11

As I walked down the hall towards the kitchen I could hear Kelli humming to herself while she was toasting something and pouring coffee. I knew this because I could smell it, even from this far away, another benefit to my heightened senses. Rounding the corner into the cooking area, I stopped suddenly and took another long look at Kelli. I still could not get over how beautiful she was, and I wondered in amazement yet again as to why I deserved someone so incredible. I still have not figured that one out, and I probably never will.

Kelli was standing at the counter with a cup of coffee for herself, and one in a take along for me, and was swaying her hips as she hummed some tune to herself while waiting for the toaster. The bathrobe she had on came to the middle of her thighs, and left much of her smooth, creamy white legs exposed. Her shoulder length red hair was pulled up in a very messy bun, and I noticed that she had painted her finger and toe nails a bright cherry red recently. She had the most delicate hands and was walking on the balls of her feet which caused her calf muscles to flex and display themselves prominently. God she was gorgeous, and if I wasn't so late I probably would have tackled her to the ground right there in the kitchen to have a repeat of this morning's fun. I was late, however.

I made a little bit of noise as I moved further into the room so that she would know I was there, and she turned and kissed me gently on the lips while reaching up to cup my face in her hands. It was a short kiss, but it was filled with all the promise of her love for me and it made me weak in the knees just like nearly all of her kisses. She grabbed half a bagel from the toaster when it popped and generously smeared it with cream cheese and then handed it over along with the coffee she had poured for me.

"Here you go, sweetie. So you aren't hungry and will be able to think clearly in class."

"Thanks babe, you're the best," I said and kissed her one more time before grabbing my food and my things and hurrying out the door to get to the train.

Shortly after New Year's, Kelli and I decided that we would move in together. I know, I know, making such a huge decision after having been together for such a short time was moving way too fast, but for the both of us it felt right, and really, I had just transformed into a Neko so sharing a place seemed tame by comparison. I moved out of my old place and into her apartment, which was much closer to campus, so I could take the train now. I also made a couple of phone calls and talked to Madeline and my apartment manager, who allowed her to take over my lease and move back in. It had been just two weeks after the incident at the party with Alan. She was in a much better place emotionally, and my forgiveness and help meant the world to her. Thinking about this as I waited for the next train gave me yet another warm feeling inside, and I finally realized how truly happy I had become.

A smile played across my face as I was sitting on the bench, waiting for the next train, and I heard a giggling that caused me to look down. A little boy was watching my tail flick back and forth while I waited and he was giggling every time he tried to grab it because it would snap away at the last minute. I almost laughed out loud at his antics, but decided to let him play a bit longer. The next time he reached for my tail I let him catch it in his hands and he squealed with delight.

"Momma, momma, I got it," he cried to a young woman who was seated on the other end of the bench.

She shook her head with an exasperated sigh and looked at me apologetically.

"Billy, you leave the nice cat-girl's tail alone and come here now," she said more in amusement than frustration.

"It's ok. I don't mind, and he seems to be having fun," I answered while I pulled my tail out of his hands and used it to flick him gently across the nose, making him giggle again.

She smiled then and said, "You're really nice, and thank you for playing with him. He's normally pretty shy, but I think he's excited because we've never seen an actual cat-girl before. There can't be too many of you running around right?"

I shook my head no, and silently wondered about her reaction. It was like nearly all of the other reactions up to this point that I had observed when in public. No one ever seemed surprised that I had cat ears and a tail, or that cat-girls existed. They were only surprised that I was the first one that they had encountered. Kelli and I found this to be very strange, because before New Year's the existence of Nekos for most people was only in anime and manga as far as we knew. Practically everyone we had run into after New Year's accepted my existence, and just thought that cat-girls were very rare. It was something that we had asked Cassandra about, but she and the Circle had not discovered any new information about how the Neko magic could be causing this phenomenon.

By the time I finished my musings about how the transformation magic might be affecting everyone around me the next train to campus had arrived and I got up to leave. Before I got on, however, I picked up the little boy I had been playing with and gave him a big hug and tickled him until he was giggling uncontrollably.

