Excerpt from Claw and Order

Here's a little teaser from Claw and Order ....

“I sense there is a disturbance. Has another relic been found?” Inkspot’s deep baritone filled the barn.

“A key was found hidden in an old recipe book in the bookstore,” Pandora said.

“And where is it now?”

“Well…. That’s where there is a bit of a problem.”
Several other cats had joined their circle. Snowball with her long white fur, Hope with her half orange have black face, Kelly, the Maine Coon.

“Problem?” Sasha asked.

Pandora swallowed hard. Everyone was looking at her. “My human has hidden it out of reach.”

“Hidden? Why?” Inkspot’s eyes practically glowed.
“Does she know that it is magical?”

“No.” Pandora told them how it fallen out of the recipe book and how she’d been caught trying to hide it under her tail. “Willa thought one of the customers might have dropped it and she wanted to hold it for safe keeping.”

“We need to get that key.” Inkspot’s tone was kind but firm.

Pandora looked down. “I know, I have a plan.” Well, sort of a plan, hopefully no one would ask for details.
Otis leapt down from the loft trotting onto the circle. “If you could only communicate with your human you could simply ask her for it.”

Pandora’s fur bristled and she resisted the urge to hiss at him. Leave it to Otis to act so condescending. She bit back a sarcastic reply, remembering that there was a time when Otis had risked his own life to save hers. She knew his bark was worse than his bite.

“I know, but she seems unwilling to receive my telepathic messages.”

“Are you sure the problem is on her end?” Hope tilted her head. She was a chimera and looked like someone had taken two cats and mashed them together. Half of her face was black with a blue eye and the other half orange with a green eye. It looked unusual at any time, but even more so with her head tilted.

Pandora stared at her. She’d never considered that the communication problem wasn’t on Willa’s end. Willa was smart enough with regular things, but she was a little slow on the uptake with the magical properties of Mystic Notch. And, since Pandora had been able to communicate with Willa’s grandmother Anna perfectly, she’d just assumed the problem was with Willa. But what if it wasn’t?