“Listen, I’m letting my food digest. Otherwise, we’d have a throw down right now,” Lily said. She looked around the parking lot. “We need to get out of here. Do you have to use the litter box before we get on the road?”
“Quit with the cat jokes!” he said.
“All right. All right. Geez, don’t be such a pussy.”
Seth jerked her across the truck by the neck of her shirt. His eyes changed to a lighter blue color, dark aqua, with deeper clouds of color surrounding his slit pupil. “Lily, if you hadn’t almost died last night, I would be kicking the Shih Tzu out of you.”
“Bring it!”
Lily felt the crucible burn and throb with the change in her mood. Her fingertips and spine tingled in response to his physical threat. They maintained a stare-down for two minutes. Then he let go of the t-shirt. With her good arm, she attempted to fix the stretched-out neckline.
“What am I going to do with you?” Seth asked. He wore Dr. Gladson’s Greenpeace t-shirt that was tight enough to reveal his sinewy torso.
“Do with me? You’re the lying, sneaking, philandering SOB!”
His hair stood on end. She watched him take deep slow breathes to relax his body while distracting himself with the kids on the playground. She was impressed how quickly he decompressed.
“Take me to mom’s—I can hide above her garage,” she suggested.
“Yeah, because that’s not the first place they’ll look. Besides, Emanuel would rat you out in two point five seconds.”
“Let’s think of places we used to go as kids,” Lily said.
“Right. You know what, why don’t you let me do the thinking since you suffered some brain trauma,” he griped.
“Listen, just ’cause you have a psycho bird girlfriend and you’re possessed by the feline version of Barry White, doesn’t mean you need to give me shit!”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” he seethed.
“Fine, but there’s no way you can deny that you’re a cat.”
He sighed, putting his fish sandwich down on the dashboard. “Lily. I think I was adopted.”
Lily groaned. She couldn’t handle any more drama. Boring had been such a nice state of being. “Seth, you were not adopted.”
“I’m serious. My point is I am a cat. Not a dog like Dad. Not a ferocious lion, but a lucky cat.”
“What do you mean by lucky?” I don’t like the sound of this.
“From what I can tell, I resemble a large Japanese Bobtail. Now they apparently originated in China, but it’s got me wondering if I’m Japanese.”
“Seth, for God’s sake, what are you talking about? I almost died last night. Let’s just focus on the issues at hand and we can explore random adoption accusations later, okay?”
He glared at her.
“Sorry, but sometimes you’re just a bit paranoid. Why the hell would you be adopted?” asked Lily.
“I don’t know.”
“Okay, just explain to me what you are.”
“I’m a maneki neko, a beckoning Japanese lucky cat. I’m supposed to bring good fortune. The figurines in Japanese businesses have their left paw up to beckon customers into their stores. I think the Barry White voice comes from an instinctual urge to seduce or lure people to me.”
Suddenly, his cat rescuing, girl chasing and obsessive sushi eating made sense. Lily knew her mouth was hanging open, but she couldn’t seem to make it work.
He looked to her in challenge.
“You’re not Japanese, Seth.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because everything is made in China. Let’s turn you over. I bet it’s written in red on your butt.”
“You’re not a nice person,” he grumbled.
She sighed. “Am I even a person?”
He shrugged.
“You’re really comforting, Seth.”
“Right back at you.”
Lily watched the little boy on the playground maneuver across the monkey bars. “What’s with your crazy acrobatics?”
“Oh, I have some mad free-running skills in both forms,” he said, beaming.
“Cool,” she smiled back. She wanted to keep him off the adoption crap. In between slurps of chocolate shake, she considered her brother’s feline status. “So, does Koko want to eat you?”
“No,” he stated firmly. “But she sure was fascinated with you and that damn necklace. I’ve never seen her that weirded out.”
“She’s one scary creature.” Lily shuddered. “I guess the whole unrequited love thing will make a bitch crazy. So she has the hots for you and you like someone else?”
