by Zara Stark
I kissed down his jawline and pushed my hips up to meet his thrusts.
It didn't take long for Raiden to follow me down the rabbit hole, he came with a roar, electrifying inside of me again so we came at the same time.
Raiden nearly collapsed on top of me, catching himself on his elbows at the last second.
He kissed my forehead with the utmost tenderness and rolled onto his side on one elbow, half-leaning on me and half not.
He was staring at me with intense eyes. I grinned and brushed my destroyed hair out of my face.
"Wow," Raiden grinned, making me laugh.
I nodded in agreement. "Wow indeed."
We stared at the stars for a few minutes in comfortable silence, enjoying the aftershocks of our orgasms. My four orgasms! Wow. Raiden was always an overachiever in life and apparently that carried over into his sex life as well. The man had earned a round of applause.
"Ray?" I asked, looking back over at him. I found his eyes had been on me the whole time, a sweet and loving look in them, half-lidded in contentment. I could feel my cheeks heat, somehow finding that he had been watching my unguarded expression for the last few minutes somehow made the entire night far more intimate that it had been before. I had felt like I was a burden to him, so much older than me, I felt like he resented that he had had to wait for me to become an adult and start seeing him more as a man than a pseudo-older brother figure.
"Yeah?" Raiden grinned again and my heart melted, this had to be the most I had seen him smile in years. He looked so cute and boyish with that smile on his face and his blonde hair flopping over his forehead. Raiden tried so hard to project this tough leader look but he was truly so darn handsome. It made me want to pinch his cheeks.
"Have you had this power the whole time and you're just now sharing it?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.
Raiden shrugged. "Yeah, so?"
"We could have been doing this the whole time. Spontaneous electrical orgasm powers are somehow more mind-boggling than the whole dragons and time travel thing," I chuckled lightly.
"No, it wouldn't have meant as much if I told you about it earlier, you would have just accused me of trying to get you into bed earlier and win the bet with the guys," Raiden growled but I could tell it was a joking growl and not a legitimately angry one.
"Yeah, I guess you aren't wrong there, it means so much more to know how much we both wanted this and that we got to be alone too, no one hanging over our shoulders and waiting to kill us," I told him and he quirked an eyebrow. "Killing us at precisely this moment I mean, not like our regularly scheduled enemies waiting to kill us."
"Makes sense," Raiden ran his free hand through his hair and stared up at the sky. "We're so damn close to getting home, I can't believe it. For so long, it seemed like this unclimbable mountain, my Everest, a goal I could never complete like the story of Sisyphus, every day he had to push that boulder up a hill, every day for eternity. I truly thought I was going to be stuck here forever."
"I thought I had lost you guys forever, I always thought you moved to a new town or something, I never could have imagined that you guys were stuck fighting for your lives every day for ten years," I felt tears well in the corners of my eyes. "Isn't that terrible? I was off having fun at college and living such a lazy, relaxed life work and Netflix. It's not fair to you guys at all. I can't believe I was so blind to your suffering."
"How could you have known? Even if you had hired a private investigator to find us, they wouldn't have been able to, we were in Ancient Rome," Raiden looked back at me. "You had your own fair share of struggles. Don't think I haven't noticed the jaded look in your eyes. That's from more than just losing your parents. You have been through plenty in the ten years or you wouldn't be the strong, confident and intelligent woman you have grown up to be. And so adept at your cards too."
"It's been so terrifying these last few months, I don't know how you guys stayed sane after doing this for years," I told him.
"We kind of didn't, we all went a little mad in our own ways," Raiden sighed, he leaned closer and ran the rough skin of his thumb over the corner of my eye to capture the tears threatening to spill out. "I'm honestly a bit worried about, you know, blending into normal and modern society again.
"I'll help you guys, of course, you'll be the talk of the town, me disappearing for a few months and then you four coming back all sexy and scarred up after ten years away and moving in with me into my house," I giggled at the thought of all the nosey busy buddies in our town trying to figure out what happened.
"Yeah, we're going to need a cover story for the cops, we left your library a wreck," Raiden grimaced. "I'm sure you're considered a missing person, kidnapped or presumed dead."
"I was kidnapped and escaped obviously, I've lost a bit of weight and I'm all bruised up so I could say I was held captive," I told him. "I'll tell them I don't remember a thing. You four can say you moved back to town after hearing I was back and safe, rekindling our friendship"
"Flimsy story at best but I suppose a small town police department doesn't really have the means to launch a large investigation," Raiden shrugged and smiled at me again, his eyes tracing the lines of my face.
"We can see if Nevada can come up with a better one," I stuck my tongue out at him and Raiden lunged at me, kissing me hard on the lips.
He rolled me onto my back and we made love again. Slow and sweet this time under the stars. And this time when I came it wasn't because of his electrical power.
Raiden pulled away from me again and sighed. "We really should be getting back."
