Page 85 of Cruel Destinies

Blood rushed to my cheeks, but his mirth was contagious. “I guess we do.”

“That explains Caesar’s cryptic texts to want to talk to me,” he said, still smiling. “That will certainly be aninterestingconversation.”

I bit my lip. These men just kept surprising me.

The cat jumped into Julian’s lap and began purring again, this time an awful growling sound accompanying the gentle hum.

“What the heck is wrong with Rainbow?” I asked, instinctively flinching away from the cat. He sounded agitated, though he looked relaxed in Julian’s arms.

“Ah, that’s the other thing I needed to talk to you about.”

I sat up straighter, cocking my head. “What about him?”

“He... He seems to have gone through a bit of a transformation.” Julian looked a bit disturbed, maybe even hesitant. “I believe he’s a vampire.”

“What?” I stood up and whirled on Julian. “What do you mean? Why would you think that?”

I started running the spell through my head, trying to figure out if I’d done something wrong. My pronunciations had been flawless, of that I was certain. Mostly. But changing things like I had...and using Julian’s life force to resurrect the cat...

“You think I turned him into the undead.”

Now that he mentioned it, the eyes did look a little red, some fang-like teeth poking over his lower lip.Holy shit.

“He got sick after you left,” Julian said, running his hand over the feline’s back. “When he showed an adverse reaction to light, I locked him in the bathroom until he could stand the artificial lighting, though that seems to be remedying on its own. In all that time, he never ate or drank, and he never used the litter box. I’ve found there’s only one thing hewilleat.”

“Aw, crap.” I let my head fall back, and I stared at the ceiling. “I can’t believe—Aw, man. What are we going to do with Vamp Cat?”

“His name is Rainbow, remember? I’m planning on keeping him. As long as he remains in my care, I believe he’ll be fine.”

I widened my eyes at him, incredulous. “Are youserious?”

“Yes. Why not?”

“Because he sounds like a gremlin when he purrs like that, and he’s afreaking vampire!”

“His purr is pitch perfect,” he said, his tone soft and low. “It’s middle C.”

“Excuse me?”

“Middle C. It’s a musical—”

“And that makes it okay to bring him here? Withme?”

I was livid. This was a mistake. Julian had to realize that. My magic had created a monster, and Julian wanted to keep the thing as a pet?

“I fed him before you got here. You don’t have to worry.”

Feeding.

I slid my hand over my mouth, unable to keep out the thought of Vamp Cat licking up a bowl of blood. “Okay, so what if he gets out? Will he start turning people? Other animals? Crap, this is so not what I had in mind.”

“I don’t think so.” Julian shook his head. “You generally have towantto turn someone in order for it to happen. I imagine a cat working off instinct would have little need for such a thing and would probably have greater control over whether he turned another or not.”

“He’s a cat, not a philosopher,” I deadpanned.

He chuckled. “Actually, he escaped already and found himself a mate. But she’s been the only one he’s turned, and it seemed quite intentional.”

My brows shot up again, my eyes bugging so badly I almost expected them to pop out of my head and start bouncing around.

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