Force of Fire

by Ali Vali

  “I still remember that day out here when you slammed into Hill after I caught you peeking at me,” Kendal said, starting on her shirt buttons next. “You were scared first, and then, just as fast, you were pissed. No matter what I think, you are one passionate woman, Piper Marmande, and I’m happy you’re mine.”

  “I couldn’t take my eyes off you that day,” she said as Kendal straightened up and started to pull her own shirt off, but Piper knelt and moved toward her, slapping her hands away. “The way you move and that cocky attitude of yours hooked me into coming back again and again.”

  Piper slowly undid her belt and unfastened the buttons on the jeans Kendal was wearing, glad she’d forgone the suits for now and dressed more casually around the house. She got the fly open, and Kendal stood still as she pulled the pants and underwear down to her knees. No matter what else was going on in their lives, Kendal was always ready for her. At times like this she was glad that Kendal couldn’t hide how she felt.

  “You want me, baby?” she said as she slid her fingers in between Kendal’s legs. She was wet, and her clit was as hard as the steel on all those swords she loved so much.

  “I’ve wanted you from the moment I saw you,” Kendal said, lowering her head and kissing her in a way that made her feel like Kendal couldn’t get enough.

  Piper pushed her down and finished the job of taking her pants off so she could kneel between Kendal’s legs. “I’m all yours, but first I want you to come in my mouth. I want you to remember that you belong to me, and that I don’t want to be left behind when we have to start whatever this is.”

  “You don’t have to do that for me to remember that, love. I know you’re mine, and where I go, you’ll come with me. No matter what, I won’t leave you unless you want to be left.” Kendal closed her eyes and mouth when she lowered her head and licked from the opening of her sex up and over her clit.

  She did it a few more times until she took Kendal into her mouth and sucked her in until her clit was against the roof of her mouth, and then she sucked harder, using her tongue to create more pressure. Kendal stayed quiet, like she usually did when they made love, but her fingers had threaded through her hair, and she used the leverage to keep her in place. No matter how many times they’d been together, she loved having Kendal like this.

  The slayer that had terrified so many who lived in the shadows with the stories of her deeds was the first person in Piper’s life who made her feel this cherished and loved. Kendal, no matter what else was going on, was always tender and loving because she wanted to be, not because it was expected of her. When she had Kendal in this position, she liked to take her time, so when Kendal pressed down on her head, she pulled back a little and teased her with just the tip of her tongue.

  “Now you’re being cruel,” Kendal said as she looked down at her.

  “Slow down, baby, there’s no rush,” she said softly, then circled Kendal’s clit with her tongue. “With everything we know is coming, it might be a while before we can take our time.”

  Kendal placed her hands at Piper’s sides and picked her up again so she could sit her on her lap. “I don’t give a damn what’s coming. I’m not going to stop making time for you.” Kendal kissed her and gently glided her fingers from her collarbone down to the tips of her nipples. “You can’t think that all of a sudden I’d want to stop doing this.” She went back willingly when Kendal held her at an angle and sucked one nipple, then the other, into her mouth.

  “You’re making me crazy, and I said I want you to come in my mouth first,” she said as Kendal bit one nipple hard enough to get her attention but not to hurt her. The sensation made the wetness between her legs double, and she almost begged Kendal to touch her. “Lie back, and let me have you.”

  “Just as long as I get to finish what I started,” Kendal said as she let her nipple go with a pop.

  She didn’t always waste a lot of time thinking of the few lovers she’d had in her life before Kendal, but when she was this desperate, she was glad she’d found someone who made her totally crazy for her touch like no one before her ever had. Kendal made her crazy enough to almost become selfish, so she liked to take control every so often so Kendal would get the same satisfaction she always did.

  “Do you want me to suck this until you come?” she asked as she pinched Kendal’s clit. The reaction she got almost made her smile, but she didn’t want to get too cocky too fast, or Kendal would turn the tables on her. “You’re so hard for me, so let me have you.”

