Chapter 40

A second and third howl quickly followed the first. The wolf seemed to be incredibly excited and unable to withstand declaring it to the world.

I wasn't sure what had happened to the wolf or Delilah. Though I wasn't sure it was a bad thing. As the wolf howled I could feel a great deal of strength emanating from the beast, but I didn't feel afraid at all. Not like I had earlier when the wolves first appeared.

While the wolf did not cause me to be afraid, the other problem caused more than enough fear in me. Looking down the street I saw that the giant black and gray striped feline had taken note of the wolf. It was eying it carefully. I wasn't sure what it was thinking. Though I could guess that it was wary of the new threat.

Then as the wolf finished its fourth howl and began to look around at its surroundings, the giant feline seemed to make a decision. It immediately turned tail and ran away.

I hadn't expected that at all, and while it was a welcome change.

The wolf also noticed the feline as it ran away. The wolf gave a happy yip then to my great surprise it jumped into the shadow created by the crashed vehicles and disappeared from sight.

"Did that just happen?" Megan asked after a few moments of painful silence.

"It did. Kind of anticlimactic." I replied.

"That just makes it better for us. We should leave while we can." Micheal called out.

"Let's go." I said in agreement.

"What about Delilah?" Enya asked, appearing right in front of my face. Her face was covered with tears as she sobbed a bit.

I shrugged. "I am not sure. I can still feel our bond, so she should be fine." I replied.

"Really?" Enya asked me, sounding hopeful.

I nodded. "I don't know what is going on, but there is no reason for me to lie to you." I told her.

Enya seemed reassured by that and flew towards Megan's car. Sil appeared in front of me before I could follow after her. "Is what you said true?" she asked me seriously.

I nodded.

Sil didn't seem as happy as Enya. Instead she looked troubled. "Is something wrong?" I asked.

Sil shook her head. "No, not really, it was her choice to make. It is just not one I would make." she told me.

"You know what happened?" I asked her.

Sil nodded. "Yes, while I am not as old as Delilah, I am not nearly as young as Enya." she told me. "I am aware of what Delilah has done. Others like us have decided to do the same when they found themselves with the opportunity." she told me.

"Is it a bad thing?" I asked hesitantly.

"Daryl let's go!" Micheal called.

I nodded. "Come on you can tell me in the car." I told Sil then ran towards Megan's car. Once again Megan was behind the wheel, but this time Caly and Karen were in the back.

"Sit in the front passenger." Karen told me through the open window. "Caly and I still have a few things to talk about."

That was worrying, but I nodded and headed for the correct door. I was more focused on what Sil could tell me about Delilah.

Once I was in the car Micheal's truck took off with Megan just behind him. They drove around the wreck and down the street towards highway 202. Once we were past the intersection Samantha's black car caught up with us and followed behind Megan's car.

"So?" I asked looking at Sil once I was buckled into the car.

"What?" Sil asked looking up at me from my lap.

"What did Delilah do?" I asked her.

The car went completely silent as everyone focused on Sil.

Sil shifted around uncomfortably with everyone focused on her. "It would be better if she explained it to you." Sil explained.

I frowned, "I would like that too, but she isn't here." I reminded her.

"Not yet." Sil agreed then flew up onto the dashboard to look out the windshield.

I stared at the little wind elemental for a moment but it was clear she had no intention of telling us anything more.

I looked over at Megan then back at Karen, Caly, and Enya but they all seemed as confused as I did.

A heavy weight landed in my lap with an angry yowl followed quickly by angry hissing.

I looked down to see a black and gray striped house cat had appeared in my lap. It was staring at my feet angrily as it hissed.

To my surprise the head of the black wolf appeared out of the shadows under my feet. "A present for you master." Delilah's voice said out of the wolf's mouth.

"Huh?" I said stupidly.

Delilah's voice rang out in laughter as the wolf looked at me with amusement, or at least what I thought was amusement. "It is me Master, but before I explain I believe it would be best if you used your tame ability on this trouble maker." Delilah told me.

