Nine Lives of an Urban Panther

by Amanda Arista

  I took off my light sweater and pulled off my T-shirt. It would cover most of her and frankly, both the guys here had seen me in less. Jane pulled the shirt over her tousled hair and then tried to pull it down to cover her backside.

  I pulled the tie from my own still wet locks and handed it to her. She carefully reached out and took it as she worked her hair into a braid.

  “Are you okay?” I asked as she smoothed her hair nervously.

  “I think. I am not sure what happened.”

  I knelt down and put my hand on her shaking shoulder. There was a slight something around her, in her energy.

  Carefully, I looked into her worried eyes and saw what had taken her. When my brain locked on to what it could be, my Legacy flared around us both and Jane gasped. It was dark and smelled of sickeningly sharp plant sap. “Spencer.”

  Bile rose in my throat as I thought about how he’d entered me, torn through me, using my body as his. And now he’d done it to one of mine. The violation felt no different.

  “Come on, let’s get you inside.”

  IT TOOK THREE cups of coffee to get my nerves under control.

  Tucker had done the wise thing and sent the others away while the usual suspects gathered in Iris’s living room. They probably felt like they were watching a tennis match as I paced this way and that, fueled by caffeine and a hatred that still burned hot around me.

  “You’re going to singe my curtains,” Iris said as she passed around a tray of iced tea.

  I took in a deep breath but couldn’t stop the swirling of the Legacy around me. The heat of it made me think better and I was beginning to think that I shouldn’t have been suppressing it all this time.

  “We need to know the facts.” Tucker had his police voice and it just managed to make me more angry.

  “Spencer possessed Jane,” I snapped.

  “And she’s got the mark, right?” Nash asked.

  “It’s the only way he could have gotten to her.”

  Nash huffed. “But that’s the mark of Jovan, I’m pretty sure that’s demon specific.”

  “I’m pretty damn sure it was Spencer.”

  “She could have let him in,” Peter said from the doorway.

  “You weren’t invited here,” Tucker said he stepped between me and Peter.

  “I know. And I don’t care. She’s going to want to hear this.”

  Peter side-stepped Tucker with the grace that I had originally attributed to him. It put him dangerously close to me and within the bubble of my frustration. I felt his strength and his truth along the still rough hewn ties between us.

  “I got a call from the vampires. Their last one with the mark was taken last night.”

  The air was sucked out of my lungs. “All of them now?”

  Peter nodded.

  I leaned against the brickwork of the fireplace and let the rough edges dig into my back.

  “Maybe your tie to them is stronger than the Clade, stronger than the Coven,” Tyler said.

  “Stronger than the Kiln. Inez lost ones as well.”

  Peter shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. He took a seat on the armchair next to me and waited, his blue eyes watching me along with all the others.

  Think, Violet. You’d just prided yourself on the big picture. Why can’t you see it now? What was going to help me see what I needed to see?

  “Jessa. I need Jessa.”

  “One fairy princess coming up,” Chaz said as he went into the other room.

  “Why are you bringing outsiders into this?” Peter asked.

  “She’s not an outsider and as she’ll like to remind you, she was here first.”

  My eyes fell to Iris. “Any words of wisdom?”

  “Lords, no. I’m just glad it’s not me this time.”

  I frowned. “This time?”

  “Jovan wasn’t always the top dog on the other side.”

  I walked over to the couch she was sitting on and Tyler relinquished his seat. In fact, all the boys exited as if they knew I needed this alone time, that this was Prima time. “I could use a good story right now, Iris.”

  “It’s not a story. It’s a cycle. Just like everything else. A cycle of balance. Jovan ate his predecessor. His predecessor spread his teacher’s bones across the world, never to be found. Jovan gave Haverty his power for safekeeping and now he’s calling on his debts. Maybe he sees the end as well.”

  I flopped back against the hard cushions and put the rest of the story together, along with some really hardcore similarities to one certain space odyssey from a galaxy far, far away.

  Jovan was powerful. Jovan saw a way to take over both dimensions in Haverty. When Haverty proved too stable, he turned to Spencer. And if Spencer was half the man I was, he’d been a little too good at the evil stuff and figured out a way to beat the demon at his own game. And thanks to our connections, Spencer knew what it took to get back to this realm. It was now the padawan against the master. And if last night was any sign, the padawan was winning.

  I looked over at Iris, my mentor. “Tell me it’s only a dark side metaphor. I really don’t fancy eating you.”

  Iris threw her hands up in the air. “You’ve already surpassed me. You’ve got people you can trust. And a man who loves you. I knew it the first time you shifted in the barn that you were meant for this.”

  “Sure did give me enough grief.”

  “If I didn’t, how would you know that I loved you?”

  I smiled and curled up on the couch to rest my head in her lap. Her fingers ran through my curly drying hair. There was a magic there and it wasn’t anything having to do with shifting; it was the power of family.

  As her fingers ran through my hair, the stories fell into place, the puzzle pieces, snippets of dreams, the little lore that I did know, and my gut, the sheer pull of my gut glued it all together.

  “Got the answer yet?” She’d only given me a few seconds.

  “Give me a second.”

