“Evee… Evee, wake up! I swear, if you keep drooling on me I’ll throw you off the roof. See if I don’t.” I turned my head drowsily without opening my eyes and buried my face in the soft, fragrant belly I was resting against. There was a cold wind ruffling my hair and the sounds of the city reached me from far away, but I was feeling warm, protected.
“I’m not your pillow,” the silky, girlish voice continued. “Will you get up? I know you can hear me.” With a defiant groan I finally blinked. I couldn’t quite say where I was or how I had gotten here, but… holy hells! My eyes flew open and my heart sank to my stomach when the entirety of New York sprawled away around me under a rising sun, my dancing tresses a flickering veil before me. I was on the roof of a goddamned skyscraper. Our skyscraper. My home, except… the roof shouldn’t have been accessible. No wonder, really, since it wasn’t flat, but sloped and the drop that beckoned from barely an arm’s length away was long enough to compose an epitaph on the way down.
Luckily I couldn’t slip, a young, silver haired girl was holding me tight and her fingers felt like soft, smooth vices on my skin. My gaze travelled from her long, slender legs on either side of me, up her leather clad torso and towards her face, where it remained for a very long second. I swallowed. “Artemis,” I breathed while a faint blush rose to my cheeks. Oh wow, I was in trouble.
A sweet smile made her large, moonstone eyes crease and her silvery, luscious lips parted to reveal pearly white, slightly pointy teeth.
“In the flesh. Hello, Evee. I’ve missed you.” Then she pinched my thigh, roughly. “Don’t get any funny ideas, though. I haven’t missed you that much.” My clothes rustled silkily when I moved on the coarse cement to look into her eyes. Following a sudden impulse I ignored her warning and arched my back. My lips brushed against her cheek chastely as a taste like moonlight entered my mouth. This time around she was the one stupefied. A soft laugh escaped me and I snuggled back into her, savouring the splendid vistas of the awakening city.
Silence settled in between us, comfortable and warm, but as I watched a yellow, ant like cab weasel its way through the congested traffic on Lenox, my mind slowly caught up with the last hours. Shit. Now I had a pretty solid idea of why I had felt like I had had to start anew a century ago. My reaction to a naked man had been somewhat of a giveaway. Not to mention that my stomach was still cramping up with disgust and fear every time I remembered Sparkles imposing form. Chances were my last encounter with a man hadn’t gone too well.
“Who was it,” I whispered. In response Artemis’ arms tightened around me and she pulled me up until my back rested against her chest.
“We don’t know, otherwise he would have long since regretted what he did. Do you…” I shook my head.
“I don’t remember anything, but the feelings are quite real. I… is that why I ran? Does everybody know?” She sighed and her warm breath caressed my neck.
“Hephaistos, Ares, me and Sparkles. That’s it. When it comes down to it we aren’t that different from humans. You could barely talk about it with us, never mind anyone else. You even refused to reveal… In the end… yes, you ran. Unfortunately, you didn’t run far enough. Apparently the wound is still there. Scabbed over, but very much present. I’m sorry. We all thought you’d be fine and that you’d never have to deal with…”
“Being raped,” I croaked, my voice much closer to a sob than I would have liked. I didn’t even know what, when and why, but I still felt hurt, vulnerable… dirty. “Guess Victoria won’t have to worry about me trying to get into her conquests’ pants,” I snivelled in a brave but paltry attempt at gallows humour. “Who’d have thought that the goddess of love is disgusted by men.”
She rested her head on my shoulder, her cheek touching mine. “You’re preaching to the choir. I never understood why you chased after some in the first place. Hairy, smelly, ignorant…” this time around I managed a watery chuckled and turned my head to bury my face in the nape of her neck. She didn’t push me away, but I felt goosebumps rise wherever my breath tickled her skin.
“I’m not going to argue with you. Not today,” I mumbled. “How long can you stay?” A soft hum escaped her before she replied:
“Quite a while. I have an appointment around one. There’s this little private school not too far away. Dunno why but this morning their history teacher won the lottery and quit. I’m toying with the idea of filling in, at least for a little while… what do you think?”
“I think I’d like that. You surely have the qualifications, but… I’m not taking many history classes, if that’s what you’re after.”
“I know,” she sighed, “but, unless they start teaching archery, horseback riding or Ancient Greek there, my options are somewhat limited. Bad enough that I have to walk around as a fully grown woman. I’m not going to add maths to my list of torments.”
“A pity. I think you’d be quite good at it… sister.” The knot in my stomach was slowly unwinding and instead a hot, almost elated sensation poured into my heart. “I’ve just met you for the first time, but I’m pretty sure I now know why Aphrodite wants to control my love life. Have I chased after you before?”
