by Mia Archer
She pulled away and took me by the arm. Glanced around at all the “dead” players from both sides standing around us and then out to where some thieves were returning. No royals with them. It looked like my side had been well and truly beaten, but judging by the number of thieves returning from the battle pretty much the only reason they won was because they had this mysterious girl taking point for them. I could take some small comfort in that. I figured the rumor mill was going to have a field day with this as well when people from this battle started streaming back into the campground and word spread that the queen had been taken on the day after the already juicy gossip of an assassination attempt!
“Come my queen,” she said with just a hint of mockery touching her voice as she said “queen.”
“I’m at my lady’s mercy,” I said with a hint of breathlessness.
Oh yeah, this was getting good!
11: Alone in the Woods
I glanced at the people coming back from the battle at either end of the caravan. It was all my people so I took that to mean we’d won the battle. Jessica was leading a column coming up from the south while Dave was at the other end coming back from the north.
I frowned. There weren’t nearly as many as I’d expected. The faction would be weak until the next day when everyone got a resurrection and it was back into the field to play again. At least I hoped everyone would be back the next day to play again.
“Anyone hit with a permanent death?” I asked Dave as he got into earshot.
“None with me,” he said.
“What about on your end?” I asked Jessica as she approached.
“I lost most of my people, but no permadeaths. They’ll all be back at the camp tomorrow to fight again.”
“Good to know,” I said.
A permanent death didn’t mean a person’s character was dead for good. Just that they were dead for the remainder of the event underway. For this Gathering characters had been given a death count of three, usually it was the total number of days the event was going on minus two or three, before they were out of the game permanently just to make things interesting, though there were spells and magical items hidden throughout every Alternate Realms playing field that could inflict a permadeath on someone before they hit their five life allotment.
That meant even the worst player in the game was guaranteed three days out of five of going out into the playing field even if there were no guarantees about how long they would stay in the playing field.
“Where’s Colin?” I asked.
Jessica frowned and shook her head. Damn. I was probably going to hear about that at the end of the day when I got back to camp. And he’d been in such a good mood too. Getting his character killed on day one was going to turn him into a grump, I just knew it.
“I can’t believe we did that,” Dave said. “We attacked the royal caravan and took it out!”
“Thanks in no small part to our new glorious leader here,” Jessica said. “I can’t believe you actually killed the queen!”
“Actually…” I said. I stepped aside revealing Erin standing behind me. Jessica and Dave both gasped in surprise and I saw a couple of guys behind them actually move to bow before they realized what they were doing and stopped with sheepish grins.
“Everyone, I’d like to introduce you to Erin. Queen of Alternate Realms and my captive.”
“Holy shit,” Jessica said. “You captured the queen! All right!”
She held her hand up for a high five and I was more than happy to oblige her. Girl power and all that. I could only imagine what they were thinking. They go from being in a faction that’s hiding in the woods and preparing an attack that’s certain suicide with a leader they hate to being taken over by a girl who led an attack against the Royal Faction and won. I expected nothing less when I entered the playing field this morning, but I’m sure it came as a surprise to them.
“So, uh, now that we have the queen captive what are we going to do with her?” Dave asked.
I thought back to our brief flirtation while we were dueling. It was like something straight out of a cheesy fantasy movie or something and I loved every minute of it. The more I learned about this Erin girl the more I thought we were going to get along just fine, if we could stop sniping at one another long enough to hold a conversation.
“Oh I have plans for our dear queen here. I think a nice ransom would work. Don’t you?”
“Could be trouble tomorrow when all her guards come back to life,” Dave said.
“We’ll figure something out,” I said. “For now I’d like you guys to set up a screen ahead of us and behind us while we walk back to our camp. I want to have a word alone with the queen if you don’t mind.”
“Whatever you say boss,” Dave said, sketching a brief salute. Earlier when they’d called me boss it sounded like there was a hint of mockery to it. Now there was nothing of the sort. I smiled. It was nice to know I’d earned my keep as leader even if I had managed to get more than half my new faction killed for the day in the process.
“You know he’s right, don’t you? Tomorrow the royal guard won’t rest until they find me,” she said.
“Yeah, well if I read the rules right if they die they have to start back at the entrance instead of going to wherever they were the day before. I figure that’ll be plenty of time to set up another ambush or something,” I said.
“So confident. You remind me of someone I knew once upon a time.”
I turned and cocked an eyebrow at her. “Oh yeah? Who’s that?”
“Me. Right before I realized there were no new worlds to conquer in this game. I hope you don’t find the same fate.”
I grinned my most rakish grin, really tried to convey the whole thief queen motif I was going for, and looked her up and down with enough interest that she’d need a cigarette when I was done.
“Yeah my liege? Well we’ll see about that. I’m seeing plenty that I wouldn’t mind conquering right in front of me.”
“So forward, and I don’t even know your name!”
