Chapter 5

Béla stepped out of her bedroom and faced her close-knit group of friends and lovers waiting to find out how Tanya was faring. They had plainly heard the sounds of lovemaking behind the closed door, and the horny group was all hoping to join in the fun, if Tanya was up to it, of course.

“Frank and Tanya are sleeping here, tonight,” Béla informed them. “She needs to rest now. So, if you want to see her, you’ll have to wait ‘til morning.” Disappointed, but glad she was all right, everybody left. Béla turned to Jake.

“Monitor me in The Maze?” she asked, starting to breathe harder. “I need some really hard action!”

Jake looked at his wife, realizing that Tanya’s brush with death had really fired her up. Grinning, he agreed. On the way, he brought up a new idea – new for her, anyway. He’d been working on it for a little while, now. “Why don’t we go to the gym,” he suggested. “There’s some new stuff I want to show you.”

Béla looked at him, wondering what was on his mind. “Okay,” she agreed. “But I really need a workout. All those erotic images in Tanya’s sick little brain have me treading on sharp metal spikes!”

“This just might be better than metal spikes,” Jake promised. They arrived at the gym. There was no one there at two in the morning and Jake led her down past the indoor track, the tepid pool and the exercise machines that the desk jockeys used. In a small room at the far end, Jake opened the door and led her inside.

“Wow!” Béla exclaimed, looking around. The walls were lined with medieval weapons – swords, shields, a battle-axe and a mace. There were several daggers as well. Jake handed Béla a sword belt and strapped one around his own waist. Picking up a dagger, he looked at her.

“You gonna put that on?” he asked, grinning wickedly at her.

Béla suddenly got the idea, wondering how he’d kept from broadcasting it to her before this. She grinned and hurriedly strapped the belt around her narrow waist. Pulling out her sword, she examined it closely. “This is really sharp!” she noted, slicing her thumb on the edge.

“Like that, do you?” Jake grinned at her.

Béla pursed her lips as she carefully angled the tip back into the scabbard and slid it down again.

“What?” Jake asked, recognizing the expression on his wife’s face. “You don’t like it?”

She shrugged. “It’s okay.”

“Okayyy, so...” he sighed, knowing she was going to pick his wonderful new idea to death! “What’s wrong with it?”

Béla sighed, “It’s not really important,” looking at some of the other artifacts hanging and dangling from hooks on the wall.

“Okay, so they’re replicas, alright?” Jake confessed. “We can still play with them ... Even more so now that you know they aren’t really relics, right? Here,” he said, forcing a grin as he handed her a dagger. “Or would you prefer a shield?”

Béla grinned back at him, not wanting to argue with him. “Dagger’s fine. Are there any rules?”

“Nope,” Jake said, hefting his dagger and slipping it into his belt. “Mac and me have spared a little, but we don’t know enough to teach each other anything.”

“Where do you want to do this?” Béla asked, surprised that Jake would put himself in harm’s way just to appease her thirst for blood. She sneaked a peek into his mind to see how he’d arrived at this idea and realized that this was another attempt to get rid of her inhibitions about hurting him.

She smiled to herself, perhaps a little angry that he hadn’t discussed it with her, then remembered that he had. Evidently, he hadn’t cared for the results of that discussion. ‘If you’re thinking of slicing me into little pieces, lover, think again! I know how to use one of these... ‘ Béla thought into his mind.

Jake stopped and looked at her. “In the center of the indoor track.”

“What?” Béla asked.

“You wanted to know where,” Jake clarified. “In the center of the indoor track is where Mac and I practice when you girls are on mission.”

“Oh,” Béla replied. She turned and stepped out of the tiny room, then waited for Jake. “You guys worry about us a lot, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Jake replied absently. “I don’t worry much about you, but I worry about the others. They’re still new to life. You’ve been around a while longer.”

“You think they make more mistakes?” Béla wanted to know as they walked toward the quarter-mile track.

“Probably,” Jake surmised. “Look at Tanya. Would you ever stand in front of a blaster and taunt the guy who’s holding it?”

Béla thought for a moment. “I fired one at Beth, once. She got really pissed.”

“It didn’t kill her?” Jake asked, surprised.

“No, it didn’t even hit her,” Béla said, thinking back. “She teleported out of the way. At least, I think that’s what happened...”

“She was that fast?” Jake asked. “I seem to remember her a little differently.”

Béla stopped walking and faced around. “I taught Beth the basics of what I knew. Back then, all I knew was basic stuff. She surpassed me early on and after that, she was the teacher. She always deferred to me, but that was because she loved me. But, truthfully, of the two of us, she was the brighter and faster one.

“She showed me how to teleport objects over astronomical distances,” Béla continued. “She pushed me to the limits of my endurance and hers to see how much damage these hybrid bodies could take.

