Cattin Around

Authors Note: This story is going to include action as much as it includes sex. In this issue, you get a good dose of both. Hope you enjoy and if you have any feed back please email me at Elfcat@gmail.com

Cobalt Blue

The summer after my sixteenth birthday things got really interesting not only around the house, but for me as well. My grandparents, my uncle, his wife, and four of my cousins were visiting. About the same time, we had a visitor from England named Emory that rocked my world in several ways. After that summer, nothing for me would ever be the same. She opened my eyes to so much, and stripped away the last of my innocence.

I'll never forget exactly how it started. Like I said, I had four cousin's visiting. The two youngest were my visiting aunt and uncle's four year old twins, Sigridth, and Leif. They were actually kind of cute, and I enjoyed having them around for the most part. Then there was my other Uncle's oldest daughter Ingrid who was getting married in a few months. Lastly was Sven. He was two years younger than I was, and was going to be apprenticed to my grandfather when they returned to Alfhiem.

I think grandmother brought Ingrid on this trip to get her out of her mother's hair for a while. All she could talk about were the wedding plans, and how she was actually going to be a housefrau. Oddly enough, I was happy for her. It was clear she was deeply in love with her betrothed and there was something about the domestic bliss she was imagining that was actually appealing to me. Sven on the other hand was being an ass. For some reason he had a bug up his butt about me and I couldn't figure out why. He'd gotten the idea that I was getting off easy about something. Getting of easy from what, I don't know, but he was convinced that I didn't have as many responsibilities as he did.

We were coming down the stairs, and were of course arguing. He was saying, "Doesn't look like you're hiding too much now."

"I'm home. There's nobody here but family, so I can relax. But I do spend eight hours a day at school, and that means holding a more normal..." I looked around the corner just in time to see the most beautiful set of blue eyes I'd ever seen staring directly at my tail. For a moment, I just stood there looking at her. She was about five seven, with white blonde hair pulled back in a braid that reached to below her waist, and the cutest little button nose I'd ever seen. Then I realized what she was looking at and high-tailed it back upstairs.

"What?" Sven asked and then saw her. "Oh."

Reaching the top of the stairs it took me a second to regain enough composure to shift back into a more human form. Then, trying to look nonchalant, I headed back down and looked around. "I'm sorry, I didn't know that we had company."

She gave me a strange look and said in that most perfect of upper-class English accents, "I've only just arrived from England. My uncle said that I should stop in and visit his friends, the Greenboughs. I hope I didn't come at an inopportune time." She looked around at the gathering.

"Not at all, my dear," Mom told her, and I got the feeling she was not just being polite. "Your Uncle Evan and I have already discussed things, and you'll be staying with us for a while."

The surprise must have shown on my face because she looked at me and said, "Trey, why don't you take Emory's bags up to the bedroom across from Ingrid's." Then as if remembering that she hadn't introduced us, she added, "Oh, I'm sorry. Emory Northmore, this is my son, Hunter, or as we call him, Trey. Trey, this is Emory. She's the niece of a friend of your father's and mine from England. She'll be staying with us a while."

My mother's tone was very clear and I understood that I should be on my best behavior. So I turned on the charm, and to Emory I offered my hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you. If you'll follow me, I'll show you where you're staying."

She just grinned back and gave me one of those dainty little lady's handshakes. I couldn't help notice how soft her hand felt, yet there was strength there too. She grinned as if she could read my mind and replied, "The pleasure is all mine, Trey. I'm looking forward to your company."

For some reason that surprised me and I did a quick double take before reaching down and picking up her suitcase and overnight bag. I looked over at Sven and said, "You grab that one, and I'll get the rest."

"That's okay," she reached for the bag quickly and said, "I can get this one."

I shrugged and told her, "Okay by me." I gave Sven a hard look and then headed up the stairs. The room Mom had indicated was at the far end of the hall, and oddly enough right next to mine. Our house was actually, an old ante-bellum plantation house. My grandfather had bought it back at the turn of the century and made all the necessary repairs. It was a big ol' sprawling place, originally built to house a family and staff of around twenty or so, but was now simply our home with no staff, so we had plenty of room.

As I put her stuff down in the room, she looked at me and said, "Far be it for me to make a personal comment, but did you know your cousins are elves?"

