Home > Oath Sworn (Jacky Leon #1)(3)

Oath Sworn (Jacky Leon #1)(3)
Author: Kristen Banet, K.N. Banet

So I knew better than to argue.

“That’s not why you called, though,” I retorted, my patience trying its best to walk away from my brain and leave me agitated. I held it in place, however, and waited for the real reason for my father’s phone call.

“Jacky…did you hear about what’s going on in the Dallas area?” He seemed cautious now, even worried.

I resisted a sigh. Of course he would be. While I fought hard against the familial tie his Changing me brought, he treasured it. Of course he would be worried about a little coup or hostile takeover just two hours from me.

“I saw it on the news. It’s not my business and there’s no reason it should spill over and cause me any trouble,” I said quickly, trying to assuage his fears. If he grew too worried, I knew he would show up, and that did no one any good. We’d be at each other’s throats within hours, and it wouldn’t stop until he felt like I was safe. “I’m just out of their reach. I made sure of it. None of them have holdings within an hour of me.”

“Yes, I remember,” he said patiently, the tinge of worry gone. An act, certainly. Or maybe the worry was an act. I could never tell with Hasan. He was a strange man, somewhat removed from the world around him. I knew it was because of his age, but I wasn’t stupid enough to say it out loud to him or to anyone else.

He was over two thousand years old. When werecats got that old, and not many did, they tended to get a bit withdrawn, like any aloof cat could—or at least that’s what I had been told. They didn’t feel the need to interact with the mortal world. They no longer adapted, they just existed.

“So…” I tried to think of anything to say, knowing the conversation wouldn’t be over until he wanted it to be over. The last time I hung up on him, he’d called back. When I didn’t answer, he showed up. He lived somewhere around New York, but he owned a private plane. He could get to me faster than I could get out of the state I bet.

“Other than that, I had a feeling you would need to talk to me. You’re approaching the end of your first decade as a werecat. That’s a milestone.”

“Yeah…” I chewed the inside of my cheek, trying to remember what that was supposed to mean. Nothing came to mind, which wasn’t good. I had probably forgotten a lesson, which reminded me of the reason I had wanted to make this very dreaded phone call. “I do have a question for you, actually.”

“Anything, my dear,” he said quickly. I could feel the anticipation. It was very rare for me to have a question for Hasan. I knew one other werecat that I preferred to call, but some things could only be answered by the one who Changed me.

“How fast do you Change?” I hoped the question wasn’t insulting. There were some strange rules about werecats he’d once tried to teach me. I had told him to fuck off. One of those things was to never ask how old another werecat was. Not because it was a bad thing, but it was just rude. Like humans. As a human, I had never broached that topic since I had been good at eyeballing someone’s age, but as a werecat, that changed. There was no way to tell someone two thousand years old from twenty-five. It made things sticky and a bit more complicated. Now I just had to hope that asking a shifting question wasn’t rude.

“Hm. That’s interesting. Why?”

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes again. I had been really hoping he wouldn’t ask why. “I’ve been getting faster and it’s been getting more painful. I want a baseline to compare to. You’re it, as the werecat that Changed me.”

“Ah, yes. I Change in less than two minutes. Fast by anyone’s standards. Most werecats take about five minutes. You’ve been getting faster? You were at ten minutes when you left here. Good for a youngling, but not quick.”

“I did it in your time last night,” I whispered. It was actually a lie. I had done it faster, but he didn’t need to know that. “The pain thing…”

“Worried you, I’m hearing. Yes. It’s like growing pains. The body isn’t accustomed yet to the speed at which it’s doing it. It’ll take some time to adjust to the new speed. Once you hit a consistent speed at which you Change, you’ll rebuild your tolerance for it.” He sounded like he was beaming with pride. “Two minutes at only a decade old. That’s exceptional, my darling daughter. I hope you know that. It’s unheard-of. If you were at five minutes, I would have been proud, but that’s just…”

“Okay, it’s good. Thanks. Now, I need to get up and get moving for the day, Hasan, so I’m going to let you go.”

“Stay away from the dog trouble until their keepers get them well in hand, please.”

“Will do. Goodbye.” I wanted off the phone call and I wanted off it now. I didn’t like anything that I’d just heard. Not that his praise wasn’t kind or anything, but I hated being different. He made it sound like I was very different. Different didn’t fit with a quiet, ignored life. Different stood out. Different was challenge and change.

Different was bad and I wanted no part in it.

“Goodbye, Jacqueline,” he said slowly, obviously annoyed my goodbye wasn’t endearing enough. He knew I wanted off the phone. It was an interesting conundrum. I was the modern one. All of thirty-six years old in human years, including the ten I’d spent as a werecat, and yet I wanted to get off the phone call more than the ancient who didn’t want an email until I forced him to get one.

