Claws (9780545469678) by Rachel Mike; Grinti Grinti Read Free Book Online

marble. It seemed to purr in her hand and the shadow-shapes within it had started to look like cats. They were searching for something. Searching for
her
.
    â€œYou won’t get another chance,” Jack hissed, and there was hunger in his voice now. “What’s that word you humans are always throwing around like it means something? Love? Don’t you love your sister? Don’t you want to save her? Do it!”
    â€œShe’s my sister. Of course I love her,” Emma said softly. Then, almost without knowing what she was doing, she brought the Heart’s Blood up to her mouth. She tasted the deep, wild darkness on the tip of her tongue. She smelled it as it filled her nose. Heard it like the hiss of a great cat. Time seemed to slow.
    Then the feeling was gone. Emma looked down at her hands. The Heart’s Blood was gone, too.
    Everything sped up again. Her head spun, and an electric tingling filled her nose and mouth.
    â€œI think I lost it,” Emma said. She stared at her empty hands.
    But the electric smell was growing stronger. No, it was a different smell. The dirty clothes she’d dumped in a laundry bag seemed to reek. Jack stank, too — of dirt and musk and . . . copper? Why did he smell like copper? She smelled the dish-washing liquid in the kitchen, the Chinese takeout in the trash, the mold on the ceiling . . .
    â€œWell?” Jack asked. “Do you feel it? Do you have the Heart’s Blood inside you?”
    Emma realized she was on the floor. She felt dizzy, sick. Her heart was pounding. “I . . . I don’t know. It’s like smelling is more important than seeing. But I’m okay now. I think . . .”
    There was a strange pulling sensation in her gut that made the room spin, and suddenly she smelled cats outside. There were so many of them the smell nearly choked her. Then came a deafening smash. The trailer shook violently back and forth. Papers and schoolbooks slid across her desk and crashed to the floor. Something shattered in the kitchen.
    Emma felt more than heard the growl outside the trailer, felt it deep in her chest and the pit of her stomach.
    â€œJack! Who did you give the Heart’s Blood to?” rumbled a voice. “What did you do with her? Come out here, murderer, or we’ll rip this trailer open to find you!”
    Emma grabbed hold of her bed and pulled herself up onto her feet, then leaned forward to peer out the window. Her heart nearly stopped when she set eyes on the mountain lion pacing outside the trailer, sleek and golden and full of murderous energy. Other huge cats came slinking out the forest and into her yard. Leopards, cheetahs, lynxes, jaguars, panthers, and, right at the back, a small tiger with an oversized head, sticking-out fur, and big, bright eyes. Only one of the cats was small like Jack, a round-bellied gray with long, tufted ears and a thick patch of fur on his chin like a beard. He sat gazing at her calmly, but she knew, somehow, that the weight of his magic was heavier than any of the others’. There were maybe sixteen cats in all. They sat, or paced, or lay down, but all of them, except the tiger, watched the trailer with a hungry intensity, their tails swishing gently over the grass.
    â€œThey can’t hurt you if you’re the Pride-Heart,” Jack hissed. But even so, his back was arched, and his tail had puffed out to twice its normal size.
    The mountain lion snarled, and Emma stumbled back from the window. Her knees felt weak and she grabbed at her dresser to keep herself upright. What had she gotten herself into? And here she’d been worrying about her mom killing her. She’d be lucky to live so long!
    Then there came a horrible screeching noise. The lion was right outside the window. It held up a massive paw full of wickedly sharp claws and ran them down the side of the trailer. A strip of aluminum peeled away with another screech. The lion was literally going to tear the