Love Claws by Stephanie Flynn

Author:Stephanie Flynn [Stephanie Flynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Small Fish Publishing
Published: 2022-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Caught

I trotted along with the sirens, increasing my speed as the ambulance turned the corner to our block. My heart punched into my throat, and I bolted through the remaining backyards and stopped at our house. The front door was open, and I darted inside. Sprawled on the floor, with the landline handset a few inches from her hand, Gracie’s gasps were raspy like she struggled to drag in breaths. Tears filled my eyes.

“Mom!” I whispered before the medics could hear.

Her eyes fluttered open and closed. “No…regrets.” Her lips lifted into a small smile and then it faded away.

The men rushed to her side, and I hung back, acting like a normal cat as much as I could while wanting to help—to explain her issues, to tell them about her bum leg, but I couldn’t. Even to help save Gracie’s life, I couldn’t expose our world.

The medics spoke loudly and clearly to her, not knowing if Gracie was hard of hearing. She certainly wasn’t, but she didn’t respond. They worked on her with tubes and wires and machines that beeped and talked. I understood she had no pulse, but they were fighting to bring her back.

Whatever happened to her in my absence would never have happened. I could’ve called emergency services sooner. I could’ve brought her to the emergency room earlier. Why did she put this stupid spell on me? I swiped my eyes with a paw.

The medics lifted her onto the stretcher and rolled her out the door into the dark void of night. Her face was calm, peaceful, asleep. I needed answers. I needed to know what happened. The only way I was going to find out anything was if someone was willing to talk to me—without a gun or a net or gloved hands reserved for feral beasts.

I needed Mikeal.

I’d never seen him around a vehicle. He’d always appeared and disappeared silently. So, rushing with newfound energy, I darted all over the neighborhood, searching for him with my heightened feline senses, trying to pick up his scent or a flicker of movement. I wanted to call for him, but I couldn’t risk such blatant exposure. I wished I had his phone number, but even if I did, I couldn’t dial with a fluffy paw.

Panting like a sprinter in the desert without water, tears formed in my eyes. I stopped to take a breath. How could Gracie force me to be helpless when she was so vulnerable? And now when she needed me at her hospital bedside, I couldn’t be there. She was old, but she wasn’t crazy. Her mind was intact, so why the terrible judgment?

Hands pressed the ground on either side of me, and a net I couldn’t see squeezed my body down to the grass. “Gotcha.”

My blood chilled to my bones at Kyle’s voice. At least he learned to warn me after he netted me, but I wasn’t in the mood to entertain him, and his timing was incredibly in poor taste. If I gave Kyle the key, I could break this curse on me and rush to Gracie’s side.

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