Time's Daughter (22 page)

“
Nothing like me, eh?”

A snicker left me before I could stop it.

“
She adores you.” He chuckled
lightly. “I can tell. The minute you leave she’s going to be
hounding me to have you back over.”

I blurted the question out before I realized what I
was doing. “Why does she have light hair when you all have
dark?”

“
Well…” He helped me sit down on the
edge of the dock. “She’s the opposite of melanistic. She takes
after her albino grandmother on our mother’s side.”

“
That’s neat.”

The dock was soothing. Moonlight cast a blue glow
over everything including us. Gentle sloshing of the water against
the dock gave me something calming to concentrate on. I closed my
eyes to intensify the sound. Several deep breaths of lake air did
me wonders.

He’d gone so quiet that I was concerned he wasn’t
breathing. I turned my head and opened my eyes. Alex had been
watching me silently with an unreadable expression. I tried to
smile for him.

Rather than smile back he slid his hand beneath my
hair along the base of my neck, pulling me closer. A shiver of
sensation slipped down my back from where he’d touched.

His warm breath caressed my mouth before his lips
did. Alex gathered me into his arms, chasing away any chills that
remained from meeting his family. It was soothing enough that I let
my eyes shut with a content sigh.

A catlike scream leapt from his chest. His arms tore
away from me. My eyes shot open. Alex was crouched with his back to
me, staring up at a seven-foot creature that sported ragged
clothing and sallow skin. The creature’s lips were torn and
blackened. I froze, staring at the missing eyelids around its
frighteningly dark eyes and the complete lack of a nose. I covered
my mouth with my hand to keep from screaming.

“
I’m going to shift, Aeon.” Alex
seemed to
sneeze
into his new shape. Up close the
transformation was even more unbelievable than it had been behind
the bush. But my attention was fixed on the thing in front of us as
it lunged for me now that Alex was decidedly shorter and
furrier.

The black panther pounced. His momentum, even with
the short distance, was enough to knock the thing back. But the
creature wouldn’t be stopped. With hand over hand on the dock’s
planks the thing clawed toward us. I stepped backward toward the
lake with my eyes fixed on its corpse-like hands, fearing what
would happen if it touched me.

The cat hunkered down. A low warning growl announced
his intentions. The feline scream echoed in the night as he sailed
through the air, landing atop the creature. Ferocious snapping and
tears made me gnaw on my fingers. I didn’t know if I was frightened
for Alex or the thing he was attacking.

With a broad swing of its arm the creature sent the
cat into my chest like a canon ball. We both went over the dock’s
edge into the water in a tangle of fur and limbs. The frigid
temperature knocked the breath from me in an instant. Down we
plunged into the murky depth.

Thanks to the shoes, skirt and shirt I wore, I was
weighed down more than the cat and fell far faster. I could see the
shadow of him above me in the moonlight and that he tried to get to
me.

Something warm slid beneath me. Before I knew it I’d
surfaced above the water. I immediately sputtered for air. A rough
cough racked my lungs from the small bit of liquid that had entered
them before I’d had a chance to close my mouth. Once I’d drawn in a
breath of air I made myself swim for the shore.

Snarling beside me drew my attention as I crawled
onto the mud. A dripping black panther was hunkered down at the end
of the dock readying to attack the creature that even now was
turning toward me. In confusion I looked at the soaked cat on the
dock and the one beside me on the mud.

My companion eyed me long enough to make sure I was
well before padding away from the shore into the grass. In the
brief moment I’d looked in its eyes, I knew the cat that had helped
me to the shore had not been Alex. That meant Alex had crawled out
of the water back onto the dock to finish what he’d started.

I pulled myself up on unsteady legs to survey the
situation. Surely the other cat had gone into the grass so that it
could double back to the dock. Any moment now it would hop onto the
wood and the fight would be over before it had started. Wouldn’t
it?

