What The Cat Dragged In Ch 24

Hi All,

Sorry this took a little longer to come out. Getting back to school/work has thrown my schedule all off. It's thrown my writing schedule off too. There are a couple more chapters of this story and while they will come out, they will probably not come out at the usual pace.

All I can do is apologize and ask you all to bear with me. This story WILL be finished. I can guarantee that.

psyche b

24. The Corners of Her Mind

Kelly shifted against the rough carpet, then snuggled against Victor's side again. His claws traced over her back in slow circles, a rumbling purr vibrating through his chest from time to time.

"You gonna keep squirming around like that?" His eyes were still closed.

Kelly couldn't repress a little smile. "Well this floor is hard, and I have to say that this carpet isn't nearly as nice as the ones in the house in Maine."

"Fine. Next time I see the old man, I'll tell him his floors are unfit to fuck on."

She giggled. "You would."

"Damn right I would." He grinned and sat up. " 'Sides, you were the one who couldn't wait. Get back in bed."

"Me?" She laughed and got back under the blankets. He got in next to her. "You were all 'Show me what's mine'." She did a poor imitation of his lust-filled growl.

He pinched her nipple hard enough to make Kelly yelp. "Just 'cause you ain't even been awake for twenty-four hours yet I'll let that slide." He settled behind her. Kelly could hear the little smile in his voice. She couldn't resist a giggle. "Didn't hear you complaining." He pulled the covers over both of them, then pushed on the back of her thigh.

Kelly knew what he wanted. She tilted her hips and drew her knee up. "Not complaining. Now I know I'm really awake. Before I wasn't so sure."

He settled so that his half-hard member was resting against her most intimate places. It sent a pleasant shiver through her. "You been confused about that?" He was covering the note of concern in his voice. His hips rocked slowly against her. Kelly laced her fingers with his and moved with him.

"I don't know if I would say it that way. It's just that I dreamed so much when I was sleeping or comatose or whatever. Some of that seemed real too, but even if I was dreaming about you, you were always just out of reach." The memory of the disembodied voices and disjointed images that had been her reality came back again. She arched against Victor, using his warmth to banish the ghosts.

"Chasin' after me when you should have been resting." His large hand massaged her breast.

She blushed. "Told you before how tempting you are. Once I was even sure that I was awake and you were holding my hand. I guess I wasn't though."

"You woke up once. Surprised the hell out of everybody." He massaged her nipple, drawing the firm bud into a stiff peak.

"Dr. McCoy said I was in a drug-induced coma." She moaned softly. The broad head of his organ spread her lips wider.

"You were. You shook the drug. It's what got the ape thinkin' you'd respond to his experimental treatment in the first place. Before that, he just figured you were human. Goddamn I forgot how good you smell when you're this wet."

His now rigid shaft made contact with the swollen center of her pleasure. Kelly shifted under him, exposing herself more fully. He growled softly and moved with her, making sure that his body was over hers. His hand moved down to her tummy, his claws biting into the soft flesh there.

"You want somethin'?" He purred next to her hear.

Kelly was too wrapped up in the feeling of him pressing against his entrance and moving away to answer. Each time he did, she clenched a little tighter, grew just a little needier.

"Better answer me, frail." One claw bit into her skin just above her mound. No matter where she moved, that claw followed.

"Yes, please." She reached down to his hand, desperate to ease the sharp pressure. A low growl made her stop.

"Nope. You gotta tell me what you want."

She shifted again so that she was on her knees. That claw was on the edge of breaking her skin. "N-need to feel you inside me. Please." The words came out in a needy whimper.

He pushed forward and her entrance clenched tightly. A soft purr vibrated through his chest and into her back. "Relax for me, frail."

"Can't." There were tears in her eyes. "Your claw-"

He eased some of the pressure, but left it pressed into her flesh. Kelly felt some of the tension in her body ease.

She whimpered. "Now, please."

He held the back of her neck, keeping her immobile against the pillow. For a moment, fear tore through Kelly as the feeling of helplessness consumed her. The same helplessness she felt on that cold tile floor. She felt the soft purr again. It was enough to bring her back to the present.