I gave her a startled look and then decided that if Mom and Dad were going to have her stay here, she probably knew more about what was going on than I thought. "Actually, they're Alfs, distantly related to elves but not quite the same. Elves are Celtic in origin, Alfs are Nordic."

She smiled at me and said, "Relax Trey. I'm not going to bite you, and yes I know about you and your family."

I shrugged, "I figured as much. Otherwise Mom wouldn't have invited you to stay while we had relatives from Alfheim staying."

"She didn't invite me to stay, she insisted I stay. I think she and Uncle Evan have been conspiring to keep me out of trouble."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "They want to keep you out of trouble and they put you in the same state with me? Somehow that doesn't make any sense."

"What do you mean? Are you some kind of trouble magnet?" she asked.

I chuckled and replied as I leaned against the door frame. "Let's just say I've a certain reputation around here. Mom and Dad just laugh it off and tell me I'm a weirdness magnet, but there are a lot of parents who aren't happy when they see me coming."

"Oh?" She asked raising an eyebrow. "Have you caused that much damage?"

I shook my head, "The only thing I can think of that I've broken is a lamp at a friend's house a few years ago. It has more to do with how the lamp got broken than the fact that it got broken."

"Really?" she asked.

I nodded. "I'll tell you about it sometimes. You said to keep you out of trouble; what kind of trouble?"

She laughed darkly, "They're worried that I'm going to track down and do some harm to the woman who was responsible for murdering my parents."

"Are you?"

"That's the plan. Of course Uncle tells me that I should wait and let him take care of it, but then he goes out of his way to make sure that I can help him with the job."

"So, he sends you to stay in a house full of magecats and alfar. Makes sense to me," I told her.

"That and he thinks that your mother will be able to help me better understand how to use certain abilities of mine as well as get a better understanding on the runes," she told me.

I laughed about that one. "Well, he's definitely sent you to the right place for that. But for the runes, you might be better off talking to Dad or me. Galdr is usually considered man's magic. Mom understands it, but to be honest, Dad and I are better at it. Mom's specialty is seidr."

It was her turn to laugh. "Don't worry. I think I can come up with requisite talents to make galdr work for me."

I just shrugged and said, "I didn't mean anything by that. Just that it's traditionally a man's magic. I'll be glad to teach you what I know." Actually, the more I talked to her, I realized I'd be glad to do anything she asked me to do. My heart was actually beating faster, the longer I talked with her. And I'd be damned if my palms weren't sweating.

She gave me a cute little flirty smile and said, "Do you think I'll be safe around such a notorious womanizer?"

I smiled nervously and went toward the door. I wasn't used to not being in control of a situation, and was honestly afraid I was going to sprout ears and tail if I wasn't careful. Not being able to resist a parting comment, I stopped at the door, turned back to her and said, "Somehow Miss Northmore, I get the feeling that you are more than capable of taking care of yourself. But right now, you've probably a lot of unpacking to do, and don't need me around for that. When you're finished, come down and we can talk about exactly what you want to learn. Who knows, maybe I can learn a few things from you." Somehow it didn't come out as sophisticated as I wanted it to. Maybe it was my Southern accent contrasted against hers, but it sounded stupid to me.

~*~

A few days later, I got a very good lesson on exactly what she meant about Mom being able to help her, and exactly what she could teach me. Sven and Ingrid had gone with my Dad and Uncle to the Southern States Store to pick up some things for the farm. I think my uncle was comparing his farming methods with Dad's. Grandmother, my aunt and the twins were having a nice visit out at the pool, and Mom and Emory were in the study when I came down stairs.

I overheard Mom say, "Okay, I want you to imagine exactly what you want to look like. Think about the form, think about the muscles, the fat, the coloring, all of it...," she looked up and saw me standing at the door. "Oh good. Trey, why don't you come in and join us. I was just working on something with Emory that I think you can help me with."

I shrugged wondering why she thought I could help, and came in. Hey, I was sixteen and like I said, Emory was had more than caught my eye. "Sure Mom. How can I help?"

She smiled at me and said, "Sit down right there, and help me show Emory how to do this." She then looked back at Emory and said, "Look at the shape of his nose, his hair, his eyes. Concentrate on what he looks like."

Emory nodded and I suddenly felt like a rabbit under a hawk's gaze as she stared intently at my face. "I think I have it," she said.

"Good now, get that image fixed in your mind, and project yourself into it."

