Chapter 5

"You're kidding me. That's why she's been busting my nuts? Because she likes me? Com'on, you must be seriously kidding me, right?" asked Ayden with shock.

Ariel and he had found a spare table in the back. It was one without anyone close by so that they could have a private conversation, even though this late at night there weren't that many people around.

"Nope, but I wish I really was. Seems you were the one she was trying to win back when we were kids, but she was kind of mixed up in how to do it and did it all wrong. But apparently she really wants you to notice her now as a woman, and not as the sex crazed nut she was on the way to becoming, or the bully she was pretending to be lately," said Ariel with a smile.

"I don't know about that Ariel. She's kind of rough around the edges. She's mean and she barely talks to me without trying to bite my head off. How does she think to make me like her like that? And that rant of hers just now? No, I think it's best that we don't ever explore that option," said Ayden with a frown.

"I might agree with you, but remember I was just there for your little show a just moment ago and you didn't act like someone who didn't want her within an arm's reach of you.

"If I had to say anything about the two of you, after what I just witnessed, it would be that I needed a cold bucket of water to separate you both once you got too close together," said Ariel with a smirk as she raised her right eyebrow.

Ayden had the decency to deeply blush and look away when she said this.

"So don't bother trying to tell me that you don't find her attractive, that she doesn't still get under your skin, or she doesn't still affect you in any of a hundred of other ways because I saw you both just now.

"You both still like each other and you need to quit playing around as if you aren't really interested in the other," said Ariel

"But Ariel, she's family. I..." Ayden started.

"Been there and tried that. As she pointed out to me earlier tonight she and I are family, and you and I are family, but you two have no direct relationship to each other, except through me, which is not enough to matter. We were all just raised together as if we were family, but you two are not related by blood or anything else," smiled Ariel.

"But what do I do, what do I say. I'm not sure I want to even explore it given our past together. Then there is Maria. I was just starting to like her and I can't play with her feelings like that, and, and ... well I'm confused. I have no idea what to do," said Ayden looking exasperated.

"First, you go up to our room and talk to her. You two need to talk and sort this out, because this foolishness has gone on long enough and it's long over due. Even if to only to say you shouldn't even try, but you both really need to talk. I'll give you some privacy and I'll walk around town for a bit.

"Maybe after that I'll check in with Gem and Haley and see what's going on with them and maybe bring them up to speed on what's been going on with the two of you," smiled Ariel as she got up and squeezed Ayden's shoulder before she headed out into the night.

Rising, Ayden headed for their room, still without a clear idea of what he needed to do or say to Beth.

<Knocking>

"Beth, are you in here?" Ayden asked quietly.

At not hearing any sounds Ayden slowly opened the door and looked around.

Sitting on the bed staring off into the distance was Beth with a pillow up to the lower part of her face and her knees pulled up with the pillow resting on it. She looked as if she was caught in a trance.

"Beth, are you ok?" asked Ayden as he entered the room and sat on the bed next to her.

"I'm sorry. I've always liked you ever since we were kids and I still like you even now after all this time since I've last seen you. Funny, when I was going to be sold as a sex slave I only thought about you and how I would never get to see you again.

"Now that you're here, all those feelings came rushing back, and I didn't handle them very well and I made your life miserable because I couldn't. I'm really sorry that I've been such a bitch lately," said Beth softly from the pillow as she avoided looking at Ayden.

"Beth why didn't you ever say anything? Especially while we were kids?" asked Ayden as he sat next to her on the bed.

"I was hoping you would know. I didn't know how to say it, but I just hoped you would know," said Beth quietly.

"Did you wonder if I ever felt the same way? If I even wanted you that way?" asked Ayden.

"I just always assumed you did. All the other boys around me always did," said Beth quietly.

"Beth you have to know we all thought you were pretty wild. You made out with every boy you could find. We often heard stories of you letting them feel you up and take other liberties all the time.

"Not to mention that every one of them made it a point to find me to tell me what they did with you and what you let them do. Everything you did was pretty much public knowledge," said Ayden quietly.

"That was my fault too. They didn't get to feel me up, but they did get to make out with me and I always told them that if they wanted to do it again they had to tell you every time we did.

"I lived with what they said because I wanted them to keep coming back and then later go off and tell you like I made them do. At the time I was curious how many thought I was worth the trouble of facing you just to have a few moments with me," said Beth as she continued to look straight ahead.

"Well for the record all of them thought you were worth it, and they all came to tell me. No matter how many of them I told to stop and leave me alone about it or the number of them that I had to punch to try to make them stop approaching me all the time, they kept on doing it all the way up until we left. You will never know how irritating that was.

"After awhile I started becoming numb to it and just ignored them. They never stopped, but it irritated them that I no longer responded to them at all. But like I said if memory serves me correctly, quite a few of them always thought you were worth getting into a fight with me over time after time," Ayden chuckled without any real humor.

"But never you huh? I thought at the time it was the best way to get you to prove to everyone you wanted me more than they did, but I was wrong. As stupid as it sounds it was a kid's thought process that caused me to think that you would eventually fight all the other boys to make me yours.

"I guess I didn't think it through. I can't lie because I have to admit that I enjoyed all the boys coming after me. In the end though, when I thought I would never see my family or home again, you were the only one I could see and who I wanted to save me the most.

"Funny I hadn't given up on that dream of you coming for me when I was taken and it was the only thing I could think about as I sat in my cell scared out of my mind. I couldn't even recall any of the other boy's faces but yours during that time," said Beth quietly.