Silence.
That’s when the proverbial light bulb went off in her head. “Seth?”
“What?”
“Do you have a thing for Katie?”
His ears flushed crimson. “I’ve been seeing her.”
“How much of her have you been seeing?” she asked.
Silence.
Now she was seething. Was she not a trustworthy enough person that he could tell her things? What the hell was wrong with Katie that she lied to her, too? They grew up together, played together, spent summers at camp and at her parent’s cabin.
“My love life is none of your business,” Seth said.
“Katie’s dad is in Sedona this time of year.”
Seth looked startled. “Dude, I haven’t met her parents or anything. We’re just dating, casually.”
“No, I’m not...listen Sylvester, I don’t care if you’re doing my friend and her pet cat, too. I think the couple of knocks on my head did me some good. Katie’s father and stepmother are not in this state. They’re in Arizona. Their cabin in Helen is empty. Now let’s get going. That couple on the motorcycle is staring at us.”
“Katie never mentioned her parents had a cabin,” Seth said, his mouth in a pout.
Lily stared back at him. “It backs to the Chattahochee National Forest—very private.”
He threw the truck into reverse and navigated toward the highway. Helen was about an hour and a half northeast of the city.
“I’m not sure about this,” Seth said. “How do I check on you?”
“It’s called a phone.”
They looked at each other.
“Buddha’s butt!” exclaimed Lily.
“Lily—”
“Watch the road!”
“No reason to freak out.”
“We just left all of my stuff at Larry’s,” she said.
“The phone is in my name,” Seth said. “Fuck!”
“Wow. They might think you offed the old lady and then came after me,” she reasoned aloud to herself.
“Thanks,” Seth said, his mouth flat in a grimace.
“Huh. On a positive note, now Frank may blame you for what I did to his Fireblade.”
Seth’s eyebrow rose. “What happened to the Fireblade?”
“There’s a possibility it is still crashed by the dumpster behind the old Stewart’s gas station.”
“In Kennesaw?”
Lily fidgeted with Dr. Gladson’s Georgia Bulldogs t-shirt.
“Stop stalling and tell me.”
“I was in one place. Then, suddenly I was pulled apart and hurled into another.”
Seth’s mouth dropped open. “Okay. I get it. You don’t remember from the brain trauma.”
“No. I’m certain I got sucked into thin air in Kennesaw and spit out in the Manor’s backyard in Ansley Park.”
“Like you thought about it and you poofed there?” suggested Seth.
“No poofing. Feels more like being swallowed, digested and hurled out.”
“Nice.”
Since she already sounded like a raving nut, she figured she’d disclose all. “In addition to that and the mind diarrhea, I’ve been...in other people’s dreams.”
“I don’t understand.” Seth said. He regripped the wheel and exhaled a long slow breath.
She knew he felt stressed out of his mind after the night they had. “Dreams. I walk...I talk to people in
their dreams,” she said, her voice shaking. “I think that’s how I saw Waipo.”
Seth reached across, found her hand, and squeezed. “Let’s just get you situated at the cabin.”
Lily fought back tears. Her body had been on autopilot due to the shock. Now the reality of it all exhausted her. “Thanks for saving my life, Seth,” she said. “I’m sorry I’ve made a mess of yours.”
“You haven’t made a mess of my life. I take full responsibility for that.”
They traveled in silence for several minutes.
“You sure this won’t be an obvious place?” Seth asked.
“Katie told me once that it’s under her stepmother’s last name, Hughes. Her parents own a townhouse in Buckhead, this cabin, and a place in Sedona. No one really comes out here until July.”
“Okay,” Seth said.
Leaning her head back on the seat, she gazed out at the lush Georgia foliage. The trees reminded her of Waipo’s village. Her head, shoulder, and Koko gashes hurt, but she had taken a painkiller at lunch so things were down to a dull throb. She could almost be at peace if the police and a killer weren’t chasing her. Melancholy set in as she considered her brother’s secret life. Her father’s and Peter’s death had sent her into a narcissistic world. She hadn’t been available to Seth. What kind of sister am I?
