Editing magic performed by KJ24 and Shyqash, plus contributions by the regular gang of brigands and neer-do-wells

Love is like a crossbow quiver. You only have so many bolts to shoot before it runs out

*****

{11 pm, Monday, August 25th ~ 14 Days to go}

{Late that night with Hana}

"So, who was the guy who gave you this?" I looked over at Hana while running my hand over the silk scarf some lama in Lhasa had given her to give to me ~ a 'Thank You' gift for the liberation of his homeland and the aid package heading his peoples' way.

"I never got his name, but my translator said he had traveled for three days straight to be there for the celebration," she smiled warmly.

I picked up my second gift and began to play with it. The object was a fascinating toy, all the more so because it was more than a child's plaything. It was a simple prayer wheel. I put the handle between my two palms and rubbed them back and forth, causing the two balls to beat against the drum heads.

"I think you find that thing more interesting than you do me," Hana pouted.

"Oh no you don't," I pounced on her. With one hand I tickled her while I placed my Tibetan gift aside. I didn't want us rolling over on it as we frolicked naked on her queen-sized bed. "You were a happy little camper ten minutes ago and you certainly drove your vigor home with this grand Lothario."

"Eeeekk!" she playfully tried to bat my hand aside. She began giggling hysterically.

Even when I pulled away so that she could breathe, she kept snickering.

"What?" I worried. I had been ramping us up for a second round of sex. Round one had been 'comfort' sex, helping her compartmentalize her feelings for that bastard of an ex-husband and the threat he posed to her custodianship of her daughter, Õnnela.

Those were emotions she'd deal with later. Fretting about them tonight, her first night back in the States, was counter-productive. She knew that, which was why she'd accepted my dinner invitation. We had now been seen in public together for the first time since she became famous; afterwards we had traveled back to her place. How serious was I about cheering her up? I'd brought a spare suit, biking clothes and my bike. I was planning to spend the night and make my way to work my usual way come sunrise.

"I," she gasped, "asked Libra how you "compared" in her experience, which seems to be extensive, as a lover on the way over. And after several - very long, I must say - seconds of introspection, she told me you were indescribable and incomparable. I've been trying to put my thoughts together since Rome and ... why are you scowling?"

"That was rude of you two," I now play-pouted. "I like to think I'm 'thunderous', though 'stunning' will do in a pinch."

Hana helpfully pinched me. "Ow!" I squalled. And back to tickling I went. I quickly showed her my 'sheet-fu' was superior to hers ... which meant I tangled her up in her sheets before she realized she was helpless before me. Or so I bragged. Hana played helpless well.

"Oh please, Mr. World-Conquering Wombat," she pleaded. Wombat?

"Wombat?" I questioned her. "How have I become an irascible furry marsupial?"

"Well Honey, you need a shave," she teased me. "You are a little furry."

"Romantically that is called a five o'clock shadow," I protested.

"It scratches my thighs," she murmured.

I had a remedy for that. Sliding down to her hip, I turned my palms toward me, interlaced my fingers and positioned my thumbs pointing up. My chin rested on my fingers and the thumbs covered the sides, so when I stuck my tongue into the three-sided void created, my hands, but none of my scruffiness, touched her intimate flesh. Once I had this technique in place, I rolled over her thigh and got to work.

"I find," she gasped, "that you have the answer to that conundrum down pat. It makes me ... aaahhh ... think I'm not your ... aaahhh ... first girl." My dedication to my erotic task (and the carnal reward that waited) kept me from responding. Besides, my upper lip was busy rolling back and forth over her clitoris. There I let the bristles of my oncoming moustache teasingly tickle her. I was pleased when the pleasure I caused quieted her and she settled down to running her fingers across my crown as she ramped herself up toward a climax. 'Not my first girl' indeed.

Forty-five minutes later, I was coming back to her room from the kitchen with a glass of tomato juice for her and rice wine for me (she was out of beer). I heard a noise from Õnnela's room, so I deviated to make sure she was okay. I was in boxers, not totally naked. Õnnela was out like a light, caught up in some sort of childish dream. By the cherubic grin on her face, she was having a good one.

She was another delicate female issue in my life. I had made her existence harder by just being me. Hana let me know that nothing 'bad' had better happen to her ex-husband, Sten. I couldn't beat him up, threaten him, or sic any of my Amazons on him. Stupidly, I had asked if using the CIA was okay. She'd banned all of JIKIT intervening as well, negating the use of the best pest removal people on the planet - the 9 Clans.

"You are going to have to get used to children making sounds while they sleep," Hana surprised me. "You'll learn to tell the dreams from the nightmare."

"In spades ... I'm going to have to learn that in spades," I nodded.

{4 pm, Tuesday, August 26th ~ 13 Days to go}

My schedule had remained steady. I had firearms practice at 6 am every morning, was in Katrina's office by 7 and working my cue by 7:15. According to my regular morning briefings, I continued to be a menace to the foundations of freedom, civilization and the terrestrial biosphere. It was wonderful to stand there side by side with my fellow New Hires.

At lunch, around 11 o'clock, I had a brief get together with the other members of the Amazon diplomatic corps since I was still Chief Diplomat of the Host ~ we were a small unit. Daphne, who now worked with JIKIT, would give me a brief briefing on what the 'office' was up to in my name. I gladly kept my distance from their regularly scheduled mayhem. The truce in China didn't stop the Secret War from raging on and on.

My three o'clock knife training with Pamela was slowly evolving into a greater study of human fighting philosophy and anatomy. I still studied the techniques of a larger single bladed hunting knife as well as the hilt-less, double bladed Amazon Honor Blade. Pamela promised me she'd start teaching me how to do the 'long-distance' and 'short'/snap throw for the blades. She made it look so easy.

Pamela also began educating me on the basics and basis of the Amazon personal hand-to-hand fighting style. The eight points of emphasis in Amazon combat were: the finger, fist, elbow, shoulder, foot, heel, knee and hip. It encouraged channeling both your energies and the energy of your opponents by using fluid blows and throws. It also worked well with the close-in knife fighting Pamela was teaching me. Working with her once more did her as much good as me. We had come to feed off one another's moods, which was a good thing.

Tuesday, walking to the elevator at the end of the session, the door opened to reveal Rachel talking to an SD chick I barely knew, Meridian.

"Oh, it is great to see you, Rachel," I enthusiastically stated. Her hesitation as she replied worried me.

"It is great to see you too, Cael Wakko Ishara," she responded softly ... compassionately.

"Ladies, can you spare Rachel and I some private time," I asked Meridian and Pamela.

"Come on," Pamela addressed the SD Amazon, "we have tons of nothing to talk about."

"As you wish, Ishara," Meridian answered. She looked to Rachel. She stepped off the elevator as Pamela stepped on. Away they went.

"I heard you were back in New York," I told her.

"I heard you were off of JIKIT for the time being."

"I was running on fumes psychologically and my body wasn't too much better. Javiera gave me a week off. I go back Thursday."

"That was the right move, Cáel," she said. "You've been stuck sweating both the small stuff and being caught up in the big picture. That is a humongous burden to bear for someone with your training and background."

"I know ... I'm not ready for where my life has taken me."

"No one is, Cáel. You have training that has let you get this far when most of us would be lost. You carry that weight, plus you've had to work the physical side of the equation. I get to focus on you. You've had to focus on all of us."

Rachel was being both honest and kind. I felt a sudden renewed kinship with my primary guardian.

"Thanks for that ... Rachel, can I tell you a secret? Something you can't tell another soul. Something I've never told another living person?" I could tell Rachel. I couldn't tell Katrina because she was so close to Hayden. Pamela ... Pamela had already prepared herself for a miserable afterlife and wouldn't have connected with my pain for another.

Since she was my 'sister' in Ishara, I couldn't really confide in Buffy, but only an Amazon would understand my thoughts on the matter. It had to be Rachel.

"I cannot betray the Host, but you know that. What is it you wish to share?"

"Hayden lived life as an Anahit, yet lives forever in the Halls of the Isharans." Since that was now well known, Rachel knew that couldn't be the secret.

"When I was trying to induct her, Dot Ishara refused her entry. I thought she was challenging me and I was right."

"I recall that she wouldn't accept Hayden, even though her death was righteous in the name of the Host. Has no one ever asked you what changed Ishara's mind? Not Buffy, or Helena?"

"Neither one ever asked. I think it was because they sensed I didn't want to talk about it, nor insult them by not opening up. Ishara refused Hayden because of me. I was refusing to accept my place in the Host. I kept playing - pretending - I was not really one of you. I kept thinking I could divorce myself from the evil we did because I was special."

"But you weren't special in the way I think you are using the word," she nodded. "You were chosen by the Ancestors to be one of us - man, or not."

"Yeah. I stupidly put my life on the line because I wanted to be the 'good guy'. I've always wanted to be the 'good guy', even when I hurt people. I'd tell the girl it was my fault, yet I excused that behavior by thinking that I hadn't meant to hurt anyone, so I was okay. I have never blamed myself for any of the shit I caused."

"That has always been a rather annoying quality of yours," she noted.

"When I was on the roof of Havenstone, daring Ishara with my life on the line ... that's when I felt it. I owed and owned my Amazon heritage in that moment. I finally blamed myself for something ... for not accepting sacrifices were being made for me and I was dishonoring every one of you by denying their purpose."

"You are Ishara," Rachel stated firmly. That was her entire argument.

"I had to believe that. I had to believe I was nothing more than one Amazon in a long line of Amazons dating back to that first night of betrayal. I had to realize I was one of many, not someone special ... with special rules. I wasn't getting to be the good guy, or even the bad guy. I was just ... an Amazon. One more Ishara among the hundreds that stood in my place."

"And it took that moment for you to realize what most Amazons know from the age of five," Rachel stroked my cheek. "It is easy for us to forget your bravery comes from a place that is uniquely you and you didn't grow up around the fires with tales of our mothers, grandmothers and all those who have come before. We see our honor is gold and sing the songs in the First Tongue. We live as Amazons."

