Master of Smoke

TV, Mom.” Eva kicked the door closed and prayed David would keep his muzzle shut. All she needed was to be outted by a talking cat. “What brings you over? And where’s Dad?”
    “It’s Saturday—he’s running his Magic tournament.”
    “Oh yeah, that’s right.” Magic the Gathering was a collectable card game; Dad had been holding weekly tournaments at the Comix Cave for years. He also sold the wide variety of Magic card decks, so it was good for business all around. “So you decided to stop by and kill some time.”
    “It’s not killing time, it’s spending quality time with my baby girl.” But Charlotte’s attention was focused on David, her brows raised. “I didn’t know you had a cat. I didn’t even think you liked cats anymore.”
    “This one kind of followed me home.” The door safely shut, she put David down. He gave her a dirty look, the tip of his tail flicking in offended rage. She winced.
    Her mother crouched, extending a hand to him. To Eva’s surprise, he sniffed delicately at her fingers, and permitted himself to be picked up. “You’re a beauty, you are. What unusual coloring! I’ve never seen a cat with markings like this. Usually, if a cat is striped, it’s over his entire body.”
    “He’s not your typical cat.” Boy, that was an understatement.
    Charlotte walked over to the couch and settled down on it, then proceeded to give David’s ears a good scratch. Judging by the way his eyes shuttered in pleasure, he liked it. “What’s his name?”
    “Uh. ...” Fang would not do. He’d probably shred her curtains in revenge. Or her ankles, in his current rotten mood. “T’Challa.” Which was the secret identity of an obscure Marvel superhero named Black Panther.
    Charlotte shot her a look. “I should have known. You’re such a geek, darling.”
    “Hey, you knew who it was. What does that make you?”
    “I’ve been married to your father for three decades. Of course I’m a geek.”
    Eva laughed as she headed for the kitchen and the bottle of white Zin stashed in the refrigerator. After spending the day trying to convince David not to commit suicide by werewolf, she was in desperate need of alcohol. “Would you like a glass of wine, Mom?”
    “That would be wonderful. I’ve been grading papers all day, and I’ve got a horrible headache.” She taught English at Steve Ditko High, a thankless job if ever there was one. “My students think if you can text it to somebody, it’s perfectly acceptable use in a term paper. If I see ‘you’ spelled as the letter ‘u’ one more time, I’m going to start foaming at the mouth.”
    Still stroking David absently, Charlotte rose and followed her daughter into the kitchen. Eva got a pair of glasses from the cabinet and put them on the counter, then went to work on the wine bottle and its cork. It yielded easily; there were some advantages to being a werewolf.
    “Eva, is something wrong?” Her mother’s gaze was a bit too acute.
    More than I’ve got time to list. She concentrated on pouring the wine. “No, why do you ask?”
    Intelligent brown eyes studied her with obvious concern. “Maybe because I’ve known you all your life, and I can tell when you’re hurting.”
    Eva handed her mother one of the glasses and summoned her best everything’s-cool smile. She’d gotten good at it after five years as a lying werewolf. “Everything’s fine, Ma. I just had an argument with David, that’s all.” Which at least was the truth.
    “Where is he, anyway?” Charlotte sipped her wine, still cuddling David’s small furry body in the other arm.
    Eva managed a shrug. “Like I said, we had a fight. He stalked out in a huff.” Or at least, he would if I let him.
    “Your father said he’s very handsome,” Charlotte said, scratching him under his furry jaw. “Not to mention partially naked, at least when Bill met him. He works in movies?”
    “No—” Eva remembered she’d said he was a stuntman. Keeping her lies straight was becoming a problem. She really needed to make them less complicated. She took another sip of her wine to give herself time to think. “Oh. Yeah. He specializes in sword work. He was in Kor the King.” So much for simplifying the lies.
    Shut up now, Eva.
    Charlotte took another contemplative sip as she cuddled David/T’Challa. “Do you really think it’s a good idea to look for a boyfriend on one of those Internet dating sites?”
    “Well, all I’m meeting at the Comix Cave are