Well, she does have ONE trick left.

She raised her hands, slow and deliberate, her palms open and visible. Her heart hammered against her ribs, a frantic drumbeat of fear and fury.

Think, Catalina. Think. There has to be some-

There was something. She dreaded it, but she did have a trick left.

The tail. It was the only card she had left. The one piece of her kit she still wasn't comfortable with; the one that still made her shift uncomfortably every time she suited up. But right now, it was the only thing that could save this man's life. You see, the tail was not decorative. No, this was a fully articulated, prehensile tail. A living, responsive appendage that could curl around ledges, lift her entire body weight, and in extreme situations could bend steel like it was warm taffy. It was a marvel of magical craftsmanship, her mother had explained with far too much enthusiasm. A gift from the bell itself, a physical manifestation of the feline power that flowed through their bloodline.

Honestly, Catalina just figured her mother got drunk and thought it would be cool to make.

The catch? The cause for Catalina's very real, very persistent concern?

It had to be inserted into the wielder.

Not attached. Not strapped on. Inserted.

Her suit had a hole in its backside; a discreet, carefully tailored opening designed specifically for the tail to pass through the fabric of her pants and into... well... her. The base of the tail was smooth, tapered, and enchanted to bond with its wearer on a physical level. It wasn't painful, exactly. But it was present. Always present. A constant, undeniable fullness that reminded her with every step, every crouch, every leap, that she was connected to something larger than herself... and that she had something in her ass.

It had taken months for Catalina to get used to the discomfort. Months of awkward adjustments, of shifting in her seat, of trying to walk normally while feeling like she had a foreign object lodged in her body. Months of enduring her mother's knowing smiles and her aunts' teasing comments about "the family's little secret." And the tingle- God, the tingle. Every time she inserted it, a strange, erotic warmth would spread through her lower body, a sensation she didn't want to think about too closely. It was weird. It was intimate. And it was, without question, the most embarrassing part of her inheritance.

In this moment, though, Catalina had to swallow her reservations. She had to push past the awkwardness, the discomfort, the lingering sense of violation that came with the tail's insertion. Because right now, that tail was the only thing standing between a terrified security guard and a bullet to the brain.