Page 25 (1/2)

There was no dial tone

She jiggled the receiver-cradle buttons

Nothing

She put the receiver down and followed the cord around the side of the desk to the wall, to see if it had coed; it was chewed

Bitten in two

Aristophanes

She rearden: There are certain forces, dark and powerful forces, that want to see this played out the wrong way Dark forces that thrive on tragedy They want to see it end in senseless violence and bloodThere are forces alignedgood and evil, right and wrong You’re on the right side, Grace But the cat--ah, the cat’s a different story A: all times, you must be wary of the cat

She also reun, and she realized that the cat had been an integral part of it all, from the very start Wednesday of last week When she had suddenly awakened frohtmare about Carol--there had been an incredibly brilliant and violent barrage of Lightening beyond the study s She had staggered to the nearest , and while she had stood there on unsteady, arthritic legs, half-awake and half-asleep, she’d had the eerie feeling that so htrin on its face For a few seconds that feeling had been so strong, so real, that she had been afraid to turn around and look into the shadowy rooht as nothing htmare Now, of course, she knew she shouldn’t have dise had been in the room with her--a spirit; a presence; call it what you will It had been there And noas in the cat

She left the study and hurried down the hall

In the kitchen, she found that phone cord also chewed apart

There was no sign of Aristophanes

Nevertheless, Grace kneas nearby, perhaps even close enough to be watching her She sensed his--or its--presence

She listened The house was too silent

She wanted to cross the few feet of open floor to the kitchen door, open it boldly, and walk away froly suspected that any atteer an iht about the cat’s claws, teeth, fangs It wasn’tSiah little killing machine, too; its feral impulses lay beneath a thin veneer of domestication It was both respected and dreaded by rooht uneasily Yes, Aristophanes could kill ht me by surprise and if he went for eithershe could do was stay within the house and not antagonize the cat until she had ar any battle

The only other telephone was in the second-floor bedrooh she knew the third extension would be out of order, too

It was

But there was so in the bedrooun She pulled open the top drawer of her nightstand and took out the loaded pistol she kept there She had a hunch she would need it

A hiss A rustle

Behind her

Before she could swing around and confront her adversary, he was on her He vaulted fro froh force to knock her off balance She tottered for a moment and almost fell forward into the bedside lamp

Aristophanes hissed and spat and scrambled for purchase on her back

Fortunately, she kept her feet under her She spun around and shook herself, frantically attee

His claere hooked in her clothes Although she earing both a blouse and a sweater, she felt a couple of his razor-tipped nails puncturing her skin--hot little points of pain He wouldn’t let go

She drew her shoulders up and tucked her head down, pulling her chin in tight against her chest, protecting her neck as best she could She swung one fist up behind her back, struck only air, tried again, and hit the cat with a blow that was too weak to have done any hare and snapped at her neck He was foiled by her hunched shoulders and by her thick hair, which got in hishalf so er the fae and hateful beast, and she harbored no ghost of affection for hi in her right hand, but there was no way she could shoot hi herself, too

She struck at him repeatedly with her left hand, her arthritic shoulder protesting sharply, painfully when she twisted her arle

At least for a moment, the cat abandoned its relentless but thus far ineffective attack on her neck It slashed its claws across her flailing fist, slicing open the skin on her knuckles

Her fingers were instantly slick with blood They stung so badly that her eyes started to water

Either the sight or the odor of the blood encouraged the cat It shrieked with savage glee

Grace began to think the unthinkable--that she was going to lose this fight

No!

She struggled against the grip of fear that threatened to incapacitate her, tried to clear her panic-befuddled ht save her life She stumbled toward the nearest stretch of open wall, to the left of the dresser The cat clung tenaciously to her back, insistently pressing its snout against the base of her skull, hissing and snarling It was determined to force its way to her sheltered neck and rip open her jugular vein

When Grace reached the wall, she turned her back to it, then fell against it with all her weight, sla it hard between her body and the wall, hoping to break its spine The jolt brought a flash of pain through her shoulders and drove the animal’s claws deeper into her back h to shatter fine crystal, and it sounded alrip on her didn’t weaken Grace pushed away from the wall, then slammed into it a second time, and the cat wailed as before, but still held fast She thrust herself off the wall, intending to make a third attempt to crush her adversary, but before she could fall back on hio of her He dropped to the floor, rolled, sprang to his feet, and scurried away fro

Good She had hurt hiainst the wall, raised the 22 pistol that was stilt in her right hand, and squeezed the trigger

Nothing

She had forgotten to switch off the safeties

The cat hurried through the open door and disappeared into the upstairs hail

Grace went to the door, closed it, leaned wearily against it Gasping

Her left hand was scratched and bleeding, and her back bore half a dozen claw punctures, but she had won the first round The cat was li; he was injured, perhaps as badly as she was, and he was the one who had retreated

No celebration, though Not yet

Not until she had gotten out of the house alive And not until she was certain that Carol was safe, too