"Beth I can't say that I appreciate finding out now why you did everything you did to me while we were kids. Well, I mean after the fact that is, that what you did to me at the time was only to get my interest. But you have to know that that wasn't something I would ever have done to you.

"So I'm at a loss right now for how to respond to all this, because I never knew why you were the way you were or why those idiots were always doing that to me. Just so you know this is all a bit much to take in all at once.

"You need to give me time to think on it for a bit please. But meanwhile what do you want or expect to happen? I mean where do you even see this going now that you finally told me this? You seemed pretty intent on keeping me away from other women lately, even though you really know nothing about me any more," said Ayden confused.

"I'm not even close to old enough for my trip of discovery, so I still have my commitment to the Sisters for a while yet before I am free. We all do until we reach a point between twenty one to twenty five seasons.

"But as to what I want? I want you and I want you to want me, and I want us to be together. But regardless of my age, time, or situation, I want us married and I want you to give me a chance to prove all the various reasons why you should want me," said Beth still softly as she finally turned to look Ayden in the eyes, dropping the pillow from her face.

Ayden never thought once during this discussion that she was close to crying but the look of intensity she was now giving him was giving him the shivers.

He was using to getting this look all the time from other women, but for some reason once Beth gave it to him he no longer trusted himself to be alone with her.

As she held him transfixed with her steely blue eyed stare he realized she was still in her snug guild leathers, and suddenly his mind started to wander into the area of what her tight little body might look like naked out of her clothes.

That was a first for him. He never ever pictured women naked when he spoke with them.

"Beth I don't think..." started Ayden, as he tried to quickly get up and back away.

But Beth quickly reached out and pulled him slowly forward by his shirt again and started a deep kiss that Ayden didn't try to resist, and soon was returning.

Slowly she started to scoot down the bed so that he was forced at a point to lie half across the top of her so that they could continue as she wrapped her arms around his neck. After a minute or so they came up for air but she kept her arms around his neck.

"No one has ever gotten on top of me, I've never gotten on them, I've not ever willingly shown any male my body or let anyone touch me either over or under my clothes, and I've not ever been in love with anyone else but you. And I'm going to do my best to make you see that you need and want me," said Beth with the same intensity from before.

Ayden looked at her and he saw her smile as she pulled him back into another kiss.

Suddenly there was a loud bang from the direction of the door. Ayden jumped up from the bed and Beth quickly sat up and both of them were red faced and looking ashamed.

Standing there was Ariel and she was visibly upset and didn't notice what was going on between them

"Ayden go get Michael and Beth you need to go get Gary and Maria. Someone has stolen the wagon with the shipment on it and Gem and Haley were left lying on the ground during the theft," said Ariel before she sprinted back out the door leaving Beth and Ayden to scramble after her doing just as she asked.

Four men had noticed the wagon with a single crate on it that had guards with it in the town of Mercerville.

They might have missed it, but someone from among their number, a young man who appeared to be around eighteen seasons or so, called their attention to the wagon and the women guarding it.

He seemed out of place to be in the company of the other rough looking men, who were missing a wide variety of things from teeth to fingers.

Once it had their attention they figured that if it had six guards with it, then it must be important since four of those guards were Sisters of the Sacred Blade. Everyone knew they were viewed as elite and one of the best you could hire. So obviously it must be something that was worth taking.

They hurried back to their gang's boss to report what they saw.

Their boss Jackson Talbot was a large man, but he was intelligent. He realized that he needed to do more than just terrorize the countryside or eventually the people would get tired and rise up against them.

So he diversified and had his hands into everything from theft, prostitution, and illegal shipments. Not enough to draw attention to himself, but enough for it to pay him well.

To look at him one wouldn't realize that behind the deep knife scar that ran down the side of his face, and his now sparse but once golden hair, was the mind of a genius.

The man decided early that he would use others to do his work. He only had to kill a few men to prove his right to rule early on and the knife wound was a present from one of the more competent ones, but in all it worked out for the best for him.

When the men returned they told Jackson about the wagon and the shipment with six guards and that intrigued him. Jackson found he was wonder what could the sisters be protecting that needed that much security? It was normal to see two to four guards, but six was overkill.

Suddenly he knew he had to have that shipment.

He had his men head to the next town of Potter's Corner and setup a trap for them there. They would strike after midnight. Based on information he had gathered in the past he was sure that they would stay true to their guild form, they would have two guards stay with the shipment and switch off with each other.

They would need to be prepared in a couple of different spots to be sure they had all possible places covered they might stay, but their plan couldn't be of magical means used. The guild always had at least one mage in a squad and they would see any magical traps that they used.

No, it needed to be something more mundane that they used for a trap to get those goods.

As Beth came up to the warehouse first that they were using to house the wagon with the shipment on it, she could now see that Gem was clear of the warehouse and well outside the door, but Ariel and Haley were stretched out just inside the doorway. It looked as if Ariel had been trying to drag Haley out before she herself succumbed and collapsed.

Just as Beth started to sprint for the door Ayden called out "Beth, don't move!"

As she turned and looked back at him in question, she could see that Michael and Ayden were coming with Maria and Greg close behind them. While she told Greg and Maria to meet her at the warehouse she didn't wait for them as she then took off to catch up with Ariel as quick as she could. Maria and Greg both were half dressed and still putting on clothes as they approached.