Chapter Three – Cat Ablaze!
My house wasn’t far from the gym, which was perfect, because it meant less time for me to obsess over Likosa. Should I continue seeing her or not? Logic said not! And every piece of sound reason was rebutted by one thought: but I want to!
Just a ten-minute drive was all it took to make it to the row houses.
It was what I called them because of how close the houses were.
I mean, we were basically in townhouses.
There was just enough room for two people to walk shoulder to shoulder in the space between the homes, but if you held out your hands, you could touch both buildings without straining yourself.
Let me just say, I hated it! But I got it for the location and nothing more.
I barely spent any time in my house and often imagined what life would be like when I really hit it big.
The first thing I planned to do was invest in my very own compound.
Oh, that was really the dream, and I was so committed to it.
I had entire mood boards designing the space, far away from other people and their feelings.
I’d been planning it since college, when my new friends introduced me to others in the supernatural community who could help me further develop my abilities.
An unfortunate side effect was that I’d awakened a part of me that could be deeply impacted by anyone’s emotions if I wasn’t careful.
I didn’t even have to know a person existed to get knocked down by their grief.
My greatest teachers were sirens, changelings, banshees, even a harpy named Vaibry, who almost drove me out of my damn mind when she tried to teach me her ways. I loved her, but never again!
It was when I met the succubus, Billie, that I realized I could not only affect others but take away whatever emotions they felt.
She taught me to open my eyes to auras, and from there, I had to learn the different colors of emotions.
After working with Billie, I learned to visualize my power as a blanket of light.
When I changed the color of the light, it shifted the emotions given to my target.
When I first realized I had the ability to absorb the emotions of others, it knocked me on my ass.
I was working with Billie, observing what she did and trying to recreate it.
She was working with a man whose name I can’t remember, but he was a shifter who she’d worked into a near frenzy with her abilities.
I mean, the man was ready to pull his damn clothes off!
Anyway, I attempted to do what she explained: see the colors, imagine what the target felt, and instead of pushing my emotions out to them, pull theirs to me.
It worked on the first fucking try, and I lit up like a bonfire.
Heat rushed through my body, spreading across me, and I jumped on Billie!
My lips crashed against hers, and the succubus accepted my praise because…
well, because she’s a damn succubus, and that’s what they do.
We were nearly naked when I glanced over at the shifter, who looked so damn relaxed. He’d gone from horn ball to invalid, and I was the one acting like a man who hadn’t gotten off in five years!
After that, with some practice, Billie taught me to control it, and I swore I would never use that shit again! Because why the fuck would I want to absorb someone else's horniness—or any other emotion, for that matter?
Unfortunately for me, on days when I was particularly tired and my neighbors were feeling extra spicy (by that, I mean fighting, not fucking), I could feel all their shit coming through the windows, walls, everywhere.
People walking down the street who lingered outside for too long often left me with headaches I couldn’t kick their asses for, because they would be long gone by the time I realized what happened.
But I had a secret weapon, something to help me combat the outside noise when I really needed it. In the basement of my home was an isolation chamber, an expensive gift from Cadence when she realized just how much I was struggling.
The chamber was a float tank, a pod full of salt water, with magical enhancements that made it possible for me to shut out the world. Nothing, and I mean nothing, got in that thing. I could get in and float in complete darkness for hours at a time if I needed.
As I walked through the back door, my mind was set on turning on the warmer for the pod so it would be the perfect temperature when I got back home later that night.
I had to meet the girls for dinner before we would all be going off on respective trips.
We always had our downloads before trips because we knew there would be so much more to talk about when we all returned home.
As soon as I walked through the door, I was met by Sire, my phoenix, who landed on the kitchen counter with a ticking sound. She wasn’t happy with me. She flapped her wings, shaking bright red and white feathers at me.
“What did I do this time?” I sighed. “I put your food out and turned on that looping sleep sound station you like. This should have been the perfect day for you!”
She flew over to the window above the sink, which I had apparently forgotten to close.
I frowned; I didn’t remember opening it.
But considering how distracted I have been lately, it was definitely a possibility.
When I moved to close the window, I saw it: burned fur on the floor. I knew exactly what it belonged to.
“Please tell me you didn’t!” I ran over and examined her.
Yep, she’d lit up and left burn marks on the floor as well.
It wasn’t a full burst, so she hadn’t needed to grow from a chick, but I should have recognized those white feathers as a sign.
They always came in white before turning red. “Did you kill that cat?”
Sire lifted her head, her new feathers softly fluttering around her face as she ignored my question.
“Sire, please tell me you didn’t kill the neighbor's cat!” I reached for the window to close it, but just before I did, I heard soft meows. I looked out and saw the cat, fur burned entirely off his ass, walking down the path between our houses.
I shut the window and turned to Sire. “Bad girl!” I scolded her, and in return, she turned her back to me, shook her ass, and flew off down the hall.
With no time to be concerned with her attitude, I headed out to see if I could catch the cat. Odds were, it would need medical attention. Great.
“Come on, little guy.” I used my softest voice as I called the cat over to me. He was afraid for good reason, so I wrapped a small blanket of calm around him, and after that, he came right over to me.
