Page 15 of Shadow Scorching

“Sure, that sounds good.” I put my feet up on the ottoman, smiled as Jangles jumped into my lap, leaning her big floofy body against mine, and Penn and I lost ourselves in the world of lumber, nails, and paint.

My alarm rangat six AM and I squinted, floundering to turn it off. Finally, I resorted to voice instructions. “Cassidy?”

“What can I help you with?” my phone’s AI assistant asked.

“Turn off the fucking alarm.”

The alarm stopped. “I have turned off the alarm,” Cassidy answered.

I didn’t want to get out from beneath the covers. It was chilly inside—even though I kept the heat at a steady seventy degrees, and the morning seemed too bright, though I couldn’t see any sunbeams.

I squinted, staring at the window. The sky shimmered with a silvery tint, and though I couldn’t see out into the yard from where my bed was, I realized that the clouds were a bit too bright for rain. I sighed, pushing myself up against theheadboard, but quickly wrapped my blankets over me. I slept in the nude, and the room was too chilly for exposed flesh.

Jangles and Murdoch raced into the room. Both Penn and I liked the cats to sleep with us and so we left our doors cracked so they could get in and out.

“Marowwww...” Jangles let out an elongated meow, then bounced on my bed. She squirmed into my arms, licking my face. Murdoch stood at the bottom of the bed, staring at me.

“I take it Penn isn’t up yet, and hasn’t fed you,” I said.

Murdoch meowed, loudly, as if answering me. In fact, I was pretty sure he knew exactly what I was saying.

“Hey, Penn said it sounded like you said something to her last night, in English. Did you?” Part of me felt ridiculous for talking to a cat, yet I also realized that another part of me actually expected an answer.

Maybe.

The word hung in the air, and I stared at the cat. I didn’t know if I’d heard it aloud, or whether it was my imagination playing with my head.

“What? Did you say ‘maybe’?” I leaned forward, staring at him.

But Murdoch gave me a bored look and jumped down, running out of the room. I petted Jangles, staring at the spot that Murdoch had been sitting. What the hell?

After a moment, I heard Penn in the kitchen.

“Okay, Jangles, time to start the day.” I gave her another cuddle, then threw back the covers and pulled on my terrycloth robe. As I slid my feet into my slippers and padded to the window, I was greeted with a winter wonderland. The yard sparkled with snow. It was only a couple inches, yet everything was pristine and icy, enveloping our little corner of the world.

I opened the window and leaned on the sill. The windows were screened to keep the cats in, but the air washed throughthe opening, filling the room with that frozen smell snow has when it first falls. It was as though the entire world had crystallized overnight and nature had fallen into a deep slumber. The sounds of the living were muffled, cloaked in a subdued, frozen silence.

I inhaled a deep breath, then let it out slowly and closed the window before it got too cold. Calmer, I headed out to the kitchen, where Penn was starting to cook breakfast.

“Did you see—” I started to say, but she smiled.

“It’s so pretty out. I think I’ll make cookies today. I hope it sticks around for a few days. I checked the weather report. They didn’t expect the temperature to drop far enough for snow, but I guess it did. The forecast is for another few days of snow, then it will warm back up and rain. So we’ll have winter for a couple days, this year.”

As she scrambled eggs in a bowl, I turned on the espresso machine. “Mocha today?”

“Peppermint, thank you. I’m making eggs and I was going to make toast, but I could change that to waffles, if you like.”

I glanced at the clock. “You know, I can be a little late. Waffles it is. I’ll go get dressed and then help.”

She laughed and set the eggs aside, then began to assemble the ingredients for waffles. “You know what, why don’t you leave the cooking to me? You have time for a quick shower, if you want.”

With a chuckle, I finished making her mocha, and decided to wait on mine until I was out of the shower. After a quick rinse, I decided to dress for warmth, especially since we were due at Michael’s today to check out the haunting. I put on a pair of leggings under my black jeans, added a black turtleneck, a cobalt scarf, and then brushed my hair and put on my makeup. I slid into a pair of platform ankle boots and laced them up.

On the way back to the kitchen, I noticed Murdoch standing in the hall, staring at me. Once again, I thought of how much had changed in my life over the past month. I was happier, and I thought Penn was, as well. Murdoch let out a loud purp, then bounced away, and I had the oddest feeling he had read my mood. Or rather, mymind.

CHAPTER SIX

As usual,traffic on a snow day was insane. No matter how many times we’d had snow in the past years, it was still infrequent enough to wipe out the short-term memories of drivers and turn them into floundering idiots. That, combined with the steep streets of the city, the lack of snow plows because they weren’t cost effective for the amount of snow we got, and the caffeine-buzz of commuters, turned the city into a skating rink.

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