Thyla - Kate Gordon [65]
‘I’m glad you changed me,’ I whispered. ‘I wish you changed Mum too, so she could have survived. I wish she was still here. But I’m glad that I am here. This is who I’m meant to be. I may not remember it, but I feel it.’
‘Yeah, well, it’s not all hearts and flowers, as you can see,’ Isaac said.
I followed his gaze to the third body in the clearing. The only human one. The only one who would be found.
‘Funny the things people will do for love,’ Isaac murmured.
‘Her husband was a Sarco?’ I said. ‘Raphael?’
‘Is, as far as we know,’ said Isaac. ‘Though nobody’s seen him for a while. It may be that he was the Sarco you saw, in which case …’ Isaac paused, his eyes looking faraway, a grimace twisting his mouth. My stomach lurched as I thought of what Raphael might be going through. And Rhiannah. Oh, hell.
‘Cynthia knew that Raphael had been turned,’ Isaac said finally. ‘She hated it. She wanted her human husband back. One night, in a meeting with Lord – I was there – she confided in him that something had “changed” about Raphael. Of course, Lord knew exactly what she meant. Lord told her he could change Raphael back. He told her he had some new technology for turning shapeshifters back into humans.’
‘The solution.’
‘That’s what they’re calling it. I really don’t know that much –’
Isaac was interrupted by a hand on his shoulder. As he turned, I saw a tall Thyla standing behind him, their face half-veiled in shadow.
The figure moved sideways and I saw that it was a female. Her markings were light and, on her snout, looked almost like freckles.
‘Hi Tessa,’ she said.
‘Hi Cat,’ I replied. My voice sounded calm but my heart was beating like a military drum. Cat Connolly was standing in front of me. She had survived.
Cat laughed, throwing her head back. ‘I thought you said she’d forgotten me,’ she said to Isaac. He shrugged.
‘I only just remembered,’ I admitted.
The girl walked towards me, and flung her arms around me.
‘Tessa, ya doofus. I knew you wouldn’t forget me. You’re the one who saved my life! If it wasn’t for you I’d be Blood Bather prey.’ Cat leaned out, her face serious now. ‘Look, I’m really sorry for leaving you that day on the mountain. If I hadn’t run off, you might never have fallen. I didn’t get far away before I realised you weren’t with me. I started to come back, but then I heard the Diemens coming through the bush and I had to hide for a bit in a little cave. Once they’d gone, I went back to where I left you. When I saw you lying at the bottom of the cliff, my first thought was that they’d done something to you. But I knew they wouldn’t have just left you there. Like that. They would have roughed you up a bit more. They can’t help themselves – the bastards. You were pretty lucky the Diemens didn’t hear you fall, or if they did, I guess they thought it was just a rock fall ’cos they didn’t turn back. Anyway, I could see how bad your injuries were and I knew we couldn’t fix you. We heal faster than humans, but even though you’d improve quickly, I didn’t know if you’d survive long enough to get there. So I just put your cuff on and rang … well, Mum, as it turns out. But she didn’t know it was me, thankfully. I decided at the last minute to put on this stupid accent. Lucky I did, hey? God, I feel really stupid thinking I did that now. I was still so new to this. I was still in the human mode of “when in danger, call the police”. I’m smarter now.’
Cat – my friend, Cat – smiled again.
I wondered how she was able to smile when her friends had just been killed.
Perhaps it is just as Isaac said – death is normal. It is the way of things. Perhaps Cat knew this.
I could not smile back, though. I grieved. I ached for my lost friends.
And I also ached for you, Connolly. Cat was alive and you were still yearning for her and searching for her. And she was thankful you hadn’t recognised her voice!
‘Your mum thinks you’re dead!’ I cried. I couldn’t keep the accusation, the anger, from my voice.
Cat’s smile