Just One More

Trying to hide my relish, I plunged the blade into the cat’s abdomen, expecting the knife to slice cleanly through, as if cutting chicken or a juicy piece of steak. Instead, I encountered some resistance, the blade bouncing back a bit. Oh fuck, it was probably just the formaldehyde they pumped into these things to keep them preserved. I’d probably hit some organ that was now stiff with frozen chemicals. Disgusting.

I chopped and sawed away with determination, and the skin fell away to reveal the body cavity of the cat. And damn, but my eyebrows flew off my forehead because we’d just gotten our best lead yet. Not only was the cat filled with frozen organs, but there were also a couple of pouches … bulging with white powder.

Immediately, I swept the cat off the table, not wanting our little girl to see. Fortunately, she had her back turned at the moment, half-bent over trying not to retch.

But Blake raised his eyebrows at me in question. I hadn’t fully opened the cat so he probably hadn’t caught a glimpse of the balloons but I merely shook my head in silence.

“Callie baby, this isn’t the right cat,” I said.

“What?” she asked faintly, turning back to the lab table. “What do you mean it isn’t the right cat? Mr. Grimes said he ordered a new batch so that we could make up the assignment without having to reuse corpses.”

“There must have been a mistake,” I said smoothly, “because this cat is pregnant.”

I was making shit up but that did the trick.

“Oh!” said Callie, her forehead rippling with revulsion. “Oh my god, did you see the dead kitten embryos in there? Oh my god, I’m going to be sick again,” she said, this time breaking out in a sweat, really looking green.

And my brother frowned at me but took the cue, hustling our little girl out of the classroom for some fresh air. In the meantime, I bundled the corpse into a plastic tarp, securing it with some string before slipping it into my backpack. The Sarge was going to be interested in this exhibit, for sure.

In the meantime, where the fuck had this cat come from? Was Mr. Grimes the perpetrator? Was our kindly science teacher actually a drug dealer, peddling illegal substances to his students? Or was it someone else? I was sure the freezer was probably chock-full of animals filled with heroin. The issue was busting this ring without giving everything away in the first few minutes. Our strike had to be coordinated, a methodical sting with no loose ends.

But in the meantime, there was still our little girl.

“Bryan, get out here,” I heard my brother shout in warning.

Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I strode outside … and immediately ran over to where my brother stood. Because Callie had fainted, her head slumped over, her body limp and dangling in my twin’s arms.

“Oh shit,” I breathed. “Oh shit, oh shit.”

“Oh shit is right,” my brother agreed. “We’ve got to get her to the hospital.”

And we rushed off to the ER because our little girl was sick … and in trouble.

12

Callie

I woke groggily, unsure of where I was. Blinking hazily, the lights were a blinding white, everything antiseptic and sterile.

Slowly, a face took shape before me, a handsome mien with penetrating blue eyes, dark hair and a concerned expression.

“Callie?” asked Blake. “You okay? You’ve been out for a while.”

Suddenly it all came rushing back. The biology make-up session, the aborted dissection, all gone horribly wrong. I hadn’t even been able to look really, the sight of the poor dead animal making me shake with revulsion. So Bryan had done the honors.

But when he’d announced that we had the wrong cat, that the animal was in fact pregnant and filled with kitten embryos, I’d lost it. I just couldn’t go on and had passed out outside, collapsing into the arms of my lovers.

Because Blake, Bryan and I are lovers now. Sure, we’re a little young, eighteen, but Blake and Bryan are practically grown men. They live by themselves in a trailer on the outskirts of St. Francis Wood, the ritzy neighborhood where we go to school. Their uncle is allegedly their guardian, but I’ve never seen this guy and he seems to care little about his nephews, not giving a crap so long as they don’t bother him.

So I’d moved in, and we’d begun a lovefest, doing each other morning, noon, and night, enjoying each other’s bodies, exploring, fucking, fighting, loving.

And right now, they were showing me what the real meaning of family was. Both men hovered about my hospital bed, Blake holding my hand as Bryan traced a finger down my cheek softly.

“You okay girlie?” he murmured. “You had us scared there for a sec.”

I sighed. No, I wasn’t okay, the thought of dead kitten embryos still made my stomach turn, but I’d survive.