He pushed forward again. This time though, her tension didn't stop him. Kelly muffled her sharp cry in the pillow when the broad head pushed past her resisting opening. Still, she tilted her hips just slightly, pushing down into his claws but giving him a better angle. He moved slowly, filling her in aching inches. Her soft whimpers mingled and melded with pleasure moans. Finally, he reached the limits of her depths and then kept up a constant pressure there.

"What are you?" The growl in his voice spoke of an intensely primal lust.

"Your mate." She moaned.

He drew his whole length out of her, then filled her again. He growled. "Louder."

"Your mate." Her voice was louder and clearer. Her muscles clenched around him.

Once more he filled her completely and then pushed those limits. "Remember this feeling, frail. Your mate over you. Your mate inside you." He pressed his claws in just a little deeper. The stinging pain made Kelly's muscles contract around him. For an eternal moment, he was still. Then he started to move inside her in a slow sensual rhythm that made everything else fade into obscurity. It built a fragile crystal of pleasure around her and when that delicate structure collapsed the pleasure would overwhelm her. The longer it grew, the more intense the release. Kelly wasn't sure which she wanted most, so she went willingly on the journey. Her release came only moments before his.

*~*~*~*~*~*

When Kelly began to come back to herself, she realized that Victor had shifted her onto her back. She felt him moving on the bed. She couldn't speak, but she reached for him.

He caught her hand, then swept his tongue over one of the small claw indentations on her tummy. She could see now that blood was welling up from three of them. His soft lips and rough tongue drew a little moan from Kelly. She stroked the back of his head until he finished his ministrations. He moved back up her body and kissed her deeply, his hand stroking over the softness of her breast and finally drawing her against his body.

In silence, her fingertips wandered over the contours of his body. He traced the outlines of her delicate bones and the place where the incision had been. It was a slice of safe perfection that needed no words.

The sound of his cell phone shattered the moment.

He growled and sat up.

"Conlon?" Kelly asked.

He fished the phone out of the jumble of clothing on the floor and looked at the message. "Jimmy. He said he'd text when it was safe to get lunch."

He got up and went into the small bathroom. Kelly heard the water running for a few minutes. She pulled the sheet over herself. He came out, still naked, but drying off with one of the white towels.

"Safe?" She asked.

"Jimmy says it's to protect you from too much attention. More likely it's because the old man hasn't decided how much contact I'm allowed to have with his precious students." He pulled on a pair of his own jeans.

Kelly looked away and pulled the sheet closer around herself. "We don't have to stay here. I'm fine-"

"Bullshit." He sat down and wrapped his hand in her hair, forcing her to look at him. "No matter what you're telling yourself about it, I've seen men die from the kind of beating you took. You been comatose for a week, and the only way to bring you out of it was for the ape to fuck with your genes. You've barely eaten, you haven't slept near as much as you need to and even if you had, do you know how many people are looking for the both of us right now?"

"No." Her voice was small, frightened. "But you said-

He eased his grip. "To hell with what I said before, this is what I'm sayin' now." A little smile flickered at the corner of his mouth. "'F I'd known you were gonna be such a pain in my ass I'd've left you sleepin'."

Kelly didn't believe the last part for a minute, but she knew that certain kinds of threats were like endearments to Victor. She turned her head and kissed the inside of his wrist.

"Stay here. I'll be back in a few minutes." He pulled on his shirt and closed the door behind himself.

Kelly stared at the closed door for moment, then wandered toward the shower.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Jimmy was coming down the hall when he stepped out into it. Creed followed the smaller mutant in silence.

"You fucked her." Jimmy said finally. The tone of his voice registered shock and jealousy, but was more heavily weighted with the latter.

"That your business?"

"I can smell it on you."

Creed rolled his eyes. "And you felt you had to mention it."

"Figured you'd at least give her twenty-four hours."

"Quoting from The Great Charles Xavier's Book of Everything Right and Proper?"

The runt growled. "Can't you stop being an asshole for ten minutes?"

"You're the one that brought it up. How am I the asshole here?"

"Because you just take what you want, no matter what-"

The statement sent Creed over the edge. He grabbed the smaller mutant and slammed him against the wall hard enough to rattle the pictures. The runt popped his claws, but Creed was ready. He pinned the other man's arms easily and held him still despite his struggles. "Calm your ass down. I don't feel like going back in there covered in your blood."

