“
I just wanted to be quiet and alone – get my head around everything. Make sure I was really back to normal. I drank hot chocolate and … waited. I even slept for a bit. When I was sure nothing bad was going to happen, I came home. And, you know, found Mio nearly being eaten by a giant spider.”
“What? I didn’t see that!” Jack yelped.
“You were too busy grabbing the firebombs,” Hikaru put in. “I saw it, though. Rachel clocked it in the side and knocked it right off. It went flying.”
I gave Rachel a questioning look.
She shrugged again and put down her mug on the coffee table. Picking up an empty metal serving plate with her right hand, she poked it sharply with the index finger of her left. There was a rending noise, and Rachel’s finger popped out of the bottom of the plate.
“I’m pretty strong,” she said, with what I thought was epic understatement. “But I can control it now.”
Seeing the alarmed expressions on Hikaru and my dad’s faces, I quickly said, “The king – your king, Hikaru – told me this could happen. If people recover from the Nekomata’s bite, they have gifts. Seeing in the dark. Speed. Strength.”
“Let me get this straight,” Jack said slowly. “My sister is Catwoman now?”
“I suppose that makes you the Joker, then.” Rachel reached out to mess up Jack’s spiky hair.
Jack squeaked, trying to bat Rachel’s hands away. “Not the hair!”
“Oh, please. Try that on me when you don’t have an inch of roots.”
Hikaru leaned out of their way, looking confused and not sure if he should try to intervene. I could sympathize. Siblings were odd.
”
”