"I wanted you to know because," I faltered at the last memory.

"Charlotte. You want to make peace with me about Charlotte," she touched my cheek yet again. "Cáel, I told her mother and daughter about how she died. They want to meet Vincent when he is feeling better. They want to talk to you. They worry about you not understanding that Charlotte lives and will live on until the Sun dies and the stars burn out."

"Charlotte was in the Warband that killed Ajax the Unconquered, Cáel. She fell on that ridge, looking down on Ishara's triumph over Ajax and her spirit took the news of that victory to the next life. She is a welcome exemplar to House Skaði. She will be remembered in the lists of the Security Detail, our Warrior Elite. Charlotte was my friend and I didn't wish her to die, but war is what we do. And she buried her enemies and saved our lives."

Skaði was a jötunn and the Nordic goddess associated with bow-hunting, skiing, winter, and mountains. I had known her house. The SD didn't talk about their families much because of their devotion to the craft of war, so I had never known her mother was still alive, or that she had a daughter.

"She did much more than die, Cáel. She killed men so that when you finished with Ajax, none of them, left on that field, could avenge him," she added.

"I hadn't looked at it that way," I confessed. "I'd like to meet her family. You said she has a daughter. I didn't know."

"You didn't need the distraction. We all knew you would have only done incredibly stupid things trying to keep us alive. If it helps, she is five and cried freely, deeply and long. Her mother is fifty-two and runs a freehold in Saskatchewan. She'll be around for a long time, trust me."

Charlotte's mother had to be one tough DOB (daughter of a bitch) to see sixty. I did know she was the second of five daughters, with the middle one being in the Skaði House Guard.

"I am doing something for ... well, for me, but for Charlotte too. Sakuniyas is leading seventeen House Isharans and two ladies from MI-6 in West Africa."

"I'd heard about that," she smiled. "Charlotte's Fist." Four (the core of any war band) was a sacred number to the Amazons, as was five (the number of digits) so twenty was a classic warrior unit. It was also the number of the original houses. Normally these groups were referred to by their leader's name, but I wanted the Condotteiri to know they'd killed the wrong Amazon and Sakuniyas agreed to the naming convention.

The Condos had sent Ajax to Hungary and Romania to kill me. Charlotte had died stopping them, but this was not a matter of revenge. This honored her and was a request for her to watch over those who sought inspiration from her when they went into battle. West-Central Africa was one of the three Amazon Homeland (Eastern Europe and Southern India being the other two) and was where the war was heating up.

JIKIT (Joint International Khanate Interim Taskforce) became involved when the Condos and Coils of the Serpent (one of the 9 Assassin Clans) began killing local civilian and military leaders. The Condos did it to spread chaos for them to use as a smoke screen behind which they could hide the large numbers of mercenaries in the area hunting down the Amazons. The Coils attacked any official that was on the Condo's payroll.

As the body count began to rise, the US and UK began having 'normal' covert agencies investigate the killings, yet they remained blind to the reasons behind the actions. It wasn't until a whole Condo 'training camp' ended up being extinguished that they realized there was a third player in the game (as opposed to the governments and the rogue mercenaries).

The Coils of the Serpent were one step ahead of the intelligence agencies. And that allowed the Amazons to hunt down the Condos. We in JIKIT had estimated it was roughly 15,000 Condotteiri foot soldiers (consisting of mercs, local paramilitaries and the occasional regular army commander) versus the roughly 3000 Amazons and 1000 members of the 9 Clans. The Golden Mare was asking for Havenstone and the Freeholds in North and South America to raise up 'fists' to join the struggle in Africa. In Belize they would be trained for two months to ten weeks in jungle warfare before heading over.

"Are your people going to be ready?" Rachel inquired.

"We have done well in Japan," I replied. "The former 'Runners' actually do better moving through urbanized society than their Old School Amazon sisters."

"I heard they are more prone to taking orders from the Ninja," she looked me in the eyes.

"I told them to. This is the Ninja's war and we serve them best by doing what we do best ~ taking the fight to the Seven Pillars when they expose themselves," I clarified. "And you got me off talking about Charlotte," I realized a second later.

"A long period of mourning is not our way, Cáel," she confided. "You were our friend, but you were our mission first and foremost. That hasn't changed."

"Are you going to ...," I began to say 'remain my bodyguard'.

"Yes. I have a dozen House Guard members expressing a desire to join the Security Detail and be our new electronics expert. Eight of those I'm giving serious consideration to."

"The other four?" I asked.

"Three are too young and are too interested in you for my taste. One is too old and a rather odd individual."

"I like odd."

"I will reconsider her then," she allowed.

"Are you saying that to make me happy?"

"No," Rachel grinned. "I admire your instincts. Do you know how soon you will be needing us?"

"I'm going to stay in town until the Great Hunt. After my stupendous victory, I'll see if I can get to Brazil ... so mid-September."

"It will take longer to integrate a member ~ the last week of November," she bargained. I really wasn't in the mood to argue. I was too much the boy who was glad to see his primary guardian standing before him. Pamela was by far the most loving and lethal one of the pack. Rachel was my rock. She kept me alive and I helped give her something to live for, even if it was a flawed 'me'.

"And Wakko, you don't need to give me a piece of your soul to replace Charlotte. What is hers is hers and what is ours is ours. I'll always miss her and I'm okay with that. She was a good friend and a proud compatriot and I loved her. I never had any sisters of the flesh. Mona, Tiger Lily and Charlotte have been the only real family I've had. I will find another sister and I can now accept that."

"Is it alright if I still miss her?" I pondered.

"Of course, Ishara. Will you still be capable of taking my orders when required?"

"Yes. If I started ignoring your advice ... I wouldn't have been worthy of leading someone like Charlotte into battle. I can honor her by letting you do your job."

"Thank you. I still worry about you trying to save everyone, but now I'll worry a little less," she confessed.

"I still plan to do crazy stuff ... hey, do you have a daughter?"

"No."

"Want one?"

"I'm in the final drawing of lots for the Great Hunt," she smiled once more.

"You could just ask."

"My way is more fun. This way I'll be sure you'll obey," she let her eyes sparkle with a mirthful fire.

"Don't think I'll go easy on you. I plan to win," I pledged.

"Of course not. Why would you change now?"

"I'd rather you bust my balls than mock me?" I pouted. "Instead of spending a moving moment, you are cheering me up."

"It is my job to look after you, even now," she stroked my neck affectionately.

"Especially now," I added as I hit the elevator button.

"Let's catch up with the others. I need to tell Meridian that she's back in the running."

"Oh ... that is fortunate," I grinned. "Oh, we'll start our mission to Brazil on Thursday, February 12th."

"Is there a significance of that date?"

I laughed. I put an arm around her shoulder as the doors opened. There were two others Havenstone ladies onboard.

"Carnival in Rio de Janeiro!" I exulted. "Half a million tourists a day. Two million Brazilians. Everyone wears a mask. What's not to love?"

"You are so fortunate you waited until you had witnesses around," Rachel groused.

"Desiree says it's bad for my prestige to be beaten in public," I chortled. "I'm glad you agree."

"Maybe we can spar on the mats today when you get off work?"

"Oh, I'd like to see that," one of the other Amazons remarked. "Weapons or hand-to-hand?"

"I'll let him use a weapon. I'll use my hands. I want him to think he has a chance," Rachel declared. My arm was still around her shoulder, so I knew she wasn't really pissed.

"Didn't you kill Ajax?" the other one noted.

"He tripped over his shoelaces and impaled himself on his own sword," I sighed dramatically.

Since the two women looked at one another, then to Rachel, I knew I'd told the lie well.

"Cáel had an ally shoot a grenade overhead, Ajax died in the confusion, so whatever blow killed him is irrelevant. Cáel beat Ajax with his mind before a single blow was landed. He made his foe fight his battle and that was how Wakko Ishara won," Rachel responded.

"Like an Amazon," the first one nodded.

"With balls," I added.

"An Amazon with balls? I guess you are, but I don't think the testes mattered in that you beat our foe in a matter your ancestors can be proud of," the second one said.

"Well said," Rachel nodded.

"Thank you," I shook her hand. "I'm Cáel Wakko Ishara aka Nyilas."

"Oh, I'm Wynona of Allatu," she answered. She shook my hand, I ran a finger over her pulse and got her to blush slightly. Allatu was the Goddess of the Underworld in Canaanite mythology and one of the First Houses.

"Behave," Rachel whispered.

"Not likely," I whispered back.

"Did I say something wrong?" Wynona worried.

"No. Rachel is my moral guardian. So, do you want to go fishing - I mean swimming tomorrow after work ... say 5:15?" I inquired.

"Sure," her smile broadened. "I excel in the water."

"Good, maybe you can teach me a thing or two," I answered. The door opened at the lobby and there stood Desiree.

"Here," Rachel shoved me out the door. "Take him before he fishes himself into more trouble."

"I understand," Desiree grumbled. "Come on fisherman. Financial Investigations is working late tonight and we need to pick up Italian food for twenty-two."

"Lead and I shall follow," I proclaimed.

"Why do you call him the 'Fisherman'," Wynona asked Rachel.

"Fish - barrel - I'll explain it to you on the way to the garage," Rachel sighed. The doors shut and off we all went.

{7:10 pm, Wednesday, August 27th ~ 12 Days to go}

"Will you still be having dinner with us once you return back to JIKIT?" Europa asked as Lorraine passed me some Cajun rice.

"Every Monday and Wednesday night and on Fridays early," I grinned.

"We are going to be spending some time in Doebridge over the Labor Day weekend," Europa griped. "Do you want to come with us and save Aya from retelling her ordeal to yet another band of pre-Amazons?"

"Aya, do you want me to run interference for you?" I asked.

"No," she smiled. "I want you to train for the Great Hunt. Aunt Katrina says Elsa is virtually a guarantee to be one of the thirty."

