Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 740: Hissing Kitty

Aria wiped her eyes and smiled at him. Warm, full, proud. The kind of smile that made his chest ache.

Nyx met his gaze and inclined her head slightly.

Luna unfolded her arms. She opened her mouth, closed it, then opened again and muttered, ”I’m happy for you, Kai. You really deserved this.”

Bastet was cleaning the camera lens with a cloth she’d produced from somewhere, but her ears were turned toward him and her tail was curling in slow, contented arcs, clearly awaiting lots of head pats and praise that were surely coming her way any moment now.

Calypso grinned, wide and sharp. ”Great going, Darling!” Her voice was loud in the still room. ”And the little sister is right. Let’s celebrate!”

...

The private wing’s common lounge was a wide, carpeted room with two couches facing each other across a low table, a kitchenette visible through an open archway, and enough space that seven women and one man could occupy it without stepping on each other.

Kaiden dropped onto the right side of the far couch. Bastet claimed the middle before anyone else could move, and Calypso took the left.

Bastet tilted sideways until her upper body was draped across Kaiden’s lap, her head resting against his thigh, her arms folded loosely over his knee. Her tail stretched in the other direction, resting across Calypso’s legs.

”Master... Did I do a good job?” she asked with her two big, overly expressive eyes staring right up at him.

He grinned as he nodded. ”You did more than ’good.’ I’m proud of you, Bastet.”

She instantly beamed and the intent behind her question and expression became evident. ”Then pamper me!”

Chuckling, Kaiden’s hand found the top of her head and his fingers began moving through her hair, slow and absent, scratching behind one ear.

Bastet’s eyes closed and a low, rolling purr started in her chest, audible across the room, and her entire body went boneless against him.

On the opposite couch, Aria, Nyx, and Luna settled in. Luna had her feet up. Nyx’s arm was draped across the backrest. Aria kept smiling brightly at Kaiden, far too happy to contain her expressions.

Calypso folded her arms and leaned back. She opened her mouth to say something.

Due to being petted so perfectly, Bastet’s tail lifted off her legs and slapped her across the face.

Calypso blinked. The tail settled back across her thighs. She opened her mouth again.

It came back. A lazy, contented arc that dragged across her nose, her cheek, and the corner of her lips before settling once more.

Calypso’s eye twitched. She sat frozen. The tail lay flat. She exhaled and began to relax.

It hit her again. As the furry tip traced from her forehead to her chin while Bastet purred with her eyes closed, was the point where the demoness realized with full clarity: this was no bodily reaction.

The purring bitch was boasting about her current enviable situation.

The tail swung again.

Calypso’s lips parted and her teeth closed around the furry length with a sharp snap as she bit down hard.

”KYAAA!”

Bastet’s eyes flew open. She launched upright, ears flat, both hands clutching at the base of her tail. Her head whipped around and her golden eyes found Calypso with the outrage of a queen discovering a peasant in her bathwater.

”You barbarian!” Bastet shrieked. ”You uncultured brute! Release me at once or else!!!”

Calypso did not release her. Her teeth stayed clamped around the tail and her eyes stayed locked on Bastet, flat and unblinking. She chewed, slowly, with the calm defiance of a woman making a point.

Bastet’s outrage flickered. She tugged, moving her butt from one side to the other, trying to pull and then wincing strongly when the tail didn’t budge one bit. She tugged harder. Calypso’s jaw held, and the demon raised one eyebrow as if to say ”or else what?”

Bastet’s ears flattened further. Her golden eyes darted from Calypso to the tail to Calypso again, and for a brief, genuine instant, worry crossed her face.

Then it vanished, replaced by the eyes of a woman who smelled a grand opportunity.

Her ears shifted from flat to softly drooped. Her lower lip pushed forward. Her chin trembled, once, in a display so perfectly calibrated that it could have been submitted as evidence to a court of emotional fraud.

She turned away from Calypso entirely, tilted her head up toward Kaiden, and looked at him with the largest, wettest, most devastatingly helpless eyes a felinid had ever produced.

”Master...” she whispered. ”Help me. Please. She’s hurting me.”

Kaiden’s mouth twitched. His jaw tightened. He looked down at Bastet’s trembling lip, then at Calypso’s stone-faced chewing, and his chest shook once with a laugh he barely swallowed.

”Cali.”

Calypso’s eyes moved to him. Her jaw stayed shut.

”...”

She held for one more second. Then her teeth parted and Bastet’s tail slid free, slick and rumpled. Calypso wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

”Darling, this smug kitty was provoking me!” Calypso’s voice filled the room the way it always did when pressure released. ”She was hitting me in the face! Over and over! With her tail! While purring! She was riling me up on purpose!”

”I was just enjoying the moment!!” Bastet protested from Kaiden’s lap, her voice small and innocent and entirely fraudulent.

”No one’s buying your bullshit, you foul woman...” Calypso growled.

Kaiden’s hand found the top of Bastet’s head and his fingers resumed their path through her hair. His other hand reached for her tail, gently worked it free from where she’d curled it protectively against her body, and began massaging the spot where Calypso’s teeth had landed. His thumb pressed into the fur in slow circles.

Bastet made a loud sound of pleasure that was not appropriate for a room with this many people in it.

”Let’s try to get along, everyone, shall we?” Kaiden said. His voice carried the tired patience of a man who had said this exact sentence many times before and expected to say it many more.

The two monster girls turned to each other.

Bastet’s golden eyes met Calypso’s across Kaiden’s lap. The felinid’s ears were up. The demon’s arms were folded. Between them sat a wall of mutual respect built on a foundation of absolutely zero desire to be friendly.

They held the stare for three full seconds.

Neither blinked.

Across the table, Luna snorted.

”You know, the headache used to be this one.” She jerked her thumb at Aria. ”Permanent yandere mode. Hissing at every woman who got within two meters of Kai like a feral cat guarding a tasty fish. Now it’s the monster girls who’re at it.” She gestured at the couch across from her. ”Kai, I already knew but truly... You just love women who give you migraines, don’t you?”

Aria’s head turned. The motion was slow and graceful and carried the precision of a woman lining up a shot.

”Me?” Aria’s voice was silk. ”What about you two? You and Nyx bicker and hiss at each other every single day. And I seem to recall a certain someone doing something very specific to her friend once, underground.” Her eyes narrowed. ”What was that about again, Miss Gremlin?”

Luna’s face went blank.

”Yeah,” Nyx chimed in, her smile sharpening. ”What about that, Miss Gremlin?”

Luna’s arms crossed over her chest. Her head snapped to the side, eyes fixed on a very interesting spot on the far wall.

”No comment...” she muttered.

”Why?” Aria asked.

”It was a completely different situation and context and I already apologized so we’re not talking about it.”

”We could talk about it,” Nyx offered. ”My poor little-”

”We’re so NOT talking about your freaking...”

She trailed off.

The laughter came from everywhere at once.

Kaiden looked at all of them. His girls. Bickering, teasing, dragging up old dirt, refusing to let anyone off the hook. He shook his head, and the exhaustion from the long day couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

To Kaiden’s right, past the empty stretch of couch, Vespera sat in an armchair.

Her hands were folded in her lap, perfectly still, the way they always were. Except her thumb was pressing into the side of her index finger, over and over. The shadows at her feet were darker than they should have been.