by Celeste Hall
Chapter Six
The next morning Heidi agreed to let Morgan go home while she headed in for work. Neither of the girls thought that an attack was likely in broad daylight.
So far Craig had acted strictly from the shadows or while he was certain she was out of the house. Still, as they pulled into the driveway, Heidi was eyeballing the windows with grim suspicion.
“Maybe I should walk you inside,” she suggested, but Morgan was already shaking her head.
“You’re going to be late as it is. I’ve got my phone. If anything looks out of place I’ll call you, I promise.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.” Morgan closed the car door and waved to her through the window.
Regardless of the time, Heidi idled in the driveway until she was certain that her friend was safely indoors. And Morgan appreciated her consideration, it was creepy coming back to the house now.
She locked the door behind her and stood for a moment on the threshold.
So much had happened within these walls. She had so many happy childhood memories of this house. But now her love for it was tarnished by the fear caused by one bad choice. One evil man that she’d innocently welcomed into her life and nearly died trying to escape.
Stepping through the entry hall and into the kitchen, she found her eyes automatically drawn towards the windowsill where Leo had kept his watchful vigil during his all too brief stay.
She was surprised by how much she now missed his pensive stare.
From the moment he’d entered her home, he’d seemed far too smart for a cat, which was probably why her mind had portrayed him as a human during her brief psychotic break the night before.
After the alarm system was installed on Monday, and she was feeling a little safer, she would need to set up time to visit with Heidi’s counselor. She realized now that it was necessary.
She couldn’t handle so much stress and dread on her own. She needed someone to talk to. It had helped her greatly to even have a cat keeping her company and listening to her fears.
She went upstairs to pack the items that she needed for a lengthier stay at her friend’s apartment. Halloween was coming up on Saturday and she wasn’t prepared to spend the weekend in a place that no longer felt safe to her.
Maybe after the alarm system was installed then she’d feel differently.
As she entered her bedroom, she was confronted by all the ritual items that had been forgotten after she’d heard the intruder on the roof outside her window. It was a stark reminder of everything she would be leaving if she did move away.
This was her grandmother’s house, the sanctuary she’d kept strong for two generations.
As Morgan began to carefully collect all of the items and place them back into the boxes they were stored in, she wondered if she should have at least come back to close the circle once more. It felt wrong to leave the ritual unfinished, even if she’d only really begun the ceremony when it had been interrupted by the hallucination, or whatever someone called it when they saw something beyond explanation.
Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if magic did exist?
If it were really possible for black cats to change into drop dead sexy men, the world would be a vastly different sort of place.
She wouldn’t be afraid of cats anymore, that’s for sure. In fact, she might go out and adopt half a dozen of them.
Unfortunately, her shopping list was much more mundane.
Because the exterior lighting system was so new, she hadn’t had time to purchase any replacement light bulbs. And she was definitely going to need a taller ladder if she planned on replacing the broken bulbs at the top of each of the four very tall poles that were designed to light the farthest corners of the yard.
To her great relief, there was no box or package of any kind waiting for her on the porch when she arrived back home with her purchases later that morning.
With her heart boosted by this small miracle, she set about unlashing the ladder from the luggage rack on top of her car and hauled it into the back yard.
She spent the afternoon going through the yard and making sure that all of the lighting was back in working order. She also had spare light bulbs just in case any of them proved to be duds after the sun went down.
Heidi would be getting back from work around seven that evening, so it should give Morgan a chance to test the lights and make sure that none of the wiring to or from the fixtures were damaged.
The lights weren’t going to stop an intruder if he really wanted to do any damage to the house, or to leave another of his vile gifts. But it might stall him for another night, forcing him to come back on Friday to break the lights again.
If she replaced them Friday, he would have to come back Saturday. And so forth until the alarm system and security cameras were installed on Monday. After that, if he tried to come near the house she’d have videos of him for the police.
It was going to be a long weekend, made longer by the holiday on Saturday. She rarely received trick-or-treaters out this far, but the possibility would make it difficult to discern friends from foe.
Around six she started dinner, planning to surprise Heidi with the steaks that she had in the fridge. The redhead was overtly carnivorous and Morgan didn’t want the meat to go bad while she was holed up at her friend’s apartment.
Dropping the Styrofoam package onto the counter, she recalled Leo’s interest in the meat and felt another tug at her heart.
Although she never would have admitted it to her friends, Morgan had been watching and listening for any sign of the cat all day. She had actually been hoping to see him waiting for her on a windowsill or staring up at her from beneath the hedges.