  Kendal lay back again, and she took it as a sign of surrender. She moved back to kneel between Kendal’s legs and didn’t make her wait for what she really wanted and took Kendal into her mouth and sucked hard enough to make Kendal’s legs open wider. It surprised her a little when Kendal groaned louder than she ever had before and her toes curled under.

  “Don’t stop,” Kendal said, her voice sounding strained and hoarse. “Fuck,” she said, and her hips bucked up. “Je jouis,” Kendal said as she stopped moving and became rigid. It was the first time she’d been so vocal about coming.

  “I’m so glad I paid so much attention in French class,” she said as she kissed the inside of Kendal’s thigh. “Were you feeling especially frisky today to announce you were coming?”

  “I’ve never been noisy, but sometimes it’s hard to keep everything I feel for you locked inside. I need to let it out and tell you how completely nuts you make me.” Kendal smiled when she slid along her body until she was lying on top of her with her head pillowed on her shoulder. “You have a way of breaking new ground when it comes to me.”

  “That’s because up to now you’ve been waiting for me,” she said and fanned her fingers out over Kendal’s breast. “I love you so much.”

  “I have been waiting for you, and I’m sorry it took me so long,” Kendal said as she moved her hands down her back to her ass. Once she got her hands there she squeezed possessively and pushed Piper up a little. “But I’ve found you and you’re mine. I’ll always love you, and I’ll never disrespect you, but you’re mine.”

  “I know, baby, and I’m glad. It’s good to come in from the lonely cold,” she said as she pressed her sex down on Kendal’s abdomen. If anyone had told her she’d be this crazy about someone until just recently, she’d have laughed them out of her office. Until Kendal, the only things she’d ever cared about were her grandparents and her job. “I am yours, and I’m happy I can make the same claim.”

  “Anyone who can turn me into a pile of jelly deserves every bit of me,” Kendal said with a smile and pulled her up a little so she could reach between her legs without lifting her up. “So let’s see if I can reciprocate.”

  “You know you don’t have to try very hard to do that,” she said as Kendal’s fingers went down until they landed on the base of her clit. She raised her hips, wanting Kendal’s fingers to slide over the one place she needed her the most, and Kendal didn’t disappoint by waiting until she’d reached the spot that made her hiss before flicking her finger a couple of times over her clit.

  “I love how wet you get for me.” Kendal kept her on top, moving her hand constantly, and raised her head to kiss Piper.

  “You should be used to it by now, since you’ve kept me in some state of horniness since we’ve met.” She moved her hips up and down, enjoying riding Kendal’s fingers at the pace she wanted. Lately they hadn’t had the opportunity to make it last, so she tried not to move too hard or too fast. “You make me want to rip your clothes off at least a couple of times a day,” she said as she lifted her ass higher and pushed more into Kendal’s touch before backing off again.

  “Tell me what you want,” Kendal said as her movements got faster but lighter.

  “I need you to go inside…I need you to fill me up,” she said, not wanting Kendal to stop but needing Kendal to put her fingers in and bring her to the brink.

  Piper sat up and looked at her as she pressed down on Kendal, needing the contact. She took Kendal’s hand when she held it up
and sucked in two of the long fingers to the knuckle. Kendal closed her eyes as she ran her tongue along the tips.

  “Fuck me, baby,” she said, getting Kendal to look at her again. Kendal moved her hand down and placed her fingers so she could come down on them. The comment wasn’t one she used often, but she needed to come before she hurt something inside if she didn’t.

  Kendal placed her thumb so that on every down stroke she slammed into it, and even though she wanted to speed up, she kept it slow and steady. She wanted to hold off until the last moment, but the tightness in her belly meant the orgasm she was hurtling toward wasn’t something she could hold back, and she gripped Kendal’s wrist to keep her hand in place.

