Cat and the Collar, The

- Traveler, tell me, she said. The way she said it seemed to indicate that it could save my life.

So I told her everything: Lyra's death, the dreams, my sudden descent into seeming old age. And Jessyka. And the cat. How it was getting bigger as I wasted away, how the collar it arrived with didn't fit anymore. Pru asked more questions about the cat than about Jessyka, which surprised me. She wanted every detail about the cat's behavior, indicating with her tone, but not saying, how important it was for her to know.

Finally, my story was done. I sagged back in the seat, exhausted from the effort. Prudence squeezed my hand again and leaned forward to whisper:

- I think I can help you, but I don't know how soon it will be. I have some people to talk to, some questions to get answered. Go home, let everything happen as it's been happening. That's the important thing, Traveler: don't change your routine at home. I'll be in touch.

Prudence rose and came around the table to cup my chin in her hand. She bent at the waist and kissed me tenderly on the lips, wiped a stray tear from my cheek with her thumb, and left the coffee shop. I took a taxi back to the office, in light of what had happened when I tried walking in the crowds.

The word "succubus" came back to me. Prudence had asked me if Lyra had ever mentioned the Succubus. I found it in the dictionary after a little spelling difficulty, and learned that a succubus was a mythical creature thought to lie on top of a person during sleep. That's all it said. It was a pretty crappy dictionary. My glass is empty. Thank you.

After my conversation that morning with Pru, it was hard to come home and try to be normal. Prudence seemed to think that the cat was directly linked to my condition, and, although she didn't say as much, my dreams.

But it didn't matter so much that evening: the cat ignored me as usual. I could have broken into a rendition of the Tarantella, probably, and the cat wouldn't have batted an eye. I got into bed at the usual time and the cat followed a few seconds later, in its usual spot. The springs creaked under its great weight, creaked again as it settled down.

I lay there in the silence, listening to the sound of my breathing. I thought of Prudence again, what she had said, how she'd said she thought she could help me. How, I wondered. How could she possibly

And then I wasn't in my bed, wasn't lying down.

I was in a chamber of some sort, walking between two long rows of white stone columns, tall, they were tall, the columns, I couldn't see where they ended. I was naked, and my bare feet made no sound as I walked toward a flickering light that seemed miles away. But it wasn't miles away, because I was standing before the light after only a second had passed. The columns had continued, and formed a vast circle around the light, around me.

This was different - I remember thinking that: this is different from the other dreams, which had all taken place in my bed. The flickering light was before me, and it was a brazier about chest-high. The burning substance in the brazier put out a pungent aroma, like charred roses. I stared at the flames a moment, then turned toward the sound of a woman's voice.

- Welcome, Traveler. This night, you have truly lived up to your name, for you have traveled very far indeed.

The flames had dazzled my eyes and for a moment all I could see were little dancing lights and the silhouette of a woman walking towards me. But I recognized the voice.

- Jessyka? What am I doing here?

The woman stopped two or three feet away from me, close enough to touch me, but her arms remained at her sides. She, too, was naked, except for a heavy, ornate chain that circled her neck and nestled in her cleavage. At the end of the chain, just above her pubic region, hung a silver dagger with a blade about two inches long. As my eyesight cleared, I saw that the voice had been Jessyka's, and the body was Jessyka's, but the face - ohhh, god, the face.

It was the face of a cat.

I turned away in horror, revulsion, and god help me, recognition. It was THE cat. The cat in my house, the cat on my bed. I couldn't stand to watch its mouth opening and closing, to watch it form words in Jessyka's voice.

- Do you like this place, Traveler? She seemed not to notice my disgust. I created it for you, she said, so that your final act as an independent spirit would be somewhat pleasant for you.

This made my head swivel toward her again. Final act? What? What was she talking about?

- You have many questions, Traveler. It is not necessary for you to know the answers, but I have become rather fond of you, so I will tell you some things.