The runt's low growl spoke more clearly than words. Creed answered with his own.

"You go right ahead and be pissed off at me, but you're gonna listen. I've never taken

anything

from that girl that she didn't willingly offer. Not this time, not the first time, never. You might hate that little fact, but it's the truth and you damn well know it." He felt some of the angry tension go out of the smaller man's muscles. He glanced at the runt's claws. "Gonna put those away or do we stand here like this all day?"

With a metallic hiss, the blades were gone again. Creed kept his eyes on Jimmy's for another long moment, then he let go. He started down the hall again, then stopped at the top of the staircase they'd come up. He looked down to the end of the hall and another narrower stairway leading off in another direction. "How the fuck do you find your way around here without a map?"

"You get used to it. The next one takes you directly into the kitchen," Jimmy said.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Kelly turned off the water in the shower. She squeezed the water out of her hair and wrapped one of the smaller towels around it. She dried off, then wrapped the one remaining bath-sized towel around herself. As she walked toward their bags, she realized that -- healing factor or not -- there was still a familiar ache between her legs. It made her smile. Made her feel closer to normal again.

Something else had changed too. The feeling of dread that had clung to her for the majority of the day had eased. It wasn't gone, but the thought of protecting herself from whoever might come through the door wasn't the first thing in her mind. It was a close second, but her heart and thoughts weren't trying to outpace each other. She wondered if putting words to it was beginning to banish some of the demons.

She didn't kid herself. That feeling probably wouldn't last and she wasn't sure if she could bring herself to reveal any more. The one thing she didn't question was whether or not Victor would listen. She had the distinct impression that there were things he wanted to know, that he just couldn't or wouldn't ask quite yet. For now, she pushed it out of her mind. She had more immediate issues to deal with.

Kelly hadn't talked to her grandparents since before they left. Before the press conference and the news of her death and Cody's injury became fodder for commentators.

She didn't need one more thing to worry about. Kelly got dressed and then pulled her phone out of her purse only to find the battery dead. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised. If her things were with Conlon she was fairly certain he wouldn't have gone through them for a cell phone and charger. She got the impression that this morning was too hectic for Victor to have given it much thought either. She found the cord in her purse and plugged in to the outlet nearest the nightstand.

At least it was an excuse not to call her grandparents. She didn't know what she was going to say to them anyway. Telling them all of what happened wasn't an option. She couldn't bring herself to think about most of it, let alone tell anyone else. Telling them nothing happened wasn't an option either. No matter what she said, they wouldn't be satisfied. That meant they'd keep pushing and prodding. Asking questions. Trying to 'understand'. She couldn't make herself understand, much less someone else.

Panic burst to the surface in a torrent of recriminations, self-blame and uncertainty. The panic didn't make sense either, but knowing that just made it worse. The room started to spin around her. She sat down on the edge of the bed, rested her elbows on her knees and dug her hands into her damp hair. Holding on for dear sanity.

The sound of the door opening made her cringe. She looked over and saw Victor carrying a tray. Her knees shook, but she got up to help him.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Creed didn't know what had set her off, but he was willing to bet that it had something to do with the phone on the nightstand. He handed her a plate with chicken, rice and vegetables. Her hands shook but she started to eat slowly. For a few minutes he watched her.

"They just wanna know you're alive." He said when she'd gotten most of the chicken down.

She shook her head. "They'll want to know everything."

He shrugged. "So? Don't mean you gotta tell 'em. They get pushy, you hang up or hand me the phone." He took his phone off his belt and found the number. He hit 'send' before she could protest.

"No!" She shook her head, her eyes wide.

He growled. "Take it." He grabbed her hand and put the phone in it. It made his chest ache, but he knew he had to get her out of her own head. He had no fucking idea how to comfort her half the time; the best he could hope for was hooking her up with someone who did.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Kelly hesitantly raised the phone to her ear. She didn't have to wait long before the phone was picked up.

"Hello." The guarded male voice said.

"Grandpa?" Her voice trembled.