“Sorry that I wasn’t there for you Seth.” She turned to look over at him while palming the crucible. The warm tingling crept up her arm and into her shoulder, soothing its ache.
“What?”
“You didn’t trust me enough to talk to me.”
“That’s not it, Lily,” he said swallowing. She watched him stretch his double-jointed fingers before repositioning them on the wheel.
“What happened, then?”
His shoulders tensed. He turned to her with a sardonic grin, “Oh, so you want to know about the Moore curse, do you?” He raised his eyebrows up and down.
“Go ahead.”
“Where to start—”
“With Dad,” she demanded.
“Remember how Reggie and I used to go back in the field behind the house and practice ball?”
“Yeah. That was a great place, private. No one ever came back there,” Lily said with a smile.
“I don’t even want to know,” he tucked his hair behind an ear. “You’re right. No one ever came back there, but Barney did. Shit. I was standing there holding a joint that Reggie and I got from Ronnie Oaks. They were with me. I hadn’t even lit it.”
Lily’s jaw dropped. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“The damn dog growled and went after us like criminals. Reggie and Ronnie ran all the way back to Ronnie’s house. I had put the joint in my pocket and ran back to the house with the crazy dog nipping my legs. I thought the darn beast had lost it.
“Mr. Liu was there. He didn’t even call the dog off. He just told me to go in the house. Five minutes later, Dad walked in. He made me empty my pockets then proceeded to toss my room. Dad grounded me for a month and threatened to drop me off at inpatient rehab if I ever touched the stuff again. He insinuated that he had ways of knowing. There are more stories like that, Lil. I finally pieced it all together after his death. I wished I had known when he was alive.” He shook his head, his nose wrinkled. “I hadn’t even lit it.”
Lily laughed so hard tears streamed down her face.
“It’s not that funny.”
“It is. Can you see Reggie going home to Mama Green worrying the whole time that Dad’s gonna rat him out to her?”
He smiled. “I don’t think he did. I would have known.” Seth cracked the windows as they continued down the highway. The warm breeze streamed in, blowing her hair. Lily savored the feeling of it lifting the stray strands from her neck and tickling her cheek.
Under normal circumstances, she would have been on her lunch break. Instead, she sat next to her brother, the cat, while pondering her life as a fugitive.
“I changed the first time in college. My metamorphosis was not triggered by anxiety or fear, but rather another emotion.” His ears tinged red again.
“Okay. What happened?”
“Date. Thankfully, she went to the bathroom to slip into something more comfortable. When she came out, there I was in cat form. I was starting to talk to her when she came at me. I realized immediately something was wrong when she picked me up. I saw us in the mirror together. Like you, I thought I was hallucinating.
“The good news was that my date loved cats. She thought it had been sweet that I left her a present. We had been drinking so she fell asleep which allowed me to slip out the window. I’d like to say that it was the strangest night of my life, but things got a lot stranger when I met Koko.”
The mention of Koko got Lily’s ire up. She turned to the window again to calm herself. Everything seemed exaggerated: sharper, greener, bigger, smaller, fresher. She wondered if she would ever get used to her new intense senses. It took great resolve to pull herself back and listen to Seth with an open mind.
“What happened with Koko?” Her legs throbbed at the mention of her name. Honestly, the bitch tried to kill me.
“I don’t think she was trying to kill you, Lil.”
She clenched her teeth. More of her mind diarrhea.
“Koko is more interested in studying things. She was curious, trying to establish dominance, and possibly sensed the power of the crucible.”
Her poor brother had been dealing with Koko so long that he was impervious to her craziness.
“This is where we have differing opinions. She threatened me inside my head!”
“She did?”
The reminder of the threat triggered her hyper vigilance. “You don’t think she’s following us, do you?” Lily checked the sideview mirror.