"You be good for your mom today Billy, or I will make sure and come back to tickle you some more. Got it?"

He giggled one last time and nodded his head yes as I let him down to run excitedly into his mother's arms. She smiled at me again and I gave her a wink and a wave as I grabbed my bag and ran for the train. Now I just had to get through class without seriously irritating my professor. It wasn't just my penchant for being late, although that was the lion's share of the problem, it was that I had a hard time paying attention to what was going on in class.

Recently, I really had been trying to pay better attention in my classes, but I was always finding my thoughts being drawn to Kelli, and the way she made me feel. It was like I had never had feelings like these, or at least not feelings as intense as these. I'd dated a few boys up to now, and I certainly was not a virgin by the time I started college, but I've had newlywed couples tell me what their first few months together were like and that is the only thing I can think to compare my feelings for Kelli with. We weren't married, bonded, linked, or whatever we were eventually going to be yet, but the honeymoon feelings we had during those few weeks were certainly real and terribly exciting. They were, however, making me struggle in my classes and I knew I would have to get a handle on that soon.

Professor Collins was pissed at me again, and I told him that I would make a better effort in the future to make it to his classes on time so as not to disrupt things. On the bright side, he let me know that my work in the class was improving and that I should keep that up. The rest of the day was just like any other and I made it through with a bit of effort, and with what I hoped were better notes than I had taken on some of the previous days. It was so hard keeping Kelli out of my head when I needed to concentrate.

Later that afternoon I picked up some things to make a nice dinner for the both of us, and I made it home before Kelli had finished her last class for the day. The rest of the evening was like many others. We had dinner and afterwards we helped each other study the day's material. We both went over more of the reading and other research that Cassandra had given us, hoping to figure a few more things out, and then ended our evening snuggled up together with a blanket and hot chocolate while watching some movie or other that we could get to stream. More often than not, however, our evenings actually ended with us naked in bed together and exploring each other's bodies for the millionth time. So in other words, evenings were usually really damned fun before we finally went to sleep. Tonight, however, would be a game changer.

Have you ever had a dream that seemed so real that after you woke up you weren't sure where you actually were? A dream so vivid and frightening that when you are ripped from its depths and thrust back into consciousness that your terrified scream echoes in your ears, and your heart almost needs medical intervention to slow itself down. I've had one of those dreams. In fact I began having this awful dream that night, and much to my dismay, many more times over the coming few weeks which is a separate story I will get to. I can tell you, though, that it sucked big time.

It started out innocently enough, but I was looking around in my dream world amazed at how real everything looked and felt. I could smell the trees and grasses of the thickly forested area, and the musty dampness of a nearby cave. I could feel the wind on my face and the whip of the branches as they struck my body, as I seemed to be running through this wood naked. It was cold. Not a full on winter cold, but it was still a bone chilling, damp cold that made me uncomfortable. The feel of the moist earth on my bare feet as I ran, and the occasional pain as I stepped on fallen branches or small rocks, rounded out the myriad sensations that I was feeling.

The most intense feeling I was experiencing, however, was an overpowering fear. A terror like I had not felt since that first night that I knew something was wrong with Kelli. The problem was that this time it was worse. I did not know how, but it was way worse than New Year's night. The fact that Kelli almost got raped at that party was horrible, and the fact that what I was feeling from her now was worse than at the party really terrified me. I could feel a tightness in my chest, and cramps in my muscles but I ran faster because I knew in my soul that Kelli's life depended on it.

I made it to a small clearing with a large standing stone in the middle, and I bent over to catch my breath and rested my hand against the stone, smearing it with some slick fluid as I did. I looked and realized that it was blood, my blood, from a gash across my palm. I looked again at the stone as the blood from my hand glistened wetly on the rough grey surface of the rock, several ancient markings began to glow and pulse with a sickly green light that filled me with even more dread, if that was actually possible. Then behind me I heard a rustle of leaves and the crack of a branch and I whipped around ready to fight for my life.

In the shadows of the forest I could make out a small female form, but I could not see her face because of the shadows. I did see the tail behind her that waved back and forth in a rhythmic pattern. It was another Neko, and my shock at seeing her made me gasp.