Myka's Tail Ch. 07

"Yes Kass, that is true. I also have a much more sensitive nose, and I hear a lot better than a human. But do you know how long I have been this way?"

The question seemed to throw both of them for a loop, and for the second time Paul and Kass had to really think about things. I knew I needed to let them come to their own conclusions so that the rest of what I was going to reveal would make more sense. In less than a minute they seemed ready to continue.

"I remember your parents showing us pictures from your childhood, Myka," Paul said, and Kass agreed with him. "I am pretty sure that you were born this way, right?"

"Paul, what do you remember about that New Year's Eve," I asked, and his eyes scrunched up in concentration.

"Well, I remember you were wearing that maid's outfit, and you came over and danced with me when I had been repeatedly shot down," He answered, and then he blushed as the memories of the rest of the evening took front and center.

"You don't have to answer with a lot of detail," I chuckled, and both Kelli and Kass joined me in soft laughter. "Not with your wife here, anyway. But do you remember what color my hair was? What color were my ears and tail? My eyes?"

Kass hadn't been there that night, so I could tell she was trying to understand what had happened from what Paul had told her, but she didn't have a lot of detail and was clearly confused. Paul on the other hand was having a difficult time with his own thoughts, and I could feel some frustration come over the emotional connection we had.

"Paul, when you made love to me that evening, where was my tail? How was it attached? Do you remember?"

"To be honest, Myka, my memories of that night aren't completely clear. I mean, I remember the things we did together quite clearly. The thing's you are asking me about, though. I remember you being just like you are right now, but I also have flashes of other memories. Of light brown hair and brown eyes, and your ears and tail are even fuzzier in my head. What's up with that?"

"What would the two of you say if I told you that that night was the last night I spent as a human, and that when I woke up the next morning I was like I am now?"

"Are you serious, Myka," Kass asked me, and the look on her face was pure disbelief. "How could that be?"

"How many other Neko do you know," Kelli said, jumping in. "How many have you seen or heard about on TV, or the radio?"

"Well, none really," she answered, deep in thought. "But I just assumed that they were just rare."

"Right now I am going to tell you both something that only a few people know about," I continued with a sigh. "My costume that night was given to me by Cassandra, Ali's mom. It was the maid outfit I wore at the bachelor party. She also gave me a box before I left her shop and told me that if I was adventurous enough it would truly complete my costume."

"What was in it," Paul whispered, and I could see his mind trying to come to terms with his lack of understanding.

"Inside of the box was a set of cat's ears on a head band, and a tail that was attached to a plug," I replied, blushing at the mention of the tail. "It was a fairly large butt plug."

Paul and Kass looked dumbfounded, but I could feel a slight shift in his thought processes as the details that I had recalled settled in his mind, as Kass just shook her head in confusion.

"Do you remember it now," I asked, and I saw understanding fill Paul's eyes as he looked up at me.

"It looked like a black, bushy tail, right," he asked and seemed relieved when I nodded in answer. "And so were the ears, but they seemed to move like they were real. I remember that."

"That's right," I affirmed with a nod. "And I think by that time the power in the ears and tail had begun working, so they were becoming more real as time passed."

"You can't actually be serious about this, can you," Kass asked as she looked in desperation for some assurance from Paul. "You are just trying to prank us, right?"

"Kelli," I asked as I turned to my bond mate. "Do you still have that video I made before the party? And is it still intact?"

Kelli's eyes widened, but she soon grinned as she nodded and pulled out her phone. I was hoping that because I had let Kelli have the file that it might not have been changed by the magic of my transformation. Within a couple of minutes, she gave a giggle as she passed the phone to me, and I had to giggle as well as I handed the phone to Kass.

"You need to watch that," I told her with a sly grin and a raised eyebrow. "Both of you. And after what we all did at the bachelor party, neither of you have any reason to be embarrassed. You can skip ahead if you want, but the whole thing is about a half hour long."

