1 comments/ 5513 views/ 1 favorites Realms of Eden: Home Fires B2A2 By: sddconst Act 2 -- Play Games Chapter 1 -- Only women bleed Kelsey and Sydney walked back towards their motel around midnight. Kelsey was a little tipsy as she giggled beside the warm body that held her up helping her keep one foot in front of the other as they walked in the moonlight. Suddenly she stopped. "Syddy," she cried, "didn't Alfie want you to do something if you ever got up here? Something for Bonnie?" The man's eyes narrowed in concentration for a moment and he softly asked the nano-bots in his body if the computer doctor was listening in. "Wait till you get to your room, Syd. I know talking to me like this gives you a headache." The man confirmed that he would and taking Kelsey's hand they continued onwards. Arriving in the room Sydney switched on the monitor screen above the bed as Kelsey busied herself getting ready for bed. She was very happy and Sydney watched her with a smile as she eventually got her teeth cleaned, trying to talk to him and Alfred at the same time as she walked around in a brief pair of red panties. "Red!" she complained. "Blood red, pisses me off, wanted to play some more," she whimpered as she finally lay her head on Sydney's lap as he sat on the bed talking to the green faced man above them on the wall. "Sleep Kelsey," he said gently as he placed a hand against her temple. Kelsey's eyes closed and Alfred gave the man an amused smile as he watched the woman obediently fall asleep in his lap. "Neat trick, Sydney! I wish they were all as easy to shut down as that!" "You can do it to me mister and you know it!" Sydney retorted with a grin. Alfred's control over his body using the nano-bots was of some concern to Esmeralda, but she had allowed the cyber doctor the powers so that the host body could be repaired. Now Esmeralda slept, she could not interfere if Alfred wanted him to close down for any reason. "Yes I know, but that is a control of neuro receptors. You have simply made them responsive to your suggestion and touch. Almost akin to hypnotism. If it is not a secret how did you achieve it?" the doctor asked. Sydney continued to be amazed by the human-like curiosity of the cyber entity. "I guess it is a form of hypnotism, except I didn't sit there with a twirling silver ring and say 'You are getting sleepy'." Alfred chuckled and waited for Sydney to continue. "Because we are all so attuned Alfred. It was like I can see when they are stressed, happy, sad etc. it lets me get to their emotional needs. Kelsey was becoming so worried about Bonnie, so was Jo and Jenny I needed to be able to slow them down. When Thelma increased my mental powers and Nugua made them even more so, I could feel when to just nudge them a little to help them settle down," he explained. "I cannot make them go to sleep if they do not want to. Kelsey needed to despite her happy day and disappointment of not being able to have more sex." "I do not believe that having her period is a restriction for her to have sex, Sydney," the doctor said still not quite sure of what Sydney had done. "Enough for Kelsey." "So what did you really want to talk to me about Sydney, it is late, even for you?" "Two things Alfred. How much do you know about Dale and Hilda Jepson? Something is not right there, I got the feeling that things were strained as if they were saying one thing and meaning something else. I don't really know what it is! They made me feel as if someone was controlling them. They laughed and said all the right things at the right time but sometimes there were delays in their reactions that didn't make sense. Have either of them been out of the country or been absent for any time in the last few years?" Sydney mentally queried the cyber man, it was not something he wanted Kelsey to overhear even if she was asleep. "I am not sure, Sydney," replied Alfred. "You have not met the Jepsons before, what makes you feel suspicious of them?" "Their auras, Alfred. Not something I expect you to be able to understand, but to me they have an aura around them that is a half life. Not the brightness I normally associate with healthy happy people. It's as if they are not really who they say they are. "Also I can't read them. There have only been two other people than I cannot read. Jenny is one of them and the other works for Jo." "I will get back to you as soon as I can, Sydney unless of course you feel that they are a threat that you need to deal with now?" said Alfred as he sent some query programs off to start searching for him, "No, when you can will be fine. I just don't like being unsure of people," Sydney grimaced a little. "I guess it is something that came about with Thelma and the rest of her board. One gets a little too trusting sometimes." "Agreed," Alfred nodded then asked, "You said you had two items." Reverting to totally verbal mode, Sydney rubbed his forehead as a small dull ache had started in his head. "The computer system you can't get into, the one that wants Angels blood. Where is it, do you know?" Sydney asked. Alfred waited until Sydney finished shifting Kelsey onto her pillow before throwing up a map of the island. "I believe it is in this complex here. Of course I don't really know, all I can do is get to the general systems around the complex. But data comes into the systems via a removable drive, unfortunately it gets formatted before it goes back to where ever it comes from. Hence I get