Dilemma
He missed Nix’s purring presence at night – and her warm companionship during his waking hours. The haughty feline was decidedly cool to him. Well he’d be damned if he was letting his cat sex him up! And he wasn’t about to buy her another expensive gift. He had nothing to be sorry about – Nix deserved her exile.
More than Nix, he long for his dream lover. She hadn’t come to him since the night he had kicked Nix out of his bed. So he had a lot of time to think all the things the woman had told him. She would no longer be unhappy if he discovered who she was, but she couldn’t tell him. It was something he had to find for himself. She hinted that his knowing her identity was the key of his happiness as well.
He was supposed to believe some woman in his dream could change his entire life?
He had to have faith in the unbelievable, his lover had told JC. He had to see with his heart, not his eyes and mind. His eyes would deceive him. Why in the hell couldn’t she just come out and tell him? She needed to quit being so damned cryptic!
Okay... If he let his mind wonder freely, he could make some observations, some wild, weird conclusions would follow. One: He’d only had the dreams since Holly had left. Nix had become his only bed companion. Two: black hair, green eyes, slender, agile body – both woman and cat. Three: No dreams had come since he’d tossed Nix out of his bedroom. Four: His dream lover was wearing an emerald choker after he’d bought Nix a new collar. Nix was the only common denominator.
The exasperating feline was sitting on his chest, eyeing him expectantly.
If JC didn’t discover her identity soon, she may as well surrender, Nix decided gloomily. She would be forced to spend another five hundred years in her present form. She could see he was trying to put the clues together, but she was afraid the current society’s mores would prevent him guessing she wasn’t simply a quirky cat. Once again she would stay with her beloved’s soul, because she couldn’t bear to leave Kallikrates. She would be forced to watch him love another in her stead.
“Nix, help me out here,” JC muttered. “I know you’re the key to all this...”
The cat cocked her head to one side as if she was truly interested in his plight.
“Damn, I wish you could talk,” he muttered.
Nix tapped his chest and jumped to the floor. She took a few steps and then looked back at him.
“I’m supposed to follow you, right?” JC rose to his feet.
They ended up at his closed bedroom door.
“Uh-uh. No way. I am not letting you sex me up.”
Her haughty expression declared she was not even considering such a thing.
Once inside the room, Nix stretched out on the bed.
“I thought you were gonna help me, not take a nap,” JC complained.
Patting his pillow with one paw, Nix invited him onto the bed.
“I guess I could use a nap...” He lay down, letting Nix assume her position against his shoulder. He was fully dressed so he was fairly certain she wasn’t going to be giving him any illicit blowjobs in his sleep.
Her head was on his shoulder. He was amazed once more at how well they fit together.
“I missed you,” he told her.
“I was still here, beloved.”
“You were not.”
“I was not in this room, but I was here.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know.”
“Please, just tell me.”
“I cannot.”
“Why not.”
“It does not work that way.” She rose to her knees. “You have to believe. You have guessed the truth still you refuse to believe.”
The truth? He had already guessed?... The only leap he had made was Nix... She couldn’t possibly be Nix...
The arch of her eyebrow spoke volume.
“You are telling me you’re my cat?” That was just too incredible to consider! When she said nothing, he understood. Black hair. Green eyes. Sleek body. She was saying she was Nix. “You are Nix.”
“I appear to you in your conscious state as a cat.”
He sat up, taking her hands. “Then appear to me as a woman.” That seemed simple enough.
“I cannot.”
“Why?”
“I am cursed.” She told him about Kallikrates and Aphrodite’s rage, how she had spend centuries searching for her beloved’s soul to set her free.
“So you think I’m this Kallikrates.”
“You are Kallikrates.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I have sought you for two thousands years.”
“So what do I have to do to make you human all the time?” JC wasn’t so sure he believed all she had said, but she did seem sincere and trapped. He did want to help her.
“You must make love to Nix,” she said simply.
“What!... Oh no!... That is so not happening,” he declared.
A single tear rolled down her cheek. “Then I must seek you in another lifetime.” She faded until she finally melted into the air.
“No! Wait!—”
She was gone.
Was she gone forever?