Urban Ladies - Cop And Cat Part 1

Cop and Cat.

by Jordyn Tracey.

Chapter One.

They slithered onto our street in the night with no more substance than shadows. There were four of them, darting from house to house; they were tracking a scent. I watched as they sniffed at Ree's and then Ch.e.l.le's doors. A freakish howl pierced the night and each of them backed away like they were scared. A shock of fear hit me so hard, I hurried to pull out my glock, having no idea what was up. If they were truly shadows, how was my bullet going to impact them?

When they moved up the street toward my end of the block, I rolled off my bed and ran as silently as possible downstairs. I had a picture window at the front of my house that although the neighborhood was a little on the rough side, I felt confident no idiot would break into. I was after all an officer. I wouldn't hesitate to put down any fool with big enough b.a.l.l.s to come into my house.

There wasn't much that I feared, but as I stood in front of my window, regretting how I had neglected to pull the curtains closed, a quiver of nervousness shot through me. One of the shadow beings stopped outside my house. I knew he was a person, but somehow it was like he was keeping himself out of focus. The same visual effect could be seen when you wave your hand back and forth really fast, or try seeing the blades of a spinning fan.

Yet this thing was standing in one place, beneath my window watching me train my gun on him.

"Who are you?" I called out. "What do you want?"

A jiggle of my doork.n.o.b had me swinging my gun from the man outside to the door and back again.

"Open the door, Stacey."

I gasped. My heart kicked up a few notches. He had spoken inside my head! I stumbled backward and my finger twitched on the trigger. Fear told me to shoot now and ask questions later, but training made me struggle for a calm mind to make smart decisions.

"Don't be afraid. Open the door."

Something came over me, like he was projecting his feelings into my mind, willing me to trust him, to not be afraid.

I wasn't one of those closed-minded people who didn't believe in the supernatural. h.e.l.l, I lived smack dab in the middle of the supernatural for years until I had managed to shut the door. I was willing to bet these things, whatever they were, couldn't be explained away with science.

Switching my gun to me left hand, I approached the door and threw the locks. I opened the door slowly, and kept my weapon pointed at the shadow filling the entryway. Instead of stepping into my home, it stepped back. The man I watched through the window moved to the entrance and came in. I backed into the living room and he followed.

While I gaped in unbelief, the blur lessened until a half man, half beast stood before me.

I'm ashamed to admit my hands shook. Hair as dark as midnight covered his body. The yellow eyes of a cat never left my face. He actually had a snout-ish pucker to his face around his nose and mouth, with whiskers. The weird mutation changed until the handsome face of a white man appeared.

I looked from his full head of black hair, to his bare chest-hairs rapidly receding-to his groin and muscled thighs. I was relieved to find that he kept the hair to cover his private parts, but that didn't stop my mind from making up an image of how it would look.

I shook the image from my head. "What do you want?"

"You are the one, Stacey Harris?" he asked.

"The one?" I frowned. "What is this a Jet Li movie? I said why are you invading my home in the middle of the night? You do realize I am PD right? I can press one little red b.u.t.ton and have the cops swarming this place."

He did me the courtesy of not laughing in my face at my bravado. "And you did see what I am," he indicated the things still outside the window waiting, "what my men are? How will you explain? How will your police catch us? The cheetah are reported to be the fastest land animal, but I a.s.sure you, we are faster."

I examined the creatures still outside on the street. Three of them standing still, but not fully visible. I couldn't see any of them clearly. Their howls had been like cats. But something told me these were more than giant felines. "What exactly are you?"

"To put it simply, I am a panther shape-s.h.i.+fter." He waved a hand in the air. "I don't have a lot of time here, Stacey. I need you to come with me."

"Not."

"A life is at stake. You, as an officer of the law, are bound to help. If you will put down your gun, I will be happy to explain." He moved to step closer to me, and I tightened my grip on my weapon.

"Back, up, panther." I nodded toward a spot a few feet away from me, since my back was literally against the wall and I didn't appreciate it. "Move over there. You're making me nervous, and you don't want me to feel that way armed as I am."

"You don't have to be afraid of me, Stacey." He held out a hand.

"What do your a.s.surances mean to me? Nothing. Back the h.e.l.l up!" I snapped.

For a moment, he stood still saying nothing. His right eye twitched and the next second he was behind me, had my gun and held me in a firm grip around the waist. I struggled against his hold, but it did little good. He didn't break a sweat, even when I had executed several moves that should have flipped him over my shoulder or at least knocked him out.

I was wasting my energy.

Finally, I gave up, panting.

"Ready to talk?" he rumbled in my ear, sending s.h.i.+vers over my body. The deep timbre of his voice made me think again of what he might look like completely naked. He chuckled and I wondered if he could read my mind. His lips touched my ear this time, tickling me with the warmth of his breath. "I don't have to read a woman's mind to know she wants me. Your trembling, the hardening of your nipples..."

"Shut up!" I fought to be free of his hold. I tried stomping on his foot, but got nothing but a funny feeling in my ankle. He moved too quickly for me to ever think I could get the best of him. I felt useless. With that thought, my shoulders slumped. "Fine, say whatever you came to say and get out."

"I need you to use your powers to help me find my brother."

Chapter Two.

His hold loosened, and I moved on shaky legs to the couch and sat down. "I'm sorry. I can't help you. I haven't done that in a long, long time. I rely on what can be picked up with the five senses now. Maybe someone else can help you."

He walked across to join me on the couch, perfectly comfortable in his nakedness while I was feeling embarra.s.sed. I took my gun when he handed it to me and placed it in the drawer of the side table nearby.

"I should start with my name," he began. "It's Adan. My twin brother is missing. I want you to go into his mind and get him to tell you where he is."

I laughed. "Listen, panther, you're hot and all. Believe me if you weren't some kind of weird alien-"

"I'm not an alien. I was born and raised in the U.S. just as you were. However, like your friends Ch.e.l.le and Ree, there are things in the night you know nothing of."

With a roll of my eyes, I sucked my teeth. "Ch.e.l.le and Ree are not my friends. They just happen to live in the same neighborhood, and...well...something is not the same about them. I'm not sure what."

His eyes narrowed. "Really? What?"

I hesitated. Who knew who he really was. This part of the city was exclusively black. The only pale face seen around was Ch.e.l.le's boyfriend who, to my observations, came around once a month to pick her up to go somewhere. I didn't care enough to find out. I had never been close to women, so I wasn't more than a nodding acquaintance with either of them.

"If you must know, I never see them going out much in the day anymore. Or rather Ch.e.l.le does, but not Ree. And there used to be like five cats hanging around Ch.e.l.le's door. Now they're gone."

He smiled so s.e.xily that I had to squeeze my legs together and think of something other than jumping him. I hadn't had a boyfriend in a couple years. The commitment wasn't in my schedule, and booty calls were iffy. Adan seemed to know what I was thinking. If he could read minds so much, why didn't he just reach out to his brother himself?

He scratched at a neat goatee, his eyes glazed. "So what is your theory about your frien- sorry your neighbors?"

I shrugged. "Don't know. Don't care. As long as I haven't seen them breaking the law, they can do whatever. I've got other things to worry about."

"Yes, like making sure the home your mother is in is paid for." He spoke matter-of- factly, like everybody didn't know my only family left, my mother, was in a home. So what. My job didn't allow me to keep her with me.

"So you've done your homework. Big deal."

"What if I told you I would pay you for helping me?" he offered.