Living In the Past Book 2

“We have to talk.” Varia said as she placed herself between Eve and the door to her own hut, crossing her arms to make it clear that she didn’t intend to move.

“We really don’t.” Eve said, reaching for the door handle then jerking her hand back when she was blocked by the bare skin on the side of Varia’s well toned abdomen.

The Queen noticed her violent reaction and unfolded her arms while stepping closer to the Messenger. “You have worked so hard to find a way to make up for your past with every person you come across; why am I any different?” She asked.

Eve backed away as she approached and spoke. “I have told you countless times how sorry I am for what I did to you and your sister and I would tell you every day for the rest of my life if I thought that would bring her back”

“But you won’t so much as stay in the same room with me long enough to hear how I feel.” Varia said, still moving closer.

“Because I can’t, Varia; it would hurt too much.” With her last word a tear shook loose from her eye as her back abruptly met the wall.

Varia slowed her approach and just looked at Eve’s sullen face before reaching out a hand to wipe the lonely tear away. “What are you so afraid of?” She asked.

Eve swallowed hard, and then spoke. “The mere possibility that, through time, you’ve somehow found a way to forgive me.” She slowly removed Varia’s hand from her cheek and held it before her; softly stroking the callused warrior skin. “I have crossed land and sea searching for atonement for the terrible things I’ve done and I will probably continue to do so for the rest of my life. Now, people are willing to forgive me my past as a ruthless murderer and give me the chance to show them the way of love, and I am so grateful for that forgiveness. But with you…” She paused and removed her eyes from the hand she was stroking, up to the depths of the dark orbs in front of her. “I can’t explain it, but with you I don’t want to be forgiven. I want to apologize for a thousand years and never be forgiven.”

Varia’s brow furrowed and her heart ached for the pain the young Messenger was in.

“But why, Eve?” Varia asked and Eve dropped her head again and started to shake it. Varia grabbed her shoulders and forced her to face the situation. “No, you owe me this. You can accept it from so many other people, why not me?”

Eve’s heart was racing and she felt like she couldn’t breathe, but she pushed down her fear and reached her hands up to Varia’s face. “Because of this.”

Her tone was defeated and submissive, but she’d never been more in control of her own happiness than in that moment. With an aching slowness she moved her lips closer to the Queen’s; her eyes alternating attention on her destination and the intensely dark eyes staring back at her, until she finally closed her own upon contact. The kiss was soft, and unhurried. She’d planned for it to be brief, but the response she got from the dark warrior was unexpectedly receptive. Her thumbs stroked high cheek bones as she pulled back only far enough to allow herself the pleasure of dipping back in again. After the third dip she felt strong arms encircle her waist and clutch her back as Varia started to deepen the kiss with a small flick of her tongue against inviting lips.

It was then that Eve slowly pulled back and looked at the ground once more. Varia was breathing heavily and she couldn’t pull her eyes away from the young Messenger for anything in the world. She was internally debating whether her next move should be to talk to her or continue kissing her, but she didn’t have time to make that decision as Eve finally looked back up and decided to speak.

“Somehow,” Eve started off. “In between meeting you and being imprisoned by you…coming back and almost being killed by you… and holding you during one of your greatest times of need...” She took a deep breath. “I fell in love with you, Varia.”

“The thing is, because I’m in love with you I hate myself even more for what I’ve done. It makes me believe that I should have to live with that hate for the rest of my life.” She slowly pulled away from the Queen. “And I can’t do that if you forgive me.”

As Eve started to walk by her, Varia warred between letting the woman leave and continuing a conversation that was hard for both of them. In a matter of seconds she opted for the latter and grabbed Eve by the wrist and turned her around.

“I don’t accept that.” Varia said shaking her head with determination. “You made the decision a long time ago to take someone precious away from me; you don’t get to do it again. I don’t care how much it hurts because the fact of the matter is I have forgiven you, Eve, whether you like it or not. And the gods must truly be cruel to place such a burden on the both of us, because I fell in love with you too. We have to deal with it; we can’t run away and just pretend that it didn’t happen. I have to address the fact that I’m in love with the woman responsible for the death of my sister, and you have to wrestle with the idea of forgiving yourself enough to allow yourself the happiness of being loved.”

