“I’m sorry,” Nox said.
“I should have argued more.”
“I’m not sure that would have done any good.” Nox lifted his gaze.
Luca pressed his lips together. “Then we should have listened to the Anubis.”
Now Nox understood why it had rebelled. It knew what would happen because it already had before. With the wall between him and the Anubis gone, there was nothing butthemand a strange hollowness as if something was still missing.
A cat meowed and rubbed against Nox’s leg, two more circled Luca’s ankles, and another jumped onto Nox’s shoulder and resumed grooming his hair.
Luca laughed. “I think he’s trying to tell you, you need a bath.”
Nox let Luca go and shooed the cat off his shoulder. It obliged him but didn’t seem pleased about it.
Luca picked up the one Nox had evicted. “What’s with the cats?” It purred. “I mean, where did they even come from?”
“There was a barn near the house and some horses.”
“I didn’t see a barn or horses.”
“I didn’t either. I smelled it. The hay, the feed, the wood, and the animals. Tom cat spray is pretty strong.”
Luca shook his head. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to you being able to do that. I mean, smell things from that far away.”
Neither would Nox.
“Why do you think they’re out here? We have to be miles from the house.”
“No idea.”
“Do you think Dr. Dante would know?”
Nox had almost forgotten about Dr. Dante and even the Varu and Mah. He braced himself for the rise of aggression but there was only the hum of energy inside him.
“C’mon, while it’s still light and I can find my clothes.” Luca set the cat on a fallen tree and took Nox’s hand, and said, “Maybe we should wash off some.”
“Water will be like ice.” This close to winter, it was likely to give Luca hypothermia.
Luca stepped closer. “How come I don’t have napalm for blood?”
“Napalm?”
“Yeah, you’re like a heater. When you’re close, I’m not cold. Any real distance, I’m freezing. You’d think being a Cana would at least keep me warm.”
Perhaps. But this way, Nox had all the more reason to wrap himself around Luca.
Anything else was simply a bonus.
The cats followed them through the woods, across a small field, and to the other side of a creek. Nox caught scent of Luca’s clothes, and they found them near a blackberry bush. Luca dressed.
“I think yours are closer to the house.”
If they weren’t, Nox didn’t care.
The herd of cats trotted ahead of them. A few wandered over to the house, claiming sleeping spots on the porch. Another made a quick bed in the middle of Nox’s sweatpants. He shooed it away and picked them up. The cat sprawled out on his shirt and proceeded to groom its toes.
Luca picked up the cat and Nox retrieved his shirt.