Page 87 of Cats Never Fly

Idon’t know how long we waited before a bunch of cars with sirens and flashing lights came racing down the rural road toward us and screeched to a halt in a billow of dust.Iglanced at the clock, but it didn’t tell me much.Idid not know when those people had shown up on the rooftop.Ithad to have been a while ago, because the sun had risen pretty high in the east now.

Onany other day,Iwould be making my way toMama’shouse for breakfast about now.Imissed it.ImissedOgdenmore.

Gretawas telling their colleagues what she knew, butConradhadn’t left my side yet.

“They’lltake you to the hospital.They’llrun some tests to make sure you are okay,” he was saying.

Ifrowned at him.Iwasn’t sure that look would translate sinceIwas still in my cat form, butIwasn’t leaving.Noway.Notuntil we foundOgden.IfIpushed,Icouldprobably shift, but my instincts were screaming at me not to—wasImore injured thanIthought?Shiftinghad never hurt before, but my body had never been so battered before, either.Whateverthe reason my intuition had for warning me like this,Iknew shifting wouldn’t be easy andIdidn’t want any of these strangers to watch me fight my way into my human shape.

Popsalways said cats were proud and noble creatures, andIwas no different.

“Atleast let the paramedic look you over,” the cop said.

“That’sjust a trick to get me in the ambulance, then they’ll take off with me inside.”

“Ipromise not to do that,” the paramedic said.

IknewOgdenwould want me to get checked over, but all that could wait.Besides,Iwas already feeling a lot better than whenI’dfirst woken up after my jump.

Thearrival of another convoy of vehicles saved me from answering.I’dnever been so happy to see theWillowLakeChiefofPolice, but whenVanjumped out of the first vehicle,Icould have hugged him—Iprobably would have ifIwasn’t still a cat.Theycouldn’t have made that kind of time all the way fromWillowLakeand still obeyed the speed limits.Evenfrom here,Icould seeVan’seyes blazing with the fire of his hellhound and black smoke billowing from his mouth.

Rightbehind him was a bunch of other familiar faces too.Dillonwas there, of course.Butthey weren’t alone.Hayden,Ash,Gage, and the people who’d come toWillowLakewith the demon were all there too.Seeingthem eased some of the aching worry crushingmy chest.Beforethis moment,Inever would have expected them to rush to help me.Iwas justSimon.Justa regular old cat shifter.Nothingspecial.Buthere they all were.

Vanrushed over to me first, andGagewas right behind him—already in his shifted form—like a big red avenging angel.Thedark horns on his head looked especially ominous and threatening under the bright early morning sun.Hisred, leathery wings snapped behind him when he saw me.Theguy was badass, no doubt about it.Andright now, he looked pissed.Powerrolled off him in waves and even theAspenBayPolicestopped to look at him as he passed.

“Teague,”Gagecalled out to one of his people. “Overhere.”

Iwanted to scurry away from the death mage, butIdidn’t have the energy.Vanwouldn’t let them do anything to me, would he?

Teagueran over.Theparamedic scowled whenGagetold them to get out of the way.

“CanItouch you?”Teagueasked.

“Okay,”Isaid with a yawn.

Assoon as the mage’s hands brushed my fur, his magic tingled through me.Isquirmed but resisted the urge to hiss and bite.Gradually, the ache in my bones and my head eased.

“That’senough,”Isaid.

“Ihaven’t finished yet…”Teagueargued, but the strange tingling sensation stopped abruptly.

“AmIgoing to die?”

“No, but?—”

“Thenthat’s enough.Saveyour energy in case…”Icouldn’t finish the sentence.

Teaguefrowned at me, then glanced up atGage.Gagenodded.Themage pulled his hands away. “Comeand find me if anything changes and you start to feel worse.”

“Sure.”

Thehellhounds knewIlied whenIagreed to do as the mage asked, but no one called me on it.

Ishook out my fur and sighed in relief at how much easierIcould breathe and move now.Wouldit last?Itook a couple of steps by the side of the gravel road.Mylimbs all behaved as they were supposed to and none of them threatened to give out on me.

Success.

We’dwasted enough time.Weneeded to findOgden.