“Her need for sensation and self-mutilation wasn’t any worse than my needs or what Tanya demonstrated tonight that her needs are,” Béla concluded. “That Beth was snared and taken in her weakened state by that butcher Blacker was due to the fact that we didn’t know we were at war. I wasn’t watching her back. We were incredibly naïve back then. We thought we owned the world. In all the practice we did in testing ourselves, we never thought that we needed to look after each other.”

“You weren’t in any condition. You were pregnant – carrying Lisa,” Jake replied. “You couldn’t do anything. If anyone should have been watching out for Beth, it was me. I left her out there for Blacker to find. And I still feel rotten about it.”

“It’s alright, Dad, I forgive you,” Lisa said from across the room. She and Macario were walking toward them. Jake stared at them, dumbfounded.

Lisa walked up and kissed her father. “I enjoyed my last sentient moments on Earth as Beth. You were simply doing what I wanted you to. It was a game, Daddy. Life is a never-ending game. I lived, I died, I live again. I think of myself now as Lisa. I remember thinking of myself as Beth. Not everyone can remember who they were, but it’s not really important.

“But if I can lift your guilt by letting you know that Beth loved you,” Lisa continued, “then that’s important. Lisa is here because of what happened. Beth is not. But I would be here, regardless of who I am. And I love you.” She touched her father’s cheek with a finger, tracing a single tear that escaped from his left eye, then put her finger in her mouth and sucked the salty moisture off.

“I’d go along with what’s she’s sayin’,” Macario spoke up, faking an Irish accent. “She’s a phoenix, ya know, and she’ll set yer arse afire if ya argue with her.”

Jake accepted Mac’s attempt to lighten the mood and tapped his daughter on her nose with his finger. “What’re you guys doing here at this hour?” he asked.

“Same thing you are, evidently,” Mac replied, looking at the sword belts Jake and Béla were wearing. “Lisa wanted to work off some excess energy, so I thought I’d bring her here. We usually go to The Maze after she’s been on a hairy mission.”

“That’s what Béla wanted to do,” Jake said, grinning. Then he got an idea. “Here,” he said to Lisa, grinning and taking off his sword belt. “You two girls have at it. We’ll watch!” He handed the sword belt to his daughter.

“What?” Lisa asked, incredulous. “Why would I fight Mom with a sword?” She handed the belt and dagger back to her father.

“I have a solution,” Béla spoke up. She held out her hand and another sword belt appeared in it. She handed it to Mac. She handed the next one she teleported to Lisa. “Now we can all play,” she grinned.

She drew her sword and tapped her husband on his shoulder. Jake busily strapped his sword belt back on. Lisa and Mac were also busy putting on theirs.

“How does this work?” Lisa asked, looking for a hole to snap her belt into. “Do we take sides or something?” She gave up and simply burned a hole in the leather where she needed it, then fastened her belt and straightened up.

“The way it worked in the arena,” Béla suggested, “was that everyone fights each other until there’s only one still standing.”

“Sounds like fun,” Lisa exclaimed. She drew her sword and stuck her dad in the stomach. “One down!”

“Oh! Fuck, that hurts!” Jake cried out. He drew his sword and swung it at his daughter, she easily danced back and away from him, laughing. Suddenly noticing movement on her right, Lisa dived left. Mac’s sword swooshed by, just touching her right leg as she cartwheeled out of the way.

Lisa landed on her feet, ignoring the little slice on her calf, her eyes dancing as she watched the other three. Jake was watching her and not his wife who was creeping up behind him holding her dagger.

“Duck, Daddy,” Lisa called out casually.

Béla poked him in the arm with her dagger, drawing blood. “Wow!” Béla exclaimed, teasing him. “These little things are really sharp.”

Looking sorrowfully at Jake, she stepped up and kissed his wound, then began licking at the blood as it leaked out. In a moment, Jake’s second wound was healed, as well as his first.

Jake pushed his wife back after enjoying the touch of her lips on his flesh for a moment. “What changed?” he asked her. “Last time I couldn’t beg you to stick me with one of those things.”

Béla grinned back at him. “I have a safety net tonight,” she assured him, and glanced at Lisa and Mac, indicating them. If she went berserk with blood lust, Lisa would stop her.

“Hey, how come we don’t have daggers?” Macario asked, indicating himself and Lisa.

“Yeah,” the young phoenix chimed in, “How cuum?” She grinned wickedly, broadcasting an image of being absolutely covered from head to toe in sticky, stinky, warm cum.

“You get a dagger or a shield,” Jake informed his daughter and son-in-law. “Take your pick. You can only hold one.”

Lisa held up her empty palm. “Dagger,” she chose. One appeared in her hand.

“Shield,” Mac said cautiously. “There’s too many sharp instruments around.” A shield appeared on Béla’s arm. She tossed it to him, Frisbee-style. It immediately dove down to the ground and bounced, rolling in a new direction away from everyone like a hubcap.

Lisa claimed it this time, catching it with an extended hand and arm made out of fire. The huge fiery fingers gently handed the shield to her life-mate.

