by Shawn Keys
The returning trio fanned out, struck with awe by the provocative vision greeting them.
Heather took their stares as all the compliment she needed. “I decided that if you knew this was waiting for you at home every time, you’d have extra incentive to not die and get back faster whenever you’re away.” She struck a saucy pose meant to inspire. One hand was holding a satin pouch, though the contents in it were impossible to guess.
Angelica flowed into her arms. “Only problem with that? Dressed like this, we might never leave again.”
Heather let out a charming laugh. “I might be fine with that, too.” She leaned forward and captured Angelica’s lips with her own. Their arms hugged tightly, then stroked up and down along each other’s bodies in a way Zahn found incredibly enticing.
Before either Kaylee or he could join in, Angelica let out a small gasp of surprise. Her left hand had been fondling Heather’s sweetly firm behind. Their kiss parted, and she blurted out, “What is this?”
Heather acted ever-so-innocently, twisting in place to show off her bottom toward the other two. “Oh, this?” She danced from one leg to the other, undulating her buttocks up and down. A little crystal circle danced between them, nestled in such a way that it had to be the cap for a larger object inserted into a particularly naughty place. “I am… ahhh… preparing for our previously mentioned adventures. I mean, if you have the energy after all the fun…?” Her eyebrow quirked up, her question still dripping with the same naïve innocence, as if she didn’t know how wicked her suggestion was.
Kaylee giggled, swaying forward and cuddling up to her from behind. Heather wiggled her ass into her, encouraging Kaylee as she wrapped her arms around the older actress. “Oh, you are so terribly bad, aren’t you?”
Heather murmured lovingly in her arms, rubbing against her in a suggestive little dance. Then, she brought the small pouch she was carrying into view. “Don’t worry, lover. I like to share.” Opening the strings, she produced the twin to the little crystal spear currently embedded in her behind. She raised it to her lips, and sucked it in along her tongue. Her eyes shifted to Zahn as she did it, dragging her lips over the smooth surface before releasing it with a soft pop ! Her sultry gaze found Kaylee’s. “I’ll make sure it goes in nice… and… easy.”
Kaylee let out a lost moan, and her lips sank against Heather’s for a sensual kiss.
Zahn watched them dance with each other like that. Angelica drifted back to his side, and they shared a kiss of their own as passion began to overwhelm good reason.
Kaylee came up for air, and let out another soft giggle. “Oh, good! I was really wondering when we might start playing with toys. I have a pink one I wore sometimes that Angie really seemed to like!”
Angelica broke off her kiss on Zahn’s neck, her mouth expressing mild outrage as she blushed furiously. “Leea!”
Zahn’s right eyebrow climbed toward his hairline as he pictured Kaylee behind Angelica on a bed, her mocha-skinned hand in the blonde’s hair, hips bucking forcefully forward as both their pairs of breasts bounced with sexual effort, skin glistening with sweat... “I might like to see that.”
Heather groaned from within Kaylee’s attentive embrace. “I could taste you while you watch. Feel you get harder until you can’t stand it and rush to join in…”
Angelica darted her eyes from one of them to the next, saying, “Oh my! All of you are… are.. are…” She trailed off help lessly.
Zahn drew her in closer, mirroring the way Kaylee was holding Heather. One of his hands came up to hold her right breast in a tender caress, while the other teased down toward her sex. “Yes?”
Her search for the right words failed her. Surrendering, Angelica moaned, “…totally perfect for me.” Her head fell back against Zahn’s shoulder and melted into his touch.
Zahn whispered into her ear, “You’re all ours, Angie. And we’re all yours.”
Kaylee sought our Zahn’s attention from where she held Heather. “We should probably give Hally the presents, now. She deserves to know how much we love her and missed her. If we wait much longer, we’re going to forget all about them.”
Laughing softly in agreement, he whispered to Angelica, “Forgive me for a few seconds?”
She cooed into his ear, “Hurry back.”
Zahn gave her one last squeeze, then drifted away to where he had dropped the small pack. Bringing it over to Heather, he fished the first present out of the interior. It was the dark-silver scrying ball they had first seen when they entered Carter’s Guardian lair. “This is a relic meant for far-seeing, Hally. Magic practitioners call it scrying. Modern people would probably use clairvoyance and clairaudience and other such terms. We knew how much it cost you to be back here watching. After what happened and how useful that drone was and having you back here to search things for us, we all know it is the right thing. But with this, you won’t have to depend so heavily on radio comms. With this, you might still be able to see us. Magic can interfere with it, and there is danger of opening your mind when looking at certain things. Lars proved that. But with a little risk from putting you mind out into the world, there is a major benefit to be had. If you want it.”
