The Magical Christmas Cat

by Lora Leigh

  While Zane did not claim to have any psychic ability of his own, he felt as if eyes were watching him as he crossed the street. Curious neighbors? A jealous would-be suitor? Or a servant of II Colletore who was watching over the latest sacrifice?

  Ruby was so tired she didn't have any trouble falling asleep. After placing the anonymous gift on the bookcase in the living room and double-checking all the doors and windows, she crawled into bed, pulled the blanket to her shoulders, and almost instantly dropped into a deep sleep.

  Aiyana ran, cutting into the deepest part of the forest to make her escape. Her long black braid whipped as she ran. Her bare feet had been battered against the harshest part of the path, and already her legs were scratched. They bled, a little, they stung horribly. She did not slow down.

  When she had found the pretty rock in the creek, she had thought it a gift from the earth, and she had treasured it, hiding it among those few things she called her own, taking it out and stroking it when she could not sleep. The stone was shaped like an animal and had the face of a small panther. Many nights she had passed studying that face, feeling as if it were alive. Now she knew that the stone was not a gift but a curse. A terrible curse. It had come for her soul. Helaku had told her so, right before he'd unleashed the darkness.

  She grabbed the protective totem she wore around her neck and squeezed tight, and as she did so she heard the movement behind her. Footsteps crashing through the forest she called home came closer and closer, stealing the last of her hope. She looked up to the full and brilliant moon, which she could see through an opening in the limbs above. The moon was too large, an omen that all was not as it should be. She had always thought the moon was her friend, but tonight it was not. It shone down upon her, offering no place to hide.

  Helaku grabbed her from behind and threw her to the ground. He held the cursed stone on the palm of his hand as he pressed her body to the ground with his foot.

  Aiyana gripped the totem that lay against her chest. It would protect her from darkness, as it was meant to do. Helaku reached down and pried her fingers apart. He forcibly took the totem from her, throwing it aside to land on the littered forest floor, where it would do her no good at all.

  "II Gatto Nero has chosen you," Helaku said. "Your soul will feed him well."

  "Why, Helaku?" she asked. "Why do you do this to me?"

  The old man who had been her father's friend for all of Aiyana's too-short life did not answer. Instead, he looked to the moon and began to speak in a language she did not understand. From the green stone in his hand a dark shape rose.

  Aiyana screamed, realizing that the darkness was coming for her. That blackness would take her spirit, it would take all that she was, and she would be no more.

  It hurt. . . . *

  Ruby sat up sharply. There was a pain in her chest, a deep pain just like the one that had made a young girl scream for help that had not come. She glanced at the bedside clock. One fifteen in the morning, and she was wide-awake and terrified of returning to sleep. Drugs. She needed drugs to knock her out, so she would not dream.

  Unfortunately, she had no such drugs, and besides, that might make matters worse. What if another dream came and she couldn't wake up? She shuddered and rolled over to face the window.

  The moon was not quite full, but it was getting there. Just a couple more days. Both of her disturbing dreams had included a full moon. Was it a warning of some kind? Was something going to happen during the full moon?

  All was silent, so she could not mistake the soft sound that captured her attention. A deep purr resonated from the very walls, as if a large, satisfied cat hid within them. A large, satisfied black cat?

  No, just a cat. One of Hester's kitties must've crawled under the house and gotten stuck. Great. Ruby rolled over, intent on grabbing her bathrobe and a flashlight so she could check under the house for a stray cat. She didn't get far before her plans changed.

  The jade cat was sitting on her bedside table, in front of the clock. It had not been there two minutes ago, she was certain of it.

  Chapter 4

  Zane hadn't been able to sleep, but had hours ago settled in front of his computer to study a file of Brotherhood documents. Over the past several years he had read it all, and now he was looking again to see if he might've missed something. There had to be a way to stop II Colletore without sacrificing Ruby.