"Ugh," I groaned. "That's the cherry on the top of a rather bizarre day."

"Was today bad?" Loraine asked.

"Let me see ... for starters I got to use a variety of weird weapons for firearms practice. I had a feeling I was part of a round-robin, the way they rotated their assistance to me. In the elevator, I was with Brielle and her buddy when we had a security drill. The elevator cut off, but the air handler went into overdrive, dropping the temperature. After a quick democratic vote, I lost my shirt to an impromptu fire to stay warm - alive," I chuckled. "Then we cuddled together for warmth. I was about to lose my undershirt and pants when the alert ended."

"Security alerts last less than fifteen minutes," Caitlyn noted. "I doubt you were in any danger of freezing to death."

"Brielle was under the impression security alerts could last hours, despite my questionable knowledge otherwise from the handbook I'd read. Since she had the seniority, I thought she knew better."

"So now you are shirtless," Europe smirked.

"I had a spare shirt stashed in Katrina's office, but I was required to change during the meeting because we were running late. Oh, and yesterday I forgot to feed some genetically superior white rats at one of our labs. Apparently they gnawed through their cages, broke out and now are in the Manhattan underworld, plotting a rodent rebellion," I related.

"Oh, that was my idea," Loraine perked up.

"Do you sit around the table with Katrina thinking up this kind of crap!" I protested.

"Occasionally," Caitlyn admitted. "Most of those are pure Katrina though."

"Glad to know my misery is a family bonding experience."

"You should be glad to know we care about you," Europa beamed.

"Yeah ... I'll remember that and once you are casted I'm going to absolutely abuse my authority in some serious payback," I faux-glared at her.

"I promise you we will make it fun," Aya pledged.

"You would betray your own sisters?" Caitlyn questioned.

"Sisters are sisters, Mother, but boon companions are for life," Aya countered.

"That's cool, Mom," Europa snorted. "We'll always be taller than Aya ... and faster."

"Only more proof she'll be smarter," Caitlyn shook her head. "So Cáel what happened next?"

"What makes you think the rest of my day wasn't mundane and boring?"

"According to Katrina, you are the best stress reliever at Havenstone since they put in the Jacuzzis. With it being open season on you today, I figured your day was one misadventure after another," Caitlyn smiled warmly.

"Fine ... I had to go to Financial Investigations to discuss my expense account in Europe."

"That doesn't sound all that exciting," Loraine said.

"We were in the pool swimming in the classic Amazon style ... I swear, sometime I think I should go to work wearing nothing but a trench coat and a smile," I grouched.

"Did you make any babies?" Aya chirped.

"Noooo ... I can't have that kind of fun with any employees for another twelve more days. Anyway, they were quite cross with me not using their services and let me know for an hour and ... thirty-six minutes. After that I had to get a reference physical."

"You are as healthy as a horse," Europa neighed.

"Funny Epona," I sniffed indignantly. "You are a load of laughs, filly. After I had been turned into a prune they made me undress again. There was some nonsense about all the combat I had been in had made me shorter and given me muscle constriction."

"That is a good one," Aya nodded. "I'm glad they were being as creative as you are, Atta."

"Who is to say that I'm not being the creative one here?" I winked at her.

"Were your muscles 'constricted'?" Loraine snickered. Europa gave her a thumbs up for joining on the fun.

"Nope, all my reflexes are in working order and I can still salute on demand," I smiled. "Which was good because after that, I worked through lunch with Acquisitions discussing Khanate plans for Siberia." There was a pause.

"What was so horrid about that?" Loraine inquired, as if I had been tortured up until that point.

"We had to do the whole three hour routine on the practice mats. I was pinned grappled and I had something that was strangely reminiscent of a titty-snuggle. I mean ... all that skin-tight clothing, close contact and sweaty bodies was murder on my concentration," I confessed.

"We aren't going to be investing in Siberia, are we?" Aya winked at me.

"I don't know. I spent three hours saying "I don't know" and "I haven't a clue"."

"You are good at that," Europa jibed. I flicked a pea at her, bouncing it off her chin. She was getting ready for a spaghetti & meatball counterattack when Caitlyn's cough brought her up short.

"He is the Head of House Ishara. He can act that way. You are Epona and we are better behaved."

Europa stuck her tongue at me, I returned the gesture and this time Caitlyn's cough was aimed at me. She followed that up by rubbing her foot along my shin. I smiled at her, then caught Aya smiling at the both of us. Then I recalled Aya had set the table ... damn it.

"I'll get us dessert," Aya beamed happiness my way. I was thinking about dessert alright, damn that girl.

{Rhada Revisited}

"I'm home gang," I exhaled. "Ready to go out?" and was promptly shot with a Nerf gun. "What did I do this time?"

Timothy and Odette were getting off the sofa. Odette was taking aim while Timothy left his single-shot where he'd been sitting.

"We are going out. You are not," Timothy grinned. "You have company in the bedroom."

"Man, I was looking forward to ..." then Odette shot me in the stomach with her six shot nerf repeater.

"You have company," Odette emphasized the 'company' part. To me this implied someone who I couldn't seduce with a few words, maybe get busy for half an hour then go out partying. That could only mean ...

I opened my door and there lay Rhada, completely naked, hogtied and bound. She had even been gagged. Her look of hate and loathing turned to ... something else; part fear and part heartsick yearning. Could Timothy and Odette ... really just Timothy ... I loved Odette but she had the combat skills of a Tribble ...could Timothy defeat Rhada so thoroughly that she could be so bound?

Not likely. I'd been neglecting her ... What with being kidnapped, running off to Europe and generally doing my job, I'd neglected her well-defined physique, olive skin and athletic curves. I'd been a fool for letting her waste away while I'd been 'not' earning a paycheck. Hell, I was working too much. I'd played around in college and still managed to graduate with good grades, and it wasn't like I had been hired for my brains.

"Oh, I've been missing this," I relished her helplessness while rubbing my palms together.

"Mmmpphhhh," Rhada protested. It was hard for her to move her body. Her legs were bound above the knee to her shins while her ankles were lashed together and then to the top of her thighs.

Her elbows and wrists were tied behind her back, wrists to wrist. The ropes securing her arms crisscrossed above and below her breasts and looped around her neck. She looked tightly secured. A bit too secured. I couldn't see how to un-hog-tie her.

"Don't you dare go anywhere," I warned Rhada then backed out of the room hurriedly.

"I suggested the butt plug!" Odette smiled as I turned around. I'd missed that given the shapeliness of her buttock ...

"I color-coded the ends of the ropes for you. Pull the yellow, then green and then pink and she'll come undone just fine. I put some ointment by the bedside for after. It will help numb the burn and promotes healing without scarring," Timothy patted me on the shoulder. "Now that you've been taken care of, Odette's going to be my wing-girl at the Commando." That was a gay hot spot.

"Sorry I'm missing out," I laughed. "I'm popular there too."

"We'll have fun," Odette patted my cheek. "You two have fun here."

"Come on girlfriend," Timothy put an arm around Odette. "Let's go feed you to some lesbians."

"You are joking, right?" Odette feigned fearfulness.

"We'll see," Timothy laughed. They left, leaving me alone with my favorite deviant. I weighed the 'anticipation' pathway but decided Rhada had waited long enough. I returned to the bedroom, kicking the door shut behind me.

"My captive looks absolutely delicious this evening," I leered. She struggled again, nearly choking herself with her bindings. Next she tried to bite thru her gag to no avail.

I sat down on the bed beside her, trailing two fingers from her sternum down to her navel and further still ... into her vagina. She was creamy, torrid, fervent and inviting. I wiggled my fingers inside, coaxing her G-spot.

"Don't you dare cum," I cautioned. "Amazons climax. Slave girls serve at the pleasure of their masters."

Rhada's eyes widened and she inadvertently humped my hand. I could tell she was ready to go. I teased her clit and thumped the inside of her vagina in just the right way to make her orgasm. She tried to stifle some sobs to little effect. She was too needy and ready. I was being cruel ... just the way she wanted it.

"A simple fucking instruction," I teased her tear-streaked face.

Timothy with, or without Odette, had laid out a paddle, riding crop and lash at the foot of the bed for just such a time as this. I went for the riding crop, brandished it in front of Rhada's face and grinned lasciviously.

"When I ride my slave, I expect her to go where I tell her," I studied her with remote emotions. She'd been 'bad' after all, even though I'd not left her much of a chance to be 'good'.

Wack!

She took a quick hit to the nipple. I rubbed her mammary with the leather head then gave her opposite nipple the same treatment. Rhada struggled to meet the lashing, savoring the sting and orgasmically relishing the pain. Wanting to change up my routine, I worked the crop down the sides of her ribcage, caressing her flesh, gave her stomach a good smack and then rubbed it wet between her legs.

I had to get rid of my clothes, so I made a production of it. I stretched, showing her every scar that represented my martial vigor on me. This was the fiction that allowed me and me alone to be the one who could dominate her, own her and trade in her haughty demeanor for her inner war captive. On that one time when we had fought and I had been left kneeling over her, binding her with my belt, she had created this mythology that allowed her to submit while remaining true to her Amazon heritage.

She was the warrior humbled. She was my slave and mine alone. Sure, she'd let Timothy bind her twice now, but in her mind that had all been a prelude to submitting to me. And here she was in the same boat again. She was watching me disrobe. Her legs were twitching in anticipation. I didn't make her wait long. With one fluid move, I sidled onto the bed, raised her right leg to the side and plunged my cock into her sizzling vagina.

Damn she felt good. Five pushes in I turned her around, placing her right knee beneath me and pulling her left leg to my hip. That traction allowed me to shamelessly plow away. This was primal fucking and nothing but. I was using Rhada to slake my lusts and letting her get inside my mind. I turned into her warrior dominant and she lay helpless before me.