I watched in amazement as her face slowly shifted. I saw the space between her eyes widen slightly, her nose altered shape, and her hair shortened. Over the next several seconds, her face became a perfect copy of mine, which was kind of weird being as it was sitting on the knock-out body of a teenage girl. "How's this?"

"Very good." Mom handed her a mirror and then looked over at me and said, "Now you try it."

"What?" I asked.

"I want you try it," she told me. "I want you to look closely at Emory, memorize her features, her nose, her eyes, her hair, her skin, get them set in your head and then project yourself into it."

"Yes, ma'am." When my Mom tells me to do something, I learned a long time ago, to do it, and not to ask questions. It wasn't like I hadn't been memorizing Emory's features ever since she came to visit. I stared at Emory, looking at how her eyes were shaped, how blue they were. I noted how peachy and clear her skin was, and how the sun reflected off her almost-white hair. I took it all in, even the scent of her perfume that drifted across the room.

"Good," Mom said.

"It worked!" Emory said in awe looking into the mirror.

"Yes it did," Mom replied. Then turning to me, she said, "Now I want you to think about the other day when you two shook hands. Do you remember that feeling?"

I nodded and replied, "Yes ma'am."

"Okay, I want you to remember that feeling and put it with what you've got fixed in your mind about Emory. Then I want you to project yourself into that, while letting your true-form take over."

"It's a lot to concentrate on all at once, Mom," I complained.

"You can do it," she said. "You're a bright boy."

"Yes ma'am." I said as I let my body start to change into my normal form, and then project it into the form in my mind and memory. Suddenly, my skin felt like it was trying to crawl off my bones. Like I've said before, my natural form consists of ears, a tail, and retractable claws, where I look like something of a Japanese anime cartoon, and usually when I let myself relax back into that form, there's a certain feeling of relief. You know the feeling when you've been having to hold a particular stance or pose for a long time and then are able to move? Well that's the feeling I normally get when I transform.

But this was different. I won't say it felt wrong, because that's not really it. It was more like straining a muscle that you didn't know you have. There was also a rush to it. Suddenly my clothes didn't fit right. Not the normal didn't fit right and get ripped off when I take my 14 foot battle form, but like they were cut wrong. My tee-shirt felt funny, and my jeans were suddenly too tight through the butt. I looked over and the copper hair that usually hung down to my shoulders had lengthened and was now blonde. I looked down and suddenly I had tits!

I looked over to where Mom was standing next to the bookshelf with her arms crossed and was smiling. She chuckled and said, "I thought so."

"Thought what?" I asked.

"You've been fairly bursting with it lately." She turned to Emory who was still sitting there with my head on top of that knock-out body and said. "When your Uncle called me and asked me to help you with your burgeoning powers, I figured I might as well kill two birds with one stone."

"Mom!" I complained in a voice too high for my own taste. "This is embarrassing!"

She gave me a smile and dismissing wave, "Oh pfoo. Did you think you only inherited things from your father? Did you think that being a mage-cat was your only birthright? How can you spend so much time in Alfheim and not realize that you're part of the place; that my blood too runs in your veins? You are as much alf as you are mage-cat. This is my blood's gift to you."

"But Mom, I've got breasts!"

"Based upon how complete your change seems to be, that's probably not the only thing you have," Emory chuckled in her so correct British accent. "Or more appropriately, what you don't have."

Okay, there are some things you don't threaten a sixteen year old boy with. The loss of his dick and balls is somewhere near the top of the list. Without thinking or even caring about who was in the room I stood up, opened the front of my jeans and pulled out my underwear. They were gone!

Don't get me wrong. Normally looking at a blond bush like that would have given me a boner in a minute, but for some reason, MY MISSING DICK AND BALLS MADE THAT KIND OF DIFFICULT! "What the...?"

"You'll be fine, Trey. It's just shape shifting. You've been doing it since you were born," she said.

"Not like this I haven't."

She chuckled and came over and hugged me, "No, not like this. But I suspected that you could. If it bothers you so much go back to your normal form."

"How?" I asked.

"Just relax. Stop projecting."

Then I realized that I'd become so accustomed to holding a human shape, that even while shocked at what I'd done, I had managed to keep the force of will in place to not shift to my mage cat form. I relaxed my will and watched as my body slowly flowed back into its normal shape. The tingling that the change set off in my groin gave me an instant hard on.