“I don’t think so,” he said. He wasn’t convincing, particularly because he glanced in the driver side mirror.
“How did you even get involved with Koko?” It felt strange to refer to the terrifying bird lady by a name that was more suitable for a fluffy kitten.
“I was in her class. One day, she asked if I wanted to get a beer.” He shrugged. “I’m not gonna lie. I thought she was pretty hot. One thing led to another. I had less control over everything back then. We went out several times—the whole time without me knowing she was a tengu, a shapeshifter. I hadn’t met another one. I didn’t know what they smelled like. I just knew I was drawn to her. Things became weird. She started communicating in my head, reading my mind, and entering my dreams. I never felt so violated. She was the reason I left school. I woke up naked with her in the clinic lab. She called the cops. There was a big hullabaloo and I’ve been trying to get away from her ever since. She’s not bad really, more obsessive...about her research. About certain people.”
“What’s a tengu?”
“My laptop’s in the backseat. I’ll show you when we get to the cabin. It’s a creature from Asian folklore. It’s a very strong warrior bird. Some stories describe them as goblins of the forests and mountains.”
“Lovely,” Lily said, the sarcasm keeping her voice from trembling. Buddha’s belly, she prayed she wasn’t a goblin. “Okay, you think possibly I’m some kind of goblin. Never mind, I don’t want to know anymore about the tengu right now. Just go back to your story. So the police came and you were naked with Koko. I’m asking the obvious, but why didn’t you shift into a cat before the police got there?”
“I couldn’t.” He became very quiet.
Her patience had run out. “Seth, you really need to tell me everything. Things have gotten to the breaking point. We can’t afford to have secrets.”
He took a deep breath. “I was drugged Lily.”
“What do you mean?”
“Peter—”
“What about Peter?” she spat.
“See this is why I could never tell you anything.”
She counted to ten allowing the tingling to subside on her back. Popping out wings right now would be painful.
“Peter and Dr. Hitomi were using Inderal in their research, a common drug used to control blood pressure, heart palpitations, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Also, some musicians have used it to control stage fright.”
“Yes, I’m aware.” Like I didn’t know about my boyfriend’s research.
He took a deep breath. She slipped some in my drink that night to see if it would help suppress my shapeshifting. “I blacked out, but then the Inderal did control my shifting for a few days. It was so nice not spending every waking moment concentrating on being in control. Other than the initial rough twelve hours, it seemed like the miracle drug. The oral dose took even longer for its full effect—twenty-four hours. And it had a more pronounced side effect. Don’t ask me why this causes blackouts in shifters. It certainly isn’t a side effect of the medication in humans.”
“She drugged you? And you don’t think this lady is capable of murder?”
“Lily, I don’t know what’s happening. I tried to stop participating in her study. She’s been on my case ever since.”
“God, Seth. I’m sorry. Why would any shapeshifter take that stuff?”
Silence.
Lily felt a sick pull in the middle of her stomach. “How long, Seth?”
“I quit after Peter died, but fell off the wagon after you were attacked by Miller. Haven’t done it since the night before I went to see Mr. Liu.”
She couldn’t look at him. In fact, she had to remind herself to breathe.
“Peter brought syringes of Inderal to me and your neighbor every Saturday when we played basketball.”
Not judging. Not judging. Not judging. Not judging.
“I don’t know what happened to them Lily. Honestly. It wasn’t until Mona died that I got suspicious that one thing had anything to do with the other.”
“Pete?” She couldn’t believe that she lived under the same roof and slept in the same bed with her brother’s drug dealer.
“Lily, it’s not what you think. He and the professor thought they were helping us. Inderal does not normally have an addictive quality. There was no way for them to understand what truly was happening to me or to your neighbor.”
It was all too much to process. The geriatric neighbor next door was a shapeshifter?
“You know what’s really screwed up?” he asked. “I truly didn’t realize how much the medicine had impaired me until you started to shift.”
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