She paused, turned away from me, gestured briefly, meaninglessly at the pillars that surrounded us, and resumed speaking:

- I am not this "Jessyka" creature. I found her form in your mind, and since her body was the last with whom you had copulated, I reasoned that it would please you if she appeared to you in your bed. Since you invited me into your home, I know for a certainty that my choice was correct.

She laughed at this, a low, throaty, purring laugh, that, in spite of my disgust at her appearance, stirred something in my loins. I tried to ignore it, asking:

- When did I invite you into my home?

- Do you not remember the poor cat, cold and wet on your doorstep? I admit that I was not exactly "invited" in, but you did not eject me the next morning, the way you said you would, did you? As I say, my taking the form of your lover Jessyka did please you, and pleased me, not a little. I could have taken all of you that first night, but I enjoyed our joining so much that I decided to, how shall I say it? Play with my food.

- This night, however, she continued, I must finish the work I began those many nights ago. This night, you leave your earthly frame forever, and join with me on this plane.

She laughed again and turned back to me, saying:

- And it begins now.

The eyes in her cat's face, already gleaming in their yellowish-green intensity, now glowed in their sockets. The whiskers around the little black nose twitched, the slender pink tongue licked her chops. I wanted to turn away, but the glowing eyes held mine, kept my feet rooted to the floor. She turned her back to me and rubbed her buttocks against my crotch, reached her hands up behind her head and steadied herself on my shoulders as her full, round rump danced against my growing erection. The crack between those globes of flesh captured my cock, pressed in, rubbed it until it reached its full hardness.

She released my cock from its confines, turned and knelt before me. Gripping my boner with both hands, pulling it down towards her mouth, she muttered:

- This, is why I played with you for so long. This, I shall miss very much.

I felt her rough tongue washing my cock, bathing it in saliva from base to tip. That tongue covered every centimeter of my member, swirling around the head, poking into my urethra. I was able to close my eyes, thankfully, to the sight of a giant cat licking my cock. I begged silently that she wouldn't put it in her mouth and accidentally bite it off, and I cursed my cock for having a mind of its own. We were both going to die, and what did he care, so long as he got some.

The cat-thing was obviously enjoying herself, still licking my bone with great abandon, and purring, purring, purring. Abruptly, she stopped, pulled her head back and gave me a tiny nip with her sharp teeth, showing me that she had, again, read my thoughts.

She stood and thrust her hips forward, looking down at her crotch, then grabbed one of my hands and pressed my palm against her mound. Purr, purr, purr.

- I am ready for you, Traveler.

And she was. This was the wettest, the most excited I'd ever felt her. My feet were still stuck to the floor, but that didn't seem to bother her. Releasing my hand, she turned her back to me and bent at the waist, then backed up until her gash was just touching the head of my dick. Purr, purr, purr. She reached behind her to grip my pelvis, steadying herself, then tip-toed backward very slowly, piercing her sopping cunt centimeter by centimeter with my meat. Once she was fully impaled, a mewling sound joined the purring. Her fingernails sank deep into my flesh as she began a sort of outward-and-downward, inward-and-upward motion with her lower body, causing me to stay inside her while providing the most unbelievable sensation on the topside of my cock. She kept this up for quite some time, mewling, and purring louder all the time.

I felt my nuts getting tighter, my seed rising. No! Don't come! I shouted in my mind to my Judas cock. It's the end of both of us if you do!

With a supreme effort of will I tore myself out of the cat-thing's vagina. Before she could react I pulled her claws out of me and pushed her away. She fell to the floor but was on her feet in an instant, fangs bared, panting, eyes flashing red. She screeched:

- Fool! You only prolong the inevitable!

She got ready to pounce, it seemed, so that she could impale herself and ride me face- to-face, with her legs wrapped around my waist. I shut my eyes tight in disgust, but nothing happened. I opened my eyes and saw that she had been dragged a few feet away and was now prone on the floor, being held down by two other naked women. One of them held a short sword or long dagger that greatly resembled "Sting", my Lyra's blade. The other held the cat-thing's head back, throat exposed to the blade. The cat- thing shrieked, thrashed her arms and legs frantically, but the other two did not hesitate. "Sting", or his twin, flashed in the hand of its wielder and slit the cat-thing's throat.