killed off it every time I try to piggy back." Alfred had shown a schematic of the complex that Kelsey's mother had been in. The computer system's approximate location was no more than a couple hundred metres from where he was now sitting on a chair talking. "Alfred, that is a cryogenics laboratory. I thought you said it was for limb replacement studies!" Sydney exclaimed, then lowered his voice as Kelsey mumbled in her sleep. "Why would they want blood that doesn't die!" "I don't know young man, but more importantly how come they have enough pull to make a government department issue an edict demanding the reporting of anything that resembles it. By the way, there have been six other cases of Angels or near Angels reported already. I have intercepted all but one and sent back inconclusive results. I am not letting anyone have any of these people for experimentation until I am certain I know what is going on!" Alfred's voice was a low hiss. It contained the emotions of a suspicious and cautious man. Sydney began to suspect that the cyber doctor may have good reason. It rapidly overshadowed any concerns he had over the pair who had taken the big breasted barmaid to their bed. "Who was the one case you didn't get in time?" "A man from New Zealand. I think someone may have convinced him to go somewhere with them," an image was displayed on the screen and transmitted to Sydney's electronic workbook. "He seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth about two weeks ago." "I will keep an eye out for him, Alfred. If they are up to no good he may just turn up here. "Can you change our flight home? I think Mr Douglas and Mrs Gilroy might want to see what cryogenic suspension might offer the future of two wealthy customers," Sydney grinned as the doctor's face took on a decidedly sinister look as he read the intentions of his favourite patient to put a spanner in someone's works. Sydney wished Alfred a goodnight and cuddled into the sleeping woman on the bed. As he drifted off to sleep he wondered how the other woman he missed badly was going in her mission to thwart other people's plans to use the general population. It was Sunday afternoon in the Enlightenment Centre in Sandrill. Thelma Daintree and Martha Ranatui spoke softly around a large table with a psychiatric team as they discussed their latest progress report. The report was on a group of women that had been particularly slow at coming to terms with their new station in life. As the group examined the recommendations of the team leaders the two women considered the implications. "Can we do this Thelma?" asked Martha as she pushed her workpad away and regarded the blonde opposite her. "No! We can't! There is no way that I am going to authorise a brothel in Cellarium!" the blonde said with a giggle. "It is bad enough that the women want to be treated as playthings, who is going to pay them for sex when there are thousands of women in the world above them that will give it away!" "I don't think the money is the reason, Thelma," a man at the round table said quietly. "I think it is because these women, rightly or wrongly, enjoy sex where there is an element of bondage and abuse. It is not just because they want to be the receivers either. You will see in the report that there are quite a few that want to be the dominant female." Another voice, female, added to the man's argument. "Surely you saw the vids of Patricia Keaton! She willingly let herself be used in those couches. Which by the way Thelma, she designed and built the prototypes for! There are plenty of other women like her. I think these fifty or so women would be like this regardless of whether they were drugged or not. If Whitbourne and co had done psychiatric assessments they would have realised that the women didn't need to be drugged for the purposes they used them for." "OK I agree, Sandy, but where would their customers come from? There are nearly twelve thousand people in Cellarium now, but most of them are soft women and their partners. Yes there are more males there now with the families from the pregnant women from New Zealand, but I am not sure that they are going to be going to a business where they can use and abuse women or be used and abused themselves and pay for the privilege of doing so!" Thelma eyes glinted in amusement, she put up the argument to see if the group around the table would come up with the same conclusion she and Martha had the night before. There was silence for a moment until Martha noticed a young man squirming in his chair several seats down from her. She could tell that he wanted to add to the discussion by the way his head and eyes darted around the others. He was uncertain whether to speak his thoughts because of his junior position. "Go ahead Garry," she called to him, "no-one is going to criticise you for a suggestion." The young man gulped a little of the water from the glass in front of him when he realised that all eyes had focussed on him. "When," he stopped to sip some more water as his mouth had suddenly gone dry again. "When I was at uni there were discrete advertisements for private clubs," he started. "What sort of things did these private clubs offer, Garry?" Thelma asked quietly. At last she thought someone is going to bring it up. I don't think they really want the chancellor or vice-chancellor to suggest this. "Well I don't really know," the young man blushed redly as he ducked his head to hide the lie. "I