Chapter Twenty-five

Connor looked around the room at the serious faces of all those gathered within. He didn't know rather he should stay or leave, but he did not want to leave Zora alone. When she woke up, she'd tell him rather or not she wanted him gone. He was a stranger in the middle of strangers. He knew Vang, Sebastian, and Zora more than he did the others. He thought Zora would probably be very vulnerable and might actually accept his help. He was still having trouble believing that Sebastian and Vang had been lying to her her whole life and knew that she would not take to that very easily.

Katrina knelt by the bed and swept Zora's hair back out of her eyes. "Zora? Wake up. We need to talk to you."

Tom hovered by Katrina's side but did not speak. Morph also stayed beside his wife, gently massaging her shoulders and wishing he could do more to alleviate the stressful emotions.

Sebastian was shaking his head. "I don't believe this, mon. I don't believe you told her!"

"I did what I had to," Vang replied.

"You didn't have to tell her you loved her mother!"

"No," Vang admitted as he stalked toward the bed, his long tail swishing, "but I'm not going to lie to her any longer. I wish . . . " His sad eyes turned toward the floor, and he shook his head. "That never matters."

Sebastian reached up to place a reassuring claw aside Vang's shoulder even as Zora's eyes began to flutter open. The first thing she saw when her eyes blinked open was Katrina, and she scuttled backwards across the bed before bumping into somebody else.

Connor moved off the bed where he had been sitting, waiting for Zora to open her eyes. "Zora?" he asked.

"C-Connor?" she stuttered his name, her wild eyes turning toward him. "Tell me I'm the insane one now," she pleaded.

"I can't. These people are your family. You need to get to know them." He reached out, touched her shoulder, and gave it a gentle squeeze. "You want me to stay?" he asked hopefully.

"Connor," she answered him, her quiet voice filling the room, "I barely know you, but I know you more than I do anybody else in this room."

"That's not true!" Vang roared, racing forward and putting his front paws on the bed so that he could look at her directly.

"You lied to me!" she retorted.

"Then I'll stay," Connor told her. He sat back down on the bed.

"Zora, please," Celina spoke up gently. "You have to understand. Vang and Sebastian did not wish to hurt you. They only wanted to protect you."

"By lying to me!"

"Yes!" Vang insisted. "We may have lied to you about your mother, but I never lied to you about my feelings! I love you as my own daughter!"

"You don't lie to the ones you love!"

"Sometimes you have to," Katrina said, "depending on if the lie will keep them safe. What do you think would have happened to you if your family had not lied to you, you had known the truth about your mother, and the humans had found out?" She looked straight into Zora's eyes.

"Look, I'm no stranger to stupid humans or experiments! I know what they would've done if they knew, but I wouldn't have told them! I'm not an idiot!"

"Truth has a way of being found out. Secrets sometimes last a lot longer. I'm not saying what they did was right, but I am saying that they did it out of love for you. We are cousins, and I'd like to get to know you. I loved your mother, and you are so much like her!"

She wanted to blast her yet at the same time she also wanted to know how she was like the mother she'd never known. "Why?" she demanded. "Because I can change into a cat?"

"Your eyes. Your hair. Even your pouting lips and your anger. Gods, your mother had a temper! She once tore an entire church down right by herself 'cause they made her mad! Don't you want to know about the world your mother came from, Zora? We're the only ones who can tell you."

"I . . . " She faltered, and her eyes dropped from Katrina's. "I don't know," she admitted in a hushed whisper. "I always thought I did, but now? Now after I know that I've been lied to all my life because of what my mother was?" She rose her head again, her chin set and her eyes blazing. "No, I don't want to know, and I'm not going to let any of you lie to me again!"

"I've never lied to you," Katrina told her. "When you're ready to be told about your mother's homeworld, I'll be more than happy to tell you, and it will be the truth. Did you know that your mother was a Princess? What did your father tell you about your mother?"

Again, Zora's gaze dropped from the others'. "Nothing," she whispered. "Nothing except that she was beautiful and how he loved her and . . . and that she died fighting for what she believed in. He never would tell me what happened or what that was."

Katrina reached up and pulled a necklace off she had been wearing ever since her cousin had left for Earth. "I don't usually wear jewelry," she told Zora, "but this was given to me by your mother. I've never taken it off since then, but I want you to have it." She held it out to Zora. "There's a picture in there. It's your mother. When you're ready to talk, let us know." She smiled at her one last time and left the necklace laying on the bed. She then backed up and left.

"We'll be waiting," Tom added quietly as he followed Katrina.

Morph and Celina then left, and they were followed by Sebastian whose head hung so low it nearly touched the floor.

Connor rose and walked toward the door. He hoped that Vang would be able to talk to her and that she would listen.

Vang's soulful eyes turned to look directly at Zora. "Don't," she told him in a hushed whisper. "I don't want to hear it."