  According to their carefully kept records, the victims were always female and young. Those who had been properly identified had been between the ages of fifteen and thirty-two. There had been no male sacrifices, but that didn't mean a male sacrifice would not be accepted. If he had to get Ruby to a safe place and take on the demon himself, he would. Was there a safe place? Was there anywhere in the world those who served the demon would not find her?

  He wasn't surprised when the phone rang. After hearing about Ruby's dream, he'd suspected there would be more. Somehow, the demon had already begun tormenting her.

  "Are you okay?" he asked, not bothering with a greeting.

  For a moment, she didn't answer, then she breathed a "No," that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He ran.

  Again, all the lights in Ruby's house were on. She lit up the dark street when she opened the front door long before Zane leapt onto her front porch. She was pale, and even from a distance he could see that she shook. Her hair was mussed, and it was so short that meant it stood on end. That style should've been amusing, but was not. She was terrified.

  "Tell me you hear it," she said in a hoarse, sleep-roughened voice.

  Zane listened carefully. "I don't hear anything."

  Ruby laughed sharply, then clapped a hand over her mouth.

  Zane closed the door behind him and instinctively gathered her into his arms. She fell there easily, accepting of his comfort. She continued to shake, but the trembling soon eased.

  "Better?" he asked softly.

  She shook her head. "It's stopped," she said, relief evident in her voice.

  "What's stopped, Ruby?" he asked. "Tell me."

  "Sounds from the walls and the floor. Cat sounds. Purring, with the occasional mewing." She pulled her head away from his chest and looked him in the eye. "Tell me the truth," she said.

  "If I can."

  "I didn't change my mind and bring that damned jade cat home with me Sunday night, did I?"

  "No, you didn't." He could at least be a little bit honest with her. "It came here on its own," she whispered.

  "I believe so."

  "It moved again, from the living room to my bedside table, then from the garbage can to the coffee table. Explain that!"

  "I can't," he said, running his hands through her hair to smooth a particularly wayward strand. And to comfort her, too, he supposed.

  "I think I'm losing my mind," she said. Though she no longer clung tightly to him, she did not let go.

  "I doubt that. Did you have another dream?" She nodded.

  "Want to tell me about it?"

  The shake of her head that followed that question was fierce. "Not yet. Aren't you cold?" she asked, wrinkling her brow slightly.

  "No." Zane glanced down, just now remembering that all he wore were faded flannel sleep pants. No shirt. No shoes.

  "I woke you up again," she said, then she offered him a poor attempt at a smile. It didn't last.

  "I wasn't asleep," he said. "I was working on my computer."

  "Woowoo stuff?" she asked.

  "Woowoo stuff."

  Ruby let her head fall against his chest again. "I haven't heard the purring sound since you walked through the door. I don't understand what's going on, but will you stay? Please?"

  After half an hour of sitting on the couch watching an old movie with Zane, it was almost possible for Ruby to convince herself that she hadn't heard anything. She'd been the one to put the jade cat on her bedside table. She had never thrown it in the trash can, only to have it reappear in the living room, front and center on the coffee table.

&nb
sp; But only almost. She had heard the purring. She had thrown the blasted thing in the garbage, but it had refused to stay.

  Having Zane sitting in her living room shirtless and warm was a nice distraction, and for a moment she allowed herself the luxury of thinking about something other than her fragile mental state. The no-white-sugar, no-white-flour thing had its benefits, apparently. Beneath those loose T-shirts he always wore, Zane Benedict was fine. More than fine, he was muscled, cut, strong and well shaped. Oh, the ridges and sharp angles were tempting. She wanted to reach out and run her hands along those muscles, she wanted to test them all with her fingertips, to see if he was as warm and hard as he looked.

  The fact that she didn't want to be left alone had nothing to do with her attraction. Yeah, right.

  She did, eventually, tell him about the newest dream. He seemed concerned, he listened intently and nodded and wrapped his arm around her when her voice trembled. Once he even leaned down and kissed the top of her head, an impulsive move that seemed to take him by surprise as much as it did her.

