Arcana Pt. 01: A Shapeshifter's Desire

*******

"Your mother?! Your mother came by?" Kate exclaimed, "Didn't you say you never knew her? Never met her?"

"Yea." Caroline nodded.

"How did you know it was her?" She cocked her head.

"Shapeshifter. She was one too. And everything she said just seemed right. She taught me a lot about myself. She sat around and listened to my life stories until I fell asleep. Then I woke up tucked in bed." Caroline laughed.

"And assaulted me immediately after. So what was she like?" Kate asked eagerly.

"She was Native American. She seemed genuinely interested in my life. And she taught me so much about what it is to be a shapeshifter." Caroline smiled, "It turns out this power comes from a spirit I was born with, a sort of soul creature inside me. Mine is named Draconis."

"Draconis..." Kate smiled knowingly, "Told you. Dragon."

"I..." Caroline stopped as the new reporter said something to catch her attention.

"She's being called the Dragon of Seattle. Many are calling it a hoax, but medical reports from Seattle General are clear. These robbers were stopped cold by claw and fire. The following images are graphic, so look away now if blood and injury bothers you." The woman said and a very clear picture of Caroline appeared. It was at the bank and she stood over one of the robbers, blood glistening on her white claws. Then it switched to another where she was in the middle of blowing fire. Quite a shot really, it showed her mouth wide open in a roar and glasses were shining bright with the light of the flame. It engulfed the robber's legs and was rising up around him.

"Caroline! What did you do?" Kate's mouth gaped as she stared at the television.

"Oh yea... Right... Was having a bad day after you left and I went to make that deposit... Those guys came in with guns and held the place up. I kinda lost it." Caroline chuckled nervously.

"If you have any information, please contact our studio as soon as possible. The identity of the dragon woman is still a mystery and we are offering a five thousand dollar reward for the name of this woman." The news reporter spoke as it continued to scroll through images. The last they showed before moving onto the weather was Caroline taking to the sky with great black wings.

"What do you mean you lost it?!" Kate squealed, "Those men had guns and they were bent on robbing that bank! You fought them! You could've been shot dead!"

"You left! That night alone without you got to me! I was in a bad mood already and then when I was driving over there, a bunch of assholes cut me off and fucked me around in traffic! They were the last straw." Caroline exclaimed, throwing her arms up.

"Wait... You drove. Where is your scooter?" Kate looked worriedly at her.

"Still at the bank. I've never gone to get it!" Caroline said, "Haven't wanted to go back in case someone recognizes me!"

"Oh crud, the cops are gonna find out who you are." Kate banged her head on her knees.

"What? How?"

"You drove up on your scooter and walked inside. All their cameras around the bank and in the bank show you driving up and going inside. The scooter is licensed in your name. They will have already impounded it for being there overnight. Ergo, the moment they look at the cameras from the bank, they will have you ID'd in minutes." Kate exclaimed, gesturing about with her hands as she did.

Caroline's face went pale, "What... What do you think is gonna happen? Am I going to be arrested?"

"I couldn't say. You didn't break any laws, you were just defending yourself." Kate nodded, "Admittedly with abilities and powers no normal human can possess. But self-defense nonetheless."

"Man, I screwed up bad, didn't I?" Caroline sighed, laying her head back on the couch.

"No, I did. I shouldn't have left you alone." Kate teased and kissed her on the neck, "Don't worry, I won't go anywhere."

"Unless of course I'm in prison. Then I'll be in trouble." Caroline groaned.

"Hey, stop worrying about it. Look at it simply. You didn't hurt anyone that didn't deserve it and you are a born citizen of the United States. They can't arrest you for crimes you didn't do." Kate said, pushing in her shoulder before giving her a hug.

"Thanks." Caroline hugged her back.

*******

It was late that night, probably around ten. They had gotten off work early. Kate was already laying naked in bed, snuggled up and waiting for Caroline. Tonight was going to be a horny tomcat. Kate had actually worked up the guts to open one of her books and show Caroline what the cat and his cock looked like. The shaft beneath the head was covered in soft spines that rubbed and teased the pussy while inside. Caroline wondered just how many of these animal dicks her books had were actually realistic and how many were just designed to maximize pleasure. She didn't complain, just enjoyed the thought of how pervy her love really was.

