Elfhome

Then they were in his bedroom with the door safely shut and the reasoning part of him went silent as Thorne pushed him onto his bed. Somewhere between the balcony and his bedroom, she had shimmed out of her wyvern-scale armor. Underneath she wore a pale camisole that was taunt over surprisingly full breasts, considering how lean she looked in armor. As she peeled off her leather pants, he realized he better work at getting naked too. He kicked off his tennis shoes, stripped off his shirt and undid his pants. She caught hold of his jeans and pulled them off him. His boxers followed. She moaned softly as she saw how ready he was for her. He reached for her and graceful as a dancer, she moved onto the bed, kissed him and lowered herself onto him. They hummed delight into each other’s mouth as they fit together as if they were made for each other. Each movement of her hips was sweetness and fire.

Afterwards they lay, still joined, sharing the same breath. Her braid had come undone at some point; her hair flowing wantonly down across her face and shoulders. She smiled and traced his grin with fingertips. Slowly the whisper of logic started up again, murmuring how this wasn’t sane, but she felt too right in his arms to listen.

10: Panty Raid

No one was happy about the unopened oni mystery box being at the enclave. To make everyone happier, Tinker allowed herself to be bullied into a bath. She still reeked of the pens. It made her skin crawl thinking of the fleas, ticks or whatever else she might have picked up wading through the filth. After everything she’d seen today, she could use a deep cleansing of the body and a couple of stiff drinks. She hated, though, to take the time.

“An hour will not change anything now.” Stormsong scrubbed Tinker’s back for her after checking her hair for bugs. Tinker still wasn’t comfortable with the elf mixed-gender communal bathing stuff, but there was no way she could feel totally clean without help. At least with Stormsong, there was no weird “I’m cheating on my husband” vibe that being washed by Pony would have triggered.

“If we’d gotten to the station just minutes later this morning — ow!”

Stormsong had smacked her lightly on the top of her head. “Don’t drive yourself crazy with ‘might have been.’ We were there in time to save cousin.”

“But—”

“But nothing. We were there in time.” Stormsong wrapped her arms around Tinker and kissed her on the temple. “And an hour will not change anything now. You need to take care of yourself before you can take care of others.”

Tinker leaned back against Stormsong and made herself trust in her Beholden’s instincts. Stormsong had an annoying way of being right all the time. Now if she could only ignore the feeling that Stormsong was right because they were days too late already.

#

Tinker suspected that Windwolf’s household staff had burned her dress. There was no sign of it. She really starting to hate the way her clothes vanished behind her back. All her human clothes had gotten left behind when the Wyvern’s all but kidnapped her to Aum Renau. The missing dress had the sleeves removed, the skirt shortened, and pockets added. It was the second or third modified gown that she’d trashed to the point that the staff had made it disappear. They’d laid out two new unaltered dresses as possible replacements. Tinker really loathed trying to work in the long flowing gowns of fairy silk, especially in the nearly hundred-degree heat.

It was time to beg, borrow or steal some better clothes.

All the sekasha had shuffled bedrooms the last few weeks as she picked out the rest of her Hand. As Tinker’s Second, Stormsong was now just two doors down. Tinker wasn’t sure exactly the whole etiquette for entering a sekasha’s bedroom. Everyone seemed to pop in and out of her and Windwolf’s bedroom unannounced. The warriors, though, were always armed; they even bathed with their ejae within reach. It seemed unwise to walk into Stormsong’s room unannounced.

“Come in, domi.” Stormsong called as Tinker raised her hand to knock.

“You’re scary sometimes,” Tinker grumbled as she entered.

“I know the sound of your footsteps.” Stormsong was still only dressed in her tattoos. For Tinker’s sake, she pulled on black silk boy shorts. “We learn everyone’s so we can tell who is moving around.”