It was hard to admit that he was probably gone for good.
Heading to the pantry for the potatoes, she stopped short as someone very tall and broad-shouldered stepped out to block her path.
For just one tiny fraction of a heartbeat she thought it might be the naked specter that claimed to be her cat. And for just that briefest of moments, she actually felt a spike of joy.
Then he stepped fully into the light and her heart froze with terror.
Greasy blonde hair hung in ragged edges to brush the shoulders of his black leather jacket, giving him a desperate, vagrant appearance.
Muddy gray eyes explored down the length of her body with a glacial apathy that made her skin crawl and her throat clench. As if he were seldom allowed so near to a female body and had a lethal fascination for how it might feel in his hands.
He stepped towards her in a cold and calculative manner, watching the fear pouring through her veins and studying her flesh for any obvious weaknesses.
She instinctively knew that he was assessing all of her fears and frailties, so that he could prevent her from dying too quickly. This was the sort of man that would crave the prolonging of her pain and her terror.
She knew it with the same absolute faith that she’d always had for the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, because she could smell death on him.
It roiled around his body like an invisible cloud, and added its poisonous horror to the toxic blend already draining the color from her face and the courage from her heart.
In that instant, the truth struck her. This was the man that had left the dead animals on her porch and outside her window. The stench of decay surrounding him was as real as he was. It clung to his clothing and his skin like a vile perfume.
She was going to be sick, but she was too afraid to turn her back and rush to the sink. She couldn’t seem to break eye contact with the horror that stood before her.
“You need to learn your place,” he spoke, making her cringe and cower backwards, as if the words themselves might have caused her pain.
“Please…” she whimpered, not even sure what she was asking for.
Did she want him to stop talking, or to stop existing entirely?
If she could only stop staring at
him, maybe he would just vanish back into her tortured psyche like the naked man from her bedroom.
But he didn’t disappear. Instead, he continued to advance into the kitchen, corralling her within an increasingly smaller and smaller area.
Soon he’d be able to reach out and grab her, and that was when she would really learn the meaning of fear and agony.
“You belong to Craig. There might not be a dog collar around that scrawny bitch neck of yours, but he still owns your ass. If he calls, you answer, understand? If he asks you to send him cash or to talk to someone for him, you do it. Otherwise, I’ll come back here and whip you like the sorry little stray that you are.”
Craig. Her ex-boyfriend’s name pricked a tiny ray of light through the darkening cloud that was her body threatening to pass out. She clung to it as if it were a life line, pulling herself towards the light, towards consciousness.
"No…no…no…” With every repetition she fought to regain her courage, denying what he was saying as well as the choking hands of terror.
The tunnel vision began to recede and the instinctive need to defend herself flooded through her limbs, making her respond as she might never have done otherwise.
As he came towards her, she abruptly grabbed the frying pan that she’d intended to cook the steaks in, and threw it straight at her attacker’s head.
He ducked to the side, throwing up an arm to block the projectile, but Morgan was still in motion. She was diving over the countertop with little regard for how she might land on the other side. All that mattered was escaping from the madman’s trap.
Sliding on her belly, she rolled off the granite surface shoulder first, but felt very little pain through the shock of fear and adrenaline that was fueling her. In her ears was the intruder’s roar of fury, and it was ample enough motivation to keep going.
Morgan ran for the back door, but skidded to a stop that had her falling backward onto her ass, as one of the bar stools shattered against the wood in front of her.
She didn’t even look up towards the man she knew would be right behind her. She only made a desperate roll off to her left, hoping to scramble behind the dining room table and possibly escape in the opposite direction.
But he was too fast.
One filthy hand snaked out to grab a fist full of her hair and jerked her back into a seated position at his feet.
Morgan saw light ricochet off sharp metal and she realized he was holding a knife.
She was going to die.
“Get away from her!” A deep voice roared, and the hand abruptly released its grip on her hair.
She didn’t wait around for the madman to grab her again. Morgan scrambled for the relative sanctuary under the table, but not before she recognized her rescuer as the specter from her bedroom.
She wasn’t sure what frightened her more; that Craig had sent someone after her or that Leo was real. The naked man from her dream, the man that she’d written off as a psychotic break due to stress and fear, was here.
He was also stark naked and up against a man with a knife.
Morgan cried out in horror as Leo barely avoided another swipe of the blade. He was quick on his feet, like the cat he claimed to be. But the odds were stacked against him.