I had a lot of questions I wanted to ask, but staring down at the cat in my lap, I realized that the black and gray stripes on the cat looked familiar. Then it hit me. The cat was the oversized feline. Instead of a mutated tiger from the zoo, the cat was like chewy, a mutated pet.

As soon as I realized what the cat in my lap was, I realized Delilah really had brought me a present, if I could tame it.

I slipped my mind into my mana core and looked at my tame ability. While I had the ability I had no idea how to use it. Peering into the ability I scanned through the information it made available to me until, unfortunately it didn't let me take what I wanted. Concentrating on it caused all of the information to flood into my mind. Thankfully tame, as it was, wasn't a high grade ability so the flood of information didn't take long.

With the information I needed I shifted my consciousness out of my mana core. As I did I found myself looking into the golden eyes of the cat as it stared into my face. It was standing with its hind legs on my lap and its front legs against my chest. "Don't even think about it." the cat said with a male voice.

"Don't make me reconsider eating you." Delilah said from the direction of my feet.

The cat turned its head to look back at Delilah as her head stuck out of the shadows and hissed at her. "I don't see you volunteering." the cat retorted as his tail waved around angrily.

"I am already bonded to Master." Delilah replied.

I didn't wait any longer. The cat was a mutant like Chewy which meant it could attack me at any moment, and it had the power to cause me a lot of harm before Delilah or anyone else could stop it.

"It will be fine." I told the cat reassuringly as I released my mana out of core and through my voice. The cat looked back at me warily but the mana had already entered into the cat. Tame was an ability to create trust and obedience in an animal through interacting with them. I didn't have a lot of time, so I had to use the faster approach that was closer to brainwashing, which was little more than using the same technique I usually would, with a lot more mana. Unfortunately the more intelligent the creature the less effective it was. Which was where my bond ability came in. Like the link between bond and the element abilities, the link between bond and tame created Beast Bond.

Using the tame ability to soothe the cat, I used beast bond to form a link between the pair of us. While it wasn't the first bond I had created, it was the first between myself and an unknown entity. So I was more than a little nervous. Thankfully I didn't try and force a powerful controlling bond between me and the cat. Instead I offered a bond between the two of us. While it was still a master-servant bond, it was a temporary bond in the form of a simple agreement. The agreement provided the cat with safety and shelter, in exchange he ensured the safety of me and mine, and the right to discuss a greater bond at the end of the first agreement. As such the cat quickly agreed to the bond under the influence of tame. Interestingly enough he didn't notice I didn't place a time limit on the deal.

Once the bond had been formed the cat settled onto my lap and began to purr. I took the opportunity to start petting the cat while continuing to use my tame ability on him.

"Master, you could have asked more from him." Delilah commented to me.

I nodded, "I could have, but this is all still new to me, and besides I don't want a pissed off bonded." I told her.

"I see, that might not be a bad way to look at it. Not that I would do the same." Delilah replied.

"Maybe, but shouldn't you explain what happened to you?" I asked.

"I could, but my time would be better spent scouting ahead." Delilah replied mischievously then her head disappeared back into my shadow then she was gone. I could still feel our bond, so I wasn't worried that she had taken off.

"Is she always like that?" the cat in my lap asked.

"No, it's new." I replied. "Do you have a name?" I asked.

"Yeah." he replied. "Got anything to eat around here?" he asked looking around.

"Didn't you just eat?" Megan asked nervously.

"What? That human? I didn't eat him, just swatted him a bit." the cat replied then leapt off my lap into the back of the car. I looked back to see the cat curling up on Karen's lap. "Much better." it said then gave a big cat yawn before settling in for a nap.

"Wait, you didn't tell me your name." I reminded the cat.

The cat opened one eye, gave me a look for a second then closed it again and ignored me.

"I knew there was a reason I preferred dogs." I grumbled.

"Didn't Delilah do the same thing a second ago?" Megan asked me.

"I said dog, not wolf." I retorted.

"Chewy doesn't like you either." Megan reminded me.

I groaned and closed my eyes, maybe getting tame was a bad idea.