Ghost With Cats ~ Book of Eloh #1.Draft
Chapter 19 bitten

After an hour or more of praying and meditating, Tal felt a better. His nails were not as pointed. He did not feel as overwhelmed by his predatory nature. As when he meditated and prayed at home, he felt he had been granted some strength and comfort.

A fluffy brown kitten had crawled into his lap. It started purring, looking up at him with golden green eyes, open wide in the darkness. Its soft paws swatted at his hand and it gnawed on his finger, then licked it, before falling asleep with a tiny mew. It was strangely comforting to hold the small, trusting creature as his heart had cried out for aid. He realized in a way, he was the kitten and had to trust that the plans for him were prepared long before tonight and that they were meant to teach him and bring him to a place of greater purpose.

He had never known weakness until now. As the undefeated Prime Admant, he had always felt his skill and strength of mind made him invulnerable but the next task was intractable. He thanked the One Who Created All for the lesson, but feared the one to come, for another lesson always did. He was a warrior, he knew his next test would be to surrender, he did not want to face it. His pride did not want to admit defeat no matter how temporary. He would have to let another fight for him. He would have to trust his fate completely to those around him. He would have faith that she would save him.

^..^

Downstairs, Annie was still curled in a ball, eyes closed tightly. Tal sat next to her, he lifted her shoulders and leaned her up against his chest. He rocked her slowly back and forth. Both were trembling.

“Annie, come back to me. I need you to come back. I know you’re afraid, but I would never hurt you, especially not that way,” Tal assured her softly.

“Please, I’m so scared,” Annie whisper-sobbed. “Just don’t hurt me.”

“I would never harm you. Never because I will love you until the day my deathsong is sung. No one could ever make me harm you. Someone wanted to me to be overcome and rape you. They are playing games with us, chasing us like prey, and I am getting tired of it. I was praying and I have realized something, I need to see Vorn. Can you taking me to him?” Tal asked.

They held on to each other. She believed him, but she also feared what he was capable of under the drug, what he could become. She feared what she felt for him as much as she feared what had happened to her in the past. It made her angry that someone would want that to happen to her again. She closed her eyes and prayed for strength, she was so tired of being afraid, of being broken. She focused on her rules of surviving and living. If she followed the Rules, she would be fine or that was the lie she tried to convince herself of. Her mind chanted the Rules like a mantra.

Three Rules for daily life

#1 Get up in the morning and breath in and out all day long

#2 Do not dwell on the past or your pain, you did not die that week

#3 Pretend to be the person ‘they’ expect until you can be invisible again.

Four Rules for surviving

#1 Always have your tools.

#2 Always have a plan, another plan, and an exit strategy.

#3 Always expect the worst, prepare for the worst, and pray for the best.

#4 You are the only one who will save yourself... Never quit trying.

Annie struggled with them for the first time in seven years, she had broken all of the Rules since she rescued the Eloh in the desert. She had nothing to offer to save herself or him except hiding.

“Why do you need Vorn?” She asked, trying to replace something to focus on besides her fear.

“We are not through the worst of this and I need to replace a way to overcome the effects of the Lottery drug without...” he trailed off. He did not know how finish without triggering her fears.

“Without sex?" she stated bluntly. "Because I’m too scared to do what you need to have relief after being dosed?” She sounded ashamed of herself. She was ashamed, ashamed of her fear, ashamed of her past, ashamed that she was unable to do something that came so easily to every teenager in the western world it seemed. Something she had wanted to do with him only a few hours ago.

“No, Annie! We are not animals. That is why I hate the lottery. I want to be joined with you ceremonially first, as is proper, when we are both ready. Not because I was drugged to trigger the instinct and you felt obligated to help me. I want to share my ink with you more than anything and be joined to you forever, but it is not safe for you to come to my world at this time. So I would rather leave you here and know you are safe, than risk you being hurt or killed. I have known it since my chalom that I love you.” He sighed, resting his cheek on her hair. Tal could hear her breathing like she was trying not to cry.

Annie squeezed him, listening to his heartbeat. It was racing. She knew he was struggling to resist the drug and what it made him desire. She looked at her watch, 5:30 AM. She stood, “We need to go, we only have half an hour or so of darkness left to get to the cottage unseen. It isn’t far, but there was a vehicle driving around when I got here. I need to wake Bries.”

“Leave him. Two can move less noticed that three, and his mass will draw attention. Let him rest and heal. We will come back for him unless he wakes,” Tal decided, rising as well. He walked over the the sleeping Eloh guard and gently touched his shoulder. Tal put a message thought in Bries' mind, to hear when he woke, ‘Go across the bay to the Dunes house. Try not to be seen. Stay off the roads.’

As they walked, Annie asked Tal what he did with Bries, so he explained how Admants could control and direct their soldiers with their minds.

“That really is amazing,” Annie admitted, as they walked down the less traveled, old streets through the town. Traffic was moving on the highway, but no one in town was stirring yet.

“It is handy, in battle. One group can rest while another fights with only one in command.” He explained, Telling her the secrets he had not told Bents, anything to distract his mind.

“How many can you do that with at once?” she wondered aloud, also thinking distraction was good, and she was curious about their technology and abilities.

