“How bad is it?” Rondy’s concern was obvious.
I tried not to clench my jaw. “It hurts and the bullet needs to come out, but I’ll survive. The biggest problem is getting to the bullet before my skin heals over it. I can’t eat until it’s removed because food supplies energy that will cause me to heal faster.”
“I can take the bullet out. I have the vodka in my pack.” He briefly closed his eyes. “I didn’t want my mom finding it.”
I felt so bad for him. I vowed that someday I would return and take care of Teo. It would be slow and painful. “I’m sorry, Rondy.”
He wiped his forearm across his eyes and blinked a few times. “You saved Cecily and that’s what matters now. How much are you going to tell her?”
“I think we should give her the truth about the money and how we put her in danger. She deserves that from us. I can’t tell her what I am.”
“Okay.” I couldn’t tell by his voice if he agreed or not. He continued, “I’m gonna walk across the street to the convenience store and grab some water for us. Is there anything else you need?”
“Jerky, milk, and something sweet. I need protein and I’m dying for some candy.”
Rondy smiled. It wasn’t the same smile I was accustomed to. I could see so much pain in his eyes. He smelled sad too. I didn’t like seeing this Rondy. I wanted the carefree kid back, but I also knew it would probably never happen. Life did that to you. During my time with Rondy, I’d pushed real life into the corner of my mind. Now it pressed in on us and there was nothing to do but press back.
Cecily returned and I told her where Rondy was.
“Let’s get you into the room and look at your shoulder. You’re tough. I can’t imagine how you’re handling the pain so well.”
She didn’t understand that my cat instinct made it nearly impossible to show pain. Weakness meant death. I had only survived growing up in South America because my cat was so strong.
Cecily carried my pack and the first-aid kit into the room and said she would have Rondy get her bag from the trunk. “It’s heavy and I would have trouble lifting it out. My seventy-eight-year-old bones don’t work like they once did.”
Maybe the bullet made my hearing fuzzy. “You told the police you were sixty-five.”
She gave me a sly smile. “That’s when I stopped officially counting. I was speaking to a man on the phone and you never tell a man your real age.”
Goddess, what a delight she was.
Blood had soaked into my t-shirt. The blood was dry now and the shirt stuck to my skin. I’d applied pressure with the dishtowel on top of my shirt.
“I’m cutting the shirt off.” And she did just that, turning all business. She muttered about the Riots while doing it. “Those good-for-nothing bullies needed their hides tanned when they were young. Poor parenting makes this world a dangerous place.”
She draped a towel over my shoulders after cutting away most of my t-shirt and baring my chest. She pried the cloth away from the wound and used a wet towel to gently clean the area. The actual hole was small. I knew from the impact that it wasn’t a large-caliber bullet. When the clans were attacked by the enemy cat clan, I helped care for those who were shot. The larger bullets went straight through, leaving a mess behind at the exit wound. I guess I was lucky, but right now it hurt so bad that lucky was the last thing I felt.
Rondy’s footsteps approached the door and a knock quickly followed. The car was parked directly in front. I pressed the cloth Cecily was holding into my shoulder so she could answer the door. Rondy carried three plastic bags in and sat them on one of two beds.
Cecily continued with her no-nonsense attitude giving orders to Rondy like a general. “You order pizza while I try to take the bullet out. I can see part of it, so I don’t think it’s too deep.”
Rondy walked to the phone and picked up the directory lying beside it. He looked up before dialing and said, “The vodka’s in my pack if you think it will help.”
“I’m good and it will feel better once it’s out.”
Cecily had me lay down on the bed on top of another towel. The lamp next to the bed gave her added light. She situated everything on the middle nightstand, including the tweezers. She sat on the bed beside me and continued muttering. “You’d think you were shot before. How would you know if this will feel better after it’s out? I can’t believe you walked in here by yourself.”
I sucked in a sharp breath as she inserted the tweezers. A minute later she pulled out a piece of the bullet. “There’s more,” I hissed through gritted teeth.