Rhada must have felt this, because by the time I regained some of my senses she had had her second climax. She'd been waiting a long time for this. I had to wonder how many times had she brought herself close to her orgasm, only to practice self-denial. I'd ask her later. For now, her undulations and my new mindset sent me over the edge and I shot up into her, filling Rhada with my seed. Vague warnings from Ishara about renewing my House were temporarily ignored.

I yanked Rhada's gag down and filled her mouth with my tongue. My lips pressed down hard on hers. It was a violent case of mouth to mouth with lives on the line. I left Rhada wanting more, her lips reaching up for me as I pulled away. I looked down her body. Her legs bindings were getting in the way of me manipulating her body the way I liked. Sure enough, there at the end of one cord was a yellow aglet.

**

Rhada was on her stomach spread eagle on the bed. Her breathe still came in ragged gasps. Sex was over. I had ravished Rhada, taken all of her holes ... I needed to find the butt plug wherever I'd thrown it ... and made her cry in pleasure repeatedly.

Now was the after-care. I had already rubbed the sensation back into her arms and got the blood flowing back into her numb hands. The unguent smelled like watermelons and caused my fingertips to tingle where I was gracefully applying it over her burned up ass, lashes welled up and angry looking.

"Aaahhh..." Rhada purred. "That feels nice."

"It reduces the pain and swelling plus decreases the likelihood of permanent scaring," I informed her. One aspect of our relationship was the limited skin area I could safely lash. If a sports bra and boy-shorts couldn't cover it, the lashing had to be very light lest someone ask embarrassing questions when she worked out sometime tomorrow. That meant her ass received a great deal of attention.

That translated into very delicate finger work for me as I poured the oily mixture on her behind without causing her more undue pain.

"One day you may need to keep me," she sighed happily.

"One day we won't have to hide," I mused. "We'll leave Havenstone in the same car, go over to our apartment and play all night long."

That was a fiction. I'd done wonders to Amazon society - mainly in the category of wondering what cosmic forces had converged to keep me alive in this misandrist Hell hole. Allowing me to take one of their princesses out on a date in order to submerge her in a secret rape fantasy was as likely as me becoming the next High Priestess.

The only two that had an inkling of what we were up to either actively didn't want to know for certain (Katrina), or had this delusion I was an ancient hero reborn and she could cure me of any dark impulses with her pure love (Oneida). Katrina was the most open-minded and adaptive full-blooded Amazon I knew and we had an understanding that if the nature of my affair with Rhada became public ... bad shit would happen. Oh yeah, Pamela would understand, but her opinion meant squat to everyone but me ... and Selena the assassin was also on the list.

I rolled Rhada's limp body to one side and gently applied the ointment to her swollen and raw nipples and lashed breasts. In retrospect, I'd been harsher than I thought I could be. She relished the attention then and now, and I was as careful as I could be. The right side done, I went to the left before letting her rest on her front once more. That part of aftercare done, I began using some massage oil on her shoulders and thighs where her muscles and joints had been stretched.

By the time I had finished, she was - I thought - sound asleep. I settled in beside her, running my hand through her luxurious black hair now sticky with sweat and down her spine avoiding the wounded flesh. She surprised me by catching me tenderly petting her with her eyes slit open. Rhada had been watching me.

"You do care for me ..." she trailed off.

"If I didn't care about you, I would have told Katrina by now and let her forbid us from seeing one another," I enlightened her.

"Oh ... but you kept us a secret from her," she smiled languidly. "Thank you. I know you value her as your mentor."

"That's one way to look at our working affiliation," I shrugged.

"Speaking of affiliations, was it your idea, or Buffy's?" she yawned.

"Not mine, since I have no clue what you are talking about."

"Buffy proposed to the Council an answer to our issue of the Regency," she eyed me. I went back to plucking the sweaty strands of hair off her back and brushing them to the side.

"Still not me ... what did she propose?"

"That the Regency be a single House head, an Apprentice and a Runner," she informed me. "I doubt we will approve a runner." Rhada's eyes closed as she soaked up my presence and compassionate gesture. "I was thinking I might volunteer to be the Apprentice since ... the Regency will remain in New York."

"Madi would allow this?"

"Madi wants to get back to the Homeland (India) now that the fight has heated up there. She is worried about our sisters going into battle. She wants to be there to lead them," she confessed.

"What about you? What do you want, Rhada?"

"I want to ... serve my people ..."

"And be close to me?" I inquired. She looked away. "I'd like that. Besides, I'm getting into danger all the time, so no place near me is safe. You will have plenty of chances to fight for the Host by staying here."

"Surely?" she turned back to me. "I should have thought of that. I would like to stay ... to fight by your side, Slayer of Ajax." More unwanted glory.

"So who you think the House Head will be?" I changed the subject slightly.

"Madi wants to insure it will be a 'reliable', meaning conservative member," she sighed. "We might have to pick two. I doubt we will elect a Runner to be our leader."

"What about Buffy? She is a former Runner and now Ishara's Apprentice," I suggested. Rhada studied me.

"I don't think we have considered that. You are honored now and Buffy is honored because of your efforts in the war. She might be acceptable," Rhada smiled up at me. "I love you," she murmured softly.

"I love you too," I replied in the same tone. Did I love her? I didn't know. I really wasn't sure what love was. A romantic soul would have confessed that and their loneliness to the world. Me? Nope. Truth didn't belong in passionate, thus irrational, relationships. Being caught in the lie destroyed relationships, not necessarily the lying itself.

Telling Rhada 'I love you' made her happy and she deserved to be happy with the torturous means she had chosen for herself. I thought she was freaky, but I was okay with that because it made her shine inside and out. If Rhada wanted to believe we had a special bond, so be it. I'd had special bonds with plenty of women before her, and with this one, she was a further part of all the other weirdness that I called a normal day. Our seriousness had returned to sensual play.

She stretched her left leg over my left, hissing slightly. I'd tore up her Heine but good and it hurt when her gluts flexed. Even with the unguents, she was going to know pain for the next few days. I was sure she'd enjoy the perverse thrill.

"Did my captive enjoy her spanking?"

"No," she fibbed piteously. I almost expected 'thank you, may I have another'.

"Lying will just make me impress upon you my domination more firmly next time," I grumbled. She shivered.

"Next time I'll fight harder," she swore. I wasn't convinced.

"You'll still end up tied to my bed with my rod driving in deep," I promised. That earned me another shiver of lust.

"Promise," she whispered. I tilted her head up so that we were eye to eye and nose to nose. Rhada pushed her body up and forward until we kissed. "I like this."

"I like this too. You feel good beneath my hands," I told her. She smiled warmly, affectionately. Muscle fatigue took hold and she collapsed on my chest. I stroked her hair for several seconds until her gentle snoring reached my ears.

{7:10 am, Thursday, August 28th ~ 11 Days to go}

When I arrived at weapons practice in the morning, I was dog tired and sure I had to take care of one more thing before showing up at the office. I relayed a message to St. Marie I needed five minutes of her time right after Katrina's morning review in Katrina's office. I sent word to Katrina, warning her as well as Buffy and Helena. Pamela showed up right before seven and I couldn't figure a good way to shush her away. That meant I had enough pain in my life for the moment.

Once there, after my final intern work review (I had facilitated a project that created a flying fish/piranha hybrid), after the other new hires left, I told those four how I had killed Ajax: I had fed him to an angry goddess. SzélAnya had done all the heavy lifting and she deserved the accolades. I couldn't in good conscience continue living under that cloud and accepting the glory that was truly hers.

The Golden Mare stepped up and we clasped arms.

"I'm about to hug you," St. Marie cautioned me. "Don't do anything stupid." Then she hugged me and I kept my hands above the waist despite my innate temptation to do something erotic.

"I suppose you will let everyone know," I said when she pulled back. Our arms were still clasped.

"I plan to tell the Council," she snorted with amusement, "mainly because it stands to help SzélAnya become an Amazon House. As for the rest of the Host ~ I have no problem letting you be the heroine - hero - who slew one of our greatest enemies. After all, if you could kill Ajax with your wits and will, how can they do any less?"

"We are in a desperate war against stiff odds, Cáel," Katrina explained. "That you killed Ajax - and I do believe Ajax wouldn't be dead without you - helps us believe destiny is on our side. There is nothing we can't do. What I want to know is how did you get SzélAnya to aid you?"

"Oh that," I released the Golden Mare's arm. "Ummm ... I believe that when Ishara enacted that curse through me, I was able, in a limited fashion, to peek through the Weave. When something supernatural is looking at me, I can sense it. That is how I saw the ghost at summer camp. When I interacted with Alkonyka, I drew SzélAnya's attention."

"I could see her just on the other side of the Weave, trying to interact in some way to help her few surviving descendants. I hypothesized that I could contact her if I was rendered violently unconscious and since I was bound to the Unconquered in the same way I am linked to Temujin, Saku and Alal, I could bring him over into what I call my 'Ishara-space' and deliver us both to SzélAnya."

"What if she had killed you?" St. Marie studied me.

"I was actually hoping Ajax would last long enough for me to regain consciousness," I shrugged. "Barring that, I was going to try talking my way out of it."

"Which was it?" Katrina mused.

"She decided she had uses for me, so I got to live," I grinned. "It was a close thing and an experience I hope never to repeat. Unfortunately she also saved my life over the Pacific so that's two I owe her ... and Ishara isn't happy about that."

"Your female deity is disappointed in you," St. Marie snorted. "I'm happy I am not alone."

"Not so much disappointed as ..."

"Territorial," Katrina finished for me. "I know the feeling."

"What? Me?" I looked her way.

"I'm about to lose you to JIKIT," she pointed out, "and I barely got you back. Now I'm not even getting my last eleven days ... all because the larger world needs you. Cáel, I want you to know that you have made my job far more fulfilling because of the attitude you take toward our work."

"I thought I was giving you headaches."

"No. That would be me," St. Marie interjected. "Katrina is your third greatest fan."

"Buffy and Helena?" I looked to Buffy and Helena.

