Broken Tattoo

[Mr. Nibz]

The moon must be blue because I have released a new Illustrated Story: Broken Tattoo.

It features a brand new, very skilled and right now, anonymous artist who has done excellent work.

https://mrnibs.itch.io/broken-tattoo

Here's the start:

"Okay, almost there," Kelly grunted as she pulled herself onto the roof of the Old Main building. She tumbled over the concrete edge and hugged the flat surface, listening for any sign that someone might have seen her. The college campus wasn't a safe place to sneak around after dark. On the campus paths her black yoga pants and black leather jacket wouldn’t be worth a second glance. Well the word KITTEN rendered in large fluorescent yellow block letters down her left leg might raise an eyebrow or two. However as long as no one saw her scaling the fire escapes nobody would be calling campus security.

The full moon came out from behind a cloud, bathing the roof in its soft light. It banished the shadows, not that there were many of them. The roof held a couple of refrigerator-sized AC units, a few spiral-like exhaust ports, and a box with a door that opened to the stairs into the building. Kelly smiled, perfect timing. After taking another moment to check that her laces were tied, Kelly walked to the other side of the roof and stared at the next building over. Thirty feet away, a shingled roof sloped. Decades older than the building she stood on, the Dean's office's original roof might have been thatch from the way the professors talked about it. From above, Kelly could clearly see the cameras that studded the gutters. They all pointed their black domes down. Runes surrounded the plastic housings to protect them against any aggressive hexes. Thanks to the discovery of a literal fraternity of hedge wizards last year, the administration had spent millions of dollars to protect this office from the students that paid for it.

While the symbols blocked any magic from being used on the building, it did nothing to prevent Kelly from using magic on herself. Mentally, she picked a spot on the roof above a window. The peak would provide a good handhold. Unsnapping the cuff of her jacket, she pushed the sleeve up to her elbow, revealing her pale, unmarked skin to the moonlight. Kelly scowled at it. "Oh bloody fucking hell." she sighed, undoing the front of her jacket and shrugging out of it, revealing her purple t-shirt. "Of all the nights you gotta go for a stroll."

Kelly dropped the jacket onto the ground and pushed up the sleeve of her t-shirt. A line of dark ink encircled her arm right below the shoulder. Cursing again, she lifted her arm and there, on the inside of her bicep, a tattoo of a cougar lay on skin that clearly had not seen sunlight in half a decade. The cougar bent double with its hind legs splayed out, the illustration catching her midlick at her crotch. Her tail curling away so the viewer could clearly see a puckered asshole.

"Oh nice, that's a real pretty picture." Kelly rolled her eyes at the tattoo and when she looked back the illustration instead lapped at its toes. "I told you I need your help tonight. Would it kill you to spend an evening where you're supposed to be!?"

After another blink, the mountain lion had a toe in her mouth, gnawing a claw, and broadcasting complete indifference. Kelly huffed, swearing for the umpteeth time this week to never buy captured spirits on eBay ever again. Jabbing a finger into the tattoo, she closed her eyes and concentrated, muttering the spell beneath her breath before filling her lungs. The cool of the magic flowed out over her skin, raising her flesh into goosebumps before sinking deeper, penetrating first through her muscles and then into her bones.

Kelly wobbled, biting her lip to button up the moan of pleasure that bubbled within her. Her muscles tightened and swelled. A cool sensation worked into her joints as movements smoothed. Flush with power, Kelly took two steps forward and leaped. A grin lit her face as she flew across the gap. Her fingers curled like claws and caught the peak of the roof. Shimmying toward the skylight felt effortless, her hands and feet finding the imperfections in the roof without conscious thought. All the skylights were usually alarmed of course, but she could fix that.

As Kelly's fingers curled around the edge of the skylight, the realization struck her that she stood on a sloped roof five stories up! The sight of the ground passing below her feet during her jump sprang to mind like a pouncing cat and her heart fled up into her ears. A breeze stirred her hair and she seized hold of the skylight as if in preparation for a gust of wind.

The gust never came. Kelly crouched there, swallowing hard, as she tried to coax her heart back down into her chest. She waited out the anxiety and felt her forehead prickle, heralding of the coming cold sweat.

