Faline

I don't wake up at all throughout the night, so when my eyes open to show not just one, but two warm bodies next to me, it's a little unsettling. Head goes up fast as I look over them. One I recognize as Maii, his small coyote shape curling up close to me.

His sable and black body lead to a puffy tail laying next to his face, white-tipped ears wiggle as he dreams. The white also makes a mask on his face, around his eyes, and down his nose. In a way, it looks almost like he's wearing the top half of a skull.

The other ball of fur I don't recognize visually, but by scent it's Kerry. I can't see her face from this angle, all I can see is golden yellow fur covered in spots and stripes. Not like mine, hers reminds me more of cheetah spots.

I see her ears as well, kinda hard to miss with as big as they are. As soon as I try to move they will wake, so either I lay here, or get up. Looking around, we're the only ones in here. All other scents, even Nicolaus', are faint.

Probably means he sent someone else to deal with his mess last night. Thinking back through things since I first woke up here, really paying attention to his actions, he had mellowed out, but I was also in cat form a lot, so no human body was there to cling to. Granted he clung to me as a cat as well, but he could only do so much.

My mind whirls as I think of the 'business' that had been brought up when I first woke, which was later referred to as a 'he' when we were in the solarium. The expressions that he'd had before and after as well as Anthony's, then his mood swings whenever he got news.

A smile forms in my heart. Nicolaus may have been sending people after my sister, but she's been taking whatever he throws at her and tossing it back in his face.

I don't recall feeling what happened to the first one that I know of, the one that raped her, but I felt her relief at the death of the second one. He'll be getting news on the outcome of that soon, as this time he'll be expecting something since I'd mentioned her name.

I won't get answers from either Vampire or dog, so my mind goes straight to the giant lion man, the offer he gave, I may have to take him up on that soon. Also remember everything I thought of when I saw the painting and how things are now unfolding. I scowl, but I don't think it shows on my face. That whole mess with 'fate' and 'destiny' controlling everything, how I was given the offer, then later finding out about the killers being sent.

A sneeze of dissent comes from me, which has Maii jumping straight up and yelping. Talk about skittish. He settles down once he gets a look around, sitting back on his rump as his maw opens wide in a yawn. Kerry had also lifted her head, especially after his yelp.

"It was just a sneeze, Maii. Calm down."

The voice in my head is not my own, making it my turn to jump up and back away. Kerry uncurls and turns towards me as she sits up. A smallish feline head topped with big ears is looking at me with greenish-yellow eyes that are only a few shades lighter than when she's human.

Her legs look much longer than my own, but by her sitting, she doesn't look that much bigger than I am. Damn near the same size in body but she has height. My head shakes as I look at her.

"Sorry. You probably don't know much about Shifters, do you? We can communicate telepathically when in our animal forms, able to project our voices into one or multiple people's heads. Maii would be able to do it as well if he ever decides to talk."

She looks over at him as she says it, but he just lowers his upper body down, his rear end rising high into the air as he stretches. Guess that's answered. I try talking to her in my head, but there's no response. Dammit.

They may be able to talk to others, but that doesn't mean they can hear mine. Of course not. That would just make things too easy. Time for some charades. Easy enough to do with Avina and the Vampire, shouldn't be too difficult with other animals, right?

I look around the room then back at Maii and Kerry, she picks up on my question of what they're doing here.

"We were told that we've been assigned to stay with you, then called for shortly after. Your Maker told us to stay with you when he left. Since you and Maii were already in animal form, I shifted as well. I hope you don't mind."

She starts to sound scared, so I shake my head, telling her I don't mind. Since it's just the two of them and I need more answers than I know how to act for, I shift back. Bringing my legs up and resting my chin on my knees.

"It's alright Kerry, I just wasn't expecting it is all. How long have I been asleep?"

She stretches before she shifts as well, sitting with her legs crossed Indian style. Clothes and even nipple clamps gone. Most of the Shifters I've seen so far seem to be more comfortable nude than most humans.

Unless someone is caught gawking, then it makes it awkward, but the only ones doing that are the patrons and some of the Vampires. Even the newer submissives don't look at each other like that. I've seen a few that look very traumatized and shell-shocked, they're always with one or two of the other slaves.

Kerry is one of the newer ones I think, don't want to ask though. You can pretty much count on the patrons not being exactly gentle, the opposite actually, from some of the 'toys' I've seen. So what was done to her isn't new or out of the ordinary for them.

If she's from the street, it probably wasn't the first time something like that has happened. Even the almost being bled dry part. It's a very hard life, but it's supposed to be better here. Safer. Obviously not. Well, it will be when I'm around and able to do something about it.

"You've slept all night, it's morning now if my internal clock is right."

That's pretty much what mine's saying as well, I just wanted to be sure since I'd been so exhausted. Maii inches closer till he's next to me again then lays down once more. I leave him to it, I can only imagine what he's been through to jump like that at just a sneeze.

"I'm sorry, I hadn't meant to sleep that long. I had intended a nap and then coming back to do more kitchen work. Something just...came up."

