They were up with the sun after an uneventful night.  Breakfast was simple and soon done.  Dia poured herself a second cup of coffee and sat down.  "I'm assuming," she said, "that we need to leave someone to keep an eye on things while we're checking out the waterfall."

"Yeah, Smitty and I will stay here," Simon offered. "Where are the cats?"

"Around," Dia said.  "I would expect them to come with us," she said.  "But they'll turn up when they're ready."  She swallowed some coffee and stood up.  "Say half an hour?"

They agreed and she went to her tent, transferring some things to a small knapsack that she set aside.  Then she settled herself and closed her eyes, entering into a light meditative state, extending her awareness outward, checking, feeling for power she didn't recognize, for spells and psychic traps that had been left to guard the area.  It puzzled her, more than she wanted to admit, that she found nothing.  After, clearing all feeling of unease from her mind and expression she walked out to joint the others, already waiting.

The waterfall flowed out of the volcano and down its side, into the lake.  At the far end of the lake the water exited in a stream that they'd followed to get here.   The falls themselves were in two tiers, each with a drop somewhere between fifteen and twenty feet.  In terms of width, they weren't that large, maybe seven or eight feet from edge to edge.  There was a perpetual cloud mist around them, the water emerging from the volcano a bit warmer than the surrounding air.  There was a path of sorts up the side of them, with a small ledge where the first fall of water ended and the second began.  And there was a small lip of rock, just barely wide enough to walk on that allowed one to slip between the rock face and the falls. 

From the erosion of the rock, the falls had been there since forever, Dia thought as she got up close.  She felt a tickle along her skin, an awareness of something she couldn't identify.  "Lev?" she said.

"Yeah, this way," he said through gritted teeth.  She was standing close to him and could feel waves of heat coming off his arm, the one where the tattoo was.

"Lev, maybe there's something we can do," Ian suggested. Take your shirt off."

"No, it's fine," he replied grimacing.

Dia studied him, worried.  "Please, are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Go on," he replied. 

Ian cast one worried glance at him but stepped forward and sensed something, He began pushing aside the luxurious vines that grew in the constant mist from the waterfall and then said, "Here, look. Stairs carved in the rock."  They were worn and crooked from the upthrust of freezing weather and the wear of erosion, but they were stairs.  Lev produced a machete and began hacking away at the foliage revealing more and more of the stone stairs.

Dia followed him up the steps, followed by Betty and Bobbie and then Jonah and Ian.  About a third of the way up she felt the cats at her feet.  And they gave no sign of being worried by anything, that there was anything that they could sense that was amiss.  She felt outward again, probing carefully and found nothing except the sense of something she couldn't identify that was causing the back of her neck to itch like she was being watched.  At the ledge between the upper and lower falls Lev stopped and waited until she was next to him.  The steps continued, only this time they led directly behind the waterfall.

Lev suddenly cursed and grabbed at his sleeve. The material was steaming. He zapped the fabric off and away. The tattoo on his arm was pulsing presumably in time with his heartbeat. It was glowing golden.  And from behind the waterfall a matching pulsing began.  The cats started purring and unconcerned with the water, followed the steps behind the waterfall and disappeared.

Dia set her jaw and probed again.  Still nothing but that sense of something, a bit stronger now.  The others had joined them.  So she sucked in air and called the seal ring to her and slid it on her thumb.  She watched it begin pulsing like the tattoo and whatever was behind the falls.  "What do you think?" she asked finally.

"I think it would be a waste to come all this way and not take a look," Lev replied.  At her nod he stepped into the water.  Dia followed behind him, and then the twins, with Jonah and Ian bringing up the rear.

Behind the waterfall was a cave. It was lit with a golden light that pulsed in time with Lev's tattoo and Dia's ring. Although they looked around there was no indication of a passageway or any sort of entry into a deeper cave. It looked like a dead-end.  The cats were no where to be seen.  