Caroline looked herself over in the mirror. She had grey cats paws for hands and feet, fur to her knees and elbows, a long fluffy grey tail, grey cat ears and long twitchy whiskers. Most importantly, she bore ten inches of spined kitty cock, all ready for Kate to enjoy.

"What do you think Draconis? Think she'll enjoy it?" Caroline asked herself.

A voice, that she still hadn't gotten used to, came back inside her head, "If she doesn't, then she has no taste for good predators. Felines are skilled and intelligent hunters. Nothing compared to dragons of course..."

"I don't think you entirely understand." Caroline laughed quietly. She had to keep reminding her that the only knowledge Draconis really had was instinctual. She knew that a feline was sneaky and was a skilled predator; especially the bigger cats. But she didn't know a thing about how a woman's pussy liked to be pleased.

A knock on her apartment door wrenched her out of her thoughts and she gave an annoyed hiss. She slipped into her bathrobe and was forced to make her cock disappear, lest it poke out. She didn't bother with anything else, anyone knocking on her door this time of night would be gotten rid of so quick they would think they had interrupted a little naughty cosplay.

"Yes." Caroline huffed, opening the door.

A man and a woman stood there in the same outfit: jeans, dress shirts of dark blue and black ties. She had short blonde hair and a stern look while he was a little more laid back with brown hair. The woman produced a badge, "Miss Scarlett. I am Lieutenant Viktoria Hail. This is my partner Sergeant Benn Hammers. May we come in for a word?"

Caroline stared at the badge, her eyes wide, "Uhhhh... Why?"

"Madam, we're investigating a woman who stopped some robbers in a bank by becoming a half-dragon. You are standing there with whiskers and cat paws. I think we have probable cause." The man said with an idle smile, "We're not here to arrest you, we're just here to chat."

"Oh shit." Caroline groaned, seeing her paw that was holding the door.

"Caroline, what's going on?" Kate poked her head out of the bedroom, hiding her body behind the door.

"Get something on. We've got company." Caroline sighed, pushing the apartment door open all the way. Lieutenant Hail and her partner walked in and closed the door. They politely sat at the dining table and pulled out some manila folders from a briefcase.

"So, why did you stop that robbery at the bank?" Sergeant Hammers asked, clasping his hands on the table.

"I didn't." Caroline shook her head and waved one paw around, "As you can see, I am a cat, not a dragon."

"Miss, please don't patronize us. You were shown on the ATM camera driving up on a scooter, you appeared to be human." He opened one of the folders that contained at least two dozen pictures. The first was from a bad camera showing her little scooter puttering into the bank drive. He flipped to the next, her entering the bank, "And you enter the bank, looking the same. Three minutes later, the four bank robbers come in. They appear to discharge one of their weapons and command the room. They are obeyed by everyone except yourself." The pictures continued coming, "After one of them approaches you, threatening you directly, you turn and in just a few short seconds..." He showed her turning with blinding speed and her arm shifting rapidly into a dragon's claw. Crimson blood spurted in the next picture, "And you cut him down. Then you proceed to shrug off what appeared to be at least thirty subsonic nine millimeter rounds striking you on the face and chest before maiming the other three men."

The last four pictures were her dropping the next three men and then fleeing out the door. Caroline put a paw on her head and Kate came into the room wearing flannel pajama pants and one of Caroline's T shirts. She sat down next to Caroline and looked at the officers.

"And you are?" Lieutenant Hail said, looking up at her.

"Katelyn Winchester." Kate said.

"Relation?" She asked, picking up a pen.

"What does that matter?" Kate asked.

"Answer please." The Sergeant replied flatly.

"She's my girlfriend you idiot, real Mulder and Scully you two are." Caroline snapped in annoyance.

"We had to have your word on the subject. Do you want her around for this?" Hail asked, marking down what she said.

"It's fine. Look, fine. You've made your point. It was me. Now what do you want? I didn't break any laws. They pointed guns at me first. Clearly intending to kill me." Caroline growled, her whiskers twitching with impatience. She tapped one pearly white claw on the table top.

