Shifter (14 page)

He doesn’t say anything, but the smile in his eyes says I have a point.

The police took thirty minutes to search my house to Devan’s full satisfaction. I refused to look at him the entire time. I could tell that as time passed, he got angrier and angrier. Constantly asking the police officers if they had searched in this place or that. At one point, Officer Richards warned him that if he didn’t let them do their job, he was going to arrest him for obstruction.

Finally, as the last of the officers are exiting my house, I turn to Devan and ask again, why he is doing this to me.

“I told you. We had a witness state that they saw Dimitri coming in and out of your house. I didn’t want to believe it at first, but after seeing the note on your calendar with his name and some date on it, I knew she was telling the truth.”

I can’t help bursting into laughter. I am so angry I could cry, but I didn’t want to cry in front of him; therefore, my body turned the anger into laughter.

“What’s so damned funny?” Devan asks, fury seeping through his words.

“Dimitri is my cat’s name. This cat right here,” I say, holding up Dimitri who has been watching the entire scene calmly, unlike Sebastian who had crawled up under the sofa and was hissing and growling at anyone who came near him.

“When I first adopted him, I couldn’t think of anything to name him, then you came with the flyer, and every time I said the name Dimitri, he would react. I figured he liked it, so I named him after your brother. I knew it was weird, that’s why I never told you.” I start laughing again.

“She’s right, sir,” an officer says, bringing both Devan and Officer Richards a few sheets of papers. “I found these in a locked filing cabinet. They’re vet bills with his name on them.” They are the bills from last week’s visit.

“Plus, we found this,” another officer says, handing them Dimitri’s collar.

“I know it’s weird,” I say again. “But he really likes the name. He meowed every time I said it and kept pawing at the flyer, so I went with it. He answers to the name and everything.” As I say this, I see a strange, contemplative look pass over Devan face. He turns his gaze down to the cat in my arms, eyeing Dimitri intently as if he is trying to decide if the cat…what? Knows something about his brother? Is his brother? Okay that last one is completely impossible, but the look on Devan’s face is unnerving, especially because as I follow Devan’s gaze down at my cat, I see Dimitri looking intently back at him.

I jump slightly when Dimitri meows at the man in a way that suggest he is trying to say something to him. The two of them are staring at each other as if they communicating somehow. Devan’s brow furrows in frustration, yet it seems that whatever it is he is trying to hear, see, or sense from my cat isn’t coming through. After a minute, Dimitri also slumps in my arms, seemingly resigned to not being able to communicate with the man.

“What about the witness?” Devan finally asks, startling Officer Richards and I from our contemplation of the two of them.

“Who was this witness?” I ask the officer, knowing that there isn’t a witness and if there is, the person is a vindictive liar.

“I can’t give out that information, ma’am,” the officer says, putting a hand up to stop Devan from answering instead.

All of a sudden, I knew. “Is she an extremely tall red head? I think her name is Mave or something like that. And she is way too beautiful for her own good.”

Devan and the police officer look at each other sharply. “You know this woman?” Officer Richards asks.

“Yes. She’s the one I told you I’m having problems with,” I say, looking directly at Devan. “She is some psycho who believes my cat is hers.” I hold up Dimitri to show them which cat she thinks is hers. “Though he looks nothing like her cat and isn’t even the same breed. You can talk to my vet if you want to know more about her. I think they have her information.”

“We’ll do that,” the officer says, noting her name and the information on a flip pad.

“You can press charges against her for lying to the police, right?” I ask with a hint of satisfaction in my voice.

The police officer only smiles at me.

“Abby, I’m sorry about all of this,” Devan cuts in, attempting to step closer to me.

“Save it. I can’t believe I fell for your bullshit. Why would you go out of your way to take me out just so that you could check out my house?”

“That’s not why I asked you out.”

“Why then, if you already had a witness who said she saw your brother in my house?”

“The witness came forward the day we went out. I didn’t know anything about it until the next day.”

“You know what, I don’t care. Get out of my house. I’m sorry your brother is missing. I wish I could help. And I will keep an eye out for him, but I don’t want to ever have to look at you again.”

“Abby, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t. I know we barely know each other, but you should have come to me instead of doing all of this. Just go.”

When he doesn’t make a move, Officer Richards puts a hand on his arm and pushes him out the door. “I’m sorry for the intrusion, Miss Sinclair.”

“Don’t worry about it. You were only doing your job.”

He nods at me and leaves. I shut and lock the door behind him. The tears come the second I am alone. Committing his second real act as a house cat, Dimitri nudges my hand away from my face and licks first my chin then my cheek before burying his head in my neck. I pet him and thank him for comforting me.

“I’m all right, Dimitri, or at least I will be,” I say to my fur ball and go into the kitchen. I sit him down in a chair, walk over to the fridge, and pull out a pint of moose track ice cream. “This and a nice horror flick should help me forget about him. You want to come cuddle with me?” I ask, heading to my bedroom. He quickly runs after me.

