"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Chimera" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

bones. When the spotlight was on her, she never questioned herself or her
abilities.

She just danced.

She sighed and stood. Cedric was sitting in the doorway. When he saw her, he
ran away.




·····


Gen didn't look for Cedric. She felt he was entitled to privacy if he wanted
it. But as she went through her day, this time straightening the entertainment
room while listening to Beethoven's Seventh, she kept an eye out for him.
He reappeared at dinner, sitting in the chair beside her, looking at the table
as if he expected to be served. She was eating a medium-rare steak that she'd
broiled, and a baked potato with nothing on it. Steaks had been dinner too
many nights; there had been dozens in the freezer for a party she had been
planning to throw around Christmas. They were easy to fix and phenomenally bad
for her. She had never before been one of those people who figured she could
eat what she wanted and medical science would repair the damage for her. But
she was one now.

She cut a small piece off the steak, and debated placing it on the floor as
she would have done for any other animal. In the end she compromised, and
placed the steak on the chair. Cedric ignored it for a long time, then tried
to scoop it up with his left paw. When that didn't work, he ate it as he had
eaten the cat food, his posture awkward.
The piece finished, he jumped off the chair and left the room, behavior she
believed not to be catlike at all. A cat would continue begging. Cedric wasn't
pure cat. She had to remember that.

He woke her again that night by running and howling, although he didn't
scratch her this time. He was careful to avoid the bed altogether. This time,
she calmed him by turning on all the lights. Lights seemed so very important
to him. He didn't have these spells in the daytime, only in the darkness.

She caught him when he froze and put him in his cedar bed, which he didn't
seem to mind after all. She had House create a nightlight for him, and he
slept soundly until dawn.

She didn't. After his adventure, she lay awake, wondering what would trigger
such behavior, and why he would tremble so violently when she scooped him into
her arms.

She got her answer one day later.