Wicked Souls by Misty Evans Page B

an orange in
the bowl of fruit on the table, when Adam snapped his fingers in
front of my face to call me back to reality. Damn, I’d left him
hanging with no real answers and a growing suspicion I was avoiding
telling him the truth.
    Cain and Abel made their way into the
kitchen and circled our legs, meowing loudly in their quest for
breakfast. Thankful for the distraction, I jumped up to fill their
bowls. Their cries reminded me of something, and as I pulled the
bag of their favorite high-end cat food from the pantry, I said to
Adam, “Do you guys have a pet cat at the station now?”
    Adam turned sideways in the chair, leaning
his back against the wall and crossing his feet at the ankles. “No,
why?”
    I filled Cain and Abel’s bowls with food and
set the bag on the counter. “Right before Gabriel attacked me
yesterday, I thought I heard a cat meow in the locker room.”
    Adam’s body tensed, just the slightest
movement, and his gaze dropped to the floor before coming back up
to meet mine. “You sure it was a cat?” He sat forward and shrugged. “I mean, it could have been anything. Lotta noises in the station
all the time, you know. Maybe it was on the TV or something.”
    Maybe. Except you couldn’t hear the TV in
the locker room. It was on the second floor, and no one was in the
station except me and Gabriel. Unless Gabriel’s new calling card
was to cry like a cat before attacking, I was pretty certain I’d
heard the real thing.
    And if the station didn’t have a cat mascot
in residence, maybe it was a stray. The way Adam was acting,
however, told me it was far more than that. He was covering for
someone, and I knew who that someone was.
    Eve.
    “Look at the time.” Adam glanced at his
watch, jumped up from the table and headed for the front door. “I’m
on duty until four. I’ll call you tonight.”
    Hunh. I wasn’t the only one with secrets. Eve, the mother of humankind, had appeared at Christmas, posing as
a cat in order to get Adam back. She’d hung around in her cat form
with me for several days, snuggling up to Adam and ruining my first
attempt at playing Santa. At that point, I figured my relationship
with Adam was over, but he’d settled things with her and sent her
on her way.
    Or so I thought.
    Up until now, Adam hadn’t been acting
strange, though, so maybe I was jumping to conclusions. Under the
circumstances, I couldn’t trust my brain, my instincts or even my
magic. Seemed like the best idea was to let it go. If Eve was back,
I’d deal with her. First, I had to reassure Adam.
    Rising up on my toes, I planted a kiss on
his lips. Even with all the problems piling up on my doorstep, I
was looking forward to that evening’s Witches Anonymous meeting. Especially since I couldn’t be blamed for my magic getting me into
trouble. The little incident with Luc didn’t count against me since
it was Gabriel, the puppet master, pulling my strings. “Tonight’s
my six month anniversary ceremony, remember?”
    “Right.” Adam smiled and touched the side of
my face with his fingers, tracing my jaw line and sending a shiver
down my spine. “This thing with Gabriel…” He paused. “You’ll figure
it out.”
    He was the perfect guy for me in many ways,
and had been since the night I met him at my first Witches
Anonymous meeting. His confidence in me upped my own confidence. “Thank you.”
    We shared another kiss and then he left. As
I threw out the cold coffee, my brain churned with thoughts of Eve. Getting Gabe off my back was priority one. And if I could get him
to Heaven, maybe he’d take her with him.
    I skipped breakfast and met Keisha
downstairs in the shop. We hauled out a wet-dry vac and went on the
hunt for any cat hair Hathor might have left behind. While we were
at it, we washed down all the shop’s surfaces, restocked supplies
and shined the glass of the front windows. By noon, the place
gleamed. We were ready for the health inspector.
    “What’s up with the big guy?”