"Impressive," I heard Emory say from across the room as her own head slowly shifted to its normal form.

I blushed and closed my jeans and said, "Thanks, I think."

Mom just chuckled again before sitting down and saying, "Okay, now that we've established some parameters, I think you may have some questions."

"You think?" I said sarcastically.

Mom gave a long look and said, "You will keep a civil tongue in your head."

"Yes ma'am."

"Why was Trey's transformation more complete than mine?" Emory asked.

Mom smiled at her and said, "I would say for two reasons. The first is that Trey's been shapeshifting since he was a baby. He was born in his mage-cat form so shifting comes to him like a second nature. The second is the hverfr kenna that comes from his alfar heritage."

"What's hverfr kenna," she asked.

"It means change feel," I told her.

"I know what it means," Emory told me. "I can speak Old Norse. I wanted know how it's being used."

"You can?" I asked.

"Of course. How do you think I knew your relatives were alfar?"

"I don't know I didn't think about it."

"You should think some times," she told me. "My uncle tells me that it can keep you alive. Besides which my mother insisted that I learn her native tongue."

"Children," Mom interrupted in that tone that told us both that the argument was over. "Many of the alfar who have the gift of shapeshifting have the hverfr kenna. It's the ability to touch someone and know their form instinctively. That's probably the reason that he was able to take your form completely. You two shook hands, and whether his mind realized it, his body reacted to you in more than just the normal way. You weren't able to take his complete form because you hadn't seen him without his clothes." She gave me sudden look. "She hasn't seen you without your clothes, has she?"

"Mom!"

She shook her head and smiled, "I was just teasing. You do a certain reputation you know."

"And I have a reputation to maintain too, Mrs. Greenbough," Emory reminded her.

"I understand, Emory. I was just teasing my son. Sometimes he gets too prudish about these things."

"May I try something then?" Emory asked.

"Of course, that's why we're here; to learn," Mom answered.

Emory walked over to me and reached out gently and touched my face. The soft feel of her skin against mine sent shivers down my spine. I could now smell not only her perfume but her underlying scent below that. Of course it helped that I was in my mage-cat form so my senses were already heightened.

Then she stepped back and closed her eyes. I watched as her face slowly shifted. Her ears moved to the top of her head and slowly morphed into those of and orange and yellow striped cat. Her skirt rustled slightly as a similarly striped tail emerged from under it. Her face began to shift as her hair shortened and turned a deep copper. Her breasts disappeared and her shoulders widened and she gained several inches in height. Finally, a perfect duplicate of me was standing there in a skirt and blouse.

She opened her eyes and looked down. "Oooh, that's different." With as little regard for her environment as I, she opened the top of her skirt and looked down at the bulge I could see in her clean white panties. "That IS impressive."

"How?" Mom asked.

"I told you my mother insisted that I learn her native language. My mother was alfar. My father was half human and half fey. I think that's why my Uncle sent me to you. He knew what you are, and how you could help me," she told Mom. Then looking over at me she added, "And your Mom is right. You should be proud of your alfar heritage. At least you got to know that portion of your family."

"I am!" I protested. "I just hadn't thought about it."

"Like I said, you should think more often. It's good for you."

"I do think!" I told her.

"I wouldn't tease him too much, Emory." Mom told her. "Remember, he's the one who's going to be teaching you the runes."

"He is?"

"I am?"

Mom nodded. "For her to learn them correctly and traditionally, your Uncle, myself, and Trey's father all think it would be more appropriate for you to learn them from him."

"Why?" I asked suspiciously.

"If you think about the traditional way you learned them and from whom, you'd know."

It hit me. Traditionally, if you learn magic, from another vitki not related to you, it required a trade of knowledge for a sexual relationship. Of course I didn't sleep with my parents when they both taught me the arts, but that was because the tradition is suspended in those cases. But when Ridvin began teaching me, we were already lovers so it didn't really matter.

Knowledge of the magical arts comes at a price and traditionally, that price included sexual favors. That was why Sleipner's Mom was able to getting away with insulting the All Father by accusing him of womanly ways in the Flyting of Loki. For the Hanged God to learn the secrets of magic, he would have had to have someone else teach him and that traditionally required sexual favors to the person teaching you.

I blushed. "Mom, I'll be glad to teach her, but I would never hold that over her head for me to do it."

