Oath Sworn - K.N. Banet Page 0,31

and deep red furniture, that was certain. The bed wasn’t particularly comfortable either, but I knew better than to vocally complain. I needed Carey to think I was fine, even if my shoulder hurt and my legs burned. My back wasn’t much better, but those injuries were shallower and already healing.

I turned on the TV, ordered a pay-per-view movie for her, something Disney, and dropped the remote, yawning. I hadn’t watched a Disney movie in years, since I was human. Carey seemed interested and enjoying it, but there were shadows in her eyes. She was probably thinking about her family and what had just happened to us.

“We should talk,” I said about thirty minutes into the film.

“About?” She glanced at me, wary. I couldn’t blame her. Watching a werecat kill three werewolves and take a bite of one of those probably didn’t endear her to me.

“How you’re feeling. You can talk to me. I would understand—”

“Don’t. How could you possibly understand? My dad is missing and so are my brothers! Werewolves I was raised with are trying to take me prisoner!” She went from subdued to shouting in less than a sentence. “You probably have done this tons of times! How many werewolves have you killed before?”

“None. This was the first time I’ve ever fought another supernatural with the intention to kill them.” I didn’t let her anger penetrate my exterior calm. “This is the first time I’ve ever purposefully killed anyone, actually.”

“Really?” The disbelief on her face hurt.

“What do you think I am, a killer?” Suddenly insulted, I paused the movie. “Do you think your father would send you to a murderer for protection?”

She sniffed, holding back tears again. I closed my eyes, rubbing my face as I tried to find what to say. There was really nothing except telling her about myself, and I had to be careful about that. I didn’t want to expose this girl to my life and give her secrets and stories to carry that weren’t hers. I just couldn’t.

“Carey…”

“My dad said that werecats are solitary, but social. That when a werecat moves around, everyone hears about it, knows who they were Changed by. That you have all sorts of…politics, I guess. But no one knew where you came from. He said I needed to be careful, because you were the closest werecat but maybe not the safest, because no one knows anything about you. He said you would follow the rules of Duty, but…”

I started to chuckle darkly, my shoulders shaking. Tears threatened my own eyes now. Even the werewolves wondered where I came from. Wasn’t that something?

“I’m not going to hurt you. I could never…” I swallowed my own emotion for a moment. “No one knows where I come from because I don’t tell them, but it’s nowhere bad,” I promised softly. “I just don’t agree with some of the decisions my…father made. You know that part of our culture, right? A werecat that Changes a human becomes that person’s…parent. They teach us about our new life and world and introduce us to people and help us learn all the rules. I don’t tell anyone who that is because I don’t want much to do with him.”

“Oh. So you’ve, like…run away from home?”

I huffed, nodding. “That’s a good way of putting it. He didn’t want me to leave, but I did. Normally, a new werecat stays with their older ‘parent’ until they’re about a decade into their new life, then they slowly begin to separate. I left four years after I was Changed, and while I still talk to him, I don’t let him into my life anymore. He doesn’t even know this has happened.” Not yet. “I was an EMT when I was human. When I say this is the first time I’ve killed anyone intentionally, I mean it. I lost people when I was an EMT. I saw their life fade, and no matter how many times I defib’ed them...” I pantomimed a defibrillator, seeing recognition dawn in her eyes. “They were never coming back. So it’s not that I’m dangerous, though I understand why some think that. I’m private, Carey. Very private. I don’t like getting into things and generally want to stay out of them. I put my territory pretty far from your pack’s for a reason, and your father’s pack are the closest supernaturals to me that I know of.” Though maybe the fae and his little family were now. I would have to check a map.

She