Chapter 13
That Fucking Cat
The never-ending tunnel of grey stone bricks, ancient skulls embedded throughout the cracks, and a musty smell that only the oldest libraries dared try aim for and missed entirely …
Petra finally managed to make out the dim glow of a rectangular doorway in the distance. The winding maze underneath Cheramin was bad enough. Avoiding the chattering humans huddled within some of the upper chambers was hard. They even sealed off several passageways ignorant of the depths of the maze.
But they definitely hadn't bothered to go down a level.
So many skulls gazed unblinking everywhere with glowing blue eye orbs. The kind of sight that made anyone's mouth dry more sour, more ragged than those powdered balls made of spoiled milk – that was the last time she ever crammed those cuties into her mouth for a desperate last-minute meal.
A meal gone horribly wrong.
The floor was smooth enough. Frigid but smooth. Like polished granite or marble.
But the same grey color as the walls.
Except for the occasional wide crack. She avoided those carefully. The edges look too sharp to risk even testing them. Not without a dummy to use on it first.
The amber glow of the rectangular door signaled the first half of her long journey was nearly over. As she walked closer, eyes peeled for any secret triggers – a hidden step revealed only by a slight cut in the floor that would sink upon touch and trigger a trap. Or a thread hung across the passageway that the unwary traveler would break by walking through and trigger a trap.
Or, more likely, simply cut off whatever limb tried to walk through it.
The cool air seeped through her fur far too well. The dampness already made her want to shudder. Maybe dry herself off with the silk towel she left back at the inn she had holed herself up in.
Well, had.
At least the darkling invasion of Chemarin worked as a great distraction. That Champion hulk's info hopefully will prove right after all. That that Ashy guy or his lycan bodyguards never noticed her sneak up on them, syringe some blood out him quick, before they could figure out what happened …
Then a quick jinx to make them forget what caused their surprise stop.
Losing the spidora chasing them, especially after those annoying spiders decided to go after her instead, for some bug-addled reason …
Thank the darkness she knew a couple tricks to lose them.
All for the little glass vial of blood, she now held securely in her hand – but uncapped and scenting the air coppery. It held fresh blood from the very drunk, very male, very un-Paladin ally of the Champion.
Hopefully, Ash La Pushka's blood.
But now the humans in hiding were extra cautious about secret lycan. Eager to kill or chain any they caught. Wild or domesticated. It didn't make a different to them. Even if they could only hope to chain the domestic kitties like her, with all that breeding getting in the way.
It wasn't like she could point out how a Champion Paladin saved her then died fighting a vandread.
So when Petra reached the rectangular door, Petra only paused a moment to reach the various weird symbols. Guessing the ridge in the middle, with a tiny funnel wedged above the tiny channel, was where she was to pour the key.
Her heart thunked too hard now.
A dupe to do this for her … much safer. Sometimes these doors were traps themselves. Scholars who could read these weird symbols could at least get a hint at potential dangers and all that.
But you never got rich but playing it safe.
Well, unless you were already rich and comfy.
So Petra poured the blood into the funnel. It flowed down the channel. Into the frame.
A crack erupted. The door shifted out from its frame.
Then its glow faded.
Then slid inward. Tilting out to one side.
Forcing her to jump back.
Yet only a pitch blackness remained in the doorway. Not even the glow of the skulls' eyes could penetrate it.
“Free!” cried some guy with a cutesy voice, “I'm free! At last! Freedom, here I –”
Something smacked into her chest.
Petra caught the thing by instinct. Her nose, hands, and fur told her the rest.
It was a kitten. A tabby kitten. With black bat wings. And an orange scorpion tail.
Moaning perverted now.
“Get back here, you damn pervert!” screamed a voice Petra hadn't heard in years, “Or else I'll skin you alive and all your damn copies!”
Instinct born from much experience kicked in and Petra jumped back a bit more.
Just in time for the redheaded vixen of her childhood to leapt out of the blackness.
“Rose?” asked Petra.
The green-eyed vixen blinked. Her red fox ears perking up. Those plump red lip dropping. Framing a peachy face with lush ruby hair down even more to her left side.