“Individually and unamplified, I can command nearly 300, but with my halo, I can command the movements and actions of ten to 100 times as many,” he revealed, “However raging sword pets require more attention.”

Annie didn’t know what a halo was, but she had felt his mind pull Bries’ back from the madness of his rage. She couldn’t imagine controlling more than one raging sword pet. She had also seen Tal just look at Vorn or Bries and they followed his wishes. It wasn’t like telepathic communication, he wasn’t telling them what he wanted, they just knew. It reminded her of bees for some weird reason. She kept looking around, they were too exposed out in the open, too vulnerable to attack. Just a little further, she reminded herself, just a little longer and she could go back to being a ghost and living by her rules.

^..^

They followed Fisher road and slipped into a tree-surrounded cottage at the corner of St. Mary. There was a dim light in one bedroom. Sharon cried out and Annie pulled her Glock and rushed in, what she saw shocked her. Sharon and Vorn were both naked, entangled in the bed sheets and each other. He was biting her shoulder. Annie almost shot him, but Tal grabbed her gun and covered her mouth, dragging her out into the hall before the amorous couple noticed them. She struggled against his grip so he pulled her with him through the kitchen and outside onto the screened porch. They just caught her best friend having sex with his best friend and they both were freaking out.

“Let me go!” She screamed against his hand when they were outside, she was still struggling, but he held her tight. “He was hurting her!”

Annie was stronger than Tal realized, but he did not dare release her, even when she headbutted him and split his lip. “He was not, and not until you calm down,” he growled, both of them were shaking.

She struggled for a few minutes more, then stopped obviously frustrated. Her voice was quieter but still bordered on hysterical. “He was biting her! Why was he biting her? What is going on?”

“It’s normal.” Tal answered shakily

“That ain’t normal” she hissed. She was trying to calm down, everything about tonight and about the last three weeks, made her want to run back to her mountain or her piney woods and lock herself in one of her cabins.

“It is for my people after they have had the drug, he was inking her. It is how we pledge ourselves to our females. We can’t stay here, I... I can’t be near them right now.” He retorted harshly in a low tone. Tal turned and leaned against the wall, breathing heavily, his nails and teeth pointed again and his eyes were glowing in the dim light.

“What is wrong with you? Is it really that bad?” Annie asked terrified.

“Yes,” his answer came out more a growl than speech, it was taking every ounce of control he had not to do to her what his Cypher was doing to her publisher. In his mind, he was seeing her in the wet robe with nothing under it from the night they were attacked at New Moon Springs. The curved shape of her body was unlike any female of his world, it was beautiful and soft. He wanted it for himself. He tried to breath slowly to calm himself as she paced, both trying to figure out where to go and what to do next.

They were hidden in the shadows of the screened porch on the back of the cottage, trying to collect themselves. Suddenly, a black SUV drove by with a spotlight shining on the houses, they dove for the floor. Slowly, they both rose up enough to peek out at it. Annie uttered the word Tal's translator didn’t know again, he needed to ask her what that word meant, she and Boaz seemed to say it often.

Annie studied the SUV; private plates, armored, tinted glass, silent motor as it crawled by in the pre-dawn. It had to be one of Bents’. For a moment, she considered risking getting shot to get to the boat by the river to get away and not just from Bents but from Tal too. She shook her head trying to clear it. The alcohol, the lottery drug, and her fear were making her irrational. If Tal was going to hurt her, he would have done it by now, she reasoned with herself. But Annie had just seen his Cypher biting her best friend while they were having sex and she was a lot freaked out! She needed to calm down so she could follow rule number two for surviving:

Always have a plan, another plan, and an exit strategy.

She needed a plan to save them that wouldn’t get them killed or caught. Tal was shaking almost like he was having a seizure. He was breathing so fast it seemed like he was going to hyperventilate. His eyes were glowing a weird yellow color, the pupils were light up like constellations. His head turned like he was looking through the wall toward the bay.

“I can feel my enemy, she is in the harbor now. They are looking for me, to capture me before the drugs wear off.” He sounded despairing as his brain processed all the angles of the new threat, “It isn’t just your people who are after our tech. SHE is here after my fleet to kill the king and to divide the kingdom.”

“What are you talking about?” Annie asked confused, wondering briefly if he was hallucinating.

“How did Vorn get Sharon here?” Tal demanded abruptly, grabbing her shoulders.

“By boat, at the end of the street is the river, just north is an inlet, the flatboat should be there. It has a small outboard motor. Just push the button and it starts. If you take it all the way south to the Jetty Park, then go east along the beach, you’ll be back to the Dunes house. Do we need to go now?” Annie was shaky as she recited the information.

“Not we, me! They are going to catch me, Anneliese. You have to tell Vorn, Lady Kahli of Astroth here... Tell him to come get me, as soon as we have fliers... After dark tonight... She is going to want to play one... Of her demented games... Before she kills me.... She is going to want me to comply... To ink her since I was given the Lottery Drug... But if I can’t... if I won’t... it will buy a day to save me at most... I need you to trust me, Anneliese... I need you to save me from Kahli... You must remember I love you,” he said while holding her shoulders so tightly it hurt. He seemed irrationally desperate.

