Touch of the Goddess

Disclaimer: I do not own The Nine Lives of Chloe King.

Author: Egyptian Kiss

Rating: MA

Summary: As a reward for saving the Uniter, Chloe King, Cadee Fallin finds herself brought back to life by the goddess Baset, reborn as a member of the Mai race. She is faced with new challenges, superpowers, and a mate she never saw coming. Alek/OC

Chapter One

Cadee Fallin was having the worst day of her life. It had all started out seemingly normal: her alarm clock blasted indie rock at top volume; her mother, Mia, had made her a vegan-friendly, egg substitute, western omelet; her brother, Daylin, teased her over his meat pile of bacon; and Jade, her two-month-old kitten, had sat in the window of their second floor apartment as she rushed out the door. All-in-all not the precursor to the day from Hell.

First, Cadee had gotten a flat on the way to school (not that she wasn't relatively competent at changing out a spare) but when she had gone to the trunk of her fourteen-year-old Ford Bronco, she found that the spare was missing. A vague memory had then drifted to the forefront about a conversation she had had a couple nights back with Daylin after he had gotten back from his night classes at the local community college – apparently he'd been in an accident and his jeep needed a spare. The light bulb clicked on in realization and Cadee had been twenty minutes late to an important Geometry exam because she had to wait for AAA.

Then, as if a flat and a stressful math test wasn't enough, Cadee had gotten halfway to her locker before remembering that she had forgotten her violin – again. Not once, not twice, but three times this week she had managed to misplace her most prized possession. She had the inkling that she would probably find it in her bathroom – where she had leaned it against the wall as a reminder as she washed up this morning. Mr. Bolin, a stout, thickly mustached, fuss bucket (aka her music teacher) had been less than thrilled by her sudden forgetfulness and instead of allowing Cadee to take up a spare instrument he had assigned her Saturday detention "to motivate" Cadee into remembering what it meant to be first chair in his orchestra.

Now after all that Cadee had been fairly certain her day couldn't get much worse – right? The Universe was not plotting some big conspiracy to ruin her life as she knew it. Right? Well just to reinforce the fact her life was taking a turn for the worst, the powers-that-be had cooked up something extra special. Her boyfriend Troy, a punk rock demigod with anarchical ideas and an anti-PC comedic streak, had decided today was the day they were over. No, he didn't confront her in the hallway at school and made a big scene. No, he didn't call her and give a long drawn out reason why their two-year, pre-high school to high school relationship was no longer working for him. No, he didn't send her a text to meet up for coffee after school (like always) for an easy let down. King Shit had dropped a note in her locker before lunch that read "Sorry Cadee I'm over it. Thanks for the memories – T." It wasn't bad enough he had left her a note to demolish her heart, he had to cite a Fall Out Boy song to do it?

The fantastic capper to her pre-lunch day made Cadee want to cry and to sigh at the same time. Life wasn't fair. It never had been and Cadee had learned that in elementary school when her dad had left them and made Daylin, four years her senior, the man of the house. Or the time that they were evicted from their beachfront home and jettisoned into the lower-middleclass, getting by on her mom's feeble paychecks from her secretarial job at First Bank in downtown San Fran.

But all this in one day? What else could go wrong?

Fighting off tears, Cadee crumpled up the break-up note and tossed it over her shoulder. She grabbed her brown bagged lunch, hoisted her backpack up on her shoulder, and slammed her locker shut before stalking down to the cafeteria. No, life wasn't fair, but today just plain sucked.

When she walked in, Cadee saw her usual group of friends sitting at the round table near the salad bar. Jenny, the nerdy, math genius who led the school's debate team. Loree, the perky, Chem. geek with horn-rimmed glasses and Nancy Drew deduction skills. George, the drummer for a garage band that was going no-where-and-fast. Perry, the aspiring-pro-skateboarder and second-in-command to Troy. Gina, the snobby Goth with lavender hair, an eyebrow ring and a penchant for poetry. And then there was Troy. He sat at the table probably spouting off some mildly philosophical, melodramatic, anti-government rant that was inspired by his early morning Ethics class.

Looking at them from afar, Cadee realized that she didn't want to go anywhere near them. She couldn't sit there surrounded by familiar faces and pretend that nothing had changed, or that she was cool with Troy when all she wanted to do was smack him across the face and shove a fist down his throat.