“You’re bleeding pretty bad again. Let me grab another towel.”
Rondy, who had ordered three large pizzas, was sitting on the opposite bed. “I’ll get the towels,” he said as he rushed into the bathroom. He looked a little green, which made me smile and took a small fraction of the pain away.
Cecily wet the washcloth again and cleaned the blood from my skin. Rondy handed her a dry towel and she applied pressure for a few minutes. I closed my eyes while taking deep breaths. A few minutes later, Cecily pulled out another fragment and finally a last one. I didn’t feel good at all and was actually nauseous. She gathered the bloodied towels and I was able to whisper, “Put them in the trunk of the car. We can’t leave them here.”
She gazed down at the towels in her hands before transferring them to Rondy and handing him the keys to her car. “I don’t want them smelling up the car. I’ll dump them after we eat.” She went to the other bed and began going through the bags that Rondy brought. She pulled out a bottle of water and brought it to me. “You need to drink all of this.”
I did. The sound of a knock at the door woke me a little later. Our food arrived. I ate two of the three extra meat pizzas.
Chapter Fourteen
Talya
So there we were, our bellies full, my shoulder feeling better, and stuck in a hotel room with a woman who didn’t plan to take no for an answer. Her stare was worse than Nicolas when he was in full alpha mode. Rondy looked at me with pleading, leave me out of this, eyes. I sat on the end of the bed with Cecily and Rondy sitting across from me in the only two hotel chairs.
I told her about Teo having Rondy beat up and how I helped him get away. I didn’t mention dead Riot gang members and made it sound more like I was a diversion. I went on to explain exactly what we did that got Rondy’s mother killed and Teo’s men at Cecily’s door.
Her impenetrable gaze didn’t leave me after I finished.
“That’s all you plan to say?”
I shrugged. I didn’t know what else I could say without making this much worse. We’d endangered her life and Rondy’s mother was dead because of our actions. Rondy hadn’t faced that yet and when he did, chances were good he’d blame it on me. I deserved the blame.
“So you don’t plan to tell me how you killed the men in my house?”
Well crap. What could I say? “I’ve been trained.” It sounded pretty lame, but it wasn’t a lie.
Cecily leaned in toward me. “I’ve been trained too, missy, and I don’t miss much. You don’t live on the edge of the ghetto your entire life without learning a thing or two.” She turned to Rondy. “I am so very sorry about your mother, dear.” Now her gaze landed on me again. “What the two of you did was wrong. You don’t steal, even if it’s from someone as undesirable as Teo and his gang. If you both plan to stay with me on this adventure, I want a promise that you will obey the laws and stay out of trouble.” She drilled Rondy with the same look she’d given me.
“Yes, ma’am,” we said at the same time.
What the hell would we do with a seventy-eight-year-old woman, a seventeen-year-old boy, and a one-armed girl who turned into a mountain lion? As crazy as the circumstances were… I smiled.
Cecily surprised me when she smiled back.
***
I slept in bed with Cecily. Rondy got a bed to himself. I didn’t bother explaining to her that we slept in his mother’s bed together all the time. I didn’
t want to clarify, with Rondy around, that our relationship was that of friends only. At least my end of it. Rondy hadn’t tried to kiss me again, and he never did things like rub against me or make improper comments. But I saw the side looks he gave me every so often and I knew his feelings were different than mine.
Lying in the dark, I couldn’t help missing my former pack and wondering what they were doing. Did any of them think about me? Did they care? Had the war with the cats come to a head and had anyone I loved died? I was pathetic.
Rondy’s breathing and Cecily’s soft snores finally lulled me to sleep. The curtains muted the bright sun when I opened my eyes again. Cecily stirred and finally sat up.
“Getting old is not for sissies,” she said as she stood up, stretched by going to her tip toes and extending her arms above her head. Then, she made her way to the bathroom.
“You know it’s not your fault right?” Rondy whispered.
“What?” I answered in a voice as low as his.
