Cat and Company by Tracy Cooper-Posey

your pound of flesh now?”
    Brant blinked. “What are you talking about?”
    “Lilly took her bite. Connell won’t talk to me directly unless I ask a direct question. You’ve been holding it in for weeks now. I figure you’re overdue.”
    “Lilly apologized right after,” Brant said hotly.
    “And I thanked her for it.” Bedivere made himself shut up and wait.
    Brant stirred uneasily. “You think I really want to slap you around for leaving?”
    “Don’t you?”
    “Hell, yes. I want to beat you up for scaring the hell out of everyone. Lilly mourned you, you know. She thought you were dead.”
    Bedivere sighed.
    “That doesn’t mean I’m going to give myself the pleasure of taking a swing at you. Because that’s the only reason I’d be doing it. To make myself feel better.” Brant shrugged.
    “So why are you here?”
    “Because no one can find you out there, beyond this door. You’ve been hiding in here for weeks. You creep out when you think there’s no chance of running into anyone and having to look them in the eye.”
    “Lilly said she could run this place just fine without me. It’s not like my absence is bothering anyone.”
    “Did the savage pits deprive you of all intelligence, Bedivere? Because that’s exactly what you’re doing. You’re bothering everyone . When you weren’t here, we coped. We had to. Now you’re here and you’re…this…it’s not living.”
    Bedivere met his gaze. “I tried doing it my way. You came and stopped me.”
    Brant stared at him, his eyes wide. “So you’re going to lie here until entropy drops you?”
    Bedivere sighed again. It would be very easy to just say yes and shove Brant out the door and close it. It was what he wanted to do. He didn’t like the swirling anxious feeling in his stomach or the ache in his chest that happened every time he was forced to speak to anyone.
    He didn’t like the yearning that came with it and the whispering temptation that followed.
    This was Brant, who had followed him to hell and pulled him out. He deserved an honest answer, not the easy one. “I don’t know,” Bedivere said quietly. “Something might come along.”
    “If it does, you’re going to miss it, hiding in here,” Brant said dryly.
    “Yennifer and her assistant, um, Zoey. They keep me updated.”
    “I bet you turned the audio off, though.”
    Bedivere considered Brant, startled. Was he that predictable now?
    “Did Yennifer tell you that Connell is holding dozens of Varkan at bay with a whip and chair? They’re all demanding time with you. They all want to see you. Touch you. Make sure you’re really back.”
    “I’m not their totem,” Bedivere said shortly. “I never was.”
    “Tell them that.”
    “You tell them. They’re better off with Devlin, anyway. He’s good for them.”
    “ So were you! ” Brant’s voice was low and fierce. His eyes gleamed with anger. “There isn’t a single Varkan out there who doesn’t owe his or her very existence to you!”
    “I gave them a means, not life itself,” Bedivere replied. “Besides, Yennifer tells me that Gu-Xia Gammon have picked up the slack. They’re printing out tethers faster than we ever could.”
    Brant drew in a breath and let it out with a gusty sigh.
    “I’m fine ,” Bedivere told him quietly.
    Brant shook his head. “No, I don’t think you are.”
    He left, anyway. When the door closed, Bedivere picked up the board and started reading again.
    Reading was one of the few distractions he had left.
    * * * * *
    Connell was the next one to arrive.
    He turned up two days after Brant left him alone, sliding into the room without even knocking. The shelves rattled as he ran into them.
    “Damn it…lights!” Connell demanded stridently.
    Bedivere sat up as the lights came up.
    Connell crossed his arms. It was the same posture Brant favored when he was angry and hiding it. “I have a question.”
    Bedivere raised a brow and waited.
    “What year did you reach the Silent