But I'm too nice for that, Cadee thought caustically. Out of everyone in the group, Cadee had been labeled the nice one. The one who would do anything for anyone without a thought; whenever any one of them wanted a favor, they turned to Cadee. She was too nice to say no. She was too nice to think about not helping. Too nice to tell them off. Too nice to admit it urked her like no other that she was always there for them and they were always mysteriously absent when she needed some support.

Turning her back to them was physical and metaphorical – she was done. Eyes searching the crowd, Cadee assessed her options. There was the popular table led by Alek Petrov and the basketball jocks. So not an option. Everyone knew that to sit at that table you had to have a golden ticket aka pom poms or a team jersey. Next was the fringe table, kids who virtually blended in with the cream colored brick walls and were swallowed up by the shadows. Possible but not exactly comfortable – a little too bland. Then came the music table, kids in either orchestra or band who retained an active role in school games and concerts. Also possible, but not totally appealing. Cadee spent enough time with them in class and performing to know how perverted and caddy most of their conversations were. Then came the Goth/Punk/Emo/Pained group, run by Miranda Jones (self-proclaimed Goth queen). Anyone with a healthy self-image, timorous personality, or natural hair color need not apply. Moving along, there was were the anime fanatics. Anyone not into graphic novels keep on moving.

Sighing, Cadee finally spotted a table. Three people sat together laughing, chatting, and looking seemingly normal. She recognized one of them as Amy. Amy was a pretty, petit, brunette who spoke too-fast, smiled a lot, and sang like an angel. They had taken choir together in middle school and were in the same section. It had been a couple years since she had spoken to her, but what did she have to lose?

"Can I sit here?" Cadee asked, having approached the table with mild caution but her best friendly smile.

A copper blond with big green eyes, a short Asian dude with a comic tee-shirt, and Amy all turned to stare up at her. They seemed just as startled by her sudden appearance as Cadee's fluttering stomach was.

"Sure," said the blond before Amy could reply. "I'm Chloe King. It's nice to meet you. This is Paul and this is –"

"Amy. Yeah, I know. We used to be in choir together way back in the day," Cadee said, taking a seat next to Amy and Chloe and across from Paul. "I'm Cadee Fallin."

"Oh my God, Cadee! It's been forever. You look so different! In a good way," Amy rushed to explain. She still talked a little too quickly. "I mean, you used to have braces and glasses and such long hair. You look great."

Blushing under the attention, Cadee laughed nervously, pulling out her apricot, almond salad and green tea. The braces had been off for almost a year and a half, her hair had been chopped off at the shoulder in wavy, silvery blond layers, and her big purple glasses had been traded in for a set of stellar green contacts that enhanced her natural eye color almost right after eighth grade graduation.

"Thanks. You look great too. Still making your own outfits?" Cadee asked while Chloe and Paul chattered on about some cat woman comic book plot line.

Shaking her head enthusiastically, Amy smiled. Since they entered high school everyone had come to call her Crazy Amy because she was a little overly enthused about everything and her taste in clothes ranged from fashion forward to eighties throw-back, more on the former than the latter. Cadee sometimes hated high school because people like Amy who were already developing a unique personality were usually put down because they strayed from the pack.

"I just got this really great offer to help in the costuming department for the next school production. I think they're doing Grease. It's going to kill."

Chloe broke off her pseudo argument with Paul at that point to say, "Amy I still think you should be trying out for a part in the musical. You have the voice, the look, and the stage presence. Come on, hello, destiny calling."

"No way. I'm so not ready for that, Chloe! I mean, come on, I was barely able to commit to that open mic night at the coffee bar. Me and the stage equal no go," Amy said, shaking her head so hard her zebra stripped, pink beanie fell off.

"But you used to be in choir," Cadee interjected. "And you do have a voice, Amy. You should at least try out."

"Traitor. No way. Paul, boyfriend, tell them they're crazy," Amy said, turning to her apparent BF for support.

Paul raised a hand to scratch his head and smiled nervously, "I plead the fifth? Come on Amy its three chicks versus one guy."

"Chicks? Guy? You are my boyfriend. You're supposed to be on my side," Amy said, jerking to a stand, her face turning red and her lips turning down in a frown. "You know Paul, whatever. I have to be somewhere anyways." And with that, Amy stormed dramatically from the cafeteria with Paul jumping up to trail behind her like a chastised puppy. If that performance didn't deserve a spot on stage what does, Cadee wondered.

"Haha, sorry, Amy can be a little…dramatic. She'll get over it," Chloe said from the other side of the table, munching on a slice of pepperoni pizza.