"Kelly?" The shock registered in his voice. She heard him sit heavily. "We thought...well when we didn't hear from you for so long...where are you?"

Kelly looked at Victor and covered the microphone. "He wants to know where we are." Her voice was soft.

Victor shook his head.

"I can't tell you that, but I'm safe."

"Your grandmother's going to be so upset. She's at a luncheon at the church."

Kelly felt some of the tension leaving her shoulders. "It's alright. I think I need a little time before I talk to her."

"You're safe, are you somewhere you can get medical care?" She could hear the shock wearing off. "Someone named Conlon has been calling. He said you were badly hurt."

"The doctor who treated me is close-by." Kelly hesitated. "Did Conlon tell you how I was hurt?"

There was a long pause. "He said that Stan was behind it." He didn't need to say anymore. The pain in his voice came through loud and clear.

Tears stung her eyes. "Does Granna know?"

"I haven't been able to tell her everything he told me. She knows you were badly hurt and that you had to have surgery."

It was getting easier for Kelly to breathe. "Did he tell you about the healing factor?"

"Yes. We found out your father had mutant genes years ago. I never thought you kids might have them or that there was a way to make them work." He was relaxing more.

"I didn't either. Apparently it's experimental."

"Well thank God your doctor knew to try it."

Victor took the nearly empty plate from her. She covered the phone. "Do we need to go?"

He sat behind her, stroking his claws through her hair. "Take your time."

*~*~*~*~*~*

Creed sat in a chair in the bedroom of the guest house, The Picture of Dorian Gray was open in his lap. He didn't remember owning a copy, but the frail must've found it somewhere.

They'd left the mansion after she got off the phone with her grandfather. The first day, they'd both slept, only getting up long enough to eat. The second day, Jimmy stopped by, probably to make sure the frail was still breathing. That ain't what he said, but Creed figured that whatever he said was bullshit. He'd expected that the frail would wake up at some point that day, but she didn't. He'd spent most of the day wandering between the fridge in the kitchen, the TV in the living room and the bedroom.

On the third day, he'd noticed the book laying on top of her suitcase. It was all the excuse he'd needed to move a chair from the living room into the bedroom. She slept. He read and wondered what the fuck was going on with her. He'd seen every inch of her skin and there wasn't a goddamn mark on her. She'd been eating more than he'd ever seen her eat. Not by a whole hell of a lot, but he figured if that lasted she might get back the weight she'd lost in a reasonable amount of time. She said she wasn't in pain. Didn't make a goddamn bit of sense.

Creed knew he'd been sitting there for hours when she whimpered and curled up. He looked over at her. She was buried under the covers, but he could see the edges of the sheet beginning to tremble. He set the book aside and watched. He heard her start to mumble. She curled up into a tight ball and whimpered again.

"Clay." The word came out as a whine followed by more mumbling.

Creed strained to make out the rest. He started repeating the name as if she was trying to remember it. "ClayClayClayClay..."

She turned over, her knees drawn tightly to her chest. He sat down next to her and started to stroke her arm. "Frail."

"Clay's lisp.."

He took her shoulders and shook her a little more vigorously. "C'mon frail."

She whimpered louder and struggled with him. He grabbed her wrists. "Frail!"

Her eyes opened, but the dream had longer claws than he did. She kept struggling, but he held her still. "C'mon frail. You're awake."

He felt the tension start to drain out of her muscles. Her eyes focused on him. He let go of her wrists and pulled her against him. She held on tight, her hands wrapped in the back of his shirt. Despite the questions that formed on his lips, he knew he had to give her time to catch her breath. He felt her hands relax first.

"Who's Clay?" He kept his voice to a soft rumble.

"Clay?"

He rearranged the sheets so that his hands could reach her bare skin. She arched against him. "You were talkin' in your sleep. You mumbled something about Clay slipped, or something like that."

She shook her head. "I don't remember." She was holding on tighter again.

He knew from her tone that she was lying. He knew where it was coming from too. If you denied the shit long enough, you could just about convince yourself that it didn't stink. Didn't make it go away though. He wrapped his hand in her hair and kept her eyes on his.

"I don't remember!" She twisted away from him and retreated to the far edge of the bed.