Forging Day (Crucible of Change Book 1) (7 page)

For a second I thought he was going to come after us, right in front of everyone. One of his friends whispered urgently in his ear as she pulled him back to his own table. Augra stuck out in Derek’s group since they didn’t have many women who weren’t slave girls, and she tended to be imposing. Right now, we owed her one.

Conversation was subdued for a bit, but quickly got back to normal as food was brought out and regular dinner chatter picked back up. Everyone was talking about the sheep-stealing today. It sounded like it had been a lot of fun, with only a few incidents of overzealous sheep procurement. The barbarian-adventurer types apparently took their sheep-stealing very seriously. I was kind of sorry I missed it, and made a mental note to talk to Korembi later. Maybe if I asked him nicely, he’d let me make some kind of critter so I could join in tomorrow.

Somehow I ended up with the sun in my eyes again. Even with those freaky clouds, it was insanely bright, and it brought back my headache with a vengeance. I even felt a little buzzed, and I’d had nothing but water all day. I muttered, “I swear it must be a full moon or something. Leo can’t make it. Mooohmet is a bigger idiot than usual. My freaking ears will not stop bugging me. And what is with the sun today? Did someone turn it up to eleven?”

I felt cool fingers on my neck first, rubbing gently, and then warm breath in my ear. Tessa whispered, “Thank you for letting me stay with you. I’m very grateful. I don’t know how I’ll ever make it up to you. I’d be happy to give you a real massage after dinner, to help you relax.”

In case her words left any confusion as to her meaning, the soft kiss on my ear and cool fingers trailing up my thigh removed all doubt. “Kat said I could stay in your tent. I hope that’s all right with you.”

I assumed her question was rhetorical, because I couldn’t think straight to answer. I wanted to push the plates aside, lay her back on the table, and ravish her right there. What on earth had come over me? I’m not normally a ravish-someone-in-public-at-dinner kind of person.

Tessa had the softest lips. She tasted like raspberries and sin. I was vaguely aware of Kat on her other side, nibbling on her ear and kissing her neck. Someone was tapping me on the shoulder and wouldn’t go away. I finally had to breathe. “What?” I snapped.

It was Mikah. “I don’t know what the two of you are trying to prove, Olivia, but you should probably stop making out with Tessa at the table.”

Oh my god… When did my hand get up her skirt like that? Thank god for the long tablecloth. What was wrong with me?

“I don’t know what’s going on with you tonight, but if you keep it up, Sir Mehmet is going to have a cow.” Mikah looked horrified as soon as the words left his lips. “I cannot believe I said that. We’re all switching to water.”

“I haven’t had anything but water all day. Just ask Berto,” I hissed back at him.

I tried to extricate myself from Tessa and her garments as subtly as possible, and return my attention to dinner. She pouted a tiny bit, taking my hand and sucking long and slow on one of my fingers. “Later then…”

The queen talked about the day’s activities after the feast, but honestly, I couldn’t remember a word she said. I wanted Tessa, like I had never wanted someone in my life. I couldn’t seem to see anyone but her, and it was all I could to do to keep my hands to myself. Court ended and Mikah threw up his hands. “Hurry up. Go. We’ll clean up.”

Tessa sashayed up the road to our camp, and it was like she had an invisible leash attached directly to my clit. She smiled over her shoulder at me, and for an instant her eyes flashed crimson red, right before she disappeared into my tent. I could hear the soft sounds of clothing dropping to the ground. I may have left a trail of clothes across the middle of our camp. All I know is that I was already naked when I reached her.

Her eyes were hypnotic. She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I fell to my knees and buried my face in the cleft between her legs, drowning in her sweet honey, licking and sucking at her. I stroked her perfect, delicious cheeks and explored up her inner thighs, my hands slick with her fluids. She rode my lips all the way down to the bed. She fell on her back and opened herself wide to me, moaning loudly when I slid my fingers inside her, keeping rhythm with my tongue.

I felt kisses on my neck then, and naked breasts pressed into my back. Kat purred into my ear, “You didn’t wait,” and nipped at my throat, marking me.

She licked at the tiny wound, teasing me with her tongue. Something cool and hard pressed against my ass, and then the head of an enormous dildo pushed into my eager pussy, filling me. Kat rode me hard, reaching around to pinch my taut nipples while I drank from Tessa like a madwoman lost in the desert.