There was no blood as I expected with such a grisly cut, only an eerie light that changed color every second, followed by seeming thousands of wraith-like wisps that traveled up as high as the columns, then disappeared.

One of the women, the one who had held the cat-thing's head, turned and looked at me, then said to the blade-wielder:

- The Traveler! Now, before it is too late!

The blade-wielder closed the gap between us quickly. It was Prudence, dear Prudence, saving my life for a second time. There were no words wasted between us. Pru dropped to her knees, set the blade beside her and took me into her mouth just as I started shooting the last of my seed, the remainder of my essence, my soul. I shrieked as the cat-thing had done right before she died, as the involuntary emission of my life-force spewed out and filled the mouth of my savior.

I started to fall, then another pair of hands steadied me, took my cock from Prudence's mouth and placed it in her own. She caught what Prudence could not. Finally, my knees buckled. I dropped to the floor, rolled onto my back. I knew I was dying, knew that I had been saved by these two only to lose my essence anyway. They had caught it, but what would they do with it now?

Firm hands pried my jaws apart, firm lips covered mine, and a warm liquid filled my mouth. I swallowed greedily. The process was repeated with the other woman. My body tingled with the renewal of my life, and all went black.

When I awoke, it was morning, and I was back in my bed. Sitting on either side, gazing upon me with tenderness, were Prudence and Maeve. Prudence appeared about to weep, so she stepped out for a moment to compose herself, and left Maeve to tell me the story:

For the past three weeks I had not been dreaming, I had been pulled out of my body by the succubus, the cat-thing that had been in the house. The succubus was a soul-eater, normally one who would take a victim's soul all at once, but for some reason it had decided to take its time with me. (I explained to her then what the succubus had said about "playing with its food", and she nodded in understanding.) Eventually my nocturnal sojourns became voluntary, or nearly so, as my passion for Jessyka increased.

I interrupted Maeve at this point:

- But it wasn't Jessyka, was it? The succubus told me it had chosen her form out of thoughts in my mind.

- The succubus didn't lie to you on that point, Traveler. It was not Jessyka.

Maeve was on the verge of telling me more, but decided against it and came back to the original subject.

- When Prudence saw you and talked to you yesterday at the coffee shop, she came to me for help. We formulated a plan to save you. We were in your house last night, or rather our spirit-beings were, and we followed you to the place the succubus had prepared. The blade you saw Prudence use on the succubus was Lyra's. It is not steel, but forged silver, and very powerful.

- So I witnessed. Were the wraith-like things that came from its throat, souls that it had eaten?

- Yes. Some of them were ancient, I'm sure. The succubus was very old.

I reached out and gripped her hand.

- Thank you, Maeve. I --

Fingertips on my lips shushed me. Pru came back into the room at this point. Apparently she had been within earshot, and she took up the thread of the tale:

- Traveler, you must know something, and I hope it will please you, because it has made Maeve and me very happy: When we captured your essence, we each absorbed a little bit of you. And when we returned your essence to you, a little bit of our essence mingled with yours. In a way, the three of us are one.

All I could do was smile as tears of true happiness filled my eyes. I reached out to my two saviors and drew them to me. They stretched out on either side of me, and we laughed and kissed and cried and held each other very tight. Then I fell asleep.

That was this very morning, Halloween, Samhain, if you will; and that's my story. As I said at the beginning, it is the anniversary of my dear wife's death, and her memory will be celebrated tonight by her friends and followers. Prudence is the new High Priestess, so she and Maeve are compelled to attend, but I chose not to go. I will attend next year, I suppose, with my two new spirit wives, but tonight, as I also said at the beginning, I want to be alone.

Because the succubus did lie to me, after all. She killed Jessyka to get to me.

THE END