Pawsitively Dead (A Wonder Cats Mystery Book 2) by Harper Lin Read Free Book Online

Unfamiliar spirits from his only friend.
    “We’ll do what we can.” Blake was out the door before I could ask who he meant by “we.”

The Curtains Rise
    I thought that I would be a few minutes late for the show, but Naomi was still talking on the stage.
    Bea whispered as I passed her, “You missed Min’s eulogy for Tommy. Naomi had a shorter one because she started crying. She’s introducing us about the show now.”
    Naomi continued, “This ballet was inspired by a German essayist, Heine, who traced the origins of the Wilis to Slavic and Austrian culture. The fantasy that they fulfill is common to humanity, whether that would be grief over the lost potential of a young life ended too soon or vengeance for deception.”
    “What are we watching again?” I whispered.
    “ Giselle is the name of the show,” Aunt Astrid replied, “but personally, I’m watching those two old men up in the balcony seats.”
    I turned to look where Aunt Astrid had pointed. Sure enough, there was Old Murray and Topher.
    Bea said to me, “One of them was very rude and loud when Min got onstage. I don’t think he’s well.”
    I cleared my throat discreetly. “Did either of you see anything… Unfamiliar about them?”
    “Very,” Aunt Astrid murmured.
    Bea added, “Yes, but I don’t know which one. It might be both.”
    “They’ll be taken in at the end of the show, but I think I know which one of those men it’s attached to. If they try anything before then…” I hoped that either Bea or Aunt Astrid would have a plan.
    Their silence showed that they didn’t, and Mrs. Park slipped into her seat beside Aunt Astrid just as the house lights dimmed.
    I couldn’t get too engrossed with the show, but it wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it would be. None of the performers could dance ballet with the boneless grace of a performance-standard dancer, but the costumes were splendid—so money could sometimes buy entertainment-worthy quality. Nobody was trying to sing, at least.
    I could relate to the protective mother of the frail and waiflike main character, and my favorite character was the princess huntress. They reminded me of Aunt Astrid, Bea, and myself. That was, until the title character got into a love triangle with two jerks, one who always lied and the other who told the truth—and it turned out the latter was worse, because that truth gave the main character a heart attack that killed her.
    Then the house lights came on for the intermission between the first and second act. Old Murray and Topher didn’t leave their seats during intermission, so neither did the three of us.
    “I can’t believe I didn’t notice it at the animal shelter,” I said, about Old Murray’s Unfamiliar. “Burger didn’t notice it either. I wonder if the Unfamiliar just wasn’t around that day.”
    “Don’t stop noticing it now,” Aunt Astrid advised.
    “Maybe we should,” Bea suggested. “If it knows that we’ve noticed it, then it might try something. There are too many people here.”
    “Not right now,” I whispered. “It’s intermission.”
    Aunt Astrid shook her head. “They’re too far away. There’s no way to reach them from here with magic.”
    “If the abilities of the hosts are limited,” Bea murmured, “the Unfamilars would be limited too.”
    I nodded. “Yes. They’re already limited by human motivations and rules for performing spells under the full moon. The Unfamiliar would need to do a lot of work to get their host to do something improvised and magical. At least, I hope that’s the case for these ones.”
    That had seemed to be the way it worked for the Unfamiliar that had haunted me and that had cost my parents their lives. The problem with the Unfamiliars was that we really would never know how they operated.
    We had a tense evening, full of wary anticipation. It occurred to me that the Unfamiliar could take action even today. The gibbous moon could be mistaken for full. What if the Unfamiliar or its