Page 22 of Cats Never Fly

Becauseshe would hear.

Sheknew everything that happened inWillowLake—from the current odds on whenHaydenwould step up as our alpha to the latest fad pastry at the bakery.Knowingwhich of her children was being escorted to the police station for questioning was kitten’s play for her.

Thiswould be almost as bad as losing one of my nine.

Chapter Seven

OGDEN

“Comealong, kitty cat.”IwavedSimoncloser. “It’stime to go with the niceOfficerHellhound.”

Thehellhound rolled his eyes.

Simon’seyes, on the other hand, were wide as his gaze bounced between me and the police officer before darting to the nearby trees and shrubs.Iknew he wanted to run.Anyonewith eyes would have known that.ButIcouldn’t let him get away yet.Ifhe walked away now, the magic that brought me here might decide we were done and send me back beforeIwas ready.

Iset my hand on his forearm.Ididn’t grab him, butIcould if he tried to bolt.Okay.Imight have given it a little squeeze.Hewore a jacket soIcouldn’t get a good feel, but his forearm was nice and thick.Iliked it.

Iwas also half tempted to put my hand to his cheek and reassure him everything would be okay, butIdidn’tthink he was ready for that.Icouldn’t risk scaring him so much that he ran off.ThenI’dhave to go hunting for him and that’d just waste precious time.AndIdidn’t have time to waste right now.

Atleast that’s whatI’dheard.

Politecompany never discussed summoning, not thatIever worried too much about being polite.Themere idea of being transported somewhere against your will and tortured until you submitted to the summoner’s will and agreed to serve them forevermore made people antsy.Nowadays, summoning someone just wasn’t done.Iwasn’t aware of anyone being summoned in the last hundred years or so.Although, when you were as old as me, time blurred, so that timeline might not be entirely accurate.

TheSupernaturalCouncil, for all its flaws, had been remarkably effective at eradicating the spells and talismans used in a summoning.Apparently,Iwas naïve to think that, since they’d obviously missed at least one.Andwhere there was one, there would always be more.

Ihated it when the world tried to make me cynical.

Still, if anyonehadto be summoned, it was better for it to be me than someone else—not becauseIwas self-sacrificing.Nope.Ihad no interest in such a defeatist attitude.ButI’dbeen around long enough to know things many younger supes didn’t, like how to navigate my way through a summoning without losing my autonomy.

AtleastIhopedIdid.

Thefirst step was to secure a hostage as quickly as possible.Thebest hostage was one who held a position ofpower, but any hostage was better than no hostage.Okay.I’ddone that.Although…I’dsince let them go because of what had happened during step two.Ihoped that wouldn’t come back to bite me in the ass.

Iliked a bit of a nip on the ass now and again, but not like this.

Steptwo was all about interrogation.Thegoal was to discover who had used the magic and why.Thiswas where things usually got dicey, because how could anyone summon another supe and have honorable intentions?

Well, except maybeSimon.

Butthis was an unusual summoning.

Therewas no coven, no mob of power-hungry assholes trying to make me submit to them.Ididn’t need to eliminate the hostage to prove my point.Keepinghold of the hostage in this case would have been pointless, regardless of how muchIenjoyed having the cute little cat shifter in my coils.

Ialso didn’t think you were supposed to find your summoner adorable, but here we were.

Stepthree was tricky because it involved biding your time.Ifthe summoned supe agreed to any terms offered by their summoner, the magical trap would snap shut and bind them to the summoner.

However, if they avoided agreeing to anything, the magic that had pulled the supe to the summoner would eventually collapse and set everything back to how it was.Thesummoned supe would return to where they had been, and both continued with their lives.Thatwas usually the goal.Everysurvival story was adamant about needing tobluff at this stage, pretend you still had full access to every bit of power and magic that you normally had.

Whynot fight for your freedom?Well, because the other thing about being summoned?Itmade you weaker than a hatchling who’d just popped out of its shell.

Anysane supe would thinkI’dlost my mind, having already released my hostage and not having agreed toSimon’sgenerous offer as soon as he presented it.Exceptthis whole situation demanded the rules be broken.Simonhad unintentionally summoned me, which meant he didn’t plan on keeping me.Withthat sorted,Ineeded to capitalize on the timeIhad.Irefused to return to that blasted cage without weapons, armor, and a way to break out.

Nope.Nothank you.

Ididn’t want to go back there at all, but needs must and all that.Noone should lock up and threaten an average law-abiding supe with a cattle prod.

Myhasty plan had a lot of problems.Themost challenging obstacle was the magic reinforcing those cages.Idid not know how to overcome it.It’dbeen tough enough to fight the troll whenIhad full access to my magic, but the summoning had thoroughly fucked that up.Myfire wasn’t responding.Myelectricity wasn’t working.IdoubtedI’dbe able to do anything but shift, which wouldn’t do me much good without my fire and my electricity.Stupidsummoning spells.