"Of course," Katrina nodded. "They will be forever trying to repay you for the gift you gave them ~ to make them a full-fledged Amazon. Buffy is even prouder that you have entrusted her and Helena with expanding your House."

"We earned the right, Cáel, but so had many other deserving Runners who never got the chance," Buffy stated. "You gave all Runners real hope that any of us could one day be in a House, with children of our own. That our souls would go on for eternity."

"I especially like your idea to induct Runners whose time had passed so that your history would run both forward and backwards at the same time," Helena added.

"Speaking of telling people something they deserve to know ..." Katrina's hawk-like gaze regarded St. Marie. "Being the sponsor of House SzélAnya, he needs to know something about House Illuyankamunus."

"I am not the High Priestess, Katrina," St. Marie bristled.

"You have her authority invested in you," Katrina persisted. "How is he to know how much trouble he is causing unless you enlighten him?"

St. Marie growled, torn between two difficult choices.

"Everyone else, leave the room," St. Marie grumbled. Buffy shot me worried look before scooting out with Helena.

That left Pamela.

"I'm not staying because I think you will lie to him," Pamela stood. "I'm staying here because Cáel needs a filter ... and he'll tell me anyway when I ask."

"I'm glad I never had to work with you," St. Marie glared. "You and I would not have gotten along."

"I think we would have gotten along fine," Pamela gave a lopsided grin. "We would have hated one another then let each of us do what we are good at. You are a good strategist, Golden Mare. You are the right War Leader at the right time. I despise you, but I acknowledge the Host could do a whole lot worse."

"I am not even going to respond to that backhanded compliment in any other way than say ... may death welcome you soon."

"Hey now," I intervened. "Pamela is the Pat Garret to my 'Billy the Kid'."

"Cáel, Garret murdered Billy," Katrina grinned.

"No I didn't," Pamela struck a pose. "I helped him fake his death so he could live a normal life."

"What she said," I agreed.

"Fine! Fine," St. Marie threw up her hands. "Ishara ..."

"Call me Wakko," I interrupted. "We are friends."

"We are not friends," she growled. "Besides, I thought your code name was Yakko."

"That didn't work out for me. People think I'm the crazy one."

"Crazier one," Pamela corrected me.

"What she said," I pointed to Pamela.

"To think I am letting you be more famous than me," the Golden Mare muttered. "Why have the ancestors done this to me?"

"In private you get to hit him as much as you like," Katrina pointed out. St. Marie punched me in the upper arm - HARD.

"Ow!" I squawked. "Shouldn't you be doing something about this?" I looked to Pamela.

"I don't like her, but she's justified," Pamela shrugged.

"Bitch ...ow!" I yelped when St. Marie punched me again - in the same spot.

"I was saying that about Pamela," I told her. St. Marie looked to Pamela.

"Oh no," she smirked. "I'll get him later ... when he's not expecting it."

"Where were we?" St. Marie shook her head.

"House Illuyankamunus ..." Katrina steered us back on course.

"At the end of the Second Betrayal, the entirety of House Illuyankamunus protested the Council's decision, yet refused to oppose the decision. They swore to be a daily reminder of our shame until the last one died ... which they thought would be soon. They were not alone in feeling shame over what we did ... which you have proven to be wrong. Others felt the same way ... and instead of 'taking themselves to the cliff' when the Host was in such dire circumstances, they joined the House of the Thunder Dragon."

"Since that time, when individual Amazons feel they have been heinously shamed by their fellows without redress, the High Priestess has given them the option of joining Illuyankamunus instead," the Golden Mare explained.

"But ... oh, by the time SzélAnya recovered, all the original Illuyankamunus must have been dead," I reasoned. "Her heart remained with the children of Bolu, so she never returned to the Amazons who fought in her name."

"This 'out' has only been known to the highest ranking Amazons," St. Marie cautioned me. "Only the Council heads involved in such decisions have been told of the true nature of Illuyankamunus ... and not all have agreed that the House should have been allowed to continue. Only the High Priestess, the Keeper of Records and the House Head knew the goddess had turned her back on her followers ... and until you intervened, we didn't know the 'why' of the matter."

"Had you not jumped the gun, we might have been able to integrate the two Houses ... but you had to speak up and now we have the option of retaining House Illuyankamunus as an alternative to a wasted death and adding a new House that will re-forge a bond with men."

"Even in a small way," I nodded.

"It is never enough for you," St. Marie glowered.

"He does not push from behind," Katrina rallied to my defense. "He leads from the front like the charming lemming he is."

"Squeak!"

"The fox is an animal I identify with," St. Marie kept glaring. "Foxes eat lemmings."

"Is that an invitation to - Ow!" she punched me. "At least hit me somewhere else next time ..." which I realized a second to late meant, "OW!" she punched my other arm.

"Bodyguard! Body-guard," I staggered toward Pamela.

"You are in no real danger. That's just Amazon foreplay," she beamed happily my way.

"No - it is NOT," St. Marie seethed. "I find him abhorrent."

"Come on fisherman," Pamela shrugged.

"I'm coming. I'm coming. Katrina, I'll have something to report to you by the end of the day. I'm out of here while I still have use of my arms."

"Cáel, remember to not tell anyone," St. Marie warned me.

"About the Amazons having another weird way of being obstinate survivalists? Sure, no problem," I shrugged.

"That's breaking down a sacred tradition into another one of your delusional qualifications," St. Marie accused me.

"That's his way of saying he understands and has sympathy for our answer to the dilemma of unanswerable personality conflicts," Katrina translated.

"That's not what he said."

"Fine ... the Host is doing something that keeps some people alive so I heartily approve and understand the need for secrecy because rapid and complete solutions are all too often the solution our people reach," I elucidated.

"You could have told me that," St. Marie said. I put some distance between us.

"What fun would that be - come Kato!" I hurried out the door.

"You got that one right," Pamela laughed as she followed me out. "Now that the fun is over, it is time to get ourselves to the office."

{3:45 pm, Thursday, August 28th ~ 11 Days to go}

In a simple life you can always go 'well let me ask [somebody]'. On the surface, my relationship with JIKIT and the Khanate was that way. When JIKIT wanted something from the Khanate, they formally asked me and I asked Iskender, or if the matter was crucial enough, OT (Beg Oyuun Tömörbaatar, the Earth and Sky's representative in North America). The opposite was also true. Or, that was the way it should have been.

Since I was no longer twelve and asking the teacher for a bathroom pass, or giving the Vice Principle a note excusing me from school, I had to be careful what I asked for and had to filter requests through my own insights. Lady Yum-Yum (Fathom Worthington-Burke of the UK's MI-6) and Addison Stuart (CIA's National Clandestine Service) taught me to divine the 'yes, I'm on it', 'we'll work on it' and 'not in this lifetime' replies.

I couldn't make those decisions on whether or not the asking individual was a douche. Lives were hanging in the balance, even if the terms used were 'frozen assets' or informal requests to locate missing persons lost in the chaos of Western China. I had taken those lessons into my meeting with Ferit Hoxha, Permanent Representative of Albania to the United Nations.

I was supposed to smooth things over with him concerning my kidnapping. I did my normal in depth internet research (I swear, I keep meaning to donate money to Wikipedia) before our meeting so we could have something to talk about. We kept it simple, he expresses his country's deepest regrets over my kidnapping (because telling the truth that the Chinese had done it was too plain for me) then began talking about family.

Around dessert time the words 'what would you do if the Khanate asked you to join?' came spilling out of my mouth. Why? Maybe I was possessed. Did I know about the political background of the Balkans? No. I knew that Albanian and Greek girls looked different and that Albanians were Muslims whereas Greeks were Christian.

Thanks to the JIKIT team, I knew Greece had economic problems poor Albania could barely aspire to. They were the wimpy kid on the playground that never had a real shot at coming into their own. I felt bad about that, I guess, so I offered to bring them into Temujin's Big Tent. He would feel honored, I'd feel good about it and ... he leaned across the table and said 'really?'

So I made shit up. Of course Temujin valued Albania's geopolitical location on the European continent. How could he not? With the home of pizza and nun-porn just across the ... Adriatic and bunches of hot Slavic chicks to the north, what wasn't to love? My blood-brother, the Great Khan, was worried about his growing position via-a-vis Europe and who better to be his point men than the Albanians?

I am so full of shit. Sometimes I even stun myself.

Of course he would have to check with his government ... but he and other factors within the Albanian government had been hoping for such a thing ... huh?

Of course he was pleased that of all the languages in the world I was able to speak, I had chosen Albanian. It showed my dedication to his country's cause. Blame Alal.

Of course Albania would maintain its palatinate status within the Khanate ... because I said so, that's why.

Of course my buddy Temujin wouldn't leave me (and the Albanians) hanging around with our dicks in our hands looking like idiots ... because I was doing him a great favor I was totally unaware of.

Of course Greece was viewing Turkey with growing alarm due to its powerful position within the expanding Khanate ... because they have over five hundred years of bad blood and blood feuds I was ignorant of. Come on now, it doesn't take me a week to forgive people who have tried to kill me.

Of course Greece was in 'secret' talks with Russia about the Turkish Question since it looked like the rest of NATO wasn't going to do anything ...

And Temujin was aware of this threat to his European flank but had been unable to address it ...

And now he could use Albania to flank Greece the same way Russia was using Greece to flank Turkey.

I'm a freaking Realpolitik genius. Just ask Fathom, Addison and OT. I had to look 'realpolitik' up to realize it was spelled with a 'k'. I had called Iskender, he had called OT and OT had immediately called the Khan. Twenty-seven minutes later, OT called me back and had me set up a meeting with Ferit. Oh, and Iskender was coming over to talk about something the Great Khan wanted JIKIT to work on.

I said okay. I saw Iskender at least once a week, so I didn't know this was a bad sign. My superiors were wary to meet Iskender because intelligence types like their routines. When assets start acting strange, strange things happen. I knew this to be true. When your normally suspicious girlfriend suddenly acts all lovey-dovey, ... she knows ~ she knows.