Chapter 14

~~~Dimitri~~~

Weeks have passed since my body has tried to shift on its own. I’ve tried numerous times to bring on a shift, to no avail. On the plus side, there has been a slight increase in my magic. I’m now able to move small things around the room. This has come in handy a few times when Sebastian has tried to play with me. I have fun sending him sliding across the floor when he tries to sneak up on me.

I can also manipulate my food. Now I can eat actual hamburger patties, Mac and Cheese, and other simple things instead of Friskies Seafood Blend cat food or Fancy Feast miscellaneous meat with gravy, not that I have actually tasted any of that since I’ve been able to alter their taste, but being able to turn those tiny little bits of dry, hard food into actual food is a plus. I’m not sure what human food will do to this body, but I’m hoping I’ll be human before I find out.

I don’t have a problem slipping in and out of human heads either. I can’t communicate with them, yet, unfortunately. Abby is starting to notice that something is off about me. Thankfully, having the ability to enter her head and see what she is thinking has helped me hide myself a little better. My plan had not been to act like a common house cat, but apparently, I’ve been acting too human, according to her thoughts.

Devan hasn’t been around at all. I thought this was going to upset Abby, but she is way too pissed at him to care that he hasn’t been by the house. Even if she begins to feel the slightest bit depressed by it, one of her friends or her sister, all of whom were informed about Devan’s search warrant bright and early the next morning, are more than willing to remind her of how much of a jerk he is.

We haven’t heard much out of Mave either. She tried to come by the house the day after Devan showed up with the warrant. Abby didn’t see her, but I did. I was up in the living room window staring out at a world I really wanted to rejoin when she walked up the front path. She left quickly after seeing me watching her. I guess she wanted to find out if I was still here or back with my brother.

“No sweetie, I don’t want to meet him,” I hear Abby tell her sister for the third time in the last five minutes. With the small amount of weight she has lost and the debacle with Devan, everyone she knows is trying to set her up on a blind date with their coworker, the guy in their kicking boxing class, and their neighbor’s husband’s forth cousin twice removed. It is getting out of hand.

“But he is gorgeous. He’s divorced,” Carrie informs her in a pleading tone.

“Carrie, you know my rule.”

I didn’t, and this comment brings me fully out of my reverie and into their conversation.

“Screw your rule. You’re not going to find a single, thirty-year-old man in the south that hasn’t been married and doesn’t have at least one child.”

That bit of information is helpful. She wants someone who is completely unattached. I fit the bill completely.

“Devan was unmarried and childless.” Before her sister can say a word, she continues. “Wrong guy to bring up, but it is true. I know I’m asking for too much. I just figure that since I have never been married and don’t have any children, I would be better off with someone more like me. I’m not saying those other men don’t deserve someone. They do. I just don’t want to be that someone. I want it all to be the first time for both of us. Plus, I don’t want to have to deal with ex drama, especially not baby-mama drama. I don’t have the patience for that.”

“You are asking for too much, and Devan is a prick. That is why he is unmarried and childless,” Carrie says with a hint of a snarl in her voice.

“His younger brother fits my criteria, too.”

“Abby,” she snaps. “The man’s missing and most likely dead, he doesn’t count.”

“Yes, he does. You said there weren’t any men who fit what I want. I named two.”

“Don’t be this way, sis. You can’t put such strict restrictions on this. If you do, you will never find a man.”

“Then I won’t find one.”

“Abby,” Carry snaps again. “Stop being so damned difficult.”

“Fine,” Abby says, pouting in a very sexy way. “Tell me more about him.”

“Yay. He’s my divorce lawyer’s accountant. He drives a 2012 Dodge something or other. I tuned out some of the guy stuff. Nicole just went on and on about him. He’s five foot eleven. I don’t know how much he weighs. He likes camping. He has his son every other weekend.”

Nicole must have gone on and on because Carrie did as well.

“You know, it sounds to me like Nicole should be the one dating him,” Abby finally interrupts.

“I thought the same thing. She only blushed when I brought it up and said he wouldn’t want her.”

“Okay. Let me get this straight, Nicole has a set of legs that go on for miles. Her face isn’t Hollywood perfect, but she is beautiful. Her hair is long and a chestnut color. Her eyes are a beautiful shade of amber. She is nowhere near as big as I am, but she isn’t supermodel thin. If this man wouldn’t want her, he sure as hell isn’t going to want me,” she tells Carrie. “And even if he did want her, then he sure wouldn’t want me. Either way I’m not in line for this one.”

“You get on my nerves,” Carrie shouts at her. “Just forget about it. I’ll tell Nicole that you aren’t interested.”

“No, you tell her that she needs to go for him herself. Leave me out of it entirely.”

“Fine, whatever. Damn it, James, don’t hit your sister.” She grunts in the phone, sighs heavily, and says, “I gotta go before they kill each other.”

“Shouldn’t they be in bed? It’s like ten o’clock.”

“They should, but Katie is having a sleep over, and the boys are aggravating the girls.”

“Have fun.”

“I will. I love you.”

Abby hangs up and sighs. “At least I don’t have to deal with that every night,” she mumbles to herself. My thoughts exactly. Not that I hate kids and don’t want to have any, but I don’t think I could handle three. One, yes. Two, maybe. But definitely not three.

The phone rings seconds after she hangs up with Carrie. I’m getting up from the sofa to get ready for bed when she answers.

“Hello.”

“I forgot to ask if you got the movie.” It’s her sister again. She sounds out of breath and annoyed yet slightly excited.

“I did. I picked it up this morning.”

“When can I have it?”

“I’ll bring it over tomorrow. That is if I can ever watch the movie. You keep calling, and I keep not being able to have a moment’s peace.”

“Fine, I’m hanging up now, and I will not call you back tonight. I promise.”

“Uh huh.”

“I swear. Night sis.”

The desired movie is
Acheron
, a film adaptation of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s
Dark Hunter
novel. Showtime picked up the rights to create a television series after the extreme success of Charlaine Harris'
Southern Vampire
aka
True Blood
series. I know all of this because she is a big fan of the show. Kenyon’s
Dark Hunter
series on the other hand, and I’m quoting an earlier conversations she had with her friend Crystal, “
A
re the novel equivalent of cheesecake. If I take one bite of either, I will not stop until I’ve consumed everything.” They apparently made this movie first to see how popular it would be. The movie’s ratings were off the charts. She saw it the night it aired, but she hasn’t told her sister this. It went on sale a few days ago, so she picked up a copy, and I’ve heard about nothing else since.