Tessa’s hands convulsed in my hair, and Kat took me with a steady rhythm, one hand on my breast and the other playing my clit like a master. Tessa cried out, pulling me into her so hard I couldn’t breathe. Kat gave one last thrust and moaned loud in my ear. I screamed deep in my throat as I lost myself in my own orgasm.

We collapsed in a warm pile, still breathing hard, and I heard “O Fortuna” on my phone in the other room. “Cordie, not now!” I muttered. I willed her to leave a message, but the damn phone kept ringing—and then finally, blessed silence.

Code Zombie

The zipper opened on the tent, and a bundle of clothing sailed through the small opening, landing with a soft thump. “You ladies might want to get dressed,” said Mikah. “I would be surprised if we didn’t get some company from the Beast Lords tonight. You were putting on quite a show at dinner.”

The fog in my head cleared, and the feast came back to me in painful detail. Now I wished I could forget dinner entirely. I couldn’t believe we did that at dinner, in public, with children present. “Forget the Beast Lords—someone’s mom or dad is going to kill us first.”

Kat slowly pulled out of me. I couldn’t help but stare at the size of her jet-black strap-on. I had no idea she had such interesting toys. I was going to be lucky if I didn’t walk funny for the next week. Tessa languidly pulled me over and kissed me deeply before she pulled Kat close and kissed her just as thoroughly. “That was amazing. I hope we do it again soon.”

Still a little shaky, I gathered my own clothes from the pile, and yet part of me wanted Tessa again. Kat looked a little unsteady too, but her lips curved into a sexy smile. On the other hand, Tessa positively glowed with vitality.

I shook my head to clear the fog, and quickly washed up and got dressed, trying not to wince at my renewed tenderness. I gave up the wig as a lost cause, snagging my phone and bracing myself to leave the privacy of the tent. I know my face was glowing red.

Mikah looked carefully bland, while Berto gave me a questioning look. He couldn’t be more confused than I was. I loved Kat. I wanted to be with her. I was determined to clean up my life. How did I end up in a three-way with Kat and a complete stranger on an hour’s acquaintance?

Tessa and Kat emerged from the tent and joined us at the table. Kat studied my face, and I wasn’t sure what she was looking for. Whatever it was, she didn’t seem to find it.

Tessa smiled like a cat in the cream, and looked more delighted than anything.

I used my phone to give me something else to look at. “That’s odd. My sister called but she didn’t leave a message.” There was a little ping then, to announce a new text message. It was from Cordie. “Code Zombie. NAD. OMW Zombie Central. Be careful. Love C.”

Tessa was reading over my shoulder. “You have a weird sister. Code Zombie? Zombie Central?”

Mikah’s head jerked around and he held his hand out for my phone. He handed it back to me after a second, and said “Call your sister back, Olivia.”

I rang her cell and heard, “You have reached the phone of Cordelia Mitchell at the Department of Public Health and Environment. Please leave a message…”

“She’s not answering. NAD means not a drill. Code Zombie is a joke, kind of. Cordie works for the people that respond if there’s a public health outbreak of some kind, or there’s need of a disaster response team. We always said she’d be on call if the zombie apocalypse ever arrived. Code Zombie means I’m supposed to take my disaster response kit and get someplace safe. Zombie Central is the CDC in Atlanta.”

Mikah was pacing. “If there’s some kind of outbreak, we don’t want to be in a metropolitan area, except our emergency supplies are at home, in the middle of a metropolitan area.”

“We can’t just head into the woods, Mikah. We don’t know what’s going on. I’m not running off in nothing but my Faire gear. Besides, Cordie didn’t say to get out of town. She said to get the zombie kit. If we need to hole up somewhere, the house is as secure as anything. We have a wall around the place, an iron gate, security, and all of our supplies.”

“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Berto, please make our apologies to the queen and let her know we have to leave unexpectedly and Kat won’t be doing her work shift tomorrow. The rest of us will start breaking camp. If anyone asks, it’s just a small family issue. We’re not trying to cause a panic.”

Mikah pulled out his own cell phone as he was talking and hit speed dial. “Hey Ted, how’s it going? Yeah, we’re fine here, too. I wondered if you could do us a solid? Grab your bug-out gear and go hang out at the house. Keep the gate closed to anyone else but us. We may be heading out sooner rather than later. I’ll explain when we get there. Take care. We will.”