Iskender's face showed that he didn't much like this change to our meeting schedule either. Introductions went around. Odette was the only one to say 'Glad to finally meet you' and mean it.

"Cáel Nyilas," he finally turned to me, "I bear a request from the Great Khan himself." No beating around the bush with this crowd.

"What do you need?" I replied. Irrationally, I found myself hoping 'please say you need a second for 'beer-pong''.

"Here is a flash drive with the particulars, but the basics are that we need the United States and the United Kingdom to lend diplomatic support to our efforts to obtain war material and other equipment from other aligned nations," he said.

"Things like?" Addison asked.

"Ships from the United States, tanks from Germany, helicopters from France and computer components for Japan and South Korea," he replied. "This is a list of roughly five thousand items we are attempting to procure."

"Sure, we'll help," I volunteered.

"Cáel, before someone has an aneurism, why don't you find out what your team can do," Pamela burst my bubble.

"Sir, what exactly does your faction think we at JIKIT can do? We are a covert interim unit with limited authority and oversight," Addison stated.

"Wouldn't this be something you could accomplish through your own extra-ordinary resources?" Yum-Yum asked.

"We can only get so much through back channels and shell companies," he replied. "With the quantities the Khanate needs ..." he trailed off.

"You can't make that many purchases," I nodded. Even I knew an eighteen year old could buy a six-pack with little effort and a so-so fake ID. Buying five kegs was a totally different matter.

There was a silence.

"Iskender, give the team 48 hours to go over this data. We will either return it as if we never received it, or act upon the information on your behalf," Yum-Yum spoke with finality.

"I understand," he bowed his head. "I will await your response."

"I'll see you out," I told Iskender. "I get the feeling you knew this would be our reply."

"I didn't, but the Great Khan did," he gave a weak smile. "Honestly, I don't know what to make of the request."

"We do and I think we can get it done," I assured him. I escorted him to the elevator then returned to the room.

I didn't have to be told what was wrong with this. If your girl finds out you ate fast food with another chick, you can explain it away. If you got take-out, or breakfast at some nice nook ... then you had trouble by association. By giving us their Christmas list, Temujin had told us more than what he needed. He was telling us what he didn't need as well.

This gave us incredible insight into Khanate economic and military policy over the next three years. See, you could go to Best Buy and purchase a 72" widescreen TV. It was what Best Buy did. You couldn't show up expecting to buy 500,000 TV's though. To get them you had to tell the manufactures they needed to build them because there was a market for that many systems.

In turn, they need to buy the various components they didn't build themselves. That meant you would need to smelt more copper, produce more plastics and mine more cadmium ... because they would be needed. Therefore, what the Khanate was ordering was stuff they expected to get three to thirty-six months down the line. This went beyond the war with China.

As an example, the Khanate was ordering 265 Leopard 2A7 tanks from Germany to be delivered within two years. Germany didn't have those tanks lying around. They needed to build them. They had to expand the factories to build them and therefore produce all the components you needed for a brand new cutting edge tank at a faster rate than ever before.

This also told us the Khanate didn't expect to build enough tanks for their own use, much less export to allies such as Vietnam. Maybe they didn't have the construction capacity ... or maybe they were busy building something else. We could figure that out by seeing what else they were purchasing abroad ... things like cars, trucks, tractors and locomotives.

This was an excellent and powerful gift. It was also ...

"This is poison," Addison began the next phase of the meeting.

"I disagree," Mehmet Ali Sharif (our State department analyst) countered. "This will provide JIKIT with exceptional insight into what the Khanate's medium term goals are."

"It is both," Yum-Yum nodded.

"The question is 'who are we going to share this with?'" I sighed. That was the critical juncture. After all, the UK and US had team of analysts whose sole job was to make forecasts like this.

"We decide that in 47 ½ hours," Yum-Yum stated. "Mehmet, lets farm out 15% of this packet to different agencies and see what they come up with. Keep things compartmentalized."

"Will do. Addison, let's burrow through this data to see what we can send to who," he got to work.

"Cáel, what is your insight into the Great Khan's thinking," Addison turned to me. "Are we being suborned?" I had to think that over.

"Yeah," I nodded. "He's got six months to figure out who is friends and enemies are and he might as well decide where we stand right now. If we share this data, he gets hurt, but it will mean the end of our taskforce and the end of real hard information about what the Khanate is up to as well."

"Serving three masters never turns out well," Yum-Yum smirked. "Still, our regular intelligence agencies are months away from piecing together the inner workings of the Khanate and we have jack-off HUMINT on the ground. Our respective countries have 'back-burner-ed' Central Asia and now that's biting us in the ass. Barring an excessive NBC (Nuclear, Biological, or Chemical weapons) platform, I think we buy in."

That meant becoming a true intermediator between our respective governments and the Khanate. That also meant continuing to work with the Amazons and 9 Clans, because if we betrayed the Khanate at this juncture, how much could the others really trust us? No, to keep JIKIT going, we were going to hide this information, thus becoming complicit in what the Khanate planned.

We had already wandered past the point of intelligence-gathering and analysis to actual policy-making some time ago. This was the point of no return though. This wasn't plausible deniability. This was actively helping the Khanate achieve their national goals and meant moving beyond the realm of covert activities and into one of co-conspirators. I honestly thought we'd all buy in.

"So, what's next on the agenda?" I posed the question.

"Someone is late for their knife-fighting training," Pamela gave me a shark's smile. I smiled too. Finally I had something to do that I didn't understand, but didn't mind being ignorant about. If I fucked up, it would all be on me.

{9:45 pm, Thursday, August 28th ~ 11 Days to go}

Brooke Lee was many things, but being a cook wasn't one of them. What inspired her to cook dinner was almost beyond me. It had to do with that checklist women go through when seeing what a guy doesn't see in them. Brooke was gorgeous, fun to be around (if a bit snobby) and good in the sack. So, what made me closer to Libra and Hana than her? She wasn't trying to compete with the Amazons, thank God.

She was better looking than Libra (true) and just as much fun ... and if Libra was a better lay she would have hung herself, so it had to come down to womanly stuff ~ things like housecleaning, buying stuff and cooking. House-cleaning was a continuous menial effort and she had a maid service for that. Buying stuff? She had that down pat.

Cooking? How hard could that be? VERY..., but she hadn't accepted that, so here I was eating charred prime rib, rubbery asparagus tips, lumpy mash potatoes (made from real potatoes - I'd seen the peals in the trashcan) and some sort of Tomato salad. When she informed me she was cooking, I began looking for a reason not to come over for a late night rendezvous. Then she dropped the E-bomb.

"If you don't come over, it will be just me and Casper (Winslow) again."

"Casper's still in town?" I asked. Since that horrible weekend where I first met Hana (good for my life), her father (hates my guts) and her cruel brother Brennan (now dead by my indirect intervention), Casper's life had been one of healing from the worst kind of treatment (by Brennan's now deceased posse) possible. I couldn't treat her like a pariah.

"I'm coming over to see you, but it will be great to see Casper again as well," I elaborated/exaggerated.

"Great," she gushed. "I'll see you at nine."

"Make in nine thirty," I said. "I need to see a girl about a bed."

"You are horrible," she chided me playfully, clearly not believing me.

"No I'm not. I'm tucking Aya into bed. She has an early start tomorrow and she's going to be gone all weekend, so this will be the last time I'll see her until Monday night. I'll be at your place as soon as possible after that," I told her. Aya was going to Doebridge and I was making a habit of steering clear of that Amazon municipality. Their security and I had a disagreement last time I was there.

"It is sweet of you to keep up with that little girl you were kidnapped with," she cooed. "You are a cool, great guy."

"She's a special kid. We share a bond," I said. That was true and then some.

"I'll see you at nine-thirty. You won't be disappointed."

And so I was at Brooke's at nine-thirty, getting ready to eat a largely indigestible dinner. Casper had stammered a greeting while looking at me happily. The smoke from the kitchen was warning enough of what was to come. I made light of the charred disaster. I didn't point out that two hours at 350 didn't equate to an hour and a half at 450. It just didn't.

Brooke made up for her culinary inadequacies by looking good enough to eat off the plate, off the floor, or between the covers. She had on an Aqua tank top, black bra and khaki shorts with open-toed sandals on her feet. Casper was in the same general get up, except her tank top was white as was her bra.

I carved up the beast while those two stood around drinking wine. The roast beast (original species uncertain) was as dry as leather, but the knife was sharp. We discussed Brooke's job hunting lack of success. The jobs she was qualified for didn't pay enough, required her to ignore too much leering and were generally an insult to her intelligence. Basic 'intern' stuff really.

I mentioned Libra's job with Hana. She created some excuses about making her own way in the world then followed that up by asking if I could use my newfound influence to send some job offers her way. 'Surely not everyone at Havenstone was that way'. No. She had seem them being polite. They could be much, much worse.

"Why don't you become a consultant?" I suggested.

"That would be nice," Casper said. Brooke had become her closest friend.

"What would I consult in?" Brooke inquired.

"Employment," I mused. "You know networking and you know people who are looking for specific kinds of jobs. Start your own business."

"I like that idea," Brooke grinned. "I could create a web page and get business cards, raise the start-up capital and start getting listings and finding clients."

"I know some people who could help out," I offered, "as long as Central Asia is an acceptable location."

"What kind of work do you think you can find?"

"Well ... they need to build a government," I worked on my idea quickly because Brooke was literally dripping with sex. I was thinking 'tapping that booty all night long' sex.

Women love sex, romance and sensuality. They also want to love their lives, feel successful and have just as much independence as they fantasize to be a good thing. I was coming through for Brooke yet again. I'd bolstered her when her former fiancé's life imploded, casting her aside. I'd later given her the strength to make a moral stand for Casper and now I was helping her out of her career doldrums. God, she was going to let me fuck her silly. She was going to be freaking animal.

