Excerpt

A cat shivered in the dark, listening to the two humans in the other room discussing her fate. Their voices were low and the conversation almost indistinguishable, but she did hear her name mentioned more than once.

Fifi.

Wanda, her human companion, called her that. She preferred her full name. Felicity. Her nickname, however, was on her cat carrier so when the veterinarian had come to take her away, Fifi it was.

What she wouldn't give right now to be safe back home, squeezed and cuddled and affectionately called Fifi once again. She'd put up with that silly name forever and a day if only she could feel Wanda Wiggleton's loving embrace.

But the fact was, she could no longer be touched – let alone embraced – by anyone! Something strange had happened to her a few weeks before, and that is what ultimately condemned her to this sterile prison far from home.

When she'd been hauled away in her cat carrier (as Wanda watched and cried from the front porch), there'd been whispered comments of black magic and secret spells.

Felicity knew nothing of that. The only thing she was certain of was that she'd started disappearing. Fading away right in front of her Wanda's widening eyes. Slowly, steadily, undeniably.

She was now all but invisible. A cat without substance; a figure with barely a discernable outline to her feline form. It had been quite a shock for both of them.

That morning had been even more traumatic.

Felicity hissed at the recollection.

Wanda Wiggleton was a witch who lived on a hilly farm near a small community in rural Ohio along the West Virginia border. She'd adopted Fifi as a kitten just the year before. When Fifi had started vanishing, Wanda dutifully called the local Witch & Warlock Guild for assistance.

She'd never dreamed they'd take her precious slate-blue Chartreux away.

It had happened so quickly!

Two guild representatives had arrived right after breakfast. A tall, thin woman in the company of a take-charge professional in a white lab coat. Felicity had caught the name of the vet, a Dr. Vance, and witnessed the interrogation in agitated silence.

Wanda had answered all their questions honestly, but with growing alarm. She'd had an uneasy feeling right from the start and it had only gotten worse…

Fifi? Why she's just over a year old. Yes, she's my only cat.

No, no, she's never been sick. She simply started…going translucent one day.

When Dr. Vance announced that they'd have to take Fifi to the vet clinic for testing, Wanda broke down and cried.

Felicity sniffed back a tear herself. If only her companion knew what type of testing the two women had discussed in the car as they drove away! Wanda would certainly have put her foot down. Of course, her human companion had never experimented on her, but it sure sounded like these two from the Witch & Warlock Guild were going to.

Now, in her cage and in the dark, Felicity shivered again and let out a quiet mew. The voices in the other room rose in volume and a few more cats were mentioned. Cats who happened to be in the same room as herself. Definitely not the vet clinic, Felicity thought.

In the container next to her, a black and white tom (named Tom, as it happened) let out a low-pitched yowl. Two other cats in nearby pens meowed in sympathetic panic.

They'd all been rounded up in recent days and left to wonder their fate. When the humans exited the room and the lights went off, they introduced themselves to each other and briefly exchanged stories as to why they'd been captured.

The common denominator: unnatural feline abilities.

Tom could speak complete sentences in English, astonishing his human companion one night by complaining about the stale kibble he'd been served. His humans were shocked but thought it a wonderful trick as his vocabulary grew daily. They invited a guild representative over to share the exciting news, but when Tom told the guild rep to 'just push off,' that was it.

Chelsea and Charlie, Burmese siblings from different litters (Chelsea being the oldest), could walk on their hind legs. In fact, they preferred it, freaking out their human family who immediately turned them over to the WW Guild, no questions asked.

Felicity, well, she was simply vanishing bit by bit.

The consensus was they were in some kind of lab and that Dr. Vance wanted to experiment on them to see if their special abilities could be replicated.

It's like we're at the mercy of a mad scientist, Tom said.

The Burmese sibs agreed.

What are we going to do? asked Charlie.

Felicity shook her head even though it was dark and she was invisible and no one could see her. The four cats mused in tense silence. When the door opened and the switch was flipped on, they all blinked in surprise. The two women looked inside.

"Goodnight, kittens!" the taller one said in a high, sinister voice. "We'll see you tomorrow morning, bright and early."

Dr. Vance chuckled without mirth. "Bright and early," she repeated.

The vet hit the light, plunging the room back into depressing darkness. They locked the door behind them and the four cats shivered in fear.