I waited for him to hang up, and once he did, I dropped the phone and groaned. “Fuck me.”

I hated surprise phone calls. I should have known it was coming the night before. Of course he was watching everything that happened within two hundred miles of me. Why hadn’t I realized he was going to call? It was probably because I personally gave no shits about what the werewolves were doing. They were an annoyance and a headache, because I couldn’t wrap my mind around their stupidity, not because they were actually a problem.

As long as it didn’t spill into my territory, it really wasn’t my problem. I might have my issues with it, but I was a werecat. I respected and followed the bounds of my territory. I made no actions outside of it, ever. I even went a step further. I didn’t even shop in the city. I never left. I ordered everything online or made do with what I had in Jacksonville and the portion of Tyler that was my space.

I knew the dangers of playing outside my own land. It left me open to roamers, werecats who put no roots down. If they never entered my home, I could ignore them. If they did, I had to force them out, and fast, or they could challenge. If I left my territory and ran into one? It was a fight no matter what.

Werecats were nothing if not vicious. Territories were safer than roaming, even if they needed some defending. Another werecat would instinctively avoid my home unless they were looking for trouble. It led to fewer fights, or so Hasan told me. If eight fights in six years was less than average, I really didn’t want to know what average was.

I tried to stop thinking about it as I got out of bed. That was it. A werewolf war nearby would also draw the eye of anyone I might have pissed off. There were a few—which was funny, since I had never done anything to any of them. Well, I had never done much to them.

“Stop thinking about it, Jacky,” I mumbled to myself, shaking my head. There were things I wish I had never done. Things I wish I could get rid of, wipe clean from my history. This wasn’t one of them, no matter how hard I tried over the last six years. “This better all blow over.”

I showered and left for Kick Shot before my mind could get too stuck on the current situation. If I kept my head down, no one would remember I was here except Hasan and my only friend in the werecat world, Lani. I walked to Kick Shot today, smart enough to know that shifting in broad daylight was moronic. I normally had a dirt bike I took between, but it was in the shop getting repairs. I knew I would need to replace it soon, but I was attached to it. It was one of the few things I had bought with my own money once I moved here.

It also helped me escape the midday heat faster. It was ninety-eight and humid. Every supernatural creature had a problem with places this hot. It led to most of our kinds becoming more nocturnal than we already were. Monsters go bump in the night and all that. Humans were the only diurnal intelligent species. Everyone else? Werecats, werewolves, fae, vampires, witches, and who knew what else? We played in the dark. We played out of sight, out of mind, though some species started thinking that wasn’t good enough. Hence, werewolves being on the news and everyone locking their doors around the full moon, no matter how safe their neighborhoods were.

Unlocking and walking into the bar, I sighed happily, thankful I left the AC on overnight. It didn’t always help, but there was a difference between eighty and ninety-eight. I would take what I could get, really.

I got to work, trying to drown myself in it. I pulled stock around, opening my books to do inventory before opening the bar. I had several different crates and boxes of booze that I needed to get on the shelves, and what better time than the present?

I worked quietly and quickly, keeping my inventory in check. It was fifteen ‘til five when I was done, right on time. Turning on the TV in the corner as I went, then the radio, because I knew better than to leave it off, I went to the door, watching the clock. The minutes ticked by slowly and the moment five hit, I unlocked the bolt on my front door. I was back behind my bar by five-o-two, like I was five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday.

My routine. I lived by it. When control over being what I was frayed and began to threaten to break, I could always rely on my routine. It was one of the most important things I could have, and my touchstone to reality to stop the Last Change.

There always came a time, werecat or werewolf, where our bodies couldn’t keep the separation any longer and clashed into a war that would never end. It was the source of every horror story version of werewolves in Hollywood, though the humans were ignorant to it.

The last time a werecat hit the Last Change? My kind still whispered about it in dark corners, their eyes full of fear.

   
Most Popular
» Magical Midlife Meeting (Leveling Up #5)
» Magical Midlife Love (Leveling Up #4)
» The ​Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and Ash
» Lover Unveiled (Black Dagger Brotherhood #1
» A Warm Heart in Winter (Black Dagger Brothe
» Meant to Be Immortal (Argeneau #32)
» Shadowed Steel (Heirs of Chicagoland #3)
» Wicked Hour (Heirs of Chicagoland #2)
» Wild Hunger (Heirs of Chicagoland #1)
» The Bromance Book Club (Bromance Book Club
» Crazy Stupid Bromance (Bromance Book Club #
» Undercover Bromance (Bromance Book Club #2)
vampires.readsbookonline.com Copyright 2016 - 2024