Note: This story is for 18+. If you aren’t an adult please click out of this story before I tell your parents!

Hi, Marlyssa fans! I know I’ve been quiet since the last book was released in October but know that I’m always working – just not on the Illusive Series right now. But the holidays made me think about what Alyssa and Marcu would be doing right now. I thought up a lot of scenarios (except a baby) and decided to do a short about their second Christmas together. I wanted my readers to catch up with the couple and see a slice of their everyday life right before Christmas.

Christmas At Home

I adjusted the camera on the tripod to give my nieces and nephews a closer look at the cookies on the tray. Squeals through the speaker let me know they approved of my icing skills. “Let me see what you did Jackson.”

Jackson held his cookie up to the camera. “See Aunt Cukie, I drew a Santa ghost bread man.” He wiggled it proudly towards the camera. The ghost-shaped cookie did have a cute little Santa cap drawn in red icing on top. “It’s not as pretty as yours but I like it.”

“It’s better than pretty, it’s creative and cool. You did a great job on the hat, I love the sprinkles! I wanna see everybody’s before we stop.” All the kids took turns showing me their decorated cookies. “I love all of them guys! This was so much fun but I have to get off here soon.” The sound of Marcu’s car caught my attention.  “I think I hear your favorite uncle pulling up in the driveway.” He came into the kitchen and waved at the camera. The kids started asking Marcu a million questions while I cleaned up the kitchen. We said goodbye and turned the laptop off.

Marcu picked up one of the cookies and bit off the head. “These are great. Can I have one?”

“Pretty sure you already helped yourself.” I watched him finish the rest of the body. “Did you eat today? You guys have been in the studio since nine this morning.”

“We had lunch around two but I’m not really hungry.” He finished off the next cookie in two bites. “What have you been up to today besides baking cookies?”

I put the last of the icing bowls in the dishwater and rinsed off my hands. “I spent most of the day decorating the tree and setting up new products in the online store. Sales are going really good this month so I wanted to add a few more items.”

“How do you manage to keep your own business running and still work full time?” Marcu picked up another cookie and snapped off a leg with his teeth. “I know you get to make your own schedule at Anima now but you’re still there all the time.”

“Yea but the store runs itself now. I occasionally have sales and put in fresh merchandise, that’s it.. Anima needs more of my attention but my talent scouts are doing a great job so I just concentrate on the business side with Evan. We’ve had a good run of signing acts that have successful albums since I took over. That’s why I don’t want to change the way things are being done. Can you believe it’s been two years already, time is flying by.”

Has it been two years? Well, we have released two albums between touring and this is our second Christmas together. By the way, it was a great idea to stay home this time. Trying to hit Chicago and New Orleans during the holidays was crazy last year.”

“Everything was fine until that snowstorm rolled in and we got stuck in O’Hare. Good thing we saw your family first or we would’ve had to cancel so you could make your New Year’s Eve show here. I think everyone was fine with seeing us for Thanksgiving. Being home for Christmas just makes sense. I like our tiny tree and having dinner with a few friends tomorrow.”

“A few friends? We’re taking over the artist’s house and cooking for fifteen people minimum.”

“But it’s more like a party with a buffet, not the traditional sit-down dinner. No exchanging gifts just having a good time and seeing everyone outside of work or concerts. And I forgot to tell you that the headcount is up to thirty. So many people called and told me they either can’t make it back home or they don’t wanna spend this time around their family. I can’t let them just Netflix the day away.”

“We don’t have enough food to feed double the people.”

“I already ordered more sides and had a ham added to the delivery tomorrow. Half of the new guests are vegetarian so it’ll work. People around here don’t eat like they do back home. I know we’ll have leftovers so I called around and one of the shelters will take what we have after the party’s over. I made extra pies just to make sure they get enough.”

“Always thinking of others and how to help.” There was a knock at the door. Marcu answered and quickly passed the kitchen with packages in his hands. “Don’t come into the guest bedroom, I don’t want you to see what I got.” I heard the bedroom door open and close. After a few minutes, he walked back into the kitchen and helped himself to another cookie. “Hey let’s order a pizza and watch a movie, I think I’m hungrier than I thought.” He pulled out his phone and ordered dinner for us while I found a movie to watch in the living room.

“We going for comedy or body count tonight? I asked as I pulled a blanket over my legs and scrolled through the new releases. 

