Chapter 10: Rescue

I felt myself falling as I woke, body twisting sideways, but not in time. I simply didn't have the strength left to save myself, landing heavily in a puddle, cracked ribs giving way as I crashed to earth.

The ledge, my last resting place. Not big enough for a cat thrashing in his sleep, it turned out. I gasped for air, pain jabbing my insides with every breath, darkness wavering in and out as I coughed out water breathed in on my fall.

I tried to rise, but I had nothing left. Instead, I lay there in the icy pool, feeling my heart slow, the world around me closing in. Even the soft growl of an approaching dog did little to stir me.

I simply couldn't.

"Leave me be," I whispered, surprised to find I could speak in this form. "Just go away and let me die."

The dogs hesitated a moment at the sound of my voice, but it did nothing to stop them.

"I said, go." My tail flopped in the water, making waves, rising water choking me a moment. "Go!"

Growling, eyes glowing in the low light, they slunk closer.

Death by canine. How absurd.

A flicker of power burst inside me, the part of me who would never, ever quit summoning the very last of what I had to give. A laugh escaped me as I fixed the dogs with my amber eyes, the glow lighting the puddle I lay in. Magic. Just enough to buy me another moment.

The lead dog growled, licked his chops, slunk a step closer.

Stopped. Whined. Spun and ran off with his two companions. It wasn't until they disappeared around the corner I heard it.

The slamming of a door, the whinny of a horse. A girl's voice cried, "Thad!" even as footsteps approached, light and quick.

I caught a scent I didn't recognize as a shadow fell over me, skirt swishing beside me. I looked up.

Lost. Lost in beautiful blue eyes and the most flawless face, a caring smile and the aroma of something lovely and fresh.

And power. A great deal of it, reaching for me.

"Well now," she said, her voice and accent music to me, "what have we here? A mess, I'd say. But I feel magic in you." Her nose twitched, healing energy entering my body, the pain and ache subsiding, terrible darkness on the retreat from her ability. "How remarkable."

"I'm thinking the same thing," I whispered.

Blue eyes flew wide and she gasped before clapping her delicately gloved hands together, a strand of auburn hair falling over the shoulder of her perfectly tailored dress. "He speaks," she said. "The plot thickens."

"Thad." A second girl, also with power from the feel of her, came to a halt next to my savior, panting and fanning herself, gazing down at me with disgust. It was all right. I was used to disgust. But Thad, my rescuer, didn't once look at me that way.

Warmth I'd never known formed a seed of something amazing but unfamiliar inside my heart and made a home there.

"Witches," I said, unable to speak above a gravelly mutter, knowing I should worry, considering demons had been lured to this plane by witches for centuries and not always with happy endings. But I knew I was dead already and hearing a voice speak to me in kindness was worth the risk.

"Indeed." Thad reached for me even as her friend, her chubby face pinched with horror, pulled her back.

"Why, he's just a stray or something," she said, hand over her nose, accent much stronger than her friend's.

"He's nothing of the sort, George," Thad said, scooping me up into her arms with no care or caution for her beautiful clothing, cradling me gently against her chest. "Are you coming or not, then?"

A few brisk strides and we were inside a hansom, more healing magic winding through my hurts. A warm cloak draped over the both of us as Thad knocked on the side of the carriage.

"Onward, driver," she said while George settled herself across from her friend and pressed a handkerchief to her lips.

"What will Mother say?"

"Pish-tosh," Thad said, beaming a smile I knew could light the entire world if she let it. "She'll be delighted and as curious as I am to discover what a demon soul is doing inside the body of a cat."

George's eyes flew wide. "You're certain?" No disgust any longer, not as she leaned close, her power touching me too. "Why, I do believe you're right!"

"Of course I am," Thad said, stroking my brow with her bare fingers, gloves discarded, wet and filthy from handling me. "I'm being rude, I fear." She pointed to herself. "I am Thaddea Hayle, of the Tremere coven. And this is my dear friend, Georgina Brindle."

"Brindle coven," George smiled.

What a relief to encounter those of breeding and obvious power. Was I safe at last?

For now at least. I mustered my best and answered. "I am Sassafras," I said, almost adding Lord of the Seventh only to stop myself.

Lord no longer. Never again.

"And your present predicament?" Thad's fingers scratched places that drove me to distraction, places I'd longed to itch, but wasn't able. "I take it you didn't intend to end up dying in a back alley of London with most of your power missing?"

Clever girl. "I did not," I said. "But that story is mine to keep."

George muttered something under her breath about rudeness and Thaddea's penchant for finding trouble. But my rescuer just smiled down at me and wrapped me in more magic.

"We'll see about that," she said.

***