"I know the cost of learning, Trey." She gave me an appraising look both up and down my body and then down it's copy that she was wearing. "I'm more than willing to pay it. If I didn't then I could never bind you to teaching me everything I need to know. This way we both get something out of it."

I looked over at Mom and then over at Emory and sighed. It's one thing to work to get into her pants, but it's another to do it with the full knowledge of my parents, and under their roof. That takes half the fun out of it. Remember, this was 1980. Things were a little different in the South back then. "We'll talk about payment later."

"And bindings," she said.

"And bindings," I told her resignedly.

"I wonder," Emory looked at me and said. Then she began to shift her features back to her own form, but kept the ears, tail and coloration. I have to say, she made a fetching mage-cat.

"I wondered about that too," Mom told her. "I suspect that you could even copy a smaller version of his battle form, just without all the strength and rage."

"We could try," she told me. "You could show me the form."

I shook my head quickly and both Mom and I said in unison. "No."

"Why?" she asked.

"There's a certain amount of rage that comes with that form," Mom told her. "And personally, I don't feel like having to knock my son upside the head to get him to calm down."

"Besides, the ceiling in here is too low."

"Well, if you want to try it later, I can suppress the rage," Emory told her.

I shrugged, "Maybe."

"Do you have any questions about what happened here today?" Mom asked me.

"Let me see. Our friend here from England is what Dr. Green from Pacifica is calling a metamorph. Evidently so am and I and it's because we both are part alfar. I'm supposed to teach her the runes...," I paused and looked at both her and Mom and said, "... with all that entails. And, of course the usual, don't scare the normals. Don't talk about it when someone else might over hear. And as of course your usual admonition: You're not rocking."

"Yet," she told me.

"Yet," I repeated.

"And you?" she asked Emory.

"Don't talk about it where the so-called normals can hear us. Trey is going to teach me everything I should know about the runes, and probably a few things I shouldn't, but with any luck he'll teach me anyway. Most of what he said a minute ago, although the not rocking thing is not much of an issue. My uncle insists that I keep a specific spell going."

Mom nodded and said, "Well, considering what you've learned here today, I know you two aren't stupid, neither are you unimaginative. Just make sure that you teach him that spell as well."

"Not a problem. I figure I can teach him my type of magic so he can adapt it to his, and he can teach me his kind and I can adapt it to mine."

"That's the idea."

"Oh, by the way, when is the next werewolf gathering on the property?"

I gave Mom a startled look and immediately said, "I didn't tell her."

"I told her, Trey. She's going to be here all summer, so she needs to know about these things. Be sure to tell JD that she's off limits."

"Yes ma'am."

"Speaking of JD, aren't you supposed to meet him this afternoon Trey?"

I nodded. "Yeah, we were going into the Birmingham to the Lion and the Unicorn, but he had to cancel."

"Oh I was going to ask if I could tag along, unless it was going to be a gentlemen's only day out."

"You're more than welcome to come with me. It's a comic book and gaming shop. But after we're finished there we could go to one of the malls and do some shopping and hang out. Get to know each other a little better, if you don't mind."

She slowly let the ears and tail fade and said. "I don't mind. I think that would be quite an exciting afternoon and evening. " Boy was she right about that, but just not the way she meant it.

~*~

Several hours later we were walking around the mall together. The gaming shop had been a bust. The latest supplement for Call of C'Thulu from Chaosium wasn't out yet, and there was some strange old guy there who kept giving me a weird look. In the end, we just left and went shopping at the mall.

There was a strange easiness between us. It was like we both knew that we would end up in bed together, and with that out of the way, we could talk about just about anything. She told me of growing up in England; of being sent to boarding school and of the things her uncle taught her. Everything she was telling me about him and his activities, simply reinforced the idea that my father was some kind of spy.

I told her about being a mage-cat, about growing up in the Deep South, and about my trips to Alfheim. We talked about Mom and Dad, and even a little bit about Ridvin. I didn't tell her everything about him, but I'm sure she understood that he was a very special friend.

We'd stopped and had dinner at the little restaurant in mall, and then wandered around the shops. I discovered that she hadn't brought nearly enough clothing for an extended stay, so as a good host, I went with her to J. C. Penny's to get a few things. Even back then, women's ability to shop was awe inspiring.

