9. Henley
HENLEY
It was like sleeping with a warm bolder on my lap.
Murder kitty made it clear he wanted attention as he’d stretched out over me, but even with naptime over, he still wasn’t moving.
“You’re trying to make a point.” I wasn’t stupid, just a bit confused. “I’m not sure what it is, though.”
Guessing seemed incredibly unhelpful, so I rambled as I went back to petting his back.
Giving him attention seemed like a good place to start as I gathered my thoughts.
“Alright, I know from the ranger that you’re some kind of shifter and I think you tried to change back to looking human when you were in the truck. ”
That hadn’t worked, though.
“I’m going to use words that upset you last time but I think you’re processing things easier now, so hopefully you understand that words can’t hurt you.” Well, in this case they could only hurt emotionally but he couldn’t lash out at them. “The ranger…I really should’ve asked his name.”
Oh well.
“The ranger said that you’ve been trapped in this form for a long time. Do you remember hearing him talk about that?” Low grumbles vibrated through him but I waited until he shook his head. “That’s still weird to see but thank you for making your answer clear.”
His cat-like huff made me think he was laughing at me.
“He said you’d been basically magically attacked by a crazy woman.” That might not have been the nicest way to say it but she’d zapped him into this form, so I wasn’t going to worry about being polite. “You somehow ended up not looking quite like yourself.”
Understatement of the year based on what the ranger had said.
“From what I understand you’ve been like this for a long time.
” How was I supposed to tell him this? Hearing it from a stranger was one thing but having to explain it was another.
“He wanted to call people he thought could help, but after he shot you with the dart, I wasn’t so sure that was a good idea. ”
He had not shown he was a trustworthy stranger.
Blade’s sneezing kind of snort made me think he agreed.
“He claimed they’d figured out how to fix you but couldn’t find you.” I couldn’t keep talking around it forever. “You’ve been missing for a long time, kitty.”
Something about the words or my tone had him going unnaturally still. I wasn’t sure what to do so I waited until he stood up on all fours and jumped down from the bed.
I hadn’t expected that.
Before I could ask what he was doing, because I was definitely going to ask, he stood up on his hind legs and stretched to see the microwave.
His reflection.
That was dark and probably distorted but I could help with that. “I have a bigger mirror. If you move over to the table I can open the door to the bathroom.”
Yep. He definitely understood what I was saying.
Blade didn’t look happy as he got back down on all fours and moved beside the table, but I was pretty sure that could’ve been about a lot of things. I had to remind myself not to take it personally for God only knew what reason, but it wasn’t easy.
I wanted my new friend to be happy but there was a big ol’ mess of crazy between here and happy.
“I want you to remember I understand this is not what you usually look like.” Hopefully. “The ranger said you’re a panther shifter and a quick Google search showed me how pretty you’re going to be once we get this figured out.”
Ugh.
He glared at me.
“Fine.” Dragging it out wouldn’t help. “Here you go.”
Opening the door as wide as it would go, I showed him the tiny bathroom that barely fit a person much less a shifter. Blade seemed just as nervous as me because it took him a few long moments to take the single step that would put him in front of the mirror.
There was no doubt about him being some kind of a person because he knew exactly what the mirror showed when he was finally looking into it.
Oh. That face.
The serious expression he always wore was replaced by something sad and seemed overwhelmed as he crouched down on all fours in front of the long mirror. When he just stared at his reflection, I shifted to go sit down beside him.
The tiny hallway wasn’t designed for anyone to be sitting down there, but we made it work mostly because I was nearly on top of him. “The ranger said it could be fixed, but I didn’t want to let him do anything to you until I could think about it. Now we need to think about it together.”
Buttons really would’ve come in handy with that.
Oh, maybe there was an app I could make work?
His low whine as he turned and rested his head in my lap broke my heart but I tried not to let him see it.
“I don’t know his intentions or if he’s some kind of local serial killer, but he seemed genuine to me until that whole trying to knock you out thing.
I want you to think about what you remember from that meeting.
Not the words, if that’s too hard, but how he felt to you. ”
He was thinking much clearer now than he had been earlier, but animals still had a good sense of who to trust and who to avoid. Even if he hadn’t understood most of the words before, he hadn’t been afraid of the ranger.
After a moment Blade let out a rumbling purr that felt like a positive response to me but it was hard to tell.
“I have an idea about how we can communicate easier.” Giving him a hug, I got up from the floor. “This is going to look weird to you but it’s basically magic paper.”
Was there a better way to explain it?
When had computers come out?
Pulling out my tablet from the cabinet, I sat down at the table and turned it on. “Come here. No more mirror time. You can show me how attractive you are once we get this fixed. Smart is better anyway. Looks fade when you get old or zapped by a crazy witch.”