I wiped the moisture from my eyes, focused my vision
in the direction the cat had gone and stared in horror when the
figures sharpened. Seven midnight black cats were crowded at the
foot of the dock while one smaller white cat hung further back. A
panther with gray threaded fur blocked the gathering from stepping
onto the dock.

I stalked toward them and shouted through chattering
teeth. “Why aren’t you helping him?” I gestured at Alex as he used
the creature’s lunge toward me as leverage to knock it over
again.

The only answer I got was a low growl from the gray
threaded cat.

Another feline scream from the dock tore at my
heart. I shoved my way through the furry backs. Something held me
back. I glanced back, noting one of the larger panthers had taken
hold of my skirt in its mouth.

I tore the delicate fabric from its teeth. “You can
stay back here like cowards but
I’m
helping.”

Even without a nose our attacker smelled me. The
mangled body struggled to drag itself toward me while the cat
clawed at its head from atop its back. I didn’t know what I was
going to do but I knew it wanted me, not Alex. I stomped loudly
across the wood and kicked it in whatever was closest. Working on
instinct alone I grabbed onto some part of it. It sat up and
reached for me too.

I made a single, guttural demand. “You
stop
.”

The black cat continued its abuse for two minutes
longer before stepping back with a confused snort. The creature had
literally stopped. A hand hung in the air and its chest was posed
at a thirty-degree angle. The water lapped gently against the dock
proving that time wasn’t frozen. I tested it by walking backwards a
few steps. It didn’t follow or make any noise. The cat pawed the
mangled shirt a few times to no effect.

Somehow I had frozen only the creature without
affecting time itself.

My fingers went to my mouth now that we were safer.
Alex was a three-foot tall beast with black fur. I couldn’t tell he
were hurt or not. If the screams I’d heard from him earlier were
any indication, he’d sustained at least one injury.

He padded carefully around the creature then stopped
in front of me. I dropped down to my knees and felt him for wounds.
Within ten seconds a deep rumble that sounded suspiciously like a
purr met my ears. The cat nuzzled my chin with its big nose moments
later.

I blushed crimson then burst into nervous laughter.
“I’m worrying about your wounds and you’re trying to get your ears
scratched?”

“
Aeon.”

Anna’s voice made my blush deepen. I guiltily faced
her. She stood several feet from the dock in a white bathrobe. Over
her arm was a pile of robes I assumed were for the others.

“
Come away from the dock,” she said
in an even voice.

A glance at the creature showed it was still frozen.
It seemed safe for the time being to leave it. Alex refused to move
until I did. He hovered beside my legs, nearly tripping me as I
moved.

One by one the Chattan clan appeared from the
darkness dressed in a robe until Alex was the only member left in
cat form. Anna held out the final white garment. Warily I watched
as the eldest members spoke together a distance away while casting
glances back at me.

“
Alex.”

He grunted at Anna’s firm demand but let her drape
the robe over his back. I watched him run into the darkness.
Anxiously I bit my nails as I worried that he’d emerge limping or
bleeding. A few moments later the Alex I knew stepped into the
moonlight. His perfectly bronzed fingers tied the robe around
himself. He walked toward me purposefully. The robe was still
immaculate white.

He spoke first, eyes scanning up and down me as
quickly as mine did to him. “Are you okay?”

I couldn’t help but smile at him. “Yes. Are
you?”

He nodded slowly. Our attention switched to the
figures gathered in various spots on the lawn. I eyed them
angrily.

There were many things I wanted to say but I knew I
wouldn’t be able to control my fury if I dared utter a single
word.

“
Thanks for the
backup
.”
Alex’s resentful delivery about summed up my feelings.

“
I helped her out of the water,”
Drew said.

“
Thank you, brother.” Alex’s volume
lifted for the benefit of everyone else. “Why didn’t you
help?”

“
Arnold forbade us,” Anna admitted
quietly.

Alex stomped across the lawn to where the elders
stood. “What happened to protecting her?” he shouted at his father.
“What happened to protecting the clan?”

