We all sat around the largest table in the tavern, the customary joviality missing from the slate snakes as we turned to Ward. Heist time was serious time, we slipped our jokes and banter back into our pockets.

“So, what’s the news?” Bassi asked, eyes alight with excitement, tongue worrying at her fangs again.

Ward was practically vibrating with excitement as he steepled his fingers. “Remember that Serverasa expedition you had me looking out for? Well, they returned and with what they were looking for.”

“Really? They actually found it?” Whistle… well, whistled. “Bloody hell, they’ve been talking about their fortune for years!”

“What fortune?” I asked, glancing between the two men.

“Serverasa,” Bassi said, spinning a knife on the table as she met my eyes. “Remember how I told you about a certain… kingdom, from before the fall?”

“Wait, the same one that…?” I blurted, trailing off before I spoke any specifics.

“The same,” she agreed, her eyes turning hungry. “The Serverasa family were once the royal family of the Kingdom of Servedria. They were forced to leave their holdings in a hurry, unable to transport the majority of their vast wealth as they evacuated.”

“Right, and that vast wealth… they sent a big ol group of their goons and pathfinders out to look for it. Well, they found it, and it… it’s as big as we thought, no lie,” he explained, a wide grin spreading over his face as he widened his hands out for emphasis. “They got it back to their castle out near the wall, but it’s staying there for now. Don’t trust their hirelings to get it up to their pretty houses on the hill, I heard. Vulnerable.”

“Knew it!” Bassi laughed, leaning back in her chair with a triumphant fist pump. “Goddess, they are so predictable. Paranoid money ghouls and their gold. Ward, what do you have for us on the place? You’ve been lurking it, right?”

“Aye, I have maps prepared,” he said, standing up. “Let me go get them, then we can get a plan rolling. Got to move quick, after all, don’t want them moving it afore we can lighten the load for them.”

“Hah!” Dancer bellowed, a melodic deep laugh. “Thinking of their poor porter’s backs I see. Knew you were soft!”

“You know it,” Ward chuckled, throwing the big man a wink.

Ward wasn’t gone long, and when he returned, he spread out a large roll of parchment. It was packed with details, from guard rotations to habits of the servants. Everything was there. My respect for the slight, excitable Ward just grew a thousand fold. How the hell had he even gotten this much information?

“That, is a fortress,” Jitters whistled, leaning back in her chair while she voiced a sentiment that we all shared.

Ward nodded, not at all perturbed, “That’s kind of the point of a place like this. I’ve heard some magical things about our newest member though.” The last was said with a smile and a nod in my direction. “Reckon we can get this done as ghosts.”

Whistle let out a little sound of complaint, but Singer cuffed him over the shoulder and he quieted down. Probably upset we couldn’t make a scene on the way out.

Bassi hadn’t moved, hadn’t made a sound, other than the tapping of a finger to her chin. The banter quieted down after a minute or two as we all noticed the slow smile forming on her gorgeous face.

“I have a plan,” she declared, leaning forward, green eyes alight with the shine of gold.

****

This was the first time I had been beyond the city limits, and I was surprised by how picturesque it was. Apparently they had what were basically zoning laws, keeping the size of the city the same so that what little farmland they had could be saved. The area inside the massive outer walls was, as near as I could tell, was a circle with a radius of around eighty kilometers.

To keep everyone inside the city limits, they had built a far smaller secondary wall, only like four meters tall. Anyone caught trying to build outside that limit was pretty much just killed on the spot by the merchant council’s guards.

The city had been built at the base of a peninsula, where the temple had been created or made long before. The peninsula itself was a region of wild hills that had been tamed by the rulers of the city for country estates and vineyards. It was basically their playground.

The plains on the other side of the city limits stretched for many kilometers until they hit a mountain range, which the great wall of Anamoor cut through without any regard for the terrain. It was strange, but I had seen land like this before, down in Christchurch, a city in New Zealand. It wasn’t exactly the same, mind you, the coastline was a mess, and obviously the wall went out into the sea as well.

That was an interesting tidbit too, the fact that the wall went out into the sea, but had gates all along it that allowed sea life and ships to move in and out. The monster repelling effect of the walls was increased tenfold at those gates. The goddess had clearly put a bit of thought into this when she created it.

Our target was out at the foot of the mountains, a ruined castle from the days before the war which the Serverasa family had claimed and renovated. They used it for all sorts of purposes now, from administering their holdings surrounding it, to any sort of shady shit they didn’t want their friends on the hill to find out about.

