Chapter 7

“Get up, Draen.” Jabbing at her panther, he pressed a massive paw over his eyes, and moaned pathetically. “I let you sleep as long as I could. No doubt that Seeker is on our trail. I’d like to keep this head start and your need to sleep keeps slowing me down.”

Cylthan felt a fullness in the back of her mind, hearing a deep, stoic voice as clearly spoken as though it came from a mouth. “I do not wish to wake.”

“And I do not wish to be captured again!” she retorted with a growl, rubbing her arms as bumps shivered across her skin. “Guy was awful and creepy. He ... made me feel weird. Like, yeah I was scared, but also I felt ... tingly.”

The panther peered at her from under his paw. “I still do not understand why you would not allow me to kill him. He had foul intentions.” Turning onto his belly, he tucked his paws under his chest, watching his mistress through lidded eyes.

“Because I don’t need more than one Seeker on my tails right now ... or ever. Killing him would just make us targets. It was funny to play, but I think I’ve run out of the easy ones.”

The panther huffed and flicked his tail. “Had you listened to me from the start, then he would be dead by another’s hand, and we would not be worried about it. Whenever you disobey me, this is what happens.”

Glaring at him, she shook her head to herself, shivering from a cold tingle up her spine. “Yeah, well, I ... was trying to avoid anyone dying. You know I hate that.”

The judgment on the giant cat’s face made her frown and fidget a little. “You thought he was good looking, and you felt guilty about erasing his memory while he was being hunted and that was why we went after him.”

Making another disgusted sound and throwing up her hands, she turned away. “I changed my mind, okay? He certainly wasn’t ‘good looking’ enough to deal with all that again, so can we go now? Before he catches up? I’d like to keep this. You know, in case I ... don’t have you around.”

The cat’s eyes hardened to a purposeful narrowing instead of lazily lidded. “I can live as long as a human and I am only 43. You will not be rid of me that easily.”

Smiling at him, she nodded and turned away to kick the small fire out. While she could march for 3 days, her friend needed to sleep at least one night of those. If they started going now, just as dawn was cresting gold and cobalt, they could maybe get far enough ahead that he would lose their trail, especially if they kept moving through the deep underbrush where his horse could not go.

“You never know. You might want to go home. See your cubs.”

The cat sucked in a breath that she could hear, but his face and voice remained stoic. “They have grown without me. Perhaps they have cubs of their own. I am dead to my clan. I knew that would be my fate when I chose to accompany you. The only thing I can do for them now is to keep their location secret.”

“Well, then we should get going so it stays a secret. I have a few of my own, you know.”

Turning, she faded into the undergrowth. “You said it’s not that easy to be rid of you, but if you don’t hurry, I’ll leave you behind!”