It was strange though. I may complain about it, but looking back over all these years, I have to admit I was enjoying myself. There was something easy about being able to talk to her that was surprising. We laughed, we talked, and for the most part we were teenagers who were bonding. Now, I understand that her own telepathic powers gave her enough insight to be able to put me at ease. She told me a few years ago, that my own mixed emotions about what I knew was supposed to happen between us had been charming, and had made a big difference in how she saw me. I wasn't ready just to jump her bones because our relationship that was to be gave me some right to her body, but wanted to get to know her, and that made me go up in her estimation.

All in all up to the end, it had been a great day, and toward seven o'clock we decided it was about time to head back home. We were coming out of Spencer's when the first attack hit. I suddenly felt the air pressure in the main concourse change, and saw a flash out of the corner of my eye. Without thinking I shoved Emory to the side as something hit me square in the right shoulder. I looked down to see about three foot of steel shaft sticking out my body. I tried to move my arm and felt the metal grind against the bone.

Suddenly a woman was flying down the concourse on a piece of metal like some kind of surfer. Her whole body seemed to be covered in some kind of gun-metal-blue scaled armor, and she had four arms. The metallic scales on her face made her look like someone had beaten her with an ugly stick. "Stay down, and you will not get hurt. I'm here for the girl!" she yelled in a heavy French accent.

Emory rolled across the floor and came up with a spell. Lightning crackled from her hands and hurled across the concourse into the woman. I stood watching the lightning dance around her. "The problem with metal armor Fer Forge` is that it's susceptible to electricity! Or didn't your master in Algiers teach you that?"

The metal under the woman collapsed from under her as the lightning crackled and dissipated. I reached up and yanked hard on the spear in my shoulder and it pulled free, dragging tissue with its bared shaft. The pain was intense, and I felt myself begin to shift in response to it.

"Ah, my little witchling, you've decided to fight back. Bon, that is more than your parents did," Fer Forge` replied with an evil grin. She landed with a thud onto the side of the fountain.

I watched Emory as her clothing shifted into a bright metallic silver stylized body stocking and a gold hooded cloak with a silver tree embroidered on the back. She growled over at the armored form of the woman and said, "Don't call me witchling. The name is Avalon!" She lashed out with a second lightning bolt. The energy arced out, Fer Forge` tried to back-flip off the fountain, but the bolt changed direction in mid-course to slam into her back into a pile of display books at Waldenbooks.

As I felt myself grow and the beast inside me began to take over, I felt the natural call of the great cat defending its territory. My vision sharpened, my hearing became more acute, and I could smell the fear of the normals around me. My father's training and Freyja's commission kicked in as well. This woman was a threat to the humans of Midgarth and had to be neutralized. I willed the change that normally I controlled very carefully. My mass increased as the world around me shrank. My skin prickled as a tough coat of fur emerged from beneath it. And of course, my clothes began to rip and tear leaving standing only in the loin cloth that my mother insisted I wear under my clothes when out in public.

As Fer Forge` pulled herself out of the pile of books, slinging them left and right, I saw the customers and the clerk cowering behind the counter and the shelves. Still holding the spear I'd ripped from my shoulder, I leapt at her. She looked up and I could see the fear in her face as over half a ton of raging cat came flying toward her.

With a gesture from her, I suddenly felt the spear in my hand yank backward, slinging me toward the fountain. I crashed backwards through the steel reinforced concrete structure and rolled out of the way. I looked behind me to see several kids peeking out of the arcade with a look of awe on their faces. Off to the side, Emory, uh sorry, Avalon was chanting something in what sounded like Gaelic.

Turning back toward our armored foe, I saw where she was dodging a flurry of books flying off the shelves and attacking her. "That's the way to throw the book at her!" I joked.

Avalon gave me a hard look and I shrugged, "Sorry, couldn't help it." I guess my remark upset Fer Forge` too, because she suddenly gestured toward me and every metal shelf in the store was suddenly hurtling toward me. I knew I could probably dodge them all, but the kids behind me were in their direct path. I had to do something. I could take a hit from one or two of them, but those kids couldn't.

Back-flipping to the arcade, I reached out and grabbed the metal gate that dropped from the ceiling and yanked down hard while growling, "Get down guys!"

Suddenly, I was hit with several hundred pounds of metal shelving. A rack came smashing through the grating and pierced the Defender machine next to my head. I was pissed. This woman was not only trying to kill Emory, but had stabbed me with a metal spear and now almost killed a bunch of kids. If she wanted to play with metal, I had a piece of metal for her. I flicked my wrist and said, "Vaxa!"