Marcu walked into the living room and sat next to me on the couch. “Let’s watch something funny.” He put his arm around me and kissed my cheek. “The app says our food will be here in forty-five minutes so we have time to work up an appetite.” I could feel his hand slide up my thigh. His lips danced up my neck before he whispered in my ear. “On second thought, let’s wait on the movie and get naked.” 

We jumped off the couch and headed for the bedroom. I heard the dogs barking in the backyard and a little sound echoed from the guest bedroom. “What was that?” The faint noise coming from the door grew louder. When I looked down, a small black paw reached out under the door and scratched at the floor. “Is that a cat?” 

Marcu sighed and finished taking off his shirt before he opened the door. A small black furball peeked its head around the corner, slowly walked past him and started to circle my feet. “I was hoping the can of cat food would keep him quiet for a while but the dogs barking must’ve startled him. Not sure how he opened the carrier door but Merry Christmas.”

The cat stretched up to me as I bent down to pick it up. As soon as he was in my arms an intense purr came from his tiny mouth. “He’s gorgeous, thank you so much, honey.”  I stopped nuzzling the top of the cat’s head long enough to kiss my husband on the cheek, “Are you sure the dogs will warm up to him?”

Marcu opened the back door. “We can find out now.” Osiris and Anubis came in as soon as the door opened, they came straight to me. “Guys this is our new cat.” 

I bent down and let them sniff a few times. “This is…Godfrey.”

Marcu looked confused, “Godfrey? Like Gilbert?”

“No, like Gao. He was one of my favorite actors.” Godfrey reached out and patted the dogs’ noses. They licked his paw and trotted off into the living room. “Guess they’re okay with him.” Godfrey jumped to the floor rubbed his head against my leg and ran after them.

Marcu’s phone buzzed, “Damn our food is going to take an extra fifteen minutes.” He looked up from the phone with a big smile, picked me up and carried me to our bedroom, kicking the door closed behind us. “Do you really like your present?” He pulled my jeans off and threw them onto the floor. “I know you’ve mentioned that you like cats but never had one as a pet.”

I pushed him down to the bed and climbed on top. “That’s because my Mom didn’t want any animals in the house.” I pulled my blouse and bra off.  “Every time I asked she said no so I just stopped asking. It’s nice to finally have a pet of my own.” I unzipped his pants and struggled to pull them down. Frustrated, I stopped temporarily and pouted. “Sir I believe we had a discussion about wearing leather pants on warm days.” Standing next to the bed I yanked at them repeatedly until they came off. “I know you have an aesthetic but I would like to remind you that both jeans and sweatpants come in black. In situations like these where we’re in a time crunch, you’re missing out on valuable blowjob minutes.”

Marcu pulled off his underwear in one swift motion. “Every day is leather weather but you’re right. I’ll consider the valid point you just made.” I climbed back onto the bed between his legs, grabbed the base of his cock and licked the length of it. He pulled my hair back with both of his hands and guided me down his shaft. I swallowed as far as I could before coming back up for air. He looked in my eyes as I swirled my tongue around his tip picking up the drops of precum that came out. “I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve been thinking about this all day.”

“Oh really?” I lapped at him until he started to moan. “Tell me what you want.” 

“What you’re doin’ now is pretty great but you know what I want.” He gripped the back of my neck and pulled me up to his mouth. His tongue plunged into me tasting the mix of our lust. In a second I was on my back watching him untie the ribbons on my panties by twirling them around his finger. His thumb deftly moved over my clit causing it to swell. I moved my hips into every circle of it, urging him to press harder into me. The panties came off right before he parted my lips and entered me. 

I closed my eyes wrapped my hands around his waist and pulled him further into me. My hips rolled into him roughly. Quickies aren’t my favorite but Marcu always made sure I had as much fun as he did. His thumb moved back over my clit and circled in time with his thrusts until I came. Feeling me clench in waves over his cock made his orgasm intensify and he came soon after. 

A quick check on my phone and we had fifteen minutes to spare so I hopped in the shower to clean up and headed to the kitchen to start on the dishes.

The last of the dishes were rinsed and dried. Putting the cups in the cabinet I noticed that Godfrey had walked in, hopped up on the chair and onto the countertop.

I put the last cup away and turned toward him. “Godfrey I know you’re new here so let’s discuss some house rules. The main one is that you don’t jump up on the counters. You walk on the floors and in your litter box so it’s just not sanitary to have you walking where we eat. Understand?” I started to walk towards him to help him down.