The intruder appeared to have some experience with sharp weapons. And from the vicious set of his jaw, he didn’t intend to leave until both Morgan and her defender were dead.
She had to do something. She couldn’t just sit back and allow Leo to be hurt, or possibly killed.
As the men grappled in the open area between the kitchen and the dining area, Morgan slipped out from behind the table and grabbed one of the broken legs of the wooden barstool that the killer had thrown at her earlier.
“Morgan, get back!” Leo shouted, obviously guessing her intention.
His cry alerted the intruder, who started to spin in her direction.
Morgan hadn’t really considered what she was going to do with the stool leg. She’d never been in a fight before and had no idea how to use a weapon. But as the knife wielding monster turned to confront her, she lashed out with all of her strength and fear, swinging her wooden stick like a baseball bat.
Her makeshift club struck the intruder along the upper left side of his cheek and temple with such force it vibrated down into her very bones, and shattered what remained of the stool leg.
The blow knocked the attacker completely off balance, sending him staggering in a half circle and directly into Leo’s oncoming fist.
It was Leo’s strike that sent the bastard to the floor unconscious, but Morgan dropped the shattered remains of her weapon as if it were on fire, looking at her hands as if they belonged to someone else.
“Call the police,” Leo instructed, yanking the tie back ropes off from the curtains hanging in the dining room window and using them to secure their attacker.
Morgan looked up to stare at him in numb shock.
“Did we kill him?”
Leo left the man lying on the floor and came towards her, but she instantly retreated from his touch.
“You’re real. You’re not just in my imagination,” she whimpered. “How is that possible?”
He held up his hands to show her that he meant no harm.
“There are a lot of strange things in this world that would probably frighten people if they knew about them. But I swear, I would never hurt you.”
Morgan needed a drink. The blood was pounding so loudly in her ears she could barely concentrate on his words.
Taking caution to keep a safe distance between them, she slipped past Leo and into the kitchen. There was a bottle of Scotch Whiskey in the cupboard and she poured herself a tumbler full.
“I thought I was having a psychotic episode,” she managed after chugging half of the liquid in her cup and swallowing the alcoholic burn it left in her throat. “You said you were my cat.”
“I am a cat, occasionally, and I apologize for revealing myself that way. I thought you were a witch and had a firm belief in magic. I would never have exposed myself to you otherwise.”
Exposed was a good choice of words. She took another long swallow of whiskey to keep her eyes from exploring south of his chin. Was it too much to ask that he at least cover up the dangling bits with his hands?
Of course, she’d previously noticed that he had nothing to be ashamed of when it came to that particular area. The man was certainly put together nicely.
“Are all familiars like you?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never actually been a familiar before. I was born to a family of feline shifters. Unfortunately, they’re all dead. The world is becoming a dangerous place for cats. Cars, dogs, even people are killing them without even realizing that they’re committing murder.”
“Why don’t you just stay in human form?”
“That’s like asking the sun not to shine or the grass not to grow. It’s a part of what we are. We need to shift, to run through the woods on four legs instead of two.”
“Is that where you’ve been? In the woods?”
“At least in part. I was attempting to track down the bastard who’d left those dead animals for you. I don’t have the tracking skills of a dog, but I was still able to follow him back to his house, and then back here again tonight. If it hadn’t been for a damned dog chasing me up a tree, I would have stopped the guy before he ever got close to you.”
Morgan wrinkled her nose, trying to imagine the man before her crouched in a tree as he waited for the dog to leave. Yet before she could comment there was a rattle of keys in the lock and the sound of Heidi’s approach through the front entry.
“Oh my god, um…” Morgan snatched the dish towel from its peg and tossed it in the general direction of Leo’s groin. “Cover up!”
Heidi froze as she entered the kitchen and looked from the tied up unconscious man on the floor, to the naked man holding a dish towel over his penis. And then finally up to Morgan.
At last she put her han
ds on her hip and cocked an eyebrow.
“Your sex life is obviously a lot more interesting than I ever gave you credit for.”
Morgan blushed furiously.
“It’s not like that! This is… a friend… he just saved me from the asshole that Craig sent over here to scare me.”
“So…” Heidi made a gesture that took in Leo’s entire body, “…of course he got naked.”
She raised a pointed eyebrow.
“You don’t understand,” Morgan started, but Heidi quickly shook her head.
“Oh no, I understand completely. In fact, I always prefer do my hit work in the nude as well.”
“Would you just call the police already?” Morgan growled.