The tiny little sword charm on my bracelet suddenly grew in my hand to become the sword Gradfather had given me. Leaping back toward her, sword high over my head, I yelled, "Let's see you try to manipulate this one!"

She grinned at me and gestured toward the sword. Nothing happened, I kept coming. I swung down hard, and she dove to one side. "Impossible!" No steel is beyond my control!"

I swung a long two-handed blow at her mid-drift. I felt the blade scrape across her scales as Isstonn bit deeply. I could see ice forming along the wound it opened. "Isstonn isn't made of steel. It's a Jotun's blade, made of the very stuff of the elements. It was forged in the land of my ancestors. It is beyond your control!" I lunged at her, as she dodged backwards.

She was on the defensive. I spun past her and came around with a hard swing at her mid-section. Suddenly, she put her hands together and pulled them apart, generating what looked like another spear between them. I felt my blade bite deeply into the metal bar, but not sever it. Ice began to form on the bar where Isstonn struck it.

In the meantime, Avalon had been closing with her from behind. Suddenly she gestured toward Fer Forge`, and I watched as the villainess stumbled toward me as if she'd been shoved hard. Taking advantage of her momentary shock, I side-stepped her, pivoted on my right foot and spin kicked her in the small of the back. It was like kicking a steel wall. She wasn't wearing armor, those gun metal scales were part of her skin!

The force of the blow picked her up and slammed her out of the bookstore and back into the main concourse of the mall. With a feral scream, Avalon leaped out of the store to land on her back. Her hands suddenly melded with our attacker's skin and she pulled out great clumps of the hardened metal scales.

Fer Forge screamed and blood began to run in rivulets down her back as Avalon tore into her. With a great heave, the villainess stood up and hurled Emory backwards. But my young English friend wasn't ready to give up just yet. Rolling to her feet, she once again gestured toward Forgeand the scales on the villainess literally flexed outward toward Avalon. Suddenly like the flurry in a snow globe, the scales pulled themselves away from Fer Forge` and flashed toward Avalon in a wall of gun metal blue before falling harmlessly to the ground.

Fer Forge` screamed in pain and teleported away in a flash of energy, leaving a pool of blood on the concourse floor. I saw Avalon snarl over to where the woman had disappeared and say, "Run bitch. One of these days I'll find you, and finish this."

"We'd better get out of here," I told her. "The police will be arriving soon, and personally, I don't want to have to deal with them." Then remembering who's stomping ground, Birmingham was I added, "Or worse yet, Night Angel. I really don't want to try to explain this mess to him." Night Angel was Birmingham's premier parahumans defender. He was one the greatest martial artists in the world, and had gone toe to toe with the likes of Dusk, and Red October. He was not someone I wanted to tangle with.

She simply nodded to me and offered her hand. Without thinking, I took it as she made a gesture with her other hand. Suddenly the world seemed to shift sideways and we were back at the farm with all our packages. "That's a neat spell," I told her.

"I'll try to teach it to you," was her reply as she collapsed against me, trembling from both mental and physical exhaustion.

I carried her into the house and spent the next three hours explaining to my Mom and Dad about the attack. Dad called England and talked to Emory's Uncle Evan and then told me that Fer Forge` was an international assassin working out of Algiers. She was responsible for murdering Emory's parents.

~*~

Later that night, as I lay in bed while my brain refused to shut down, and the adrenaline from the day kept me hyper alert, I realized just how close a call that fight really was. People could have been killed, and it was only Emory and myself who stood between them. The news media had already released security footage from the bookstore, and luckily that clearly showed us trying to protect those kids, but there was still a lot of fall-out over the property damage. It was a good thing the mall had para-human insurance to cover just such a contingency.

Ironically enough, Sven couldn't understand what the big deal about the fight was. To him, it was simply me and Emory doing our jobs by keeping a raider from killing a bunch of folks and making off with booty. He couldn't really understand just how different American society was from the agrarian Nordic culture he lived in. To him, fighting, death, and destruction were simply a part of life. He couldn't understand how much society here on Midgarth had changed over the past thousand years or so.

As I lay there, thinking about the fight, I heard a slight knock at the door. I looked over at the clock beside the bed. 3:32 flashed at me in red digital letters. My door creaked open slightly and in the darkness I could see Emory slip into the room. "Trey?" she whispered.