Looking over her face and neck, I see she still bears the collar. Didn't see it amongst her fur. The bruises have faded drastically. Good. Good food and sleep will do wonders, no matter how supernatural you are. That's just a fact of life, or unlife, whichever.

"The Mistress had said the Vampire had been dealt with, do you know what happened?"

She knows which one I mean, but still shakes her head.

"No one that I talked to before coming here had seen him since he was taken to her rooms."

From the story Avina had told me about the Vamp in her past, I think I might have a small idea, but since I'm not sure, I don't say anything. Would hate to get her hopes up just to see them smashed if he happened to walk back in.

"Thank you, for what you did. You didn't have to do that. From what he was saying during... I knew he was going to come back for me at some point. I didn't mean to act as I did, I was just caught off..."

My touching her knee has her looking back to me from wandering the room, my head shaking hard.

"Never apologize for being frightened of one who has hurt you so deeply. If you do, then I have to, and I refuse to apologize to the one who has hurt me."

I try to give her a smile, but don't quite make it. Her own hand reaches out to touch on the scars I'd been given just before I was converted. I'd forgotten all about them. Not even registering them when I'd been in the shower in human form.

"Did your Maker save you from the street? That's where the Mistress found me. I was able to avoid most of the pimps in my area by shifting, but seeing a serval in the city is not an everyday thing, it would just have brought more attention to myself. I was able to sleep a few times in smaller holes, but sleeping doesn't exactly put food in your belly. I was tired of being alone, and before one of the pimps could come for me, she was there."

The hero worship going around for that woman is just plain sickening if you ask me, but I wasn't one that had been brought in by her tender mercies.

"No. He's the one who gave them to me."

She looks surprised before she schools her face, Maii shifts position next to me. The smile that had been on her face fades as she looks over my markings.

"Shouldn't they have healed?"

"Not if they were given before I was changed."

Confusion fills her features. I tend to bring that out in people, I've noticed. She moves to kneel next to me, looking down my back, at the whip and flail scars. The raised flesh from other 'toys' marking my front and back.

My thighs tingle in memory of feeling the lash falling over and over because I would not do willingly what he wanted me to, whether it was disobeying an order or him trying to get me to enjoy pain. Since she had shared a part of herself with me, I feel obligated to do the same.

"Nicolaus snatched me away from my family, ordered his Werewolf to kill my sister, then tortured me for days while he was in the process of making me like him. I didn't even know any of this, any of you, were real before him. It was all fantasy that was played out in chat rooms on websites. I had never been beaten like that before him, never raped, never treated as if I were less than human."

My voice is hollow as I look out with unseeing eyes. Arms wrap around my legs with my chin still resting on my knees. Can feel my hair falling around me in thick strands. She pulls back from running her fingertips across one of the more prominent flesh bundles low on my back.

"I have always known and thought Vampires were rough with others not like them, but I thought they converted each other under more...persuasive means."

My scoff comes from the very depths of me. She keeps going though.

"That does explain better your actions whenever you were running around that first couple of days. We had thought it was you just making things difficult for the wolf, getting him in trouble with your Sire."

I don't bother reacting since I know what she's leading in to.

"But yesterday in the kitchen... You acted friendly towards him, he was gentle with you, a totally different type of person than what you describe."

Nodding, I close my eyes.

"Amazing, isn't it? At first, I thought it was just from coming here, but I've been wondering recently if it was my spending so much time in cat form. He was changing. Demanding I be right at his side, per usual, but I wasn't getting beaten. Even after that first time of running out and everyone seen me carried back, he didn't beat me. I was injured from his capturing me, but he made sure they healed with no fur in them."

I sigh and shrug, confusion heavy in my head.

"The last few days, he's been showing me one face while really wearing a different one. He'd been so nice, so gentle, and even kind. He would be annoyed when Anthony and I would fight, but he wouldn't punish me for doing it. This whole time he was lulling me, enticing me, drawing me away from the safety of being in cat form."

My face hardens as my nails dig harshly into my arms.

"You two were called to me because he didn't want to have to deal with me. Not after my finding out he's been sending people to kill my sister, which his dog had failed to do the first time. I now remember him telling me when he had first made an exchange with me, that he would have Anthony hunt her down, bring her to where we were, and that she would be my first kill when I changed."

Tears escape my eyes, frustration at myself tears. The shame of not seeing things earlier. Feeling fur at my feet, I look down. Maii had curled himself around me, head resting on my foot, looking out at me through his white mask with reddish-brown eyes.

A small smile crosses my lips, my heart lifting.

"Joke has always been on him though. He said a while ago that people keep underestimating me, and yet here he is underestimating my sister. She foiled his first attempt on her life, surviving his dog, then another when he'd sent a different wolf after her, and yet again last night, when I felt her kill the Vampire that attacked her."

Kerry moves so she's in front of me once more, sitting in the usual slave position while looking at me with wide eyes. Even Maii lifts his head and looks as well. I frown.

"What?"