Getting outside the bungalow, Jace walked quickly through the cooling night air and brought the carriage that Natalie had hired back to the property.
The process took about half an hour.
He told the middle-aged, sleepy driver to wait outside and walked back into the house, heading straight for the basement.
The basement looked dark and heavily damaged, the walls scorched and the air still thick with the lingering scent of soot.
In the middle of the room, Natalie was lying still, Jace's black frock coat wrapped tightly around her body.
The cat was still there, sitting like a silent guardian and keeping watch just as he had told it to do.
Jace knelt beside Natalie under the watchful, glowing green eyes of the feline, and with a grunt of effort, he flung her over his shoulder.
'Argh, she's heavier than I expected,' he thought, his knees buckling slightly.
That was true; Natalie was a woman taller than Jace, and she possessed the dense, muscular physique of a Hunter.
Jace, on the other hand, had physical strength that was only slightly superior to that of normal people, so to him, Natalie was indeed heavy.
He could feel the solid weight of her leaning against his back as he shifted his stance.
But he was able to carry her. He started walking toward the staircase, his breathing becoming heavy with the exertion.
He looked at the cat and said, "Follow me."
The cat obliged, leaping down from its perch and following him to the carriage.
With some considerable difficulty, he managed to get her inside and laid her carefully on the cushioned seat.
The cat hopped onto the opposite seat, settling itself in the corner with a practiced grace.
Natalie still seemed to be in significant pain; she was groaning from time to time, her brow furrowed in a deep, troubled sleep.
He told the driver to drive to Natalie's house.
The driver seemed to know Natalie and was apparently her regular driver; without asking a single question about the unconscious woman or the cat, he started driving the carriage.
Jace finally sighed, leaning back as he sat on the other side of the seat beside the cat.
"So..., how long have you been a Beyonder?" Jace said, turning to look at the animal.
The cat turned its head toward Jace and looked at him without answering, feigning ignorance as if it were a normal pet.
Jace raised his eyebrow, and his lips curled upward in amusement at the creature's stubbornness.
The cat eventually looked away, staring out the carriage window at the passing shadows.
"Eight months ago," its voice said. It sounded like an eleven-year-old girl—high-pitched, yet soft and surprisingly pleasant.
'So the cat is a 'her',' Jace thought in amusement. The cat looked a little over one year old, so she was considerably young for a Beyonder.
"What's your name?" he asked.
The cat remained silent. "Do you not have one?" Seeing that the cat was still unresponsive, he leaned forward slightly.
"How about I give you one then?"
That seemed to have finally gotten her attention, as the cat turned her head and looked him directly in the eyes.
"Nyx," he said. "With your black hair, you disappear into the night, like it's embodiment," he explained, the name feeling right for a creature of shadows.
—
'This man is strange,' the cat thought.
As a Beyonder from the Spectator pathway, the cat had seen and observed many people; she was used to seeing right through their masks.
But she could not see through this man—no, a boy, as he looked quite young.
From what she observed of his body language, this man seemed quite open and was being kind to her; there was no obvious lie in him.
But what she also noticed was that he was deliberately controlling himself to let her see only a glimpse of his true self, while restraining all his other thoughts and body language so as not to let her see through more.
That was why he was so strange to her.
He also seemed to know her peculiar nature before he had even met her.
The last man she could not see through was her previous owner, but that man was killed by her own design.
In truth, she wasn't expecting much, as she doubted anyone could actually kill that psychotic man.
Her original plan had simply been to cause chaos and run away during the fight.
To her surprise, these people had actually finished the job.
"So? What do you think of the name?" the boy asked.
The cat looked up at him. His expression seemed to be one of genuine curiosity, devoid of the malice she was used to.
"It's a fine name," she said, finally resting her small head on her paws.
—
Looking at the cat acting so nonchalant, Jace chuckled softly in amusement.
He later tried to ask 'Nyx' more questions, but the cat just brushed them off lazily, closing her eyes as the carriage swayed.
'Now that I think about it, cats are naturally lazy and sleepy creatures.'
Jace had never really liked pets, especially dogs—he'd had a bad incident with them in the past which resulted in four dogs chasing him down the street, so later on in his life, he stayed away from them entirely.
Cats, on the other hand, he found much more pleasant than other creatures.
They were beautiful, lazy beings that minded their own business and didn't bother humans much.
"Aghh!"
Jace snapped his head toward Natalie, who was laid on the seat across from him.
It turned out the effects of the 'tranquilizer' didn't last long against her Hunter's physique and heightened metabolism.
Natalie's bloodshot eyes were open now; she was breathing heavily, and it was clear her head still hurt from the mental backlash.
But Jace was prepared for this. He opened the leather bag beside him and pulled out a glass bottle he had scavenged.
In the bottle was 'Laudanum'—opium mixed with alcohol.
It was used to calm mental patients and induce sleep. He had found it in the basement and figured it would be useful in their current situation.
He opened the bottle and knelt beside Natalie.
"Hey Natalie! Can you hear me?" He caressed her hair with one hand, feeling a pang of sorrow for her pain. "Calm down," he said softly as he brought the bottle to her mouth.
But she reached up and held his hand, stopping him. "Natalie, this will help you, trust me," he said, looking into her eyes with total sincerity.
There was some clarity returning to her gaze. She looked at him for a moment with her hazy, pained eyes and finally let his hand go.
Jace poured a mouthful into her mouth and removed the bottle.
For a normal patient, only a few drops would be used, but since Natalie was a Beyonder, he thought a mouthful would be just enough to sedate her.
'This won't do,' Jace realized.
He knew that for Natalie to get proper help, he would eventually need a Psychiatrist who could 'Pacify' her and recover the damage done to her mind by the Frenzy.
He, of course, didn't know any Beyonders of the Sequence 7 Psychiatrist level personally.
But he did have something in mind.