Kat said, “Mikah, I’m going to drop a word with Korembi. They’re good people and they wouldn’t do anything to cause a panic.”

I turned to Tessa, “You’re still welcome to come with us. I don’t know what’s going on and Denver might not be the best place to be heading into.”

“I’m staying with you. What’s life without a little excitement?” She headed toward my tent. “I’ll start packing in here.”

I tried Cordie one more time. Still no answer. At least my eyes had finally settled down. I took off the dark glasses and noticed the sky. “Mikah, look. The sun shouldn’t be going down yet, and look at those low clouds. I swear the sky seems almost purple. Do you see it too?”

“Yeah, and we’re not the only ones.”

I could make out people in their camps and on the road and they were all looking up and pointing at the sky.

Oaken walked up from the druid camp to the south west. “It’s well that you’re breaking camp. We can hear the Beast Lords from our site, and Sir Mehmet is inciting his people over your ‘theft’ of that girl.” He shook his head. “Something is wrong with the energy today. We can all feel it. We’re going to cast a circle and pray for guidance and protection.”

I changed back into street clothes for the drive. Berto got back as I was breaking down the kitchen area. He and Mikah started taking down the tents. We were all moving fairly quickly—even Tessa. “Wendy thinks something odd is going on, too. She has her radio with her and says she’ll call the rangers if things go pear-shaped.”

I could actually hear them calling the quarters at the druid camp. That was odd, because normally they were too far back in the woods for us to hear anything. The wind must have been blowing just right, except I didn’t feel any wind. Tessa and I were taking down the shade tent over the table when I heard heavy footsteps coming our way. Just great. That’s all we needed.

“Boys, we’ve got company.” I can’t believe they didn’t hear it. It sounded like a herd of oxen breaking through the underbrush.

It was Sir Mehmet, along with four others dressed in minotaur garb. Luckily they weren’t as big as Derek, but they were still big enough.

Mikah stepped between them and me and Tessa. “My apologies, gentlefolk, but we are unable to welcome guests at this time. Necessity draws us away. We mean no offense.” He gave charm and grace his best shot. He would have fared better with a big rock.

“Do what you want,” Mehmet growled, “but the girl is staying with us.”

Mikah dropped all pretenses of Faire-speak. “You’ve already had this discussion Derek. The lady doesn’t want to go with you. Let it go before we have to call someone.”

After that, everything happened too fast.

Derek bellowed and charged at Mikah, shoving him hard into a tree. “Stay out of it, pretty boy, unless you want to play, too.”

Mikah turned his head. “Berto, run and get Kat and the Trolls. Hurry!”

He gave one horrified look, and took off through the trees. They made a half-hearted effort to catch him, but he was too fast.

I stepped forward. “Back off, cow-shit for brains. You’re already down for assault, Derek. Don’t make it worse.” They had the brawn, so I was going for the bravado. I would have preferred some brawn.

Sneaking a look at Mikah, it was clear he was in trouble. His eyes were glazed and he staggered, trying to pull himself up.

“Rogath, Hagar, bring me my slave. Chagal, Gax, you grab that one.” Derek gestured at me. “We’re going to teach her a lesson about poaching other people’s property.”

Tessa held a butcher knife from the kitchen box in front of her, and I drew my belt dagger. In retrospect, I should have screamed, but I still believed we’d fix this.
Stupid, stupid, Olivia.

Tessa made a few stabbing motions at the two approaching her, but I could tell she really wasn’t prepared to stab anyone, and I wasn’t either. The problem was that they could tell, too.

“Stay away! You can’t get away with this!” she hissed at them.

They easily batted away her knife. The taller one stuffed some kind of gag in her mouth, and dragged her back toward Derek. She clawed wildly at him until the other one pulled her arms behind her back and held her by the wrists. No one but me could hear her muffled screams.

I was backing away from the two coming at me when a twig snapped behind me. I howled in pain and dropped the dagger as someone jerked me roughly backward by my own hair. The person behind me covered my mouth with his hand, and dragged me toward the Beast Lords’ camp. I grabbed at anything I could reach to try and slow them down. The other two pried my hands loose from the picnic table and lifted me bodily. I bit at the hand over my mouth and thrashed wildly, but they were too strong.