It wasn't often that a new piece of literature came through Catherine's office, but today was special. As an anthropologist specializing in cultic studies, her knowledge was sought only every so often from the anthropologists and archeologists of the world; cults, it seemed, were few in number (despite however interesting their books and possessions seemed to be) and as such, Catherine's insight proved to be useful only in those rare circumstances when someone sought to make heads or tails of one for whatever media-hyped story was going around.

But today was special! The cougar sat giddy at the desk in her apartment's office, gazing down at the plain brown package that currently occupied the center of her desktop. It had arrived today from a colleague a few cities over, who had thus been unable to read the strange runes that adorned the cover nor undo the shackles that bound the book closed. Since he was at a loss, he figured that Catherine might have a better chance at succeeding where he had failed; her wide knowledge and understanding of cultist behaviors and their works gave her an edge when it came to the mysterious tomes and writings that worked their way through various underground organizations.

She pulled a letter opener from one of her desk drawers and began to slice away at the brown wrapping paper that covered the box, and then through the packing tape that held the cardboard closed around the tome. Once opened, Catherine reached inside and wrapped her hand around the thick spine of the bound tome, pulling it free of its packaging before setting it flat against the table. As she tossed the box aside, she got her first real look at the book in question: it was wrapped in what looked like blue-dyed hide, and bound tightly by two sets of chains. The chains themselves seemed to be fused into the book at the spine, where they pierced the hide as well as the pages bound therein; how the authors had managed that feat was beyond her, but it was impressive nonetheless. 

That she found the tome extraordinary would have been an understatement; it was in nigh-immaculate condition, and the beveled runes that adorned the cover glittered with a beautiful layer of gold and silver leaf, hinting at the mysterious contents locked inside. As Catherine examined each of the runes, she realized she was unfamiliar with them. This sort of thing wasn't entirely uncommon among the cults she had studied; they liked to keep their important texts imposing- at least on the outside. Whatever they were, she would have to move inside the book to conceivably decipher them. The cougar brushed her hand over the cover, moving her soft-furred fingers across a multi-faceted gemstone set in the center of the tome's spine. It sparkled in such a way that betrayed the aura of power that surrounded the book. 

Her gaze turned from the book before her to the ones lining the shelves nearby. She had many similar tomes sitting stagnant on her bookshelves. Their contents varied widely: some were little more than compilations of weekly grocery lists, others were anthologies of notes and musings of their authors. Catherine even had a few that were simply collections of erotic works of fiction- and not very well done, at that. While they were all unique in their own way, Catherine had to admit: this one felt different from the others. It was far more intricate than most of her other tomes, and just by touching it, she could feel that this tome was not like the others in her collection.

Catherine's attention was called back to this new book suddenly, as it began to tremble under her paw. The movement was faint, but definitely there; it took her a moment to realize that it wasn't an earthquake, but indeed coming from the book itself. Now free from under her paw, the book bounced slightly upon the table, apparently in order to slide around on the feline's desk. This lasted for what seemed to be about a minute before the book reverted to its previous disposition of sitting quietly on the table.

Intrigued, Catherine tapped the cover of the book with one of her claws, intrigued by the sudden life the book had shown. In response, however, the book seemed to remain lifeless on her desk. She poked it a few more times before sitting back in her chair. It would have been like her colleague to send her a prank to mess with her; she supposed the book was hollow inside, probably with a cheap, randomly-vibrating cat toy in it that caused the jumping she saw. How tacky.

Catherine picked the book up from her desk and shook it gently, holding it to one of her slightly-rounded ears as she expected to hear the rattling of the toy. But as she shook the book, she failed to detect even the slightest hint of a rattle from anything inside- this, it seemed, was for all intents and purposes a normal book.

Confused, Catherine looked at the tome in her paws. If it wasn't some gag made by her colleague, then why had the tome bounced around in the first place? The cougar turned the book over to examine the back cover: nothing of interest there, save for the other lengths of chain holding the curio closed. Thoroughly stumped, Catherine tossed the book back onto her desk and turned her office chair toward.

Her ear twitched a few times in confusion after a few moments of silence. A thump usually accompanied a thrown object when it hit a surface. However, there had yet to be one from her desk and the book.

She glanced over at the book, only to find it was now suspended several inches from her desktop. The oblong gemstone that had been previously set in the side was gone, replaced now with what appeared to be an oblong eye.

An eye that was looking right at her.

Taken aback by the sudden surprise of now being confronted with a living book, Catherine jolted upright and out of her seat onto the floor. Her office chair rolled off to the side in the commotion, leaving her in direct view of the book, which hovered slowly through the air to close the distance between her and it.

"I am Thallaz-Gul, mortal. You would be wise to kneel," a voice said. It boomed, and seemed to come from everywhere at once, and hurt Catherine's ears. Stranger still, however, was the fact that despite being completely audible and at a volume that would have likely shattered the windows behind her, nothing in the room shook or broke. 

Questions filled Catherine's mind, but she was hardly in a position to ask them. She could feel the book exuding a frightening amount of power around it, and she didn't care to think about what exactly this book-god would do to her if she managed to displease it. She pushed herself onto her knees and looked expectantly up at it, some of the more obvious questions catching in her throat but dying before they ever left her lips.

"You have awoken me," Thallaz-Gul stated. It was a fairly obvious statement at this point, but the tome itself seemed a little on the thick side. "As such, you shall become the conduit for my words. State your name, champion," the book demanded.

"Catherine," the cougar managed to mewl out quietly. It seemed to satisfy the book well enough, though it did eye her with some disdain.

"Speak proudly, Catherine. My power shall be yours in short order," Thallaz-Gul boomed. Ink dripped from between the pages of the bound tome and onto the carpet before her. It was black and looked absolutely vile, and made a hissing sound as it stained the fibers on the floor.