“Constantly,” she snorted quietly as I felt the weight of her head come to rest on mine.
“Was I successful?”
“That you’ll have to find out for yourself. It’s already plenty impressive that I don’t feel like pushing you off, but I’m not going to be pulled into the insanity you call love. Not today,” she added in a whisper, echoing my words from before. Have I mentioned that Artemis was infamous for killing every men who had dared to hunt her? There weren’t many legends centred around girls, though.
“Goddamn,” my voice whispered quietly in my ear, “the hussy has actually missed you. I’m so sorry, Evee, but now you at least know the reason for all the secrecy. You were never supposed to find out, but apparently it wasn’t enough.”
“Is that why you were so insistent? You practically forced me to try and chase after Victoria and Katie. Is it so I wouldn’t be tempted by a boy?”
“That’s the smaller part of it. I still think those two will be good for you. But yes, I wouldn’t have minded if you hadn’t come close to a naked man for years. Another reason why I had hoped we wouldn’t meet until your adulthood. The main reason, this time. But that ship has sailed… crashed and burned. How are you doing?”
“Don’t you know?”
“I do, but sometimes it’s best to say it out loud.”
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“I’m scared and I feel… powerless, violated, even though I can’t remember.” Then I focused on the girl behind me. “But I also enjoy this moment. Her warmth, her presence.” She sighed.
“And here we go again. You really are hopeless. Well, I’ll leave you to it and keep an eye on your family. I’ll tell you when they’re waking up… or rather when your sister is done showering. She hasn’t slept that much to begin with.” A flock of birds was soaring past, high in the sky, and for a moment I was utterly content watching them without a single thought in my mind. Life was beautiful, always. Sometimes it was just a bit harder to see.
“Do you want to have breakfast with my sister and me,” I asked Artemis after a few drawn out moments during which the sun had risen further into the sky.
“That’s… surprisingly tame,” she commented. “I’d love to, but you’d have to get up, first.”
“It can wait,” I mumbled and finally extracted myself from the silky waterfall of silver hair I was buried underneath. A chilly breeze, carrying with it the smell of gasoline and burned rubber, ruffled my tresses, causing raven black and silver strands to mingle freely. “Right now… I want to stay here for a bit longer.” I settled back in, leaning into her. “What happened to Sparkles,” I asked after a while. “I didn’t… he’s not…?”
“Nah, he’s fine. Slightly singed, but perfectly healthy. It’d take a lot more than that to threaten a dragon. He’s hurting, though. He thinks it was his fault. Which, to be honest, it was. As soon as you left back then the pervert stripped and slept in your bed, hugging your pillow. If it hadn’t been so dangerous I’d have taken the Mickey out of him for years to come. But he even managed to ruin that.” Another thought struck, half forgotten stories and legends forming a fractured mosaic:
“Artemis… why are you so nice to me? In every story I read, gods…” she huffed indignantly.
“First, you’re my sister, my older sister whom I’ve looked up to for longer than you can imagine. Second,” she leaned in closer, her hot breath tickling my ear, “you do remember who you are, don’t you? And now you even look less like a woman and more like a girl. Talk about pushing buttons,” she added in a purr, her teeth whispering along my earlobe. A hot, enticing shudder ran down my spine, but I couldn’t savour it properly. Every time my thoughts strayed even close to anything sensual I recoiled, my stomach immediately filling to the brim with molten lead. Now that we couldn’t have, could we? But I already had an idea how I was going to change that. Soon.
I turned my head and kissed her cheek again to brush away the lingering excitement that had grown between us. “I thought you were the eternal maiden,” I whispered as I breathed in her wild, unbound scent. She smelled like a meadow in the forest under the moonlight.
“That’s never going to change,” she chuckled throatily, “but… well, use your own imagination.”
“So I was successful,” I retorted with a brave attempt at sounding proud. She radiated heat like a flame as a magnificent, silver blue blush claimed her pristine face. “Don’t worry,” I breathed, “I won’t tell if you won’t.” Her hands roamed up my sides caressingly before she flipped me around effortlessly to pull me into a heartfelt embrace, her face buried against my neck.
“I’m glad you haven’t changed. I wasn’t sure. Still, could you do me a favour? Focus your attention on your two mortal admirers. I don’t know how long I’d manage to resist and that’s a bridge we don’t want to cross. Not yet, anyways. Once you’re a bit more settled…” she shrugged.
“Is that a promise,” I teased.