“My mom. It’s not your fault.”
Then why did I feel so guilty? “It’s not your fault either.”
“My mom barely raised me and my brother. She played both sides of the street. Whoever would give her the drugs was her best friend. She wasn’t loyal. I know she didn’t deserve to die the way she did, but I always knew she would. She didn’t love me, Talya. If she could have scored drugs by turning me in to Teo, she would have.”
I couldn’t help myself. “I know you loved her, Rondy.”
He was quiet for a moment and I saw him sit up in bed. “I worried about her and I cared about her, but if it was you or Cecily who was dead, it would affect me differently. I don’t think I loved her.”
What could I say? He had a better understanding of his feelings than I did. “Are you okay with this?” I continued before he answered, “You, me, and Cecily?”
“I’m good with it. I like knowing she’s not in danger.” He stood from the bed and pulled a shirt on as Cecily came out.
She walked over to the curtain and pulled it back, causing me to squint against the bright sun. “How’s your shoulder this morning?”
This worried me. I knew my shoulder was healing. There was a dull ache, but that was it. “It’s good.”
“I need to change the dressing.”
“Oh, um, no. I mean… I’m taking a shower and I’ll wash it well and bandage it in there.” Rondy, the rat, quickly entered the bathroom and closed the door, leaving me with Cecily.
“Nonsense,” she said as she pulled out the first-aid kit. “You’re not taking a shower for a few days. You can wash off in the sink.” She reached down to the hem of my shirt. “Let me help you take this off so I can have a better look.”
I didn’t know what to do. Any added protests would only make it worse. I still wore no bra, not that I needed one. Once the shirt was off, she situated it over my breasts. She peeled back the bandage and a slight grunt came from her throat. Her hands trembled slightly as she ran one finger over the bullet wound. I didn’t need to look to know it was mostly closed over and a healing pink.
Her hand moved away, but she didn’t say anything. I grew enough courage to peer up. Slowly, she backed away until the backs of her legs hit the bed behind her. She plopped down and briefly covered her face. When her eyes opened I couldn’t decipher her thoughts, but I knew they weren’t good.
“You killed those men with one arm like it was nothing. The bullet hole is practically healed and there is no scab. I saw the way you moved in my house. It’s more than training, and if you don’t tell me what’s going on this instant, I’m leaving and taking Rondy with me. He’s underage and without knowing who you are, I’m not sure he’s safe.”
“You mean what she is.” Rondy’s voice startled us both.
Cecily gazed back and forth between us.
“Just show her, Talya. It’s worse suspecting and thinking yourself crazy.”
Cecily’s eyes went larger and her expression harder. I wore my panties and had the shirt covering my chest as I stood. I tossed the shirt aside and quickly pulled down and kicked off the remaining scrap of material. Cecily took her eyes from me long enough to glance at Rondy, but he’d turned his back. When she looked back at me, with a foot separating us, I shifted and immediately leapt on the opposite bed.
A short squeal left Cecily’s throat before her eyes rolled back into her head and she fell backward.
“Oh, great. You scared her to death,” Rondy said as he moved to the bed and took her hand.
I jumped down, shifted back, and checked her pulse. She groaned. Her eyes fluttered until they opened wide and she stared at the ceiling. “Oh dear,” she said.
Rondy wrung his hands together. “You passed out, ma’am. Can I get you some water or something?”
“I’ve never passed out in my life,” she whispered as she tried to sit up.
I gently held her arm. What if I had scared her to death and she died of a heart attack? Humans were so damn frail.
“Put your clothes on, young lady.” There was nothing frail about her tone. She wiped her eyes, shook her head, and looked at me again. “Better yet, do that again but a little farther away please. I don’t think my heart can take it if you’re that close.”
I was going to give her a heart attack. There was no book on how to reveal yourself to humans. The only rule was don’t. I moved around the bed and shifted when I was closer to the bathroom.
There was no squeal this time. “I take it she’s not dangerous like that?”
