Ways in the Guardian: A Menage Romance Book Collection

by Barbara Downey

  His eyes still shut he suddenly caught the scent of a woman. Allona was straddling his face, legs spread wide and knickers gone. The tender flesh tickled his nose and he heard giggling. He moaned, resisting. But his fires were lit. Hands grabbed his and drew them to the full of young ripe young tits. Below, the mouth worked him long and slow – and then it was gone, only to be replaced by a woman’s love nest.

  As she settled onto him he heard her squeal of delight. He took a breath as the feelings of bliss encased him. He shook. He weakened. And then he drove his tongue into Allona. She sighed, and the two women leaned together, kissing and fondling as the three loved deep into the night.

  He knew that he could pray for forgiveness in the morning.

  Chapter 10

  “I am going to burn in hell,” Eevan said as he played a beard of barley across Anna’s nipple.

  “Bart Simpson has the trick,” Anna said. “Have fun in life, then pray for forgiveness just before you die.”

  “Lord Simpson is cunning wise,” Allona said chuckling.

  “Shouldn’t we be on our quest,” Eevan said. “The sun has risen.”

  “Speaking of risen.”

  “I am going to burn in hell.”

  ****

  Midmorning found the three on the lake’s eastern shore facing the castle’s portcullis across the water.

  “There’s no way there,” Anna said. “There no boat or anything.”

  But even as she spoke the rusted gate began to squeal, then it started to rise and a small skiff floated out and toward them.

  “Methinks,” Allona said, “that we may be expected.”

  The silent little barge bumped softly against the bank. The three stepped on, and it immediately began its trek back to the castle, bearing them past the gatehouse and across the flooded courtyard. All about them was a scene of crumble and ruin. Inner walls had collapsed and great chunks of three towers lay in heaps, the water lapping them. Only one tall tower seemed somewhat intact, and the boat landed them at its heavy wooden door. Eevan managed to muscle the thing open.

  Inside was a dimly lit, winding stone staircase. They climbed, stepping over occasional fallen bricks or slats of wood. Their footfalls stirred years of dust. At the top a short alcove showed a door that led to the turret room. No sooner had the three stood before it when it creaked open, and there was a smiling old hag of a woman wearing the moldy tatters of a once fine gown.

  Her face was drawn with wrinkles. Her hollow eyes were sunken beneath sickly red folds that oozed pink mucus, and had neither pupil nor color, just milky dark orbs with the deathly stare of a shark. The tawny skin on her face was stretched so that the bones of her skull shown through, while the crows feet looked like a mask of deep spider webs. Her teeth were the color of rotten logs and her cracked lips were grey. Over the crown of her head her silver hair was sparse, but from the sides it fell about her shoulders thin and scraggly.

  “Well met strangers,” she said in a voice that sounded like leather being torn. “Come in.”

  The dim, round room looked as though it had once been a lady’s fine and fashionable repose that hadn’t seen the light of day or a hand of cleaning in decades. Cobwebs were as thick as strings. Only a single chair set before an embroidery easel looked to have seen any attention at all.

  “Pardon the light,” the old crone said. “But these old eyes cannot abide the sunshine any longer.”

  “Who,” Allona began, “who are you?”

  “I am Cecelia Pendragon,” the woman said. “The Lady of Shallot.”

  “Pendragon?” Anna said. “Are you—“

  “The aunt of Arturius.”

  “But – but you died years ago,” Allona said.

  “Unfortunately not.”

  “But the curse?”

  ‘That was my brat nephew’s doing. He and that wizard of his exiled me here, because they feared my power.”

  “You are a sorceress?”

  “Oh yes. As are you, I see.”

  “But the legends say that you died because of the curse.”

  “The legends are wrong,” the old hag said with a sneer. “Oh, it is true that the curse came upon me the day I looked on Camelot, but it wasn’t to die: it was to not die. I am doomed to grow older and uglier and frailer, but never to die.”

