Second Nature (56 page)

"Not all Puwar dreams are special, but we are the only Wrasa subspecies who have maharsi, dream seers. Or rather, we had them." Grief and regret tightened her throat every time she mentioned it. Now even more than ever, she wished some maharsi had survived, wished she had inherited her grandfather's gift so she could help Jorie now.

Jorie's hand, still resting in Griffin's, jerked. "Dream seers?" she asked. "But they don't exist anymore? What happened to them?"

"A lot of them were killed by humans a few centuries ago. Humans sensed their power and their insight, but they didn't understand. More than a few of them were burned as witches or sorcerers or tortured to death as demons," Griffin said sadly. Some of her ancestors had died too. "And dream seeing has always been a very rare gift. It ran only in some of the Puwar families, and even there, not every child in the family had the gift. It often skips a generation. The more maharsi died without having cubs, the rarer the gift became. By the time I was born, there was only one maharsi left." Griffin paused and became aware that her thumb was rubbing the back of Jorie's hand. "My grandfather."

"Your grandfather was a dream seer? So you... you have the same gift?" Jorie asked. Awe and disbelief glittered in her dark eyes.

"No," Griffin said. She forced herself to keep looking straight ahead and watch the road instead of hanging her head in shame that wasn't hers. "The gift only runs true in full-blooded Puwar."

Jorie put her other hand on top of Griffin's too. Her fingers were soft and warm. They wrapped around Griffin's like a protective glove. "That's why your fellow Wrasa don't really like or respect you. You're a hybrid, so you didn't inherit any dream-seeing skills. But why didn't your mother have other children after she gave birth to you and Kylin? Not that it's right to use a woman as a birthing machine and expect her to have a dozen kids, but..."

"Wrasa society can be very strict. Each and every one of us is born into a world of laws and expectations that we can't escape. The more our numbers decline, the more the trap of society's expectations tightens around every single one of us." Griffin felt that pressure every day of her life, and she knew her mother had experienced the same. "My mother's role was to give birth to the future generation of maharsi, and if she didn't fulfill that role, there was no place for her in Wrasa society."

A frown wrinkled Jorie's brow. "That's pretty harsh," she said. She was a woman who loved her independence, just as Griffin did, so she didn't like a life that was dictated by others.

"Yes," Griffin admitted. "But it's what made us survive after being at the brink of extinction. We had to put the survival of our kind above our individual wishes. Even after centuries of living like this, we just stuck to it without thought. So my mother followed expectations and gave birth again even though the doctors had warned her about it."

"Warned her about it? Is it dangerous for Wrasa women to have a lot of children?" Jorie asked.

It usually wasn't. A hormone prevented shape-shifting during pregnancy and childbirth, so the risk of giving birth wasn't any greater than it was for a human woman. "Ky and I were pretty big, a lot bigger than Puwar babies are. It caused complications when we were born," Griffin said and swallowed heavily. "My mother risked her life to give birth to our younger brother, Chiron, but despite being one hundred percent Puwar, he didn't inherit the gift. After that, the doctors told my mother flat out that she wouldn't survive another pregnancy, and she gave up. So when my grandfather died, we lost our last dream seer."

The silence in the car squeezed the air from Griffin's lungs. She breathed slowly and carefully.

Jorie squeezed Griffin's hand with both of hers. "I'm sorry," she said gently. "But what does that have to do with my dreams and my imaginary childhood friends? You're not suggesting...?"

"I don't know," Griffin said. "I was too young when my grandfather died, so I don't remember a lot about how his gift worked, but to me, your dreams sound like they're more than just the typical dreams that don't make much sense and don't have any meaning. You're basing your novel on your dreams, and everything you're writing about describes us Wrasa to a T."

It meant Jorie's dreams were accurate. They were showing her a reality that other humans didn't even suspect.

"That's why you were hunting me? The Wrasa got scared because I described them a little too accurately? They wanted to kill me just because of my dreams?" Anger and betrayal roughened Jorie's voice. She let go of Griffin's hand.

