Bai Yunying watched as her new student moved through the opening moves of the basic Wushu pattern.

“See! I told you two her movements best match mine!”

“But her stealth and assassination potential is unsurpassed. She must learn my Ninjutsu.” Oscar Posca stated quietly.

“She is too small and too weak, but her killing intent makes her ideal for Krav Maga!” Levi Lipinski said forcefully.

“Just make up your minds before I die horribly of indecision, okay?” Wynter gasped as her breath came shorter and shorter from running one exercise after the other.

Bai Yunying looked at the drained crystal.

“To think! My student using T1 Beast stones as flashlights. So awesome, or so stupid? Hey! I didn’t say you could stop!”

Wynter ate a dinner from the meal carts, letting her find deals with more meat until an aroma came to her. One of her favorite pre-Event foods that were too fatty to really enjoy. This gyro had a fingers length of meat and seasonings stuffed into a freshly baked pita. Wynter ate two, then was nibbling on a third as she headed South, heading to Beast Town.

About six blocks of abandoned buildings and homes separated the more affluent midtown from what could only be called a ghetto. The buildings looked and smelled of age, damp and decay. Far more than ten years should bring. Eyes watched her, some went indoors or crossed the street if they saw her coming.

Primarily she saw wolf-kin, a few cat-kin, but what really amazed her were the rare rabbit-kin and now a squirrel-kin. When she arrived at the center of the district the atmosphere changed. From shy and paranoid it became boisterous.

A huge diesel generator sat on the street. Heavy cables running into four bars or clubs. The two directly in front of her, the ‘Wolves’ Den’ and the ‘Growl and Howl’ left no doubt they were wolf bars. Still, Wynter was curious. Walking into the Wolves’ Den. Packed wall-to-wall with Wolf-kin, and few humans in the mix. An antique jukebox cranking out tunes that were new when her parents were children. The crowd silenced as she entered. She heard comments spoken at tables near the door,

“Damn, another one!” “They don’t belong here!” “Hey, Pussy! Wanna come play?”

Then a single loud voice,

“Hey! Get out of here! We don’t serve cats here!” The bartender shouted again.

“Come here and we’ll serve you right up!” She glared at that table, then turned to the bartender.

“Where then?” she shouted back.

The bartender flipped a thumb over his shoulder, pointing further South.

“Now Git!”

Wynter got. Wondering how they recognized her species.

A small bar and eatery, ‘Micks’ sat across from a club ‘Pussy Liquors’.

A peek in the door of Micks showed it to be a plain working bar. Nothing fancy, just food and booze. Steeling herself Wynter entered the club.

The overly bright strobes swept the gyrating crowd. The music of a live band roared out in a volume to rival an erupting volcano. Smokes that were likely beyond illegal combined with alcohol and the scent of sex drove a wild crowd nearly insane. Everywhere around her, things smelled… right!

Fighting her way to the bar, Wynter had seen plenty of clubs on her fake ID, this one's shelves were sorely lacking. She had to reach over and grab the bartender to get his attention, once he saw her he gulped, and the scent of fear came off him,

“I want whatever you have that is nearly lethal! And a beer chaser!”

The bottle had chunks of some faintly glowing mushroom in what smelled like vodka. Two fingers in a tumbler, he handed to her with a warning,

“Don’t swallow the mushrooms!”

With a smile, she downed the tumbler through clenched teeth. Her mouth went numb before the tumbler hit the bar. Her chin followed it down a second later.

“Smooooothhhh…” she slurred a second later. Grabbing the brown glass bottle, she went off to dance.

It all blurred together as she ground against everyone that ended up in front of her. A large male tortoise stripe was the first to pull her into a kiss, but his overly aggressive wandering hands made her push him away. A black furred female with a dress that threatened to tear open every time her massive bosom swayed nearly had Wynter melting in the middle of the dance floor. Until a pure white angora pulled the black away and pulled Wynter into an open-mouthed kiss. The whites tongue pushed in two capsules that Wynter swallowed, only thinking afterward,

“What were those?” Wynter asked directly into the white’s ear as she nibbled on her neck.

“Catnip, honey, pure catnip.” As the white licked and chewed on Wynter’s ear.

Two songs later the white pulled Wynter into a darkened hallway. Wynter had never been so horny. Her thighs slick and the white cupped her, and Wynter wormed her fingers into the white’s tiny panties. Her mind whirling, her slick fingers in a race with the white, both seeking make the other scream first.

Suddenly Wynter was torn away, the white falling with a disappointed shriek as Wynter was carried out the door into the alley. A much larger and bristly face replaced the white at her lips, and a hand twice as wide as the white tried forcing two fingers into her. Rather than resisting she spread her legs and let the fingers enter. A minute later she tipped back her head and yowled to the stars.

His fingers fumbling at his fly as he dropped her back to her feet. She knelt and undid the fly. One look at his erection confirmed they were no longer fully human, she didn’t even pause as she opened wide and took him in. His hands in her hair as he slammed into her face, a touch of fear rising as he expressed no concerns for her safety. Faster and faster until with a roar he filled her mouth and gave a few final thrusts as she gulped his seed down.

