Free A Mew to a Kill by Leighann Dobbs Page A

shelter.”

    ***

    Pandora followed Tigger, the orange tiger cat, into the barn behind Elspeth’s house. The barn was dark, but like most cats, Pandora could see well enough in the dark to make out the shapes of the other cats that lived in there.
    To an outsider, it might seem like Elspeth was just some crazy cat lady with a barn full of felines, but the barn—and Elspeth’s cats—were much more than that. The barn was the gathering place of the elite cats of Mystic Notch, and Elspeth’s cats were the leaders of the felines’ efforts to balance good and evil.
    Pandora moved further into the barn. The scent of hay and dried wood made her whiskers twitch.
    “What brings you here?” The voice, dripping with distaste, came from atop a bale of hay. Pandora looked up to see the fat calico, Otis, glaring down at her.
    There was no love lost between the two of them. Otis hadn’t liked Pandora from the beginning. She’d guessed it was because Otis was one of the old ones, an ancient line of cats that had served many humans. Much like groups of humans, the old ones wanted to stick to the old ways and the younger ones, like Pandora, had new ideas. It was a constant battle, but for the most part they put aside their differences when it came to protecting the forces of good.
    Otis and Pandora were always in conflict and, despite Otis’s ‘seniority’, Pandora often won, causing Otis to dislike her even more. But it wasn’t just the conflict over ideas that put Pandora off. Otis liked to think he was more important than he actually was. He was constantly reminding them how rare it was to have a male of his breed—only one in three thousand calicoes were male. Big deal, Pandora thought.  
    Pandora tried not to let Otis rile her up. Even so, she felt the fur standing up along her spine.  
    “I’ve heard tell of the kitten that survived a fire.” She glanced around the room as more cats came forward. Kelley, the Maine Coon, trotted out from one of the stalls on her left. Inkspot, the large black cat who was their leader, jumped down from the loft, his twenty-two pound girth landing beside her with a soft thud. Snowball appeared next to him, her white fur contrasting with Inkspot’s black like night and day.
    “So what?” Otis wrinkled his face.
    “Now, Otis, you remember what you promised.” A beautiful, orange curly-haired cat appeared beside Otis. Pandora recognized her as Euphoria, the Selkirk Rex that belonged to Gladys Primble.  
    They’d met Euphoria recently while trying to make sure an important journal was kept away from evil hands. Gladys was the keeper of this journal and, as her cat, Euphoria was also sworn to protect it.  
    Otis purred at Euphoria and Pandora’s stomach churned. She didn’t know what the sweet Selkirk Rex saw in the fat calico, but if it made him act nicer she wasn’t about to question it.
    “A kitten? Why do you come to us?” Inkspot’s deep baritone rumbled through the barn.
    Pandora flicked a paw behind her ears and sat on her haunches. “I’m not sure, but when I heard the story I got the distinct feeling that we should know more about the kitten. Perhaps we should seek her out and bring her to our circle. If she has the blessings of mystical forces, as it seems from the story, won’t we want to bring her into the fold before the other side gets a hold of her?”
    “I might have heard of this kitten.” A voice purred from her right and Pandora turned to see the powder blue eyes of the Siamese cat, Sasha, blinking at her. “Long ago, I heard of a cat that would be very powerful. One that could survive against all odds.”
    “Surviving a fire seems like it would be against all odds,” Snowball said.
    Inkspot's glowing, green eyes narrowed to slits. “Yes, I think this is something we should pursue. Tell us more about this kitten?”
    Pandora’s tail twitched nervously. She didn’t know much more. Should she have tried to get more information before she came to the