Dia pulled a flashlight out of her knapsack and ran it methodically over the walls.  She stopped at the rear of the cave as the light picked out carvings in the stone.  They matched the cover of the book.  She traced them with the tip of her finger, feeling carefully both with her mind and her finger.  

She closed her eyes, keeping a picture of the carving, of the symbols clear in her minds eye and then concentrated.  Around her she could feel the dampness on her skin and the heat coming off of Lev's arm.  The wall in front of her was just a flimsy barrier as she pictured it, all she had to do was reach through it.  She pictured it, the hand with the ring pushing through to the other side.  She felt it, the hand and arm thrusting through, the scrape of the flimsy rock on her skin, the change in atmosphere on the other side.  She built the picture, detail by detail, and was dimly aware as she took a step forward that the cats where at her ankles again.  She ignored them, pouring all her attention and all her will into the wall, sweat forming on her forehead, her breath coming in short, shallow pants like she was running a race.  She dug down deep into the mountain, into it's roots, the living heart of it and felt a smile break out on her face.  Then she whispered a thank you to it and stepped forward again, this time into and then through the rock, the cats going with her.

Lev lurched forward as if pushed. The wall behind him firmed up then locking the others on the other side in the entry cave and only Dia, Lev and the cats inside.

Dia was gasping for air when she opened her eyes.  She put out a hand to the rock to steady herself.  The inner chamber was small and dry.  There was no smell of mustiness or rot in the air, no hint of anything decaying.  It was lit by the same golden light, no longer pulsing, that had lit the outer cave. The glow in the seal ring had faded down and steadied.  The cats had settled on their haunches, and were waiting patiently.  "You okay?" she asked.

"Yes. The sigil is no longer burning me. I'm not sure how to open the rock however. I wonder if we can bring the others in magically, or otherwise."  He concentrated for a time, then said, "I can't even sense through it any more. Nor can I zap out of here."

"I can't either," she said.  She turned the flashlight off and stowed it back in her knapsack.  Then she conjured two torches and handed one to Lev.  "I'm inclined to think we're expected.  In any case I think heading that way is going to be our best bet right now.  It'll take us deeper into the mountain, presumably to the volcanic center."

"Well," he commented dryly, "at this point we don't seem to have much choice. So lead on."

The torches lit a narrow passageway that might once have been formed by liquid lava. Lev had to hunch down a bit as they continued on. It did not smell musty so there was fresh air getting into it somehow. It curved and went up and down, the floor sometimes trickily slick. Then finally they came to a dark area ahead. The tube ended abruptly. They stood at an opening in a wall, high above the floor of a deep and echoingly large chamber.

On the floor of the chamber taking up on side was a pool with a stone ledge running the length of it maybe four feet high and eighteen inches wide.  At either end there were tunnels that led out of the chamber.  On the two sides perpendicular to the pool terraced seats rose two thirds of the way up the walls.  On the floor of the chamber the sigil was carved again, and from where Dia stood, it looked like it had been inlaid with gold.  The tracery was glowing faintly.  Dia took a step closer to the edge and saw a staircase leading from where they were to the floor of the chamber.  The cats were already moving down it.  When they got to the bottom they turned around and looked back up at her, clearly waiting for her.

She grinned and started down the steps.  Lev might not trust them but she did.

Lev hesitated only a moment then followed her, his machete from earlier still in one hand, the torch in the other. "What the hell is this? It looks like an amphitheatre. I can't wait for the play to begin."

"It does, doesn't it." she agreed.  She stepped down on the floor of the chamber and turned to see the part she couldn't from above.  A harsh, hissing breath escaped her control as she lifted the torch.  She swallowed and looked at the cats, placidly waiting for her to continue on.  Then she looked back at the wall, if you could call it that.   She didn't think, she thought in a detached sort of way, that you could because what she was looking at might be called a lot of things, but wall really wasn't the most accurate.

