Claws by Karolyn Cairns

and lifted him out. Her expression must have
warned the little boy something was amiss. “You’re not coming back,
are you Mother?”
    They woke up Elaina by then. The other
toddler stood inside her crib, green eyes glowing at the sight of
her Mother. “Mama, you’re home! Where have you been? Father won’t
tell us where you went.”
    Vivvie held Devon tightly and looked at
her adorable daughter. “I can’t come home right now, baby. You have
to listen to me. You can’t tell your Father you’ve seen me. This
will be our little secret, ok?”
    They both agreed readily. She knew it
was a lot to ask them to go against Eli in anything. With their
combined gift, their thoughts and words passed freely between them.
The risk of them slipping and mentioning seeing her made her
anxious.
    “What happened, Mother?” Devon implored
softly, his blue eyes sad. “Why did Father make you leave
us?”
    “It’s a long story and adult business,”
she replied evenly and set him down on the carpet. She turned and
picked up Elaina. “It will be resolved. Don’t worry. Just do as I
ask and don’t tell him I’ve come to you.”
    Vivvie spent as much time with her
children as she dared. With a heavy heart, she put them both back
into their cribs. Elaina started to cry, making her feel miserable
to leave them.
    Devon gazed at her with such an adoring
expression. She was reminded of how his Father once looked at her.
Pain filled her to leave them. This dreamscape was all they could
have for now.
    “Mother, I can talk to Father for you,”
Devon assured her, sounding so convinced of his pull with his sire,
she smiled. “I can make him take you back.”
    “No, I’m afraid he won’t listen to
reason right now. He thinks I did a bad thing.”
    Devon glared through the crib slats
with glowing blue eyes now. “Is that why the mean lady is here with
him now?”
    “What mean lady?” she asked in alarm,
heart plummeting at his words.
    “She’s the female elder,” her son
explained. “She lives here with us now.”
    Vivvie felt the blood drain from her
face. “What do you mean; she lives here?”
    “She moved in as soon as Father sent
you away.”
    Vivvie carefully hid the fury rising in
her to know Eli wasted no time in moving in another female. Her
anger simmered as she kissed both her children and left the
nursery. She stared at the door to their bedroom, ignoring the
voice that said she didn’t want to know. She had to
know.
    She opened the door only a crack and
stared within, her night vision seeing them in bed together. The
smell of sex in the air made her stiffen with outrage; knowing he
turned to another. Tears filled her eyes to see the dark-haired
woman snuggled against Eli as they slept. She sniffed at the scent
and her eyes grew wide.
    The scent was the same one she smelled
before she was pushed over the ledge. The female in bed with her
husband was the one who pushed her over the cliff. A low growl
escaped her. She withdrew from the door before she alerted them
both to her presence. The desire to shift and rip the she-cat to
pieces for what she’d done was too overwhelming to
linger.
    The pain of knowing he put her from his
life was nothing compared to her fury to know who was responsible.
She left the suite heartsick and furious and wandered the compound,
knowing she couldn’t leave yet.
    She went to seek out Jericho with a
heavy heart.
    He snored loudly. She chuckled as she
stood over him. His handsome features looked so much like Ripken’s
it was uncanny. She had to remind herself he was her maker’s
grandfather at times, nothing like him at all. He had become her
dearest friend and ally now.
    She spied the water bong at his bedside
and shook her head. Catnip was twice as potent as marijuana and was
favored among the youngest of their kind. She suspected the elder
indulged more than he should. Jericho was four hundred years old
and would never grow up.
    The oldest of them all; Jericho looked
like a California