Neen fluttered dejectedly through the labyrinth of books. She wanted to sleep, but she was too restless. The hopelessness of the situation was overwhelming. In all of the crap she had been through in her life; her father's murder, her mother's subsequent descent into a life of drug addiction and prostitution and then her early days on the streets fending for herself, she had learned to be a survivor. Her entire life up to this point had been; adapt or die. She believed in evolution, survival of the fittest. It had always been her mantra, but in this situation there seemed no way out. No clear way to survive.
She briefly contemplated killing everyone else in the library and living inside the relative safety of the fortress until the food ran out. Even though it was a finite solution and only delayed the inevitable, at least it was something.
"No, better to face death with my guns blazing!" she thought angrily. What else did she have to lose? She was going to find that damned wizard and put a bullet right between his eyes or die trying. Momentarily serene at the thought dying on her terms she decided it was finally time to settle an old score with Sliver once and for all.
She picked up her pace and started specifically looking for him. It took her a little while, but she finally came across him in an alcove in the farthest corner of the library. She approached him as quietly and stealthily as she could. He did not appear to sense her presence. She wondered if he really did have his guard down or if it was some type of trap. He had not survived this long in his trade by being complacent. She waited several aisles back until his back was turned then she quietly entered the alcove behind him.
He had taken off his envirocoat, stripped off all his weapons and was attempting to make a makeshift bed from chair cushions that he had scavenged from the reading rooms. He stopped what he was doing and slowly turned to face her. The orange light from a nearby lantern made the scars on his face stand out and gave the lustful look in his eyes an alluring intensity that she suddenly found arousing rather than intimidating.
She stared at him for a moment as she fought with herself. There was just no permutation that she could think of where this situation they were in was going to end well. Not knowing if they were going to survive the next hours had finally given her the resolve she needed. However, now that she was actually in a position where he was finally vulnerable something held her back and as he stared back at her silently she knew what it was. Despite her better judgement she wanted it to mean something between them.
She slowly moved her hands down to her pistols. His eyes looked sideways towards his own guns that lay a full stretched dive away. He made no move for them however. His only reaction was to raise his chin and look back at her with a cold stare.
"You see what happens when you let your guard down and let people get too close. I just wish that you would have shot me when my back was turned.”
"If I was here for that, you'd already be dead," she said shaking her head as she unclipped her holsters and let her guns fall to the floor.
Sliver watched in stunned silence as she slowly removed her clothes until she was standing completely naked in front of him. Still wary he slowly disrobed also then moved towards her, but she stopped him.
"No," she said as she gently pushed him away. She wanted him to understand what this meant, what he now meant to her and who she was prepared to become. She launched gently into the air and hovered several feet above the ground. Her wings started to flutter in a distinct rhythm. He looked up at her in astonishment and desire.
He also leapt into the air and hovered there beside her then made his own wings match her pattern of pulses in an ancient fairy mating ritual. Her arousal increased as their wings began to beat in perfect unison. Her own wings started to glow indicating her acceptance of him as a sexual partner.
Then she made the ultimate gesture of vulnerability and turned her back on him. With surprising gentleness and care he positioned himself up against her in between her wings. With her wings now pinned she had no chance to escape from the bond until he decided. He wrapped a strong arm around her waist to support her. From this point onwards it was he and he alone that kept them suspended in the air.
They became one and he was slow and gentle at first, but then with his free hand he grabbed her hair and pulled her head back hard. The feeling of helplessness only served to heighten her arousal and she lost herself in the pleasure of the moment. Their love making was vigorous and bordering on rough, but she was as much the driver of the intensity as he was. When finally they concluded and he released her she expected to be dropped heavily to the ground as would be the case in any other casual union, but to her surprise he quickly grabbed her again and lowered her gently back to the floor.
She held onto him tightly as they stood there and buried her head against his heaving sweating bare chest. She was speechless, overwhelmed.
"I'm only going to end up hurting you if we keep down this path Neen. You should have just shot me."