Page 7

7

CALLIE

My heart races as I rush from the firehouse. Even though my cat doesn’t seem to care about anything but the shrill siren, I do. The firefighters…they know more than they let on. Which makes me wonder who or what they are.

I always thought that when I met paranormal creatures, I’d know it right away, like with the golem. But maybe I was wrong. Maybe even with all my research, I could be standing right next to one or checking one out, like in this case, and not even know it.

My cat ducks behind the fence separating my house from the firehouse, then glares at the shrieking alarm. Inside, I’m glad we’re sitting for a minute because my mind is turning in circles.

Just because the firefighters know more than they let on doesn’t mean that they’re paranormal creatures. I mean, they go out in the day, so they aren’t vampires. I don’t think they only eat meat like shifters do. And if they were witches capable of casting spells, their rooms wouldn’t smell like old socks.

So…are they like me? Humans, who believe in another world outside of this one? But then why wouldn’t they tell me?

I don’t know, but I do know one thing: if Will asks me on a date, I’m going. Because as scary as it might be to realize that the firefighters know something I don’t, it also gives me another lead.

And tells me I was right coming to this town.

When I hear the sound of the firetruck engine turning on, I’m shocked my cat creeps across their lawn. As the truck pulls to the end of the driveway, my cat does the most unexpected thing. She leaps onto the back, tucking herself onto the little step between the back of the vehicle and the little set of stairs.

As we peel out into the night, siren blaring, I’m confused and terrified. Since when has my cat gone toward cars and loud noises?

Something about this town, or these men, has her acting strangely.

It should be a comfort that we both feel the same way, but it’s not. It has me worried. Usually, the only thing in life I can count on is my cat being unpredictable and annoying. Which, I guess, is what she’s doing now. But why is she going against her instincts to be on the firetruck?

Each time we turn a corner, her claws try to dig into the metal. Even when we pause at lights, she stays on the truck. I try to urge her to climb down before she gets us both killed, but she stubbornly ignores me. As usual.

If I was in my human form, I’d be screaming. Nothing about this is logical. Nothing about this is safe. But I’m trapped in my cat form, something that makes me long to end this curse yet again.

And then the siren fades, and we slow.

When we come to a stop beside the beach, my cat leaps down and races to a patch of grass on the beach. Hiding in the sand, concealed in the grass, we peek out as the firefighters emerge from their truck.

My mouth goes dry. In all their gear, except their helmets, it’s hard to remember the confusing men in my house and these sexy creatures are the same. They’re strangely studly. Men in uniform.

I understand the fantasy women have about firefighters better than I had before.

The men make their way to the dunes, and I’m thankful when my cat follows them. She’s creeping, every hair on her body standing on end, but she continues. Like she’s as interested to see what they’re doing here as I am.

At last, my cat stops and stands a little taller. On the beach, I see a golem walking across the sand. In one of the creature’s hands, a man dangles by his throat. Behind him, a terrified-looking woman scrambles along. But she doesn’t try to stop the beast. She walks along behind it, looking scared and desperate.

When she sees the men, she races to Will.

"That thing, it has him. I can’t stop it, and it won’t listen. It’s going to kill him."

Will puts his hands on her shoulders. "We’re going to figure this out, okay?"

James and Hank continue to the golem. But when they reach it, they don’t try to stop it either; just keep pace with it, studying it.

My cat’s head swings to Will as he continues talking. "Did your husband make a deal with the witches?"

The woman’s eyes fill with tears. "I don’t, I don’t think so."

"Mary Anne, think, really think. This is important. We can’t stop it if we don’t know why it’s after him."

"I don’t know!" she shouts.

But Will doesn’t seem to believe her because he raises a brow, and anger leaps into his eyes. "Mary, do you want your husband to die?"

Her expression crumbles. "You know when we left town and came back with a baby?"

He nods, dropping his hands from her shoulders.

"She wasn’t adopted."

"You stole her?" Will asks, outraged.

"No," she shakes her head. "I… I had her."

Silence swallows them.

I sit in confusion. Why is it strange that this woman had a baby? And what does that have to do with the golem?

After too long, Will shakes his head. "Vampires can’t have children. Mary, you had to know how it happened."