"No," I groaned, sleepily pushing him onto his back so I could rest my head on his chest. "Let's sleep here tonight."
"It's not safe."
"It's so quiet here, you'll hear anyone coming close to us," I told him and fell into a deep sleep, not leaving him any time to argue.
I sat in the darkness, knees up against my chest and arms wrapped my legs.
I could hear the drip, drip, dripping sound of water splashing onto stone but the darkness was all-encompassing. It was so pitch black it was almost tangible in the air like I could reach out and be able to grip it with my hands.
There was no sound except the dripping, in fact, there was the distinct absence of it. It made my ears ring like bells.
Why was I sitting on the floor? I wondered. How had I gotten there?
I reached for the coin across the floor. Would it still work if I couldn't see what it landed on? I would find out.
I grabbed the coin and electricity shocked me as soon as I touched the metal. I snatched my injured fingers. I couldn't see them in the darkness but I knew they had been badly electrified.
I reached out again with my other hand, letting my fingers slide through the dirt and the grime of the floor. It was warm when I expected it to be cold. The floor felt like it was pulsing like we were on a mountain and the stone floor was the skin and tissue over a beating heart.
Ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum, I closed my eyes and used the all too familiar rhythm to calm myself down. I took some deep breaths and waited for my racing heart to slow down and match the pulse of the prison.
Only when I was completely relaxed did I dare to reach out again. My fingertips encircle the coin and picked it up, clenching it hard into my hand until it hurt. I clenched my eyes shut and waited for the pain to come.
Nothing.
Nothing still. My heart stayed in sync with the prison as I waited for the coin to shock me again but it didn't.
I waited another couple of minutes before I dared to open my hand. I uncurled my fingers and opened my hand in front of me.
The coin in my hand burst into brilliant orange and red flames, igniting the narrow hallway in an eerie low light. My eyes had become so accustomed to the dark that it hurt my eyes. The fire didn't hurt my hand, in fact, it didn't even feel hot and continued to dance in the dark hallway.
I rose onto shaking feet, feeling my wings slump to the ground behind me. I felt a join
t in one of them pop and I looked over my shoulder and my wings burst into glittering dust that sparkled in the firelight. I jumped out of shock but tumbled forward on my feet. All of my pain was gone, I used my burnt hand reach up to touch my shoulder blades and found no wounds where my wings had protruded from. But my equilibrium was off from the sudden shift of weight. I tripped and grabbed onto the bars of the cell in front of me with my free burnt hand. The metal was dirty and rusted under my hand. Like this prison had been created, packed and the warden had thrown away the keys, letting it and all of its inhabitants rot. Like a cruel god who turned his back on what he created.
I gripped the bar hoping I didn't cut myself and get tetanus because that would just be the icing on the cake of a horrible experience. I held on for a while to steady myself but realized the bar was getting colder. I looked up at the bar and found it frosted over with ice. I tried to let go but my hand was frozen stuck to it. The metal started to glow and continued to get colder and colder. I squeaked in shock as I tried to free my hand from the bar. I braced myself with my feet and pulled back but I was stuck.
The coin in my hand, engulfed in fire, flipped its side, onto the happy face side. I had almost forgotten about the ball of fire in my hand. I held it up to the ice connecting my hand to the bar, slightly tugging. It took a bit for the ice to melt but as soon as my hand was free I scrambled back.
What the hell?
I ran away from the area, running toward where the red light had once been, letting my little fireball light my way.
But how will you fly away? Echoed in the air. What rotten luck.
I ignored it, trying to concentrate on the pulse of the earth beneath my feet.
Rotten luck! Rotten luck! Echoed down the hall.
"Stop! It's on the happy face!" I yelled at the disembodied voice, not sure if I was really hearing aloud or it was in my head.
A terrifying laugh rang out followed by two words. "How rotten!"
The fire in my hand turned went from red and orange to blue and violet. I stopped running as the coin flipped by itself in my hand again to the sad face.
"No," I whispered, my eyes darting around, waiting for something bad to happen.
The dripping stopped of water stopped. I heard a loud crash and the smell of salt and iron filled the air.
"Blood? Coins?" I wondered before the sound of rushing water barreled towards me. "Uh oh."
A wave of salty water slammed into me, putting my little fireball out, the force knocking the coin out of my hand.
I gasped for air clutching at my throat. And then everything went dark.
I woke up the next morning to the rising sun shining brightly in my eyes and the snores of Raiden in my ear.
His arm was slung over my chest, weighing me down in place. I slapped at his arm.
“Ray, Ray, wakey, eggs and bakey,” I mumbled into his ear.
Raiden jumped awake, up to a sitting position. “Oh shit, did we fall asleep outside?”
“No, I dragged you out here for a morning jog,” I chuckled as I sat up with him. Pulling my dress down, I really hoped no one had walked by. It was still very early, the light not yet hitting Rome over the hill we were one.
