“Maybe you don’t remember,” she answered. “You were trying to speak but couldn’t, and then I found I could look inside your mind. That’s where I saw what to do.”
“Well, I don’t know if anybody told you, but you saved the planet.”
“So I’ve heard. It just feels surreal – like maybe I’m still in the dream.”
“I can pinch you if you like,” I offered, making her giggle.
“No, thanks,” she decided. “But there is something you can do for me.”
“What’s that?”
“Tell me how you found out about me.”
“Sure,” I shot back with almost no hesitation. I then explained to her about the surge of power I’d felt during brunch.
She looked away when I was done, seemingly embarrassed. “I’m sorry – that wasn’t supposed to happen. I usually have more control than that.”
“Okay,” I droned. “Frankly speaking, though, I still don’t know what happened.”
“I’ll tell you, but it’ll probably help if I first explain about my power.” She paused for a moment, took a deep breath, then blurted out, “I’m a kitsune.”
I frowned. “Isn’t that, like, a magic cat?”
“A magic fox, actually,” she replied, laughing. “Still, that’s pretty good. According to legend, a kitsune is a fox or fox spirit with various powers, such as shapeshifting, flight, invisibility–”
“Are you serious?” I interjected, suddenly feeling odd because she was actually rattling off a list of my powers. “You can do all that?”
“That’s what the kitsune of legend can purportedly do,” she explained. “They can also, supposedly, draw on the life-force of others.”
“And that’s what you can do,” I realized. “And if they have superpowers, you can siphon those, too – gain their abilities for yourself.”
“Only temporarily,” she clarified. “But typically, it only works on the opposite sex. And if I take any of their life-force, guys have a tendency to become obsessed with me. They’re basically fixated on and drawn to me because, on some level, they know a part of them is inside me. But – unless I draw from them on a regular basis – eventually it fades, for lack of a better term, and everything goes back to normal.”
I spent a moment mulling over what she’d just said and reflecting back on the period of time after I’d first felt her power. Back then, I actually hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Cat and her abilities for hours.
“My mom says it’ll pass,” she continued. “She says it’s just a phase – this fear of people knowing about me – and things will be better when I’m older and in full control of my powers.”
“She’s like you,” I stated.
“Yeah, but why do I get the feeling you already knew that?” she inquired.
Ignoring what I assumed to be a rhetorical question, I asked, “Do you think she’s right?”
Cat shrugged. “She doesn’t seem to have any issues with her powers. That said, it probably doesn’t hurt that – under certain circumstances and with proper control – the siphoning can also give an exquisite kind of, uh…pleasure.”
I stared at her for a moment, not understanding. And then, recalling the conversation between Capri and my father, the truth hit me.
“Oh,” I muttered, while Cat looked away, slightly embarrassed. “Anyway, I think I understand now why you don’t want people to know about you.”
“If people knew I could drain their life-force – and sometimes do it slightly by accident – they wouldn’t want to be around me,” she explained. “It’s happened in the past. Family members are afraid to hug you. Friends don’t want to be near you. Guys don’t want to hold your hand.”
“Not everyone is like that, I’m sure,” I said.
“Most,” she argued, “so I’ve just learned to keep that part of myself under wraps.”
“Well, feel free to unwrap that part around me.”
“You say that now,” Cat retorted, “but after you’ve had a chance to…”
She suddenly trailed off as I reached over and took her hand. It was an act that took her by complete surprise (and me as well, since I had done it without consciously thinking about it). For a long time, she just stared at our clasped hands, like it was something she had never seen before. I realized then that – perhaps aside from her parents and Vestibule – actual human contact with someone who knew what she was (and the power she had) was something Cat probably hadn’t experienced in quite some time. After maybe a minute, she looked at me and gave me a warm, bright smile.
***
Cat and I stayed outside simply holding hands for perhaps another fifteen minutes. There was nothing romantic or implied in the act – it was a purely platonic gesture on both our parts. However, even without my empathic abilities, I could tell that having human contact in that way – with someone who wasn’t afraid of her or what she could do – meant the world to Cat.
At some juncture, my phone rang. Noting that it was Mouse calling, I excused myself and hastily stepped away for privacy.
“Hey,” I said upon answering. “You need me for something?”
“How quickly can you get to the helipad?”
“In about a minute.”
“Okay,” Mouse replied. “But you need to hurry or you’ll miss it.”
With that, he hung up, leaving me puzzled as to what he was talking about.
Quickly returning to Cat, I said, “I’ve got to take off for a minute. Will you tell the others I’ll be back as soon as I can?”
“Sure,” she said. “Be careful.”
“I will,” I promised.
Cat then turned to head back towards the embassy, but had barely taken a step before she suddenly spun back in my direction, impulsively throwing her arms around my neck and giving me a big hug. Caught a little off guard, I recovered enough to hug her back. Again, it was platonic, but I understood it was something she needed, especially when she whispered “Thank you” in my ear before stepping back.
I gave her a short wave and then teleported.
Chapter 68
I popped up on the helipad, noting