“And I don’t deserve to go through life wondering if I let go of my one true chance at happiness because I didn’t fight hard enough for it.” She paused, once again taking Eve by the shoulders. “Don’t you see how strong this thing between us must be given all the odds we’re up against? Are you really just going to throw it away because you’re too afraid to face your past?”

Eve looked on at her like a rabbit cornered by a wolf. She knew she was starting to lose this battle.

“And that would place you in the shoes of every other person embarking on a new relationship.” Varia countered.

Eve was taken aback for a second by the truth of Varia’s reasoning, but still continued on against what felt like a lost cause. “I don’t even love myself, how can I possibly give you the kind of love you deserve?”

“You are capable of giving profound love to your friends and family, you’d simply be adding physicality to it by choosing to be in a relationship.” She moved in closer and raised her left hand to Eve’s face. “And judging by the kiss we just shared I can’t imagine you’d be lacking in that department.”

“I have a duty to spread the word of Eli, and that takes up a great deal of my time and energy.” She said, in a last ditch effort.

“And I have the monumental task of looking after the prosperity of some of the most obnoxious subjects to ever walk the Earth.” Varia said, putting her right hand around the Messenger’s back and pulling her close. “You got anything else? Because I must admit I’ve never had to work this hard to get a woman to kiss me a second time.”

“I’ve never been in love before.” Eve said; a small tremble working its way into her voice. It was her last excuse.

Varia softly smiled at this, then spoke. “Well at least we know we have one thing in common. Maybe it’ll make things easier if we figure it out together.”

They stared into each other’s eyes for seconds that felt like hours before finally moving in simultaneously for a kiss and a chance they both couldn’t help but take. Eve buried her hands in Varia’s dark locks and held nothing back. She nipped and sucked at the Queen’s lips and accepted equally ambitious movements from her companion. And when Varia’s tongue requested and was granted entry into her mouth both women moaned against each other. They pulled away only to catch their breath. When their eyes met they both smiled.

They both knew they had a long, extremely welcomed, night ahead of themselves.

Sarah made her way over to what had to be the biggest fire pit in the camp. She saw Zoe and Meg passing a joint between them and discussing the merit of some sort of violent piece of folklore. Rah was busy adding more brush and wood to the fire, as if it needed further fuel, and Anthony was leaning back against a log slowly sipping wine and observing the interactions within the camp. He was the first one to hail Sarah, so she decided to take her seat beside him. She walked past several other Amazon’s that she wasn’t acquainted with on the way and noted to herself that this was, indeed, the popular social circle to be in.

“Have a seat.” Anthony said with a welcoming smile. Sarah wasn’t sure if it was the wine that made him more laid back or the atmosphere of the party itself, but either way she was happy to be in good company. “Need a refill?” He inquired about her cup.

“It’s my special blend.” He said, pouring her a not so modest portion. “Zoe likes hers a little sweeter than I do, but I think you’ll notice that this finishes really well.”

It did. In fact, it was one of the finest wines she’d ever tasted; not that she was an expert.

“Good call.” He said. “There are two distinctly different grapes in there. Are you a wine connoisseur?”

“So have you had enough to drink to tell me the story of how you became an Amazon, or are you gonna keep me guessing? Because I should warn you: I’ve got a very overactive imagination.” Sarah said and earned a laugh from her companion.

“Well, let’s see.” He started and formed his thoughts slowly. “I don’t know if you heard before, but Rah is a runaway slave from Egypt.”

“Yeah.” Sarah said. “She told me she escaped with a noble’s son. Is that you?”

“Yep, that would be me.” He said, swirling the wine in his glass. “You see, I was the youngest son in a household of very unlikeable men. Pretty much the only people I ever related to were Rah and my mother. We purchased Rah when she was just a child and we’re both around the same age so we would play together a lot. I was usually able to get her out of a lot of trouble, but she would still get beaten every now and then by my father.” He took a drink and paused for a bit before continuing. “I couldn’t really do much about any of the beatings accept for try to keep her out of trouble, but one day that wasn’t even good enough. One day when she was getting a fairly nasty pounding from my dad she fought back and struck him to the ground. The sentence for a slave striking a noble is death. So that night I helped her escape from my house and somehow we managed to make it to Greece.”