"I'm awake," I told her sitting up in bed.

"Good," she whispered as she padded across the room, threw back the covers and crawled in next to me.

"Emory?" I asked confused.

"Just shut up and hold me," she said, pulling me to her with surprising strength. I could feel her trembling against my body. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her in close. I could smell her shampoo and the perfume she was wearing. Beneath that, I could detect the scent that was all her, under that her desire. She looked up from where she was snuggled against me and pulled my face down to hers. Her lips were soft, but the kiss was filled with need and passion. She ground her body against me as her hands began to roam down mine.

Not one to be out done, I reached behind her and grabbed a double handful of her ass and kneaded those firm globes. "Yes," she whispered into my mouth. Her hands began to roam across my body. I was immediately hard as a rock as she closed her small hand around the length of my cock through my sleep shorts. "Like I said, impressive," she whispered.

I slipped my hand under her nightgown and began to stroke her breasts gently, feeling her nipples harden under my touch. Again, she groaned against me and squeezed my dick as I kissed her neck, my fangs nipping gently against her soft skin.

For long moments we simply lay there feeling each other's body as our passions rose. I could feel the heat rising from her sex as my hand passed into her nether regions. Slipping my hand under the waistband of her panties, I stroked past the soft curls there to find her slit.

I'll be the first to admit that weeks of playing around with Ljufa taught me a little more than most sixteen year old boys knew about sex back then- not the least of which was self-control. I held my own need in check as I let my fingers slip between her outer lips to rub gentle circles around the nub at the top of her inner folds. She groaned lightly in the darkness, as my finger dipped into those folds to find the entrance to her body. She pressed herself hard against my hand, and my finger plunged deeper.

I slipped a second finger in, and felt her hot wet tightness as my palm rested against the top of her sex, her clit trapped between my fingers. She rocked herself back and forth against my hand as she reached under my sleep shorts and began to stroke my raging cock.

Finally, she looked up at me, her blue eyes twinkling in the moonlight and said, "Enough playing around. I'm ready for you."

I didn't have to be told twice. I nodded as she sat up and pulled her nightgown over her head, revealing her breast, nipples standing out hard and proud. I reached for her and began to roll her panties down her sides, smelling her sex. As she kicked them off and opened her legs, I couldn't resist. The scent of her desire emanating from that most secret of woman places hit me like a Buick. I buried my face in the bush of white curls, and licked that long slit, tasting her juices as they poured forth. The heady scent and taste combined sent a low growl through me that started somewhere in my balls and worked its way up through my stomach, to my chest and finally escaping from my throat. It was the most fantastic thing I'd ever tasted, and I dined like a starving man, licking each and every drop from outside her slit, to deep inside the inner folds. I felt a shudder run through her body as she grabbed me by the ears and pulled my face deeper into her.

As her shudders subsided, she reached down and pulled me up along her body. As she kissed me soundly she said, "I said, I was ready."

I kissed her back and ran my hands down her body to gently pull her thighs up higher. Positioning my dick at her entrance, I pushed forward. As the head and then shaft slipped into the hot, wet, velvety folds of her sex, she locked her legs around the small of my back, grabbed my butt cheeks in both hands and pulled me deep inside her.

I slowly began to rock back and forth, each stroke in pushing deep inside of her, sliding my foreskin back and exposing the head of my cock and sending a shiver of hot, wet, pleasure through my spine. Then each backstroke would pull the foreskin back to cover the head as I left only the last bit inside her before plunging back in.

For long moments we rocked back and forth as the pressure in my balls built. I could feel my tail curling over my back, and the fur along my body became thicker with each stroke. Emory pulled and kneaded my ass cheeks and her finger brushed against the opening of my asshole. The stimulation sent a shiver up my spine.

She must have sensed the effect that had on me as she repeated the action. After a couple of moments of this I was ready to burst inside her. Suddenly she plunged her finger inside the tight ring of my ass and that sent me over the edge. My cock blasted deep inside her, as I buried my face in her hair next to her head and growled into the pillow.

I could feel ropes of thick cum blow out the head of my dick and fill her depths. Each spasm sent more and more boy cum deep inside her, and set off another round of trembling from her as her legs locked across my hips threatening to cut me in two. Finally, I lay atop her exhausted, my dick still hard and still buried in her depths.