Cats in Heat by Asha King Page A

wasn’t going as well as he’d hoped.
    After checking on the spaghetti and giving it a stir, he leaned against the counter and faced her. His strength still wasn’t one hundred percent but he felt distance was best. Her energy practically prickled the air. He didn’t think she was aware of it, but now wasn’t the time to bring it up.
    “I need to ask you about the people you saw,” he said gently.
    Addie stiffened but said nothing.
    “Can you describe what they looked like?”
    “The man was...forgettable. Average. White guy, tall and skinny.”
    Not Lincoln, then. Most people noticed Lincoln—although he physically might look completely normal, everyone who encountered him sensed his power.
    “The woman, though...” Addie shook her head absently. “Also white. Very red hair. Dressed like a biker.”
    Angelica. He managed not to shudder but just barely. Lincoln’s second in command was just as vicious and deadly as he was.
    “They asked about a ‘fighting club’ in town—I pointed out the martial arts group at the community center where I worked but I didn’t think that was what they wanted.” Her eyes turned upward to meet his at last. “And she asked about new age shops. Healers , she specifically said.”
    So they know.
    Of course, they couldn’t know the full truth. If they’d sensed anything, they would’ve taken Addie right then and there. But they must’ve figured out Erik would look for some sort of healer, that he couldn’t survive on his own. Addie didn’t seem to be connected to any group like that in town, but that didn’t mean she was out of danger.
    “Do you know them?” she asked.
    “I think so,” he admitted.
    “In my dream, you were in a cage.”
    There was no hiding that from her now, no matter what it led to her thinking about him. “There are very wealthy people who pay money to see people like me...fight.”
    “A gladiator arena.”
    “More like dog fighting.” He looked away, shame rushing through him. He didn’t enjoy killing. He wasn’t proud of the things he saw and did to survive.
    “And they won’t just let you go now that you’ve run.”
    “It’ll be fine. They won’t catch me.”
    “That’s not an answer.”
    “You’re right. They’ll pursue until I’m found.”
    She took a deep breath. “And how long until they find you here?”
    He felt her staring at him but still couldn’t bear to meet her eyes. “It’s time you tell me about your grandmother.”
    “What do—” She bit off the words suddenly and sighed. “There’s nothing beyond what I already told you. She lived her. She was supposedly crazy. She was put in an institution, she died, my mom died, and I inherited the house and everything.”
    “What was it that made people say she was crazy?”
    Addie was silent.
    “Adelaide?”
    “She was superstitious, that’s all.”
    “For example?”
    Her tone was exasperated but she continued. “Like she said never blow out a candle; snuff it otherwise you’re ‘blowing away from you’ what you lit it for. And any trimmed hair or hair from a brush, she flushed down the toilet rather than ‘risk’ it in the garbage. And she’d gather water at certain days of the year, she tossed things in the crossroads, she...” Addie trailed off, and the pitch of her voice betrayed how upset the discussion was making her. Whether it was simply her history of believing these things made her grandmother crazy or something else, he didn’t know.
    “And?” he prompted.
    “She...believed things. Magical stuff, I guess, but she never called it that. I made a poultice for your wounds based on things I remembered from her. I keep the plants she did, I light candles on her altar like she did. Now what the hell does this have to do with anything?”
    “You already know, don’t you?” He glanced at her and the glance turned into a stare when he couldn’t look away from her eyes.
    She blinked but couldn’t hide the rising fear in her eyes, nor the sharp