“If I were brave I would have stood up to my father. Instead I chose to run away from him.” He said, looking into the fire.

“You saved someone’s life, despite the risk to yourself. That makes you brave in my book.” She said, and decided to change the subject when he only responded with a shrug. “So how’d you talk these wily women into accepting you as one of their own rather than putting you in the stocks for having a penis on their land?”

“Well, when we made it to Greece we sort of got lost and ended up wandering into Amazon territory. There was a group of them being attacked by some slavers and they were outnumbered. Rah and I decided to help and somewhere along the way I ended up saving one of the Amazons, namely Zoe. One of the thieves shot an arrow at her and I jumped in front of it.”

Sarah couldn’t help chuckling at the circumstances. “Where I come from, we call that a million dollar wound.”

“Well call it whatever you want, that was how I got into camp.” Anthony said. “The healer helped extract the arrow then stitch me back up and after a week of bed rest they were ready for me to leave. Now during that week Zoe and Rah became very close to each other.” He gave Sarah a wink and she chuckled in understanding. “So Rah was reluctant to leave and Zoe was even more reluctant for her to go.”

“Well as you’ve probably already noticed, Zoe pulls a lot of weight in the community seeing as how Amazon’s like their party favors, and she’s the one that supplies them. So she refused to distribute any more wine until we were both allowed to stay.”

“And after that we were both accepted into the group and we’ve been here ever since.” He said.

“But Zoe’s with Meg now, so I assume she and Rah broke up at some point, right?” Sarah asked.

“Yeah.” He answered, and then went to explain things further. “I don’t know how familiar you are with Sapphic relationships…”

“Of course you are.” He said with a small laugh. “Well then pretty much all I need to say is there was a party with lots of horny, drunk Amazons around and at some point lines of friendship blurred and the relationship exploded into a whole bunch of…” he searched for the word.

“Yeah, drama, exactly.” Anthony liked the use of the word in the context. “Anyway they broke up, got over it and they’re still good friends.”

“Uh…” she tried to figure out how to answer that. He’d already been so honest with her, and she really didn’t want to lie. “I’m pretty much a wanderer. Been searching the world for different kinds of treasure ever since I was able, and then I went in search of my family.”

“Is this green stone you want me to find part of your treasure hunting?” He asked. Anthony had a way of asking questions that could sound accusatory and accepting all at the same time.

“It’s a lot more important, and complicated, than that.” She said. Now it was her turn to avoid his eyes by looking into the fire. “Let’s just say it’s incredibly important to me.”

“Understandable.” He said, letting the subject drop right before they were interrupted.

“Hey!” Zoe yelled at them from across the fire. “Are you two gonna sit in the corner like a couple of losers all night or are you gonna join the group?”

“I think that’s our cue to stop being antisocial with each other.” Anthony said getting up and offering Sarah a hand as well.

“Peer pressure.” She said, accepting the hand. “I guess some things never change.”

They’d been inching their way closer and closer to the Queen’s bed for what seemed like an eternity before the back of Eve’s knee’s finally made contact with it. She forced herself to break free from the kiss and look Varia in the eyes before she reached down and started to remove her own shirt. Varia looked at her intently and brought her hands forward to halt the action.

“We don’t have to do this.” The Queen said. “I mean, if you’re not ready I understand.”

Eve smiled at her softly and continued to remove her shirt. She spoke once it was clear of her head and deposited haphazardly onto the floor.

“Varia, as far as I’m concerned the hard part is over. So unless you’re having second thoughts, I was hoping we could proceed on our current course.”

“Thank the Gods.” She said as she once again lowered her mouth to Eves and proceeded to shed her own top. “You have no idea how badly I want you.”

“I think I might be able to understand.” Eve said, helping her with the complicated leather corset.

Once it was shed they both fell onto the bed and situated themselves near its head. Varia maneuvered herself on top of Eve; her right thigh pressing into the apex of the Messenger’s. Eve threw her head back and moaned at the contact, giving Varia ample invitation to sample the soft skin of her neck while her right hand roamed teasingly along the woman’s side.

Eve clutched at her back and relished the skin on skin contact of their upper bodies, while her lower body started to grind against the Amazon. She could feel her sucking at her exposed neck and immediately pulled the dark head down harder onto her skin. Varia, in turn, sucked more intently on the creamy expanse of flesh and was rewarded with a moan.