To begin with it was alive if motion, coruscating movement was a necessary and sufficient condition for life.  It looked like roiling thunderclouds, shot through with lightening, colored in purples and blues and greys.  It was also framed into the rock," she realized, stepping in for a closer look.  She reached out with her senses, touching and heard, dimly, like it was a million miles away, the sound of Salem and Cele purring over the rushing crash of the waterfall.

Her senses met it, carefully, a tendril at a time and could find hint of evil or danger.  Rather it welcomed the touch, sliding around it like a caress, stroking her senses like she stroked Salem, in a gentle, unhurried rhythm that soothed, comforted and bespoke care and affection. 

She was wrenched out of her communion with it when Lev grabbed her arm and pulled her toward himself.  "You were trancing out with that thing," he said harshly when she turned her head to glare at him. "It's dangerous."

She met his eyes for a moment and then looked down at the cats weaving in and out around her ankles and his as if they were weaving them together.  "What do you sense from it?" she asked.  "When you extend your senses into it."

"I sense seduction. An offering of something that .. it's like it is trying to lure us in there.  I don't trust it."

"But nothing malevolent," she said and moved closer.  She lifted her hand and touched the tip of her index finger to it, as lightly, as softly as she could.  The response was the same as when it had been her senses, only now a feeling of pleasure coursed through her, simple and uncomplicated, like that from childhood games or a cup of tea with hot buttered toast.  She laid her palm flat against it, carefully, mentally asking permission to touch it as she did and had the distinct sense that it had been granted.  Her hand sank into it, to the wrist and the ring on her other hand glowed suddenly bright and commanding.

She sent a thought into it, asking and got one back that made her blink.  She withdrew her hand and turned to Lev.  "We need to step through it."

He frowned again. "Right. I'm registering my dislike of this idea now. But since this is a quest, let's go."

She took his hand and a deep breath, and stepped into it, feeling the cats against her ankles.  Instantly she felt like she'd stepped into a star going nova, like she was immersed in a pool of pure power.  And yet there was no sense of threat or impending harm or intent to hurt.  Merely that it was like an airlock, a negative pressure room between two spaces.  She let the currents of power pull her forward, buoying her up and kept her hand tight on Lev's.

She heard a thrumming, or maybe a throbbing, in time with the pulses coming from his sigil and her ring. He held her hand tightly as if he were afraid they'd be separated. The cats wove them into one moving creation as they stepped forward. Then suddenly darkness, stillness, and silence.  And then into the silence sound dropped itself, in something like drips, on tone followed by another that fit themselves together into a melody line awaiting orchestration. 

She felt her feet hit something solid and then light was burning against her eyelids, inviting her to open them, to look and see what she'd found.  If she'd been asked she wouldn't have been able to describe what she imagined Eden to look like.  Afterwards she could never adequately describe to anyone what she saw now.  The towering crystal gates guarded by winged angels holding flaming swords, those she could delineate.  But not the feeling of it against the sapphire sky, or the utter pristine brilliance of every color, the clarity of every note of bird song or the wonder of scent of the air, of fruit and flowers mixed with health and teeming life.  The feeling of it, of peace more profound than any she'd ever imagined, of nothing left that was nagging or worrisome or concerning.  It was as if by stepping through she'd shed it all and left it on the other side.  It was a peace that gathered her up, wrapped her around with itself and made her believe in heaven.

"Every cliché ever written," Lev muttered. "All here in living Technicolor."

Cele looked up at him and yowled.  Dia giggled.  "He doesn't agree, though I take your point.  And I am reluctant to walk through those gates."

"Yes. I have the feeling that once you walk in walking back out might not be an option," Lev replied agreeing, and looking down at Cele and Salem with yet another frown. "Their allegiance is to... whatever this is. I don't think we can count on them choosing what is best for us. For you."

"You think so?  I wouldn't have said that but it's possible.  So what do you think we should next?" she asked.

