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

trailer open to get at them, and there was nothing Emma could do to stop it.
    â€œI thought you said they needed a Pride-Heart to give them magic!” she shouted at Jack.
    â€œIf they have any magic, it’s coming from you, from the Heart’s Blood inside you. It’s leaking out without you realizing it. Can you feel anything?” Emma nodded dumbly, remembering the pulling sensation in her gut before she smelled the cats. “That means it’s working!” There was excitement in his voice, tinged with something else. Emma was too scared to wonder what it was. “Now get out there and do something. It’s no good if the trailer crashes down on us before they even find out what you are!”
    Emma swallowed hard, then stumbled out of her room. The movement and all the smells around her made her head swim. She was terrified, but for some reason she couldn’t explain she didn’t want to run away. Everything felt unreal. She felt light as air and strong as a rock. She wanted to laugh. She wanted to scream.
    Instead, she raced through the kitchen, nearly tripping over Jack as he darted between her legs. Glass crunched under her shoes. Emma threw open the front door and jumped over the steps onto the concrete walkway. As she ran, she saw Mr. Simbi’s tail disappear into his trailer, heard the door slam shut. She could hear birds high above, the soft swish of wind through the trees. She could smell the grass, the forest, the cats. Their scent seemed familiar to her, somehow comforting, like an old memory at the back of her mind, just out of reach.
    But the way they looked at her wasn’t comforting in the least. They seemed to be sizing her up, as if she were some kind of rodent, at best a brief, bloody amusement. She opened her mouth to speak just as the mountain lion pounced. For a moment she watched it in mid-leap. It looked majestic. Then it slammed into her, sending her flying face-first into the grass.
    Emma rolled over and tried to force air back into her lungs, but two heavy paws planted themselves on her chest. The big cat’s breath was hot on her face, and all Emma could look at were long, pointed teeth. Needle-sharp. Sharper than teeth had any right to be.
    I’m going to die
, was all she could think, surprised and certain at the same time.
    â€œWhere is it? Where’s the Heart’s Blood? Why do we have magic if there’s no Pride-Heart?” the mountain lion growled.
    â€œThere has to be a Pride-Heart somewhere,” the strange-eared gray cat said from somewhere nearby. “Since we suddenly have magic again after weeks without it.”
    â€œBut it’s not very strong,” a leopard said. “I can’t even hold my shape!”
    â€œYou could never hold a shape for very long anyway,” the gray cat said, dismissively.
    Then Emma heard Jack’s voice from the metal stairs. “You have your Pride-Heart under your feet, Cricket. You might want to let her up before you accidentally become a Heart-Killer like me and lose all your magic forever.”
    The mountain lion yowled, then in one swift motion pounced on Jack. But something was happening. The lion seemed to ripple, like a reflection in a pool of water, and then shrink. The other cats were shrinking, too, changing from the large, wild cats to the small variety. In the half second it took the lion to reach Jack, it had turned into a wiry ginger female, with only the slightest tinge of lion yellow left in her fur.
    There was a horrible screeching as the two cats fought and scratched and bit.
    â€œStop it!” Emma shouted, pushing herself up off the grass.
    To her surprise, the lion called Cricket did stop, her gaze whipping around to stare at Emma. Jack took the opportunity to bite the ginger cat’s ear, nearly tearing it off. Cricket spat and leaped away, then turned to stare at Emma again. “What is this?” she hissed.
    The other cats all stared, too,