  “That’s horrible,” Anna said with a gasp.

  “It was,” the woman said. “But now I look upon my salvation, for delivered unto me now are three strong and young hearts, and now I will have back my youth.”

  And so saying she snapped her fingers. Instantly the three were set upon by the cobwebs. Anna screamed. Eevan and Allona fought but they were no match for the magical silks. They fell to the floor helpless. Anna’s cries were cut short by the filthy ropes around her neck. She squealed and thrashed as she was stretched till her toes barely touched the ground.

  “It is done!” Cecelia cried.

  She flung away her tapestry and there Anna saw the gleaming, gold framed mirror, cracked just as it was in the prop room. And there, reflected in the mirror’s many shards, staring at her and smiling many smiles was Beka.

  “Your friend has brought me treasures,” Cecelia said to Beka. “A strong knight and a beautiful witch. One by one I will devour their living hearts and they will infuse me with vitality, and as I savor their blood—”

  “Okay,” Beka said. “Good. But I think I’ll skip that part if you don’t mind. So, we’re even, right? More than even. I promised you the girl, she brought some friends. Bonus. So now will you charge up the charm?”

  “Beka?” Anna managed, tugging at the rope around her neck. “Beka, she’s gonna eat my heart?”

  “Oh not yet,” the hag said with a cackle. “I will save you for my pleasures a while; it has been so lonely these many years.”

  Anna cringed.

  “Look, Anna,” Beka said. “Sorry it had to be you, but you were so damned smug with your new job and all. Shit happens.”

  The witch laughed and danced as best her ancient body would allow.

  “So anyway, Cecelia,” Beka said, “gloat later. My charm please?”

  “Hold forth the orb.”

  The woman wove her hands before the mirror and began chanting. Anna clutched frantically at the rope, then she dug in her purse for her nail clippers. She moved aside her phone and then an idea popped in her mind. She turned on the camera.

  “This is the bomb,” Beka said gazing at her glowing crystal ball.

  “And now,” the witch said turning to Eevan. “I will begin the gallant.”

  “I’ll just leave you to that,” Beka said.

  “Hey ugly!” Anna cried.

  The witch turned, Anna snapped and the witch shrieked as the flash burned her eyes. She wailed and fell to her knees. Anna felt the charms fading as the hag withed in pain. She pulled at her noose. The magic had failed enough for Eevan to break free. He drew his sword and slashed away every drape on every window. The room flooded with the sun. Cecelia screamed like a banshee awash in the searing light.

  But even as the rays caught the mirror, their reflections bathed Anna and she felt the world begin again to sparkle. From far away she heard Allona cry out, “Anna, my love!”

  ****

  She woke on a wooden floor. Allona and Eevan were kneeling beside her, holding her hands. She looked at them and sighed. For the first time she saw that Allona was frightened.

  “M’Lady,” she said. “What is this place?”

  Anna looked around and smiled. She stood and dusted herself off, then stepped to the old, decrepit mirror. In the dim light she saw nothing reflected. She picked up a packing blanket and covered the thing.

  “It’s called Prop-Storage,” she said. “You are in my world. What happened?’

  “The mirror’s light bathed you,” Allona said, “and you began to shimmer and fade. I grabbed Eevan’s hand and clutched at you and then – then we are here.”

  “That Beka woman,” Eevan said. “She was here
also. She screamed when she saw you and she fled. She dropped this.”

  Eevan held out a small crystal ball. Anna gave it to Allona.

  “But m’Lady,” the witch said timidly. “I am frightened. What are we to do? What’s to become of us here?”

  “Well,” Anna said fingering her phone. “First I’m calling Security. They’ll never believe me but . . . next we’re gonna stop by wardrobe and get you guys some proper clothes, and then we’re all going out for Thai.”

  “Thai?”

  “It’s food. You’ll love it.”

  “My Lady?”

  “I trusted you,” Anna said. “Trust me?”

