Free Kitty Raises Hell by Carrie Vaughn Page A

beating, pounding, thudding noise stopped.
    We all held our breaths, waiting for it to start again.
    Jules’s shoulders slumped. He grabbed the speaker out of my hand. “Don’t tell me that was an equipment malfunction? Christ.”
    In the midst of grumbling, I paused, nostrils flaring. I smelled something. It pinged a memory, but I couldn’t quite catch
     it. Something recent. Something bad, dangerous—
    Sulfur and fire. Brimstone. Attack in the forest. In the back of my brain, Wolf howled.
    I bit back a growl and lunged for the door.
    “Hey—”
    The van tipped over.
    Chaos rocked us, objects falling, monitors smashing, bodies tumbling. People shouted, cried out with surprise. I wrapped my
     arms around my head, over the headset I was still wearing. Then movement stopped. We ended up sprawled on the van’s side,
     picking ourselves out of the mess of shelving and gear that had been stored there.
    I didn’t wait. I could move, I didn’t hurt, except for the panic and anger burning in my gut. I lunged for the back door,
     shoved it open, and spilled out.
    The van was on its side, in the middle of the street. The windshield had smashed, spreading sparkling pebbles of glass across
     the asphalt. The metal side looked slightly crumpled, as if there’d been a collision. One of the tires was spinning slowly.
    Matt and Ben were jumping out of the KNOB van and sprinting toward me. Something in me identified them as friend, so I ignored
     them. Shoulders tight, hackles stiff, I circled, looking for the enemy, waiting for the thing to attack again.
    “Kitty?” Ben caught my body language and looked around with me, searching.
    It was
here,
I knew it was, I could smell it. Any minute it would pounce. I couldn’t talk. All I had in my throat were growls. Wolf stared
     out of my eyes.
    Ben held my arm, took a scent. His grip tightened. “You smell that?”
    “Yeah,” I said.
    The three investigators had picked themselves out of the van, brushed themselves off, and looked each other over, cursing.
    The exterior cameramen, along with the crew, was coming toward us in a hesitating panic. Jules yelled at one of the camera
     guys, “What did this? What did you guys see?”
    “Nothing,” one of them said. “There was nothing there, it just fell over.”
    Gary looked at me. “Is she okay? Is she in shock?”
    “No. Nothing like that,” Ben said.
    A minute ticked on and nothing happened. The panic faded. Wolf crept away, and I was fully me again. Blinking, I shook my
     head and looked around. We were standing in the middle of the road, staring at the wreckage of the van. This felt like the
     aftermath of a car accident. Which it kind of was.
    A pair of cameras focused on us, capturing every moment for the show. I was still broadcasting, as well. This was going to
     end up making a pretty good episode for both of us.
    But this was far, far too personal for me to be thinking of that.
    “Is everyone okay?” I said.
    “Cuts and bruises,” Gary said. “What the hell was that?”
    “Full-on poltergeist, I’d say,” Jules announced, sounding excited.
    “But why us and not the house?” Gary said.
    “Didn’t like us looking at it? She really did tick it off. I dunno.” His accent had gotten thicker. He started picking through
     the wreckage for something. “I’ve got to get some readings. EMF, temperature, infrared. This is unbelievable. Where is everything?”
     No one moved to help him. The rest of us were standing around, shell-shocked. Waiting for the second round, possibly.
    “What do you know about this?” Tina said. She was rubbing her arms, obviously chilled, looking around like she expected something
     to drop out of the sky. “You act like you know something.”
    I didn’t know. It was just the smell, the same prickling on my skin I’d felt the other night. But it was gone now. Only a
     lingering scent remained. I said, “This is about me, it’s not about the house. There’s something after