  When she was finished, he said, "Tell me about the totem. Did this girl really think it could protect her?"

  "Yes, and the man who brought the dark thing to her, he snatched the totem away from her before releasing . . . whatever it was." She shuddered.

  "What did it look like?"

  She tried to remember, but that part of the dream was unclear. "I don't know. It was fairly small, and I think there was a crescent-moon-shaped thingie attached to it." Moons again. She shuddered.

  "Anything else?"

  Ruby shook her head. "What do these dreams mean? And what the hell is going on with that damn cat knickknack?"

  Zane didn't answer for a while. "You don't believe in my field of study."

  "If my walls keep purring, that's going to change pretty quickly," she muttered. "First things first. How do I get rid of the cat?"

  "I'm sorry to say, I don't think you can. Not easily, at least," he added. "I'm going to have to study this a bit before I have any definite answers for you."

  "Study tomorrow," she said, burrowing into his side. "If you leave I'll . . . I'll . . ." Go mad, eat every bite of the leftover cake, cry, scream—maybe all four.

  "I'm not leaving," he assured her.

  Ruby took a deep breath and sighed. On her television screen, men in top hats were dancing in black and white. A woman in a flowing white dress drifted across the screen. It was an odd scene to fall asleep to, but she did, falling hard.

  Olwen stopped fighting. She was tired, and she was frightened, and she now knew that there was no escape from this. Her beloved husband Arlin had tied her to her own bed when she'd told him about the dreams. At first she had been afraid he thought her a witch, but now she knew that was not true. He simply didn't want her telling anyone else about the warning dreams.

  She'd been here for two days, now. Arlin had seen that she was fed, and he had even given her a washing and dressed her in her best linen shift. The man she loved, the father of her child, made sure she could not escape, but he also cared for her. And then, when he said the time and the stars and the moon were aligned, he offered her soul to the demon he worshipped.

  The dark cat stood on her chest and placed its snout close to her nose. It purred, deep and rumbling, so that it 'Seemed the entire world shook. When she had first seen the feline rise from the pretty stone cat her husband had given her, it had been made of nothing. It had been a hole where there should've been none, darkness where there should've been light, but now it was solid, heavy on her chest. It was real. She could see the fur on its skin and the burning red of its evil eyes. Using the power of its mind, the cat forced her mouth to open, and it inhaled, stealing her breath, sucking her life and her soul from her body. She could see her life escaping, white and blue streaks flowing from her mouth into his until there was nothing left of her but what lived inside the darkness.

  Olwen, devoted mother and wife, saw her betrayer husband through the eyes of the demon who had killed her. She did not wish to gaze long upon her own lifeless body. She looked so scared in death, so horribly empty.

  Arlin dropped to his knees and praised this demon who had taken his wife's soul. The large cat who had once been nothing but a dark hole now had a beating heart and a deep hunger for flesh. He would not be like this for very long, she knew, as she was now inside the demon in all ways and shared his thoughts. A part of this night was all the time he had to feed his hunger of almost three centuries.

  The curse that kept the demon trapped in stone for all but a few hours out of nearly two hundred and ninety years was not unbreakable. When he woke the demon took souls, and when the ninth soul was his, he would live again. He would be whole and he would make the world pay.

  Arlin looked up, a love and admiration in his eyes. Olwen had once thought such expressions were reserved for her, but apparently his love for the demon was greater than his love for his wife. "I have been promised much for my great sacrifice." Arlin opened his arms wide. "I am your humble servant, II Gatto Nero."

  A great black paw swiped out and sliced open the betrayer's throat. A cat's scream filled the small hut, and the baby began to cry. The demon who had taken Olwen's soul could not take another, not until he was whole again, but while he lived he craved flesh, and he started with his most humble servant. . .

  Not my baby! Olwen screamed.

  The gruesome scene went black, and a soft voice, the voice of the woman who had been sacrificed, whispered in Ruby's ear, "While his heart beats, he can be taken. Do not hesitate, or he will take your soul.