“Watch that sassy mouth of yours or I’ll make you,” Raiden grinned widely and winked at me.
“If I knew that all I had to do to get a happy-go-lucky Raiden was sleep with you, I think I would have done it ages ago,” I laughed, returning his smile with one of my own.
“No, last night was perfect,” He leaned closer to me and trailed his long fingers down my cheek. “I wouldn’t change a thing.”
“We’ll have to do this again when we get home,” I told him.
Raiden pulled us to our feet and grinned down at me. “It’s a date.”
Our walk of not-so-ashamed back to the castelli was filled with more jokes and banter. Raiden and I had to be quite the sight, Raiden in ceremonial armor that was askew, his short hair mussed and jaw welted with love bites. Then there was me with my dress a little too loose to be proper, my hair as wild as a lion’s mane and lip rouge smeared and mouth area red from Raiden’s stubble rubbing against it. Only the earliest of early birds were out so early, merchants setting up their wares to sell for the day and farmer workers heading to the fields to work.
Raiden and I ignored their stares and made it back into the castelli without anyone commenting or cat calling us. I shouldn’t have worried about strangers catcalling as because as we entered the castelli we spotted Azar, Cobalt, and Nevada sitting around the table. When they saw us, they immediately started clapping and cheering.
“Shut up,” Raiden snapped, looking enraged.
I rolled my eyes at Raiden, he really needed to learn to take a joke.
“Don’t walk of shame if you can’t handle a little heckling,” Azar laughed.
I did a curtsy. “Thank you, thank you.”
The guys wolf whistled and clapped for me.
Azar pointed at me and glared at Raiden. “See, she gets it!”
“I hate you guys,” Raiden sat down.
The rest of us laughed at him. It was going to be a great day. It might have been the long series of orgasms the night before but I was in a great mood.
Chapter 7
"Welcome Team Bumblebee! They won their last victory in less than five minutes! Give it up for this amazingly powerful four dragon team!"
The crowd went insane, whopping, cheering and clapping for us.
"Facing them today is Team Ifrit! A dangerous three dragon team! Their first victory in this tournament was a bloodbath! They ruthlessly gutted their last opponents. Welcome, Team Ifrit!"
The crowd cheered even louder for them. I shrugged, of course, the audience like the bloodier team better.
The banner of the other team was an orange flame with a white hand over it on a gray banner.
"Team Ifrit," Raiden explained once we huddled together, he pointed to the five creatures across from us. "Fairly powerful team. Don't listen to the hype. Messy and bloody doesn't always mean powerful. A berserker, a djinn, and three dragons. Plant, water and lightning respectively."
"I am absolutely not fighting a berserker this time," I stomped my foot and crossed my arms.
The guys all laughed.
"Don't blame you, that last berserker was insanely powerful, this guy is younger, not quite as experienced," Cobalt explained. "I've seen him at feasts before."
"Nevada is going for the berserker Sig this time, the berserker can't exactly keep fighting if he's frozen and shattered can he?" Raiden grinned at Nevada who wore a smug smile of his own.
"Phew," I wiped my forehead and sighed in relief. I looked at their team again, appraising them just as they were sizing us up themselves. Three men. The largest was corded with muscle, his platinum blonde hair was braided close to his head and his bare chest was covered in swirling, knotted brown tattoos. The other two looked nondescript, a handsome man with a shaved head and a skinny almost willowy man with a deep tan and sleek black hair clasped in a low ponytail at the nape of his neck. He had a well-kempt mustache and triangular beard.
Team Ifrit had two women on their team, a fact I was excited about! It seemed like I rarely saw a woman these days apart from the--let's call them companions in the marketplace. Their lightning dragon was a woman! With violet streaked white blonde hair and eyes the same icy blue of Raiden's, she stood just as tall and lean as her electrical male counterpart. Their plant dragon had soft and wavy brown hair, she was curvy like me with warm honey colored eyes. If not for the malevolent look in her eyes as she surveyed us I would think she was the bohemian, hippy type.
"Levinya and Briony, they've survived over eight hundred battles together on the same team," Raiden explained, noticing me looking at them. "Briony is like Alder from our first battle, poison, and torture."
"She looks like she would be the peace and love hippy type," I whined.
"Far from it," Raiden shook his head.
"So what's the pl
an, you attack the water dragon?" Azar asked.
"No, I need to get Ozaj, the djinn, before he kills any of you guys, I'll throw up an EM field and gun for him right away. Djinn are capable of instantaneous travel, or teleporting his the modern colloquialism for it, he likes to disappear and appear right in front of his enemies and slit their throats before they can fight back," Raiden explained. "That water dragon is going to go for Azar right away, Cobalt you're going for the water dragon, keep him off of Azar's back. Azar, your target is Briony. Octavia, you get Levinya."