Vampires?

Tears roll down her cheeks. "I suspected, but I never asked."

I look at the woman again. She’s young, not much older than me, with red hair and pale, freckled skin. Not at all what I imagined a vampire to look like. But that’s what they’d said, right? That she was a vampire? One who'd had a child?

"There’s always a price for their help. You know that."

More tears roll down her face. "All I have ever wanted was to be a mother. Please, Will, please save him. This was my fault. He wanted to make me happy."

Will shakes his head, glaring up at the night sky. "What’s the point in helping? They’ll come after him again."

"Not if you do something about it. They’re scared of you!"

Witches are scared of Will? Why?

"The witches aren’t scared of me or anyone else, so I’m not going to talk to them. You two made this bed; you lie in it."

"Will, please!" she begs. "Please. I’m sorry about Bethany. I am, but?—"

"Don’t you say her name to me!" he shouts. "You aren’t idiots. You’ve lived thousands of years! You knew better than this!"

She looks wildly around, and my heart twists.

Is Will going to let the golem kill that man?

I think back to the other night, to watching the man die, and my breathing grows rapid. I can’t stop this in my cat form, and I can’t look away. Am I going to watch another man die tonight?

"Do it for Abigail," the woman says so softly that my cat’s ears perk up.

His entire body stiffens.

"Do you want her to grow up without a dad?"

Will squeezes his eyes shut and shakes his head as if trying to clear her voice away.

"You know what it’s like not to have a dad around. Do you want?—?"

"Your daughter to be as screwed up as I am?" he says, then laughs unkindly as he opens his eyes.

"That’s not what I said, Will. We’ve known each other since you were a boy. You used to play catch with my husband. I know we screwed up. I know you don’t owe us anything. But I can’t stop the golem on my own. Please."

"Damn it," he mutters, then, spinning around, he hurries to catch up to the other men.

The woman races after him. And I’m torn about how I feel. I’m glad they won’t let the man die tonight, but I’m also scared. Can the men stop a creature of magic?

For a second, I think my cat will turn and go hunting for a bird or some shit like that, but after a moment’s hesitation, she follows them.

Hank stares at Will as he approaches. "Are we leaving them to deal with this?"

James crosses his arms over his chest. "If we interfere, we’ll bring the witches down on us."

Will looks at them for a long second. "Go get in the truck. I’ll follow after."

"You aren’t helping her, right?" James presses.

"Not a chance."

James nods, and he and Hank head to the truck.

The woman starts to wail again. She grabs onto the golem’s arm, and it throws her onto the sand. She hits the ground with a thud and gives a little moan of pain.

Will looks at the woman as she struggles to her feet. "People are going to ask you what happened. You make sure to tell them James and Hank had nothing to do with it."

Her eyes widen.

Then he turns toward the golem and strikes its arm. The man in his grasp falls to the floor. For the first time, the golem pauses, then turns to look at Will.

Everything inside of me tenses. My cat growls in the back of her throat.

Then Will raises a hand, and fire leaps from his fingertips. The golem becomes a terrifying figure, towering over him, covered in fire. But it doesn’t crumble, it doesn’t fall.

Shit! Did Will set it on fire? How is that possible?

I hear Hank shout.

And Will leaps forward, erasing the symbols on the creature’s forehead. Touching the burning creature like the fire isn’t even there.

In a scene out of a horror movie, the burning figure melts into the ground.

Hank is at Will’s side in an instant. "Why the fuck did you do that? We’ve been here before! We know better than to get mixed up in this shit!"

"There’s a kid involved this time," Will says softly.

Hank paces away from him, tossing his hands in the air. "They played you, man! They know your weakness!"

Will shakes his head angrily.

"And we both know why you burnt it! It’s like leaving your fucking calling card!"

Will’s voice shakes with anger as he speaks. "Which means they don’t need to go digging around for who did it. They’ll come right to me."

"This was to protect us?" Hank curses. "Why don’t you get it by now? We’re in this together!"

I look toward James. He watches the scene unfold, and there’s something in his expression that I don’t understand. Thinking back to my time in his room, I know there’s more going on with him. Things I don’t understand. But a part of me begs him to speak up, even though I’m not sure what I want him to say.

