Night Cat | Night Cat #1 (CURRENTLY EDITING)

Night Cat - Chapter 6

I Thought It Was Just Us…

“Show me again.” 

Xander sighed. It was the fifth time he was showing me how to shift. I had gotten the hang of it after the very first try, but I just loved watching him change into his panther form.
“Fine, Avery. But this is the last time, okay?” I nodded eagerly in reply and he sighed once more. I grinned expectantly and watched as he shut those gray eyes of his and mentally searched for his switch.

Our switches were strands of light that floated through our minds. If we wanted to shift into our cat-forms, all we had to do was basically close our eyes, cast out all other thoughts and “grab” hold of the strand of dancing light. The color of the switch differed for each Were-Cat – Which, Xander so sweetly informed me, was what we were. My switch was a bronzy yellow, and Xander told me that his was a silvery blue.

A few seconds later, my friend Xander Hawkes had disappeared, and in his place stood the creature that had been stalking me for the past week. The panther.

The panther rolled over onto its back and made this chirrupy noise that I had learnt to understand. It meant “Follow me”. I laughed before closing my eyes and grabbing onto my own switch. Soon, the panther was joined by a snow leopard with a crescent-shaped patch of fur on her paw.

“You’re a fast learner, Avery.” Xander swatted my nose with his tail and I snapped at it playfully.

“Well, you know what they say, ‘Fifth time’s a charm’.”

He laughed. “It would have been nice if you hadn’t pretended that you didn’t get it the first time just so that you could watch me phase over and over again.”

I grinned sheepishly. “Saw that, huh? What gave me away?”

“The uncontrollable giggles were the biggest tip-off,” Xander replied with a grin. “But that evil look you got in your eyes didn’t help you either.”

I responded to that with an “Evil Laugh” and earned myself a smack on the snout from Xander. I batted away his paw just before he gave me another smack.

“Xander! Cut that—” A loud yowl in the distance caused the two of us to spring upright like a couple of jack-in-the-boxes. Our playful moods were instantly gone - For some reason we tended to be a little more moody when we were in our cat forms. I often wondered if cats were bipolar – and we were suddenly dead serious.

“What the hell was that?” I asked. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I realized that my back was arched, my tail had gone ramrod straight and the fur on my spine was standing up making me look like a porcupine or something. Xander called it our “Defense Mode”. I personally preferred to call it “Kick-ass Mode”.

Xander’s body language was a perfect copy of mine. Apparently defense modes didn’t vary between different species of wildcat. Interesting. “I don’t know Avery.”

I snorted. My kitty curiosity was driving me crazy. “I’m going to check it out!” I had barely gotten the words out my mouth before my legs began sprinting as if my life depended on it.

A second later Xander had caught up with me. “Yeah, as if I’m ever going to let you go alone.” And with that, he speeded up and left me to watch that black tail of his swishing behind him as he ran. Wait… weren’t leopards faster than panthers? Damn. I had more googling to do.

I picked up speed trying to catch up with my mentor in the “How To Be A Feline” crash course I was taking. I caught up with Xander pretty soon and we continued running through the dark forest together in search of the source of the noise that had interrupted our practice session. We came to a halt when we reached the river where I’d first discovered what I could turn into.

“Well,” I nudged Xander slowly, as he surveyed the area. “What was it?”

“ I don’t know Avery. I can’t—” A bunch of leaves rustled above us and we both looked up instantly.
It was a bobcat.

Xander had told me that he’d met a lot of regular wild-cats in the forest, and none of them ever seemed to have a problem with him. They treated him just as if he was another feline in the forest. This was why neither of us expected any trouble from the bobcat. We assumed that he was injured or something – I mean, his yowl was the reason we’d come to find him, wasn’t it?

Xander leapt up and landed gracefully on the branch of the tree that the bobcat was standing on. I followed and landed – not so gracefully – on the branch just below the two of them, watching.
Panther-Xander let out this low crooning noise. It sounded totally friendly and by no means hostile. Which is probably why I was so shocked when instead of responding with another low croon, the bobcat arched its back and hissed at Xander.

“What the hell?” I crouched low, ready to leap up if the bobcat tried any funny stuff. Hey, I may have not been a natural at being a cat, but I definitely knew how to defend myself no matter what form I was in.

“Avery, wait.” I started, looking at Xander with a questioning look on my face – one I very much wanted to see, since I was in my cat form.

“He’s one of us.” Xander whispered in response to the ridiculous look on my face. I felt my eyes go wide. One of us? The bobcat was a phaser? No way.

I stepped closer to the bobcat, hoping to get to talk to it. It immediately tensed up, let out a spine-tingling snarl and then tried to swat me. I jumped back, narrowly avoiding the bobcat’s claws. Xander hissed, leaping over my body to protect me. I didn’t know whether to feel thrilled at his gallant efforts to keep me safe, or annoyed that he didn’t think I could defend myself.

After a second’s debate, I went with the former and carefully stepped back. I could literally smell all the feline testosterone in the air, and since I wasn’t a complete idiot, I knew that this was a fight I didn’t want to get involved in.

Xander jumped back to avoid a swipe from the bobcat, and before he even had time to respond, the bobcat leapt off the branch and sprinted off into the distance. After a few seconds, we couldn’t make him out in the moonlight, even with our heightened feline senses.

I shifted back into my human form, swinging my legs over the branch and staring at the last place we’d seen the bobcat.

“There’s another one? I thought we were the only ones.”

Xander shifted too and joined me on the branch, pulling one leg up to chin and draping an arm over it. “Apparently not, Avery.”

“There’s another one.” I shook my head. “Holy crap. What the hell is this place?”

Xander turned to face me. I could see the moonlight dancing in those gorgeous smoky grey eyes of his. “I was just about to ask you that same question.”