I paused and mentally kicked myself a couple of times. Why hadn’t I introduced myself? Well because the first time we met it was staring at each other across a rest stop after I’d offed a couple of her friends and the second time was at the campground the night before when we couldn’t very well have a very detailed “how do you do” without making everyone around us curious as to why the queen was chatting with a total newbie.
I held out a hand. “Anna. Nice to meet you Erin.”
She took my hand, though with her left hand instead of the right, and fire danced from her fingertips. And I’m not talking the fireball spells she was hurling at me in the game just moments ago. She held my hand for a moment, and I decided I liked that enough that I just kept right on holding it. She didn’t say anything and we continued walking through the woods in silence. It was a nice silence, though. A silence that had my stomach twisting in knots and a fire starting between my legs as well. It had been awhile since I’d held someone’s hand like this, and it was astonishing how such a simple touch could have me doing emotional somersaults.
Still, it was nice. Really nice.
I felt positively giddy at that touch. At that introduction. I just took the most powerful player in this game captive! It didn’t quite hit home until her hand was in mine. Though at the same time I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.
“Something wrong?” Erin asked. “I figured after that coup you just pulled you’d be ecstatic.”
I thought about it for a moment. Sighed. “Yeah, I suppose I should be, but I can’t help but feel like…”
“No new worlds to conquer?”
I glanced at her. “Are you a mind reader or something? How’d you know that?”
Erin grinned and I was struck once more with how truly beautiful she was. Those eyes, that face, and the way she looked when she smiled. She was radiant. It also occurred to me that I hadn’t seen her smiling all that much in a lot of the picture
s I’d seen online. I wondered what was up with that, but I was glad I could get her to grin.
“I was where you were five years ago when they started doing these things. I kept succeeding in the game and I kept thinking I was going to get to a point where I screwed up. I figured someone was going to come along and knock me down a peg or two or something.”
I nodded but stayed quiet. This was fascinating stuff, hearing about her rise to power. And what she was describing sounded so similar to what I’d been going through. At every step of the way I’d been convinced I was going to run into someone who was better than me in this game, but so far the only girl who came close was standing right next to me holding my hand and chatting like we were old friends.
Or maybe more than friends. I really hoped it was more than friends.
“Everyone told me I was stupid for doing some of the things I did, but most of those people got eliminated from that first Gathering early on and I ended up becoming the first queen of the Alternate Realms, so I guess that shows how good their advice was, right?”
I laughed and thought of Colin and his constant worrying. “Yeah, I guess I can identify with that. I have a friend who constantly seems to think we’re on the verge of getting our characters killed.” I frowned. “Though I guess I did end up getting his character killed today. I’m not going to hear the end of that.”
Erin giggled, a sound that seemed both innocent and sexy at the same time. “Yeah, I know all about whiny friends. I have Trevor and Danielle who come with me to all those things. You met them yesterday, I believe?”
I blushed and looked away. She must be referring to the two friends I took out in the diner. They hadn’t looked too happy yesterday, and they probably weren’t any more happy today now that I’d managed to take them out two days running. Not to mention that taking them out today counted towards their three character death maximum for the five day Gathering.
“Yeah, I seem to remember them,” I said.
“They’re always complaining about actually getting out and playing the game. It’s something I never get to do because no one ever wants to attack the queen. They always act like it’s suicide or sacrilege or a little bit of all of the above.”
“Sounds boring,” I said.
“You have no clue,” she said, flashing me that dazzling grin again. She moved a little closer and I was keenly aware of how good she smelled. Of how hot she was. Of how hot I was, for that matter, feeling her this close to me!
“I actually have you to thank for changing that,” Erin said.
I blushed again. “Are you really thanking me for killing everyone in your faction and taking you captive?”
“Well not that, maybe. Besides, there’s still plenty of my faction waiting for me off at the castle, but it’s not like I can get word to them for a rescue or anything anyways. No, we actually had people attacking our caravan on the way in before we even got to you.”
“So? What’s the big deal about people attacking a caravan?”
“No one ever did that before. It’s like your attack yesterday and the rumors I had my friends slip through the camp were enough to convince everyone it might be worth attacking the queen again. It’s the most fun I’ve had playing this game in ages and it’s all thanks to you!” She paused for a moment, suddenly looking very deep in thought. “Well, it was almost the most fun I’ve had lately?”
I turned an arched an eyebrow. “Really? What’s the most fun you’ve had?”
Erin looked over her shoulder and then ahead to our escort. They were off in the distance though. Apparently they’d taken my request for some time alone with the queen very seriously. I wondered what she was up to but then she was jumping at me. I didn’t even have time to yell out in surprise. No, one moment we were walking along hand in hand without a care in the world and the next she was jumping at me.
At first I thought she might be trying to break free. It was very against the rules to actually attack someone physically in a game of Alternate Realms, but something being forbidden by the rules and something never happening were two very different things. Particularly if the stakes were high enough and the person doing the attacking was desperate enough. Like looking at losing a cushy position as the head of the entire Alternate Realms kingdom desperate.