He tilted his furry head to the side, “Well, when you put it that way I can understand why you wouldn’t want me up here.” He walked to the edge of the counter. “I’ll get down.”

The scream that escaped my mouth brought Marcu racing into the kitchen, hair still damp from the shower. He looked around, over to Godfrey and then to me. “What’s wrong?”

I couldn’t take my eyes off the cat but I could still talk to him, “Obviously I shouldn’t drink a whole bottle of raw kombucha in a day because I think I’m drunk. The cat…he just spoke to me.”

Marcu looked at the cat. Godfrey looked at me and then Marcu. “With all of the things you two have been through since you met I didn’t think me talking would be that big of a deal.”

“What the fuck!” Marcu ran his fingers through his hair while he moved next to me against the kitchen sink. “Alyssa I swear I just adopted him from the shelter across town.” He reached out to touch Godfrey and his hand was swatted away.

“While I appreciate you rescuing me from the shelter I have to inform you that this has been the fourth time I’ve tried to connect with Alyssa.

“I’ve never seen you before today.”

“You’ve seen me three other times over the course of your life. Twice when you were a kid. We crossed paths and you begged your parents to let you keep me.” He mockingly quoted my mom, “Alyssa I’ve told you twice before that I don’t want animals in my house now put him outside. No offense but your mother is unbearable.” Godfrey hopped down to the chair. “When you moved into your first apartment after graduating culinary school I appeared the week after you broke up with that lawyer. Every day I followed you from the parking lot to your front door but you were so distracted. After a month I gave up and went away.”

“I remember seeing cats occasionally but not you. I would remember you.”

“I didn’t look like this before.”

“So that’s it? That’s the whole story? You’ve tried to be my cat multiple times over the years. Why Godfrey?”

“Baby you’re talking to a cat.”

Godfrey shook his head slowly. “I thought we’d already established that I’m talking Sir. Anyway, Alyssa, I’m what most people who practice magick call a familiar. You’ve come a long way in the past year but I’m here to assist you, to help you grow your powers. Basically I’m a teacher.”

“So when you came to me those other times you were trying to teach me?”

“Well get you started at least. There’s plenty of times you were struggling with self-doubt and had all sorts of questions that you couldn’t find answers to. I was sent to help but I can’t help someone who’s not ready. You weren’t ready until now.”

“Um, I’m not sure I’m ready for any of this. You do realize how strange this is right? This isn’t a tv show, this is real life and you’re a friggin talking cat!”

“Well, sweetie you better find a way to get used to it because we have work to do.”

“Work? What kind of work?”

“I think we need to pay a visit to your cousin Evan first. He needs to talk to you about something important.”

“Evan tells me everything. I see or talk to him every day.”

“Well for starters he needs to fill you in about Donna. He may have told you a lot but you never got all of the story. That plus she’s found a way to cross back over and she’s been visiting him from the other side. I’m surprised she hasn’t tried to contact you too.”

“With all the protection I keep around me she’ll have to put in work just to say hi.” 

“As powerful as Donna was in this dimension don’t count her out. Time flows differently on different planes of existence. The year that’s past here could be a hundred or a thousand years in time over there. Remember, it’s just a social construct we measure the way we do because as a collective it was agreed upon. You didn’t see a fraction of Donna’s power or that of the people who supported her. She’s still gone – for now. You need to prepare like she’ll be back any day. Evan should be doing the work but he’s not prioritizing it anymore, too focused on the trappings of this life.”

“So Evan’s keeping secrets from me? He said he felt comfortable telling me everything.”

“And he does, unless he thinks it might hurt you. He didn’t tell you because he really doesn’t understand how she did it yet and he doesn’t want you to worry. Don’t be mad at him.”

“If you’ve known me most of my life then you know I want answers. I’m not waiting around until she’s three feet in front of me with a gun again. Evan will be at the party tomorrow so I’ll talk to him.”

“Good. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to have a talk with the dogs. The faster they accept who’s running the show around here the happier we’ll all be.” Godfrey jumped to the floor and walked toward the living room. 

We stood in the kitchen for a while, trying to absorb what just happened over the course of five minutes. “Marcu, honey.”

“Yea babe.”

“The cat just fucking talked to us!”

THE END?