“No, ma’am, and she can understand you too. She just can’t speak.”
“Oh, Lordy.”
Rondy’s laughter filled the room. “She gets kinda grumpy when she doesn’t eat enough meat, but other than that, she’s a pussycat.”
I growled because that was going a bit too far.
Chapter Fifteen
Talya
Now I had two humans who knew the secret of beastkind. No, not all of our secrets, but enough to get them killed by others like me. I sat on the bed fully clothed with Cecily across from me. She had a million questions and this time I wisely told her there were things I couldn’t reveal.
“Are you some kind of secret weapon for the government?”
She wasn’t far off. Certain people in the government knew about us and we did send beastkind to help with unique problems. “I can’t talk about that.” Being honest was the key because she didn’t grill me about a subject after I closed it down.
It took an hour before she was temporarily satisfied. She stopped when the rumbling in my stomach was noticeable.
“So we’re heading to Florida and Disney World?” she asked as we packed up the room.
“Definitely Florida. Disney is Rondy’s thing and I told him maybe.”
She smiled while zipping her bag. “Do you have family in Florida?”
“No. I don’t have anyone but Rondy.” Gosh, I think my voice quavered when I said that.
“Nonsense, you have me too.” She turned and gave me a huge hug. “I’m on the tail end of my life and the ladies at the food bank would be so jealous of this adventure.” She gave me a wink when she pulled back. “That was a pun. Tail end, get it?”
Rondy laughed, and as hard as I tried to fight a smile, I couldn’t do it. I’d explained that she had to keep what I was secret. She, like Rondy, said no one would believe her anyway. I was still worried because they were human and I’d been taught to never trust humans. Eating them was another story, but not one they would appreciate.
We made it to a crowded diner and Cecily’s questions started up again. She spoke loudly and I realized she didn’t hear very well. I glanced around, but no one looked our way.
The clang of Cecily repeatedly hitting her spoon against her cup of hot tea rang in my sensitive ears. “So how much food do you need to eat to keep from being grumpy?”
I gave Rondy my angry eyes because he’s the one who started the grumpy business. “It’s best if I eat a couple of pounds of
meat a day. Carbs help too.”
Cecily looked closely at her menu. “You can eat half my meal because I can’t eat that much. Rondy is a growing boy and he needs the calories, so he eats all of his.” She gave him a stern look over her menu before turning her attention to me. “We’ll order a breakfast to go and you can eat that in the car. That way no one will be suspicious.”
If anyone paid attention to us they wouldn’t need to see how much food I consumed. Cecily mentioned my shift to cat at least five times. Inhaling deeply, I stopped thinking about everything but filling my empty belly when the food arrived. I liked Cecily’s idea and after we left I’d enjoy the extra food.
We made it to Columbia, Missouri, in about eight hours after stopping for lunch, a restroom break, and an old-lady-needs-to-stretch-her-legs break. Cecily paid for everything, including gas.
“We have money,” I told her when she said she was going inside the hotel to book us a room.
“You have stolen money and I’m not touching that. They also require identification. Did either of you think to bring yours?”
I’d left Dmitri’s territory with just the clothes on my back. Nicolas obtained identification for all the cats he rescued from South America, but he kept them in a safe place. I hadn’t seen mine since we entered Dmitri’s territory. So Cecily the dictator won this round.
Again we had two beds, but at least these were king size. Rondy made another food run to the fast food restaurant next door. They had to think he was ordering for a party. Ten of the hamburgers were mine.
“If I’d have had your metabolism when I was your age, I’d have landed a fine man. Not that my Joe didn’t have his good points, but he was far from the best-looking man in town. He also had the nerve to die twenty years ago and leave me alone. People asked why I never remarried, but if you raise one man good and proper, nothing on this earth will make you want to do it again. We never had children, at least not that Joe realized. He was a big baby.” Cecily smiled wickedly. I never could wean him from the breast.”
Fang Chronicles: Ivan Page 7