Heather drifted out of Kaylee’s loving touch, her hands coming up to hold the large sphere in both palms. Wonder lit her face as she peered into its shimmering surface. “I’m honored! Oh, this is perfect! You three are amazing!”
Zahn felt his heart warm at Heather’s enthusiasm. He had wondered if the trials of being left behind might change her perspective on her role. She was as physically capable as any of them, now. The age had melted off her, and there was no reason Zahn couldn’t train her to come into the field with them. But she was clearly overjoyed with having a way she could help them even better from afar.
“One more thing,” he added. He shuffled the bag and produced four small medallions and what looked like a clock with only four numbers. On the medallions were spirals leading to a cluster of stars at the centers. Each had a different number, from one to four stars. The clock’s numbers matched. “This is a portal system. I asked for this from the Guardian’s trove of relics. We can set the clock onto any door in this place. Then, we can set the matching medallions above any four doors anywhere in the world. Maybe to Angelica and Kaylee’s cottage as a start?”
“But it wasn’t safe.”
Zahn shrugged. “We didn’t know it at the time, but Ash and her team were the ones who found us. They’re all dead now. Terrible, but the silver lining is that the knowledge of the cottage died with them. None of us called the police. We’ll have to fix a few bullet holes in the door, but otherwise it should be fairly secret. Just not quite as secret as this place.”
Kaylee smiled. “I love this apartment, but it would be nice to have a link to our cottage.”
Heather looked enthusiastic. “There’s a beach?”
“And water you can swim in. California weather. It’s beautiful,” Angelica gushed.
Zahn added, “That’s a good start. We can pick a few others once we secure the locations on the other end. Once they’re in place, we won’t have to come and go via the main entranceway here. This can become a true retreat. Our hidden place away from the rest of the world. There are other relics like this out there. We can find other portals and set up our own transportation system. No-one will ever know that this is our true home.” He stroked her cheek tenderly. “If you are still willing to have us remain and belong here.”
Heather knew what this meant, and it showed in the joy on her face. “I can go out into the world again! If I can appear far away from where everyone thinks I live, I can pretend to be ‘that woman who looks like that famous actress used to look’. I can play it off and get a little freedom back!”
Zahn nodded. “You’ll still have to be careful. If you try and take back your life, the questions will start. The paparazzi, scientists who think you have found some revolutionary surgery technique, and relic-divers who know better would all want to tear yo
ur life apart. But no more cautious than we’ll all have to be in the coming decades.”
Heather looked completely comfortable with the idea. “I know. And I’ll be careful. I can’t tell you how much this all means. Really, you are all just… amazing. I love you all.”
Zahn answered without a flicker of doubt. “And I love you.” His eyes and touch lingered on Kaylee and Angelica. “All of you.”
Kaylee grinned. “Who would have thought?”
Angelica hugged her. “I couldn’t have imagined.” She sighed in contentment. “So, now what?”
Kaylee’s grin got wider. “Sex. For at least a week.”
Zahn chuckled. “I figured a week as well. Great minds think alike?” He chuckled, then added more seriously, “You all know what Gawain’s tablet said. But what’s more important is what it didn’t say. Or what it hinted at. He warned us not to pursue the Staff any further, because if he hadn’t managed to kill us, then one of his brethren might.”
Angelica surmised, “Which means each of the Knights of the Round Table who survived the last battles surrounding Arthur’s and Merlin’s death established their own hidden enclave.”
Heather cautioned, “Most of them would be false staffs, protected by whatever fell magic they conjured.”
Kaylee prodded their communal thought onward, “But that suggests one of them might have had the real Staff. The most important and deadly shell game in history. But the Staff is real. Not just a myth. A relic that holds the key to all of humanity’s latent magical power.”
Zahn smiled. “So, what next? Well ladies, I humbly offer that what lies next is that we find it.”
A long pause.
Kaylee quipped, “After the sex?”
Angelica added, “Oh, well, of course.”
Heather smiled. “All kinds of it!”
Zahn let out a heartfelt laugh. “Yes. After the sex.”