Cats in Heat Read Online Free PDF Page A

stay awake.
    Her eyes opened sharply and she couldn’t be sure how long she’d closed them. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a dream hovered, and she could but hear her grandmother’s voice.
    The candles around the room had lost between one to two inches—so she had slept. Addie sat up and rubbed at her eyes, yawning again. An odd, burning tug began beneath her breastbone, some urgent pull she hadn’t quite felt before.
    Addie stood, instantly alert. Her stomach did a flip and that tug grew stronger. Her gaze scanned Erik who hadn’t moved. The whisper of his shallow breaths, quiet as they were, filled the air. He was still alive, so what—
    Her eyes fell on something dark on the hardwood. She took two steps forward, rounding the coffee table, and stopped as she stood over him.
    Blood snaked past the quilt across the floor.
    Oh shit . Addie fell to her knees at his side, pulling the quilt back from his shoulders. He didn’t wake when she moved him, just rolled to his side. His hair hadn’t entirely dried; sweat had broken on his forehead and twined with his dark, shaggily cut locks. His lips were parted, pale and bloodless. She ran her hand over his face. Definitely a fever. Then she scanned his body, gently moving his arms away until she glimpsed the dark blood in his side. A deep wound of some sort, one she had missed with the heavy rain washing it clean.
    Addie scrambled up and bolted through the living room for the bathroom. Above the sink sat a standard first aid kid purchased from a pharmacy and a couple of clothes. She’d already left towels in the living room so she backtracked, went straight to the kitchen to boil water.
    Beyond the fact that she didn’t particularly want anyone to randomly die in her house, she didn’t even want to contemplate what she’d do in this case.
    He won’t die. He’ll be fine. You know what to do.
    But did she really ?
    She hadn’t time to contemplate it or doubt herself. Instead she busied about the kitchen, got the basin ready for the boiled water, then darted back to the living room with the first aid kit.
    He hadn’t moved but his chest rose and fell with shallow breaths. Addie knelt and leaned over him, grasped his shoulder and his hip, and heaved him onto his uninjured side. He was dead weight while out cold and it required some maneuvering, but eventually she had him turned. She pressed one of the towels to his side and began soaking up the blood so she could better see the wound.
    “Erik?” she whispered, peering at his eyes.
    He moaned, mumbled something, but she couldn’t make out the actual words.
    Shit, she was not equipped for this. She didn’t run an emergency room, she didn’t—
    You can do this. You know what to do.
    Addie shivered at the tickling breeze rushing over her. In the kitchen, the kettle hollered and she hopped up again, running back to get the water. She poured it into a basin and gave the steaming water a few minutes to cool. The already warm kitchen was stifling now from the wood stove and the water. She leaned on the counter, peering at the darkness of the backyard.
    Eyes stared back at her.
    She froze, watching them. Pairs of glowing yellow around the back shed. Too small to be tigers—they had to be the local feral housecats.
    At least half a dozen. Staring like they saw her there in the dark kitchen.
    Addie swallowed nervously. She’d fed them, they had shelter. What the hell?
    She could worry about the goddamn cats later—for now, there was a bleeding man in her living room.
    Grabbing the basin and careful not to spill anything, Addie trekked back to the living room. Erik still lay on the floor, part of the quilt over his lower half and a towel soaking up blood at his side. She set down the basin of slowly cooling water and knelt again, pulling back the damp towel.
    A three-inch long cut, just below his ribcage. Given the blood, it had to be deep, but she had no way of knowing what, if anything, might’ve been pierced beyond