An Artificial Night

A hand landed on my shoulder, stopping me. I turned to look, scowling. The man who had greeted Raj was standing behind me, with the Abyssinian cat still perched on his shoulder. “You must not interfere,” he said. His eyes were the same clear glass green as Raj’s.

I stared at him. “She tried to kill me!”

“She failed.” He shook his head. “Now my son is fighting and must win on his own.”

“That’s idiotic.” The rules the Cait Sidhe live by sometimes seem positively suicidal. Raj was just a kid. Julie had more than thirty years’ experience on him, and a lot of that experience was gained working for Devin, where playing fair was something that happened to other people. There was no way Raj could beat that. “He’ll be killed.”

“If he can’t defeat her, he can’t hold the throne while she lives.” He tightened his grip on my shoulder, restraining me. Julie slammed Raj against the wall. “Her blood is mixed. She can’t be a Queen for this Court or any other. But she can still stop him from being King.”

“And what if she kills him, huh? What then?” Raj squirmed free and lunged, slamming into Julie’s stomach. She weighed at least fifty pounds more than he did, but gravity was on his side. She went down snarling.

Raj’s father shook his head. “If she can kill him, he was never fit to take the throne.”

“And you think that matters right now?” I demanded. Wrenching myself free, I ran toward the fight. I never made it there. My right knee buckled as soon as I put my weight on it, sending me sprawling. I dropped the board and flung out my arms.

I didn’t hit the ground. Tybalt’s hands closed on my waist while I was in mid-fall, flipping me upside down as he hoisted me to eye level. He blinked when our eyes met. I blinked back. Finally, he shook his head, expression composing itself back to its usual feline cool.

“My, Toby, you’ve changed.”

“Yeah, well.” I tried to shrug. It was impossible to do anything but dangle. “Put me down.”

“I . . . yes, of course.” He actually reddened slightly as he turned me over and lowered me to my feet. “My apologies.” Glancing toward the shrieking whirlwind that was Raj and Julie, he added, “I see you managed to recover my subjects.”

“Yeah. Remind me to kill you later.”

“Of course,” he said, and cracked a smile. “Excuse me a moment, will you?”

“Sure.” I leaned against the wall, trying to ignore the pain in my knee and the glare I was getting from Raj’s father.

Tybalt moved toward Raj and Julie like a shark moving through the water. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for Julie. We were friends for a long time, before an assassin’s misfired bullet killed her boyfriend and made her swear to take revenge on me for putting him in the line of fire. I don’t like to see her hurt. Still, I didn’t look away as he reached down and grabbed her by both wrists, yanking her off the ground. Julie kicked and screamed as he lifted, but didn’t manage to break free. Raj hunched down and snarled, but didn’t try to interfere. Smart kid.

“We don’t attack our guests,” Tybalt said calmly, holding Julie at arm’s length and giving her a brisk shake. She snapped at him, nearly sinking her teeth into his arm.

Bad idea. Tybalt shook her again, harder this time, and roared. The cats in the alley started to yowl, and the human-form Cait Sidhe joined in, blending their voices with his. I glanced back at Raj’s father. He was yowling with the rest. Some things run in the family.

Cait Sidhe are pretty. They’re slim and delicate and feline, and sometimes we forget that when we’re hold a tabby, we’re also holding a lion. Every Court of Cats is a jungle made of concrete and steel, and in his own Court, at least for now, Tybalt was the undisputed King. Julie knew the rules. She had to know how much trouble she was in. She still kept fighting, trying to kick him as he shook her. I guess she was trying to be gloriously defeated.