A Kind of Magic

Rating: NC-17

Notes: "This is the story of a time long ago, a time of myth and legend. Where the ancient gods were petty and cruel and there were two amazons who weren't yet the women we know them as today. Before gods and kings shaped their destiny they were two innocent friends just starting out in life......

"Come on, don't be silly. What could happen?" The older teenage amazon pulled on the hand of her younger friend, bringing them both deeper into the passages of rock leading to their destination. The torchlight flickered on the grey rocks surrounding them, forming their shadows into hideous over-sized parodies of their bodies on the walls.

"What could happen?" Laurissa snorted. "I'll tell you what could happen. We could anger the gods, we could raise an evil spirit," she looked back behind her fearfully, sure she heard something following them. "Who knows? You might even raise the titans and where would that leave us, eh?"

"I'm not going to raise any titans," Kendaa laughed. She always was the more corageous of the two when it came to trying something new. "You'll like this, it'll be really fun."

Laurissa allowed herself to be pulled further and further into the caverns, and became more and more afraid as the darkness closed in behind them. The torches they carried illuminated only the path ahead of them, which only increased her feeling that they were running headlong into something neither of them would be able to contol. "Fun? I don't think so. We shouldn't be messing about with something like this. Like Reneus said, Torella's magic was just all games -"

Kendaa stopped, almost causing Laurissa to crash into the back of her, and turned to her nervous friend. "It's *not* all games, it means something. I can't explain it, I don't understand either - but what she said made *sense* to me. In *here*." The older amazon clutched her fist to her heart. "Earth, air, fire and water, they *are* the powers on this earth. They're more powerful than even the gods. They've been here longer and they'll *be* here longer than any Ares or Aphrodite-"

"Are you crazy? Don't say things like that - do you want to curse yourself or something?"

"No, of course I don't. But, well, what I'm trying to say is that I feel part of it all, the elements, the forest, the sky, I feel like it's a part of me that I *have* to explore, that I have to know more about to know myself."

"So coming into a cave in the middle of the night and casting a spell Torella taught you is going to do that? Can't we just go and have a picnic in the forest tomorrow instead? Preferably when it's daylight?"

Kendaa laughed as Laurissa tried to smile through her fear. Try as she might to explain it to her friend, she just couldn't get across the deep-seated knowledge inside her that Torella had awakened. She hadn't yet been able to find the words to explain her heritage to Laurissa, but knew that this might be a way to explore that heritage without having to make a decision about her destiny she was as yet unable to face. "I don't think a picnic would do it. Come on, we're almost there. Please?"

Laurissa looked back at her friend's pleading expression through the flickering torchlight. "I must be nuts," she muttered, rolling her eyes and nodding at Kendaa. "Ok, come on then!"

Moments later they arrived in the cavern Kendaa had already prepared. Laurissa's eyes widened as she took in the strange symbols marked on the floor and walls, and hundreds of candles around the dirt floor and on rock ledges all around them lighting the room with a soft glow. "Whoa."

"It's not for effect, it all means something." Kendaa smiled, taking the torch out of her stunned friend's hand and placing it next to her own against the rock wall.

"Well it's pretty effective too," Laurissa gulped, her nerves getting the better of her again.

"Oh no you don't. Don't back out on me now," Kendaa led Laurissa over to one side of a two-circle marking in the centre of the cavern and sat her down, then sat herself down opposite.

"So what am I supposed to do?" Laurissa sat with her legs and arms crossed, looking about her nervously.

"Hold your hands out like this," Kendaa lifted her arms up to the cave ceiling and closed her eyes. "And when I've finished, you repeat back what I've just said."

"Um, ok," Laurissa said, lifting her hands nervously and looking around her just in case the gods decided to smite them both down at any moment.

"Close your eyes," Kendaa didn't even have to open hers to know what her friend would be doing.

"Oh gods, ok," Laurissa sighed, doing as she was told at last.

Kendaa's voice rang out in the silence, making Laurissa jump out of her skin. "We ask the earth, the fire, the water, the sun and the moon to bless us this night. We ask the fire to-"

"You shouldn't play with fire. You might end up getting burnt."

