Tainted Love
Part One- Malicious Intent
Disclaimer: psh. You know it.
Chapter 3
Cat awoke with a dull headache, practically hanging off of her bed.
She watched the sunlight stream through her window upside down. She reached
outward and tried to twist the light around one finger. It seemed like ages
since last night. She felt strangely empty, a feeling that was usually
coupled with her cutting, but this time it ran deeper, more profound.
Her cuts throbbed painfully as she rolled on her back, sitting up.
She pulled back her oversized shirt to check out of the cuts carved into
her upper arm. The gauze was soaked through, but as she gently peeled it
off, she saw pinkish flesh underneath. All that was left of her gruesome
nocturnal activity was a web of pink scars. Cat regarded this information
with cool indifference as she reached for the pack of cigarettes on her
night stand.
Someone knocked on her bedroom door, making her loose her
concentration. The lighter slid across her hardwood floor. Cat cursed a bit
to herself and went to the door. Did she really want to hear her mother
bitch about how all the booze in the house was gone. She opened the door,
seeing the disheveled mass in front of her.
Cat hated looking at her mother, considering how she was the older
version of herself. The same violet black eyes looked back at her, only
bloodshot and rimmed with purplish flesh. Her hair, although longer, was
the exact shade of darkest brown; only it was greasy and unkempt. Her
mother's skin, if possible, was paler than hers. She leaned against her
daughter's doorframe, looking as though she would break if a strong wind
blew. Her clothes, seemingly the smallest size, hung off of her.
This was the way she had dealt with Cat's father's death, by drinking
and going crazy.. Cat could still remember a time when her mother was
happy, and carefree, but her father had been alive at that time. Cat
thought sometimes that her mother was dying the same way her father
was.wasting away.
"Cataluna? Are you awake?" Her mother asked to her face. Cat grimaced
at the use of her full name. She had been named after the place she was
conceived, a state in Spain. Her mother loved it so much that she refused
to call her "Cat" which everyone else, including her father, had called
her.
"Yeah Mom, I am," she said, smiling sadly. "What do you need before I
go to school?"
"Nothing Darling," she replied, twisting her robe nervously. "But
some people at the door were asking for you, they can come in, but they
have to keep it down.your father's sleeping."
Cat nodded quietly, walking around her to get to the door. It was
wide open, and she could plainly see Gee standing nervously, trying to peek
in. Her pale blue eyes lit up when she saw Cat approach her. She noticed
something flicker in Gee's eyes though, a shadow that she didn't see
before. She dismissed it as soon as she noticed it.
"Gee? What are you doing here?" Cat decided to leave her in the
hallway, and made no gesture to invite her inside. "And without your little
posse?"
Gee tossed a newspaper to her, which she almost dropped. "They're on
the front page." Cat unfolded it and looked in complete surprise at a photo
of the Brooklyn Bridge. The headline read "Two Teenagers Found on Bridge-
Murderer at Large".
"Extra extra, read all about it," Cat said sardonically.
The paper raised a little dust as it was thrown onto the table in
front of him. His blue eyes read the headline then looked up at the annoyed
boy in front of him. Brushing his light brown hair out of his eyes, he
smiled.
"What's wrong?" He asked innocently. "I remember you used to complain
about how we never get any recognition." The boy he talked to sighed,
blinking the eye that wasn't covered by a patch.
"Yeah Spot, but I didn't mean for cutting off a girl's hands and
sending them to some girl," he complained quietly. He ran his fingers
through his blond hair, sitting down next to his sire.
"Blink, I can't help my cravings, and at that point, I was craving me
some psychic."
"Still, Race told me-"
"Forget what Racetrack told you, he's gotten soft in his old age."
Spot snickered to himself. "You go off and get some sleep, you must be
tired."
Kid Blink narrowed his eye in slight annoyance. "Stop treating me
like a Fledgling, I'm almost as old as you are, you know." He sniffed
childishly. "Older even."
"Not in Our years," Spot mumbled. "Now, about tonight."
"Excuse me?"
"Vampires killed Switch and Ash."