Annie wondered how much of the drug and alcohol were still in both of their systems because it sounded to her like Tal was planning on getting caught.

“What are you talking about? We only have to stay hid...” She started.

Tal struck her suddenly, stunning her. She saw stars and her legs buckled. She felt and heard him ripping her shirt, her heart cried out in despair because of what she believed was about to happen. Instead he held her, hugging her against him, it feel like he was weeping.

“I am so sorry... I love you more than my life... But I must save my kingdom... Please believe me... I don’t want to hurt you, and I didn’t want it to be this way,” he whispered brokenly.

She moaned as he bit her hard on the shoulder. It hurt only for a moment as the needle points of his teeth sunk into her flesh and the heat of his ink burned. Then a warmth spread across her shoulder and neck. It made her feel dizzy and her heart started to flutter like when she had been injected with truth serum by Hadif. Tal seemed to be biting her forever, and growling as he did it. His breath burned hot on her skin. She was so confused by his actions. He had promised he wouldn’t hurt her and yet she felt like she was dying. He released his bite and whispered he loved her once more, but her eyes were closed. She could feel her tears and his on her cheek as he hugged her. He laid her down gently on the concrete floor. Then it sounded like he was taking something out of his jacket pocket.

"I meant to give this to Bries, if I don't make it, take care of him." And she heard the door swing open, but not all the way shut. He was gone and she couldn’t move.

Annie heard the SUV drive by again, then speed up. There was the pop of a silenced rifle. Brakes skidded, muffled men’s voices, and then the tires burned out as the SUV headed back toward the harbor. She still couldn’t lift her head and her heart was barely beating. Her shoulder burned like it was on fire where he had bitten her. She breathed out slowly, focusing on the message for Vorn; their enemy’s name was Kahli. Kahli was after Tal’s fleet to kill the king. Bring the fliers after dark, and replace him before tomorrow.

Her fear screamed Tal attacked her. She felt betrayed as she sank into darkness.

A tiny kitten was butting it’s head against her face and meowing for attention, which was the only thing keeping her conscious. Inside the cottage, and a million miles away it seemed, she could hear the murmur of Sharon's and Vorn's voices talking and laughing.

^..^

Sharon rolled over in bed, somewhere outside the house a crying kitten was driving her crazy. Vorn felt warm, strong and comforting as they rested with his arms around her, but she sat up anyway, wrestling his tee shirt over her tousled platinum curls.

Vorn pulled her back against his chest, “Don’t leave yet, my lady,” he pleaded playfully, kissing her shoulder and neck.

She smiled at him, resting her hand against his cheek, “I have to replace that kitten and give it some cream before it drives me crazy. But I’ll be back.” She leaned over and first pressed her lips lightly against his, then gave him a light lick on the temple.

Sharon was a quick study with her lovers, always learning what they liked the first time but kissing an Eloh was an art. Vorn had pointed sharp teeth and really sharp claws when he was aroused, which he was very careful with. He had promised her, he would not mare her ‘beautiful skin’, but she didn’t care, she loved him in a way she hadn’t loved anyone since Shmael. Vorn made her feel alive again, he made her body want more of him. As water filled the coffee carafe for her and the tea kettle for him, she remembered...

Half-way up the river last night, they had been ambushed and he had fought like a hero to protect her. They had gotten lucky, some kids had peeled out in an old Camero and their pursuers had chased them, instead of checking the scrub trees and brush in the vacant lot where Sharon and Vorn. As they had lain there, cautiously waiting, she had rolled over. Looked up into his eyes and realized she could see stars in the center of his pupils, just like the ones over his shoulder. She suddenly felt like her Shmael had come back to her as an angel, as Vorn to save her again from certain death. Even though she knew it was impossible, it didn’t change the way she felt, and she had kissed Vorn. They had slipped into the house and practically torn each other’s clothes off. He had so respectfully asked permission to touch her, to be joined with her, to leave his ink upon her skin. He treated her like the most precious thing in his world, just like her Shmael always had.

She smiled fingering her shoulder under his tee-shirt. It didn’t even hurt where he had bitten her. It had just felt warm and made her heart flutter for a moment. Warmth pooled between her legs where he had been only an hour before. They would be alone till at least noon, but she didn’t feel alone for the first time in 10 years and she planned to make the most of it since this would be their only time alone together before he left. She tried not to think that far ahead, he was here now, with her. She could be selfish just for a morning. She let herself have the luxury of a tingly shiver, the sooner she found the kitten and gave it some milk or something, the sooner she could crawl back in bed with her lover. She was going to show him why it was always better to date an older woman.

The sun was just rising on the cloud streaked horizon. The crying kitten was on the screen porch on the back of the cottage, she pushed to open it, but something was against the door. Sharon leaned against the screen, looked down and panicked. It was Annie and she was unconscious. She was so pale and still that Sharon couldn’t tell if she was alive or not. Annie's shoulder looked swollen and red like she had been mauled by something. The tiniest brown kitten Sharon had ever seen was rubbing its face on Annie’s, crying piteously.