  "Trust no one."

  Ruby awoke with a cry and all but threw herself at the man who shared the couch with her. Zane, too, had slept, and when he came awake his arms instinctively wrapped around her.

  "Are you okay?" he asked.

  "Not even a little," she confessed.

  "Another dream?"

  She nodded, then she pressed her face to Zane's chest and closed her eyes. Another movie was on the television in front of them, this one more somber than the musical that had been on when she'd fallen asleep. There was no singing, no dancing. Lots of angst, judging by the expressions on the faces on her television.

  If she believed in curses and living statuettes and telepathy and all that other nonsense, she might be able to make herself believe that the dreams were a kind of warning. Whatever had killed the women who visited her as she slept was coming for her.

  She shook off that thought; it made no sense. No more sense than a piece of jade that seemed to move on its own and make the walls of her once-peaceful home purr like a satisfied panther. No more sense than the urge to lose it all in the earthy and pleasurable distraction of sex with a man who was willing to sleep on her couch so she wouldn't have to be alone. Ruby was tempted to lift her head and kiss Zane Benedict and see where that kiss took them. She hadn't been attracted to a man this way in a very long time, and it would be nice, very nice, to enjoy something real and solid and reasonable, like sex. He could make her forget, she knew he could, and right now she very much wanted to forget.

  After being alone for much too rong, she wanted someone to hold. She wanted the complete connection that would come with Zane inside her, when pleasure would wipe away the fear. She had told him so fiercely that she was not looking for a man, but having him here, feeling his skin against hers, it was wonderful. She wanted more.

  Ruby didn't consider herself a brave person, but she lifted her head and very slowly moved her mouth toward Zane's. She didn't attack him; she moved so slowly he had plenty of opportunity to move away or turn his head. He didn't. Instead, his lips parted slightly right before hers touched them.

  Eyes closed, they let their mouths linger against one another. Immediately a riot of sensations was set into motion. What she felt was strong enough to wipe away the fear of her dreams, to allow her to forget the impossibilities of purring walls and figurines that moved on their own.

  Her hand rested on his side
, and she allowed her fingers to stroke there, learning the unexpected muscles and strength he usually hid beneath baggy T-shirts. They moved a bit, adjusting arms and legs, getting more comfortable and closer on the couch. She was oddly twisted but didn't care. The kiss took her beyond the terror of inexplicable sounds and terrifying dreams, and she wallowed in it.

  Ruby was so hot she didn't mind at all when Zane loosened the belt of her robe and parted it. She enjoyed the rush of cool air, the extra bit of freedom, the feel of his hand slipping up her pajama top and finding one welcoming breast. They kissed and touched, caressed and learned one another, until Ruby found herself lying on her back with Zane Benedict cradled between her legs.

  Reality intruded. She didn't have any sort of birth control in the house. Hadn't needed any for about two years, sad to say. Zane had come running to her house wearing elastic-waisted flannel pants. Unless there were hidden pockets with condoms in those sleep pants, they were out of luck.

  "We have to stop," she said, then she kissed him again, unable to help herself.

  "Why?" Zane asked gruffly.

  She could use a lack of birth control as an excuse, but more than that concern stopped her. There were ways they could offer one another pleasure that wouldn't risk pregnancy, and there was a twenty-four-hour drugstore five minutes from her house. No, she had to tell him the truth. "This is happening too fast for me," she whispered.

  "It is rather unexpected," he agreed without anger or even a hint of frustration. There wasn't going to be any sex on her couch—not tonight—so she half expected Zane to pull away and sit up straight, putting an end to the comfort. Too bad. But he didn't go away. He held her. He stayed.

  "You are perfectly symmetrical," he whispered.

  Ruby had not thought it possible to laugh tonight, but she did. "What?"

  "Symmetrical. True beauty is in symmetry, and you have it."

  "I'm not beautiful," she said. Cute, maybe, when she worked at it, but not beautiful.

