Kitty Saves the World (Kitty Norville 14)

“Are we taking her home?” I recognized her voice, too.

“No, she has to stay, to stop the thing. We just have to watch her until the others get here.”

“That may overstep our bounds. We can only interfere so much—”

“If that jerk can bring her here, we can watch over her,” he said decisively.

“He isn’t even part of our mythology,” she muttered.

The man was almost cheerful when he said, “Yeah, it’s all just a big old muddle now. I blame globalization.”

I knew those voices. I knew who they were.

A figure stood among the trees, cloaked and regal, long black hair draped over one shoulder, her dark eyes shining and pale lips pressed in a thin smile.

“Anastasia,” I breathed, and ran. I stopped short before pouncing on her for a massive hug because I was suddenly afraid that if I touched her, she would vanish, this strangeness would all disappear.

From behind her emerged the man, Chinese like her, slender, young looking, with wild black hair and an infectious smile. He wore an embroidered silk tunic, a far cry from the jeans and T-shirt I’d last seen him in.

“And Sun,” I said. My eyes leaked tears. Sun Wukong. The Monkey King. For real.

“Hey,” he said, raising a hand. “You’re a mess, kid.”

“I know,” I whined.

“What a strange road we’ve traveled,” Anastasia said. She had a beautiful face, the finely wrought features of a figure in a Chinese painting. When I knew her, she’d been a vampire, born in the Song dynasty as Li Hua. I didn’t know what she was now. She’d followed her goddess Xiwangmu, Queen Mother of the West, into another world. Sun Wukong—we all called him Sun—had been there, too. And now they were here. To help, I hoped.

“Where are you? Where is this? What’s going on?” My own voice was low, scratching, like I was getting over a cold, but clearing my throat didn’t help. I sounded like a wolf speaking through a growl.

“We’re between worlds, of course,” she said.

Between worlds, sleeping and waking, human and animal, alive and dead.

“Are … are you okay?”

She tilted her head, looking amused. “Are you?”

“I—I don’t know. I think I just dumped Lucifer into a geyser. Not that that’ll stop him.”

Sun said, “There’s a war on, and this is only one small part of it. We’re all caught up in it. But you’re really caught up in it.”

“I brought it on myself. I could have walked away.”

More gently Anastasia said, “I’ve been sending you as much help as I can.”

“Thank you, thank you so much for that.” I reached to squeeze her hand, but pulled back, because my furred arms and clawed fingers startled me all over again.

She said, “He’s here, he’s close, and you don’t have time. Remember this: stop the spell, not the man. Stop the spell.”

I finally did touch her, to brush her sleeve, to reassure myself, but my hand passed through her.

“But I don’t know how, I still don’t even know what he’s doing—”

Sun was moving back into the trees, into the shadows. “I’ll help. Look for me.”

“Okay, okay—”

“Stay safe, stay strong.” Anastasia’s ghostly hand closed over mine. I wanted to grab her, hold her, keep her close. But that didn’t seem possible.