"You are not the only person to appear in Seattle with unique abilities, Miss Scarlett. I am the head of Seattle Police Department's Special Investigations. Officially, we are the folks that solve unsolvable crimes. Someone breaks into a bank without using the door, we figure out how. Someone is killed with a weapon nobody has ever seen before, we show how it was done. We make people feel safe and believe they know everything that's going on." Hail explained, opening another folder.

"Okay. So, I'm still not understanding. What do you want with me." Caroline sighed.

"We want to hire you. Plenty of times we at SI come up against things that we can't handle or we can't deal with. We have a few of you unique folks in our system that we can call in on special assignments. We'd like to add you to it if you're willing. Standard fee is one thousand dollar monthly retainer and then fifty dollars an hour for your services." Hail said, pulling out a new piece of sheaf of paper with a full list of requirements.

"What? You're... you're giving me a job?" Caroline raised an eyebrow, sitting more upright.

"No, we are putting you on retainer for when we need your services. You are a shapeshifter, are you not? What is the extent of your powers? Because at the moment, we know you are bulletproof, capable of flight, you can breathe fire and are very dangerous in close quarters. That makes you more than capable of fighting everything from occultists with knives to vampires. Do you have any experience with combat?" Hail said, pulling out a third folder that contained a picture of her from her driver's license and a detailed report on her.

"Hold on, before I share any of that, what of my personal life? What of this goes public? I assume there will be nothing because I've never heard of any other shapeshifters or anyone with any powers. I figure you guys don't go telling anyone about this stuff." Caroline asked, brushing one of her cat ears.

"Of course we keep discrete with this. The average public doesn't need to and will never know about you or any other Mythics. It isn't something they can handle. People like to think they have a good handle on things, that they are safely at the top of the food chain and in no danger day to day. So, no matter what your decision here, the incident in the bank is going to be accepted as a hoax and you will never be found out." Hail explained.

"So you will do your best to keep your head down in the future. There is too much technology about, it is too easy for literally everyone with a phone to snap pictures of you when you do things like this." The Sergeant said sternly.

"I've been trying. If those assholes hadn't tried to shoot me, I wouldn't have had to. Kate's parents have a nice cabin up in the mountains that we've gone to for... well... experiments with my power. I've not had a lot of experience with them yet." Caroline said.

"Then you would also be the same dragon that a trucker reported as having saved him from falling to his death about an hour towards the pass?" Hail asked and Caroline nodded, "Good you know. Glad to hear you do more than just defend yourself."

"I blame her. She made a joke about me being a superhero. So I couldn't resist doing it." Caroline chuckled softly, batting Kate with a paw.

"Shut up." Kate blushed, "So if she agrees to this, what kind of work will she be doing?"

"Many of the investigations we undertake pit us against folks like yourself. While not impossible for one of my men to take you down, you can imagine just how hard that would be for us. A werewolf comes out of the dark at you, it'll take a minute to get a gun loaded with silver rounds. Claws and scales can hold them off effectively. You've shown yourself impervious to bullets and fire, able to take down four armed men without so much as a scratch. I am confident you will be able to handle what we do." Hail said.

"She doesn't have any training, she's not a soldier or anything like that. Why are you telling her to go fight things?" Kate exclaimed sharply.

"I don't. I am asking for her help, I am inquiring if she is willing to be brought on as... Well, officially you're going to be listed as a consultant. But there will be a lot more than just consulting." Hail said with an idle wave, "I've learned from the past that those with power know how to use it, whether you're a trained fighter or not. We hire you to assist us, and that's what you do. I won't be telling you to go off on your own until I know you can handle it."

"I think yes." Caroline nodded, "Who can turn down that kind of pay? Plus, this sounds just a little exciting."

*******

CHAPTER 10 - THE FIRST BLOODY JOB

Caroline laid in bed next to Kate, they hadn't said much since the officers left. The mood had cooked and even Caroline didn't feel like much more than just some sleep. She sighed, "Well that happened. Load off, I guess. Nobody will know about me."

"And all you had to do was sell yourself to a veritable Area 51 group." Kate pointed out.

"I did not." Caroline said.

"You did. They might've said that they would hide your name even if you didn't sign up but there was all kinds of subtext there." Kate exclaimed, "Look at it all? What are the chances of this all happening!"