"I did this. I’ll handle it." Will’s words leave no room for argument.

"You better hope you know what you’re doing, or you signed your death warrant." Hank knocks into Will’s shoulder as he storms toward James and the truck.

My cat glances at the burning golem, then at the vampire man who is now looking around in confusion. The woman has crawled to her husband’s side, and she cries as she holds him.

"You guys have to get out of town. Tonight. You know that, right?" Will tells her.

She looks up. "Yeah, even if we both know they’ll find us eventually."

He nods. "Yeah, they will, and you better hope that kid of yours doesn’t lose two parents when they do."

Turning, he starts to walk away from her.

"They’re still going to know you were involved." Her voice shakes. "And you’ll be the only one here to go after."

"I know," Will says, then glances at her, and there’s an unspeakable amount of pain in his eyes. "And you two have to live with that too."

Will catches up to Hank, and I can’t hear their conversation, but I can tell Hank’s angry. I want to follow them, but instead, my cat races out into the night. She runs along until she comes to a hill not far from the scene we left. There, she stops short and slinks down. On the hill, a woman stares at the couple who lie beside the burning golem. She’s an older woman with long white hair, and she wears a pale blouse and dark pants.

Something about her sets us both on edge, maybe because she radiates something inhuman. Maybe it's because she watched the entire scene below and doesn’t seem to have moved or reacted. Either way, there’s something off about her that has glued my cat in place.

At last, she turns around and starts down the hill without noticing us.

I can’t see her face in the shadows, but a chill travels down my spine as I watch her graceful movements. No doubt this is the witch who cast the spell. And maybe she’s also the one who can undo the curse set on me.

Even if she’s not a good witch.

I want to follow her, to find out who she is, but my cat picks this moment to ignore me. She runs to town, and we spend hours meowing loudly in the night, digging through trash cans, and snarling at the random strays that come our way.

And all along, I’m cursing her. Begging her to go find the woman who could be my first real lead. The answer to my prayers. The person to finally help me.

But she ignores me.

If I were in my human form, I’d cry. Moments of my life flash before my eyes. When I got into trouble with my teachers and friends, when foster families gave me back, all because they thought I was some crazed runaway.

How could they have known that none of it was in my control? That I wanted to show up for movies with my friends. That I wanted to find out what happened at the end of Romeo and Juliet in English class. And that I wanted a family to call my own more than anything in this world.

I hate my cat sometimes, even though I know none of this is her fault. I hate that being this creature means being weird. Being cursed.

And I also don’t know what to think about Will and the firefighters. Did I see him burn the golem like that? It makes me wonder if he’s a witch or something else I’ve never heard about.

It also makes me itch to run home and research what he could be.

And then there’s the other part of me, the one that’s scared for him. Everyone seemed pretty sure that messing with the witches was dangerous. Was something bad going to happen to him now?

When, at last, my cat grows bored and heads toward the house, my heart aches. But instead of going up the tree and into my room, she takes the branch in the opposite direction. I find myself in a darkened room.

Will lays on his bed, his shirt off, his muscles visible beneath the moonlight. But he’s sitting up, arms behind his head, staring off into the darkness, his expression troubled.

When I leap onto his bed, his gaze goes to me, and it gentles a little.

"Back again? I guess we’re going to have to make you our official firehouse cat."

I move up to him, and he drops his hands and starts petting me gently.

His voice is soft when he says, "It seems neither of us have any common sense at all. Because if you did, you wouldn’t come to me. And if I did, I would’ve let that man die tonight."

My heart aches again, but this time for a completely different reason. Does Will think he did the wrong thing tonight? Saving someone’s life could never be wrong.

I wish I could tell him that.

I’m used to rude Will. To cocky Will. To sexy Will. But I have to say, I think my favorite version of him is this vulnerable man right here.

He lies down, and my cat curls up beside him. He smiles and pets my body, closing his eyes.

"I guess I can’t be too bad if you like me."

My cat purrs as if to say she agrees.

When her eyes close and I relax against his warm body, I’m surprised to feel myself sliding into sleep. I don’t normally like sleeping beside someone else, in my cat or human form, but it seems this town has changed more than just my cat.