The encouragement on Eve’s part led the Queen to explore further with her hands. Slowly her strokes started to wander closer to the Messenger’s exposed breasts. Eve’s breathing was becoming erratic as she moved in closer so she decided to pull back so she could see her eyes. As her lower body continued to grind against the woman her hand slowed its path. She watched the blue-green eyes in front of her widen in anticipation as the mouth below them hungrily sucked in air and expelled moans so small they were almost undetectable. When she finally reached the soft mound under her hand they became somewhat less undetectable. Eve closed her eyes as Varia lovingly caressed and squeezed her breast before her fingers descended upon an aching nipple.

At that moment Eve threw her head back with a moan and decided it was time to turn the tables as she flipped the Queen over and started her own exploration. She kissed her way from soft lips, over an incredibly proud chin, down the expanse of a tightly corded neck, and finally onto the soft swell of an exposed breast. When her tongue finally reached an erect nipple she felt a strong hand take hold of the back of her head and encourage her to continue on. While she complied for a short while she had other plans that involved a continued survey of the beautifully strong body before her. Her mouth started to kiss, lick and suck down a rock hard expanse of muscle before meeting the knotted leather of an Amazon skirt.

“I’ve wanted to taste you for so long.” Eve said as she started to divest the Queen of her belt. “But every time I thought about it I could only imagine how wrong it was for me to want you.” With the belt loose she started on the skirt itself. Once it was completely off she looked up to Varia, hesitance in her eyes and a nervous chuckle in her voice. “I guess now it’s my turn to say this: If you’re not ready I understand. Are you sure that this is what you want? That… I’m… what you want.” She asked, half expecting for Varia to change her mind and tell her to get out.

Instead the Amazon Queen sat up and brought Eve onto her knees so they could be face to face. As she spoke softly to Eve she stroked her cheek.

“Eve, I have never wanted anyone as much as I want you.” She said before placing a soft kiss against the messengers. “And with all we’ve got working against us, for me to still want you as much as I do must mean that there is something between us; something strong and right. I want to feel you loving me instead of chastising myself for imagining it. I want us to take all the energy we’ve used to hurt each other and refocus it on pleasing each other.” She kissed her again, this time taking her time and drawing it out. “Love me, Eve.” She said, once they finally broke apart. “Just love me.”

Varia’s plea destroyed any insecurities the Messenger might have had before and served to only fan the flames of her desire. With a soft growl she pushed Varia onto her back and finished removing the last obstacle between her and her goal. She gently eased Varia’s legs apart and lowered herself down to start the healing process.

“And after she’d said her goodbyes to both the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion she moved on to her dearest friend in all of OZ and hugged him as she said ‘Oh, Scarecrow, I think I’ll miss you most off all.’ Then with a click of her heels and a few recitations of ‘There’s no place like home.’ she was back in her bed, safe on the farm in Kansas with her Aunt Em, Uncle Henry, and all the farm hands waiting worriedly for her to wake up. Dorothy had finally made her way back home.”

Sarah finished and was met with a raucous bout of applause from all of the Amazons around her; some even had tears in their eyes.

“Thank you, thank you.” She said, bowing a few times before taking her seat around the fire.

“Could have done with a little more suspense.” Zoe said with a friendly wink.

“No, I think we’ve had enough of that for a while, considering the circumstances.” Meg said before finishing off her wine.

“This is true.” Zoe agreed. “I’m not sure if they told you when you reached the camp, but we’ve lost a few of our sisters to something out there in the woods.”

“They did.” Sarah said. “Varia said that there were some road brigands taking out the Amazons that wandered into the woods at night.”

“Well I don’t know how many common thieves you’ve come in contact with, but they don’t usually tend to take the bodies with them when they’ve finished looting and they definitely don’t leave perfectly good weapons behind.”

“That actually makes a lot of sense.” She said. “What do you think has happened to the girls?”

“Could be a number of things.” Anthony piped in. “Cannibals are known to take their victims back to camp, as are zealots that might have used them for ritualistic sacrifice.”

