Part 83 (1/2)
Squirming free, Sam jumped up onto the edge of a planter and looked from Claire to Diana. ”So, we're stuck here?”
”Looks like!” Diana's lip curled. ”Because Ms. I Always Have to Have My Own Way had to save Dean at the expense of everyone else!”
”I was not going to let him die!”
Less than an arm's length between them now. Voices raised and getting louder. The mall elves started studying the tiles, the light fixtures, the cat.
”Did you even once think of me?” Diana snarled.
Claire snorted. ”Do you ever think of anything but yourself?”
Sam dropped back onto the floor.
”Oh, fine talk from someone who goes on and on about sacrifice to the greater good and who just condemned my... condemned Kris to save her boyfriend!”
The shrieks of pain sounded pretty much simultaneously. In the silence that followed, Sam returned to the planter.
Claire rubbed at the blood on her ankle, looked up to see Diana doing the same, realized the tears were not from the cat scratches and reached out. ”Oh, Kitten, I'm sorry.”
Things got a little damp and mushy for the next few minutes, embraces awkward because of the packs but determined.
”Well done,” Arthur murmured by Sam's shoulder. ”I had begun to think I should intervene.”
”That would have worked, too,” Sam admitted. ”But you probably wouldn't have liked the result.”
”Oh?”
”Common enemy.”
”But you . . .”
”Are a cat.”
”Right.”
Caught up in the circle of Claire's arm, Diana sniffled and raised her head. ”You haven't called me Kitten in years.”
”You started hitting me when I did it.”
”Oh, yeah.”
”And then you filled my bed with b.u.t.terscotch pudding.”
”Technically, I turned your sheets to pudding, but I can see why you stopped.”
They separated slowly, wiped tears, and mirrored watery smiles.
”Rough day.”
”Yeah.”