good at anything, it was talking. “Do you remember the man, Kaci? Can you tell us anything about him?” To make sure we were all on the same page. Her expression was completely blank, so I nudged a little harder. “Do you remember anything about his legs?”
Recognition sparked in her eyes and she nodded. “He had a fake leg. It looked like a metal stick. A pros…something or other.”
I smiled. “A prosthesis. Yes, he had a prosthetic leg.”
“Right,” Kaci said, and a chill numbed my insides at the sight of her detached expression, as if she were reciting something she’d read somewhere once upon a time, rather than what she’d personally seen the day she’d infected the man in question. “It made him walk funny. Kind of hobbly.”
That was exactly the kind of detail a werecat would notice, because a “hobbly” walk would make it difficult for the prey to run. Yet we knew for a fact that Bob Tindale had survived his encounter with Kaci, because he’d shown up later in cat form, bearing her signature scent in his bloodstream. What we didn’t know about was his wife.
“I’m sure it did.” I glanced at Jace, wishing I could see Marc well enough to judge his expression, but I couldn’t, with him pressed so close to my back. “What we really need to know about is the woman he was with. Do you remember her?”
Kaci nodded again, staring at the floor now, but offered no further explanation.
I kept my voice low and soothing, noting that her eyes were no longer merely distant, but actually vacant now. “What happened to her, Kaci?”
“I don’t…” She shook her head in slow, anguished denial, eyes squeezing shut tightly. “I don’t remember.” But it was clear that what she really meant was I don’t want to remember. She wouldn’t have been so upset if she didn’t know what had happened to the female hiker.
“I need you to try, honey.” I lay one hand on her shoulder, hoping physical contact would comfort her, rather than scare her. “We found the man this afternoon, but the woman is still out there, and we have to find her before the humans do. Do you understand why?”
Kaci shook her head again, but her eyes opened, vague curiosity flowing in to dilute her fear and denial.
“The police are looking for those hikers, and if they find the woman before we do, they’ll do an examination of her body, which might give them evidence of our existence.”
Things like that did happen on occasion, and the labs inevitably attributed their odd findings to contaminated samples. But eventually someone would link multiple “contaminated” cases, and our private existence depended on them finding as little evidence of us as possible.
“The woman is dead, isn’t she?” I asked gently, when I realized we’d all been laboring under that unspoken assumption.
For a moment, Kaci only stared at me. Then her gaze dropped and she nodded.
“We need to know what happened.” She started to shake her head again, but I continued, because if I couldn’t get her to talk, there was no telling what the council would try. “No one’s going to get mad, Kaci. We already know you infected the man. Your scent is woven with his. We’ve known that for several hours now, and no one’s even said a harsh word to you, right?”
She nodded mutely, spinning the game remote on the floor.
“I promise you it’s safe to tell me what happened. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
Kaci glanced at Jace, then at Marc over my shoulder. I was about to ask them for some privacy when her eyes settled on me again and her mouth opened. “I didn’t mean to do it. I was asleep, but something woke me up. Footsteps. Then smoke. I knew it was people and I got up to leave, but before I could get away, the woman…she just appeared in front of me. She had an armful of big sticks, but when she saw me she dropped them and just stood there staring at me. I tried to back away from her and she freaked out. She grabbed one of the sticks and ran at me. I…I didn’t know what to do.”
She glanced from me to Jace, then to Marc and back to me, begging each of us with her huge hazel eyes to tell her it was okay. That she’d done the right thing—whatever that was.
“She tried to hit me, and I got really scared, but sort of mad at the same time. I can’t explain it. I don’t feel like that now, but I wasn’t human then, and I couldn’t really think about it. She ran at me with that stick and I hissed, but she didn’t stop. When she got close enough, I just swung at her with one…um…paw.” She held her right hand up for emphasis, swiping it across the air with her fingers hooked like talons.“Were your claws retracted?” Marc asked, his chest rumbling against my back.
“Tucked in, you mean?” she asked, and he nodded. “No. I didn’t even think about doing that.”
Of course she hadn’t. She’d never been taught how to defend herself without hurting anyone. She’d never been taught anything about being a werecat, and had only her own instinct to go on. Unfortunately, a cat’s instinct didn’t include concern over its foe’s well-being.
“It’s okay, Kaci,” I said, surprised to hear the calm, soothing quality of my own voice. I didn’t have much practice setting others at ease. In fact, I tended to piss people off more often than not, but Kaci reminded me a lot of myself, and even more of my cousin Abby, who brought out every protective instinct I had. “We can’t change what happened, but we can help you deal with it. And I think the best place to start would be giving that woman a proper burial.” Or at least a secret, moonlight-in-the-forest burial. “Don’t you think? Can you do that for her?”
Kaci nodded, and I thought I saw an edge of resolve leak into the tense lines of her face.
“Good. Can you tell us where she is?”
Her brows furrowed, and she shook her head, the first sign of tears glittering in her eyes. “I don’t know where I am. Or how I got here.”
Of course she didn’t. Keller had knocked her out with a length of firewood, and she’d woken up in a strange room with no idea what had happened while she slept.
Marc squeezed me from behind, and his stubbly cheek scratched against mine when he spoke. “Do you think you could show us, if we can get you back to someplace familiar?”
“Yes.” She didn’t hesitate, and actually looked a little relieved.
Thank goodness. I stood and pulled the rubber band from my hair, mentally composing an appeal to the council, but Jace was already halfway to the door. By the time I got to the kitchen, Kaci clinging to my hand and fastened to my side, Jace stood in front of the Alphas seated around the kitchen table, launching into a formal request for the werecat version of a search-and-seizure warrant.
“You want to take both tabbies into the woods?” Blackwell asked, deep-set eyes wide in disbelief. Malone looked ready to spew lava from his ears, and even my father looked doubtful.
“Absolutely not,” Malone thundered, shoving his chair back to stand with both palms flat on the table. “Faythe is still on trial here, and that child wears trouble like a snowman wears white.”
I felt Kaci stiffen at my side, and my temper flared on her behalf. “This child is the only one here who knows where to find the missing hiker’s body, and she can’t tell us how to get there because she doesn’t know how she got here.” My gaze centered on Malone, and I struggled not to let contempt leak into my voice. Or to squeeze the poor tabby’s hand off. “If you want the woman found anytime soon, Kaci is your best bet.”
Malone glanced at Blackwell for support, but the old man only shrugged, clutching his cane like a security blanket. Malone scowled, and I knew that if I survived the hearing, he’d find a way to make me pay for forcing his hand not once, but three times in the last few days. Alphas don’t like having their actions dictated to them. They like having their balls handed to them even less. But once again, he had no choice.
My father held his tongue and dared a small smile, obviously having come to the same conclusion.
“Fine. Take her out and find the body, but you’re not going alone.”