It took a couple of hours of sparring to finally bring my Adaela back to me. We were about equal in pins, but we also both learned a lot about our fighting styles, and learned new moves and variations between the two of us. I told her that wewould need to continue sparring with each other to get us to a point where we could find a rhythm with one another for what was to come, and she agreed.
We cleaned down the mats and put the room back in order before we decided to head back to Adaela’s place instead of the bathhouse here. We were both breathing hard and sweating our asses off. And while fighting and fucking were both great ways to get out aggression, both of us knew that we needed something different for our first time together in real life after making sure that Adaela healed.
We were on the south side of the city, and Adaela lived about fifteen minutes north of where we were. I lived closer, but my place was smaller, and we both agreed that Adaela’s shower was superior. Poe had left Adaela’s car at her place, so we took a rideshare back. She waved at a couple of neighbors I didn’t recognize and walked into her house. It smelled just like her. This was what is was like to be home.
I kept that thought to myself. I wasn’t sure she was ready to hear that anywhere she was felt like home. I was head over heels in love with this woman, and that thought stopped me in my tracks. When had I fallen for her? It must have been over the weeks of her recovery, getting to know her thoughts and dreams. Her quirky personality mixed with her excitement over things she was passionate about, like politics and smut. I loved how she always wanted to share what she learned with others, and that she had the patience to teach others about complex topics. She made everything seem accessible. She made her heart accessible the more we were around each other. I had a niggling feeling that my love was reciprocated, but she wasn’t ready to announce it yet.
We slowly took each other’s clothes off, laughing at how the drying sweat made our bras basically impossible to get off. Adaela’s bra got stuck in her hair for a moment, and I waslaughing so hard at her hands straight up in the air, tangled in up her bra, that it took me a solid couple minutes to get it off her without ripping her hair out. I had no fucking idea how we got her that stuck, but by the time we were both naked, the water had been steaming up the shower. She motioned to step in before her, so I did, and she smacked my ass hard. I almost slipped on the tiles, grabbing her neck to hold myself steady since she wasn’t in the stall yet.
“What’re we going to do with you, wild girl?” Adaela said, laughing as we both finally stumbled our way under the water.
“Love me?” I said, and went still under the showerhead, closing my eyes. I didn’t mean to say that out loud. I was just chastising myself about waiting until she was ready before I said anything.
She closed in, wrapping her arms around my waist. Her breasts came just below mine, and she laid her head atop mine, not saying anything, just holding me. When I finally got the courage to open my eyes to look down at her, she had a shit-eating grin on her face, and I relaxed under the scalding hot water, “Listen, Adaela?—”
Her eyes shined with genuine joy and exasperation, “I love you, Vada. I love everything about you. I love your stoic determinism and your desire to make sure that everyone around you has what they need. I love that you’re fiercely loyal and that you don’t think I know about your obsession with war strategy. I love that you are comfortable enough to learn who you are outside of the constraints placed on you. I love that you set clear and firm boundaries you won’t let anyone cross, including me. I love you, and I didn’t want to say anything to you until after we got through all of this, because I didn’t want to jinx our odds of getting to see where this goes for the rest of our lives.” The tears tracking down my face were warm, a goofy grin on my face, and I bent down to kiss her again.
“You’re it for me, baby, and it took me some time to come to that realization. I’ve let fear and regret haunt my steps for so long that I hadn’t even realized I was holding myself back. Fate did good by me. I never thought I would find you, and then I never believed that we would ever get this far. I figured it was some sort of cosmic joke, and for that, I cannot apologize enough. I’ve never trusted anyone as implicitly as I do you, and I want you for the rest of our lives, if you’ll have me,” she whispered, barely able to be heard over the water, while she reached up to wipe both tears from my face and the water streaming over both of us.
“I love you, too, sweet girl. I will continue showing up for you every single day that you allow me to. I will never do anything to keep that shiny personality from faltering. You are mine, and I take care of what’s mine. I will fight to the ends of the earth if I must to keep you by my side,” I said, smiling, but desperate to feel her against me for real.
We spent the rest of the shower kissing fervently, while slowly taking care of one another. When we got out of the shower, we dried each other off and went in search of food before anything else.
I sat in Adaela’s kitchen as we ordered takeout. It had been a long while since we were back in St. Louis, and Poe had done Adaela a favor by cleaning out her fridge while we were away. We decided on burgers and fries, since it was quick and easy. We ate at the counter and worked out our next moves.
We would need to head back to Underhill. Adaela needed tomake herself known in the Autumn Court, and I needed to establish my place by her side. The Fae were nothing if not traditional in a lot of ways. It wasn’t that our orientation would be the problem. We lived long lives, and while that didn’t always mean one’s sexuality was fluid over time, it was normal to witness differing lifestyles. The problem was that I wasn’t Fae.
I knew that we wouldn’t spend a lot of time in Underhill. However, until either a successor was named in her place that was strong enough to feed magic into Underhill, or unless we could strike up an allyship between all beings of Underhill and thePax, there was no telling what the future held there. We would likely spend our time in both places until we could find a permanent solution.
We laid back on the couch, enjoying what could be our last night of freedom before things really started ramping up. I let Adaela read one of her books to me—this time a why choose involving four human men and a human woman. She told me this series was one of her Roman Empires, then had to explain what a Roman Empire was. I chuckled. The book was dark, gritty, and kinky as fuck. I wondered if these types of relationships existed between humans on Earth, then remembered that some of the kinkiest people at the orgies in Hell were Human.