"Stupid cat." She growled. The cougar spirit had withdrawn from her!
Already! Why did the damn thing hate her? She'd paid good money for it and it seemed to get more stingy with its power after every use.
As if in answer, a prickling heat spread between her legs followed by a distinct slippery sensation as moisture crept down through her sex. Her imagination conjured the sensation of fangs biting down on her neck, powerful forelegs wrapping around her torso, bearing her to the ground...

"No!" Kelly hissed. Still her nipples hardened as imaginary claws kneaded her small breasts. She gritted her teeth, "No. No!" On the third denial, the images finally ripped away from her mind with a snarl of pain. "Never." She declared. "I'm not giving that up for you." Virginity was a powerful thing in the spirit world, worth a boon to many of the newly emerged gods. Not something you gave to your very first servant.

A pinch of pain on her arm made her flinch. "OW!" She slapped at her arm and twisted it to examine the skin in the moonlight. The tattoo glared up at her, a spot of flesh swelling next to it. Kelly huffed. "Did you just BITE ME?" Her own volume surprising her, so she clapped her hand over her mouth and listened hard for a response. When nothing came she sighed with relief.
"That's it. As soon as I get done with this, I'm getting you removed. I don't care how much it costs. I'll tell Dad I'm getting sued or something."
Speaking of Dad reminded Kelly of her mission. In order to get any money, she'd have to keep in his good graces. Which meant that D in economics had to go buh-bye. Who would have thought that an economics professor would refuse to take a bribe?

Grabbing the frame of the skylight, she tugged it upwards. It moved an inch and Kelly grinned. She owed the pixie nest on the roof of her dorm another pizza, even if the little buggers loved pineapple on it. The skylight didn't open very far, but fortunately, Kelly wasn't very big. She took off her backpack, put it down on the roof next to her and peered into the office below. Not the dean’s office, but his personal assistant’s lay below, dark and quiet. A computer sat on the desk directly below her, ancient file cabinets lined the wall. Both the door to the hallway and to the dean's office were closed.
Perfect.

Carefully laying down on her belly, Kelly wriggled herself feet first into the opening. This would be so much easier if the tattoo wasn't a stingy bitch, but Kelly figured she could handle the four-foot drop without supernatural aid. Her jeans snagged on a screw that protruded from its socket a bit, but a quick kick freed her.

Once her hips were inside, gravity took hold. Her hands, slick with sweat, began to slip over the rough roof tiles. Kelly hissed in pain as they made short work of her thin nails. As she slid down into the skylight, her feet flailed for the desk, but found nothing but air as she caught a glint on her arm. The mountain lion grinned toothily at her from the back of her hand.

“Don’t you fucking dare.” Kelly hissed through gritted teeth.
The cat bit her, right between her thumb and forefinger. Pain seared through Kelly’s hand and it snapped open as if burned. Her slide became a fall. With a shriek, Kelly smacked her head on the skylight as she fell past it. Her ass hit the edge of the desk and her bony spine ran over the corner like a stick over a washboard before cracking the base of her skull against its wooden surface. Falling forward she clutched at her head and moaned piteously as pain blossomed from every bone in her torso.

The muffled sound of boots pounding up stairs got Kelly moving, even as she blinked back tears of pain. Crawling to safety under the desk, she noticed a new pain on her arm. A hiss escaped her when she saw the blood welling up from a strip of raw flesh that ran from her wrist to her knuckle. She must have caught her hand on that screw as she fell. Suppressing a whimper, Kelly curled up beneath the desk and sucked at the wound. Bleeding all over the place would get her busted for sure. Her stomach clenched as the metallic tang hit her tongue, but her mouth couldn’t cover the entire wound and she felt escaped blood running down her wrist. Instinct seized hold and she lapped the rest of the red away with her tongue. As she found a rhythm, the hammering of her heart faded and her wide eyes narrowed. At least until the office door burst open, flooding the room with shining light.

"Freeze!" Someone shouted.

https://mrnibs.itch.io/broken-tattoo

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