Bitten (Book 1 - Book 4) novel Chapter 94

Victoria looked out the door, wondering what she was going to do.

‘That bathroom is a mess,’ she heard her father say.

There was no reply from Mag.

Victoria turned back to Tail.

‘Kitty?’ she said in a desperate whisper.

Tail suddenly jerked with a sharp intake of breath. Her sides moved up and down rapidly. Her mouth was slightly agape while she panted.

Victoria heard someone go down the stairs.

Tail raised her head, looking dazed. Slowly, she rose and climbed into Victoria’s lap as if she was looking for comfort.

‘How are you doing with Tail?’ Natalia said, coming up behind her. ‘Oh, how sweet. She’s in your lap.’

Victoria stared at the small warm body curled up on her. She could feel each breath. The heat that emanated from the soft body was comforting.

‘Tail,’ she whispered. ‘My Tail.’

‘You should see this. The kitten is on Victoria’s lap,’ Natalia said.

Victoria was glad when her mother left. She gently touched the kitten which snugged against her.

‘I’ll take care of you, Tail. I will never bite you again.’

As carefully as she could, she cradled the kitten in her arms while she rose. She walked past her parents who hardly seemed to notice her since they were talking down the stairs at Mag using the language she didn’t know. Once in her bedroom, she kicked aside all the toys holding open the door, then closed it.

She smiled.

The railing had been removed from her bed. It was easy to climb up, still carrying the kitten. She curled up around Tail who seemed to be sleeping.

‘I’m sorry I bit you. You scared me.’

Meerup.

‘You make funny noises.’

Victoria thought it sounded like a high-pitched burp.

“Where’s Victoria?” Natalia said. “She was just here in the bathroom a moment ago.”

“Her door is closed,” Uri said, looking perturbed at it. “She closed her door.”

“If that cat is gone from the bathroom, then I’ll clean it. I’m not going to be around it while it’s vicious,” Mag said from the bottom of the stairs.

“It’s not vicious, Mag,” Natalia said. “It’s just a baby.”

She stepped up to Victoria’s door to quietly crack it open to take a look.

“What?” Uri said.

“See for yourself.”

Uri stepped to the door to peer in.

After a moment of letting him look, she quietly closed the door.

“She’s taking a nap with the kitty,” she said.

“Wow. I didn’t expect that,” he said.

He spun back to look down the stairs.

“Mag, the bathroom is clear. Please, pretty please, can you clean it?”

“I have to get ready to go to the Festival. Get Zena to do it.”

“I’ll pick up the toilet paper,” Natalia said with a roll of her eyes. “We will have to let Victoria know that the kitty needs her door open to use the litter box.”

“Let them be for now,” Uri said.

Natalia went into the guest bathroom. It hardly took her anytime to pick up all the toilet paper since it was in large clumps. With all the paper picked up, the room was tidy. The kitten hadn’t kicked any cat litter out of its pan. No water was spilled. The food, however, was all gone. She was happy to see a large plastic container full of cat food with which to fill the bowl.

“All in order.”

Natalia rolled her eyes.

“Mag and her fear of small furry creatures.”

She was reminded of the tayras, a weasel used to clean up beetles. Mag had been terrified of them.

Both Uri and Mag were gone when she trotted down the stairs. Uri was in his office.

“I think it’s nap time for us,” she said. “Even though I have tomorrow off, I have the feeling I am going to have to monitor Victoria and the kitty since Mag is terrified of it.”

“I think she’s okay with it,” Uri said.

“Who? Mag or Victoria?”

Uri didn’t answer her, seeming to be absorbed in a letter he was holding. He frowned.

“Your audit notice?”

“Yeah. It’s getting difficult to launder the money we have. I have no problem moving a few thousand here and there, but that will take forever. I was hoping to wash a few million through the blood meal factory, but not if it’s going to be audited.”

“What do they want to see?”

“The books. They want to see all the transactions for the last six months. Also, they want to know where the funds came from for the properties in Hell.”

“Are we going to have a problem with that?”