Kass nodded to me as she took the phone from my hand, sitting so that she and Paul could both watch the video comfortably. Their eyes widened at nearly the same time, and their mouths fell open just a moment later. Even though they had seen me strip up on the stage at Paul's party, and had both experienced a scorching sexual encounter with me that same night, the deepening red blush that suffused their cheeks made Kelli and me giggle at their unnecessary discomfort. We watched as they started skipping forward in the video, stopping every now and again to let it run and almost always gasping in surprise when they did so.

They really moved fast through the footage, because they had finished it after about ten minutes of watching. The stunned look on Kass' face was matched only by the sheepish grin on Paul's, which sent Kelli and me into another fit of giggles.

"So, first off, what did you think," I asked them as I took the phone back from Kass. "And second, what did you notice in that video?"

"I would say that it was one of the hottest things that I have ever seen," Kass said in a near whisper.

"Yeah, I second that," Paul added in agreement. "And I can see what you meant about the tail and ears. I sort of remember them, but it's like trying to grasp at the memories you have from a dream. It's really difficult after too much time has gone by."

"And did that plug start to glow as you were putting it on," Kass asked. "Was it a battery powered?"

"That's what I've been trying to explain guys," I sighed, slightly frustrated. "It wasn't a battery, and I never took the plug out after the party. When I woke up the next morning the color of my hair, ears, and tail were all the matching purple you see, and it was a real tail and a real set of ears."

"But, a video like that can be manipulated," Kass continued, still trying to wrap her mind around what we were trying to tell her. "There has to be a logical explanation."

She had taken hold of Paul's hand and was squeezing it for all she was worth. I could see understanding fill his face as his memories became more integrated about that night, and he looked over to Kass with both love and concern in his eyes.

"Kass, I remember Myka at that party, exactly as we saw in that video," he said to her as he kissed her temple. "I can't explain it, but every minute that I think about it, the memory becomes clearer and clearer."

"But how? How in the hell is this even possible? Could you have been drunk or high that night?"

"Kass, neither of us was drunk or high," I said as I stopped her from speculating further. "Kelli and I can explain this, but it will require you to open your mind to fantastic possibilities, just like I warned you earlier."

"For you to understand, though," Kelli continued with a sigh of her own. "You need to answer one question. Do you, or can you, believe that real magic exists?"

Kelli's question hit the two of them like a hammer, and I could see by their expressions that it might be a tougher sell than we thought. Then Paul and Kass looked down to where a small, bright flame was giving of a gentle purple and orange light as it hovered an inch or two above Kelli's hand. For the next few moments the only thing I could hear in the room was the ticking of our wall clock, and the beat of my own heart. They were not even breathing, and the way their eyes were fixed on that small magical flame, it was like they were in a deep hypnotic trance.

Then Kelli gave a whisper and the single flame became two, and then two became four, then four eight. Once she had finished her summoning, the flickering fires began to dance in the air, swirling around in a small spherical pattern that was incredibly pretty. Paul and Kass were still staring at Kelli, wide eyed and open mouthed, and I really had to fight to keep from laughing at the absurdity of it all.

"Well, what do you think," Kelli asked as she let the flames vanish into the air with a flash. "Is that something you can believe in and come to understand, or is it just too wild?"

"That was absolutely amazing! How did you do that," Paul gasped once he could find his voice, and Kass was nodding with a mile wide grin.

"Do you remember when your sister took a bunch of us to Scotland on spring break," I asked, and Paul nodded. "Mathias tried to enslave me that night, and force my bond to go to him rather than stay with Kelli. We stopped that, but there were a few things that changed."

"Like what," Kass whispered, still in awe at what she had seen.

"Well, for one, Kelli and I are now permanently bonded with each other," I replied, as I fingered my silver collar and Kelli indicated her matching bracelet cuff. "Tied together, mind, body, and soul until the end of time. Another was that Kelli's potential at sensing, understanding, and using magical energy was unlocked, and she has been training those skills ever since. That's why she could produce those flames."

"I'm going to show you something else," Kelli added as she stood and went to the center of the room. "Come stand with me and we will go to the clearing and have lunch."

