One of the closer cats growled low in its throat. Elena slipped the latch from the gate, and the beast crouched lower and twitched its tail. The growl got louder. It was going to pounce.
Nik stilled her hand on the latch. “They fight like their shifter animal even in human form. They will bite and scratch. They can leap great distances in either physical manifestation. Don’t let their looks deceive you. Even unshifted, you’re not dealing with house cats here. They’re dangerous. You must be careful.”
Well, crap. That’s not what she needed to hear. She used to cuddle and pet these guys.
He leaned closer. “They won’t be expecting you to channel. Zap a few and they’ll back off. Cats don’t like water or electric shock. Go get ’em.”
The cat closest to them hissed, and Elena flinched. “Wait. Where are you going to be?”
“I’ll be watching from here. You wanted training. Well, here it is. Hands-and claws-on training.” He slid the latch all the way open and swung wide the gate. “You’re on!”
Holy. Freaking. Shit.
The cat closest didn’t even wait for her to move. It launched into the air the moment the gate stopped swinging.
Perhaps it was her new immortality affecting her reflexes, or maybe it was just being in a fight-or-flight situation where dozens of creatures with sharp, pointy edges were determined to shred her flesh, but for some reason, the entire scene seemed to clarify and divide itself out into a threat-based hierarchal schematic in her brain. She could anticipate who would come at her and from where… And it was awesome.
As the first creature flew at her in its feline form, she held up her tingling palms and sent it launching back halfway through the yard with an invisible pulse. It rolled with the impact and righted itself, no worse for wear.
Two more came from the left and three from the right, all meeting the same fate as the first. That thing about cats always landing on their feet? Total myth.
She progressed into the center of the yard, fending off attacks from all sides as if she had Uza’s ability to see the future. Wait. That might be it. Maybe she had some kind of wacky premonition ability or something, like when she’d seen herself teleporting before it happened. As a test, she closed her eyes, and to her amazement, she could see them coming before they launched.
And then it dawned on her; this felt right. Fighting and zapping combatants was, in some freakish way, fun. Oh shit. What a difference a little bit of immortal blood made.
“Enough,” a male voice shouted from Uza’s porch.
The cats fell back, and Elena opened her eyes and straightened from her fighting crouch. It was the thick guy with the beard who doubled as a gold Persian.
“That’s enough.” He sauntered toward her, completely nude, and stopped a few feet away. “My mistress cannot see you right now. And, had her guardians not been forbidden to shift, you would not be standing unharmed to receive that news.”
Nik laughed from where he leaned against the fence. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that. She was just getting started.”
“Why can’t I talk to Uza?” Elena asked. “Why were they told not to transform?”
The bearded cat guy glanced over his shoulder at the house, then jerked his chin in the direction of the porch. The dozens of cats filed toward the front door. When the yard had cleared, he looked around again as if not wanting to be overheard. “She’s in a trance state. She cannot be bothered until she comes back to us. She is at her most vulnerable when like this. Our transformation to human form leaves a significant signal that can be detected by our enemies.” He gestured to her house. “It is why we rarely shift at this location. You need to leave now. Your little electric show surely caused enough disruption to alert those hunting Zana. We will need to relocate her now. For your own safety, you should leave, too, before they attack.”
“Who would attack?” Nik asked. “Who are your enemies?”
The man took a deep breath and shook his head. “Everyone is an enemy. All but the Uniter.”
Nik’s stance changed, and his hands formed fists. He spoke slowly and distinctly. “You must tell me this. Who hunts Zana?” When the man didn’t answer, Nik took a step closer and pulled the front of his shirt open so that the shifter could see his markings. “It is my charge to protect the Uniter. Tell me now.”
The man’s eyes widened as he studied Nik’s chest. “The Slayers.” The man seemed transfixed by the markings. “And the Time Folders.”
“You lie,” Nik said, wrapping both hands around the man’s throat. “The Time Folders have no stake in our affairs.”
“I must go to my mistress. I must protect her,” the man croaked. Then, he twisted and blurred in Nik’s hands until he dropped free of his grip in the form of a golden cat with long hair. After a hiss and a flip of his tail, he sprinted to the porch and disappeared around the front of the house.
“Fuck this,” Nik grumbled, stomping after the cat.