“Impressive,” Mac admitted, touching the shield where the fingers of fire had held it. “Not even warm.” He smiled at his companion, then cautiously backed away as he put his arm through the straps, remembering that he’d just sliced her leg open a moment ago.

“You’re too late,” Lisa laughed. “I already got you!” Mac felt something sticky on his arm touching the back of the shield. Sliding the shield back off, he looked. There was a shallow gash on his forearm, almost healed now.

“You’re good!” Mac exclaimed, “I didn’t even feel that!”

Lisa shrugged. “My dagger matched your body temperature. That’s why you didn’t feel it.”

“Your turn,” Jake said, turning to his wife. “Everybody’s been stuck but you!”

Béla backed away, holding her sword and dagger up defensively. Jake drew his sword and approached her, holding it up and ready to swing at her. Béla started laughing.

“What?” Jake asked, confused.

“You don’t hold it like that,” she informed him. She made two quick strokes and knocked his sword out of his hand.

“You know how to sword fight?” he asked, stunned with how easily she’d disarmed him.

Béla nodded. “It’s been some little while, but it comes back fast. I’ll have to be careful not to grab the blade...”

“Why would you want to grab the blade?” Macario wanted to know. “That’s a good way to cut yerself, ya know?”

Lisa smirked. “Real swords are only sharp on the pointy ends. That way you can grab it...” Her blade was suddenly glowing red near the pommel, then, just as suddenly turned dull grey again.

“And use it...” She grabbed hold where the blade had been glowing red hot a few seconds earlier, then swung it around to put a serious dent in Mac’s metal shield with the heavy pommel, completely knocking him on his ass with a loud GONG!

“Like a hammer!” she finished, grinning at her downed opponent. “Works really well on helmets, too.” She bowed, then curtsied. “Thus endeth the lessoneth foreth the dayeth,” she laughed.

“Fuck, I think you broke my arm, darlin’,” Macario grumbled as he staggered to his feet. “And I wann’another shield, too. Mine’s broke.”

Lisa went over and took Mac’s shield from him, holding it in both hands as she stared at it. Suddenly, the shield was no longer dented, but was whole, again.

“Wow! Clever!” Jake grinned, admiring his daughter’s prowess with handling solid metal objects.

“No, just tricky,” Béla sighed, sounding bored.

“What trick?” Jake wanted to know. “She fixed it.”

“Of course she did,” Béla smirked. “Now, we were discussing which one of you Normans thinks he can use me like a pincushion, if I recall...

“You already lost your sword, darling, so...” Béla finished disarming Jake by deftly hooking his dagger out of his belt with the tip of her sword and sent it sailing into the air.

“And now,” Béla moved forward, the tip of her sword swirling around, making Jake dizzy as he tried to figure out what she was doing. Then it was gently piercing his neck.

“I surrender,” Jake gurgled, the sword point interfering with his vocal chords. Béla wiped her sword tip on his shoulder and sheathed it. “Where the hell did you learn all that?” Jake wanted to know.

Béla grinned. “I was a member of an all-women’s unit formed from gladiator school alumni in Naples. We were actually a part of Caligula’s army, but I never did any fighting – in wars or anything. Mostly just demonstrations in the arena that kept our numbers manageable.”

“What! Women killed each other for sport?” he asked, not wanting to believe that sword-carrying females would hack each other’s sexy bodies into pieces for the fun of it.

“Hey!” Béla cried, defensively. “Why should men have all the fun slicing each other’s dicks off when tits are just as much fun to carve into? I didn’t stay – I kept losing my friends. I can take a strike that would kill a normal girl. It wasn’t fair for the others, so I left.”

“Did you ever lose a fight, Mom?” Lisa asked, thrilled that her mom had once been a real, honest-to-God Amazon.

“Once,” Béla admitted. “I got skewered right through the chest. I had to play dead until they carried me off. That was when I decided to disappear.”

“You let her win,” Lisa accused her mom, plainly seeing the image of the fight in her mom’s mind.

“I didn’t want to kill her,” Béla admitted. “I kept hacking at her, but she wouldn’t quit. She died, anyway, so it didn’t make any difference. They always die...” She sounded incredibly sad. Even Lisa looked distraught.

“Hey,” Jake admonished his wife. “Let’s not get too morose, here. We’re about to ‘have at it’ with each other in the city’s most magnificent sword fight ever. So cheer up!”

“Yeah, Mom,” Lisa added. “It’s not your fault you’re so short.” Béla looked sharply at her daughter, realizing that she’d not only seen the ancient fight between the two of them, but the reason why the Amazon lieutenant had picked a fight with her.

“Let’s fight, then,” Béla said, drawing her sword again. She backed away, letting Jake pick up his weapon. He had no idea where the dagger went, so he was open on his left side. After a moment of dancing around the others, he spotted it behind Lisa, and frontally attacked her, moving her to one side so he could get behind her and pick it up. Now, Lisa and Béla were side by side, while Mac and Jake were the same.