What’s the big deal? I demanded silently, barely able to hold the words inside. It’s just Shifting. Even if she was only fourteen—though that was waaaaaay too young to be out on her own—she’d probably already done it dozens of times. Though she’d likely never Shifted in a strange place, with some strange woman watching her. I, of all people, should have been able to sympathize with those circumstances. Especially if she had some kind of stage fright, like Abby’d had in Miguel’s basement…

Of course. She’s too upset or scared to Shift. Just like Abby.

“Are you scared? Is that the problem?” Without waiting for her response, I rose from the mattress and sank onto my knees fewer than five feet from the tabby.

Her ears perked up when the bedsprings creaked, but she didn’t look up. She was ignoring me like a damn toddler.

“Hey. I’m trying to help you. I have a cousin about your age.” At least, I hoped she was as old as Abby. “Several months ago, she and I found ourselves in a very scary situation. We…” I hesitated, unsure how much to tell her. I didn’t want to frighten her further. But then I realized she was watching me, actively listening again, so I continued. “We thought we were going to die. We needed to Shift into cat form to protect ourselves, but Abby was too scared to Shift, and just thinking about that made it worse.” I paused, meeting the tabby’s eyes with what I hoped was frank concern on my part. “Is that what’s happening here? Are you scared?”

Sitting up now, the tabby nodded, but before I could get my hopes up, she shook her head in the negative, just as firmly.

Yes and no? Or did that mean she wasn’t sure? Wait, I’d just asked two questions at once. The poor thing was trying to answer them both. “I’m sorry. One question at a time. Are you scared?”

A single, short nod. So far, so good.

“Is that why you can’t Shift?”

She shook her head.

Damn it. I was running out of yes-or-no questions.

“Okay, you’re scared, but that’s not why you’re not Shifting.” I ticked that morsel of knowledge off on my index finger, then moved on to my middle finger. “And you know what Shifting is, so…”

Movement caught the corner of my eye and I looked up to see the tabby shaking her head back and forth so hard I thought she’d fall over.

“Wait, you don’t know what Shifting is? Didn’t we just cover this? Shifting is what we call the transformation from one form to another. Maybe your Pride calls it something else.” Shit. Was her Pride even called a Pride? Was it possible we were speaking two completely different languages?