"No worries. It's high school, I think that's kinda the point," Cadee said, shrugging it off even though a certain discomfort now hung in the air between them. Cadee thought again about Troy, the break up, her bad morning, and then came back to the present where she sat with someone who could easily be classified as a stranger.

"So…well, I hate to do this, but I kind of have this thing I promised to do for Paul so I got to go. It was really nice meeting you," Chloe said once she'd polished off her lunch and then made an exit stage left with an amicable finger wave.

After being left to finish her lunch alone, Cadee's day didn't get any better. She got back an English essay (C-) and managed to get her cell phone confiscated in Spanish class. Her backpack with the cute stars and the music notes caught in the door on her way out of her last class, AP Bio, and ripped down the side sending all of her stuff flying in all directions. A couple good citizens had helped her collect her stuff, jam it back into her bag and she had to hold it a certain way to stop everything from spilling out again in the afternoon melee of students pushing to get home.

Cadee got all the way to the parking lot before she remembered her car had been towed to Mick's garage downtown and she would have to hoof it all the way to her apartment – a good three and a half miles. Not that Cadee minded walking usually, but she wasn't exactly in the best mood.

As the streets passed, Cadee started to relax a little. The sound of the city alive and bustling was a warm comfort. Cadee had always liked living in San Francisco. She liked the beaches, the sunny weather, the cable cars, the boutiques, the kitschy coffee bars, the clubs, and the street performers. Everything seemed so full of possibilities when Cadee was out and about with the common folk.

Cadee cut across the street and was heading north when she heard the noise. At first it sounded like a couple of cats fighting, a hiss and some shuffling, but as she drew closer to the mouth of the alley, a thud, a metallic ring, and the sound of a muffled scream confirmed it wasn't just a couple of frisky kitties. Jerking to attention, Cadee stopped at the edge of the alley and peered down the long, narrow backstreet. Two black clad figures were sparring and a girl with long shiny hair lay sprawled out on the ground, blood dripping from her forehead. The two fighting figures looked like they were dancing – until Cadee saw the flash of a steel blade.

Not sure what to do, but definitely not willing to leave some poor girl defenseless, Cadee crept slowly and quietly down the alley. Her heart was drumming in her chest and she started to sweat when she knelt beside the girl. It was Chloe King. That girl from lunch – Amy's friend. Putting two fingers to Chloe's neck, Cadee found a heartbeat and a rush of relief made her sag a little before she realized that the two fighters were drawing closer as they fought from one end of the alley by a dumpster heading right for them.

"Chloe?" Cadee whispered softly, trying not to draw unnecessary attention to herself.

When Chloe didn't respond, Cadee took a deep breath, grabbed Chloe by the armpits and began pulling her dead weight down the alley, stumbling over a plank of wood from a broken crate. "Shit!" Cadee said, a little too loudly as she struggled to stay upright and not fall over.

One of the combatants spotted her over the other's shoulder and he smiled. He was dark skinned with yellowy eyes and pointed ears, a jagged scar along one side of his face. His smile looked razor sharp and an uncontainable chill swept down Cadee's spine. She saw him raise a hand and then he was throwing something. Cadee heard it whistling through the air and it was about to hit Chloe in the chest. Cadee screamed shrilly and shoved Chloe out of the way, twisting in a dive as she went in an attempt to avoid the throwing star.

Pain exploded in her left calf and her vision blurred when her head smacked violently against the asphalt, and Cadee blacked out for a second. Her mind went blank. When she came around, Cadee thought she was going to add vomit to the alleyway décor. Upchuck burned like acid in her chest, but she forced it down. When she rolled back over to see if Chloe was alright and where that scar-faced, star-throwing freak was, Cadee saw an empty alley. She was alone. Chloe wasn't there, the ninja dude who had been fighting the freak was gone, and the only thing remaining was the glinting metal star that had embedded in a crack in the black top. Forcing herself up to a stand, Cadee shook with the ebb of her adrenaline rush and the tofu berry bar she had eaten a couple blocks back was starting to come back to bite her.

Police sirens sounded in the distance, startling Cadee, and she hurriedly gathered her fallen backpack and rushed the rest of the way home. None of what happened made sense. Her hands were shaking violently when Cadee closed her bedroom door, and she collapsed on her bed to the sound of her empty house. Daylin had probably just gotten off work at the farmer's market near the community college and was getting ready for his night classes and her mom probably wouldn't be home until late because she said something about a business dinner with her boss. Business dinner was code word for date – or at least that is what Daylin kept insisting when Cadee brought it up.