Reluctantly, Griffin pulled her hand back and put it on the steering wheel again. "Basically, yes." It didn't feel good to admit it, but she didn't want to lie to Jorie anymore. "You seemed to know so much about us that it couldn't be mere coincidence. We thought one of us had provided you with the information, but that quickly turned out to be a dead end."

"That's when they ordered you to kill me," Jorie said with a slight tremble in her voice.

Griffin's fists tightened around the steering wheel. "It's not usually how Saru investigations are conducted, but this time... yes." The order to kill Jorie had come much too soon. Griffin still wasn't sure why things had been different this time. She admitted to herself that she hadn't done a stellar job with the investigation. While she had found out a lot of interesting things about Jorie, they hadn't helped with the investigation.

Had it been the lack of progress that had caused Jennings to lose patience and hurry along the kill order? Griffin didn't think so. They'd had slow-moving investigations before. Never had it caused Jennings to forge her reports.

At least as far as you can tell,
she said to herself. Her trust in Jennings was gone.

"Why was it different this time?" Jorie asked. "They can't possibly believe that a writer of lesbian romances would be that much of a threat that she needed to be killed instantly." She was trying to be matter-of-fact about it, but the trembling of dark lashes gave her away.

"I've asked myself the same questions over and over again, Jorie. I don't really understand it either. I can just guess that my superiors thought it better to be overly cautious and wanted you dead just in case." It painted a very ugly picture of her entire species. For the first time, Griffin wasn't so proud to be a Wrasa anymore. She hoped that Jorie had learned enough about Griffin and her family to believe that not every Wrasa wanted her dead. "I'm very sorry all of this is happening to you, and I'm sorry for my role in it."

Their gazes connected; then Jorie looked away with a sigh. "Sometimes I still think all of this isn't real and I'm just dreaming."

Griffin smiled sadly. "I think dreaming might be what got you into this trouble."

"Where are you taking me now?" Jorie asked, changing the topic.

She doesn't want to talk about her dreams. She's not ready to admit that they might be more than just meaningless dreams, products of her overactive imagination.
Griffin could understand that. It boggled even her mind, and she was the offspring of a family of dream seers. "We're going back to Osgrove," she said.

"What?" Jorie gripped her arm.

The car swerved across the street.

"Jorie!"

Jorie quickly let go of Griffin. "Sorry. But going back to Osgrove... that's suicide! The cops in Osgrove are Wrasa, and you told me every saru out there is looking for me."

"Not anymore." Finally some good news she could give Jorie. "My sister called in a few favors and got us forty-eight hours. There shouldn't be any saru around, and if one or two are still there, they'll follow the council's orders and leave us alone."

"Leigh has connections to your council?" Jorie asked, clearly astonished.

"Not Leigh — my twin sister, Ky. She's a member of the council." For the first time, Griffin could take pride in that, especially since she now knew that Kylin was working toward revealing their existence and sharing a more peaceful coexistence with humans. It was an uphill battle against the more conservative councilors, but at least Kylin was trying.

Jorie thought about it for a moment. "Your family is very powerful. Your fathers rule a pride; your grandfather was a dream seer; your sister is a councilor — and you are a saru."

It didn't sound like a question or an accusation, but Griffin took it as a little bit of both. "Was," she said. "After everything that happened, I'm no longer a saru."

"Who knows," Jorie said. "If everything works out all right and your sister puts in a good word for you, maybe they'd take you back."

Within the confines of the car, picking up the scent of Jorie's emotions was inevitable. Griffin was getting good at interpreting them. This time, her nose detected the stale odor of guilt. It immediately made Griffin feel guilty too. Under no circumstances did she want Jorie to feel responsible for the loss of her job. "I don't want back," Griffin answered. "No matter what happens, that part of my life is over."

CHAPTER 24

J
ORIE'S HEARTBEAT echoed through her ears as they drove along the familiar streets of Osgrove. She could still remember the last time she had raced down this road, fleeing from Griffin — and now she was sitting next to her in the car, letting Griffin drive her to some unknown location, for a reason she didn't know and after revealing the one thing the Wrasa wanted to know from her. She had put all her chips on Griffin, and now she could only hope that Griffin wouldn't betray her a second time.