Cat snickered and took another sip of her chocolate milk. "Yeah,
sure, I completely believe you." She rolled her eyes, covering her mouth in
a bored, disinterest yawn. Gee ran her fingers through her dark blue
streaked hair and growled to herself.
"There's more too."
"Oh, no doubt."
"But all that other stuff you hear about? Werewolves and witches and
stuff, they exist too."
"Yeah." More snickers.
"I'm serious! And you're one of them!" Cat finished her chocolate
milk and crushed it in her fist.
"Yes, every full moon I turn into an evil werewolf!" To Gee's obvious
displeasure, she let out a small howl and dissolved into small fits of
laughter.
"You don't, but I do." Gee mumbled to herself.
"Pardon? Silence. "So, I'm a werewolf."
"No! That's not what I meant, what I meant was you have the potential
to be a sort of witch." Gee gulped down some water and wiped her brow.
"This is kind of difficult to tell you."
"And kind of random."
"Switch, Ash and I, we've been tailing you ever since your father
died."
Cat narrowed her eyes. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me loud and clear." Cat's mouth went very dry, and she
looked at the crushed chocolate milk carton in her hand, wishing very much
to have that milk back.
"Yeah, I did, but I don't believe it.I didn't tell anyone about
that."
"Ash sensed it, she was a good mind psychic."
"They were psychics?" Gee nodded, taking another sip of her water.
"Good ones too, the blood of any sort of magical thing is better than
a human's, so I guess the vampire had a good meal."
Cat wanted to laugh, but Gee's seriousness was too eerie, she truly
believed in this stuff. She also knew about her father.weird stuff. She
turned away from her, her gaze spanning the school yard. It was a Catholic
school so basically the yard at lunch was a never ending sea of plaid ties
and skirts. Cat herself usually liked to sit alone, but Gee didn't leave
her alone after the lunch line. Her eyes snagged on a random boy leaning
against a tree, watching the two of them.
"So, are you a psychic person too?" She asked casually, as though it
were nothing. Gee shook her head. "But you three went all 'Village of the
Damned' on me last night, like a mind link or something." She couldn't
believe she what she was saying.
"Like I said, Ash was a powerful mind psychic, she could spread her
gift to other people."
"I see, and Switch?"
"She was pretty good Diviner," Gee replied.
"I bet she saw her own death."
"Oh, no doubt." A chill ran down Cat's spine.
"And you?"
"I told you what I was," she said, something yellow flashing in her
otherwise blue eyes.
"A werewolf?"
"I prefer lycanthrope." She flipped her hair over her shoulder,
grinning sheepishly. Cat could sense a weird energy coming from her; maybe
she was actually starting to believe her. "Aren't you going to ask about
yourself?"
"I'm a normal human being, correct?"
"Pretty much, but have you ever heard of a Necromancer?" Gee leaned
over the table, her eyebrows raised inquisitively. She folded her hands and
rested her chin against them. Cat fought the urge not to laugh.
"Yeah, in Dungeons and Dragons."
"They exist too, Cataluna."
"Don't call me that."
"Why not, your mother does."
"Are you my mother?" They both lapsed into an uneasy silence, and Cat
stared down at her hands. How could she be a "Necromancer"? She couldn't
even do a card trick, and even so, she didn't really believe they existed,
did she?
"Listen," Gee began. "I know this must be hard for you."
"Oh really, I didn't think-"
"But it was hard for me too when I found out what I was, but we deal
with it!" She looked as though she was going to get rather riled up, but
she calmed herself. "I smell blood."
"What?"
"Blood, I smell a blood slave."
"Explain that one." Cat said, taking Gee's bottle of water and
sipping from it. Gee shrugged.
"Vampires love to make blood slaves, because they're basically
servants." Her eyes rested on the boy leaning against the tree, and Cat
followed her gaze. The boy had wavy brown hair, and the light reflecting
off his glasses made it hard to see the color of his eyes.
"That's a blood slave? How can you tell?"
"I can smell his master's blood on him," Gee said, her voice was
slightly above a growl. "Making a blood slave is fairly easy, cut him, cut
yourself, press said wounds together and there you have it. The slave
doesn't age as long as the master is alive."
The boy with the glasses caught her gaze, and he smiled broadly.
"That boy over there will live forever? Good deal."