“The blood meal factory is still clean. I haven’t altered anything to hide money. I did a lot of cash with the properties in Hell, but everyone is hiding the true cost of the properties, so the papers I have show only a fraction of what I actually paid.”

“So we’re good,” she said.

“Yeah, for now. I really was hoping to use the blood meal factory for laundering, but not if it keeps getting audited. I can only hide small amounts. There’s a whole shit load of money hiding in someone’s wall.”

Natalia had since learned that when Victoria’s room had been renovated, Uri had created a hidden space in the wall where almost eighty million in cash was hiding.

“How much is left?” she said.

He rolled his eyes.

“We’ve hardly used a few hundred thousand.”

“Oh. We’ll have to think of other ways. We’re not hurting for cash,” she said.

“Still, I’d like to move that money. If the house burns down, we lose it all.”

“Well, I’m going to have a nap. You can fuss about the money.”

She trotted back up the stairs to the master bedroom. Since she knew no one would bother her, she took a leisurely shower to get it out of the way. She was able to stand on the balcony off her office to dry her hair. It was getting long, hanging past the middle of her back. To an Undent, it was strawberry blond. To a Viperian it glowed with many colors, except for the last six inches. That was her hair length when she first met Uri and had yet to start eating the Viperian diet, which caused her to glow.

Most Viperian women let their hair grow long. While there were exceptions, such as Mina’s sister, Char, who cut hers short, Natalia felt comfortable keeping it long. Uri liked it long and didn’t even want her to cut the length that didn’t glow.

“A little more versatility with it long,” she said to herself. “And I fit in.”

She had to smile at that. Most Viperians had black hair and green eyes. She was blond with blue eyes.

“Then there’s Victoria. The first blond haired blue-eyed Viperian.”

She thought how that had caused quite a stir being the first blond Viperian.

“The ever changing Viperian look.”

She looked out over the yard. Since they had bought the neighbor’s house last year, there were no prying eyes. She was able to stand on the balcony naked.

“Normal Viperian behavior,” she said.

There were new bushes blocking the view of the street as well as new fencing. The fencing had two uses. The first was to keep the Undents out. The second was to keep young Viperian children in. Uri told her it would work for about five years at best.

“I didn’t start escaping my parents until I was ten. I can’t imagine a five-year-old Viperian child.”

She stepped back inside.

“On second thought, yes, I can.”

She retreated to the quiet of the bedroom. There was still silence from Victoria’s room. She expected her to nap until dinner since she had been up early and never had a morning nap.

Natalia woke, feeling Uri slide in beside her.

“Dinner?”

“Yes, time to get up,” he said, snuggling against her.

“Is Victoria up?”

“Yes, she’s in the bathroom with her kitty watching it eat its dinner.”

“Good. Nice to see this is working out.”

“Give it a week before you say that,” he said.

She rose and saw he was already just wearing shorts.

“Ready to go already?”

“We’re going right after dinner. I want to have a chat with Moralis.”

“I better dress,” she said stressing the word ‘dress’ with a twist of sarcasm.

She slid on the skimpy skirt and the sash across the breasts before pulling over a loose dress.

‘How is Tail doing?’ Natalia said when she stepped out into the hall.

Victoria was holding the wand toy. Behind her was Tail who was following her and holding onto the other end of the wand toy.

‘She had a good dinner,’ Victoria said.

‘Now it’s our dinner time.’

‘Do you want help going down front ways?’ Uri said.

‘Nope,’ Victoria said.

Natalia could see her focus while she held onto the lower part of the railing to step down. It was a slow process, but she managed to make it all the way down. Natalia felt some pride in her daughter’s independence even though she was so young.

“I already feel like she’s growing up too fast.”

“She’s doing just what she should be doing,” Uri said. “I would rather she be ahead of the game now. You might have started kindergarten at the age of five. Victoria will be well past that by the time she is four, and that’s if we don’t push her.”

“So, that’s another reason you send her to a Viperian school, I see.”

“Exactly.”

Dinner was raw which was now one of Natalia’s favorites. Zena served them.