Kendaa's eyes snapped open when she heard the deep voice. She looked straight up into the darkest eyes she had ever seen and realised that she was no longer sitting with her arms outstretched, but lying on her back on the cave floor with this man lying on top of her. "What the-"

"Don't struggle, little one. I haven't come here to hurt you." His voice was like a caress over her skin, she tried to stop the shiver running through her as his eyes looked deep into her soul.

The handsome face above hers smiled when she began to struggle anyway, feeling his whole body against her like this was making her breathless, and not a little terrified. "Get off me! Laurissa!"

"Oh don't worry about your friend, she won't remember any of this - and neither will you."

Kendaa looked over at her companion and saw her peacefully asleep, curled up in a ball at the other side of the two circles. "What have you done to her?" She spat back, fighting to push him off all the more.

In one swift movement he took hold of both her wrists and pinned them down onto the ground at either side of her head. "I *said* don't struggle. You must learn to submit to me, Kendaa. It would save a lot of pain in your future."

"Who *are* you?" Her green eyes blazed with fury at his words - she wouldn't submit to *anybody*!

"I am Ares, God of War," his full lips spoke the words slowly and he smiled seductively as their meaning became clear to the girl beneath him.

The flicker of fear in her eyes soon changed to more anger when he moved against her body and she felt his arousal nudging at her upper thighs. "No you're *not*! You're just somebody who came in here out of the rain to sleep who thinks he can mess around with amazons."

"I can 'mess around' with any mortal I like. You won't refuse me now," he let go of one of her wrists and slowly swept one finger down her cheek, holding her gaze as his eyes darkened with lust. "And you won't refuse me in the future either," his fingers travelled down her neck and further, onto her breasts.

Caught for an instant between what her body felt at his touch and the way he was reacting to touching her, it was a few seconds before she slapped his hand away and pushed him off her to sit up, her heart racing, her breath coming in short gasps. "Get off me!"

Ares sighed and stood up, shaking his head. "It's too early, you're not ready."

Kendaa's pride got the better of her. Did that mean he wanted her as a warrior? "Not ready for what?"

In an instant he was upon her again, between her legs, his hands at each side of her waist on the ground as she tried to get even closer to the wall she was sitting up against. "Not ready for *me*," he breathed, making her dizzy from the sound of his voice.

Their faces were so close, they were almost touching. She felt his breath hotly against her mouth as he spoke. "Your destiny and mine lie on the same path. You will remember none of this in the morning, but we *will* meet again, Kendaa. You *will* submit to me - willingly." One of his hands brushed the outside of her bare thigh, rising up underneath her leather skirt to her buttock.

Kendaa stopped breathing, she could do nothing but fall into his dark eyes and let her soul be swept away by the passion of his words.

"I'm already inside your soul. You won't be able to fight me forever. You belong to me." His muscular arms were suddenly around her and he pulled her up sharp against his body.

"I belong to no one," Kendaa whispered, desire for the god holding her flooding through her body and making it impossible for her to resist in any other way but words.

"We'll see about that," Ares breathed, his lips claiming hers. One of his hands snaked up behind her neck, holding her to him as his tongue thrust into her mouth. Opening herself to him immediately, she returned the kiss with equal fervour, her young body reacting in ways she never dreamed existed. Her hands went into his long black hair, the curls slipping through her fingers as he moaned into her mouth.

Moments later he pulled away, sitting back on his heels, breathing hard, his eyes black with lust. He was aroused to the point of frenzy by her reaction, but knew she was as yet too young for him to go any further. She sat across from him still, but he could feel the desire his kiss had inflamed radiating from her body. One touch now and she would be his forever. But that was not their destiny....

He passed his hand through the air and caught her as she slumped down the wall, fast asleep. Picking her up effortlessly in his arms, he carried her back to the circles and placed her body next to Laurissa's.

Kissing her softly on the lips, he stood to leave. "Till we meet again, Chosen."

Fin.