“Eww.” Meg said, scrunching her face. “Can we please not talk about this? Those were our friends that went missing out there. I don’t want to think about them being eaten or sacrificed.”

“And I don’t want to hear about any more of them winding up that way.” Rah said, standing up and swaying as she finished off her wine. She was obviously three sheets to the wind and everyone got quiet as she spoke. “I say we go out there and show those Cannibells or ritua… ritual…murderer’s who’s boss. I’ll take ‘em all on myself if I have to.” She slurred as she threw down her cup, and grabbed her bow and quiver before bolting over the wooden fence and into the woods.

Everyone at the campfire was dumbfounded enough to simply sit there and stare for a few seconds. Sarah finally composed herself enough to speak.

“Is she serious?” She asked the group as they all started to get to their feet.

“Holy shit.” Sarah said and went after them both, Anthony following close behind her and Meg not far behind him.

They heard Zoe cry as their eyes tried to adjust to the darkness once they’d all climbed over the fence.

“Jesus Christ that girl’s spry for being as intoxicated as she is.” Sarah said as she rubbed her shoulder. She thought she might have pulled something bounding over the fence as quickly as she did.

“We should split up.” Zoe said as she scanned the area. Rah was nowhere in sight.

“Uh, no.” Sarah said, moving ahead and facing them all. “If I’ve learned one thing from horror movies it’s that you’re always safer in a group… Unless you’re climbing from tree to tree in a group with inbred Cannibals trying to catch you, but Wrong Turn wasn’t all that realistic anyway. We should stay together.”

“While I didn’t understand all of that, I must say I agree.” Anthony said. “We’ll be safer in a group. And though we might not cover as much ground, that won’t matter if we’re all dead.”

“Let me take the lead.” Sarah said, grabbing a small, but sturdy fallen tree branch. “Everybody grab something to defend yourself with and stay close.”

They all surveyed the area and grabbed either a stone or a stick and followed her lead.

Sarah tried to keep her senses open like Eve told her to do, but that was proving incredibly difficult considering the full belly of wine she was carrying. So instead of trying to focus in all of her senses she tried to rely more on her hearing, being that she couldn’t see too much in the dark anyway. If she closed her eyes and concentrated she could just make out the faint sounds of soft foot falls towards her right side. She put a finger up to her lips then signaled for everyone to give her some space as she slowly moved forward trying not to make a sound. She finally got close enough to a small shrub to see Rah’s lithe figure hunched behind it, readying an arrow. With adept stealth she didn’t even know she had she moved behind the girl and placed a hand over her mouth.

“Rah it’s me, Sarah.” She said as softly as possible. “I’m gonna take my hand off of your mouth, but you have to promise to be quiet, ok?”

Rah nodded in agreement and Sarah removed her hand before peaking through the bush to see what Rah had been focused on.

“See, I found ‘em.” She said with a proud smile. “Now if I can just get my arrows out quick enough I can hit one right after the other before they run away.”

“And that would be an excellent plan if there were actually two men standing there.” Sarah pointed out.

“What are you talking about; they’re standing right next to each other.” Rah retorted.

Rah squinted her eyes at the ‘men’ in question then looked at Sarah and spoke again. “Well that would explain why they keep moving so in sync with each other.”

“Yeah.” Sarah said, taking her eyes off Rah and moving them back to the clearing only to find that the man that even she’d seen was no longer there.

“Hello ladies, out for a late night stroll?” Said the ominous voice to their left.

Sarah quickly jerked Rah behind her and readied her stick as she heard the rest of the group come to back her up. The man in front of her was somewhat lanky and dirty looking, a leer painted his face as he took in the situation.

“Yeah, and it looks like our friends came to join us.” Sarah said, feeling confident that she could take on the malnourished frame. She stepped forward but used her left hand to signal the rest of the group to stay back.

“The more, the merrier, I always say.” The man moved to the left a bit and his prey moved to the right as if they were about to take place in some kind of dance.

“You the one who’s been taking the Amazon girls these last few moons?” Sarah asked, holding the stick in front of her with both hands as they continued to slowly keep step with each other. Their positions were now reversed, which was exactly where she wanted him. If he attacked her now, he’d have four other people at his back.

“Now do I look like I would do something like that?” He stopped moving and mocked her.