He looked behind them and all was darkness. "I think we have to go forward, since I don't see an option. That's what bothers me. Our choices are taken from us and we're herded along by the cats."

She nodded and turned back towards the gates, taking each step slowly.  When she was about fifteen paces from them the angels moved, crossing their swords over the gates.  "Reminds me of the guard at Buckingham Palace," she said as she stopped.  Then a movement to her left caught her eyes and she frowned.  A figure was approaching, flanked by a pair of lions, dressed in robes that looked like they'd have been the height of fashion two thousand years ago.  He had long black hair, pulled back into a pony tail tied by a piece of leather thing.  He wore a full beard, dense and cut close to his face.  His complexion was olive-toned and set off the warm brown of his eyes.  "Solomon, I presume," she muttered under her breath.

"Ah. I guess you reached the end of your quest."

"Presumably," she said, unimpressed.  She glanced at the cats, calmly grooming themselves despite the lions.  The man had reached them by this time.  He scrutinized them as carefully she weighted him, both using all their senses to measure the other.  She had the feeling he wanted her to speak first and she didn't.

He smiled finally.  "A woman of patience and restraint.  How refreshing."

"How sadly telling," she replied.  "But I would imagine you don't get out much."

He put his head back and laughed.  "No, not much.  I'm Solomon and you two are?

"Dia Batal and Lev Nazarov."

"Yes, thank you.  There are signs that tell me what you are but not who."

Lev asked, "And what are we? Other than the obvious."

Solomon smiled.  "Come, let me fix you tea or perhaps you'd prefer a glass of wine and we can be comfortable while we talk.  And that way the angels can relax."

Dia exchanged a glance with Lev and then made a gesture.  "After you then," she said.  "Refreshments sound lovely, I must say."

"Sure," Lev agreed, but looked a bit less than relaxed. His eyes were scanning the area the way he did when he thought danger lurked.

The followed Solomon, the cats still at their feet, to a small garden fragrant with spring flowers, where chairs were set near a fountain, and a tray of refreshments awaited them.

"You were expecting us?" Dia said as she took a seat. 

His eyes twinkled.   "Tea or wine?"

"Tea, please, " Dia said and waited while he poured her a cup.

"Lev?" Solomon asked.

"Wine please."  Lev took the glass poured for him.  Then he asked, "So why are we here?"

Solomon sat, his chair angled so he could see them and the garden.  Cele jumped in his lap, purring loudly and then  curled up for a nap.  "Basically," he said when Cele was settled, "you're here because Elihu died and passed the book onto Dia.  He summoned me, much to my amazement, using the seal.  To be a victim of the obsessive hunger for knowledge and the power it brings was something of a surprise."  He paused and took a fig from the plate.  "He demanded that I write what you know as the Great Grimnoire, the Key to Solomon.   And then tried a bit of sordid blackmail really.  He wanted access to the Garden of course and the pathway through it to Heaven."

"I don't understand," Dia said.  "He wanted the Grimnoire and a way into the Garden?"

Solomon spit the fig pit into his hand and set it on the plate.  "In essence, though he didn't put it quite like that.  He assumed the Grimnoire would give him the access, since he had concluded it was by means of magic that I found my way here.  And it was, though not my own, I assure you.  Nice as this place is, it gets a bit dull."

"Yes, I bet," Lev muttered, looking around. "So if he died, and he's the one who blackmailed you, why are you messing about with us?"

"Well," Solomon said carefully, "I actually gave him what he asked for, though it wasn't what he wanted because he couldn't use it you see.  I, uhm, neglected to explain a few things to him, you see, feeling at the time a certain degree of what you might call justifiable annoyance.  He'd stolen the seal from the young woman who had it and the result was I was going to be stuck here for a lot longer than planned."

"Wait, let me make sure I have this right," Lev said, putting aside his wine cup.   "You were blackmailed. You. And now you're stuck here and what, we're here to help you break out of Paradise?"

"In short.  Except now you're here I don't need to break out.  I can just leave you the keys, as it were, and go."