  “Need another cup of coffee? I know you think better with coffee.”

  I smiled. “I’m good.”

  “Well as you use that gigantic brain of yours, I’ve got a kitchen to clean, a lunch to prepare, and three loads of laundry.” She patted my head and I sat up.

  Iris pulled herself up off the couch and shuffled halfway across the living room, then turned around. “And I’m going to have to call a plumber because of all the hair down the drains.”

  “Send me an invoice.”

  “Don’t think I won’t, Miss Moneypants.”

  I smiled and watched as Iris walked toward the kitchen with the pretense of fixing lunch. But somewhere deeper, I think she’d just officially passed the torch.

  Chapter Seventeen

  I FELT THE shimmer down my spine as Jessa used her magic to get into the house. Chaz brought her to the living room.

  “So this is where you disappear to?”

  “Welcome to the Bat Cave.”

  “Homey,” Jessa said as she looked for a place to put her bag. She dusted off a chair before she set down her Fendi.

  I rolled my eyes. “Did Chaz fill you in?”

  “You need a Memory Clock?”

  “We need to know what happened to Jane last night and she doesn’t remember. Then I need you to get back and fortify the Veil. The Shades will be looking for any crack anywhere to get Spencer through.”

  Jessa bit her lower lip and looked hard at me. “This is going to be bigger, isn’t it?”

  I nodded. I opened the connection between us so she could feel the trepidation, but also the strength I knew we had together. My sense filled with rose petals and raindrops.

  Jessa nodded as she strengthened her connection to me. “Well, you know what I always say?”

  “Keep your enemies close but your lip gloss closer?”

  “No,” she smiled. “Go big or go home.”

  I laughed just as Chaz came in with Jane and a huge mirror. I was pretty sure Iris didn’t want to know what we were
about to do to her mirror. Again.

  I went to Jane. She’d showered, but her eyes had dark circles under them and she held her arms to her chest like she couldn’t get warm. I put my hand on her upper arm and felt the sting of the active mark under her shirt.

  “Did they tell you what we are trying?” I spoke like I was speaking to a skittish horse, which was really quite accurate.

  “Something to help me remember.”

  “But you have to want to remember.”

  Her large dark eyes looked over at the mirror and then back at me. “Will it help you break the mark?”

  “I don’t know. I know it doesn’t hurt if you’re ready to see it.”

  “You have done this before?”

  I nodded. “Jessa helped me remember my mother.”

  Jane looked away from me and down to the couch. “I do not want you to watch.”

  “Why?”

  She rubbed her arms again. “I do not want you to see how weak I am.”

  “Jane, I . . .” but I felt it in our connection. She was ashamed of the possession. Where I’d taken mine to anger and nearly torn myself in two, she’d taken hers straight into shame.

  “If you need me, I’ll be a holler away.”

  Jane nodded and I went back to Jessa, who was prepping the mirror with Chaz’s help.

  I whispered to her. “I only need last night. And be gentle. Stop if she freaks out, but I need to know what he wanted.”

  Jessa nodded.

  “Oh, and we are having the wedding in the barn.”

  I walked away to the sound of Jessa’s “What? Are you kidding?”

  I FOUND THE Fang sisters sunbathing in the front yard. The chill from Jane had settled into my own skin and I needed the sun’s warmth to chase it away. “May I join you?”

  “Pull up a towel,” Praline pointed to a stack of fancy beach towels that definitely didn’t come from Iris’s closet. These three friends knew how to make the most of a rough situation.

  “Thank you.”

  I spread the towel out and next to her and lay down in the sun.

  Charlotte leaned up. “Don’t you want to give us a lecture on skin cancer or something?”

  “I’m not pale by choice. Just don’t get the opportunity to stop often.”

  I stretched my arms up and took a moment to just be.

  Praline snorted. “Tell me about it. I got three kids at home.”

  “Three?”

  “Yeah. Three completely spoiled little brats and I love every hair on their heads.”

  “Are they . . . do they Wander?” I asked.

  “No. I was bitten by blondie over there, and I’ve been really careful not to be around my family when I’m a little extra nippy.”

  “I can hear you,” Lucy said. “And don’t think that we don’t enjoy mommies’ little monthly vacations.”

  Praline smiled. “It does have its perks.”

  Lucy picked up a bottle of sun tanning oil and the intense smell of coconut drowned out the waving fields of grain. “Dropping my girls off at their grandmother’s is my favorite time of month.”

  “Are yours?” I asked.

  “No. The Mother got that one right. My girls are gorgeous, but not bright.”

  Praline laughed. “That’s an understatement.”

  “Like your Brock is going to win a Nobel.”

  “It could happen.”

  I laughed along with them and felt the contentment in their connections to each other and their connections to me.

  “You know what I like about you, Prima?” Praline said. “You’ve got your priorities straight. Family first, fur second.”

  I liked that. I sat up and looked across at the three women. They were what I had been trying to accomplish in every other person here. Family first, fur second. These women, with their blonde hair and four-inch heels, were already practicing what I had been preaching all along.

  They were given this lot in life and by God, were they going to make the most of it on their terms.

