Chapter 4

Kelly watched the moonlight play off the large claws of the massive Cait Sith in front of her. The other two had broken off to confront Donnie thinking he was the bigger threat –big mistake.

When she smiled at her would be attacker, he faltered. She'd guessed he was expecting her to cower at the sight of his claws that were now glistening with venom, but she had to laugh he wasn't even half as scary as some of the creatures they'd faced last year, and guess what she was still standing -- which was more than she could say for him in a minute.

Kelly unsheathed a couple of claws of her own to show off, her throwing daggers had been conveniently strapped to her arms and thighs all along. Lauren had spelled them last year to appear invisible to anyone but their owners.

And now she never went anywhere without them. She'd gotten so used to wearing them everywhere she went last year she now felt naked without them

She had to admit it was one heck of a spell. Their weapons hadn't been detected by the magic detector or the barrier at the school, or even when they were patted down by the council guard after the attack on the library. Some had been a little more thoroughly patted down than others, as she recalled it, and she imagined there was still a very unhappy guard working there that might never believe that her knee had slipped, and who might still be limping today.

Thanks to Lauren she had a fighting chance against the fiend in front of her, but for some reason he wasn't attacking her he was just getting in between her and Donnie like he was trying to prevent her from helping him out.

She looked over the human sized cat's furry black shoulder to see Donnie was holding his own with his dueling daggers. Like she said before . . . they never left home without them. Good boy she thought. Now they had more than a fighting chance.

She and Donnie spared together a lot. He must have picked up a trick or two from her, because he was holding his own with the two attackers that kept them apart.

He was pinwheeling his daggers expertly keeping attackers at bay. Her daggers were different than his though, his had hilts that allowed them to be better for thrusting at your enemy, hers didn't.

As melee weapons her weren't as effective, but what she lacked in fire power right now, she more than made up for in hand to hand combat. Kelly took a running leap and flipped right over the head of her attacker to stand back to back with a growling snarling Donnie.

He might not have his adult catform down yet, but he had the hissing growl down pat. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. He smiled at her as they fell into their familiar stance.

How does that saying go: four knives were better than one?

Together they did a slow spin of the lot to check for any other threats never presenting their back to any of their assailants, all the while they stood back to back with both knives fending off their attackers. Their hands moving faster than lightening. Kelly kept thinking that these were some annoyed kitties. They weren't going to be satisfied until they did some serious damage.

The sound of steal blades against claws rang through the parking lot loud enough to wake the dead. So it wasn't a surprise when the rest of the brat pack careened around the corner weapons drawn looking pretty darn menacing themselves.

Now the tables were turned. The cats were outnumbered, but they just wouldn't be deterred.

More started pouring out of more shadow holes and engaging the gang and she could see Xander madly affixing his silencers to his weapons as a giant orange tabby Cait Sith snuck up behind him.

And in a millisecond she let loose her blade and it arced through the air landing in the big cat's chest with a thunk. Xander spun to look at the blade resting in his opponent's chest with eyes as big as saucers and nodded to her in silent thanks. She nodded back. But heck . . . what did he think she'd do anyway, of course she'd save him? She wasn't that much of a b-word.

The gang moved in to formation falling into to step beside each other and when they did it became pretty apparent to everyone that wasn't blind or dumb as a stick that their attackers were focusing most of their energy on Donnie.

When that became apparent the gang moved in to form a circle around him. Fending off the lightening fast claws of the super fast and agile Caits. When the cats learned they couldn't break through their ranks they started leaping like acrobats above the circle trying to get inside.

When Quinn joked to the Caits, "Give it up guys I hear Cirque de Soleil is hiring," and nobody in her gang laughed they all had to admit they were outnumbered.

Kelly would never admit it, but she was relieved when Zach called it and yelled, "Lauren get a portal open and get Donnie the hell out of here!"

Kelly could see from the corner of her eye that Lauren looked like she was going to object but she knew if this was the only reason for the fight then to get him away would most likely end it.

And he was right, as soon as she opened a port door and grabbed a reluctant Donnie -- who was looking like a very pissed off kitty too -- around the collar to drag him through the other cats broke off and tried to follow, but the gang bought them the time they needed to jump through.

With Donnie gone the fight went out of the cats right away. It was like they were only fighting back with them to allow one cat after another to open up those shadow doors and step through. Finally only one remained.

The grey furred Cait was a heaving bloody mess, but it still took a moment to hiss through a mouthful of menacing teeth, "This isn't over Halflings," before he dove through the nearly closed shadow door of the second last one to leave.

As the shadow shrunk and shrunk to the size of a pin prick many of her classmates fell to the ground heaving and coughing like they had just run the Boston Marathon. Even she had to admit the fight had been challenging. They'd been totally outnumbered by fullblood mature Fae intent on killing one of them and they weren't pussy footing around . . . pun intended.

All ya'll, "Kelly called out, "best be telling me whose cornflakes Donnie pissed in?"

When she looked down at her outfit she was about ready to pitch a fit. It was torn and bloody and her shoes were scuffed beyond repair.

The icing on the cake though was when Zach said," sorry guys were going to have to convene at Lauren's the troll bile's there."