"I don't want them," Lev replied.

"Well, it would be nicer if you did," Solomon said, refilling his wine glass, "But it's not required.  You're here you see, and unlike Hansel and Gretl you didn't leave a trail of bread crumbs to follow back to Mt. Sahand."

"See, I always knew you weren't the good guy they tried to pass you off as," Lev replied, eyes narrowed.

"How anyone with any sense could think a man who needed a thousand wives was a good guy is beyond me," Solomon said.  "So you have my admiration."

"Well, I'm not taking the keys, period,"  Lev replied.

Solomon shook his head.  "You've technically already got them," he said, gesturing to Lev's arm.  "Not the nicest tattoo I've ever seen, but looks aren't the issue in this case."

"The hell I'm staying," Lev said launching himself at Solomon.

Dia, watching, saw Solomon disappear at the same instant Lev launched his attack, causing Cele to howl and hit the ground ahead of the chair that toppled over with Lev on top of it.  She sighed and offered him a hand, helping him up.  "Well that was fun," she said.

"I knew we couldn't trust that damn cat," Lev replied, aiming a kick for Cele, but pulling up at the last second.

"Now what, Dia. I'm all ears."

She watched Cele stalk off and sipped her tea.  "I'm not sure just yet."  She smiled at him, her dimples flashing.  "Tell me, do you hate me?"

"At the moment?"

"In general," she said, picking a fig to nibble on.  "I mean it's okay if you do, I quite understand."

He got up from the floor and poured himself some wine. "No, of course I don't. Why would you even think I do?"

"Your body language," she said.  She glanced around the garden.   "I think the house would be in that direction.  I'm hoping he's got a library but it isn't required."  She smiled at him again and stood up.  "You coming with me?  Or staying here?"

"Sure I'll come with you."  He walked along the garden path with her, silent. The house was at the end of the path, a pleasant little place but fairly primitive.

She went in, the cats behind her, entirely at her ease and looked around.  "Ah, very good," she said and headed for the wall of books, searching the spines until she found the one she wanted.  The cats took up position on the bed.  "You should have a seat, get comfortable.  This may take a while,"  she told him, sitting down at the table.  Then, not waiting for or not expecting a response she began reading.

Lev prowled around the house for a bit, searching in every cupboard, opening every drawer. He picked up a piece of fruit and ate it, then finally pushed the cats off the bed and laid down. He was asleep in an instant.

Dia spent the hours he was sleeping reading, checking through several texts and then she closed the book and leaned back in her chair, her eyes closing as she relaxed, making herself comfortable.  From there she entered into a trance state, moving into it one level to the next, deeply detached.  The cats joined her as her breathing evened out and slowed, until it was almost nonexistent and her heart slowed as well until it seemed it had stopped.  Then, her body taken care of, she slipped her mind free and went questing for what she needed, weaving memory and knowledge into a single whole, while all of history lay below her.  On her thumb the seal glowed and pulsed, on Lev's arm the tattoo did the same. 

She found the instant in time she wanted and slipped down out of space and into a room, smoky and lit by a fire and a few sputtering candles.  She listened as Elihu called Solomon and commanded him, listened to the bargain they struck and constraints they placed on it.  She listened as Solomon conjured the book out of the seal and as Elihu tied himself to it.  She was there as Miryam joined him and listened to the plans they laid, that they'd hewed to for so long.  And she watched as Cele and Wicket sat by the fire, listening to their plans.  And then she withdrew, returning to the garden at the Gate to Eden and the small house where her body sat, still, all life suspended and slipped back into it.

Lev was sitting across from her when she returned.  "Are you all right?" he asked, holding out a cup of wine to her.

She nodded and took the wine, gulping it down gratefully.  Then she set the cup aside and met his eyes.  "I can get us out of here, I think, but you're going to have to help."

"Of course. Anything."

