“There. It’s done.” His grip on her finally decreased. “Damn. I need to sit down before I fall down.”
He staggered, and she grabbed him. He wasn’t kidding. She led him over to the sofa and he sat down heavily.
Then she looked down at her arm. The scratch had healed completely.
“What—” she began. “What did you do?”
“What does it look like?”
“You healed me?”
“That’s right.”
She was stunned. “But it was only a scratch. A nasty one, but it wasn’t anything to get all worked up about.”
The cat darted out from under the couch where it had hidden again and Darrak stopped it with his foot, pressing the feline down against the carpet.
“I tried to play along, kitty,” he said. “I even gave you some cream this morning because I was trying to be nice.”
It hissed at him.
“Tell it to someone who cares,” Darrak continued. “Enough of this. Show yourself before I make you.”
What the hell? Eden watched him with wide eyes as if he’d lost his demonic mind.
After another hiss, the cat went silent, glaring up at the demon through glittering eyes. Then, before Eden had a chance to say anything, the cat morphed into a woman with dark skin and long, shiny black hair who was wearing burgundy jogging pants and a white tank top. She lay on her side on the carpet with Darrak’s foot still pressed against her shoulder.
“Let me up, demon,” she growled.
Eden skittered back until she hit the kitchen counter. “What the hell is going on here?”
“Your cat is a shapeshifter,” Darrak explained. “Although I would assume that is obvious now. But I wasn’t sure if she was a born shifter or a made shifter. That’s why I had to heal you. Otherwise, with a scratch like that, you might be looking for a groomer and a garden of catnip of your own in the next few days.”
“I’m a born shifter,” the woman said unpleasantly. “She would have been fine.”
“Do you normally con your way into unsuspecting homes and then mooch off the kindhearted people who let you in?”
She smiled thinly. “Do you?”
“Touché.” He removed his foot and she scrambled up to her feet. She looked over at Eden guiltily.
“Please don’t make me leave.”
Eden’s mouth was open but no words came out for a moment. “I can’t believe this. You… were a cat.”
The woman’s expression was tense. “I was. And I will be again. I promise if you let me stay I’ll be very quiet. I won’t make any trouble. I won’t scratch you again — but just don’t grab me when I’m not expecting it. That’s not cool. I don’t have any money right now but I can keep your apartment clean—”
“You’re the one who cleaned up?” Eden asked, stunned.
She shrugged. “It was the least I could do. But don’t go thinking I’m your maid and you can boss me around. That’s not going to happen. This is just my way of bartering. I keep your place looking good… hell, I can even cook a bit… in return for you letting me crash here for a little while.”
“No,” Darrak said.
The woman glared at him. “I wasn’t asking you, demon.”
“The name’s Darrak.”
“My ass it is. And I’m watching you, hellspawn. Don’t think I’m not.” Her attention turned to Eden. “You need me. I can help protect you.”
“Protect me?”
She nodded emphatically. “Demons are repelled by shifters.”
“I thought I was just allergic to cat fur,” Darrak said dryly.
“If he tries to hurt you or suck out your soul, or whatever, I can stop him.”
“I’m not going to hurt Eden,” Darrak said. “If I wanted her hurt then why would I have used any of my stored-up power to heal her?”
An excellent point. Eden looked at Catwoman, who regarded the demon with obvious distaste.
“Because if she’d been infected and was a shifter then you wouldn’t be able to use her body anymore.” The woman glared at him, then smiled. “You’d have to find a new home then, wouldn’t you?”
Darrak’s expression had turned stony. “I didn’t even consider that.”
“Sure you didn’t.”
“Is that true?” Eden asked.
Darrak met her eyes. “A shifter can’t be possessed. It’s true.”
That was food for thought. Food she’d rather shove into the fridge until later when she could pick through the leftovers a bit more thoroughly.
A glance at the clock confirmed there was less than a half an hour before Ben arrived. It was one supernatural disaster after another today.
“What’s your name?” she asked the woman.
“Kathleen Harris.”
“And let me guess,” Darrak said without any friendliness. “You go by the nickname Kat, right? That’s almost as adorably predictable as a fairy named Fay.”
“Sure. As much as you go by the nickname asshole. Actually, you can call me Leena.” She turned back to Eden. “Please. Please. You have to let me stay here.”
“Why here?” Eden asked helplessly, her mind drowning from the flood of information.
She wrung her hands and her eyes shifted nervously around the small apartment. “I’m hiding from somebody who wants to kill me. I’ve been wandering the streets for weeks and eating out of Dumpsters, which blows even more than it sounds like it would. I can’t go home. I’m desperate. Then last night I sensed you — I felt you were different. That you’d be able to protect me.”