Page 68 of The Tracker's Revenge
Chapter 23
Later that night, Isat curled up in front of my coffee table, several thick books cracked open in front of me. Earlier, I had offered to go with Jake to see about his grandfather, but he’d insisted it was something he needed to do on his own. I’d sensed it was a pack thing, and he didn’t want me to feel unwelcome. And since I wanted to make the situation as painless as possible for him, I’d relented. Instead, I did the next best thing and grabbed a bunch of the books Eric had gotten for him while Jake took the rest.
I’d had a terribly long-ass day, starting with work and ending with the terrible news of Walter’s death. So at this point, reading was a task for the wicked—the kind that never rested.
Of course, I had food to help me fight the fatigue. An extra-large sausage, pepperoni, and mushroom pizza fromAdriana’s on The Hill—half of it anyway since I’d already devoured four large pieces.
No self-respecting woman should be able to eat one of them all by herself, but it seemed I was about to do just that. I should’ve been full by now, but as I read, I kept eyeing the leftover slices. If I was honest with myself, Iwasworried about gaining weight. My metabolism ran high. There was no question about that, but high enough to keep eating like this? I didn’t have money to buy a new wardrobe, and at the rate I kept ripping clothes every time I shifted, I might need to start making regular trips to the thrift store.
Maybe I should sell that pair of Louis Vuitton ankle boots,I mused. They had been an extravagance anyhow, from when I’d thought the agency would take off like a rocket.
Rolling my eyes at my useless train of thought, I picked up another slice of pizza and bit into it. The books in front of me were frustrating as heck. After two hours of scanning their pages, I hadn’t been able to find anything that referred to unbreakable pacts—unless I counted the admonishments never to make one, unless death was an appealing prospect to you. Needless to say, I hadn’t found anything on how to break them.
I finished riffling through the pages of the second book, set it aside, and moved on to the third. Blaze appeared suddenly, jumping on the sofa, and settling behind me as if to read over my shoulder.
“Hey, buddy. Had a good day?” I’d looked for him when I first came in, but I hadn’t been able to find him. I still had no idea where he hid himself to sleep. He was so sneaky, but I guess that meant he was a proper cat.
His nose twitched as I took another bite of pizza. He looked at the slice so longingly, then toward his bowl of kibble in the corner of the still-empty dining room. I had to feel sorry for him. Plucking a piece of sausage from the gooey cheese, I held it out to him in my palm. He lapped it and licked his lips with his raspy tongue, a look of utter pleasure in his amber eyes.
“Good, huh?”
He narrowed his eyes as if sayingduhand meowed at the pizza, begging for more.
“You’ll get sick. I’m not supposed to feed youhoomanfood.”
He let out a little hiss that I swear sounded likepleeeaseee.
“Okay, so you won’t get sick?”
I waited for an answer, but he proceeded to lick his butthole.
Really?!He went from being the most eloquent cat to this?
I turned back to the books and leafed through them for another twenty minutes. True to form, I polished the pizza off while Blaze slept placidly behind me. Without food to distract me, my frustration with the futility of the search got to me. With a huff, I smacked the book closed, startling Blaze awake. He meowed, putting an inflection at the end as if he were asking a question.
“Sorry, I woke you up, cutie pie. It’s just, this is a waste of time. I can’t find anything on unbreakable pacts. I’ve been through ten of these books and nothing. I don’t think it’s worth it going through the whole pile.” I gestured toward the three tall stacks that sat in front of the fireplace.
Blaze, seeming lucid again, stood, stretched his back, arching it in a perfect semi-circle, then hopped off the couch. Waving his tail in the air, he meandered toward the stacks of books. I watched him with a frown.
He sidled next to one stack and rubbed his body against it, his tail curling over the spine of one of the books as he circled around the stack. He did the same with the other stack, then the third, and when he was done, he plopped himself in front of the books, staring at them.
“And... ?” I prompted. “Any luck?”
He ignored me, and set his head on top of his outstretched front paws, ready for another nap.
“Worthless cat!” I spat, then realized I was just taking it out on him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that, Blaze. I’m the one who’s worthless. I know nothing about my kind. How can I be of any use to Jake?”
Exhausted and knowing I had to get up early tomorrow to train with Eric, I picked up the empty pizza box and took it to the kitchen. I was doing my best to fold it and stuff it in the already-full garbage can when there was a horrible crash from the living room. My heart gave a jump, and I ran in to find one of the book stacks scattered on the floor while Blaze sat on top of a particularly thick tome, happily licking one of his paws.