"You shouldn't say that so fast," she said.  "Though not hating me will probably make it less distasteful," she smiling at him.  "In order to get out of here two things have to happen.  The first is that I have to be no longer suitable to this task and the second, since the first only gets me free, is we need a substitute to take our places.  I can provide the substitute.  Solomon, bless his devious little soul, is a believer in poetic justice if there ever was one."

"I'm sorry you've lost me. Who can take our places?"

"Elihu and Miryam," she said.  "We're outside time here.  So everything that ever was, is or will be is occurring in an eternal now, and endless instant of the present.  Solomon set the spell back when Elihu blackmailed him.  He cast it and I can trigger it, using Cele as the link to Elihu and Elihu to Miryam.  When I do Elihu and Miryam will be brought here, from a point in time where they're both acceptable, meaning still virginal."

"Well, then what are you waiting for. Do it!"

"Well," she said, flushing bright red, "it has to happen with the other bit."

"Other bit? What other bit?" Lev asked, confused. "Oh. you said I needed to do something.  What?"

She flushed again her eyes glued to his.  "The bit that makes me unacceptable.   But it has to happen here because then it will be that way in all times.  It can't be undone.  I mean I'm really sorry to put you in such a position, and if there were any other way I would but there isn't.  So I'll do everything I can to make it easier for you, less distasteful.  You just have to tell me, okay?"

"Dia, I'm sorry but I'm just not getting this.  What's distasteful?"

"I need you to have sex with me," she said, refusing to look away from his face.

"I... oh. Virginal.  Oh!"  he frowned. "But I'm not a virgin. So I don't see... Distasteful?"

"Solomon wasn't either."  She clenched her hands in her lap, her eyes still on his.  "I know you don't like me and I'm sorry about that.  I know it will make it difficult for you and so just tell me...I mean whatever you need, just say."

He blinked, and then drank down his wine in one gulp. He got up to get more. "Dia, let me make sure I understand this. You want me to have sex with you so you will no longer be a virgin and somehow that will let you trigger this spell. Is that right?"

She opened her mouth and he said, "No, just nod if that's right."  She nodded.  "Okay, now how do we get from there to it being difficult for me? Because, you see, that I don't get. I mean, it was pure torture working out with you so..."

"I know, I could tell," she said, her eyes huge, twisting her hands in her lap.  "I know you can't stand touching me, that you don't like me.  I'm really, really sorry about this."

"Can't stand touching you.... No, it was... I wanted to touch you but you.. well, you're a virgin and had this calling and I knew you weren't interested so if I avoided you it was easier for me not to make a bloody fool out of myself."

She shook her head.  "I don't understand.  Not interested?  Of course I..." she broke off, redder than before.  "I don't understand."

"I wanted to make love with you, Dia, but knew you weren't interested in me."

She didn't say anything for several seconds, while his words sank in.  When they did she sputtered, indignant, "Not interested?  That wasn't it at all.  It was that I didn't want to make you more uncomfortable than you already were.  Not interested?  Of course I'm...I mean who wouldn't...I'd have to be blind not to be."

He fought back a grin. "Uhm. Ditto."

She glared at him and then closed her eyes, trying to control her breathing.  When it had slowed to reasonable rate she opened her eyes again.  "Oh," was all she could find to say.

"All right, so if we make love then you can do this spell?"

She nodded.  "Yes.  Right afterwards, I can trigger it and as they show up we leave, just zap out like Solomon did."

"Okay. So, uhm, you've never... have you ... uhm... felt anything about a boy? Or a man? Do you know, uhm, the mechanics?"

"Of course I know the mechanics," she said, surprised.  "I've just never, you know, done anything with the knowledge."

"Okay, good, I think. So, uhm, I suppose we both need to wash and then meet in bed. I seriously doubt this place has a shower.  I haven't seen a lake or a pond, damn it."