think you do, young man, spill it. I have the distinct impression that you are a bit more experienced in this than you lead us to believe," chuckled the team leader who had begun the argument for the brothel. "Perhaps a demonstration might say more than I could vocalise," Garry said. He took his workpad's pointer and aimed it at the big screen beside them. Chairs moved as people arranged themselves to view the vid. Thelma caught Martha's amused glance and the pair grinned at each other as scenes of light and heavy bondage, pole dancing, strippers, rough and ready sex accompanied by verbal abuse and some torture displayed upon the screen. "Note," said Garry as he paused the display representing a dungeon environment where a young man was receiving hefty slaps across his upturned bottom as he knelt at a woman's feet. The woman was dressed in typical dominatrix clothing, complete with chain and collar around the man's throat. "There is no real violence in any of it, it is not the point of the establishment to injure or maim their clients, or for that matter the men and women employed there." As his confidence grew with his audience he played other clips and explained the relationships that were subtly dramatised on the screen. "Many of the men and women that visit these places have fetishes, needs that they can't get within their normal environs, they seek out places like this for an hour or two of satisfaction. I believe the women that we are dealing with now would thrive in such an environment. It is not an easy thing to bring one's emotions and needs out like that. Most of us suppress deep down desires, these women have found that the drug has freed them from society's inhibition of their needs. "The place would have to be really well monitored. In fact the place I visited had security cameras, guards and all sorts of other safeguards in place. No-one misbehaved either, it was very much cross the line once and you will never be admitted again. "With proper advertising I think a brothel in a secret location, such as Cellarium is. Normal people on the streets don't even know it exists. The place could just about write its own cheques within months. I know it cost me nearly a week's pay to visit once." He concluded quickly after he realised his admission and sat in his chair not meeting the looks of anyone. "Thank you Garry," said Thelma softly. She turned to the rest of the group, swivelling her chair both ways to see their expressions. Smiling she noted the wide eyed look of a couple of the older women in the group as well as the very red face of her female team leader. "Something bother you there, Sandy?" she asked sweetly. Martha answered for her in the same sweet tone. "Did you worry that we wouldn't recognise your lovely bottom as you swung around the pole on the stage. You really do have long legs don't you?" "It was a long time ago!" the woman giggled. "Where did you say you got that vid from Garry?" "It was part of the advertising for the club. I just sort of kept for old time's sake," the young man replied. "That club, Purple Parrot, has been closed for years! So fess up mister, where did you get it?" the woman threatened to get up and come over to him. "Ok, Ok, it was from my Dad, he was the man getting his bum walloped. Fortunately Mum was understanding and saved him his money so he could buy her dinners instead of going to clubs," Garry's face was now extremely red. Thelma, Martha and the others could not stop their laughter. Garry joined them as Sandy stood and twirled a long leg horizontally from her body. "Still got it girl!" cheered Martha as she whistled. So the Cellarium Private club was born. It gave Thelma a great deal of satisfaction to send the team off to understand the set up and suggested that Sandy talk to her old work mates, if she could, to help them. Greg Collins chuckled in merriment at the latest business to set up shop in his ever growing city. As Thelma and Martha authorised the building of a private and very exclusive club, Sydney Douglas watched Kelsey sipping pina coladas through his dark sunglasses at the bar they had stationed themselves at. They were there to observe the comings and goings of employees of the cryogenics agency half a block down the pathway. Kelsey watched the man closely as his brow furrowed each time one of the yellow and white uniformed staff came out of the brightly decorated building. "Anything yet, Sydney?" she asked in a whisper. It was about the twentieth time she had asked him and she was thankful that the sweet drink she was sipping was very low alcohol as she had drunk half a dozen of them so far. She found she was excited by this role of being on a stake-out and her half erect nipples showed clearly that she was enjoying herself. As she observed his behaviour she found she liked this side of her boy, who was seriously dangerous from all reports. Certainly from what Thelma told her he did at the university and with Hawkings and Molby, she waited to see what his reaction would be if he found something amiss here. Sydney grinned at her. They had tried to make an appointment to see someone about the process of getting their bodies preserved but had been politely told that the office did not open for appointments on Sundays. They had arranged an appointment with a Dr Klinsman the following day at 9:30 am. The couple had decided to go swimming and shopping instead and Kelsey had loved the attention of the big man that