  The two nodded, so very wide eyed.

  “Cool I’m going to pull some strings,” Anna said. “Get you guys in the Screen Actors Guild . . .”

  THE END

  Goddess of the Stars

  Chapter 1

  Leah knew that there was something terribly wrong when the ground came rushing up at her. Her hands slapped against the cold metal, disrupting the mist of anesthesia that had been trapped in the deep sleep pod with her. She coughed the last of it out of her lungs and her head spun with the ache of coming out of the induced coma too early.

  A foggy glance at her astral-navigation clock told her that she had only been in flight for three weeks. That wasn't right. She should still be in deep sleep for at least another week. Warning lights in shades of red and orange flickered from the single seat cockpit.

  She raced for the seat and felt the auto-restraints engage around her chest and middle.

  “Talk to me, Artemis.”

  A robotic voice with a vaguely feminine tone came through the speakers. “Captain West, sensors indicate that we are in proximity of an uncharted planet. Due to an ignition failure in the primary engines, we have been caught in in the gravitational pull.”

  Leah curse vehemently. “Show me.”

  The small view screen flickered to life, offering a view of a planet that might have been a poor drawing of Earth. It was green and blue and big as a dream. It was rushing right up at her.

  “Why didn't navigation systems correct for this?”

  “Navigation systems did not detect the planetary object until we were already in the gravitational pull.”

  “Why the heck not?” She tapped several buttons. The ship decelerated by several hundred miles per hour, but it wasn't enough, not nearly enough. She was going to crash.

  “It has been almost seven months since the navigation systems were updated or aligned. It is possible that they are malfunctioning?”

  Oh. Right. She hadn't taken her ship in for its six-month overhaul. It wasn't that she hadn't wanted to, it's that she couldn't afford it. She had enough money to update either her deep space survey licenses or overhaul her ship. At the time the license had seemed more important.

  “Of course it didn't. “Why wasn't I awaken sooner?” Leah demanded.

  “There was a problem with-”

  “Of course there was,” Leah spoke over the artificial intelligence. She sighed and swiveled to scan navigation charts.

  “Alright, Artemis, let's land this hunk of junk. Maybe I can recoup with an insurance claim.”

  “It has been an honor serving with you, Captain.”

  “You too, old girl.”

  Had Artemis been a real intelligence, or even a super AI, she might have shown some emotion at the knowledge of her own destruction, but she wasn't. She was just a cleverly programmed multi-purpose algorithm that could run the ship while Leah slept through the long boring days between one solar system and the next.

  “Artemis, take over fuel regulation systems. Give me what you can.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  This was the kind of landing that needed a crack-jack pilot. Leah wasn't one, that had been her ace of a brother. She was better at basically everything that came out of a book. Biology, astronomy, botany, geology and basically the basics of every skill a person needed in order to survey a planet without lifeforms. Piloting was a secondary skill that was only necessary in emergency circumstances.

  Circumstances like these.

  She blew out a deep breath and fell back on her training. Step one was to decelerate the ship as much as possible in order to give her enough time. Leah had done what she could there. Step two was to level out the nose of the ship and give herself the easiest landing. A large flat surface at least 25 kilometers was the best bet.

  “Activate emergency release.”

  “Activated.”

  Step three was 'don't screw up', but she had already done that by forgoing her semi-annual overhaul.

  Leah placed her hands over the shaking controls and yanked back. The ship's front end lifted one inch after the other. Her arms ached as gravity tried to pull her ship down. It wasn't enough, but it would have to do.

  The foremost part of her ship disconnected from the rear part with enough force that she could feel it through the vibrations of the shaking ship.

  “Artemis.”

  “Here, Captain.”

  “Find me a landing zone.”

  The red line of a trajectory course flickered across the view screen. She tried to urge the ship to follow it, as much as she could. Trees, massive in size and dark umber in bark, flashed by in a blur of foliage. In the distance there were mountains and she desperately hoped that she wouldn't hit them.