“I was thinking more along the lines of a threat, but then again… it probably is. Maybe I’ll take you to prom. That’d be a fancy scandal and something for Katie’s mum to write about. I can already see the headlines: teacher seduces student and steals the show. If they only knew the truth…”
“Somehow you don’t sound like you’re at all disgusted by the idea.”
“No… I’m not. A few thousand years of nagging tend to erode every kind of resistance. And honestly, I haven’t tried too hard to keep you at arm’s length. Even back then. Now… we’ll have to see, won’t we? But first you should get a grip on your own life… without making it even more difficult. Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. And neither will you, if I have any say in the matter.”
“Thanks, Arty,” I sighed, entirely oblivious to the faux pas that would have probably doomed anyone else on the spot. The pet name had rolled over my tongue naturally. “I’m glad you chose to look after me. I must have done something right.” Maybe it was my attempt to ignore the whole being violated fiasco thoroughly, or maybe my mind was just unable to keep up, whatever the reason my thoughts were wandering and I blurted out: “there’s a small French bakery close by. Cappuccino and chocolate croissants make everything better. Could you get me back inside? I’ll fetch Vicky. We could meet up at the entrance downstairs in half an hour… maybe an hour. You still have a good while until your interview, don’t you?” She cocked an eyebrow but didn’t comment on my timeline: “In case you’re paying I’ll postpone it, if I have to. A fair warning, though, we don’t get full. Might become more expensive than you’re bargaining for.”
“I’ll manage,” I chuckled. “If it matters… I’m actually a pretty good catch. My parents are loaded.”
“You are,” she confessed freely, “but that’s not the reason. Come on then, little princess, let’s get you back inside. I’ll wait downstairs.” I felt her tense and the flickering, silver light of the moon danced across the rooftop for the fraction of a second. “You’re sister is still showering. Perfect.”Before I could make either heads or tails of her sentence I felt weightless, the world vanished behind a silver glare and when I blinked in confusion hot water was already drenching my priceless attire. Victoria and I stared at each other, a soft sponge frozen halfway down her glistening stomach. Without a conscious thought my gaze wandered downwards and the both of us blushed simultaneously before her hiss reverberated through the walk-in shower:
“Evee? What… why… how,” she stammered as the sponge hit the floor.
“Hmm,” I replied pensively, my eyes glued to her perky breasts. “I was brought here by a spell, cast by a goddess, because it surely seems like we’re in love and it’s about time that we talked. Does that answer your questions? Oh, wait, maybe this does.” Without thinking, without giving my courage a chance to falter, I leaned forwards and our lips touched for the very first time.
An electric jolt raced down my spine and directly to my groin as the soft, almost ethereal sensation drowned out every last thought in my mind. A suppressed groan pressed against my tongue when she answered the kiss feverishly, her hands reaching blindly. “Wait,” I mumbled against her mouth and pulled back. She was panting heavily, her eyes glazed over, her lips already cherry red. My tongue darted out and I savoured the taste of strawberries and peppermint while I nimbly slipped out of my sweater. My pants followed a second later. With a wet, soaked thud they landed on the black marble floor, but before I had even stepped out of the garments Victoria’s hands had found my stomach. She pushed me up against the wall, her nose only a hair’s width away from mine. A fire I had never seen before burned in her eyes, but deep down there was also a spark of something else. Fear maybe, but it wasn’t going to matter for long. I’d make sure of it.
“Why,” she gasped hoarsely, her cheeks burning, her eyes darting towards my soaked, lacy underwear, something she knew I hadn’t owned before.
“Really? Now,” I complained breathlessly. She closed her eyes and the muscles on the side of her jaws pressed against her soft, smooth skin. I gently placed my hand on her cheek.
“Yes, now,” she stammered, but her fingers were slowly travelling towards my chest, putting the lie to her Herculean effort of self control. A crooked smile tugged on the corners of my mouth and I leaned forward to whisper in her ear:
“I’ve seen you this morning. I’ve heard and I’ve felt you.” Then I bit down gently on her earlobe. My tongue darted out as I licked her neck and a soft tremor shot up her legs. Another moan escaped her and she inadvertently clenched her thighs. Almost without hesitation I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her closer, catching her wandering hands between us. “Yes, Victoria. I know you haven’t asked, but I want to be with you.” Her eyes flashed open again, her pupils as wide as saucers. With a snakelike movement I brought my hand back and unhooked the clasps of my bra. I felt the soft, divine cloth rub over even softer flesh before it was caught in the shower stream and swirled towards the drain.
“That’s all you’re going to get, though. The rest stays on. Also, if we do this I’m not going to share unless I get to choose with whom. Never. If you want me, you’ll have to stop sleeping around.”