she never seemed to spend enough time with. She rang Bonnie and Jenny at home and was intending to arrange for Ronnie Kelleher to do some washing and ironing for her girls for their uniforms. She was pleasantly surprised when the woman's face appeared on the screen with her daughter, explaining that she knew Kelsey was behind in her housework. The pair finished with a few soft love words and sympathy for the passing of her mother. Kelsey was very glad that her friend and newest lover was with her girls. She rang Jo and Sydney gave the nurse a bit of ribbing over her Mum's penchant for big breasts. Jo had giggled and blushed, telling the big man that her Mum would bring him to heel if she got the chance. Sydney chuckled as he told her that her Dad had told him to stop calling him Sir because they had kissed the same pussies. The room had echoed with her laughter for several minutes before the woman could ask them how everything was going. Sydney observed Jo's face as he talked about her parents. Despite his misgivings he found her laughter spontaneous and full of merriment. Whatever was affecting the parents certainly didn't seem to be present in the daughter. When Sydney told her that he was going to investigate the cryogenics business that seemed to be the source of the requirements for the Angel blood she warned him to be careful. "Daddy says there are some very unscrupulous people in the aged care business Syddy!" she told him. He had thanked her for her concern and left her and Kelsey to chat while he planned his next activities. Interestingly Dale had given him no such warning when he had discussed some thoughts of investigating cryogenics as a possible alternative to cremation. In fact both the Jepsons had strongly urged him and Kelsey to have a look at the services offered by the very company he was now observing despite their earlier claims of believing in the realms. Kelsey was giggly and very much in a loving mood when she finished with the phone. Her happiness at having him to herself was only marginally degraded by her reluctance to have sex with him during her cycle. The man himself did not seem to care that they were not thrashing against one another in a bed. She liked that he was content to simply hold her hand as they walked the dozens of shops around the area after enjoying several playful hours in the water, running on the beach and relaxing on the warm sands. They enjoyed a steak lunch cooked on an outdoor bar-b-q at one of the many restaurants throughout the resort. They had taken up a position at the small beer garden when Sydney had decided to check the cryogenics business out before they returned the next day. He was surprised when he saw people wearing the uniform of the establishment, 'Delay Today', entering and leaving the building. He had asked Kelsey if she would like a drink and feeling very mellow and relaxed she had agreed. She had a need for the bathroom and giving Sydney a kiss she had gone into the bar area to find the facilities. Sydney heard her scream several moments after she walked into the unisex toilets at the rear of the building. He was beside her in a heartbeat, senses fully alert. He saw the body immediately. A man sat on the toilet bowl in the first cubicle, blood had sprayed onto the wall where his heart had pumped it from the deep wound on his throat. A knife, sharp, its surface dull with the stain of wet blood, was still clenched in the man's right hand and in the seconds that Sydney watched the fingers of the hand released it dropping it to the tiled floor. Realms of Eden: Home Fires B2A2 He reached for the man's wrist, at the same time he clamped his hand over the wound, the pulse was still strong but already beginning to weaken. Concentrating, his hands glowed greenly, heating up, Kelsey moved to block the view of the people that came to investigate her scream and she waved them back. The green of Sydney's hands flashed, dull but strong, it was quick. Some that reported the matter to the policewoman that arrived later were not sure that they even saw it. But afterwards the man that had appeared to be injured screamed. A sound that would haunt many of those who heard it for many years afterwards. It was the sound of terror as if the man's soul had been ripped from his body in an act of unimaginable torture. "Let me die!" the voice a plea as the big man with dark hair and dark-blue eyes held him tightly as the wound disappeared and the blood with it. Kelsey saw that the knife was gone as well and she stared hard at the men in front of her. "It's alright Ethan, you're safe with me," her lover said softly. "I won't let them touch you again." The man began to sob, heart breaking, soul destroying moans that came from deep within his chest as his body shook convulsively. Kelsey found herself trembling, her stomach lurched as its contents threatened to eject themselves despite her tightly clenched teeth. "Good girl, Kelsey, be strong for him, he will need you shortly," Sydney told her as he lifted the man easily in his arms and commanded the people still crowded around the exit of the toilets to get out of the road. The people moved quickly as Sydney walked carrying his burden out of the small room and into the bar area. "Is there a quiet room I can use for a few moments until my friend feels better, Miss," he asked the concerned barmaid who looked at the pair with wide brown eyes. She beckoned him to follow her and Sydney found