Page 8 of Feline Good

“So, let me make sure I’m hearing you right.” Maya downed another shot of whiskey, then continued, “My parents didn’t die in a freak bar robbery? You’re saying it’s because of this… amulet. And now I’m the guardian of it?” She kicked her thumb back at her torso, swaying in the booth with the movement as her words slurred. “And this necklace—” At Amir’s dry look she corrected herself. “Fine. This amulet controls you — my three cats — who are the Keepers of Time? But you’re not really cats. You’re shifters blessed by the Goddess Basket?”

“Bastet.” August corrected her with a grin from across the booth. His smile had become less shy than it was three hours ago, but still. Something about him made her want to cuddle him.

Dammit, Tubbi. He was my best cuddle bug.

Speaking of… “But why cats?” Her brain had begun to hurt, and Maya didn’t think it had anything to do with the copious amounts of alcohol she’d consumed.

Asher sat to her left in the booth, and he grabbed her shoulders, turning her to face the bar. Seconds away from questioning his motives, she snapped her mouth shut when he began to knead his thumbs into her shoulder blades.

An obscene moan left her throat as her head fell forward. “Oh my god, that feels amazing!”

It was quiet for a long moment before her head snapped up. “What were we talking about— Oh! Yes. Why cats?” A hiccup broke up her words as she patiently waited for an answer.

August left the booth to sit in a chair across from her. “Cats because they were Bastet’s symbol of power. It’s an Egyptian thing.”

“Oh yeah. I’m Egyptian.” Her shoulders fell, but she arched back into the talented thumbs of Asher. “You already knew that, though. Just like my parents were the previous guardian. Well, my dad was, from what you said.”

“And now, you’re the chosen one.” August deadpanned, and Maya flashed back to the show she turned on the bar TV each night while she closed.

“You’ve watched too much Buffy.”

“Too much pop culture aside, he’s right, you know.” Asher said from behind her.

Maya grumbled something that sounded like she conceded to their reasoning. “I get it. I’m the Guardian of an amulet that controls you— therefore putting you in my control, sort of.” As if just remembering, she threw her hands up in exasperation. “I have no idea where this amulet is, by the way. And there’s a bond between the Keepers and the Guardian, which is why you showed up on my doorstep fifteen years ago, the same week my parents passed, because the other Keepers had died as well.” Maya arched her back into Asher’s thumbs, opening her eyes and meeting August’s intent stare. “Did I get all that right?”

August rubbed a hand through his hair, scratching his scalp as he shot a nervous glance to the others. “Uh… for the most part, yes.”

What a crock of shit.

If Maya had a different past, one that hadn’t completely fucked her up in the head, she may have rejoiced at inheriting such an important role in life. Instead, her instincts drove her to rebel at the thought of her destiny snatched from her own hands.

Still, she couldn’t deny something about their story struck a nerve in her. It was like each one of them had plucked a taut thread in her loom, leaving the string quivering with an annoying vibration that she couldn’t get out of her head. Speaking of… she turned her head to eye the tapestry hanging on the wall above their table. For some reason, the scene in the fabric had been catching her eye since they’d begun their tale. Maya finished it a few months ago, after spending almost an entire year weaving the giant depiction of dawn, mid-day, and dusk. The colors faded and flowed into each other smoothly: the pinks and oranges mixing into yellows and reds before transitioning into the muted purples and blues of the evening.

At the time, she’d simply thought the bar needed a splash of color. But now…

No. Do not read or buy into this shit.

The flashes of light and their transformations exploded through her memory, reminding her of the proof supporting their seemingly impossible story.

This is insane.

”You know what? I need to sleep on this. Yep. A good sleep is what I need, to process everything.” She wiggled her way out of the booth, shoving August out of the way so she could stand. Motioning to the pile of baddies, she waved the sight away. ”And would you care to get rid of them? I’d appreciate it.”

As if someone had heard her thoughts, the flesh and blood bodies of the intruders suddenly disappeared, a cloud of sand exploding as they vanished into thin air.

San scattering on the wooden floor sounded deafening in the silence that followed, and all Maya could do was gape.

It was official; her brain had exceeded its capacity for impossible shit. She shook her head before backing towards the stairs. “Nuh uh, nope. I don’t know what the fuck that was, but I’m done for tonight. When you’re ready to sound less crazy, wake me with food.”

Maya turned, intending to return to her bed, but heard their footsteps following behind her. Jerking back around, she pointed a finger at them. “No. I am sleeping alone. You guys stay down here and take care of… this!” She waved her hands around as if to encompass the mess her life had become in the few short hours she’d spent with them. Remembering one more thing, she called over her shoulder, “And will one of you troublemakers please patch up the back door? I doubt you’ll be chasing the mice away any time soon.”

She snickered at her own joke, hiccuping as she steadied herself against the wall and took the stairs to her apartment. Dammit. My cats are gone. Not having a cute little furry body to keep me warm tonight is gonna suck.

Ignoring her own thoughts, she slammed the door shut and slid the deadbolts home. Although, if they could magically turn into animals, what else could they do? Probably things a simple deadbolt had no hope against.

Maya shook her head as she fled to her room, lost in her thoughts as the crinkle of the aluminum breaking the only sound in the room as she took her nightly birth control. Stripping and falling into bed, exhaustion overtook her, and her eyelids slammed shut. Right before she fell asleep, her mind turned to Malak, hearing his favorite lesson in a new light.

She fell asleep in seconds, with thoughts of the past far from her mind. Or so she thought. Her subconscious had other ideas.