What? Nicked whose artery? Not his. He’d been—
Shay was on the floor and didn’t know why. That lion male and Stevie were hovering over him, twin expressions of panic on their faces.
“I think it was more than a nick,” the big cat told Stevie, and Shay wondered where all that blood on the pair came from before he blacked out completely.
*
She was traveling through the ceiling of some building she didn’t know. She was in full flight mode, which was weird. Honey badgers didn’t really do the flight part of fight or flight. They mostly just fought and backed up. Fought and backed up. Until their enemy wisely retreated. But everything inside her was telling her to move, move, move! So she did.
As she did, though, she could hear yelling from beneath her. Could hear the word “Tock!” yelled over and over again. She just didn’t know why. Were they counting down to something? Did they need a clock? And why not “tick-tock”？ Who just said “tock”？
Since she had no idea what was going on, she kept moving. On all fours. Through the ceiling until she found a duct that had fresh air coming in. She went for that, slamming her body into the metal until she forced it out. She dropped onto the ground and took off running. She heard lots of people coming after her. Then she sensed some were in front of her. She stopped. Backed up. Turned and ran the other way. But there were more there. She stopped. Backed up, and tried a different direction.
It didn’t work. She was surrounded. She bared her fangs and hissed in warning. That’s when she realized she was in her honey badger form. But that was okay. There were a few people staring at her. Moving in.
She’d take them all on.
She charged forward, ready to destroy, when a person she didn’t know tossed a live king cobra in front of her.
The snake was pissed, rearing up; its neck flap spread in warning, and that’s when she realized how hungry she was. She could not care less about these people surrounding her. All she knew was that she wanted to eat.
She changed direction and threw herself at the snake. It bit into her neck, injecting poison into her veins while it wrapped its long body around her. But she was too hungry to care. She just grabbed it by the head with her two front claws and pulled until she’d torn its jaw from the rest of it. She fell asleep after that.
But when she woke up again, she began eating. She was just so damn hungry.
She was covered in cobra blood and had half its face stuffed in her mouth when one of the people she didn’t know crouched close to her. She hoped he didn’t expect her to share any of her snake with him. She didn’t share on principle. Only her teammates got that kind of special treatment.
“How ya doin’， cousin?” the male asked with a smile. “I have to say you’re looking much better.”
Not appreciating that comment on her looks, she angrily hissed at the male, flecks of blood hitting him in the face. Then she released her anal glands so she could enjoy her meal in peace, but these others . . . they only laughed and appeared relieved. Still, no one left so she could eat by herself.
Disgusted at such rudeness, she went back to her meal. Just let them try to get the cobra from her. She’d show them. She’d show them all.
Because, God! It was just so rude!
Chapter 4
Mads stared at her teammate. Actually, they all stared at her. Gawked, really. How could they not? Tock was in a rage. Pacing back and forth, ranting and raving. At least . . . Mads guessed it was ranting and raving. She wasn’t really sure.
“What’s happening?” Nelle finally asked.
“I think she’s yelling at us,” Max guessed.
“Ranting and raving,” Mads corrected.
“Really? Are we sure?”
“No,” Mads admitted. “We’re not sure.”
How could they be sure when Tock was in her honey badger form during all this?
All that was coming out of her blood-covered mouth were squeaks and hisses and growls. But the way she kept stopping to look at them from time to time, Mads felt pretty sure that Tock thought she was talking to her teammates and that they understood her perfectly.
When they were all in their honey badger form and needed to communicate something, it really just took a look or a quick hiss. Maybe a soft bark in warning. And immediately they knew what the other was trying to say. But it wasn’t like a family cartoon where dogs and cats and badgers could chat with one another. At least not for them. Maybe for full badgers. Maybe they had complete conversations like in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Maybe all those squeaks and hisses and growls made sense to fellow full badgers. Mads didn’t know. All she did know was that when she was human and Tock was badger . . . her teammate could be saying nuclear weapons were about to drop where Mads was standing and Mads would take the hit because she had no idea what was going on. None.
“Should we say something to her?” Nelle wanted to know.
“Like what?”
“I have no idea.”
Streep crouched down, and Tock stopped in front of her. “Honey,” she gently began, “we’re trying to understand you, but—”
Tock’s snarling hiss was so brutal that Streep stumbled away from her, then lashed out with her own snarling hiss and a flash of fangs. Something they rarely saw from her. She was a sweet badger. A rarity among their kind.
The door to the waiting room flew open and Keane Malone stormed in.
“Where is she?” he demanded. “Where’s the bitch who nearly killed my brother?”
As one, they all pointed at Tock and, after a quick blink, the anger faded from his always angry–looking face before he finally admitted, “I can’t yell at her when she’s like that.”
But, apparently, she could yell at him, charging forward and hissing, nipping at his big feet.
“What is she doing?”
“She’s warning you not to fuck with her.”
“Yeah, well, you can tell her—aaaaaaah!” he screamed when Tock ran up his body and started to attack his throat and face. “Get her off me! Get her off me!”
Was he kidding? Mads wasn’t going near Tock when she was like this. She needed her teammate healthy and ready for the upcoming championship. The last thing she was going to do was get into a badger fight that might injure them both. None of them would. Nope. Keane was on his own. But he was being kind of a dick anyway, so he sort of deserved it.
*
Finn was standing over his brother’s inert form when he saw something strange out of the corner of his eye. He looked, but there was nothing to see, so he turned back to his big brother. He called Shay his big brother not just because he was older than Finn by a couple of years, but because he was his big brother. Keane might be the tallest of them, but Shay was the widest. Like a bus. It was his crazy big shoulders. He had trouble going through doors sometimes. He tended to “loom” behind people without meaning to; when they turned to find this giant man standing behind them, it led to panicked screaming and running away. Something that always hurt Shay’s feelings.
Although he talked much less than their eldest brother, Shay was definitely the most sensitive of their family. Especially for a cat. He cared about people. And things. Like dogs. He cared about dogs. Even Finn didn’t get that. Why care about something that could take care of itself and tended to run in packs when left on the streets? The family had three “outside dogs” at their house in Queens, but for all the Malones except Shay, the canines were there simply to protect the house when they weren’t home. Finn didn’t even know their names. Wait . . . did they have names? Probably. Shay was the kind who’d name a dog or house cat. He was friendly to everybody. Even when they’d first come face-to-face with Mads and her friends, he was the one who felt they should be kind to them. Finn just wanted to keep things polite because their baby sister was half badger. Keane, however, still tried to pretend his sister was tiger only, so he was rude to any honey badger he met. But not Shay. He wanted to hang out at the MacKilligan house. He wanted to chat with Charlie MacKilligan about dog stuff. He cared about the trio as his baby sister’s half-sisters.