“Are you trying to tell me something about what you’re into with these sex scenes, sweet girl?” I asked her after a particularly kinky scene involving public play, toys, a St. Andrew’s Cross, and fisting.
She went beet red, and I laughed. “I mean, I’m not saying I’m not into it, but that’s not why I love this series.”
“Please do continue then. I’m loving all the ideas I’m getting from this. I may have to reread this series once you’re finished with it,” I replied.
She chuckled, and I remembered back to when Ifirst heard that sound at the club on my first night here. I was happy to hear it. We spent the rest of the night reading, laughing, and loving one another until the sun peeked over the horizon. I’d made note of the parts of the series that made her squirm, promising myself I’d try them with her when we found safety.
Earth
We portaled over to Cennet and Cehennem in Turkey with a small army. We weren’t taking any chances. Our troops, over the last year, had been working together as one faction to concentrate on their skills together rather than what they were used to—fighting separately within their own factions. While it made me a little sad that we were at the point where we needed battle skills at the ready again, it was humbling that our teams, despite not knowing who the culprit was and growing disquiet from our city’s inhabitants, trusted us and this new life enough to fight for it.
Vada and I were brought up to speed by the troops and the rest of thePaxabout how bad it had gotten in St. Louis. Its inhabitants were rightfully fearful and pissed off. Skirmishes between different factions were happening daily, while accusations of complicity were being thrown at the heads of every faction, including Vada and myself. We were accused of abandoning ship when things got hard, and honestly, I couldn’t fault anyone for that. I was sure it felt that way.
We spent an inordinate amount of time learning how to be more transparent. ThePaxfocused on listening to itsconstituents, but the rumors and anger kept growing. And why wouldn’t it? Our people had been promised a society that would remain peaceful and would provide everything necessary for their survival. If we got through this, it would be a lesson on what we could’ve done better. Everyone deserved to know they were safe, and they deserved to be heard. The heads of thePaxwere no more powerful than the next person, but we often realized that those who had a wealth of knowledge didn’t want to lead. They learned early on that they could advise us. And they were vocal about adjustments that would benefit the whole.
I laughed to myself as I remembered the early days. It was about learning to live without ego, and when we were beings who were sometimes thousands of years old, that could be difficult. We had to learn conflict resolution, to set our own expectations to the side, and to learn which solutions worked best for everybody. That often went against our own perceptions of safety. Our first instinct was to be reactionary, but we’d learned, over time, to focus onwhatwas being said rather thanhowit was being said. While we didn’t always agree with our constituents, we often were able to take their concerns, which were typically opposite of one another, and find solutions to them. It was about getting to the heart of the issue. Typically, those issues were the same, but often feelings got in the way of logic. I would know, I was a feeler through and through. It was my first instinct rather than to look at the problem from a more logical lens.
To say theCatervae Paxwas perfect would be far from the truth. I doubted anything would ever be perfect, but we could get as close to it as possible. When you were as old as many of us were, we had to learn how to live with the new technology. But our basic social contract never changed. People would have what they needed to survive, and money and wealth disparities would never exist. We didn’t have the time or patience for thatsort of power trip. We already had to deal with magical beings who could easily attack what we’d created if they chose to do so. We had Gods and Goddesses who did have the ability to create and destroy worlds—many of whom were deities worshiped by humans at one point in their history or another. Many were still worshipped.
It was a sign of trust and compassion that Vada and I had anything to come home to. The anger was justified. I was angry, too. But I believed that our constituents were pointing their fingers in the wrong direction, and I was thankful to now have a lead.
Due to the time differences between Turkey and St. Louis, we’d gotten there around midafternoon. The sun was close to setting, and the Cennet cave’s entrance was glowing in the last rays of light. The Cennet and Cehennem caves were a major tourist destination in today’s time, but it once was the home to the father of all Cryptids. Typhon had lost his battle against Zeus, and the Cehennem cave was his prison for a time. At one point, the Cennet cave was turned into a church, where they worshipped the Virgin Mary. This area of Turkey was known for its rich history with multiple religions. It was stunning. A wealth of history attracted all sorts of beings here. Water sources, natural cave systems, and a climate that changed with the seasons helped this area thrive.
Vada was quiet as she took in the area. She closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath, exhaling the stress from her entire being. She did a full circle, and as she turned back toward me, atear ran down her cheek. She noticed me watching her, and she smiled shakily, quickly turning away to wipe her eyes. I started to walk toward her to console her, since she rarely showed emotion, especially in public areas, but then I took in the surroundings around me, too. I could only imagine the thoughts running through her head. These were her home lands, and they were sacred. She probably never believed she’d ever step foot here again, and I could only imagine how overwhelming this was for her.
I’d wanted to rush over to her and protect her from herself and the emotions she was bombarded with, but what I’d learned over the last few weeks was that Vada needed space and time to process her emotions. She had thought about this place for many years, and the presence of the Heaven and Hell caves were a perfect juxtaposition for the reality that was her life. Created by Hashem to live on Earth, made with free will, but as a perfect match to Adam, had to be overwhelming as fuck. This very space held significance for Vada, too.
