Cat in the Dark Read Online Free PDF

are dead.” He laughed coldly. “Humans. How very silly. Why would you care that a human dies? The world is overrun with humans.”
    â€œWhat do…” Dulcie began.
    But a whistle from the street jerked the tomcat up, a call as soft as the cry of a night bird. He turned, leaped down into the awning, and was gone. They heard a muffled oof of breath as he hit the street. Heard his human partner speak to him, then footsteps.
    Looking over the roof’s edge, they watched the two drift away, up the street into darkness. Joe crouched to follow, but Dulcie pressed against him, urging him away from the edge.
    â€œDon’t,” she said. “Please don’t—he frightens me.” She was demure and quiet. If she had ranted and snarled at him, he would have been off at once, after the pair.
    â€œHe scares me,” she repeated, sitting down on the shingles. Joe looked back at her crossly, knowing he’d be sorry he hadn’t followed. But he was puzzled, too. Dulcie was seldom afraid. Not this shivering, shrinking, huge-eyed kind of fear.
    â€œPlease,” she said, “leave him alone. He might be like us. There might be a wonderful mystery about him. But he terrifies me.”
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    Later, in the small hours when Joe and Dulcie had parted, as she snuggled down in the quilt beside Wilma, she dreamed of Azrael, and in sleep she shivered. Caught by the tom’s amber eyes, she followed him along medieval lanes, was both frightened of him andfascinated. Winding across ancient rooftops they slipped among gargoyles and mythic creatures twisted and grotesque, beasts that mirrored the black tom’s dark nature. Azrael before her, drawing her on, charming her, leading her in dream until she began to lose all judgment.
    She’d always had vivid dreams. Sometimes, prophetic dreams. But this drama woke her, clawing the blankets, hissing with fear and unwanted emotions. Her thrashing woke Wilma, who sat up in bed and gathered Dulcie close, her long gray hair falling around them, her flannel nightgown warm against Dulcie. “Nightmare? A bad nightmare?”
    Dulcie said nothing. She lay shivering against Wilma, trying to purr, feeling very ashamed of the way the black tom had made her feel.
    She was Joe Grey’s lady; her preoccupation with the stranger, even in dream, deeply upset her.
    Wilma didn’t press her for answers. She stroked Dulcie until she slept again, and this time as Dulcie dropped into the deep well of sleep she held her thoughts on Joe Grey and on home and on Wilma, pressing into her mind everyone dear to her, shutting out dark Azrael.
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    It was not until the next morning that Joe, brushing past Clyde’s bare feet, leaping to the kitchen table and pawing open the morning Gazette, learned more about the burglary at Medder’s Antiques. He read the article as Clyde stood at the stove frying eggs. Two over-easy for Clyde, one sunny-side up for Joe. Around Clyde’s feet the three household cats and the elderly black Labrador crouched on the kitchen floor eating kibble, each at his or her own bowl. Only Joe was served breakfast on the table, and he certainly wasn’t having kibble.
    Clyde said kibble was good for his teeth, but so were whole wheat kitty treats laced with fish oil and added vitamins from Molena Point’s Pet Gourmet. Choosing between P.G.’s delightful confections and store-bought kibble was no contest. Two of P.G.’s fish-shaped delicacies, at this moment, lay on his breakfast plate, which Clyde had placed just beside the newspaper. Clyde had arranged four sardines as well, and a thin slice of Brie, a nicely planned repast awaiting only the fried egg.
    It had taken a bit of doing to get Clyde trained, but the effort had been worth it.
    Standing on the morning paper sniffing the delicate aroma of good, imported sardines, he read the Gazette ’s account of the burglary. The police did not know how the burglar had gotten