"Okay," she said.  "There's probably a cooking shed out back that would have a pump," she said.  "I'll be right back."  And without waiting for an answer she slipped out the door and returned a few minutes later with a bucket full of water, her face damp.  She filled the basin on the side board and then stepped back.  "There you go."

"Ohhhhhh Kayyyyy.  I'll tell you what, you sit down on the edge of the bed."  When she did he brought the basin over and knelt at her feet.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to wash you. Starting with your feet. Is that all right?"

She swallowed and then nodded, her eyes growing huge in her face.  "Okay."

He took her boots off and then took off her socks. "Slip your jeans off please. And your shirt.  You can stay in your bra and panties, in fact that would be best."

She nodded and slipped her shirt over her head.  She folded it and set it aside and the took off her jeans, folding those as well.  Then she back down on the edge of the bed, her eyes on his face.  "Okay," she said again, her voice barely above a whisper.

He'd found a cloth and wet it in the water and wrung it out. He picked up one of her feet and began to clean it, paying close attention to her foot. "In the olden days, couples washed one another as part of the ritual of making love. It's a habit that has sadly gone out of fashion although some couples do like to shower together. Thus my comment about a shower." He began on her other foot.  "But since you are new to this, then I think it is only fair I should show you." He rinsed out the cloth and began to work on her ankles and then on her legs. He worked slowly, and pushed her back to lie down when he got to her knees. He ran the cloth up her thigh and saw her tense.

"Nothing whatever to be tense about, Dia, it is only a cloth, and now I'll work on your hands and arms."

She gulped and nodded, trying to relax, every nerve coming to quivering life as he touched her.  She closed her eyes as he started on her hands, washing each finger and then the palms, the backs and up to her wrists, moving slowly up her arms.

He washed her shoulders and neck, and then the cleavage between her breasts. At some point she realized he was lying beside her and he was kissing her skin and saying her name as he did so.  She opened her eyes, turning towards him, her hand sliding up his arm, savoring the texture of his skin.  She whispered his name, shifting closer.  And when he lifted his head at the sound she smiled at him, her hand moving to his cheek and leaned closer, kissing him tentatively, lightly, wonderingly.  

He zapped off his jeans and his shirt, leaving on his own jockeys. He took her hand and kissed her palm. Then, "I'm going to touch you, and if you don't like something tell me to stop."

At her tentative nod he undid her bra and freed her breasts, kissing the cleavage and then the mound of her breast and then using his tongue to arouse her nipple. One hand moved down her side and followed the curve of her hip.  She closed her eyes again, feeling her skin quiver and grow hot where he touched her, her hand gliding over his side and around to his back.  He flicked her nipple with his tongue and then grazed it with his teeth drawing a low sound of pleasure from her.  When he did it again she arched toward towards him, lifting to his mouth instinctively.

She was gripping his arm by the time he replaced his mouth with his fingers and moved to the other nipple, repeating the torture, leaving her gasping.  When he took it  in his mouth, suckling, she moaned, her fingers tangling in his hair and forgot to breathe.  His hand slid across her flat abdomen and slid down inside her panties, his fingers barely grazing her pubic hair. His reaction was getting pretty obvious, the heat of it up against her thigh.

He took one of her hands and guided it down there, saying, "This shows how much I want you. How my body responds to yours."

She cupped it, fascinated by heat, the silken softness enclosing the hardness.  She closed her hand around him, feeling him tense as her thumb brushed the tip.  She stopped, her eyes flying open, searching his face for any sign she was hurting him.  Finding none she did it again, her fingers flexing on him, exploring him.  Emboldened she explored further, her hand fluttering butterfly soft over the sensitive inner face of his thighs, up over his abdomen and around over his buttocks before traveling back to where she'd started.

He zapped off her panties and his hand went between her thighs.  When she gasped at her own reaction he froze. Then whispered,  "It's natural, it's right. I want your vagina to be wet and ready and this is how to do it."