I’d just picked up the cat when the new neighbor, whose name I still didn’t know, came out her back door.
She was a short woman with a pixie cut similar to my own but with no bangs.
I loved mine to be big and curly. She had on a floor-length skirt that swept the stairs as she descended them and a tube top that proudly showed off her love handles.
I tapped into her energy and felt a mix of confidence and concern.
“Sirus? Oh lord. What did you get yourself into this time?” she screamed as she ran over to me. “Is he okay? Oh, I hope he didn’t scratch you. I missed his feeding, and he usually gets pissy when I do that. I was a little late getting home today.”
“He has a burn right above his tail.” I flipped him around to show her, entirely prepared to apologize, when she threw her hands up.
“Damnit! Did you go mess around with that firepit again? I swear, I keep trying to keep him in the house, but he refuses to stay put.” She pointed across the street to another house.
“Markus put in a new firepit just the other day, and since then, Sirus has been drawn to the damn thing. I mean, it’s no bother to me.
Markus has a pleasant smile, but I don’t want this silly cat messing up relationships with the neighbors when I just got here. ”
She talks a lot, damn. I shook the thought from my head because I had no right to be annoyed with her chatter after my bird had just tried to take her cat out.
“I understand having a wayward pet.” I handed her the cat. “Should probably get that checked out. Let me know if you need any references. I have a great vet not too far from here.”
Yeah, and if she goes there, I can get Mani to split the bill and cover some of the cost without having to explain to a human how my bird burned her cat.
“I have to keep a vet on speed dial because of him.” She shook her head as she accepted her pet. “I’m sorry this is how we meet. My name is Lyra. I just moved in next door.”
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Shontae.” I would have shaken her hand, but the cat shot me a look like he would scratch me if I even thought about it.
“You’re hard to catch.” She smiled. “I don’t mean to sound weird, but I’ve met just about everyone else on the street. Everyone says you’re basically a ghost living next door. I was starting to believe it.”
“Yeah, I’m rarely home, and when I am, it’s usually to change clothes and head back out the door—which is what I need to be doing now.” I glanced back at the door, and the list of things I needed to get done before heading out flashed through my mind again.
“Oh, well, I’m sorry to bother you. Thank you for catching him.” She flashed another smile, this one sending a wave of flirtation at me that I brushed off. Neighbors were off limits as well.
If I didn’t want complications at my job, I damn sure didn’t want them to be living next door, and as cute as she was, I could tell this one would be trouble!
“It was no problem at all,” I reassured her.
Of course it was no trouble, since my messy ass bird burned your cat. But to be fair, he shouldn’t have been in my house.
I waited for her to go back into her house before returning to mine, where the phoenix waited for me, singing the tune she always did when she knew she was in trouble.
“Nah, don’t try to butter me up now after you just almost murdered the damn neighbor’s cat. How do you expect me to explain something like that?” I pointed at her. “You'd better be glad the new neighbor seems to be a little on the clueless side.”
She cut her song short, turned her head up, and turned her back on me.
The bird had the audacity to act as if I was the one who messed up.
If she was really mad, she would have done a full burn.
They said phoenixes had a limit on how many burns they could do; I think that only accounted for the shifter variety, because her petty ass lit up on me at least four times a year!
Sire was a pure breed from the original bloodline, so the bird that had a length of two and a half feet from tail to beak was always in this form and always driving me crazy.
But honestly, she was my joy and had saved my ass more than a few times when I was younger.
So when she made mistakes, I usually forgave her.
“I know you’re hungry, so let me put out your food before I get going. I guess I can scold you later.”
“Well, thank you,” she retorted.
Yeah, the bird could speak, but only a few short phrases, and that was more than enough. After getting her, I learned, at one time, pure phoenixes could have full conversations; that’s how the hybrids happened. A phoenix met a shifter, and boom…a new breed was born.
In the past, Sire mostly limited her speech to warnings. Anytime I was doing something that put my life at risk, she would curse me out in short, clipped phrases. But now, she enjoyed being lazy and playing mind games with me. Keep them guessing, I suppose.
After putting out her food—fresh steak and eggs—I headed to the basement and fired up the pod. I wanted it nice and toasty by the time I got back home. When I made it to my bathroom, I already had a text from Tayvion asking me where I was.
“That girl is acting as if I’m always late,” I muttered as I shot her a response and then headed for a shower. “I mean, technically, I am late, but that’s not my fault.”
I shook off the thoughts already creeping up in my mind.
Likosa. Did I want to tell them about Likosa?
Did I believe they wouldn’t know something was up and pull it out of me anyway?
Those two could read me almost as well as I could read everyone else.
It was what I loved about them. When I needed someone to see through my bullshit and call me on it, they were there.
Only this time, I didn’t want them to see anything!
After a quick shower and a fast fluff of my curls, I put on the bare essential makeup, making sure to cover the pimple forming above my brow—perfect timing!
I dressed in a simple black dress. It was strapless and hugged my thighs in a way that perfectly displayed all the work I’d done to keep them toned.
As I headed back out the door, Sire sang her happy song, the sound of a bird who was well fed and ready for a nap! Oh, how I wished I could get a nap in.