  I was as frank with them as they were with me. “Something bad is coming, something bad will always be coming, actually, but I’m pretty sure that’s another inspirational speech all together. I want to let you know that you don’t have to fight. You’ve got kids and . . .”

  “And a pair of high heels that can stab a man’s eyes out,” Praline said as she sat up from her seat. She pulled her sunglasses down her small nose and looked me straight in the eye. “That bastard threatened my kids. So if you need me to stomp on someone, you just call. And Lucy here can cheerlead them to death or something,” Praline waved her hand and lay back on her beach towel.

  Lucy whispered over to Praline. “Bitch.”

  “Slut,” Praline whispered right back before she smiled.

  I loved it.

  The notion that I needed to stop Spencer at all possible costs washed over me and I was left with a taste of sour pennies in my mouth. Even if it took everything I had, I had to protect this. I had to protect these girls sunbathing on their Mommy’s Weekend. I had to protect Peter and his delicate heart. I had to protect the Rosario brothers so that someday their children could run the family restaurant or be lawyers or musicians.

  It was more than just protecting them physically. It was about protecting their right to even have that.

  I hopped up from the beach towel and thanked the girls for their generosity. I headed straight for the house. I had an offensive to plan.

  Tyler came rushing out from wherever Tyler was rushing from.

  “We’ve got something to show you.”

  In Tyler’s shadow was Remy, the nervous teenager. He kept his eyes down and his hands jammed in his pockets. His entire existence was so familiar that my power went out to him in solidarity for all of those who were gawky and knew the entire Green Lantern oath by heart.

  “What is it?”

  Remy handed over his cell phone.

  I looked down at the screen. It was a text conversation between him and a Twila.

  “Who’s Twila?” I asked as I scanned through the conversation. It was mostly nothings but sweet ones.

  “My girlfriend,” Remy finally said.

  “And one of the witches in the Coven,” Tyler filled in.

  The conversation between them just got a lot more interesting. I scanned through the texts.

  “What’s this about shadows?” I asked as I scanned through the messages. These kids were more prolific than I was. “Have they been attached by the Shades as well?”

  “I think so.” Tyler nodded.

  I looked to Remy. “Do they know how to fight them?”

  “No, I think it killed one of them.”

  “Text her back, tell her they can only be harmed when they are feeding or with electricity.” I handed the kid back his phone and I’d never seen anyone text that fast, including Jessa.

  “Why didn’t anyone tell them before this?” I turned to Tyler.

  He shook his head. “We’ve never been on good terms with the witches.”

  “Or the fey apparently, and I’ve got one in the living room. It ends now, Tyler. Anything we know, they know.”

  “Done,” Remy said and he handed the phone to me for inspection.

  I nodded and we headed back to the house. “Make sure that they know what happens.”

  “But what if one of them is like working for that other guy?” Remy said.

  Tyler actually laughed. “This kid’s good.”

  “If one of the witches has sided with Spencer,” I filled in the name for him, “then hopefully her leader will know.” I opened the door to the kitchen to find the usual suspects eating around the table, including Tucker and Nash, with a book the size of the table itself.

  “And how will you know if the Mistress knows?” Tyler asked.

  “I guess I’ll need to get everybody together. Make sure they know the signs.”

  “What did you just say?” Nash asked.

  I froze on my way to the refrigerator
. What had I just said? It had just flown out of my mouth with very little thought behind it. It was just the natural progression of the conversation.

  Or was it just the natural progression of everything else?

  “I think I just said that I needed to unify Dallas?”

  The room went silent. All eyes were on me. My mouth went dry and I continued on to the original quest of something wet from the fridge. I grabbed a liter of orange juice and drank it straight from the bottle.

  Iris was the only one brave enough to jump on me. “Use a glass, girl.”

  I set down the empty jug on the counter and looked around at the sea of eyes staring at me. “Maybe not unify, but at least get us talking, on the same side.”

  “Like what you did with the Akasha?” Tucker asked.

  “Inez,” I corrected. “She’s just Inez.”

  “She threw a fireball at my head,” Tucker said.

  “I’m sure she was aiming for the other six-foot-four guy.” I shrugged.

  Tucker ground his teeth. “No, what I mean is that to you, she is just Inez. To us, she is the Akasha.”

  “Listen, I get that there are politics between Wanderers, but—”

  “You’re not listening,” Peter interrupted. “To you, she’s just an ally. She can’t hurt you because you could probably deflect the fireball with your Legacy. For us, she could barbeque us with a thought.”

  I frowned. “Never thought I’d see you scared of anything.”

  “I’m not scared. I just have a hard time trusting them.” He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the door frame.

  “There is no them.” My voice came out louder than I’d intended and the entire group flinched. “They are people. There is us, and there is Spencer. He’s the enemy here, not the elementals.”

  The kitchen grew still. I could hear the birds chirping outside, now that all the predators were inside the house. I could smell the soft warm breeze as it wafted through Iris’s curtains.

  In that stillness, the parts of the story locked in place in my head and my entire body jumped when it clicked.

  Nash rose. He was the only one who’d moved in ages it seemed, and he stood to look me straight in the eye. It was like he’d figured the puzzle out too, my brilliant boy.