  “I’m coming, baby,” she said and bucked her hips as fast and hard as she could manage. “Ah,” she said as she came down and stopped groaning while Kendal’s thumb massaged her clit, making the walls of her sex clamp down as she enjoyed the last of the wave of pleasure. “Stop before it falls off,” she said, joking, as she fell like a rag doll to Kendal’s chest. She was done but wasn’t ready to give up the fingers still inside her.

  Kendal kissed her and rubbed her back soothingly. “Close your eyes, sweetheart, and relax.”

  She heard Kendal’s voice, but it sounded so far away. When she did as Kendal asked, she saw the canopy of dense trees and a ceremony going on in a large stone city.

  “Come,” a woman with dark skin and beautiful blue eyes said as she took Piper’s hand. When Piper looked down at herself she was dressed in a leather skirt and a very brief top decorated with what looked like jade and turquoise.

  “Where are we going?” she asked, glancing behind her and looking for Kendal, but she’d disappeared.

  “To see what you need to know so you can help my daughter,” the woman said, and she followed, knowing this experience might open her mind to the answers she was seeking.

  * * *

  Costa Rican Rain Forest, 6132 BC

  The beautiful dark-skinned woman with wavy auburn hair with red highlights led Piper along a long avenue of pyramids, stopping once to glance toward the heavens, but then kept going until they were near the fire burning on a stone platform in front of one of the pyramid structures with another large platform on top. Mayan people were dancing around the fire, their bodies oiled and streaked with sweat from the heat of the tall flames. An older man with a cape of what appeared to be straw and colorful stones threw something in with a flick of his wrist, and the smoke turned yellow.

  “It’s something I taught them,” her guide said, taking her hand and looking into her eyes. “It’s the fire ceremony.”

  “Where are we?” Piper asked, glancing around and listening to the chanting. The words were foreign, but she understood them. These people were calling their gods to show themselves, and from the fervor of their singing it sounded as if they fully expected them to appear.

  “The jungle very rarely has a name for any one place for these people. They were living in small tribes before I got here, but with the help of my sister we’ve taught them to band together.” The woman placed her foot on the narrow steps of the pyramid and held her hand out to her. “The ones who came before us taught them to build this place for what’s to come.”

  “Who are you and how did you get here? You don’t look like anyone here.” As they started up the steps, the dancing stopped, and the people clustered around the structure fell to their knees, then pressed their faces to the ground.

  “I am Lumas, mother of Rawney. You will soon come here with the slayer, but this is what this area was used for. This night will help you understand.” Lumas took something from her belt and showed it to her. It looked like a tuning fork with a small hammer attached to the end.

  “When in time is this?” Even this far up, Piper could feel the heat of the fire, and the stones decorating her top seemed to grow warm enough to make her breasts hot.

  “If you read the history books we’re over four thousand years too early for the Mayan existence, but there they are. It will take them more time to start their quest to build more cities like this, hoping to call their gods back, but there’ll be no waking them from their sleep.”

  They reached the top, and Lumas held her hand up with the tuning fork, and the crowd stopped their chanting. The sun was starting to set, but the dense vegetation that encircled them was as quiet as the observers down below. Whoever the man in the straw cape was, he bowed to Lumas and threw more powder into the fire so the smoke that billowed up was now red.

  “You have done well and finished the home the gods will use for their eternal rest.” Lumas’s voice carried over the main square, and a few shouts went up after she spoke in the language the people understood. “You will celebrate this day with the fire ceremony, even if your children will not fully understand what it means when the time of the living gods is over. All of you will remember them, and you will teach your children, but you must leave this place and let the jungle have back what rightfully belongs to it.”

  “They’re still here? The dragons, I mean.”

  “This is the first step of your journey, Piper. My daughter must follow the crumbs I’ve left and understand how they fit into the book of spells that belongs to our family.”