But first we had to pretend to eat before we somehow shuffled Casper off to bed. The tomato salad was edible. It turned out to be Casper's contribution to tonight's festivities. I made sure to compliment her on it, while not mentioning the rest of this disaster. Brooke didn't mind. Midway through the meal, she stood up and paced about while calling her parents. Her Mom answered, so she gave that woman the good news first.

My name came up ... to her father ... and not in a bad way, which was rather rare.

'Yes, I was engaged to Hana Sulkanen. I was also her friend as well as Libra's.'

'I had friends in the Khanate, where business opportunities were aplenty.'

'Security concerns? No. She knew some people (my Amazons) who did that kind of work. Besides, it wasn't like she was going there.'

"You might want to consider going there and meeting some of their people on the ground before sending your friends to that part of the world," I whispered.

'Oh, I'll probably go to ...'

"Astana."

'Astana, their capital. Father, there are extraordinary opportunities there. I'll be fine.'

"I'll hire you some private security," I suggested. I wouldn't use the Ghost Tigers I had guarding Hana. That would be inappropriate. I couldn't use Amazons for that kind of work either.

I was thinking about using Captain Delilah Faircloth of Her Majesty's MI-6. They had all kinds of contractors they'd used in China who would be looking for work now that the shooting had temporarily stopped. For all I knew, Lady Yum-Yum could use Brooke's new business as a cover to insert British operatives into the former capital of Kazakhstan.

Now that I thought about it, that was a good idea. Brooke would have her hand in an espionage operation and not even suspect it at first. Later on ... she'd probably love the peripheral risks and experience was experience.

'Cáel can hire some private security using his government contracts.'

'I know you know people in the government Papa, but Cáel's people actually kill people.' Which went over like a bamboo hut in a tidal wave, but Brooke was irrepressible. Her parents wished her luck, Brooke did a happy dance and Casper snuggled close to me.

"Hey Casper," I put an arm around her. I was relieved she didn't flinch. I remained a good guy in her estimations of such things. I'd also hack my own hand off if it tried anything overtly sexual. "How are you coming along?"

"Better ... day by day and my therapy group is good ... very caring."

"Glad to hear it. If there is anything personal that I can do, don't hesitate to ask. It is not a matter of debts to one another. You are worth it."

"I'm glad you still think so," she stared up at me. I could easily dismiss her being needy. She was truly a damsel in need of a shoulder, a warm hand and a kind word. I didn't owe her because of Brennan and Anima. I owed her as a fellow human being.

"Isn't he the best guy in the world?" Brooke beamed. "We need to find ourselves one just like him." I couldn't see how that was going to happen. I was born in the wrong neighborhood, went to the wrong school and hung out with a different brand of friends. The convergence of me with Trent, which then led to Libra and Brooke, had been beyond bizarre.

Felix was such an idiot for not buying into Brooke instead of stupidly trying to use her against me. Even that had backfired when I sucker-punched him in front of nearly a hundred Amazons. I'd knocked him out cold because he had shown more balls than brains in that one encounter. I wouldn't get that lucky again. I'd have to figure a way a new way to kick his Alpha-male ass.

"I'd argue with you, but I'm a hell of a guy. I'm a prince among men," I joked. "I mean that literally, I'm a Prince of Hungary and Transylvania."

"Does that come with one of those cool sashes and lots of medals and ribbons?" Brooke teased.

"I'm sure the Hungarians are working on that right now," I chortled.

"Magyarorszag es Erdely Hercege" Casper murmured. "I read it in USA Today. They said it was something the Romanians gave you, but I wasn't sure what it was."

"In Romanian it is "Prinţul Ungariei şi Transilvaniei", I clarified. "Prinţul is ..."

"Is what?" Brooke said after a moment's lapse.

"When I went into battle with the Romanians, that is what they called me. It was a jest of sorts, not real," I sighed, recalling that dark day. Casper patted my hand.

"Is Magyarorszag the name for 'prince'?" Brooke requested.

" Magyarorszag is the name the Hungarians call their homeland," I clarified. "Hercege is their word for prince ... but let's not buy into the hype. I'm just a guy with a job that entails greater risk than a pizza delivery driver."

"A Jewish pizza delivery driver in downtown Gaza, Cáel. Every time I see you, you are sporting a new scar, or scratch. What do you have for me this time?" she gave me a sultry 'come-hither' look. I caught it and liked what I saw. Casper caught it and sighed slightly.

"I'm sleepy," she yawned. "I should be going to bed."

"Oh no," Brooke protested. I almost believed her. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'll take an Ambien then be out like a light," Casper said before giving my hand another squeeze.

"You don't have to do this," I whispered into Casper's ear. "I'll brave another one of Brooke's home-cooked meals to spend time with her." Casper giggled.

"Hey now! What was that about?" Brooke pouted. She was definitely going to be wrapping those scrumptious lips around my cock in the next three hours, of that I was certain.

"He ... ah ... was wondering if we could do this again real soon," Casper babbled, caught between fright and comedy.

"Soon," Brooke shot me more of the 'sexy'. "He hasn't even made it out of the door yet."

"I like the way you think," I winked to Brooke.

"What do you think is on my mind," she was provoking me. I didn't say a word. I chose to undress her with my eyes instead. She knew what I was doing too.

"Bedtime," Casper put both hands on the table then stood. "Thanks for coming over tonight." I stood as well, hugged her then briefly watched her walk away. Just because she was 'handle with care' didn't mean she wasn't a handful. My miniscule number of rules included not doing it with girls not in their right minds. I wanted them to be free to hate me when the time came.

Brooke saw Casper off to the bathroom for her meds and the whole pre-bedtime ritual stuff while I cleaned up the dinner table. Five minutes of work now meant not waking up to the smell of ruined food later. The only thing in need of saving was the salad. I Saran Wrapped the rest of it. I was going to claim I was taking it into work for breakfast then dispose of it at our HQ ~ One MiMA Tower.

Once I was finished, I puttered around noisily until Brooke came looking. I could have gone to her bed and stripped naked, eagerly waiting for sex. Since Brooke was trying to play in the same league as Hana, she might have misconstrued that as me taking advantage of her. If not tonight then in the morning when she replayed the encounter. Brooke liked to be 'in charge', so I fed that instinct.

I had come here for sex. We both knew that, but we could pretend we didn't. Brooke could then want to have me and got to make sure I wanted her with or without sex ... so we could have guilt-free sex together. Brooke was not overly complicated ... for a girl ... and she was hot enough to be worth having to go through these sorts of games.

"Whatchya thinking about?" Brooke said as she sashayed into the kitchenette.

"You," I met her gaze. She licked her upper lip.

"I've been thinking about you too," she moved within my comfort zone. I obliged her aggression by placing my hands first on her hips then, as I pulled her close, to the small of her back. We were groin to 'growing' and I was very aroused by her presence and her scent.

"Are you going to toy with me some more so that I go home tonight stiff and moaning with lust?" I groaned.

"I like toying with you," she snickered. "You are fun."

"You are fun and sexy. We need to try another beach weekend with less drama before the season ends," I played to her amusement.

"I don't think I can wait for the weekend," she protested by shimmying her hips against me. "While you were out saving the world, I've been all alone."

"Oh hell no!" I hissed. "What brought that on?"

"You are a hard act to follow," she teased. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too," wasn't a total lie. I hadn't been celibate by a long shot. That didn't mean I didn't miss her.

"How about we do a little bit less 'missing'?" she suggested.

"I'd like to have you on the sofa," I pressed into her.

"I'd like to have you in the bedroom ~ my bed is bigger," she grinned. My eyes shown with anticipation, which was what she was looking for. Brooke took my hand and led me through the living room and around the corner to her bedroom.

She cat-crawled onto the bed while I hurriedly stripped down. She languidly lay back on the pillows, hair billowed around her in a dark halo while she hungrily watched my physique being revealed to her. Brooke's left hand traced a line down around her breast to her pubic mound where she started playing with herself. Her eyes fluttered, her lust blossomed into womanhood and I was beside her in a flash.

Instead of falling in beside her (she was close to her side of the bed), or to her far side, I came at her from the foot of her bed. I spent only a few seconds kissing her toes, shins and kneecaps. While my kisses made moist lip-prints up her thighs, I unbuttoned her short shorts and undid the zipper. Brooke raised her hips so I could pull her clothing down ~ no panties.

To change things up slightly, I finished the removal by turning her over onto her stomach, then pulling on her hips until she was in the doggy-style position. She looked back at me, her eyes framed by dark lashes and darker eyebrows on her tanned flesh. I pressed her shoulder blades down until her breasts were squeezed against the bed.

After that, I slid down until I was on my belly. Using my shoulders and neck, I began licking her labia from the hood to the anus. That got her going and before long, I was drinking from her nectar and loosening up her butthole with some quality rimming. Brooke had prepped for me carefully and cleanly and this made me attack her nether regions with renewed gusto. Butt sex was in the offing.

Not yet though. I got her all nice and gushing, but I wanted to try something more. I kept my tongue action going on while I coiled my body behind her. With a quick, graceful repositioning, I rose up on my knees, her thighs resting on my shoulders while I made furious suction actions onto her clit.

"Yeeeppp ... Yeah!" Brooke exhaled. "This is ... aha ... new."

True to my predations, while I worried and nibbled her vaginal accoutrements, Brooke took one hand (the other she was using to pull her hair aside) and began stroking my cock. Her tongue touched my spongy head several times before she stopped the outright teasing and placed her lips upon my glans. She didn't suck it in. On no. She sucked on my angry red helmet, running her lips right to the edge then back again, as if I was a Popsicle.

I was leaning back on my haunches because of the awkward hold on hips with the weight I had to support. Not that Brooke was at all heavy.

"Crawl forward," I mumbled from between her legs. It took her a few seconds to figure out I wanted to return us to our starting position. She made a great display of slithering forward. My tongue stayed in her vagina until both her knees hit the comforter.