Her instincts told her she could trust Griffin, but some last doubts remained.

It was too dark to see much, but Jorie knew they were nearing her house. A longing for the comfort of her home engulfed her. "Can we stop at my house to make sure my cats are okay?" she asked.

Griffin hesitated. "It would be better if we headed straight to the meeting."

"Please?" Since having to leave her cats behind, Jorie hadn't stopped worrying. Now that she was so close to her home, she didn't want to miss the chance to at least check on her cats.

"All right," Griffin said, already changing directions. "Let's stop and see how they are. But we better make it quick."

"Thank you," Jorie whispered.

The house felt strangely unfamiliar as if she hadn't seen it in years instead of just days. So much had changed since she'd been here last. When she entered the living room, a squeaking sound made Jorie jump. Her gaze darted to the source of the sound.

Her foot had landed on a cat toy on the floor.
Calm down. It's just some dumb toy, not an attacking Wrasa.
The constant fear and tension of the last few days had left her a bundle of nerves.

Then she looked more closely. She had never seen the mouselike toy before. "That's new," she said, pointing at the toy.

Griffin chuckled. "One of Leigh's cousins is a saru. She took care of the cats. Like most Kasari, she's a mushball when it comes to cats."

The bowls in the kitchen were filled with kibble, and there was fresh water next to them.
The Wrasa really took good care of my cats.
Jorie's heartbeat calmed. Still, she knew she wouldn't relax until she saw her cats and made sure they were all right.

She looked under the couch and in the usual hiding places.

No cats.

Worry clawed at her stomach. Where were they? Had the Wrasa taken them away? Or were they hiding, terrified of the intruders in their territory?

"Jorie," Griffin called through the open bedroom door.

Three quick steps carried Jorie to the bedroom.

Will's purring greeted her. He was curled up on the bed as if everything was right with the world.

"Oh, thank God!" Jorie fell to her knees next to the bed and pressed her face into the soft fur. She touched his head, his back, and trailed a finger along his three paws. He seemed all right. His rough tongue immediately started bathing her fingers, washing off the strange scents.

"He probably enjoyed his vacation with the Wrasa," Griffin said. She was watching from a respectful distance, not interrupting Jorie's reunion with Will. "I think he likes my kind because he can smell that we don't belong to the humans who hurt him."

That explanation made sense. Never before had Will bonded as quickly with any human as he had with Griffin.
He saw right through her human appearance. And so did Emmy and Agatha.
"The cats can sense that you're not what you appear to be," she said. Part of Jorie had sensed it too, but she hadn't listened to her instincts. Dismissing them as overactive imagination had become second nature to her long ago. "That's why Emmy kept her distance and Agatha wouldn't stop hissing at you. Guess I should have trusted my cats' judgment, huh?" She looked up at Griffin with a self-mocking grin.

Griffin rubbed her ear. It looked so much like a cat washing behind its ears that Jorie had to smile. "I think I was starting to win Agatha over, but Emmy... I'm afraid she has a little Wrasa trauma, and I don't think we'll find her here today."

Wrasa trauma?
That sounded exactly like what Jorie had been through. "What happened?" she asked.

"I once met her when I was out on a stroll in my cat form. I chuffed a friendly greeting at her," Griffin said. Her broad shoulders shrugged with a hint of guilt and embarrassment. "But it seems you failed to teach your cats the importance of learning foreign languages."

"Very funny." Jorie reached out and pinched Griffin.

Griffin's startled yelp sounded like the snarl of a predator.

Jorie froze, remembering that pain and anger could cause Griffin to shift. Pinching a Wrasa was a dangerous pastime.
Shit. I'm starting to get a little too relaxed in her company.
Sometimes she forgot that Griffin wasn't human. She had seen her shift, had shared a room with Griffin's liger form, of course, but being around Griffin was so much easier than being around most humans and they had so much in common that Jorie sometimes forgot that they didn't even belong to the same species.

Her gaze darted up to take in Griffin's expression.