“Sarah, look out!” Zoe yelled as Sarah turned into a swift right hook that knocked her to the ground.

This guy was a lot bigger. He towered over Sarah’s form as she moved back to her feet. With her attention drawn elsewhere the smaller man descended upon the group.

“Don’t you know it’s not nice to attack a girl from behind?” She said, swinging the stick and breaking it in half on the man’s skull. He barely even flinched. “Guess not.” She said swallowing hard then swiftly dodging a meaty fist headed straight for her head.

“Let’s see how many more times I can pull that off.” She said to herself as she continued to dodge and weave around his attacks.

Meanwhile the other attacker was descending upon the group and Anthony took point, brandishing a knife that he kept in his boot. He swiped it several times at the attacker and missed as the man backed out of the way, but was given an opening after Meg was lucky enough to throw a hefty rock at his head. The distraction gave Anthony just enough time to sink the knife deep into the man’s side.

He screamed and then backed off; howling at first in pain, but then changing to laughter. He stood upright and pulled the knife from his side and pounded it into a nearby tree. All four of them looked at him in awe as he smiled mischievously.

“See this is the part where your little friends usually take off running.” He said.

“Yeah, well we’re too drunk to retreat.” Ra said, letting loose an arrow straight into his heart.

He only had a few seconds to look down and realize what had happened before looking back in pain. Afterward his entire frame crumbled into dust.

Everyone was quiet for a few seconds as they tried to take in what had just happened. The sounds of a fist being pounded into Sarah’s abdomen could not even pull them from their stupor.

“Did the rest of you see that too?” Rah asked, seriously starting to question her senses.

“I don’t know, but I’m renegotiating the trade policy once we get back into camp.” Zoe answered.

“Um, guys.” Anthony interrupted. “We may want to try to help Sarah out now.”

They all looked over to the girl and noticed that the big burly man now had her pinned against a tree by her shoulders several inches from the ground and his mouth was about to descend on her jugular.

“Rah, shoot him in the heart just like you did last time.” Zoe said. “And make it quick I think he’s literally about to bite her head off.”

Sarah kicked and spit and cursed at her assailant to try to get free of his grasp.

“Oh you just wait mother fucker. I am so gonna kick your ass once I figure out a way to get you to put me down.” She screamed.

Then she noticed the fangs that started to glisten in the moonlight as they extracted themselves from his gums.

“You are either incredibly brave, or incredibly stupid.” He said; his voice deep and haunting. “I like that in my food.”

He started to move in, but grunted and looked back at the group with a growl. An arrow had ripped through his right shoulder.

Sarah could hear Meg screaming before another arrow whizzed by both her and the freak in front of her.

Came the cry from Zoe and with it another arrow that struck so hard it passed through the center of the man’s chest and shallowly embedded itself into Sarah’s own.

“You gotta be kidding me.” Sarah said, as the man dropped her and turned toward the rest of the gang.

She was hoping now that he was turned around they would have a better shot at his heart. Then she heard one of the worst possible sentences that could have been uttered at that moment.

Sarah sighed then grunted in pain as she tried to get to her feet. Her plan at this point was simply to jump on his back and divert his attention long enough so the rest of them could get away, but before she even had the chance she felt cool air whip by her side from the opposite direction. Then in front of her eyes was the half broken limb sticking out of the man’s back. He stopped and stood there for a minute, then quickly turned to dust just as his companion had done. After staring at her friends for a few seconds she slowly turned to see what they were looking at.

Standing before her was the tall, dark and mysterious woman from the bar the other night.

Sarah would have been happy to see anyone who looked to be on their side simply due to the elation of escaping the fight. But to see Khepri standing there like some goddess out of a comic book made her heart beat so fast she thought it was going to thump right out of her chest.

Khepri let a small smile grow on her face and moved closer to her, lifting her hand to softly touch the side of Sarah’s bruised face.

“I aim to misbehave.” Sarah said, brandishing her best Malcom Reynolds’ smile.

“Um, I’m sure that we’re about to witness a touching reunion, but I think you guys should save it till we get back to the camp.” Anthony said. “Being that we’re targeted as prey by strange creatures and all.”

“Right.” Sarah said, addressing the group. “Everyone, this is Khepri. Khepri, this is everyone. Khepri’s a friend from back in town, and this group of drunks call themselves Amazons. Let’s go.”