She thought she was mad about her outfit, but when she realized she was going to have to christen her new Corinthian leather bucket seats with her own blood, she was madder that a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

With that thought she remembered her car and took off like a shot, and when the rest of the gang saw the expression on her face, they took off after her.

Xan was right behind her. And she didn't care if they were together anymore or not, she reached right into his front pocket to grab his phone. Flipping it open she activities the built in light and started to go over every inch of the exterior looking for dings or scratches.

When Xander thrust out his hand in her direction and whined," Kelly you're really agitated right now, please give me back my phone before you fry it," but received only a growl in reply and even the brainless twit was smart enough to know when it was a good time to back off.

Everyone else gave her a wide berth too as she went over Baby's shining coat of paint -- maybe because she started uttering death threats to all involved if she found one single scratch.

She let out an audible sigh of relief when she realized the car had escaped the fight unscathed. And thought to herself 'self it's high time you stop hanging around with these dweebs'. If it weren't for troll bile you'd be a hideous scarred mess by now because of their antics.

Yup as they like to say in the South it was high time to cut bait and run.

When the magic text appeared:

Guys are you still alive? Answer me please? L

She was about to get in her car and drive away when Xan said, "come with me. Let's get you cleaned up. I'll get you home after we get you fixed up with troll bile, and you can come back tomorrow for your vehicle.

"Nah I think I'm done. I'm just going to go home and forget I ever met ya'll."

"Kelly," he sighed, "You can't go driving around San Fran like this. You're covered in blood and great deal of it isn't even yours. Never mind it's not even human. If you get pulled over looking like this." He waved his hand up and down in front of her to demonstrate his point.

She rolled her eyes at him and caved, but not completely," You'll drive me back to my car tonight after I get fixed up and washed off at Laurens. I'll have to borrow something off of Lauren to wear."

She didn't know what was more alarming: being seen covered in blood or wearing one of Lauren's tragic outfits.

Zach took that moment to respond. Apparently he was waiting for her to reply.

We're all on our way. Be there soon. Z

Nobody is badly hurt are they? If so I can pop in and grab them. L

Kelly dove at the invitation and quickly wrote:

I wouldn't mind a pick up. K

If she could avoid the hair-raising experience of a too fast bike ride across town in heels and a barely there outfit, while clutching on to a guy who clearly has no feelings for her and had ditched her publicly, that would be ideal.

What happened? K & T

Too much to get into, we'll explain when you get there. Z

Be right over K & T

The portal opened and Lauren stepped out having changed herself. It looks like she'd suffered a few scratches of her own. Kelly could see the still fading aftereffects of troll bile at work.

Lauren walked over to her and said we better get going Donnie's climbing the walls over at my house.

Kelly walked through the white light of the portal to feel her essence scatter into a million separate molecules and reform again on the other side. Portalling was by far the most invigorating and frightening thing she'd ever done. It was like going straight to the front of the line to the fasted ride at the park and saying, "I'm going in the front car, but don't bother with the safety harness. I got this."

When Lauren opened the port door to the other side Kelly stepped through into her tatty living room to find Donnie pacing the floor. When he ran over to check her over like she'd checked her car, front and back, she had to hide a smirk.

What was up with this guy?

By the look on Lauren's face she had caught the exchange as well. She looked perplexed to say the least, but if there were answers for his puzzling behavior Kelly didn't have them.

Kelly shook her head and cleared her throat to say, "Back off dweeb." Which did the trick; he seemed to regain himself as he went back to pacing the floor.

"Lauren," Kelly asked, "do you mind if I use your shower and borrow some clothes? I have to get back to my car tonight and I'm not getting into my new car covered in Cait spit, blood and lord knows what else."

"Sure, "Lauren responded I'll get you a clean towel and some jogging pants and a t-shirt.

Kelly blanched noticeably which made Lauren laugh out loud, but she also arched one brow and said, "if you'd prefer staying in those bloody clothes be my guest?"

"No," Kelly quickly uttered, "I'll take the clothes thanks."

"You'd better have some troll bile too, "Lauren suggested," I can tell you from experience those scratches sting like a mother."

Kelly took the concoction offered her and guzzled it in one go. There was no sipping involved when you drank the gawd awful stuff.

By the time Kelly stripped and stepped into the hot stream the cuts had closed over and were no longer bleeding by tomorrow not even the scars would remain, and thank heaven for that; the injuries she had sustained in training and the defensive wounds she had received during her battles with Liam and his crew would have been career enders.

Thank heavens they reopened the menagerie as well because after tonight's escapades they were going to need a brand new supply.

As Kelly washed the already dried blood off her body she thought someone had better have a good explanation for what happened tonight. If she hadn't offered to drive Donnie home and he'd been attacked. There would have been no way he would have survived.

He was lucky they had all been there. That's when she pictures his shy smile swapped with a death mask and she thought that poor boy isn't ready to run with the big dogs.

And there was nothing she hated more than an unfair fight.

Authors Note:

I'm toying with the idea of making all the Cait Sith fighters women. Like the lionesses in the animal kingdom are the hunters, but I'm not sure. Let me know what you think?

What the heck could Donnie have done to piss off the Cait Sith?

I don't even want to think about what would have happened if the gang hadn't been there.

Kelly seems oddly protective of him. What do ya'll think she's thinking?

Tune in tomorrow to find out.

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