Read Online Betraying Innocence by Airicka Phoenix - Free Book Online Page A

landing of the stairs. He looked back, mewled.
    “Go!” she told him.
    He mewled.
    “What is wrong with you, cat?”
    Abandoning the safety of her room, she followed him downstairs. Each step felt like a cube of ice beneath her foot.
    Mitzy was already at the bottom ; long, straggly tail twitching. He took off once Ana had reached him. He loped down the hall, illuminated by a square patch of yellow spilling from the kitchen doorway. Ana frowned. Her parents never left the light on.
    Mitzy purred, a sound she hadn’t heard him make in years. She looked down to find him rubbing himself against the bottom half of the door the way a normal cat would rub himself along his owner’s legs.
    “Hey, stop that.” She started for him.
    He made another sound, something deep and guttural.
    “Come here, boy,” she whispered, her heart lodged somewhere in her throat. “Come on.”
    Ignoring her, he went up onto his hind legs, planted his front paws on the door and began clawing at the wood, peeling away wood and paint. His purrs intensified, becoming growls of something much too big for his tiny frame. Ana gasped, her breathing rapid.
    “Mitzy…”
    “Ana?”
    The overhead lights flared to life, blinding her. She hissed as her hands flew up to shield her eyes. She spun around, squinting through her fingers at the figure standing at the bottom of the stairs.
    “Dad?”
    “What are you doing down here?” He looked around. “Who are you talking to?”
    Relieved not to be alone anymore, Ana stabbed a finger in the direction of the cat. “He won’t stop clawing at the door.”
    Brow furrowed, Dad joined her in the hall and followed her finger. “Who won’t?”
    Frustrated, Ana turned.
    The cat was gone. The claw marks were gone. There was nothing there.
    “But…” She turned on the spot, looking for the feline. “He was just here. He made me come down.”
    “Who?”
    “Mitzy! He was…”
    At the top of the stairs … watching her with his cool, green eyes.
    Ice cold dread coiled in the pit of her stomach. Sweat dampened the back of her shirt, plastering it to her spine.
    “He was here,” she rasped. “I swear, he was…”
    Her father’s hands were warm and gentle around her as he pulled her into his chest. “You were dreaming.” He stroked her hair. “Come on.”
    She let herself be led up and even let herself get tucked in the way he’d done when she was little. He kissed her temple, murmured good night and left her wide awake in the dark.

    “How are you feeling?”
    Ana yawned loudly, dropping her head back against the headrest. “So tired.”
    Dad nodded like it made perfect sense. “You had a rough night.” He took his time making a turn. “Want to talk about what happened?”
    She’d asked herself the same question for most of what was left of the night as she had laid there, watching the door and listening as the house settled around her. She’d only come to one conclusion.
    “I guess I was sleepwalking.”
    Her father’s eyebrows lifted. “That’s a new phase. Don’t kids usually outgrow that? I mean, you’re kind of going backwards in the order of things.”
    She rolled her eyes, in no mood for joking, talking, or being awake. “ I have no idea.”
    A moment of silence strained around them as they passed through the gates at the airport and circled the lot for a spot to park.
    “So what were you doing?” he asked.
    Ana shook her head. “I have no idea. I thought Mitzy was asking me to follow him downstairs.”
    Dad nodded slowly. “ Yeah that’s what you said last night.”
    Her mom was ranting into her phone when she finally disembarked the plane. Ana wondered how long it was after the tires hit the asphalt before her mother switched on her phone. Assuming she even waited that long.
    “Yes of course I’ll have the presentation ready. I’ll fax it over the second I get home. Yes.” She pressed a kiss to the top of Ana’s head , brushed a kiss to her father’s cheek, then went