Disclaimer: Don't own it. Not any of it, not even a little bit. Well…except for Mara and Kai of whom I am particularly fond and are my unwitting bait to capture Velkan. Mwhahahahaha!
Chapter 8:
Large golden eyes stared at him from the cave's entrance. Velkan shook his head. I did not just hear that cat talk. He told himself desperately. The cat looked at him and blinked slowly.
And why do you say you haven't heard me when obviously you have? A voice in his head asked with wry amusement. Velkan sat down hard and stared at Kai.
"You can talk?" He whispered hoarsely. Kai nodded slowly, making sure he knew the gesture was deliberate. "How?"
Kai snorted, his way of laughing. How can a fish swim or a bird fly? I speak to you because I must. He said drolly. Next question.
Velkan shook his head, briefly dazed. He must be very far gone to be able to understand cats. Still, He thought. Never waste and opportunity. "Why are you here?" He asked.
Because we walked. Kai said with maddening innocence.
"Why did you walk?" He persisted.
Because we needed to leave. Velkan rubbed his temples, feeling the beginnings of a serious headache. If Kai was like any of the cats he had come across in his life, questioning him would be a long twisted drawn out process.
"Why did you need to leave." The large golden eyes just blinked at him. He growled softly and ran a hand through his hair. It tangled in a snare and growled again, louder, causing Mara to stir in her sleep. Kai rumbled softly, barely audibly.
Wake her and I will bite off your head. His voice said conversationally in Velkan's mind. An idea went off in his head and Velkan reached a hand back out over the sleeping girl and gently stroked her hair. She sighed in her sleep and her lips spread in a small unguarded smile.
As he expected, Kai growled at him again, his ears pressed flat against his skull. He didn't need telepathy to be able to tell the cat was upset. "I no longer have a pressing need to live, Cat," He spat the word out with as much derision as he could put into it and was rewarded to see Kai's muscles bunch beneath his skin. "But I have every desire for answers, and I am currently between you and the girl."
He kept his face and body very still as he spoke, disgusted at himself for taking such a road but knowing he needed the answers.
I could kill you before you had time to blink. Kai's mind voice hissed, full of venom and just a trace of fear. Velkan felt his stomach churn. How did this make him any better than Dracula?
"Not without risking the girl." He said aloud.
Kai pulled his lips back over his teeth in a silent snarl, his ears pressed so flat they were nearly invisible and the hair on his neck was upright. That is one mad cat. Velkan thought with a shadow of his old reckless humor. Maybe I won't have to worry about the curse after all.
Suddenly something struck him upside the side of his head and he was sent flying into the far wall with a force that should have killed him. Would have had he not had werewolf venom in his vanes.
Damn! I didn't even see him move.
He picked himself up and glared at Kai who was now standing protectively between him and Mara.
How dare you! He roared. How dare you presume to threaten my sister, pathetic human!
Sister?
"I have a sister too." He shot back. "One who is all alone in the world now, with no one to protect her and soon I will be as much a threat to her as the monster Mara ran across in town." His voice broke at the thought. Soon his sister would either have to kill him, or be killed by him. He closed his eyes in a silent prayer that she would kill him quickly as a wolf and never find out what had happened to him.
"I must do everything I can now," He continued. "To make sure the danger for her is as little as can be, and for that I need answers, so at least I can know that she has no new enemies." He opened his eyes and looked up at Kai, a quiet plea for understanding, one brother to another.
Kai stared at him, fur still upright and ears laid back for a long moment. At last he sat down, still putting himself between Mara and Velkan. What do you want to know, warrior?
A/N: I apologize for the long interlude between updates. I was so busy with work and running around and standing so much that my feet hurt like knives we being shoved in them. I needed sleep so bad, I was incoherent for days, and by days I mean one. Anyway I updated and I hope everyone enjoys.