Cat Got Your Tongue?

Chapter 8

"So how are you not freaking out right now? " Elliot asks. "Most people would take at least an entire day to believe us- and then they would go into denial. You just accepted it so easily."

Ian leans closer from across the table. "You have taken this abnormally well."

"I can do weird." I say, absently touching the crescent on my wrist. "This isn't the oddest thing to happen to me."

Eva, curious now, leans closer as well. "Like what?"

"Well... Last spring I was chased all the way to Arizona by a vampire." I offer, and their mouths open in shock.

"You were hunted by a leech and survived?" Alexis sounds impressed. "How'd you manage that?"

"My ex boyfriend's family." A wave of anger washes over me and Ivy takes my hand from the seat next to mine. "They had me in protective custody with two of them while the others hunted him."

"They weren't human?" Aurora asks curiously, coming out from behind a counter where she is already cooking dinner.

"They were leeches, as you call them."

Angel whistles. "Damn, you dated a blood sucker?"

"Angel." Aurora scolds, making me smile slightly at them.

"They called themselves vegetarians. They only drink animal blood."

"Still seems badass to me," Alexis mumbles, grinning at me.

"Anyway, they lost track of James- the one hunting me, and he found me in Arizona. Tricked me in to coming to him. He said he had my mom. He tossed me around some until Edward," I spit the name, surprisingly feeling no longing or sadness, but anger. "Came and killed him."

"James bit me though." I say holding out my wrist for them to see the pearly scar.

Half of them hissed and leaned away. "How are you not one of them then?" Eva asks. She was one of the ones that didn't cringe.

"Edward sucked out the poison. I wouldn't have been any fun for him if I were like them. I wouldn't have been any fun for any of them."

Ivy's hand tightens around mine; she seems to like bodily contact the most out of all of them. "What happened to them?"

"They left," I deadpan, my body seeming oddly numb. "Edward took me into the woods and told me the truth. That he never loved me, that none of them did. That I was just something to entertain him and he had grown board. He said that I meant nothing to him and I was just a stupid human who would move on in a week."

Growls rumble around the table, snarls ripping through Ivy, Alexis, and Elliot's mouths, and it's oddly comforting. It's strange, but I can feel their anger as clearly as my emptiness.

"Those ticks are the reason you were being like that all this time?" Ivy growls, and it's kind of cute with her being the shortest of us.

"No, they were just the beginning. I became best friends with a boy on the reservation along with two others. The two left first, but I thought they would come back after a week or so. They have been best friends with Jake sense they were little but then Jacob changed. He told me he didn't want to be my friend anymore. 'I don't think it's best if we were friends anymore.' He said. 'Go home Bella.' That was the night that I ran into Victoria, and the night that you bit me."

"Victoria," Ian says. "The red head leech? You knew her?"

"She was James's mate. She blamed me for his death."

"Well you don't have to worry about her now." Alexis says proudly, puffing out her chest. "We took care of her."

"Thank you." I say and we sit in silence for a while. Aurora goes back to cooking and I shift slightly. "So what now?" I ask.

"Now we train you." Ian says.

I tilt my head. "Train me ho- ack!" I glare up from the ground at a smiling Elliot, foot still suspended in the air from when he kicked the chair out from underneath me.

"Reflexes Kitten." Alexis responds. "We all had to learn them."

"Could you teach me a little more nicely?" I mumble sitting back down slowly into my chair to make sure it doesn't move again.

"No can do, we all had to go through it." Ivy says cheerfully. "Well except for Angel and Eva of course. They are wereborn, everything comes naturally to them."

They both give me a lopsided smile.

"Anything else?" I sigh.

"Watch your anger." Angel says seriously. "It's what triggers the change. You'll notice that when you get angry, you'll start to shake; it's your cat preparing itself to come out. You have to keep it in its cage until you want to let it out."

"The full moon is the only time we have to change, but if we don't do it frequently, we start to get irritable. The moonlight is what brings out the change, so the stronger the light, the stronger the pull." Eva continues.

Ian speaks next and I almost think that they rehearsed this. "Just like one day a month you have to change, there is one day a month you can't. During the day and night of a new moon, we are weakened and completely vulnerable. We are completely human on that day and if we get hurt, our regenerative healing wont help us."

"Got it." I say.

"So there is only one thing left then." Aurora says speaking up from making dinner, drawing all our attention to her. "Are you staying for dinner, or do you need to be home?"

"Oh no, Charlie!" I say leaping to my feet and rushing to the door. "I completely forgot about him! He's going to kill me if he finds out that I got a tattoo."

"Bye Kitten!" Alexis calls, and I sense that that is going to become a permanent nickname if I don't crush the idea soon. Later, I decide as I realize just how late it is. I told him I was going to school but I stayed there for not five minutes. School is long over by now

"Bye Izzy!" The rest call, Ian following me out the door and climbing into the driver's seat.

