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And that’s when it wrapped needle claws into her wrist and dug tiny teeth deep into her palainst the stones as she tried to shake the kitten off She’d been bitten dozens of times before, by dozens of animals, and her response was always cal was different this ti The thing was dug into her skin, gnawing at theas it ripped the hole bigger She caught the scruff of its neck, trying to dislodge it, but it only dug its claws in icked tenacity When she stepped back, scanning the parlor for a spatula or a spoon or so to smack it with, she stepped barefoot on the shards of the plate and stu hard on her knees

Two more kittens plopped out of the box, and the sound of claws on wood told her more were on the way She shook her hand, thrashed it, her instinct to toss the kitten away even if it was cruel, but the fuzzy gray creature only hissed and bit deeper

A s deep in her thigh as another kitten clu and faiven Frannie the patience and sacrifice to deal kindly with helpless creatures, but her heart’s frantic thu down her spine told her that so She rolled her eyes upward and whispered, "I’m sorry" Then she bashed her hand on the hard stones, knocking the kitten off and flinging her own blood across the hearth

The kitten leaped up and bunched its tiny legs to pounce, its eyes glowing red as it hissed at her

Fear shot through her These weren’t kittens

"Tho off her leg, its claws shredding her nightgown Another one ju a trail of red-hot welts that fueled her panic By the tis into the shadows of the kitchen, the one on her neck had burrowed under her hair, sinking teeth into the nape and ripping deep into the flesh as if hunting for her spine

She felt the blood running down her neck before the san to lick And then she heard the ru purr On instinct, she wrenched it off and dropped it in the box, where it licked her blood off dainty paws

When one of the kittens started up her leg again, she grabbed it tightly by the scruff of its neck and held it up to the fire’s lared back, and the little pink s

Footsteps pounded down the stairs as Thom landed in the kitchen, clad only in a kilt, knife in hand "What is it, lass?"

"Bludkittens Don’t kill the in a puddle of her own blood and diving for the drahere she kept carefully folded grain sacks Tho kitten froer bit me!"

"Put it in here"

She held open a sack, and Tho as it could, stretching long, like a furry leech, before its teeth came unstuck with a little pop and a dribble of blood He held it up to his face, and its eyes ide and round, itsin the air and its stubby tail twirling

"Mew?"

"I don’t think so, y"

He dropped it neatly into the sack and went for the box, grabbing twotheh cloth, their little bodies swar, trapping them

"There are two more I threw one in the corner"

"Where’s the other?"

"Ah! On e the little orange tabby wrapped around her foot It purred while it sucked blood froently away Its legs wheeled in the air as it hissed, and Frannie held open the bag, jiggling it to knock the others away fro

"One more," she said

Careful not to step in the shards of porcelain and forgotten kittenin one hand, she prowled the roo the kittens’ box, under the tables, and in the corners The fifth kitten, a white one, had utterly disappeared It was unsettling to think that a creature so rabid for her blood would be intelligent enough to run in the opposite direction She held up the now-shredded heown and called, "Here, kitty Here, puss Come have some nice blood"