Wynter wanted more, but not with him, not tonight. She turned to go back inside and find the white. Mostly sober now, but still hornier than she had ever been.

A step later a hand grabbed her arm, spinning her around. Aware now that the male holding her was another Shadowcat, identical to her coloration. He radiated possessiveness, her empathy crying out at the hollow that was his soul.

“You’re mine now!” He growled at her, “Come home and meet the family!”

“You’re hurting me! Let me go!”

“I’ll never let you go! We are bound together, we are one now!” He went to drag her out of the alley.

[Shadow Step] she vanished from his grip. As he searched and turned back and forth in the alley, he committed the often lethal sin of not looking up. Wynter clung to the second-floor window ledge as she powered up [Stealth] and watched him rage below her. Inspecting him gave clear results,

Michel Radovich

Novice Brawler

(enraged)

He moved off at a stiff pace. Wynter almost let him go, but curious about the only other Shadowcat she had seen she kept her stealth up and followed him. He exuded none of the feeling of Shadow she knew hung around her. He went to an apparently abandoned home. She watched as he moved around inside, then as she watched he opened a basement door and went down.

She couldn’t find any window wells so just strained her ears.

“Wake up, you stupid slut! Time for your medicine!”

“sorry… sorry…” came a weak and quiet female voice.

“Get me ready to fuck you!” he commanded, she never heard the other answer. “That bitch will come crawling to me! Just you wait and see! You bitches think you can tell me no! Turn around, butt up!”

“You all,” thud, “think you have a say!” thud, “Well, you don’t,” thud thud, “I’ll catch her and break,” thud, thud, “until she can never say no again!” thud, thud, “Ahhhhh! Just like that.”

She could hear him move off as the unknown female quietly cried.

[Sense Shadows] the entire house was filled with one. [Shadow Walk] and she knelt next to the crying female. Swiftly moving, Wynter placed her hand over the other females mouth and whispered to the thrashing form,

“Quiet. I am trying to set you free.”

The struggling woman stilled, mumbling “Who?” into Wynter’s hand.

“The name is Wynter. More later.”

The woman’s fur was matted and bloody. A heavy leather dog collar around her neck held on by a padlock to a chain that was set with concrete into the floor. There was a ridiculous cat litter box on the floor. A large bowl of dried cat food and a gallon jug of warm stale water.

“Do you know where he keeps the key?”

“In a pocket on his belt, I think.” She whispered.

“Okay, wait here.”

She just looked at Wynter with an odd expression. Wynter crept out and searched the house. Finally, finding him in a second-floor bedroom. The room was full of loot and things that obviously were stolen. Placing her hands near his neck, she pumped everything she could into [Shadow Claws] and with a sudden jerk, separated the bastards head from his shoulders. The neck in between pretty much gone.

His belt did yield a key. A box on the floor gave up a dress, panty, bra, and heels that she guessed belonged to the woman downstairs.

“Hey. I’m back.”

“Quiet! Won’t he hear?” she whispered back.

“Nah. He’ll never bother you again. Now let’s get this collar off.”

The collar fell away, and she started sobbing.

“Hey, I can hardly be a hero if I don’t know the name of the Fair Maiden I am rescuing.”

“Hardly a maiden anymore. Stacy, Stacy Simmonds, executive assistant extraordinaire! I also cook, sew, clean, and pretty much all the household things.”

“Hmm, here is your clothing, or I think it is. So, was that a list, or an audition?”

“I doubt after all this time I have a job, or anywhere else to go?”

“For now, okay. Get dressed we need to get moving.”

They weren’t two blocks away when Stacy started sagging against Wynter. A block later watchers would have seen an odd sight. A female in a club style dress carrying another in an even skimpier dress.

A teen gang moved to approach the pair when with an audible sigh the sleeping figure was laid on the ground. The standing figure pulled two short rods from somewhere and the middle of the street vanished in a blot of black the spares streetlamps couldn’t begin to penetrate.

Arriving back at her boarding house, Wynter looked at the sleeper,

“Well, I’ve never tried this before. So, if we explode into a bloody mist, or are swallowed by demons, you’ll never know, eh?”

Pushing her [Shadow Armor] out to cover not just herself, but the figure in her arms.

“Here goes nothing.” [Shadow Step]

Wynter staggered, but stayed standing, barely.

“Now, what did I say was the curfew? Hmm? And a new tenant, in the middle of the night? No, we can’t have that at all.” Faith stood there sternly.

“You can see us?” Wynter sighed, “Just let me have tonight? We’ll be gone in the morning. She has had a tough time, and I am exhausted. Who do I see about buying a house anyway?”

“Rules are rules! Get her a bath, she reeks of blood and violence, and be gone by noon, okay? In the market are the three realtors. Don’t offer more than 15 Jade for a house, don’t pay more than 20. Be sure the place is connected to the new gas, water, and power. Oh, and be sure to send a gift every month to the fire, police, sanitation, water, power, and gas people, a Copper or two every month should be enough. You’ll want all the old appliances and furniture disposed of and replaced, another few Copper each. Meisner’s in the market makes the best custom furniture…”

Wynter fought to stay awake to hear all the advice, but this couch was so soft, and Stacy so heavy…