After the quick introduction they all headed back to the gates with a little extra speed in their steps. Once in front of the gate, however, Khepri hesitated.

“What’s wrong?” Sarah asked, causing the rest of the group to turn and see what she was talking about.

“Nothing, it’s just that I don’t want to just invite myself over to stay in the camp.” She said. “I wouldn’t want to seem rude.”

Sarah shook her head and smirked before taking the woman’s hand and dragging her toward the gate once more. “I’m officially inviting you, now get your ass in here before we leave this thing open long enough for one of those baddies to get in.”

With the invite in tow, Khepri followed the girl inside the camp. “No, we certainly wouldn’t want that to happen.” She said with an undetectable chuckle.

Varia buried her hands in Eve’s long, dark hair as the messenger quickened the pace of her tongue. She could feel Varia getting closer as she held on tighter to the muscular thigh that was draped over her right shoulder.

A litany of incoherent phrases escaped the Queen’s lips as Eve took her to heights she never thought possible on an initial sexual encounter. Once the peak of the orgasm washed over her, Eve lovingly eased her back down and simply reveled in some sort of symbiotic euphoria. She was then guided back up to the Queen’s arms as she kissed her way up to lips that were working hard just to breathe.

“That was amazing.” Varia said breathlessly between kisses. She was rewarded with a smile from Eve and she turned the girl onto her back before sliding on top of her. “Is there anything you don’t do well?” She asked.

With small giggle the messenger answered. “Umm, I’m terrible at dice.” Which rendered a chuckle from the Queen.

“Well the gods chose well when they sacrificed your luck with games of chance to enhance your… oral skills.” She kissed her soundly then moved back to look in her eyes and stroke her face. “I want you, Eve.”

And with that being said she took her time moving a hand down a graceful neck, along the side of a soft breast, across a flat stomach and finally into the warm, wet apex of the Messenger’s legs. Eve’s breath caught as Varia’s fingers made contact with her center and her eyes closed in ecstasy.

“The feeling is more than mutual.” Varia said as she softly stroked Eve and bent down to kiss her throat.

She built her up with slow, deliberate caresses. Taking her time and enjoying every movement and sound that came from Eve’s body.

“You’re so responsive.” She said once she started to pick up the pace. Eve’s hands started to clutch at her back.

“I want to feel you inside me, Varia.” Eve whispered into the Queen’s ear.

Varia pulled back to watch Eve’s face before slowly slipping inside. It was then she found out about something else Eve might not be so good at: maintaining some kind of volume level that wouldn’t wake the entire camp.

The screams that were emanating from the Queen’s hut when Zoe and the rest of the group showed up forced them all to stare on and try not to giggle too loud. They’d wanted to give Varia an update on the situation in the woods, but decided that now was probably not the best time to barge in.

“It’s gotta be difficult to spit out that whole ‘god of Eli’ line while in the throes of passion.” Sarah joked quietly. “Eve really is showing off her dedication here by not just defaulting to any other god with a one syllable name. I’m impressed.”

“I’m thinking the Queen might be the one to be impressed with this time around.” Zoe said as more moans and grunts made their way past the door.

“You know this whole ‘monsters in the woods’ thing can probably wait till morning.” Anthony said. “How bout we all head to our huts and give them some privacy.”

“Aw, you ruin all the fun.” Rah said in a mock pout as they all started to walk away from the hut.

“Don’t worry; I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to at least hear the grand finale of this little show no matter where we are in camp.” Meg joked.

“Oh, I got to be in charge of that.” Meg said. “We had all of your things moved to the visitors hut near the back of the camp. I’d assumed you would be sharing it with Eve, but I guess now you and Khepri can take it.”

“It only has one bed, but it should be big enough for the both of you.” Meg added.

Sarah immediately looked at Khepri, whose eyes were already waiting. She tried to say something, but the words just wouldn’t come out.

Because I’m completely attracted to you and don’t want to complicate my life anymore by sleeping with you in a in the non-unconscious sense. She thought to herself.

“Good.” Khepri said with a smile as she took Sarah’s arm in the direction of their hut. “I hope you don’t snore.” She finished with a wink.