Without warning, the chains that held the tome closed shattered and dispersed as the book split itself open, unleashing a torrential flood of ink that congealed into a grouping of thrashing black tentacles. They knocked over a desk lamp, knocked books from her shelves, and left trails of ink over the surfaces they dragged across, filling the room with an incessant hiss. They seemed to stretch, seeming to grow more limber as they thrashed through the air, until finally, two of them lashed out and wrapped themselves around her wrists.

Without warning, Catherine found herself pulled up into the air by her hands as the ink ran its way down her arms, seeping into her turtleneck sweater as the tentacles wrapped further down her arms. As the ink crept its way into the fabric, the cougar began to realize that it wasn't just staining the fabric- it was eating through it. Frightened, she struggled against the grasp of the ink, but quickly found it to be useless.

Two more tentacles sprung from their spaces on the open tome, this time wrapping around her ankles, pulling her legs apart. More tentacles still began to reach out, much more slowly, and began to drag themselves across her clothes, burning through the textiles with their acidic properties. She could feel her clothes being eaten off her body, the hissing of the ink as it did its work ringing loudly in her ears, mixed in now with the incessant chanting of the infernal book hovering over her office floor.

Her pants were the first to fall away, dropping off her legs and hips as the tentacles completed their work, landing on the floor in a heap of now ruined denim. Next, her turtleneck dropped away, leaving the feline in her underwear before Thallaz-Gul, where he looked on in what seemed to be delight. He worked his tentacles across her bra straps, which snapped quickly enough, leaving her gray-furred breasts to drop freely against her chest under gravity. His lower tentacles made equally short work of her panties, cutting through the elastic band in no time at all, leaving the cougar helpless and nude in her own office.

Thallaz-Gul took a moment to apparently admire the view, running the ink-covered tentacles over the various bits of her body. They traced black lines in her fur (though thankfully, the burning effect they had on her clothes didn't seem to translate to fur and skin), across her breasts, her shoulders, her neck. The book-god ran his inky appendages along her shapely hips, her thighs, her ass, savoring the moments as they crept up her inner thighs and pressed up gently against her slit.

Catherine made a small grunt as she felt the tentacles rub gently against her sex, with just enough pressure to push her outermost lips apart ever so gently. The tentacles left a sticky residue as they pulled away, leaving her both wet and slightly aroused. Part of her was seriously worried about the implications this book seemed to have, while another seemed to be more than willing to submit to this Thallaz-Gul and get a little pleasure out of it.

One of those parts became quickly satisfied as the inky tentacles reintroduced themselves to Catherine's nether regions, this time pressing themselves into her slit and clit, filling her with their sticky, ever-fluid forms. The cougar was barely able to stifle a moan as they entered her, combined with the caressing of the numerous other tentacles wrapping themselves around her body and dragging themselves across her fur. She could feel them pulsate gently, as the ink was forced through them from the book where they originated, before it wrapped in on itself at the ends and was pulled back into the tome. She found the feeling rather pleasurable as the tentacles rippled inside her.

Thallaz-Gul continued his chanting as the ritual progressed, the tentacles pulsing more frequently the more they worked at applying their ink both across Catherine's body and inside it. She ventured a look down at the tentacles drawing their way across her abdomen, finding they were drawing an intricate set of patterns and runes that disappeared not long after the tentacles that drew them moved on to other sections of her body. She muffled another moan as she bit her lower lip, the tentacle forcing its way deep into her slit proving to be more than satisfying as it began to swell some. Two more tentacles snaked around the cougar's thighs before they slithered across her lower stomach and back down to her clit, where they proceeded to rub gently at the sensitive nub of flesh.

This time, Catherine found herself unable to contain herself as she gasped and moaned through her teeth. The eye of Thallaz-Gul looked on in pleasure as he performed the ritual and tended the carnal desires of his newfound champion, desires that Catherine was now all too eager to have satisfied on her behalf. She grasped each tentacle holding her hands in place as the multiple others continued about their work, fighting to stave off what she could feel was a building orgasm.

She twitched, fighting gently against her bindings as the tentacle pounding her slit sped up. She could feel the ink dripping from between her legs in grotesque globs, leaking down her thighs and legs until the mixing of perverse fluids dripped onto her carpeted floor. Her tail moved from side to side as she attempted to hold onto the pleasure for just a moment longer, but ultimately the foul book-god was more than a match for the feline.

Catherine let out a drawn out moan as she reached her climax, the walls of her slit forcing themselves down onto the thrusting tentacle, locking it in place. Thallaz-Gul himself let out a booming laugh as his tentacles completed their work, many of them pulling back some as the cougar had her orgasm. She felt her body roll with waves of pleasure as she panted heavily from the exertion, before it abruptly came to an end.

As the book-god's laugh began to wane, the inky tentacles that had assaulted the cougar suddenly disappeared, leaving Catherine to fall to the floor with a thud. She sat up and rubbed the back of her head, hissing as the sharp pain of the initial impact was replaced by the dull throb of a headache. She looked around and found the book on the floor, closed neatly and largely how she had originally unboxed it, though with the exception that it was now unlocked. All around her, ink coated most surfaces and objects, including the ruined pile of clothes and her carpeting. She examined herself, running her fingers through some of her arm fur, finding that the markings the tentacles had drawn on her had completely vanished, though looking further south she found that she still had ink filling her sex, which was leaking out onto the floor where she sat.

She took a deep breath and let it out in the form of a content sigh, mind thinking back to the questions that had originally plagued her mind, but now finding only one: had this been worth it?

As Catherine sat back, she knew she had the answer. She knew she was satisfied.