We made our way on foot, staying off the roads and sleeping in whatever safe places we could find. Bassi and I kept a little distance during the journey, part of our strange unspoken agreement not to admit that there was anything going on between us. I had a sort of suspicion that she wanted to keep it separate from her duties as leader of the slate snakes. Of course, then she went and stuck us on watch together.

We were camped out in a small hollow next to a stream, trees and plant life surrounding us on all sides bar that of the water, which flowed lazily past. The rest of the heist party was asleep in their bedrolls up against the treeline while we were on the other side of it, hidden among the bushes. Early morning light was a hint on the horizon, signaling that we had only a few more hours before it was time to get moving.

“How much farther is this place we’re going to hit?” I asked, speaking quietly to make sure we weren’t overheard by anyone who might stray nearby.

“Not far,” she murmured from where she sat beside me. “We’ll make it tomorrow night with plenty of time to prepare.”

I made a small sound of acknowledgement, but didn’t otherwise comment. There was something about the moment that had me not wanting to speak. The world out here was almost too pretty for the depressing reality it represented.

A shuffling sound had me glancing back at Bassi, my breath locking in my throat when I found her now right next to me. Without a word, she leaned in against me, her head coming down to settle on my shoulder. She wriggled for a moment, getting comfortable, then let out a long sigh.

My heart was hammering in my chest now, every part of me wide awake and alert as my thoughts spun uselessly like a car stuck in a bog. This was way more… relationshippy than we normally acted.

I mean sure, after sex we cuddled and stuff, but she was a woman, they were meant to like that kind of thing right? I know I did, the sense of calm and safety it brought me was like a soothing balm to my sunburnt soul.

My hand landed in her hair, seemingly of its own accord. I certainly hadn’t asked it to do that, but whatever. Absently I played with it, she always wore it loose and kinda messy, opting to comb it out with her fingers rather than going through a full hair care routine like I did. Somehow it was still soft and thick, despite what I had called hair abuse at one point.

“It’s unfair how nice your hair is, you treat it so badly,” I murmured, brushing my cheek against the top of her head.

“It’s tough, it can deal with a lot,” she mumbled, turning her head further into my shoulder. Definitely not doing her job as a lookout, that’s for sure. Guess I’d cover for her then.

“Kinda like you,” I commented, keeping my eyes on our surroundings now that she wasn’t paying attention.

That got a chuckle out of her, and she sat up and turned to face me. Her eyes sparked with lidded seduction, and without a word she pushed me back down against the ground, pulling my mask down in the process. She shifted, crawling over me as waves of warm goosebumps rippled across my skin.

“O-oh, we’re doing this, I guess,” I blurted, glancing over to where I knew our friends were through the trees. She wasn’t happy with that action, and she caught my jaw in a firm grip, pulling me back to face her so she could weld her lips to mine.

She kissed me hard, so hard I swear my head would leave a dent in the earth below me. Her hands came up, adding contrast to her fierce hunger with soft brushes at my cheeks. My chest seemed to swell with balloons again, and I pulled her even closer against me, wrapping my arms around her waist.

The feel of her against me, her hard and soft body pressed against mine, so similar to each other… words failed to express the feelings that welled up within me. Emotions overwhelming me, I let out a desperate whimper and let my tongue loose to lap at bottom lip. The smell of her hair filled me as it tumbled everywhere, the scent of her skin and sweat like an intoxicating shot right to my heart.

Shifting slightly, eager for more of her and desperately wanting her, I moved my leg up, knee hitting right at her center. A laughing growl escaped her even as she nipped at my tongue with her fangs, and then she was grinding herself against me, slow and sensual.

As her pleasure built, she became more erratic in her movements, her lips losing skill but increasing in passion, until she was all but devouring me. In an effort to keep me in place, her hands dug into my hair as best they could through my tight bun, holding on tight near the point of pain but never quite crossing it.

I was losing myself in this kiss, this embrace, my mind nothing but a desperate need to be as close to her as possible. Our bodies, already so similar, felt like they were merging now, friction welded together by pure desire.

Then she came, the hardness of her grip on me, of her body and actions, it all fell away into a gasping softness. She lay atop me, breathless and moaning faintly, face desperately seeking to nuzzle against my neck. I obliged, tilting my head so she could burrow in, safe as she rode out the waves of her orgasm.

Internally, I was a mess of breathless confusion. I mean, we made out and had sex a lot, but geez… that had been intense and very out of the blue. Not that I minded, I loved getting intimate with her, it’s just… god damn.