She nodded and relaxed her legs, letting her thighs part for him, gasping again as he touched her softly, slowly, his fingers combing through her curls, tracing each fold of skin,  lighting a fire under her skin.  He kept to the same, maddeningly slow, soft pace as she forgot everything except what he was doing and the nameless wanting building with every stroke, every glide of his fingers.  When he finally slid one finger inside of her she was writhing, her hips lifting towards into his touch,  When he slid a second finger in next to the first and moved them inside of her, she cried out, her breath coming in short, desperate gulps.

"Yes, Dia, that's it, let yourself go, let your body respond to me. I want you, yes..."  She began to climax and he laughed softly. "Oh yes, oh yes. Just like that. I'm going to slip into you now, it might hurt a bit at first. Are you ready?" 

She barely got the yes out, her arms tightening around him as he settled himself on top of her, adjusting himself, waiting a moment, letting her get used to his weight on top of her.  Then he flexed his hips, pressing into her, gritting his teeth, going as slowly as he could, gauging, aware of her every reaction, every response, feeling her clamping onto him, around him as he entered her, scalding hot and wet.  She relaxed under him and tilted her hips automatically, opening wider to him, taking him deeper.

He moved gently despite her need, her hands on his hips, her hips elevating to take him in deeper. He knew the moment her hymen broke and the blood came. She gasped but didn't stop wanting him. If anything she was more desperate. He moved in her, bringing her to climax under him, she gasping, crying, yet asking for more.

He kissed her forehead, her eyelids, her nose and finally commanded her mouth and moved a bit more freely in her, the slightly sticky wetness a turn on, the smell of her driving him mad.  She stayed with him, gripping his hips with her legs, lifting over his back and clinging tightly, encouraging him to set restraint aside, to take what he wanted, to let her give him what he wanted, the moaning sounds she was making cheering him on.  She moved her hands over his back, her nails raking him lightly.  When he moved a bit faster, a bit harder, she said a long drawn out yes and lifted to meet every thrust.

And then his thoughts stopped and he let himself go on the waves of pleasure as he lifted toward a climax, reaching it with her crying in his ear and her moans of pain/pleasure as he finally shuddered to a conclusion, his weight heavy on her now as he struggled to find an ounce or two of strength to move to lay beside her.

She held on as he slid off of her, legs still tangled with his, coming to rest against him, half atop of him, her head resting on his chest, feeling his heart pound under the palm of her hand, not a thought in her head.

Gradually she heard his voice, between kisses on her ear "Are you all right? I didn't hurt you too badly? I didn't.. Are you all right?"

She smiled and kissed his chest.  "I'm fine.  You didn't hurt me at all.  It was wonderful."

"Thank all that is holy for that.  You are now officially not a virgin."

She laughed softly.  "Officially, huh," she said.  "I need to trigger the spell and I don't want to move."

He laughed softly. "Tell me about it. My muscles are water."

She ran her hands over his chest, stroking his arm  "They feel just fine to me.  Not watery at all."

"Truly, you are all right?" he sounded a bit awed by that.

"Yes, truly, I'm fine.  Better than fine, actually."  She forced herself to sit up, and looked at him.  "Are you okay?"

He grinned. "I'm wonderful.  So what do you need to do now? Will I have to move?"

"I just need to say a word and that will trigger it.  You might want to get dressed, unless you want to show up at camp naked," she said as she ran her hand over his chest.

With a thought he cleaned them up and dressed them both. "All right," he said as he sat up, still feeling a bit weak in the knees.

She grinned and took his hand in hers, then whispered a word that made the wind come up and Cele yowl loudly.  She kept her eyes where Cele was watching and as two shapes shimmered into sight she said another word and zapped them out of there.

It was dark, pitch blackness outside. The camp was silent except for a breeze that made the tents flap a bit. "Who is it?" Simon demanded. "Freeze!" and lights were suddenly trained on them.  "Oh, shit," Simon said, seeing who it was.

"You're not glad to see us?" Dia asked, still holding Lev's hand.