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The bait, batted aside just moments ago, was too enticing to resist. Sharon turned to glare at him. "These comments, there is a reason?" she asked. Her voice, unused for days now, was hoarse. "Pets don't get reasons. You're a cat. Cats in mansions are pets." Kevin said, eyes not moving from his papers. "I'm reading about some incredible dynamic shifts in Iran's internal political polling. Cats don't care about that. They want treats." "This is a problem, why?" Sharon snapped despite herself. "I am the best at being Cat. You may ask the others. I am the most useful." "Are you?" Kevin said, looking past his file. "The cat got kidnapped. The cat needed people to save her. Sounds like the cat was kinda useless." Sharon's body went hot beneath her fur. Her tail lashed. "Was not. We were taken when I was human, and then I could not change. If I had been Cat I could have fought, like the times before. Is because I was human that--" Sharon caught herself and growled. "Is better when I am Cat," she muttered. "This I am good at. Is the other that is useless." "I'm sure the crunchies fear you." Kevin flipped a page. "Events happen because of other events. Pretending that you're just a precious pet means you get none of that. You're someone who things happen to, not one that decides their fate. A pet." He paused and took a drink. "I hope it was everything you wanted." "But things did happen to me!" The snap was high and sharp, with a vehemence that surprised even Sharon. "I was out with my friends only, and for this I was taken. Twice I was taken. Like fodder. Like prey. This is not my fault!" "Could the cat stop it?" Kevin set his folder aside for the first time. "The human might have." "I tried!" The cat sat on her haunches and pressed her hands to either side of her still-healing muzzle, ears flattened. "I tried, but the human was too slow. Too clumsy. Even Liam is faster. I fought, but I was too weak. Why should I want that form? It gives me nothing. Only weakness." "The human could have seen it coming. The human could have seen the signs. It might not have." Kevin paused. "But the cat can't. Ever. So you might not see it but the alternative is you can never see it. Which is more comfortable for you?" Sharon glared at him, unable to tell if he was mocking her. Out of her depth -- that was how she felt. How human things always made her feel. How it had felt to fight that hunter. She hated it. Hated it more than she hated the questions Kevin was asking her, and more than the answers she was being forced to consider. Her claws curled against her palms. "Always I am told is better to be more human," she said bitterly, "as if this is so easy a thing to do. When I try I can do nothing right." "It's an incredibly hard thing. But it is also something you hide from." Kevin said with a sigh and polished off his bourbon. He got up and went over to the bar to build another. "Felicia will gut me if I try and make you an operative before you're ready, but if you're willing to accept you're not just a cat, I can teach you to be a smarter human." |