Yet she wore the outfit of a Paladin. Tight and tailored to show every one of her slim sensual curves.
Matching that gentle strawberry scent that humans could only smell when right next to her.
But other lycan could smell from further.
“Petra …” said Rose, “I … you came right in time. My days as a Paladin … even with Felix and Ash to back me up – a lycan's a lycan, as they say. And I'm not about to be sold to some whorehouse. You with me?”
“Always,” said Petra. Catching a very weak whiff of ancient wrinkled old fart, similar to that Earth Wizard that sneaked around the city, but different. “So the winged cat … our first catch?”
“Leo the Magnificent is not a catch!” cried out the winged cat. Raising its front paw up high in defiance.
Despite its perverted face still drooling between her boobs.
“Wait, wait,” said Rose, “Aren't you Leo the Great? Or was it Leo the Grand?”
“Don't go confusing us,” Leo said, “We created mind-links for that. Can't have Leo the Great and Leo the Grand losing track of who's who. Or those two thinking they're Leo the Grand and me thinking I'm Leo the Great. Too confusing.”
Rose grimaced as sardonic as any cubling forced to stuff a raw peeled lemon in her mouth.
“Yeah,” she said, “Exactly. So now that you helped created that vandread to –”
“No, no,” said Leo, “My latest ultimate creation! Gives me tail-twist just thinking of her. Tricky to make too. Duplicating a … wait! Ha! No tricking me! A poor little destitute manticore … after I helped you killed these other wiz– AHHH!”
Petra pricked the kitten's ears with her claws.
Then meeting each other’s eyes, Petra raised the hackles on her back for herself and Rose. No wonder no one ever found a hint of that infamous lycan witch Scarlet Knight. An inside job, Petra almost purred a laugh, must of netted Rose a good bounty from whoever enlisted her. Assuming they didn't decide silencing her afterwards was necessary. A tendency too many darkling higher ups followed. Forcing creative escapes and establishing new, secret identities after the best jobs.
So killing this winged kitty down here in secrecy of the vast underground …
But slid down that road and she'd end up no better than her wild cousins. A job was a job. Go beyond that and might as well gut squirrels and gnaw on their gamey little bones. Start learning to live in dinky little tents and other primitive dumb stuff.
Even Rose realized it.
Helped Petra realize it too.
The same common sense saved them from the usual enslaved fate of other escaped lycan. From running to their wild cousins and getting their cute little butts enslaved.
“I'm sure the vandread let you enjoy her goods too, one day,” said Rose, “As long as you –”
“Sorry,” Leo said, “But your debts not paid. Not her original's either. Nobody's actually. The Vase of Honeyed Gold will only cover some of it. Of course, I'll permit your gals to retain a few samples. But first, you both need to prepare properly. A few missions beforehand should do. And cover your debts too. So everyone ends up happy. Right? Right!”
Rose clearly forced a sigh. Petra could only grimace in sympathy.
“Fine,” said Rose, “I'll bear you-know-who a litter and give them to you … but if you mistreat my cubs …”
Petra gasped. Ice chilling her insides. Colder than any stone underground.
But Leo laughed.
“No worries,” said Leo, “Your sisters each agreed. And I promised to take good care of them. The experiments won't hurt them a bit. Not much at all. Anyway, it's the only way to save your race from–”
“Leo!” shouted Rose.
“Okay, okay,” said Leo, “But if you want Petra to be any help, to get a good deal, she'll need to know the whole story … right?”
“Right,” said Petra. Purring a bit louder. Saving her race from whatever, as a member of her race, definitely worth her time.
Was it a curse? A certain ancient artifact, the Vase of Honeyed Ruby, could lift any curse. Hidden deep below in these very passages guarded by monsters and traps unknown. The rumors backed by some secretive notes she borrowed from the soon-to-be-deceased Earth Wizard.
Something this Leo had to know. Something that suggested Leo had other reasons for this nonsensical breeding idiocy.
So that when the time came, Petra could strangle this batty kitten herself.
But for now, she merely scratched its ears and let the pervert giggle and drool over her chest fur.
Rose's slight smile.
Nod.
They'd strangle this Leo together.
When the right time came.