"Then let me just say this," he requested in a soft rumble, "and then I'll leave you alone. You've always wondered about your mother, Zora, and why you are the way you are. This is the chance you've been waiting for. I know you're . . . upset with Sebastian and me, but the others did nothing to you. Do not blame them or allow yourself to suffer for our lies, and please try to understand why we lied to you."

"I can't!" she protested.

"Just try," he pleaded. He tried to reach for her with a paw, but she pulled away. "We never wanted to lie to you, but I made a promise to . . . not only your father but your mother as well. I loved that woman more than life itself, and I would have done anything to keep my word to her. Sebastian promised your father in return for saving his life. We did not want to lie to you, but we had no choice."

"There's always a choice."

"There wasn't . . . until your father died. We've been trying to figure out how to tell you, but the moment was never right." She remained silent, and he dropped to all fours. He headed for the door, his head hanging, but paused to look back at her one more time. "No matter what you choose, Zora, and even though I lied to you . . . I'll always love you." Falling silent, he slipped past Connor.

Connor looked back at Zora. "If you need me, call." He started out the door but looked back one last time and then closed the door. He figured she needed this time alone. He wished he could see what was inside the locket and hoped that it would be something to help her change her mind. He headed for his father's room but saw that the door was open. He knew James would not be in there, because he never left the door open. He walked over and peeked inside, but it was empty.


A part of her had thought about calling after Connor as she did not want to be alone, but another part reminded her that she did not need anybody. She'd thought she needed Vang and Sebastian . . . what was left of her family, but now she swore that she had been wrong. Her head throbbed with confusion as words echoed in her ears and memories flashed through her mind.

Her whole life had been a lie! They might claim to love her, but they could not possibly when they had lied to her her entire life! Her own father, whose death she now recalled in every excruciating detail, had not only told them to but had himself! Her human father was dead, and she had never known her mother. The two beings who were dearest to her heart had been revealed to be nothing but liars, and all her other friends were far too far away. She'd never see them again.

Yet a part of Zora still wondered . . . Why? Why had they continued to lie to her for so long? She remembered their excuses, but could she even believe them or were they lies too? Was there really anything that they had ever told her that was the truth? Could her mother have meant that much to Vang, that he would have lied to her forever?

Zora's hand closed around the locket Katrina had left on the bed, and she picked it up. She peered at the little heart that dangled at the end of the gold cord. Inside that locket was a picture of her mother. Just what did the woman look like? What could she have been like to earn their loyalty to such an extent? It didn't matter, she decided as her hand tightened around the locket. Whatever she had been, she was dead, and the lies she had caused to happen had destroyed what was left of her life!

With a fierce growl of a broken heart, Zora threw the locket. It hit the wall and bounced off, but she ignored it in the process of jumping blindly to her feet and beginning to throw things. She threw whatever she could get her hands on, growling like a wild, injured animal the entire time. Glass from a lantern and various objects off the dresser cut into her hands, but she ignored the pain completely. Indeed, she did not feel it at all for it could not even begin to rival the pain and misery in her heart and soul.

She threw object after object, never tiring or relenting, until there seemed to be nothing left to throw. Only then did she finally pause, and her leather-clad shoulders shook as she gasped for breath. It was then that she heard them. Her wild, green eyes turned to scan the room and fell upon the white tiger cubs cowering in a corner and mewling as though their hearts had been broken.

She gazed at them for a moment, but her anger subsided, giving way to her concern for them. They had not lied to her. They were not even old enough to understand the concept of a lie. They were innocents, babies in fact, and though Zora had never been one to care much, if at all, for humans, her care for them caved a deep hole in her heart.

She calmed herself and began to approach them slowly. They tried to back up further but only succeeded in hitting the wall. The female stood her ground, but the male turned and began to scratch at the wall in a desperate attempt to climb away. "It's okay," Zora whispered to them. "It's all right. I'm not going to hurt you."

She continued moving stealthily forward until she stood right before them. The male looked up at her with frightened eyes as large as saucers, and the female hissed and scratched at her as she reached out for them. Her little claws cut deep, drawing blood, but Zora's hands still managed to close around her and her brother as she knelt.

She stroked the boy's back and let the female get away with biting and clawing her hand. She began to purr to them and made no further move other than continuing to do her best to stroke them. They relaxed slowly until the boy started rubbing against her hand and the girl began playing with her other hand rather than fighting it.

Zora smiled down at them despite the emotions that threatened to blind her eyes again, but as she watched them, she recalled the times that she had spent with Vang when she had been young. She also remembered the previous night, when she'd lived to be with him rather than died to be with her birth father. Vang was just as much a father to her as he had been, and it was his lies that cut the deepest. A tear trickled from her eyes, and it was followed by another and then another until she was crying openly. Her sobs echoed in the otherwise still room, and for once, knowing not what else to do, she let herself cry.

To Be Continued . . .