Cat Scratch Fever; Blue-Collar Werewolves V by Buffi BeCraft Read Free Book Online Page B

station, taking out the trays and
setting them on the counter. From her place in her cell, she
watched him sort through his cabinets. “I have transportation for
the lioness and the tiger waiting.”
    “I’m staying,” Naomi said, feeling, the need to stick close. Cats stuck together, though Nathan sounded
a bit touched in the head. Cats running with the wolves. Delusional
panthers following Bastet. Good grief, what next? She hoped she
wasn’t sorry about passing up this chance to escape. “I’ll leave
when Nathan leaves.”
    “Me too,” growled Morrow.

Chapter Three
    With a last glance inside the room and down
the hallway for hidden monsters, Matthew stepped into the room. He
walked around the desk, half expecting to find the accountant laid
out on the floor from a heart attack. Reports and scribbled sticky
notes littered the floor. Milton Hambly was a neat freak.
Uneasiness crawled up his back. Matthew hoped he wasn’t looking at
a crime scene.
    Completing his circuit around the desk, he
considered the perfectly spaced filing cabinets, filing up the
entire wall. Almost two inches separated each of the six cabinets.
Hambly’s degrees displayed above the filing cabinets. Educational
penis envy ran rampant at BioPet.
    Bending down, Matthew studied the bit of
blue that caught his eye behind the filing cabinets. Squinting, he
decided that the roll looked a lot like blueprints. But with the
files spaced so close, he’d never reach them. Matthew glanced
around to find anything long enough that he could slide the tube of
paper upward with. Finding nothing off hand, he shoved the books
aside and attempted to wrestle the cabinet. He frowned when the
thing wouldn’t budge. What was locked inside? Bricks?
    After one more glance at the blueprint,
Matthew sighed. He wanted them. They could be nothing. Or they
could be something pretty important. The ‘feeling’ that had been
bothering him all night screamed the latter, and was getting
louder. Crouching back down, he let out a breath. Slipping a hand
between the cabinets, he let the cool metal seep into his palm. He
could do this. Using his ability did not make him a freak.
    One more breath exercise and Matthew felt
his worry fall away. He focused on the bit of blue paper, imagining
his fingers on the outside. His eyelids dropped halfway. He didn’t
feel the slide of sweat as he consciously focused his telekinetic
power. The blueprint shifted, then crept upward in tiny jerks.
    Matthew rose, sliding his hand upward along
the cool cabinet. This shouldn’t be hard; he moved things
unintentionally all the time while welding. In his mind, he held
the blueprint between two fingers, slowly drawing it upward. Up and
over the top of the cabinet. Then the long tube brushed his shaking
fingers and he clutched it. Part of him felt powerful. Triumphant.
He felt like the caveman that invented fire. Rah!
    Matthew pushed the elation aside. Instead of
embracing the surge of power inside him, he struggled to put it
back inside the box that kept it contained. On the outside, he
unrolled the blueprints on top of the mess on the desk.
    He could read them well enough, having taken
some formal drafting courses back in his college days. It had been
his way of flirting with the idea of making everything up to his
mother. Her husband, Adam Weis, was a respected builder. Matthew
had thought he could have it both ways until his father informed
him differently. It was either Richard or Diana. At the time,
Matthew picked college. God, he’d been stupid.
    The energy still moved inside him, unwilling
to be shut away. The power wouldn’t settle, making him more edgy as
his senses picked up on pockets of supernatural energy in the
vicinity. As Matthew glanced over the building specs, he became
aware of several things at once.
    One, why would anyone use that much silver
plating? Some of it wasn’t even designed to see the light of day.
You don’t reinforce with silver. Steel, yes. There were two