Page 41 of Catnapped

“I find the possibility disturbing at best, but that I find it plausible is giving me a serious case of the creeps.”

“I feel the same way. Until we can evaluate what’s in those vials, pretending a contagion took out the animals is the safest. Or some form of poison.”

“Well, there was that case of somebody developing aerial rabies,” I muttered, shaking my head over the audacity that someone would try to weaponize rabies, something easily treated with neutralizer. “Outside of having to hire a lot of pixies to cover the unexpected demands for pixie dust, a mass outbreak of rabies would not have been all that bad after it had been diagnosed. The human race would be pink and sparkly for a while, but the contagious could have been contained and cured, although there would have been major changes to how neutralizer was manufactured to make up for the increased supply and demand. There would have been a problem for two or three months, but that strain of rabies had a long onset time. Once diagnosed? It would have been eradicated quickly. The CDC is taking steps to make sure it’s possible to respond to a large-scale incident of that nature without any disruptions. That’s a major project one of my bosses has been working on lately. If the contagion is treatable with neutralizer, it won’t be much of a problem.”

“Well, at least something is going right in the world.”

I shrugged. “Unless your theory on lycanthropy is correct, as that’s one of the few things neutralizer can’t stop.”

“Maybe they’re trying to end the world through overpopulation? Lycanthropy heavily extends someone’s lifespan. The planet can’t sustain the entire human race should they become lycanthropes. There would be mass food shortages.”

That was something I could readily believe. “What does it say about me that I’m scared to go into this lab?”

“Well, in good news, lycanthropy doesn’t survive all that long on surfaces. A week or two at most unless it’s in a special solution.”

I considered Darian with interest. “How did you learn that?”

“My parents suggested I should educate myself on the various ways I could be rid of my base humanity. My dad likes the idea of me undergoing a conversion to become some form of demon. My father just shrugs and tells me I’m an adult, and if I want to contract a contagious disease, that’s my business and not his. My mother just likes the idea of me living forever and taking over the world. I have not told her I’m not really interested in living forever or taking over the world. I wouldn’t mind an extended lifespan, though. I enjoy living.”

“I enjoy living, too. Some days, I feel like I’m an exception to the rule on this one. However, I’ve noticed I work too much and don’t do much actual living, so I feel like I’m not living my best life or living life for somebody else.” I frowned. “Which doesn’t help me resist the Devil’s various temptations. Or other certain temptations, like brutally slaughtering the assholes who did this to these poor animals.”

“Yeah. I’m not usually the kind to want to kill people, but I am having some rather nasty urges right now. Unless we’re dealing with something like gorgon dust, we should be safe enough from whatever was in here. It’s been well over a year.”

“And if it was gorgon dust, there wouldn’t be any skeletons; everything would be stone.” As I was a brave, confident woman who could handle anything life threw my way, I shoved the door open. I winced at the grind of metal on concrete. The dust swirled around my feet. Darian swept his flashlight over the room, which had hundreds of cages lining the walls and a few examination tables waited. Like everything else, those were covered in dust, and one of them held the bones of an animal. “Why would they just leave that poor thing like that?”

“If I had to make a guess, it died while they were trying to save it, or they put it out of its misery while setting up to euthanize the other animals. If they opted to leave the bodies, that’s a sound enough theory. It could have already been dead when they arrived, too.”

“Think if I summon your father and use my magic to bind him to seeking out justice for these poor animals, he would one day forgive me and not kill me for having done it?”

Darian pointed the flashlight in my general direction, although he was careful to keep the beam out of my eyes. “Diana, if you do that and get away with it, I’d be forced to propose to you in increasingly embarrassing fashions until you agreed. First, that sort of power is ridiculous. Mom was able to summon my dad, but she had no ability to actually control him—or make any demands of him. That’s why she panicked and summoned my father. Who she couldn’t actually control, either. The two of them just found her hilarious to the point they fell for her charms. I’m very grateful she summoned them rather than the other options. There are some archangels who would have taken her straight to the Devil for some scolding. She may have still been alive when they took her down to his many hells. Or not. Depends on which one she’d snagged. Some days, when my fathers annoy her, she bitches she hadn’t snagged an incubus instead; at least if the incubus had broken out of the circle, she would have been guaranteed a great time before coming to a swift demise.”

“Would an incubus actually kill her?”

“No, but she’d have a lot more than one kid by the time he finished with her. It’s a vicious circle that tends to backfire.” Darian snickered. “When she pulls that stunt, Dad just asks how many more kids she wants. But, yeah. Dad would definitely play ball with you if you summoned him for that purpose, but you’d have to do an exceptional job on the seal to actually avoid him breaking out of it. He’s one step below Lucifer.”

“I feel like Lucifer deserves to be summoned and bound, and once I had him where I wanted him, I’d call Darlene and demand a vacation for his safe return, but I would invite her to do what she wanted with him while I had him down.”

“And that’s how you become Darlene’s friend for life.”

The problem with magic was the temptation of its use. “I wouldn’t, though. I could, but I won’t.”

“With great power comes great responsibility?”

“Not even. With great power comes greater consequence, and every action has a consequence. It is human nature to attempt to surpass one’s limits. Right now, I’m confident I could do that—but I won’t. I would look to see who—or what—I could summon next. Some things are best left buried—which was why I had no problems telling your father to make that book disappear.”

“Because they taught you how?”

“In part. I think that book is how power stays balanced—the buck doesn’t stop with the divines. People like me exist. And that scares me on a good day.”

“And on a bad one?”

I glared at the skeletal remains in the cages filling the room. “On a bad day, I consider doing it for the sake of long-dead cats and dogs who will never witness justice.”

“I think you will find Him a compassionate being. The universe has a way of repaying those who have suffered in the next life. Just think about the better futures they’ll likely get. In the meantime, let’s see what we can find in this mausoleum.”

Cages and corpses filled most of the lab with several rooms we determined to be for operations and experimentations on the unfortunate animals in residence. Unlike the trailers, the lab had been completely cleaned out and swept of fingerprints. Even with his magic, Darian couldn’t find a single one to lift with his kit.

“Damn it,” he growled.