The Vampire & Her Witch

”Enough about Jocelynn,” Nyrielle said firmly while playfully taking the soap from Ashlynn’s hands to finish lathering herself up so that she could take her turn with Ashlynn. As much as she enjoyed feeling the other woman’s hands on her skin, she longed for the feeling of Ashlynn’s soft, supple flesh beneath her own fingers, and Ashlynn needed to receive care far more than she needed to provide it.

”What else has kept you busy during the days while I’ve slept?” Nyrielle asked as she stood to reach the silver tray of soaps, sending a small wave rippling across the surface of the bathing pool.

For a moment, Ashlynn’s mind froze as she watched Nyrielle stretching out toward the soaps. Her long, dark hair clung wetly to the gentle, graceful curves of her body and the humble swell of her breasts, like a calligrapher’s brush dipped in the darkest ink, flowing gracefully across the purest, whitest parchment. Water droplets glistened like jewels on her pale flesh, and the steam rising from the pool wrapped around her lower body like a shroud, obscuring just enough to make the view tantalizingly incomplete.

If Ashlynn didn’t know better, she’d swear that Nyrielle was deliberately posing, like the subject of one of her paintings, because the scene she created with a simple, casual movement was too breathtaking to be an accident. But it was neither an accident nor a deliberately provocative pose; it was simply Nyri, moving as she moved, always graceful, eternally enticing, and in Ashlynn’s presence, absolutely defenseless.

”Come here,” Ashlynn said, pushing off the bottom of the marble tub to wrap her arms around Nyrielle, catching the other woman off guard enough that they both tumbled deeper into the water with a loud splash.

”What was that for?” Nyrielle asked as she let out a light, musical laugh once they’d managed to right themselves in the water, even though Ashlynn refused to let go, pressing herself up against Nyrielle’s lithe figure as if she intended to keep her prisoner here in the bathing pool.

”You’re too perfect,” Ashlynn pouted playfully. ”And too beautiful. So I have to trap you here and never let you go,” she teased, stretching up to bestow a light kiss on Nyrielle’s soft, luscious lips. ”And I love you,” she added a touch awkwardly. ”And you’re beautiful...”

”You said that already,” Nyrielle said with a wide smile. ”My heart is yours, just as yours is mine. Nothing will ever part us or come between us,” she said, gently stroking Ashlynn’s wet hair. ”Except, perhaps, for this,” she said, holding up the soap. ”Because I do love the feeling of you in my arms when you’re both wet and... slippery,” she said suggestively.

”You...!” Ashlynn said, blushing furiously and pushing Nyrielle away in another splash. ”If you keep that up, we’ll never get to dinner,” Ashlynn said, turning her back on Nyrielle while she covered her face with her hands as she imagined the other things that they had done together while they were both wet and slippery. ”And you’ll never hear what else I’ve been up to,” she added with a playful pout.

”Then share,” Nyrielle said lightly, gliding through the water before beginning to wash Ashlynn’s back. ”What else has kept you busy?”

”Samira isn’t the only noteworthy pregnancy,” Ashlynn said, leaning into Nyrielle’s touch and letting out a deep sigh as the vampire’s strong fingers began working at the knots in the muscles of her back while her hands slid over her lover’s flesh. ”We got a message from Sir Carwyn yesterday... mmm...”

”Did things work out as you hoped with his village?” Nyrielle asked lightly. ”Did they respect their lord pledging his loyalty to Sybyll?”

”There was a small confrontation with the Church’s acolyte who managed the local temple,” Ashlynn said, shaking her head as she recalled the incident that Carwyn had described in his letter. ”The acolyte was enough of a zealot that he tried attacking Carwyn and his family, along with Captain Barsali. Barsali dealt with it,” Ashlynn said with a deep sigh.

”But that wasn’t the part of the news I wanted to share,” Ashlynn added as she shook off thoughts of the acolyte who would rather die than live side by side with the Eldritch. ”Evidently, Barsali was able to notice that Carwyn’s wife, Olwyna, is carrying twins. She’ll need the attention of a good healer in order to deliver safely, so I told Carwyn that he can bring her here.”

”Captain Barsali will stay in Raek Village with Sir Rhodri, Carwyn’s father, to watch over the villagers,” Ashlynn said with a smile. ”It seems like our former gladiator has found common ground with the knights of Hanrahan, and he’s confident that he can keep the peace in the village through the winter until Sir Carwyn returns with his wife and children.”

”Will Ollie be hosting them, along with Samira?” Nyrielle asked lightly as her hands slid across Ashlynn’s smooth, soapy skin, embracing her from behind. ”He seems to be turning the house he never uses into a shelter for mothers and infants.”

”I don’t think he’d mind,” Ashlynn said with a smile as she leaned back into Nyrielle’s embrace. ”He never planned to build more than a modest home for himself in that village and he didn’t have a hand in building that one. The villagers surprised him with it, claiming they’d been building a ’meeting hall’ for the village rather than a lord’s manor. Now, I think he’s just happy that it’s getting used while he’s busy here.”

”You collect the strangest people, my darling,” Nyrielle said, shaking her head in amazement at the ’ordinary kitchen boy’ who had turned out to be so extraordinary. ”Strange, but in the most impressive ways. It must be witchcraft,” she teased.

”Oh hush, none of that,” Ashlynn said, blushing again for entirely different reasons as she turned around in Nyrielle’s embrace, sliding easily in the vampire’s grasp now that they were both soapy and wet. ”You collect some impressive folks yourself,” she added.

”Speaking of which, I’ve been working with Commander Bassinger...”

Their bath took at least twice as long as it should have, but neither of them minded. They were approaching the longest night of the year, and they had plenty of time. Ashlynn had been busy with everything from preparing supplies for Savis and Tausau’s Second and Third armies to dispatching Bassinger’s First Army to help Sybyll garrison Hanrahan and a dozen other minor things that needed her attention.

It was more than enough to keep her busy, even if it couldn’t entirely distract her from the worries that still haunted her. But Nyrielle was working hard to accomplish the latter, and the night was still very young...