Balance of Forces

by Ali Vali

  “Look at me,” Kendal said, thrusting her fingers in completely and holding them there, but still rubbing Piper’s clit hard with her thumb. Piper opened her eyes and gifted her with such an open expression that she released the last bit of fear that kept her from giving Piper the commitment she deserved.

  “What if you found someone you could walk the road of forever with?” Morgaine had asked her. She could easily answer what had seemed impossible to fathom only a few hours ago. Asked again, she’d say yes, even if forever consisted of sixty short years, if they were lucky. It was worth taking the chance because love gave her no other recourse.

  “Can you see how beautiful you are in the way I love you?” Kendal asked, still moving only her thumb. Piper held her breath, as if trying to hold back the orgasm she so obviously wanted.

  “I’ve never been so turned on in my life.” Piper sounded as if she’d been running for miles.

  Kendal pumped her hand three times, letting her thumb slam into Piper’s hardness, and Piper hissed when she pulled almost all the way out, leaving only the night air caressing Piper.

  “You own my heart. I hope you know that.”

  “Not the time for sappy, baby,” Piper said, reaching between her legs to grab her wrist. “You turned me on, got me so wet I’m dripping, and I’m so hard it’s making me crazy, so do something about it.”

  “I’m known for my deal-closing abilities,” she said, moving her fingers in to the knuckles.

  “Prove it.” Piper arched her back, forcing her fingers all the way in when she squeezed her fingers around her wrist. “If you really love me, make me come.”

  “Whatever you want.” She started slowly again, feeling Piper’s wetness soak her entire hand, smiling when Piper pushed her onto her back.

  The reversal of positions allowed Piper to move as freely as she wanted and let Kendal enjoy watching as Piper pumped her hips, varying her speed as if to hold back her orgasm a few times. When Kendal reached up and pinched her nipple, Piper leaned forward and rested her hands on Kendal’s shoulders. With her eyes closed, Piper moved her hips, taking in the length of Kendal’s fingers on every downward stroke until she moaned and stopped.

  “Shit,” Piper said as she squeezed Kendal’s fingers, not seeming to stop the spasms and twitches as the remnants of her orgasm burned through her. “It’s amazing that I’ve lived this long feeling so little.” Piper rested her head on her shoulder, panting when she didn’t seem to have the strength to hold herself upright. “I hope you’re this passionate when I’m eighty, because I’m positive this won’t get old.”

  “I may keep you here and naked until you’re eighty. I love you, Piper,” she said, pulling out and maneuvering them under the blankets, smiling at Piper’s look of contentment.

  “What about you, love?” Piper asked.

  “What about me?”

  “I want to touch you. It isn’t fair not to return the favor,” Piper said, appearing mortified when she yawned.

  “Sleep now, little one. The Elders keep telling me to believe in eternal life, and now that I have you, I hope they’re right. With you it’ll take forever to show you how much I love you.”

  “For future reference, this is the perfect time for sappy.” Piper closed her eyes.

  “Don’t worry, I’m taking notes.” She kissed Piper’s forehead. “We’ll have plenty of time for all the things we’ll do together.”

  “Promise me again,” Piper asked, before sleep claimed her.

  “I’ll never leave you, love, and I’ll always be here to watch over you.”

  Epilogue

  They spent a month exploring parts of Venice and the surrounding countryside, talking and making love. It was incredible for Kendal to finally be with someone and not have to hide any part of herself, and to find acceptance in Piper’s arms. Lenore had read Piper the Clan’s account of her life, but Piper had also listened attentively as Kendal told stories of the people she’d met and the lessons they’d shared with her.

  Her life before Piper had been full, and she’d tried to find people and things to bring joy into it, like her brief relationship with Angelina and Tomas. Now she was content to watch Piper sleep every night after they’d made love, holding her until morning. That so simple an act would bring her so much peace made her love for Piper grow.

  While their time together quieted the warrior spirit in Kendal, it had brought Piper to life in a way that made her feel like nothing could penetrate the happiness she’d experienced. She’d never had a lover who took such time and seemed to get so much pleasure from trying to give her everything she’d dreamed of.

  Kendal didn’t have to tell her how much she loved and cherished her; Piper could see it in her eyes and feel it every time they touched. They hadn’t been together that long, but Piper didn’t doubt that what they’d found was permanent. That was why she’d asked Kendal the most daunting question the week before as they lay on one of the chairs on the balcony watching the sun burn the dew from the fields. She was that sure.

  She kneeled next to Kendal and asked her to mix the elixir of the sun for the third time. Kendal didn’t say anything as she explained her reasons. “I don’t want to live forever if I can’t share eternity with you, and I can’t imagine leaving you in death to go on alone.” This was the only way she could prove how much she loved Kendal, and was why they were back in the field of Kendal’s daffodils.

