Cat's Claw Read Online Free PDF Page A

thought about that for a minute before nodding. I guess having the human populace, as a whole, moon over your every move could get annoying after a while.
    “Sure, I get it. Being cute and adorable and kind of sexy in a little tiny creature/Peter Pan sort of way could probably get frustrating for you, I guess . . .” I trailed off as the Minx stared at me.
    I wasn’t the greatest when it came to deducing someone’s height, but if I’d had to guess, I would’ve said that Muna topped out at about eighteen inches. With her violet, almond-shaped eyes, long, pitch-black hair, and high, cream-colored cheekbones, she was a stunning femme fatale in miniature.
    In fact—strange as this may sound—she eerily resembled this Hot Looks doll I’d been madly in love with as a kid. It was actually something I’d inherited from my older sister, Thalia, but I was obsessed with it, dragging it with me everywhere I went like a tiny, human-shaped security blanket. My mother finally threw the doll away when its head fell off. Apparently, it made other people uncomfortable to see a six-year-old kid carrying around a filthy, headless, plush doll the size of a small terrier.
    Yes, carting around a headless doll was kind of a weird thing to do, but I had my reasons. You see, there was something special about the Hot Looks doll. Something that I’d never told another living soul in the whole world (not even my therapist because I didn’t want to give her a heart attack) and that something was that my doll talked to me .
    Yeah, I know, a lot of kids have imaginary friends, but this was completely different. My doll (she said her name was Noodle, which seemed totally appropriate at the time because she was plushy and definitely more flexible than a plate of spaghetti) liked to do naughty things.
    Now, when I use the word “naughty,” you’re probably thinking something along the lines of, oh, let’s say, eating all the ice cream out of the freezer or not brushing your teeth and not going to bed when your parents tell you to or eating all the Halloween candy out of your sister’s jack-o’-lantern bucket . . . but sadly, that kind of stuff didn’t even rate on Noodle’s meter of naughtiness. Let’s just say that Noodle’s idea of being naughty was just a little bit more intense.
    Noodle almost made me throw my little sister, Clio, off the side of a cliff once . . . but that’s another story entirely.
    Needless to say, whoever created the Hot Looks dolls must’ve hailed from the supernatural world because the attitude and the resemblance between my doll, Noodle, and this Minx were pretty freaky.
    “Hey, that’s not what she meant at all, nitwit,” Muna said, interrupting my thoughts as she rolled her eyes heavenward in a move that I recognized right out of my own playbook. “I’m not the frustrating one; it’s you imbecilic humans who can’t stop staring at me. You’re the problem.”
    Jeez, I only hoped I wasn’t this petulant and annoying when I was meeting new peeps.
    “Muna is just being contrary,” the older woman said, the smile still intact on her face. “Of course, one can never ignore the fact that it takes two to tango.”
    “Look, I appreciate the pearl of wisdom—I really do—but I have one question that needs answering, like, right now ,” I said, sounding louder and angrier than I’d meant to.
    “Please, ask your question,” the woman said, her voice a study in quiet modulation.
    “Okay,” I answered, trying to mimic her calmer tone. “Who are you and what do you want—other than to almost asphyxiate me in my own apartment? I mean, you just opened a wormhole right into my kitchen and invited yourself in,” I babbled, getting myself worked up all over again. “So, like, what the hell?”
    Instead of getting all peeved like I’d expected, the little old lady merely laughed, showing straight white teeth that looked shinier and newer than mine—even though she probably had about fifty zillion years