Then her lips pressed against mine and all those worries disappeared. I felt something hard and a little raspy pressing against me. A tree. Her arms went to either side of me as she pinned me against the tree, but I didn’t care. No, all I cared about was the feel of her body pressed against mine. The taste of her mouth as she opened her lips and her tongue darted out to duel with mine.
I ran my hands up and down her body. She felt incredible. She was toned and curved in all the right places and the reaction to feeling her was immediate. I went weak in the knees. Tingles ran up and down my body. A chill ran down my spine. An impossible heat was building between my legs.
In short it was one of the most intense makeout sessions I’d ever enjoyed. I’m not sure if it was because she was so hot, because this was the queen we were talking about here, because we were making out in the middle of the woods surrounded by members of my newly taken over faction, or because it was so unexpected.
Probably a little bit of all of the above. Either way I wasn’t going to knock it. She felt so damn good. She was like a drug and I was more than happy to get addicted.
Erin pulled away and I wanted to whimper in frustration, but I didn’t. I was supposed to be the strong one, after all. I was supposed to be the one in charge. The last thing I wanted was to show weakness in front of the queen.
“I’d say that’s the most fun I’ve had in the game lately,” she said with a smile.
“Damn. Me too,” I said. I needed to stop and catch my breath. That was about as unexpected as the kiss when we were dueling each other. I’d been so overcome in the moment that it just sort of happened. Just like this. And both times it felt so right. I was drawn to this girl. I was helpless before her, and something about the way she was smiling at me told me that she was well aware.
“Of course I don’t know what to expect,” she said with a sigh.
I blinked. “What are you talking about?”
Erin looked to me and her eyes were wide. Worry was written plainly on her face and I suddenly worried that something was wrong. There seemed to be genuine fear there, though I hadn’t done anything to make her afraid. At least I didn’t think I did.
“Well I’m being held captive by a notorious thief who’s made it clear she wants me,” Erin said, her voice breathless. “What ever might happen?”
I grinned and took her hand. Started pulling her along again. I got what she was doing, and I liked it. This was the sort of role-playing I could really get behind! Nothing like the crap the great thief lord Melvar pulled.
Besides, I could think of a few things I would like to do with the captive queen. None of them sweet and innocent. Pity there wasn’t a way to sneak off and get some privacy what with the surviving members of my faction all around us providing an escort.
“You’ll just have to wait and see what I have planned for you, my dear queen,” I said even as my mind raced trying to think of a way to get some privacy with her.
“So what’s your thief camp like? Any structures or anything like that?” Erin asked.
I sighed in frustration. “Nope. Nothing like that. What about the castle thing you keep talking about?”
Erin looked at me and I felt like her eyes were boring straight into my soul. “Oh the castle is quite nice, with several rooms for extra privacy if they did it up the same as in previous years.” She licked her lips to drive her point home. Not that there was any worry that I was going to miss the point. I shivered. Damn!
“Too bad there isn’t a castle waiting for us back at my faction’s home base,” I muttered.
Erin shrugged and squeezed my hand. “Well it’s getting dark and we’re going to be heading out to the campground soon enough. Maybe we�
�ll meet up there?”
“I like the sound of that,” I said. We walked on through the forest in silence, just enjoying the feel of our hands clasped together, though the entire way I was thinking about how nice it felt when she was kissing me and how desperately I needed a repeat performance someplace where we could get a little privacy!
I glanced at my phone. Only another hour or so before the game would be over for the day, the no-play zone would extend out over everyone, and we’d be able to head back to the campground where there seemed to be all sorts of interesting ways to pass the night opening up before me.
That hour was going to be a fucking eternity.
12: End of Day
“How have you been playing the game for that long and no one noticed how high level you were?” I asked.
It was dark and I could see fires from the campground in the distance. Probably from people who’d been killed throughout the day and went back to have what fun they could not playing the game. The Pax Digitalis had been in place for about twenty minutes now, no sooner had we gotten to the Thieves’ Faction camp than all the spells were disabled and the end of day message was broadcast. I was in a mood for some food and maybe something else depending on how things went with Anna.
First I needed to make sure things would continue going well for me tomorrow in the game though. Luckily it was easy to chat with Anna and keep her distracted. She was so hot and so easy to get along with! I truly wasn’t acting at all as I repeated the coordinates I’d taken from the GPS on my phone over and over and fumbled with a keyring in my pocket.
“I don’t know?” Anna shrugged. Somehow she even managed to make a shrug look sexy. Yeah, this girl had definitely put the zap on me. Coming down out of the hills like that, besting me in combat for the first time ever, then kissing me like we were in the middle of some cheesy movie.
This girl had it all. It was a pity I was going to have to break free from her in the game and do terrible things to her character and everyone in her faction. I just hoped she could find it in her heart to forgive me out of the game for the double cross I needed to pull in the game.