The pale blue walls of her bedroom were a familiar comfort and her big bed welcomed her like a hug, helping to ease the tension in her back. A small meow brought Cadee's attention to Jade as her kitten jumped up on the bed and laid down on her chest. The weight of the small, fluffy, black and white kitten was reassuring in some way. It grounded Cadee's world back in reality. Jade's pretty green eyes and tilted head seemed to be asking her a question, but Cadee closed her own to avoid thinking. She felt sleep calling and slipped away, her body finally giving out to exhaustion.

Light lapped in waves around her and Cadee winced against it. It hurt to look directly at anything, but a figure came through the blinding nothingness. It looked like a woman but not quite. Her eyes reminded Cadee of Jade's, her hands were clawed, and her facial structure was feline, almost lion-like. A mane of white blond hair fell in straight locks, and the smile on the woman's lips was catty. Nothing about this woman was normal.

"Where am I?" Cadee whispered, stepping back as the vibrations emanating from the woman grew as she drew closer.

"You are dreaming. I am visiting. My name is Baset. You may not know me because I have been lost to your kind for generations. But I know who you are Cadee. I know that you have never had a fair life. Nothing has come easy for you, Cadee. No one has seen how special you are. But I have been watching you for quite some time. You were not born one of mine, but today, you died," the woman said. Her voice was smooth like chocolate, whispery and sophisticated – it was utterly powerful, intoxicating…and terrifying.

"I died?" Cadee whispered, her insides turning cold as an icebox.

"Yes. But I have decided to change that. You were reborn today. No more nice Cadee. No more unfair life. From today on, no one gets to tell Cadee Fallin what to do. Do you know why I have bestowed you with this gift? This new life? This power?"

Cadee stayed silent, but she shook her head.

"Of course you don't. You never see all the good that you do. You saved my Uniter. My gift to my dying race of Mai. She would have lost another life if not for your bravery, your selflessness. She has nine lives to live and nine to endure – but she has already lost one. But that alone would not have saved you. I have been looking for an apprentice. I want to train you to embody me. I want to imbue you with my power. And Cadee, I want to see you make a difference. From this day forward, the life I have birthed you, you are the daughter of Baset, goddess of cat-kind, an elite race descend from the lions. You will do what is right. I know…" Baset gave her another more cunning I-got-the-canary smile, "..because I chose you."

"What are Mai? Who is the Uniter?" Goddess, really? Cadee didn't say the last part aloud, but Baset gave a tinkling laugh and her grin turned smug.

"Goddess – really . The Mai are my children, gifted with catlike grace, stronger, smarter, faster. But they have strayed from my original intentions for them. The Uniter, your Chloe King, is meant to help right that path. And now you, my Child, are going to set the example. Help her, if she needs it, but you are the example she should follow. You must never allow the Order to dictate your actions – no one has the right any longer."

"Chloe? But all I did was –"

"Save her life? Pull her from danger; push her out of the way of death? Go forth now, do as I say. I will nudge you in the right direction if you need it," Baset said as she retreated into the white waves of oceanic light. "And Cadee?"

Still humming with fear and uncertainty, Cadee froze unable to do anything but listen.

"Have fun."

Coming awake with a start, Cadee flew up to a sit, dislodging a disgruntled Jade, and panted. Her breath was fast, her heart was pounding, and it took a moment to realize that it was dark outside her bedroom window. Her whole room was covered in shadows, but Cadee could see everything as if she had her ceiling light on. The part that left her breathless was when Cadee looked at her skin and realized she was covered in a golden glow. It slowly sank into her skin, turning her warm to the touch, and then faded. Her nails were claw like and her ears felt ultra-sensitive as she picked up the sound of a car door slamming.

A minute passed in darkness and silence as Cadee tried to shake free of her dream, and when she next glanced at her hands the claws were gone and her skin was normal. The smell of vegetarian, garden pizza wafted in from the kitchen, and Cadee realized how hungry she was – starved in fact.

"Cadee, dinner," her mom called, and Cadee flicked on her lamp light, wincing at the brightness before she stood up.

Obviously a nightmare was the cherry on her bad-day sundae. Sighing in defeat, Cadee left the sanctuary of her room, not noticing Jade's glowing, green eyes and the way her feline mouth was stretched into a kitty grin.