Secret Lure of a Cat Demon

Annoying little brat. Disgraceful little thing. Who does she think she is? She doesn’t know anything and I refuse to teach her, to train her. My mother couldn’t make me. She was just a meddling old fool who doesn’t know anything. She couldn’t make me do anything. The guard was mine and not hers. She may rule the demon world but I rule who enter the guard and Katsi was not one of them. I was going to get her to leave, run away, disappear.

“Zev?” I span around and looked at the person who spoke to me.

“Oh, mother.” I said coldly. Her face was set. And it showed annoyance.

“Is there something bothering you son?” she asked me. I looked around me. The walls went high and they felt cold on my skin. The air felt cold.

“Why would there be? Oh yeah, I forgot, there is a four legged creature in this building who I have come close to killing. She is an annoying brat. She doesn’t belong here mother. She needs to leave. I don’t care if she is a criminal but she needs to leave. I hate her.” my mothers face didn’t change as I spoke.

“Wow, she has had an effect on you. Quite the opposite of what I wanted but I think this might work once you two get over your differences,” she said softly.

“Differences!” I shouted “She is a fucking cat! I am a wolf! How different can you get? There is nothing similar about us!” I told her. She didn’t say anything though, she just smiled. My mother was always like that.

“You will continue to train her Zev. Treat her well. If I find her hurt, you will get the brunt of my anger”

“But!” I started

“No buts Zev, I have put you in charge. Stop loosing your anger and start caring for her, you might find out that she isn’t so different from you. She is still a person in her own right, and so are you.” Then she left. I watched her walk away. So what was I meant to do. Treat her like I cared. But I didn’t care about her. She was a cat but...attraction does seem possible...

“Sir!” I stopped day dreaming and looked towards the voice. It was Gur. I frowned. He ran up to me and stopped puffing.

“What is wrong?” I asked.

“Katsi, she is running away. I tried to stop her. She wouldn’t listen,” he seemed worried.

“So, what’s the problem.” I asked. He looked at me sharply and with concern.

“There is a rogue pack of wolves not 6 mile away from here. She is heading in their direction. They will kill her. You have to help her. She is under the protection of the guard.” I rolled my eyes and sighed. I guess, I had no choice.

“First, find my mother tell her what is happening, tell her I have gone after her, second get the team, come after me, I may need your help.” He nodded and ran off, I started running for the front door. No matter how mean I can get, I can’t let someone like her get killed by a rogue pack of wolves.

I ran out the door and I changed quickly. It was getting dark, I knew I had to find her fast. As I ran I smelt the air. I could smell too many smells. It was confusing then I caught her unique scent. That instant I went straight into a run. I hoped I wasn’t too late.

I soon slowed down and I came to a trot. I heard a wimper and my ears picked up. Was it? Could it be? I followed the noise. I rounded a large tree and saw Katsi leaning against it. I walked up to her and nudged her shoulders.

“Zev,” she whispered. Then she winced. Her hand lifted from where it lay on her stomach. It was red. I looked at her stomach to see four slashes across her stomach. Oh lord. I changed quickly and took her hand right away. I lifted her top to see the injuries properly. Thankfully they weren’t to deep but deep enough to scar her and probably cause damage.

“Did a wolf do this?” I asked. She nodded.

“Yes, but you need to leave, now, leave me here, they left me to fend for myself when they thought I was dead. If they find you here they will rip us both to shreds. You need to leave,” she pleaded.

“I’m not leaving you here dummy,” I told her. A twig cracked but I didn’t move. Amateurs, I thought. “Look, stay here. Everything will be OK, I promise.” She locked gaze with me. Did she trust me? She smiled and nodded. I smiled back and changed back quickly. When I shook my self, and I looked back at Katsi her cheeks were tinged pink. I wanted to laugh but I didn’t. I lifted my head and howled. Then a growl. Katsi’s eyes were wide, she knew what was behind me. I knew what was behind me, but did he know I knew. Another step. One more... I span and jumped at the same time. My teeth caught his hide on the shoulder. I pulled him down. He let out a wimper. There were no more wolves around that I could see but who knew if they were watching waiting for a sign. I knew that there wouldn’t be long until my squadron were here so I felt quite relaxed.

We tumbled around for a little while. I heard several yelps from other wolves and I saw Gur next to Katsi. It didn’t take me long to finally ground the wolf. I changed keeping my hand on his throat in which I had pinned him.

“Do you know who I am?” I questioned him. The wolf shimmered back to its human form.

“Should I? You look like a saggy wolf to me.” he said. I growled at him.

“I am Zev, Lord of the Guard, prince of demons and your worse enemy. Now tell me, did you do this to her?” I asked. He didn’t seem to have much emotion.

“What her?” his head nodded towards Katsi. “Yeah, I attacked her. A cat on my land, I don’t think so.” I growled at his words. His land, a cat?

“I’ll have you know, you are trespassing and you attacked guard property-”

“I am no ones property!” I sighed. She would have to cut me off at the wrong time.

“Katsi, shut up and save your strength, we got to get you home yet love.” I stopped. Love? What was I talking about? I was now angry.