"It's ok guys," I coaxed, and held out my hand to the two of them. "There's no need to be nervous, and there is no danger. Kelli and I have been doing this to move back and forth between our house and the apartment for quite a while now."

I could sense that Paul and Kass were feeling hesitant, so I projected nothing but love, concern, and trust over our lesser links. That seemed to be enough to tip the scales, and Paul stood and took Kass' hand to help her up.

"So, what do we do?" he asked, with a slightly shaky voice.

"Just stand here," I replied, as Kelli and I moved in close.

Once we were together, Kelli closed her eyes and began to mutter the words of the spell that I had heard many times before. The familiar tingle raced along the surface of my skin, and I could see and feel an increase in Kass' anxiety as it did so. The spell didn't give her time to object, however, and a bright circle appeared on the floor, surrounding us. A blink or two later we were all standing in the center of the innermost ring of stones in the clearing.

The fear and hesitation that I had been sensing from Paul and Kass was immediately replaced by wonderment, an almost childlike joy, at discovering something so new and so incredibly strange. Kelli and I just stood there, holding each other, as they spent some time just wandering around the circle, letting their minds come to grips with an amazing new reality.

"Oh my god! You were serious," Kass cried out after a few minutes, as she turned to look at Kelli and me. "You can do magic! Is there anything else you can do?"

Her enthusiasm and Paul's lopsided grin made me giggle, and even Kelli had to chuckle for a moment. I figured that I could show them a few more things, so I gathered up a handful of dirt and called a small amount of water from the pond to come to me. Watching the small sphere of water float through the air until it combined with the earth in my hand, had them both wide eyed once again. When I used my power to mix the two elements and form a small figure, which proceeded to dance in my palm, Kass overcame her surprise and squealed with delight.

"That is so incredibly cool," she gasped as the figure leapt off my palm and formed back into the ground. "How are you both able to do all this? Is it something you can learn?"

"In my case," I began with a small sigh. "I have the abilities that I have talked to you both about. Those come from my Neko side. Part of what happened in Scotland killed the only other two of my kind that I know of, and when they died, I was somehow tasked with being the keeper of their powers. One of them had control over the earth, and the other had power over water, and now I am the one who holds the link to those elements, so I can manipulate them when I need to."

"And on that same night," Kelli continued. "When Myka opened herself up to the power that she had accepted on New Year's, it changed me in such a way that I can now use magic, and shape magical energy and constructs. Creating a circle with magic symbols and words of power was how I was able to bring us here in an instant. But you are either born with some ability that needs to be trained, or you are like me."

"So there's no way that I could learn to do anything like what you both just showed us," Kass asked, and I could hear the disappointment in her voice.

"Sorry Kass," Kelli replied, and gave her a gentle hug. "Without some major change, which would also have a high chance of being very dangerous, magic and magical power are in the hands of a very small number of people. And we are also taking a big risk by telling you both about this."

"You can trust us to keep it a secret. You know that, right?"

"Actually, Kass, it has nothing to do with trust," I jumped in when I felt a small amount of hurt from both Paul and her. "Remember, when you increase the number of people who know about something secret, it increases the chance that that secret will be discovered. Someone might be in a position to overhear a conversation they shouldn't. Perhaps that person already has suspicions, and they try to manipulate those they think have information that they can use."

"She's right, love," Paul added. "I really hate to admit it, but she is. Dad lost out on a pretty big contract because the project team was really big, and the company that pulled the rug out from under him had had people studying and following the team members for months. There was just too much opportunity for little bits of knowledge to get out, and if the number of people you get bits from is large enough you can construct a pretty accurate picture of what's going on."

"But we were given permission to use our judgement in what we would tell you," Kelli said with a smile. "You must have been aware of the strange things that happened at our wedding."

"I'm sorry for being so huffy," Kass apologized. "And it makes me happy that you both feel that you can trust us now with something this big. But what did happened at the wedding? I have been trying to figure that out for a while."