  Lumas hit the side of the tuning fork, and for something so small the sound was loud enough to hurt her ears. When the vibrations stopped she hit it again, then one more time before a shadow overhead blocked out the remaining light for a brief moment, and Piper looked up in awe. At least twenty of them had appeared, and they were huge.

  “Are those—” Piper didn’t want to sound stupid, but it wasn’t every day that she saw a mass of dragons flying in a cluster with a kind of graceful ease she didn’t think they were capable of.

  “The children of the goddess,” Lumas said and tapped the fork one more time. The largest of the dragons circled and landed on the platform where they stood and let out a cry to the others, who perched on the other structures around the square. There was a pyramid for each of them.

  The large beast shook its head and folded its wings against its body before lowering its head to Lumas. It closed its eyes when Lumas placed her hand on its snout and rubbed the spot between the large slits that were its nostrils. Piper smiled that this thing acted like a pet dog that enjoyed a good scratch.

  “Drakon, open your eyes and see your mistress,” Lumas said, and the dragon opened his yellow eyes and moved his head to Piper.

  She lifted her hand slowly, and the dragon moved his head until it was pressed against the spot where Lumas had touched him. He opened his mouth, and she could see the fire that was right at the surface, hotter than the one below, but she wasn’t afraid. When she showed no fear, Drakon moved his head as if to look at her closer, seeming to memorize every part of her face. That she couldn’t know for sure, but it was something she felt in her gut.

  Drakon rose to his full height and roared loudly, shaking his head when the others answered his call, then moved to the side, leaving them at one end of the platform as another dragon landed next to him and nuzzled the side of his neck.

  “This is his mate Peto. They’re the pack leaders and life mates. Their love for each other and for the children they have had together is a beautiful thing, but only two of their children remain. When they sleep, they will do so together for all of time.” Lumas waved her hand, and another attractive woman with a large book started up the steps. “This is my younger sister, Rowen, and she’s learned the secrets of the book at my side. The truth of this will die with us.”

  “You don’t have to,” Piper said as both women put a hand on her shoulders.

  “In our time we didn’t know that was our fate, but our ashes still carry the history of our betrayal and of who we were. The Order of Fuego was born here, and the ember of those who follow them has been kept burning until your time.” Lumas kissed her cheek. Rowen did the same, and then they turned and opened the book Rowen had brought up with her. “This is a copy of my family’s t
reasure that my daughter now has. Tell my Rawney how much I love her, how proud I am of her, and that I have every confidence she’ll find the key.”

  Rowen opened the book, and Lumas started to read from the very last page. This time Piper had no idea what the language was, since it sounded foreign and strange to her. “The only thing you need to remember, Piper, is that even though Drakon is here, the words I speak will carry to every corner and forest in the world. Tonight all the goddess’s children will find the peace of sleep.”

  Lumas finished her spell, and the dragons seemed to start fading from sight. When they were translucent in the waning light, Drakon aimed his head down and shot out a stream of fire that heated the stone they were standing on, but it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. Piper spread her arms out to keep her balance when the platform started to rumble as if in an earthquake, but the same thing was happening on every one of the platforms around them. When it stopped the dragons were gone, and at the base of each one stood a stone carving of a dragon head with its mouth open.

  “How did you even get here, never mind how you did that?” Piper asked when the impossible was over.

  “They brought us,” Rowen said, waving to the newly decorated pyramids. “We left our families to come to this place, and here we’ll stay until we welcome the darkness. It was our fate, but the goddess promised good fortune going forward for our families and for our rest.”

  “Don’t forget anything that you’ve seen here, Piper, except the words of the spell. They will not travel forward with you, so don’t feel disappointed. Those words are for Rawney to find, but you must tell her all the rest.” Lumas glanced back, and the men carrying sharp sticks and bows were almost at the top after scaling the other side of the structure. Their chests were painted red, along with what looked like a flame on their forehead. “Remember, you must promise me,” Lumas said as a spear came through her chest.