“Look, you either leave this place now, and never return or somewhere near me because I will hunt you down and kill you other wise or you come with me nicely and tell my mother why you happen to attack a demon for no reason, and claim guard property as your own. If I were you, I’d take the option where you run” I got up and the man stumbled off. His pack would follow with their tails in between their legs. I sighed yet again. This was exhausting, Katsi was such a trouble maker.

I turned to look at her to have a go at her for leaving like that but then I saw how pale she was and the blood and how weak she looked. How troublesome.

“Gur, take the squad, go back, I’ll be there as soon as I can.” I knew exactly what was going to happen. “Now!” I told him. He hesitated and then ran off changing as he went through the bushes. I walked over to Katsi and pulled some of the hair back that had fallen over her face.

“Thank you” she whispered. I smiled.

“You are so troublesome you know that. Why did you do it? I mean run like that?” she smiled a small smile.

“I felt imprisoned. You have been so horrible to me, for no reason. I don’t even want to be here.” she whispered.

“Lets get you home, okay?” she nodded. She tried to stand up but I knew it was no use. I put my arms under her and lifted up. Her head fell towards my shoulder. I didn’t move. She look sorta cute when she was silent. She seemed peaceful. “You got to stay awake okay?” she made a sound but didn’t seem awake. “Hey, Katsi can you tell me what happened to you, I mean with the scar.” There was silence.

“No,” she finally said. I didn’t want to take it any farther. I can understand why. We weren’t exactly best buds in all this.

We walked for about an hour before I had to rest. It was now dark so I knew I couldn’t keep going like this. I lay Katsi down on the floor. She looked at me questioning my motives.

“Lay here, I won’t be long. I need to get some fire wood.” she nodded slightly. I couldn’t help but smile. I wanted to help her for some reason. I didn’t even like her and here I was taking care of her. If I wanted rid of her so bad so why didn’t I just leave her there to die. I mean, I know it would break the code of the guard but she was annoying. I guess for today I could be nice to her. No matter how annoying and cat like she was, she didn’t deserve this.

It didn’t take me long to get the fire wood so I soon headed back. When I got there, Katsi lay in a ball, very pale and half asleep. I lay the wood in two piles, a small one for the fire and another larger one for extra wood. As I knelt by the smaller pile, it hit me that I didn’t know how I was going to light it.

“Let me” I heard. I looked at Katsi. She smiled and hoisted her self up. She closed her eyes. With one hand on her stomach and the other in front of her as she started to mutter. Soon sparks appeared at her hand. What was she doing? Witches were long gone. Any trace of them didn’t exist. There were before demons. She then blew at her hand and the fire erupted from the pile of wood.

“How?” I asked her.

“My family has a trace of witch blood in them. When cat demons first evolved, we were reckless and loved being around other species for fun. Well, my great Uncle by many a generation, found this witch. And it was the same for my grandmother. They were brother and sister. Well, our pack ended up with two half demons half witches. They were more demon than anything. So from then on we have had witch blood in us. We are the only pack to have it in us. Some are stronger than others, some don’t have any trace at all. I am on the only one to even show their powers at the moment. I am the strongest they have seen for a while.” she explained. I was shocked. That was the first I had heard of it. I guess it was none of my business. We fell silent after that. Katsi lay on the floor on her side. She was curled up. I wonder if it hurt.

“Are you okay?” I finally asked her. She nodded not opening her eyes. I wanted to stop the pain, I knew she was putting on a brave face but how could I let her open her self up.

“It was my father, he has a pretty bad temper, when he was around, he frequently lost it because someone in the pack did something wrong, or when we went out hunting, it was someone’s fault for losing the prey. One day, I was practising some tricks, and he lashed out at me. First, it was just ‘stop that’ or ‘Katsi’ with major warning signs, then when he looked at me, he shouted at me. He told me I wasn’t worthy of the pack, that I was a freak, that I shouldn’t exist. I told him that if I shouldn’t exist, nor should my mother, or him. He snapped. He went to slap me but instead he caught my skin and ripped it open. I have two scars. One you have already seen, the other is under my hair. I would have four if my mother hadn’t ripped me away.” Katsi’s fingers followed the scar by her hair line. “She was just a little too late,” she whispered.

“Where is he now?” I asked her.

“In jail. Human jail. It’s rather funny actually. I think it a punishment for not just killing someone but for everything he has done to the pack, to me.” She finally opened her eyes. She looked at me for a proper reaction. I didn’t know what to say. She was the strangest little creature I had ever met and yet she was quite normal in emotions. She had had a hard life. Lilith’s treatment and then her fathers treatment.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. She laughed slightly. Sounded more like a huff.

“Don’t be, I deserve it. I shouldn’t exist. The witch blood is so weak now it shouldn’t even come out in us.” I changed. I couldn’t help it. I sat, my tail swinging. I got up and trotted over to her. I lay down next to her. I nuzzled her hand out the way. She moved it. I moved the shreds of fabric to show over her stomach. Katsi held them out the way. Besides the slashes, she was pretty toned. Her skin was golden, and firm. I sighed. Instincts were acting up I thought. I shook my head and licked the slashes. I cleaned them, soothed them, and when I lifted my head, Katsi was looking at me. She was smiling at me. Gratitude. That is what I saw.

“Thank you” she whispered. I nodded and I lay next to her. I didn’t change. I didn’t want to. I was comfortable.