  "You are." He demonstrated, first with both hands on her face, slowly tracing and measuring in between kisses, then lower, hands on her breasts. Thumbs rocked gently against sensitive nipples beneath the thin fabric of her pajamas, as he weighed and tested shape. Then lower, to her hips, where his hands gripped and held her, thumbs rocking against her pelvic bone.

  If she had one iota less control, she'd strip him naked in a heartbeat and he'd be inside her and it would be so good. It would be symmetry; it would be true beauty. They were so close. She was lying on the couch, and he was on top of her. There wasn't much in the way of clothing between them. A shift, a push, and she could so easily dismiss all her reservations. Without warning, Ruby twitched as the final words of her latest dream came back to her. Trust no one.

  "We should sit up, I suppose," she said.

  "Yes." Zane slowly and reluctantly moved up, taking her arm and pulling her with him until they sat side by side. Her head rested on his shoulder, and he didn't make any juvenile attempt to hide the fact that he was aroused. "So, tell me about your latest dream?"

  It was still too clear, too vivid and horrible, and those final words haunted her. What had happened to the baby that had been in the next room as his father offered his mother to a demon? It was only a dream, and yet the child seemed so real. It had been a little boy, she knew. How did she know?

  Trust no one. "I don't want to talk about it," she said.

  "Perhaps later," Zane said, sounding more disappointed than he had when she'd made him take his hand off her bare breast.

  Even when dawn came, Ruby refused to tell him about the latest dream. She said she'd forgotten the details, but Zane didn't believe her.

  She was white as a sheet and refused to try to get more sleep. She was exhausted but afraid of another nightmare. The nightmare had just begun, he knew that, but he couldn't tell her, not until he knew what could be done to stop II Colletore.

  By now the others would be frantic, wondering at which location the collection would occur. He should've reported his findings yesterday, but he had not. It was unfortunate that he liked Ruby so well. What if it wasn't possible to save her? What if only her death saved the world from destruction at the hands of a demon that had been locked away for nearly three thousand years?

  He watched Ruby make coffee and shuffle to the refrigerator for eggs and bacon. She moved like a zombie, slow and heavy and without emotion. Only her eyes hinted at life, and they revealed her terror. Last night, he had seen more than terror in those lovely green eyes, and he had liked it. They were at a critical juncture. Her life was literally at stake, and if she had not called a halt to their explorations last night, they would've ended up having sex on her couch. He needed to protect her, and he could not even protect her from himself.

  "Don't go to work today," he said.

  "I have a business to run."

  "You also have employees. Call one of them and let someone else run the bakery for one day."

  "Most of my people are out of town." Ruby wrinkled her nose. "But i really don't feel like going to work today. I haven't missed a day since I opened the place four years ago, but . . ."

  "You can't work like this," Zane said.

  "I know." Ruby made her way to the kitchen phone and dialed a number from memory. "Marielle?" She paused, while the girl on the other end of the line spoke. "I know it's early, but I can't make it in today. I'm sick." She looked pointedly at Zane. "Can you run the store today?"

  Apparently Marielle agreed, because Ruby told her employee where the special orders were stored, and that with the students out of town business would be slow, so they could get by with the inventory on hand. If they ran out of anything . . . well, there was nothing to be done.

  Zane knew that Ruby needed sleep, but it was likely any sleep she got would be filled with terrifying dreams. How many days did they have left before II Colletore rose? Two? Three? Four?

  "Let me make you breakfast," Zane said, walking into the kitchen intent on taking the eggs and bacon from her. In her current state, she was likely to burn herself. He hadn't gotten any more sleep than she had, but he was used to-getting by with little sleep. She was not, obviously.

  "No," Ruby said sharply. She looked at him with suspicious eyes. "I really appreciate your coming over, but I'm all right, now. You can go home."

  Zane's jaw tightened. "You are not all right, I assure you."

  "I don't need anyone to take care of me."

  "I beg to differ."