Part 2: His Companion
Chapter 1
It took a while for Talon to be convinced that the Krak didn’t present any more danger, but their strange behavior wouldn’t leave him alone. The water creatures were as foreign to him, a sun worshipper, as you might expect, but he knew one thing for sure. They had worked really hard to catch him and his Cat, so there had to be a strong reason behind that. Why had the last Krak just let them go then? Cat had said that she had nothing to do with that part, and he believed her. It seemed like her ability to read another person’s thoughts and even to influence that creature made her feel uncomfortable. It probably had something to do with her past with the Mind Readers – those damned, power-hungry bastards. Even his king had heard of their bad reputation. Talon remembered Ferthoris gleefully talking about founding a surveillance unit on Kanthari 7 and modeling it after the Mind Readers in structure and function.
Well now he had gotten rid of the bastard once and for all. He didn’t owe him anything anymore. When Ferthoris had tried to sacrifice him behind his back, he had freed Talon from any obligation of loyalty and faithfulness. This wasn’t easy for him, he admitted to himself, grumbling. It wasn’t just because he had had his monarch’s back his entire life. Talon’s family had served the king for generations – practically forever. At least he didn’t have any relatives, so he wouldn’t have to worry about their well-being the minute the king heard that his top warrior had left him. Without thinking, he reached for Cat’s hand and squeezed it. The king would be furious that he had left in the middle of an assignment, but he would be even more irate when he found out that Talon had taken off with the woman he, Ferthoris III, had won in a poker game. With good reason, you could say, even though the brokering poker company moved at the outermost reaches of legality.
Talon looked at Cat. His Cat, he thought possessively, and felt the lion inside him growl hungrily and playfully at the same time. One of the many things he cherished about this human, was the pleasant silence between the two of them. She didn’t need to chat constantly in order to feel close to him. She could leave him space, and that was exactly what he needed, he realized with a surge of adrenaline. How could he have ever thought that he would want a woman who would worship him devotedly, without ever making any of her own decisions. He grinned to himself, thinking about Cat. She was the perfect mix of defiance and submission. She was simply perfect, not just for the hungry predator inside him, but also for the man.
“What’s up? What is so funny?” Cat’s question brought him back to the present. Talon felt freer than ever before in his life, now that he had figured out that he owed his king nothing and was going to spend the rest of his life with Cat. It felt strange, and he would need to get used to it. He shook his head. Talon finally knew what had been missing from his life. He was completely sure of one thing: He didn’t want to live without this freedom and without Cat at his side.
“I was just thinking about what we are going to do with our newly found freedom.”
Cat raised her eyebrows and pulled him to her. “The way you put that is strangely seductive.” The challenging flash in her eyes grew stronger. His lion reacted and stretched with pleasure. Talon could feel his predator prepare to come out and pushed it back forcefully. “I suggest we go back to the old library,” she said and walked on. Seeing her turn and walk away from him gave him an instant pang of loss, and the power of the emotion almost made him shy away. “It’s nice and dry and warm there, and we can take our time figuring out how we will get away from Earth.”
“I have no objections to a warm place,” Talon agreed and looked at the iron-gray sky. The snow was falling in single flakes from the sky. It covered the ground with a bright white layer that crunched under their feet. The only sounds you could hear were the sounds of their footsteps and the soft breaths that sent steaming clouds out of Cat’s mouth. It was a moment of peace they could feel all around them. “From there I can hunt, and the city is close enough that we can get there quickly if we need to.”
Her eyes widened when he mentioned hunting. For a second, he thought she might be repulsed by the idea. Then he noticed that she was breathing heavily and smelled her excitement.
“Can I accompany you on a hunt sometime?” She asked so softly that he had a hard time making out what she was saying over the crunching snow, despite his excellent hearing.
“If you like,” he began carefully. Cat was definitely a remarkable woman but watching him circle an animal and kill it might be something that would take some getting used to. He knew well that she accepted his predator as part of him but witnessing the act of killing was something else. The smell of the blood, the death cries of the prey, and the sound of him burying his fangs into its flesh – these things were all very real, and they would differ significantly from anything a human was used to. Just thinking about circling his prey and chasing it made his blood boil. The predator inside him was a primitive being, and was only half-tamed because of his presence, but it took great pleasure in things that humans called primitive: hunting, feeding, mating. If Cat wanted to live at his side, she would have to get to know this unpredictable side of him sooner or later, so why wait?
“Let’s get out of here first,” he growled, his throat constricted. Talon could see the exit now and was relieved to be leaving this strange park with its cages and old smells of imprisoned animals. He asked Cat why humans liked to lock up other creatures so they could gawk at them. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“I think that it satisfies a certain need for power,” she answered his question. “This behavior isn’t just limited to humans though, is it? Your king is doing the same thing when he brings women to his harem. He locks them away so he can look at them and use them whenever he feels like it.”
She was right, looking at it from that perspective. The brisk wind made the snowflakes dance, but it also brought with it a scent that made Talon’s hairs stand on end. He stopped, pulled Cat behind him, and looked intently in the direction from which the odor had come. No, he was not mistaken. It smelled like old fish. The Krak were around here somewhere, and if his nose wasn’t fooling him, there were more than three or four. The smell became so strong that it made him gag. He forced himself to ignore the nausea, pushing it back into his stomach. “Breathe,” he told himself. He took deep breaths through the mouth, reducing the attack on his sense of smell to a tolerable level.
Cat was standing next to him, waiting patiently. He could feel the tension in her body as if it were his own. She stayed behind him without being told. Slowly, without making a sound, she turned around until they were standing back to back. A wave of ridiculous pride rushed through his body. They didn’t even have to speak with each other to agree on a plan. He tensed up and released his predator so that it was lurking right underneath his skin. Now, he would be able to shift within seconds. Talon closed his eyes and scented the air.
Everything happened very quickly after that.