Cat's Claw Read Online Free PDF Page B

furniture.
    “I want you to understand something, you little snot,” I said, glaring at the Minx. “I don’t take handouts from my parents. Everything you see in this apartment—including the apartment—was paid for by me, myself, and I, so why don’t you just can it.”
    I had decided a long time ago that if I wanted to live like a real human being, then I was damned if I’d take any money from my father’s supernatural endeavors. In fact, up until very recently I’d been living under a forgetting charm so I wouldn’t even remember that my parents came from supernatural royalty. I was more than happy to believe they were just extremely wealthy jet-setters who hailed from the exclusive enclave of Newport, Rhode Island.
    Money I could handle; supernatural stuff . . . not so much.
    Muna shrugged. “Well, I guess we better go, then,” she said, looking intently at Madame Papillon. “The girl doesn’t take handouts.”
    “Muna.” There was a note of warning underneath Madame Papillon’s otherwise placid tone.
    She turned her attention back to me.
    “Whether or not your parents asked me to intercede, the fact of the matter is that you really are in desperate need of my help,” Madame Papillon said, her eyes filled with concern. “Without the proper magical training, I am afraid that you will find yourself continuing to get into situations that you cannot handle.”
    “I can handle situations,” I said defensively. “I can handle lots of different situations. I’m very independent.”
    Muna snorted.
    “Shut up,” I said to the Minx.
    “The fact remains that you must be educated, whether you like it or not.”
    I started to roll my eyes, then remembered how obnoxious it was when Muna did it and stopped.
    “Look, I appreciate all the worry, but believe me—I have no intention of ever dealing with anything magical or death-related ever again. I am perfectly happy to live my normal life and let well enough alone,” I replied.
    “It’s not really that simple,” Madame Papillon said, taking another sip of her tea. “There are creatures who will want to destroy you simply because you are one of the three—two, now that the Devil’s protégé has disappeared—in line to take over the Presidency of Death, Inc., when your father abdicates his position.”
    I sighed.
    “I don’t want to be Death. Why doesn’t anybody get that ? I have absolutely zero interest in all the power and stuff that goes along with the job. I just want to be a boring, run-of-the-mill human being. Is that too much to ask for?”
    “Aiming for the stars, huh,” Muna drawled sarcastically.
    “Didn’t you just hear what I said? I don’t want to aim higher. I like my life exactly as it is.”
    Well, that wasn’t exactly the truth, but they didn’t need to know that. I was well aware of how bad my job sucked, that my apartment was too small, that I couldn’t afford to buy any clothing unless it lived on the sale rack. I didn’t need anyone else to harass me about all of the above. Besides, I really was pretty happy with my existence as a whole. I didn’t want all the pomp and circumstance that went along with Dad’s job. I could live in relative obscurity and be pretty damn happy about it, thank you very much.
    “She doesn’t want our help,” Muna said.
    “She just doesn’t understand how important this is,” Madame Papillon rejoined tersely. They were both talking about me like I wasn’t even in the room—something that totally drove me up the wall.
    “Look,” I said, interrupting their back-and-forth. “I appreciate the concern—I really do—but the Minx is right. I don’t want your help.”
    “That’s not the point,” Madame Papillon said. “You are in danger, whether you want to admit it or not. Your aura does not lie.”
    “What do you mean, ‘your aura doesn’t lie’?” I said, getting a little worried now.
    “An aura is an immutable thing, Calliope, but sometimes, in very rare circumstances,