I was doing a bad job of watching for Monsters.

I never remembered having this much magnetism towards the opposite sex. Growing up, I had only ever been around the nuns, who were too scary to even think about flirting with. Once I started working for Dispatch, I was too tired and too poor to hold the attention of the opposite sex. The way things had been happening for the last two days since I got my mantle was completely new territory for me. Not that I was going to complain. Ether and I took a spot at the opposite end of where Justia and Rix were working. I could still hear them hacking away at branches or trees or whatever they were gathering to make whatever Rix was building.

I assumed that they would be able to see any monsters that came their way. With the noise they were making, they would probably attract the monsters first. I knew both of them could handle themselves which left me and Ether to deal with any Bramble Skeletons that might try to come from this direction. We had the creek to our left which I hoped would be a natural barrier and keep any Bramble skeletons from coming from that direction. I decided that I was going to think about the creek as running north to south. That put Ether and myself on the southern end of our camp. Justia and Rix were to the northwest, which really only left the possibility of something sneaking in from the southwest. After two days of fighting the woodland monsters, they didn't strike me as very stealthy.

I sat down with my back against a tree. Ether sat down next to me, pulling herself closer and resting her head on my left shoulder.

“You're going to fall asleep if you do that,” I said silently berating myself for giving her a reason to pull away. “It's okay if you want to rest, I can wake you if something shows up.”

She looked up at me with those disarming red eyes, “You wouldn't be thinking about doing anything to me while I'm asleep.” she teased.

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“Do you have something specific in mind for that anything?”

Ether let out a soft giggle and nestled and closer to me. “I might be able to think of a few things.”

“I might need to practice that list while you’re awake.” I turned so our noses were almost touching. “You can give me feedback.”

“I feel safe with you, Atlas,” she mumbled as she snuggled tighter to me

“I'll keep you as safe as I can.” the words felt weird when you considered that I was a Caster with no spells and she was a tank. Still, I was starting to feel protective of this group. Even Edward for all of his entitled antics so far. I felt like I needed to keep them safe.

The white-haired woman brushed her nose against mine.

“Atlas.”

I could barely see the look in her eyes by the dimming firelight behind us, but there was a hunger on her face. I moved my left hand to hold her face right under her ear and guided her lips closer to mine. She didn't resist, so I moved my right hand around to the small of her back and pulled her on top of me. My hand on the side of her face was keeping her lips just a breath away from mine. I could feel her quickened breathing teasing short bursts of warm breath into my mouth. It felt like there was a spark arcing between our bodies and that spark had me wanting more. She had closed her eyes and was pursing her lips. I traced a second pass slowly just barely touching her top lip with mine. The second tease proved to be more than she could handle and she grabbed my head and completed the connection kissing me firmly.

It felt like I was breathing in fire, but not the kind that burned. It was the kind that warmed and gave life. The kind that excited and propelled things forward.

At the same time, there was a hunger inside me that needed to be filled by that fire. The tiredness I had been feeling earlier vanished. My small hunger pains in my stomach were a thing of the past as I drank her in.

We stayed in that embrace for a few moments taking each other in when I heard a noise to our right. I turned my head while she was still kissing my neck expecting to see a bramble skeleton, but instead, there was Justia with her arms crossed in front of her and a look of disappointment on her face.