Gee shook her head. "No, Specs just won't die of old age.is he coming
over here?"
Sure enough, the two girls watched as Specs made his way over to
them, sitting on their picnic table.
"Hiya goils, how ya doin'?" He asked, giving them a sweet smile.
"Go to Hell Matthew," Gee snapped. "Oops, forgot, you're already on
your way!" He didn't seem very affected by her icy words, instead, he
reached into his pocket, pulling out two small envelopes.
"A'll let that slide, Regina," Gee flinched. "'Cause Ah know the full
moon's dis weekend." She looked down, and blushed slightly. Cat looked up
at the boy.
"What do you want?" She asked, her patience was being tried with
these people.
"Now that Ah've seen ya get acqua'ted wit Gees here, my master has a
proposition for ye's."
"Tell Patrick that he can go to Hell, but I'm sure he's right beside
you on the bullet train there," Gee said, though the acid seemed to be gone
from her words.
"Hey, Ah's jist the messenger, take it up wit him," Specs said,
getting a little touchy at the mention of his master in such a negative
way. He tossed the two envelopes onto the picnic table just as the bell
rang.
Cat leaned over and looked at them. Printed in red ink was the name
Cataluna McCain, she shivered, that was her name! Everyone seemed to know
it these days. The other envelope read Regina LoSacco and Cat assumed that
that one belonged to Gee.
Gee picked hers up, opening it quickly. "It's an invitation to a
party on Saturday," she replied after going over it quickly. She looked up
at the sky at the faint moon, almost full, and shook her head. "I can't go;
full moon on Saturday."
Cat was reading her invitation eagerly, she was always up for a good
party, particularly because she really wasn't close to anyone, so hooking
up with her "best friend's boyfriend" was never really a problem.
Noticing the excited look in her eyes, Gee clucked her tongue.
"You're not thinking of going, this is a vampire party!"
"So, you'd go if you weren't going furry or something," Cat
countered.
"That's different, I plan to kill him, you just want to get drunk or
something, and believe me, you will, but not in the way that makes you have
a hangover in the morning."

"Even better," Cat replied, a grin lighting up her face. "I mean.no
hangover?
"You'll be dead," Gee said. "Trust me; this has happened to us,
me...before!" She stood her ground, her eyes flashing yellow and wolflike.
"Fine Rover, I won't go!" She picked up her backpack and slung it over her
shoulder. Gee didn't look happy at the new nickname, but she smiled all the
same.

Saturday night. The boy on the streets could hardly move fast enough as he
looked around for the right building. In the distance, he heard a wolf
howl, and shivered. It didn't take long for Regina to change when she was
feeling a strong emotion, the moon had barely risen. From the howl, the boy
could tell that she was nervous.
And she had every reason to be. His dark brown eyes searched the apartment
buildings, before finally settling on the right one. He nervously took the
pocket watch out of his pocket, opening the tarnished silver watch to check
the time. He might not be too late.
Cool it, he thought to himself. I mean, this is only a matter of life and
death. Or freedom.
He walked up the steps, entering the building. It looked different with the
light of the streetlamps.he didn't bother to wait for the elevator, opting
to take the stairs instead. The stairs looked dirty, but he had been in
dirtier places.
The fifth floor, he was almost there. The hallway seemed to stretch out
before him, the same doors on either side. How pointless it all looked,
with the simple number making them different from each other. He found the
number he was looking for, 25, and cautiously knocked.
After a great while, a woman answered the door, made up as though she was
on her way out.
"Hello ma'am? Is Cat there?" He sounded nervous; maybe he could pass
like a nervous guy about to ask her out or something. He was really
anything but.
She looked lost and bewildered, and he seriously felt for her. "I'm
sorry, she went to a party or something." She trailed off, about to say
something more. He was already on his way out. Most likely he was too late,
but he could at least try.
Mush bit his lip slightly; his master would not be pleased with him
if the Necromancer was hurt.
To be continued, anyone hooked yet? Doubt it, sorry about the random Cat
background, this chapter just randomly came out of nowhere, actually. It
came out of nowhere! The next one'll be up fairly quickly! Summer's here
and I'll be bored.