  “Estimating impact in 10...9...8...”

  Leah heard the countdown. She hit the button that would release the emergency panels, giving her one last chance to get everything where it should be.

  “3...2...1”

  The crash rocked her in her seat. The restraints across her chest bit into her skin. She knew that there would be bruises. She hoped she would be alive so there could be bruises. The ship skipped along the ground like a rock across water.

  It was hot, so very hot. The heat pounded around her as metal screamed and broke. She felt the ship whip around and come to a sudden stop. Her head snapped against the side of the chair. Pain swam through her temple, flaring behind her eyes. Her vision went hazy and then disappeared entirely. She smelled the smoke and burnt steel that invaded her nose and chest.

  “Artemis?” she called, her voice a choked warble. Nothingness responded. With her vision gone all she could do was hear the broken ship settle around her. She slapped at the release on her harness and stumbled suddenly to the left. Light hit her nearly useless eyes. Out of habit rather than need, she raised her hand to block out the sunlight.

  Her foot found a piece of debris. She slid forward, away from the crash, and further down the mountain. Rocks scrapped along her legs. Low branches slapped against her face. Her vision came back in slow bleary waves. Just in time for her to see the cliff coming up at her.

  Chapter 2

  Leah West woke up, floating in a lake. How she got there and how long she had been there was a mystery. Long enough that she could feel the sun burn on her otherwise pale cheeks. Two crescent moons floated above her, one silvery-blue and the other a dark purple. Her eyes focused on one and then the other as she let her body float.

  Pain radiated through her legs and her head. She counted herself lucky that she could feel pain in her extremities. It meant her back wasn't broken.

  When the temple came into view she blinked.

  It was made of white stone, bright enough that it reflected the light of the twin moons reflected back to the sky. It shimmered like a jewel. It reminded her of old Grecian temples, with tall columns and circular roofs half-open to the sky.

  At first she thought that there were low hanging curtains between the columns, wafting gently in the pleasant evening breeze, but then they moved. The fabric shifted and fluttered in a way that had nothing to do with air flow. They were people. She thought about sitting up, but realized that surface tension was holding her up and she had no clue how deep the water was, or if she was well enough to keep afloat.

  Then there was a face, and then another, and then a third.
At first glance she thought that she was on earth and had stumbled across a temple of beautiful people. The faces that peered down at her were ridiculously attractive. Two showed the stark strong lines she associated with men, the other was softer and more rounded through her cheeks. All of them were shades of ivory or porcelain. They wore layers of fabric wrapped around their bodies like elegant robes. Their hands trembled as they gripped her wrists and pulled her ashore.

  They were even more gentle as they lifted her out of the lake.

  The taller male, his robes were thin enough that she was absolutely sure he was male, hefted her up effortlessly. She wasn't a dainty woman. A lot of time spent sitting in a cockpit going off censor readings or being in a sleep pod hadn't exactly kept her dainty.

  Up close she could see the subtle differences that marked her as different from him. The first difference were the eyes. They weren't just one iris, but two. Two circles of color around a pupil, one was a deep silver, the second a striking shade of orange. His ears were pointed, like some fantasy creature and his hair was as dark as his skin was pale falling down his back like a sheet. She resisted an unexpected urge to touch his hair to see if it was as soft as it looked.

  He looked down at her and smiled. He wasn't just attractive; he was super-star hot. He said something and she just nodded.

  “Sure, whatever you say.”

  The other male spoke. Her eyes drifted to him. His hair was shorter, only brushing his shoulders, and more auburn than black. His eyes were two rings of green, one dark, the other nearly neon. He looked younger than the first man, but no less pretty.

  The woman snapped at them and they fell instantly silent, bowing their heads to her in submission.

  “Huh, that's different.”

  The three of them were talking in quick low voices. She didn't know the words, but the rhythm was poetic.

  They carried her up to the temple. On several occasions they asked her a question, but she couldn't answer.