At that stage she was ready to go. I positioned my penis between her upper thighs, thrust forward and played along her clit and landing strip of pubic hair. I rubbed her juices all around. My second thrust was steady and true, driving straight into her molten vaginal folds until my hairs ground against her ass and my forcefulness lifted her knees temporarily off the sheets.

With my third lunge into her, Brooke reached back and stopped my rocking motion. I stilled which allowed her to reach over to the side table, open the drawer and pull out a designer bottle of lubricant.

"I know this is what you like," she panted in anticipation. I knew this was what we both wanted by the way she ran her fingers along my palm before making the hand-off.

This was one of those bottles with the glass stopper, so it make a slight grinding sound as I opened it. Brooke want down onto all fours, her palms resting on the comforter. Her head was down and her waist-long black hair masked her features, but not her sounds of pleasure.

"Arch your back Brooke," I said as I inhaled her intoxicating aroma. She did so willingly. I let the oil pour down in a thin stream and rubbed it in with my thumb.

I had to carefully aim my phallus against her sphincter because Brooke hadn't been lying about her lack of sexual attention. She was tight and her anus hadn't been plundered by anyone in my long (for me) absence. Hell, this long and I was normally back to 'make-up' sex. I certainly wasn't going to be ramming my rod home with any great passion for a few minutes.

I didn't want to cause her (too much) pain nor have her anal muscles constrict the skin off my love missile.

"Ooohhh ..." she moaned. "I love it when you are gentle, Cáel. It reminds me how much you care for how I feel." She punctuated that statement by rolling her hips, driving in my entire cockhead into her rectum. Her body tensed up then bucked. I popped out of her.

"Put it back in," she gasped. There was so much to love about Brooke and her enthusiasm. Once I had my penis tip back in, I rested my left hand on the small of her back to keep her back arched while I reached around with my right and began twisting and palming her right breast through her shirt and bra. As I was slowly twisting and thrusting, Brooke's arms gave out and she went face first into her pillow. Her breast pressed my hand down on the comforter and her repositioning drove a full inch of my cock suddenly into her.

Brooke gave out a strangled sob followed by a whimpering sound. My left hand took my weight. My right came around and pulled her hair away from her face so she could breathe easier and I could judge her pain through her facial expressions.

"Oh God," she spat a strand of hair out of her mouth, "It feels like you are going to split me in half."

"Too late to back out now," I teased her.

"I can ... hssssss ... take anything you can give me ... Cáel Nyilas," she taunted me through clenched teeth. I gave her another inch for her impertinence. She tried to crawl forward before she surprised me by thrusting up and back.

"God damn!" she howled. "You're huge!"

I imagined that my cock would feel like a fucking Sequoyah shoved up my ass if I pulled off a stunt like that too. Brooke was game for more. I had enough in that now I could start fucking her without fear of popping out. Her hands bunched up the comforter around her head as she hung on for dear life. This felt so good that squeezing my last bit in felt rather inconsequential after all the physical and erotic ground we had covered up until then.

Brooke's stomach clenched up as her orgasm jumped her and me. Every muscle in her body spasmed, including her rectal ones. I was shooting off into her bowels inside a second. My heat only made her climax come that much harder. I kept humping away like a chimp on crack while Brooke began to squeal out between baited breathe.

"Damn, that was intense," I remarked as I fell to her side. Brooke was still face down/ass up with her eyes squeezed shut, still riding through her own aftershocks of her sensual seismic waves.

"Oh ... oh ... oh ..." she panted hoarsely. "I want to ... (pant) ... do that again ... real soon."

I spanked her ass loudly and prepared on shaky legs to remount her.

"Noooo," she moaned. "Give my ass a minute's rest. Can't we do something else for a while?"

"How about I get cleaned up and get you a hot wash cloth?" I suggested as my nostrils flared.

"I'll just lie here and feel sated," she murmured. Her knees slid down until her stomach was down on the bed. I gave her abused backside another tender spank then slid off the bed. I quick-stepped it out of the room ... and nearly tripped over Casper who had been out in the hall watching us.

"I," she stammered. I shut the door then crossed the hallway from her.

"No problems, Casper. I was hoping that we wouldn't wake you up," I coaxed her down the hallway to her door, and away from Brooke's room. I noticed her eyes constantly flicking down to my crotch. "Hang on," I held up my hand. When she nodded, I quietly sprinted down to the living room, grabbed up a throw pillow then sprinted back. Now I could be covered up.

"Why didn't you get a towel out of the bathroom?" Casper whispered.

"I'm an idiot," I shrugged. She sniffled then giggled.

"You make Brooke very happy, but ..."

"But?"

"But you are engaged to Hana Sulkanen."

"I'm a Love Monkey," I shrugged. "I find it difficult to be with just one woman. It is never that a woman isn't enough for me. It is that there is something wrong with me that is never truly satisfied so I keep roaming."

"Don't you ... worry about the women you are with?"

"I'm not a wonderful human being, Casper. That is all I can think to say."

"You aren't like Brennan ... not like that ... hold on." Casper retreated to her room then came back with a folded up piece of news print. By the size it was one of those articles you found on page 17. "Here," she handed it over. "It was delivered here in an envelope with my name on it."

I looked it over. A 'Jane Doe' had been found in Charleston harbor, SC, dead from an overdose.

"Three days before I got that, I got a call from Anima," she told me. "She told me," Casper gulped. "She told me that she was very sorry about all that had happened. She was sorry. That was it."

"Oh."

"Anima is dead now, isn't she?"

"Yeah, I think so," I noted sadly. "Does that change anything with you?"

"I don't know. I mean, Brooke told me that you would make sure none of those people would ever be around to bother me again, but ... was this you?"

"No and yes. I told someone with the power to make a difference what happened to you and who was responsible. After that, I never heard about the matter again. Anima did stop by once, crazy with fear but unrepentant. I honestly feel that how she ended up feeling wouldn't have made a difference on whether she lived, or died. I don't know what to make of her call."

"She ... it doesn't help. I still have to take a sleeping pill to keep the nightmares away. I haven't told my therapist about the death, or how everyone else is either dead or disappeared. I don't know what to think. I was hoping you would."

"I'm not normally the person people go for answers. I'll make up an answer, if that's what you want."

She reached up and touched my forearm.

"I prefer honesty," she smiled. "I guess I was hoping for you to be more ... perfect than you are. That was unfair of me."

"You wouldn't be the first person to mistake me for a decent human being," I joked. "Usually that misconception only lasts a week or so. I promise you... I'll be living down to your expectations in no time."

"Brooke thinks highly of you ... and so do I. We've known you more than a couple of weeks," Casper feebly jibed.

"I've been behaving myself," I teased her.'

"Brooke sounded ..." she trailed off. I waited. "You two sound like you enjoyed one another."

"That's how it is supposed to be. You'll feel that one day too. You'll meet someone who thinks of your pleasure first. And, if he doesn't, you will have to train him to do it right."

"You make it sound so easy," Casper sighed.

"Do you really think I'm that unique?"

"A prince, avenger, soldier-of-fortune, titan of the bedroom?" she lightened up. We'd crossed a barrier. I was 'joke-able'.

"We have union meetings every third Wednesday," I grinned. "We kick back, drink a few beers and figure out what hot spots and hotties we need to concentrate on for the next month."

"I ... thank you, Cáel," she smiled.

"For what?"

"For not disappointing me. You are a nicer guy than you give yourself credit for."

"Thank you, Casper," I reached over and hugged her. She didn't flinch. "For treating me like I can make a difference."

"I need to go to bed now," she yawned. I hugged her again then stepped back. She walked to her door and began to shut it. I swore I heard her whisper 'you do', but I wasn't sure. I had to hurry to the bathroom, heat up a wash cloth while cleaning up, before finally getting back to Brooke. I found her reclining on the bed, totally naked.

"Sorry I took so long," I told her.

"I know. It is okay. I heard most of it," she glowed happily. "Casper needs someone - someone who isn't me. I'm not the most patient friend in the world. I sort of feel responsible for her and she needs someone to talk to about normal stuff ... but I miss going to clubs and hanging out with friends who talk back." I sat on the bed and began to run the warm cloth up her thighs.

"What was it like ... that fight in Romania?" she asked as we switched off with the washcloth. She tenderly worked over her abused anal region.

"The battle? A skirmish really ..."

"Yes," she paused. "Between that and being kidnapped, you've had a mentally draining time since we last spent some time together. You act like you haven't changed much, but ..."

"It's okay. I know it sounds cliché, but it is hard to explain those things unless you've lived thru them."

"If you don't want to talk about it," Brooke gave me an out. I could tell this was a part of my life she wanted to be a part of; my manliness on display.

"I'm okay. I can't really say I was scared for myself either time. During the kidnapping I was concerned for Aya. All of the normal human stuff came later, after the crisis was over. During the kidnapping ... there isn't much to talk about. As for the fight ... at the time I had a plan and was waiting for the opportunity to implement it. Bullets were flying. Men around me were getting wounded. I can't recall seeing any of the men on my side getting killed."

"Did you get shot?" she stroked my abdomen.

"Bruised, though my flak jacket had to do its job once or twice," I sighed. I could almost hear the sounds of the bullets whizzing around me once more. Wounded men hadn't screamed out when they were hit. They'd grunted. The cries would come later when the enormity of their pain sunk in.

"I made sure the main bad guy ~ the Boss ~ didn't get away. I think I wounded one guy. That was it; my contribution to the battle."

"It was your plan that won the fight though, right?"

"Yes. I did what leaders are supposed to do ... but that didn't mean I could save all my guys and gals."

"You are very courageous," Brooke cuddled in. "You don't back down often, but you are not an ass about it. You are the least 'macho-asshole' macho-man I've ever met ... and I'd like to see more of you," she purred.

"I'm already naked," I played naïve. Brooke pushed me down and straddled my lap.

"I guess I'll just have to appreciate the naked you some more then," she chortled. Brooke took charge long enough for me enter her then we combined our efforts, her moving with her thighs and me with my hands on her hips, to engage in some serious love-making.