  The dawn wasn’t far off, but Piper could see what Kendal was doing in the light from the full moon. Kendal had bathed her like Lenore had described Morgaine doing for Kendal in the pool of their oasis, and now she knelt before Piper mixing a multitude of ingredients and speaking a language she didn’t understand.

  Kendal dropped in the last item before looking at her. “Are you sure? Once it’s done, no one can undo it. You will move forward in time, but you can’t return to this moment.”

  It looked like water, but released a yellow vapor, so Piper assumed it was ready. She knew she could back out and Kendal would understand. “I don’t remember very much of the French I learned in school, but a phrase came back to me this morning.”

  “You don’t have to do this,” Kendal said, obviously taking her ramblings as a sign of her uncertainty.

  “Let me finish,” Piper said, smiling. “Do you know what toujours ici means?”

  “Always here.”

  “In Lenore’s book, that will be the chapter title of our story. I’ll always be here for you, my love.” She placed her hand over Kendal’s heart. “Am I sure? As sure as I am in my love for you.”

  Kendal handed her the chalice and said, “Then you’ll walk at my side for as long as the world exists. For three thousand years I’ve lived and learned all I could, but it’s taken me only a very short time to learn my most valuable lesson.”

  “What’s that, my love?”

  “That I cannot, and do not, want to live without you.”

  Piper held up the cup in a toast and smiled before she brought it to her lips, tasting it tentatively at first, then draining it when she felt like she was drinking in a cool flare from the sun. When the elixir had done its work, Piper opened her eyes on a new world, and her skin began to tingle as the sky lit with the first rays of sunrise.

  Kendal focused on the small twitches in Piper’s body, a sure sign that the elixir was bonding with every fiber, bone, and muscle. She laughed with Piper threw the cup away and held her hand out. When their eyes met, Kendal gasped.

  For the first time since the elixir had existed, it failed to make the physical change that marked Piper as a child of the Clan. The other physical changes Kendal witnessed left no doubt that Piper was immortal, but her eyes were still green.

  “What’s wrong?” Piper gripped her hands with strength that only the elixir could provide.

  “Your eyes,” she said, as the legend Lenore had told her at the beginning of their training came to mind.

  “We have a matching set, huh?” Piper asked.

  “
No, but it makes no difference to what’s important.” She didn’t want Piper to worry.

  Lenore had spoken of this as their training was coming to an end, outside Giza, in 535 BC.

  “Before the first of the Elders perfected the potion you drank, Asra, one of the old ones from their tribe gifted with the sight of a seer told of a vision he’d had shortly before his death.”

  “What was it?” she asked, stopping her sword drill, as she usually did when Lenore spoke of demons and monsters.

  “A woman will come to drink one day long from now, but she will keep the one thing that will set her apart from the rest of us. That will show her lover who she’s awakened.”

  “Interesting,” she said, laughing. “This doesn’t sound like you, Lenore, but like one of those romantic tales you love to read when you think I’m not paying attention.”

  “This might be important to you one day, so listen closely,” Lenore said. Kendal sheathed her sword and sat. “This woman will become an Elder and wield tremendous power.”

  “You, Morgaine, and the others have made it clear what my place will be, so thanks for the story, but I don’t see what it has to do with me.”

  “The scroll states that the woman will join the ranks of the Elders with her green eyes and heart of a lion, though she’ll be no warrior. Rather, she will join with the warrior and bring light to the darkness, beginning with her lover.”

  Kendal had laughed it off as a romantic tale back then, but the prophecy fulfilled itself right in front of her. She cried from the happiness of knowing she’d never be alone again. Piper was her salvation, and her love for her would outlast the stars. Mixing the elixir again might have broken her promise to the Elders, but it had proved that her choice was just. Piper was her fate.

  “Are you okay?” Piper asked, looking at her as if she was worried.

  “I love you.” She kissed Piper and the sun started to rise.

  Across the globe, after weeks of spells, another immortal gained a new surge of power. The young female vampire saw the cloud of red dust flying toward her and laughed. Her magic had finally worked. She opened her arms and accepted Ora’s spirit and strength into her heart. The new Queen of the Vampires existed, and when the unholy union ended, she opened her eyes on her new world.

  “Asra,” she said.

  The battle would begin again, but for now Asra and Piper had found their missing half in each other. Their love would make them strong, but not invincible.

  About the Author

  Ali Vali is the author of the Devil series, which includes The Devil Inside, The Devil Unleashed, Deal With the Devil, and The Devil Be Damned. Her stand-alone novels are Carly’s Sound, Second Season, Blue Skies, and the Lambda Literary Award finalist Calling the Dead. Ali has also contributed to numerous anthologies, with her latest short story “Devil In Training” appearing in Women of the Mean Streets, published by Bold Strokes Books.

  Ali is originally from Cuba and now lives outside New Orleans with her partner of twenty-six years. When she isn’t writing, she works in the nonprofit sector. Ali is one of the 2011 Alice B. Readers Appreciation Award winners.

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