The most strange thing happened today. Well, not as strange as being resurrected from the dead, but strange enough.

I found a cat in my bedroom. A cat with orange stripes. It has a red collar but there's no name. It was just lying on my bed, right by my pillow, sound asleep.

"Um...it probably needs shots. It could have disease," Stella says while folding her arms. Colin, her boyfriend, hasn't said much. "It's really weird the necklace appeared and then the cat. The necklace is from the other realm...that's why it has an orange aura. I have no idea about the cat. I don't see any aura besides yellow. There doesn't seem to be anything off about it-"

"Other than it miraculously appearing in your bedroom? Right after your deceased mother's necklace? Cats are bad luck. It can't stay here," Colin counters, "Someone is probably looking for it. We should take it to a vet or something. Let me go look around. I think we still have an old dog crate, right, babe?"

Stella joins me in petting the cat's soft fur.

"Yes, but we have to go to work, Val. Maybe, after work we can take the cat over to the vet. It could be micro-chipped."

"Good idea."

After my friends leave, I lure the cat into the old dog crate. I put a little spoon of tuna in the crate and the cat walked right in.

Then, in a rush, I get dressed for work and grab my laptop bag. With a small smile, I wave goodbye to the cat and close my bedroom door.

Red and yellow leaves flutter around the sidewalk outside as I head down the block.

The police station is busy inside. I find my way to my cubicle. It's only my first week. It's sort of hard to sit in a seat all day. Usually, Will texts me during work but I haven't heard from him yet this morning.

We've been dating off and on for a while. The dates aren't very consistent. I do see him several times a week and I suppose that's more important than going out.

Bored, I mouse-click a couple times scrolling through work emails and prioritizing my tasks. My job is to create these virtual folders for the police department to find the electronic copies of their reports in.

I open up the last document I started writing up from the current packet of papers sitting on top of my desk.

Knock, knock

Someone's knocking on the wall of my cubicle. I tense up swiveling around in my chair.

"Good morning, Valerie. William told me you found a cat in your home. Has it been removed?" Nick asks in a fatherly tone. He smiles politely while waiting for an answer.

It's funny how he talks about the animal as though it's a pest. Maybe, he doesn't like cats.

"We're going to take it to the vet," I say through a giggle. Nick's dark blue eyes skim over the items cluttering my desk. "Sorry, I'm not very organized here yet-"

"I'm not worried about what your desk looks like, Valerie," Nick says, "Regina and I wanted to check in and see if you and Will are on for dinner this Friday? I'm making steak."

"Oh!" I hurry out. I completely forgot. That's tomorrow. My first week here has gone by so fast. "Yes, we'll be coming. I need to remind Will."

"I'm sure he hasn't forgotten. That's a nice necklace, by the way," he says offhandedly. He steps further into my cubicle resting his hand on top of my desk. "Where did you get it?"

"My mother...it was my mother's. I found it in my room. I think Will might have picked it up from my family's home on the mountain. I haven't been there at all since, um, coming back to life. I've sort of avoided that place, but Will's gone in the house a few times to collect things for me. I didn't ask him for the necklace. I forgot about it entirely until I found it lying in my bedroom a few days ago."

"Uh, huh," he mumbles. His dark blonde hair falls just above his eyes that sparkle with unspoken humor. "I wonder how it got there." What could be so funny? My cluttered desk or my scatter-brained responses? I wasn't expecting him to walk over here. Usually, we only have talked so far in scheduled meetings since it's still my first week. "Has anything else happened lately besides the necklace...and the cat?"

"My broomstick is hexed. My family's magic, along with my own, no longer works with it," I whisper uneasily seeing his eyes darken to a dark red. Someone else is coming over to my desk but Nick's gaze doesn't leave me. "I noticed that when the necklace appeared."

"Was it like that before or after the coven took it?"

"After," I confirm.

Heinrich walks up to Nick with an old-fashioned salute. Not many of the other officers do that, but some of them do.

"Boss, need help Ms. Valerie understand computer?" Heinrich asks in broken english.

"No, not this time. We were just catching up," Nick answers, turning to face the burly man, "Thank you for checking. David Yansmen was reported in her home again today. My unit is arriving on the scene now."

"Who is David Yansmen?" I ask.

"Cat," Heinrich answers.

"He means the cat you found, Valerie. I didn't want to scare you, but the cat you found is a familiar belonging to someone in the coven. They're trying very hard to keep tabs on you."

"Whose familiar is it?" I ask with growing suspicion.

The two policemen look at each other as though saying something I can't hear.

"We aren't sure yet," Nick answers slowly. I have a feeling he is choosing his words very carefully. "We have a mix of humans and vampires working here. It's important to be sensitive about news before we have the all the facts."

"Okay," I answer feeling disappointed while watching them walk away.

I wish they wouldn't make me wait. I understand he's busy being the police captain and has other things to do here. I have to work on being patient.

I'm still processing the fact that the cat is actually a person...and I was petting it completely oblivious. Feeling creeped out, I stare at my computer screen and continue to keep myself busy by typing up the latest report piled on my desk.

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