Covet (Clann)

your bow and arrows. Just get inside and…” A whooshing sound behind me signaled she’d opened the back glass window. I risked a glance over my shoulder. She had thrust her arm and shoulder inside, but the rest of her body was still vulnerable outside the cab. “What’s the matter? Are you stuck?”
    “Nope, I’m good.” She spoke at a normal volume.
    “Keep your voice down!” Geez, did she want to provoke the thing to attack us?
    She stood up, and I wanted to throttle her. She was holding a compound bow with arrows attached and a weird plastic hook thing strapped to her right wrist. “Dang it, Anne, I said no! Just get inside where you’ll be safe.”
    But even as I spoke, she was inserting an arrow into the bow then hooking it with the wrist thing.
    “Anne, don’t!” What if she missed? It might make the beast run away. Or it might make it come after us for sure.
    “Don’t worry so much,” she said, drawing the arrow and one of the three strings back to her jaw, resting the tip of her nose against the string with a smile. “I’ve got this. Ready? On three. One, two…”
    Her right index moved forward and pressed the trigger of the hook attached to her wrist. The hook released the arrow. It went wide, missing the monster to the right by at least a foot.
    The cat reached up and caught the arrow as easily as if it were a kitten grabbing a bird out of the air.
    My jaw dropped. No normal panther would have done that. It must be a Keeper. We were so in trouble here.
    Anne chuckled. “Good catch! But don’t you dare mark it up with those teeth or claws. Just leave it on the ground and I’ll get it later.”
    Male laughter sounded, not nearby, but closer, as if I were listening to it through headphones. As if it were in my mind.
    And it sounded familiar. “Ron?” I called out in a stage whisper, daring to look around us and trusting Anne would keep an eye on the panther. Ron had to be close by if I could hear him laughing.
    Yeah? Definitely Ron’s voice. Was he up in one of these trees?
    “Where are you? Stay away! There’s a—”
    A giant black cat staring at you? Yeah, I know. He sounded ready to laugh at me.
    Had everyone gone nuts around here?
    “Yeah, well, this cat’s definitely not normal. Where are you? Can you get into your car safely? If you can’t, stay where you are and we’ll try to get inside Anne’s truck and come and get you.”
    Anne laughed. “Yeah, Ron. We’ll come save you.” She laughed harder.
    I scowled at her. “What is wrong with you? Can’t you see that huge black animal over there ready to tear our throats out?”
    “Hickeys on the neck, yes. But he’s not going to hurt us.” Lifting her chin, she called out, “Ron, are you done playing with her yet?”
    The panther eased closer. And closer. It was beside the truck now. Throwing caution to the wind, I jumped to my feet and darted in front of Anne, using my body for protection.
    Whew, you’re fast! Ron said.
    The panther leaped onto the tailgate, and the entire back end of the truck dipped under the panther’s weight. Despite my clenched back teeth, a shriek escaped through my nose. It had to be at least six feet long from head to butt.
    “Get inside the freaking truck!” I yelled at Anne, moving to stand between her and the monstrous cat. I had no idea how I would fight it off. I would have to pray my vamp strength would be enough against its huge size and weight. Was there enough of a human mind caged within that furry body to be reasoned with? Maybe if I apologized for Anne’s shooting at it…
    “Dude, easy on my truck,” Anne said over my shoulder to the cat.
    The panther sat on its haunches and made a sneezing motion with its head.
    Give me a break , Ron said. She carts around dead hogs back here but tells me to be gentle with her truck?
    For the first time since the panther’s arrival, I stopped trying to figure out how to save Anne and fully focused on Ron’s voice.
    “Ron?” I said.
    Yep.
    The panther tilted its head, its tail slowly sweeping the tailgate.
    “Where are you? Wave a hand or something so I can see you.”
    The panther slowly lifted a paw in the air.
    No flipping way… My mind locked up.
    “Yes, you were funny,” Anne said, sounding bored now. “But I’m still not giving you a high five when you look like that.”
    “That’s— The Keepers are—” I stuttered.
    “Shapeshifters,” Anne said, playing with her compound bow.
    Right. Of course they were. Because