"Quite a lot happened," I continued. "Think back to when I walked to take my place at Kelli's side. Did you see what many of us saw, and if not, did you at least feel it?"

"I remember you looking like you were glowing," Paul nodded in answer. "But I was sure that it was just the way the sun was hitting you through the trees."

"And I felt an almost overpowering sense of love," Kass said. "It almost drove me to my knees."

"Well, you are both right, but not completely. When I started walking, my dad, or at least his soul, was able to pierce the barriers between where he is and our world. That was the glow you thought you saw, which was much brighter for those of us who could recognize it. And he was giving off a very powerful aura of love, which is what you noticed, Kass."

"And then the priestess, Millicent, right," Kass asked and I nodded in answer. "She wrapped our hands with the strips of cloth, and I could swear they had disappeared. She didn't just take them while we weren't looking?"

"No, she didn't," Kelli said. "And take a close look at your wrists, now that you have been introduced to real magic."

When the two of them looked down and gasped at what they saw, it made me giggle a bit. Paul and Kass had no idea that they had been marked by magic that day, and now they could see the matching bands that had been infused into their skin. Kass stared at her wrist in wonder, touching the colorful markings with hesitance, probably thinking that messing with them would make them disappear. Paul, on the other hand, just chuckled as he looked down at his own band, and eventually burst out in full throated laughter.

"Well damn," he gasped once he finally finished laughing. "It's been there the whole time, and we never knew. Why? Why keep it from us?"

"I can only guess that Millicent altered what she did for you two because you weren't ready to know," Kelli answered. "Ali and Jess have similar marks, and before you ask, yes. Jess is aware of the existence of magic and what it can do, and most likely could see her mark from the moment it was cast."

"That's because of what happened in Scotland, isn't it," Paul asked, and his voice betrayed a deep worry. "It didn't just change you both, it changed my sister as well, right?"

"It did," I whispered, and leaned into Kelli, who had wrapped her arm around me. "There were a lot of changes that night, and I still have bad dreams about it sometimes. But that's not important right now. It's time to eat, so get over here on our blanket and let's have some food."

Over the following hour Kelli and I answered as many of Paul and Kass' questions as we could, while still enjoying lunch. For the two of them it was like being a kid waking up on Christmas morning. Everything that we could tell them was something new that changed the way they fundamentally viewed the world, and how they saw us and our relationship. We also managed to eat, amazingly enough, and while there were not nearly as many exclamations about the food as there were about the existence of magic, everyone seemed to have a good time.

After we had eaten, I took the two of them around the clearing while Kelli packed up the food and brought out coffee and some pastries. Paul and Kass had an almost never-ending string of questions about how the power of the stones worked, and what it could be used for, and I answered their queries as best as I could.

The fact was that our explanations meant nothing to the two of them because they had no real frame of reference to ground their understanding. They could intellectually accept the concept of my link to the earth and water, but how that power worked through the circle, or how I could call on it and shape its behavior to suit my desires was a very difficult concept to grasp. Even when Kelli described the working of magic as just a different way to manipulate the energy available from the environment, not unlike generating and using electricity, Paul and Kass still looked stumped.

I decided that I was going to try and give them a more personal demonstration of the forces we were talking about, so I took their hands and dragged them to the main standing stone behind the altar. Whether my plan would work or not was up for debate, but I knew I needed to try. I took my place between the two of them and grasped their hands in mine, and instructed them to each place their other hand on the large stone, hopefully creating a circuit for the power I was hoping to generate, and let flow through our physical link.

"Ok guys," I said to them in a soft whisper. "Close your eyes and try to keep your mind clear. Just do your best to try and think about nothing at all."

"That's easier said than done, Myka," Paul said, and Kass nodded in agreement, before they both closed their eyes.

"I know it isn't easy, but just try. And once you get your mind as clear as you can, concentrate on feeling the pulse of the very earth around you. It may help you to focus on your own heart beat at first, but try and feel the beat that is coming from the rock that you are touching. And don't worry if it takes a while. It is very hard to notice at first."