Bitch: Puncture (book 2)

The ringing in my ears had subsided somewhat... and the world was tilting only a little. Just a little. I still felt like I’d been blinded somehow. There was less of me with me. I’d lost something somewhere.

It was very early morning. I silently climbed up onto the couch and looked out the window. Outside the little short bus there was a low grey fog curling around the trees, that made the visibility about ten feet.

The older lady, Arlene, reeked of Patchouli and had fallen asleep on the floor next to her. She seemed nice enough, although I could smell that she was still afraid of me when she was awake. I kind of reveled in it, I enjoyed the fact that some humans fear me.

Fear. I thought again about the hunters in Shen’s employ. They should fear me, all beasts should fear me. I could feel my nerves tingling and my muscles coiling with unexpressed power. For just a moment I thought again about Stinger and could feel his rancid neck hot under my jaws, the metallic tang from where my teeth had torn his throat open. I could taste the hot iron flowing over my jaws. Even with the ringing and feeling of being off balance I could feel my power thrum in my chest, pulsing out. I ran my tongue over my fangs to soothe the ache and silently padded to the back of the bus.

I’d seen the cat, Miss Cleo sneaking around. She thought I couldn’t see her, but I could. I knew where she was from smell alone, but it was harder to see her than before. She kept disappearing from my sight. She walk behind something and I wouldn’t be able to see her, but I knew she was still around because I could smell her.

Reflexively I shook my head to clear my vision, but it didn’t seem to have any effect.

There was a cooling cup of coffee on the floor, it smelled good but I’d always hated the taste of it. Very bitter and burnt smelling. And a roll of some sort which was delicious if a little too dry. I had to drink some water, and Miss Cleo popped out at the sound. She gave me an unfriendly hiss and backed behind the edge of the shelf she was hiding on. If she thought that a little shelf would keep her safe from me, she was not a very intelligent feline. Lucky for her I didn’t much like the taste of cat. They were always too gamey and stringy, always fun to chase, just not much fun to catch. And I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that I wouldn’t fall over if I tried to jump on the shelf and get her.

Arlene snorted and mumbled something I couldn’t understand in her sleep. I stepped over to the paper Arlene had been writing on... it was covered with words. Some of them I recognized, but many of them I didn’t... That was where my training had ended. I’d only started learning visual words. I had a much bigger aural vocabulary since that continued to grow even without specific training. I would listen to the discussions of the hunters, or when Dr. Shen or a lab tech would talk in the lab. But I wasn’t provided with a lot of reading material at the lab so I didn’t know what the words on the page meant.

I smelled her.

My sense of smell had not diminished or dimmed in any way. I closed my eyes and drank her in, still bright orange in my mind, when I closed my eyes. I felt happy. Her smell when she slept was relaxed and mellow, which made me inexplicably happy. She walked in my dreams, happy and light again, playing with her dog. I had become accustomed to her presence next to me when I awoke. The scent of her surrounding and enveloping me, a far cry from the intermittent wisps and teasing whiffs of the lab, where I was straining against the bars of my old cage for a full breath of her.

And then Stinger crept back into my thoughts. I remembered the night he’d taunted me with her smell. He had promised that I would never have her. One of the many things he was wrong about I was pleased to note. I was with her and he wasn’t.

I used to think my masters were all knowing and powerful, deserving of their position of absolute respect. But now I was filled doubt about their power and whether or not they had a right to claim alpha status. They seemed to be afraid of me and my power. Stinger would deny it, but I remembered it there underneath all the other revolting smells about him, that tiny little note of fear. For all his anger, and bravado he was a little frightened of me, even with his metal claws and guns.

I remembered what Arlene had said about another tracking device. I wondered where they would have hidden it in me. Maybe during one of my many treatments. I thought back to my first memories. I couldn’t remember a time as a pup when I wasn’t getting treatments. I remember a lot of convalescing... almost as soon as I was healthy I’d again black out only to wake up recovering.

Usually I’d wake up during physical therapy of some sort. They’d be trying to get me to breathe deeply to get out the gas in my lungs. I liked the “regen” hydrotherapy sessions the best. I’d wake up in a bag, with tubes, but it was usually dark and warm. I felt all floaty in the memories. It was like swimming and they played a rhythmic pulse through the water, that I could feel in my bones. I’d rock myself back and forth and imagine little waves were carrying me along a river, and that I could breathe under water. Recovering seemed easier underwater. I didn’t try too hard to do much, and would fall back asleep easily while my the pain in my body washed away.

I remembered the last therapy session in recovery. Dr. Shen hadn’t even come to check up on me. I remember thinking about her while I was in the tank. I imagined that I could smell her. It made my pulse quicken. Bright orange in my mind, like a beacon in the dark. My eyes still closed, I smelled her again.

In my mind her smell entered in through my breath and then got into my blood. And from my blood it traveled to every cell in my body, alive with her inside of it. Bright orange I drank her into me. I licked her before I realized what I’d done.

My eyes snapped open and I glanced up, but she hadn’t moved, so still. I remembered what happened last time. All the pleasure and pain smells jumbled together. I could still taste her on my tongue. The memory causing my blood to rise for a different reason. My fur itched in anticipation. I breathed her deeply in once more and there were new notes of her pleasure.

Best to leave her happy, I thought sadly.

I quietly tiptoed around her and sat in the front of the bus to watch the fog swirl.