He speaks as we start down the long driveway. "We will come pick you up for school in the morning sense you don't have your truck, and then I think the girls were wanting to take you shopping to get you the new clothes that you need." He glances down at my bare feet and smiles amusedly. "And maybe some shoes."

"How am I supposed to go to school tomorrow without shoes?" I ask raising an eyebrow.

"I don't think they will notice, they'll be paying too much attention to how you are actually talking to us and willingly hanging out, not to mention your monstrous growth spurt."

"Who said anything about hanging out with you guys- you could ruin my rep." I tease playfully. Ian is actually really nice, though he likes to tackle and roll around just as much of the rest of them. He's the most reserved around humans- besides when I was one, but then again, I wasn't going to be for long.

He looks more like a playful military guy that lightens everyone's spirits during a war.

"And what rep do you have that we would completely ruin for you."

"The depressed turned angry loner. If I'm hanging around you guys there is no way I could keep up the depressed look and I wouldn't exactly be alone. Then what reputation could I have? I would be reputationless."

"Ah, then I guess we would have to leave you be, cause we wouldn't want that." I punch his arm roughly as he smiles slyly at the road.

"What was that, a love tap? Now I know we really need to work on your muscle strength."

"I'm strong." I argue. "I could totally take you."

"You're just a kitten, Kitten, don't try to take on the big lion just yet." He teases and I give him a playful snarl. Something in me though, probably the cat, twitches eagerly. Apparently this kitty is competitive.

I can live with that. My eyes narrow at the challenge. "Just watch, give me a week to get used to this and I'll take you down easily."

The competitiveness shows in him as well as he shifts and a smile lights his face. "We'll have plenty of time to test this theory." The van jerks to a stop. "For now, get out."

"Awe, come on, I didn't mean it." I whine. "Don't make me walk home."

He turns to me, and smiles. "No, get out because we're here."

I glance out of the window to see the familiar driveway. "Oh." I blink and then I blush. "That was fast."

He laughs and reaches across to push the door open for me .

I climb out and turn around to thank him when something red comes flying at my head. "Think fast!" He calls, but it already smacks me in between the eyes.

I blink before picking up the soft round object that fell onto the driveway.

"Really?" I ask in a deadpan. "A ball of yarn?"

"All kittens need a toy." He grins, throwing me a wink. "Welcome to the family!" He calls and shuts the door in my face as I just look on in confusion and bewilderment.

Finally, I laugh as he disappears around the corner, shaking my head at his teasing.

I turn to find Charlie standing just inside the door with a stern/worried expression. Despite knowing that I'm in trouble, I twirl up the driveway with a big goofy grin.

"I think things are looking up, dad." I say, brushing past him and into the house with little glance.

His eyes soften at seeing me so happy after so long being angry or depressed.

"Who was he?" He asks closing the door and following me into the kitchen where I start pulling things out of the fridge to cook.

"Ian." I answer. "He was driving me home from Aurora's house."

"Aurora? You mean, Mrs. Pisică's" He scratches his mustache.

"Yup." I grin as I turn on the stove.

"You, uh," He shifts uncomfortably. "Dating one of them boys?"

"No dad." I sigh. "They're all just friends."

"I just want you to be careful Bells. I hate seeing you hurt." He takes a seat tiredly and for the first time, I realize just how much I actually worried him.

My eyes soften as I turn around to face him fully. "I don't think these people are going to hurt me any time soon. They're genuine."

"Alright." He relents and shuffles off to watch some sports game or another. His talking quota seems to be spent for the day and we eat in silence when dinner is ready, save for the eyebrow raise I get when I go for thirds.

Taking the hint that maybe I'm eating too much, I set the spoon back down and set my empty plate in the sink, collecting Charlie's along the way, to wash it.

"Goodnight Charlie!" I call as I jog up the stairs, a strange excitement growing in me, some that I can somehow tell, was not only my own.

My breath picks up as I rush to the window, looking out into the quickly darkening sky.

I can feel the moon even though it's hidden behind a blanket of stars.

I glance at my closed door before going over to it and cracking it open to call down the stairs.

"Hey dad, I'm going to go to bed early, I'm still a little tired from whatever bug I had, okay?"

"Yeah, sure Bells." He answers distractedly as some cheering erupts from the television.

I roll my eyes as I lock the door. They quickly flick back toward the window once again, and something in me purrs. How can I ignore this?

My body seems to have a mind of its own as I shove the pane open and in a move that would most certainly have killed me yesterday, leap into the tree just outside my window before shimmying down the branches.

I land on the soft damp grass with barely a sound and I briefly wonder if all cats really do always land on their feet, and if they did, would I count?


A/N: So, a little bit more on werecats; what do you think? Please review!

~Silver~