Arnold spoke up in lieu of the leader. “We
were
protecting the clan, Alex. It was a wendigo.”

Arthur’s darkened gaze fixed on his son. “We’re
going to have to isolate you for a few days until we know if you
were infected.”

“
Infected? What are you talking
about?” Alex’s crinkled features made him appear as confused as I
was.

“
Their madness is spread through
their fluid,” the eldest explained. “You bit it, Alex.”

Alex clamped his mouth shut but was still visibly
angry.

“
We haven’t finished this yet.” Drew
gestured toward the dock. “And what happened to it
anyway?”

Arnold pointed at me. “She froze it.”

“
But nothing else froze.” Drew’s
point was made when a falling leaf passed in front of
him.

“
She’s learned another
power.”

My eyes widened in shock at his grave answer.
Antonio and Alicia fixed dark gazes on me. I shrunk back but
recalled the creature was still on the dock behind me.

“
It needs to be burnt,” Arnold told
the others.

“
Will it stay frozen in time while
we burn it?”

“
I don’t know. It all depends on how
powerful she is.”

Anna stepped beside me and spoke quietly while the
others debated. “Thank you for helping my son.”

I scowled at the ground. “He was helping me, not the
other way around.”

“
You tore your lovely skirt to go
back for him. We will not forget your bravery.”

“
Is he going to be all
right?”

Anna looked to the group of males with concern in
her eyes. “I hope so. We’ve only heard tales of the wendigo. We’ve
never come across them in the wild. They are northern creatures and
we’ve always been in the south.” Anna glanced back at me. Her
features softened. “You must be freezing. Let me get you a
blanket.” With a single nod of her head Anna requested Abby join
her.

While the pair retreated to the house the males
lowered their voices in discussion. Their conspiratorial huddle
worried me. Was I an enemy again now that I’d learned another
power?

If I were, then they had yet to inform Anna. She
returned quickly and pulled a soft blanket around my shoulders. It
hadn’t seemed like she’d been gone for long but she’d had time
enough to get dressed again. Maybe she’d been designated my guard
to keep me from interrupting the others.

The next few minutes were surreal. I stood wrapped
in a warm blanket, shivering uncontrollably while watching the
family of bathrobe clad people set fire to a creature I hadn’t
known existed prior to a half hour earlier. Shudders shook my legs
enough that I nearly fell over. Anna steadied me silently and kept
her arm behind my back.

Despite the flames licking its tattered clothing,
the seven-foot creature in front of us remained completely
still.

“
This is horrible,” I whispered to
no one in particular. “I shouldn’t be able to do that. No one
should.”

“
That thing was an abomination.”
Anna said.

“
No more than I am.”

“
You are nothing like that
creature.” Her tone took on a fierce note. “It would have killed
until there was nothing left to kill.”

Another argument broke out from within the ranks of
the Chattan clan. I could hear Alex’s voice above the others. From
the tone and word choice I could tell he was still furious.

“
No! I am fine. No thanks to you.
I’m taking her home.”

“
Your mother will take her,” was
Arthur’s firm response.

“
There isn’t a scratch on me. I’m
taking her back.”

“
This isn’t open for discussion,
Alex. You are to go to your room and you aren’t to leave it except
to use the restroom until your grandfather gives you a clean bill
of health.”

“
You are being completely
ridiculous. If you’d been so worried about my health then why
didn’t you step in and help me?”

“
Because we couldn’t risk infecting
the entire clan.”

Alex faced off with his father silently. In the end
he shook his head in disappointment. He stalked toward the house
but not before calling out, “Coward.”

“
Come.” Anna patted my back in what
was probably meant to be a soothing gesture. “I’ll take you home
now.”

I simultaneously wanted away from the Chattan family
as soon as I could manage it and to run inside after Alex. Would he
be okay if the thing hadn’t scratched him? Would they bother to
tell me if he weren’t?