Catopolis

“I have a conscience. Don’t you?”

“Are you going to starve if I take another bag of your food?”

“Why’d you come back?” Grace sounded peeved now. Her words almost hissed at him. This made Robie all the angrier at her.

“For you.” He hesitated, then added, “For more food.”

“All right, enough of this. I’ve got you trapped. If you promise to leave and not come back, I’ll let you go free.”

“You’ll give me my freedom?” he scoffed. “I’m free. You’re the one in a prison. It’s a posh one, but you’re the captive held by fancy food, clever toys, and chilled water.”

“Promise.”

Robie paced around inside the pantry, knocking over things and creating a ruckus. When some of his anger passed, he went back and flopped by the door.

“What if I don’t?”

“My lady will find you and turn you over to Animal Control.”

Robie heard just a tremor of fear in Grace’s threat.

Is that because she wants me?

“Let me out and we can talk this over.”

“You have to promise to leave and never come back. You’ll get us both into big trouble.”

“I can stay in here for a long time,” Robie said. He batted a can of food off a low shelf and used his claw to pop it open. The fragrance intoxicated him. He was sure Grace smelled it, too, and knew what he was doing.

“You’re incorrigible!”

“How sweet of you to say that.” Robie sampled the ca

“Someone’s coming! Oh, it’s too late!”

Robie’s ears perked up when he heard a grinding sound and muffled curses. Grace’s human seemed particularly clumsy. He puzzled over the noise a moment longer, then heard two humans speaking in rough voices.

“We might get more for the cat than anything else in this dump.”

“Shut up and help me open the safe. Who wants to steal a damned cat? The grinder’s not taking off the lock like it’s supposed to.”

“The cat’s a purebred, I tell you. My ex raised ’em. Worth a fortune. Maybe more than the cheap ass knickknacks around here.”

“Help me get this safe open!”

Robie heard Grace let out a squeal of anger. He slammed himself against the pantry door and backed off. The door was too solid and the lock too secure for him to barrel through. He stepped back, then jumped to a high shelf so he was level with the knob. Opening this was easy for a cat accustomed to breaking and entering. His claws left deep scratches on the knob as he gripped, dropped with his full weight and turned. The snap lock opened and the door swung wide.

“Damn, look at that. Another cat’s-”

This was as far as the burglar got before Grace clawed his face. Robie saw blood spray from the triple wound she left on his cheek. Hitting the floor ru

“These aren’t your humans,” Robie said. It wasn’t much of a guess.

“Thieves.”

“Not my kind,” Robie said. “They steal and keep it for themselves.” He looked around. The injured burglar swung a short pry bar back and forth to keep them away. The other one fumbled with a cloth bag. Robie judged how difficult it would be to add a few more claw marks to the first human’s face and maybe take a bite out of his worthless pink hide.

Grace looked at him curiously, then turned toward the open window.

“Follow me,” she said.

“Anywhere,” Robie answered. They jumped to a table but did not go out the window. Grace hesitated long enough to claw at a small gray box.

“Now.” She sinuously moved, a blur of cream fur, out onto the ledge as the two burglars began arguing. Robie was immediately behind her.

“You set off the alarm, didn’t you?”

“I had disabled it and left the window open.”

“Why?”

“We need to get down. Those two are going to fight like cornered rats.”

“I’ve fought cornered rats,” Robie boasted.

“I’m sure you have,” Grace said, looking back at him. He caught the twinkle in her bright blue eyes. They were slightly crossed, but he had never seen more beautiful ones. Ever.

“How do we get off the ledge without going back into the room?” Robie doubted the rope and pulley would provide a way to the ground a second time.

“How brave are you?” Grace stopped at the corner of the building just past a gargoyle. Without another word, she jumped out into space.

Robie howled and hurried to where she had stood only an instant before. Then he saw what she had done. Grace leaped out toward a flag pole, caught the rope and swung around, landing on a ledge two stories below. She looked up at him, waiting.

He never hesitated. For an instant he thought he had jumped too far, then his claws caught the tattered rope and he was afraid it wouldn’t hold his weight. Robie swung back and forth once before letting go. He had to scramble to join Grace on the ledge.

“That was fun,” he said, not sure if he meant it.

Grace turned and walked way haughtily. A window was open just enough for them to slip under, letting them into the building again.

“From here it’s easy getting out.” Grace showed him a niche at the corner that led into the stairwell.

They raced to the ground floor, Robie barely beating her.

Out of breath, they flopped on the concrete and enjoyed the coolness on their bellies. Robie hopped to his feet and found Grace’s way out of the stairwell-another small niche. He wondered how he had missed these design flaws on his first excursion into the building. Within minutes he was out on the street and racing for the alley.

Sirens sounded in the street and caused him to hunker down. The human-infested Animal Control machines rolled up with red and blue lights flashing. Grace’s alarm had reached the right ears.

He walked down the alley, howling to gather the stray cats. They looked at him with new respect, as if they knew what he had done. The mother cat perked up, and her kittens looked at him, eyes open wide.

“You bring us more food?” the mother asked.

Before Robie could answer, Grace said, “Not this time. Soon.”

Robie spun on Grace.

“You were bringing your own food to them,” he said, realization dawning on whom he had been competing with to furnish food to the needy.

“Don’t be silly. Of course not. My lady would notice right away and put me on a strict diet if a lot of food was missing. That’s why I didn’t want you stealing my food. I steal from others in the building.”

“You were the one who left the windows open so you could get in and out.”

“I disarmed the alarm, too, but I had to turn it back on.” Grace craned her neck to see the two burglars being led out of the apartment building and put into the noisy machines.

“Are you going to keep bringing food to the stray cats?” Robie asked.

“Am I? No,” Grace said.

“Why not?” Robie waited for the answer he hoped to hear. And he did.

“

We are.”

He rubbed up against her and purred loudly. What a pair they’d make!

THE SCENT OF DEATH by Elizabeth A. Vaughan

One took the blow on the back legs and was tossed off to the side of the black expanse. The noxious scent of the human’s rolling death faded from the night air even as the rumble faded from the earth. One lay still, in the moment. Perhaps the damp seeping into one’s fur from below was just tainted water.

Or so one could hope.

The pain hit between one breath and the next. The blow had been glancing, but it had sufficed. Dazed, numb, all this one could do was pant. The cold bit through too-thin flesh and ragged fur. One should not have tried to cross the black expanse; others had died trying. But the prey was fat and slow on the other side…