As I started searching for the right keyboard app, Blade finally came over to the table after a round of dramatic sound effects.
“My dad used to be really hot based on old pictures I found but now he’s insane and kind of mean and looks like a troll in human form.
He’s not very nice, so I don’t feel bad about saying I’m glad I look like my mother. ”
It drove him crazy for some reason, though.
“You were protective of me and smart even when we met under questionable circumstances, so that’s more important than looks too. You even stepped in front of me when we met the ranger.” Did he remember that?
“Your memory seemed foggy when we got home but I wish you could tell me how you’re feeling now.
” Whatever he was feeling he needed a cuddle because he put his head in my lap.
Petting it, I downloaded an app I was pretty sure would work.
“Oh. Yes or no questions. Are you remembering meeting the ranger more clearly now?”
He nodded.
I was going to have to remember to ask better questions.
“I’m glad.” That had to mean we were moving in the right direction in some way. “Okay, this is like a typewriter. You touch the key with your nose and the letter will pop up at the top.”
Was there a better way to explain this?
“I’m not going to explain the technology behind it because none of it would make sense, but it’s not magic. It’s just a way for us to communicate that’s going to work like a typewriter without paper.” God. I was terrible at this.
Holding up the tablet so it was upright on the table, I pointed to one letter once he was looking at it. “R.”
As I touched it, the letter appeared at the top of the screen.
The letters were huge compared to the regular keyboard that would pop up on the tablet, but there was no way he could’ve pressed those.
Blade was watching it carefully but I had no idea what he was thinking.
“If the letters don’t make sense, I’ll find pictures for us to use. ”
Were they making sense?
Blade was just staring at it but he hadn’t moved away from me. I wanted to think that was a good sign but I wasn’t sure. I tried being patient but that had never been my strong suit, so I just did the best I could as he made up his mind about something.
“There’s all kinds of new technology that will make talking easier until we get this figured out.” Some of it had to be helpful in our situation. “You’re smart and we’re highly motivated, so—”
Oh.
M
He was touching the buttons with his nose but probably had a thousand questions about what the fucking tablet was. He’d been whammied before cordless phones were a thing, so this had to look insane.
A
What was he spelling?
I really didn’t have the patience for this game.
T
This didn’t look right at all.
What kind of question started with mat?
Material?
Matrix?
Matted fur?
E
Oh.
Fucking hell.
“My first reaction is to close my eyes and not look at that word, but I understand that would be mean.” It was his only form of communication, so I couldn’t do that. “Are you going to be mad at me if I tell you that I’m not ready to talk about that?”
His blank expression wasn’t giving me any clue but the fact that he hadn’t walked away probably did.
“I heard the ranger say that word and I’ve had just enough exposure to your world to understand the basics of it.
” I really wished I could’ve claimed ignorance, though.
“There is just a lot of stuff going on right now and I don’t think I have enough…
I don’t know…mental bandwidth to add that to our list.”
Did that make sense?
If anyone needed that spoons analogy it was me, but I wasn’t sure Blade would understand it.
Was that mean?
I went back to petting his head. “I’m not denying we had a connection right off the bat, but I’d like to put off that conversation until we can communicate better.”
Was that fair?
Maybe?
Blade licked my cheek, making me laugh before he turned back to the tablet.
C
A
T
“It’s not…okay…part of it is the cat thing.” Lying about that wouldn’t be believable. “It hasn’t been that long since I realized you were a person in there. But there’s also the magic thing and worrying about you and…and my family is insane and are really going to struggle with this.”
Like make a rug out of him kind of struggling.
When Blade’s head cocked, I sighed. “We’re going to put them on the backburner too. I’m currently avoiding them and have gone low contact, so we don’t have to worry about it.”
I didn’t think he’d been trying to kill me, but guns didn’t just go off randomly no matter what the internet seemed to think.
“I’ve met shifters before and even some Bigfoot.
I understand inside you can think like a person as long as magic isn’t fucking things up.
” A year or so ago this would’ve been much harder to deal with.
“We do have a few things to figure out before you can explain to me what being mates means to your people.”
The general idea seemed to run through all of the monster and even general paranormal world, but I don’t think I’d ever met a panther shifter.
“I also need to get to know you better before we jump into an important topic like that.” I didn’t even know if he liked the burgers I’d picked up earlier. “So I promise I’m not just burying my head in the sand about it.”
That time when he licked my cheek it felt like he was telling me he understood. Even if it was me reading into it too much, I leaned against him and took a deep breath. “This day hasn’t gone like I expected at all, but I’m glad you saved me.”
Now it was time to save him, though, so we were going to figure out our options and see what he wanted to do.
Eventually.
One letter at a time was going to be painful and Blade’s sigh as he turned back to the tablet said we were probably on the same page on that part.
“We’ll figure it out.”
Hopefully.