Growling Grimoire: A Nine Lives Magic Mystery by Danielle Garrett

Author:Danielle Garrett [Garrett, Danielle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Roots & Wings Press
Published: 2024-06-27T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

The silver-haired man reached the furry melee in front of the garage before me, which spoke volumes about both the length of my stride and my overall cardio capacity.

I tripped over a raised seam in the sidewalk and pitched forward, nearly sprawling to the concrete at the bottom of the driveway. “Selene! What are you doing?!”

“It’s a demon, Cora!”

The catlike creature, a ball of golden and burnished orange fur, shot out of Selene’s way as she pounced.

“You get away from my Fluffy!” the man shouted, turning the hose on Selene. “You leave him alone, nasty cat!”

Selene yowled and I threw out a lasso of wind to drag her back toward me.

The strange creature scaled up the older man’s side, drawing winces and muttered curses, and settled on his shoulder. It had the body of a cat, slightly larger than Selene, though that didn’t take much. Little brown nubs protruded from behind pointed golden ears. And while the fur looked like that of a normal cat, it stopped at the base of the creature’s spine, and where a long, sleek tail should have been, there was instead a series of shell-like segments, ending in a menacing-looking pointed tip like that of a scorpion.

I recoiled.

“He tried to attack me!” Selene spat, still glaring at the cat-thing perched on the man’s shoulder.

Naturally, she left out the part where she’d chased the thing into the shrubs.

The man’s face was severe as he looked at me. “Fluffy wouldn’t hurt a fly! And he’s not a demon!”

I cocked an eyebrow at the dangerous-looking tip of Fluffy’s tail but kept my skepticism to myself.

“What kind of … um … cat is Fluffy? I’ve never seen one quite like him. Or … her?”

The man reached for the creature and it came willingly, nestling into the man’s arms. “Fluffy is not a cat. He is a teacup manticore,” he replied with an annoyed sniff. “And his breeder had the stinger tested. He’s perfectly harmless.”

Selene’s eyes glittered. “I knew it looked familiar! They used to have manticores crawling all over Athens! That is, until Zeus sent his brood of illegitimate sons out to do a little target practice.”

The man stared in abject horror.

“Ignore her. She has a very active imagination. Spends a little too much time reading,” I interjected as an aside. “Fluffy seems perfectly lovely. I’m sorry for my cat’s behavior. She should know better.” I directed this last part down at Selene with an icy stare.

The man ignored me, still checking his manticore for any signs of injury. Upon finding none, he put the creature down. Only then did I notice a series of bandages on the palm of his hand. So, perhaps Fluffy wasn’t altogether harmless.

“Do you know the name of that woman who just left?” the man asked, surprising me with the sudden change of topic. He winced a little as he wrapped his injured hand around the hose wand, the flow temporarily halted.

“Oh, um, Tiffany, I think. She said she’s a reporter,” I replied, “with the Gazette.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.