"I think it makes pretty good sense. If you are part of something like Special Investigations and something happens like my attack on those robbers, then their first job is to search me out. I'd imagine they have to determine if I'm a threat or not. Then to stay ahead of whatever more malevolent people with powers are out there, they try and recruit me. If I'm on their side, I'm not working against them." Caroline explained as best she could.

"Or they're just doing this to keep a short leash on you and keep you close by. Then when it suits them, they'll just use you as cannon fodder to take down someone bigger and more dangerous who didn't accept their offer." Kate said, clasping her hand under the blankets, "I don't want you hurt in all this Caroline."

"Pfffahahaha." Caroline laughed heartily, "If Draconis has anything to say about it, nobody will hurt me ever."

"That's another thing. This spirit inside you, its sentient now? Now it talks to you and all that?" Kate asked, "You never finished explaining."

"She woke up shortly before I came onto you at work. Since then she has been growing rapidly. The other night I spoke to her for the first time and we became friends. She told me her name after she figured it out herself." Caroline explained, idly brushing against Draconis's consciousness inside her. It was a strange sensation, like having a warm body pressed against her very soul. But, as vulnerable as she felt about it, she knew she could trust Draconis implicitly.

"How did she find out?" Kate raised an eyebrow.

"These spirits are a lot like children. They are molded and grow according to how you treat them and think of them. My first instinct as that she was a friend. Couple that with how I've fed her..." She ran her hand along Kate's thigh, "And how I've used her to defend you and protect myself, she became a spirit of passion. Kind of like a more feral, dragon-looking version of myself."

"Wow... So if you had used her power differently or perhaps fed differently, some how, she would've been different?" Kate asked.

"Tell our mate that is not entirely how it works. How you use me or treat me is not all that matters. Much of it is a garnered from a pure, unclouded reflection of your heart. Everything that you are and everything you believe on the deepest levels of your mind and soul are what affect us." Draconis said to her and Caroline relayed it quickly.

"Oh, okay. So if you had gone around stabbing innocent people, if you didn't really believe in what you were doing, or you were being forced to do it, it wouldn't shape the spirit in that manner?"

"Precisely." Caroline and Draconis spoke in unison.

"Wow. This is all so interesting. So the whole SI job thing... I guess it wouldn't be too bad since you'll always have someone you can trust near." Kate sighed, "Be careful with it and I guess I can deal."

"Thanks." Caroline kissed her on the cheek, "I'm just really curious what they're going to have me doing."

Kate just sighed and snuggled close.

*******

The first call came in three days later. Caroline had quit her job when a thousand dollar check appeared in the mail the day after she accepted. Just the retainer was as much money as she usually made in a month. So she happily stayed at home, cleaned and generally played housewife to her oh so hardworking lover.

Kate was off at work when the phone rang. Caroline was in the middle of a movie and she answered, "Yup, Hi."

"Miss Scarlett, we are in need of your services. Are you available to come to the Seattle Police Department immediately?" Lieutenant Hail said quickly.

"Yea, yea. What do you need?" Caroline started and paused the movie.

"You. You will be briefed when you get here. SPD West Precinct on Virginia." She said quickly, "Got that?"

"Uhh, you guys still have my wheels." Caroline stuttered, hanging her head.

"No we don't, your scooter was returned. It's down in the parking lot. Ten minutes, Miss Scarlett." And she hung up. Caroline was left standing there with her heart pounding and confusion in her head. They had returned her scooter already and nobody told her?

Beyond that, what does one wear when you work for the police? She rushed into her bedroom and decided on a pair of rugged dark jeans and a plain green polo that tucked into her belt. She fixed her hair up a nonscript brown and cut to a short, professional look. Then picked up her keys, blue windbreaker and headed out the door.

The West Precinct was responsible for most of downtown Seattle. She didn't live too far from it, her apartments were just on the outskirts of the heart of downtown. She puttered up to the building and found some parking around the side. Nice thing about scooters, most people don't mind if you park them back with the bicycles.

Inside the front doors, she found the night watchman sitting behind a desk with his nose in a book.

"Hello, I'm Caroline Scarlett. I'm helping Special Investigations." Caroline said, trying not to nervously fidget too much.

"Stairs through there, three floors up and down through the big double doors. SI has its department back there." The man directed her to a door on his left, "Pin this on your coat please." And he handed her a visitor pass.