himself in the establishment's sick room. A small cot like bed sat against one wall and he placed the man he had called Ethan gently upon it. Kelsey who was following them noted that the man appeared to be asleep and thanked her man in her mind for his kindness. "What happened Sydney?" she whispered as the barmaid fussed around with the man and placed a pillow under his head. She brushed the short brown hair of the man with her fingers, seemingly just to assure herself that the man was still alive. "I'm sorry but I already called the police and ambulance, they should be here shortly." She spoke without turning from the man on the bed so she didn't see the look on Sydney's face that would have told her he preferred that she hadn't. "I saw so much blood and heard the scream. I was sure it was his but there isn't a mark on him!" she exclaimed as she turned to the pair watching her. At that moment the blue uniform of a police constable appeared in the doorway and with a nod to Sydney began to ask the barmaid, Annette, what the problem was. After telling the policewoman that Kelsey had gone to look for their friend Ethan and had found him unconscious on the toilet bowl, Kelsey shyly told the officer that she had screamed because she had not expected him to be sitting on the toilet when she had gone to use the ladies. Sydney told her that Ethan was a diabetic and they had been worried that he may have gone into a diabetic coma because he wasn't real good with his medicines and he had been drinking a bit today. Kelsey couldn't believe how easily the policewoman accepted their story and told Sydney so after the woman had left. The ambulance officers gave Sydney a warm smile as he described Ethan's propensity to forget his tablets while he was having a few drinks, coupled with the man's recent loss of his best friend's mother yesterday. He whispered into one of the women's ears and with a small smile to Kelsey the officers left. "What did you tell her?" she demanded when the women were out of earshot. "I told them that Ethan had also been a little upset that he hadn't been able to have sex with his lovely girlfriend because she was having her period," he replied calmly. "Who are you?" the man on the bed asked softly. His bright green eyes were open and he regarded the pair with a little bit of concern, though Kelsey noted he was not frightened of the big man as he came over to sit on the small bed beside the man. "Friends, Ethan. We have to get you away from here, without the staff of 'Delay Today' seeing you," Sydney spoke calmly, keeping the man's eyes locked to him as he spoke. The mention of the cryogenics company name did set the man off into trembles of fear. Kelsey ensured no-one came near the door as Sydney spoke again. "They don't know you are missing yet Ethan, though I can't guarantee that for much longer. Someone is sure to notice that their favourite guinea pig has flown the coop soon. We have to move now, are you ready?" "You should have just let me die," the man said resignedly, "they will find me again, you and," he turned his head towards Kelsey, "legs, over there, will both be killed." "I couldn't let you die, even if I wanted to," stated Sydney softly. "You and I both know that. Your body would have repaired and they would have found you even if the ambulance officers had taken you to the other side of the island." The man started, he jumped up and tried to punch the big man on the bed who grasped his wrist firmly stopping his attack before it even began. "Ethan please, we are here to help. We have an Angel in our care too!" Sydney's eyes stared hard at the man who had continued to struggle until Sydney mentioned Bonnie's condition. The man looked at Kelsey. "Is this true?" he asked her. "She is my niece," she replied, "and I am fucked if I am going to let some bastard fuck with her just because they want her blood to aid some bullshit studies into limb replacements!" "Limb replacements!" the man's voice was incredulous. "Later!" hissed Sydney pulling the man's attention back to him. "First we go, then we talk." The man nodded then asked, "How? They will be everywhere by now. They have half the police force in their pocket. We will never get away!" "Trust me Ethan," smiled Sydney. "Even officer Miles, the policewoman who was here before didn't recognise you and she is well and truly in their pocket. Look in the mirror Ethan." The man turned his head to see the mirror Sydney indicator on the front of the door behind Kelsey's head. He stood as she moved away to let him see. "No! That can't be right!" he exclaimed. "It is what everyone sees you as at the moment," Sydney said softly as he stood behind the man. "Come on let's go and have a drink, a meal and talk." Ethan Wainwright could not believe that two of the uniformed employees of Delay Today walked straight past him as Sydney told him not to panic as he firmly gripped the man's arm. They walked out of the bar slowly and back to the table where Sydney and Kelsey had been having their drinks before the drama. The barmaid passed Kelsey her bag and shoes that she had left behind when she went to the bathroom. With a giggle Kelsey thanked her and asked if they could have another round of drinks and looking at the man beside Sydney asked him if he wanted anything to eat. The man looked hopefully at the bar-b-q that was still burning at the outdoor section beside the bar. Kelsey ordered two steak sandwiches with chips. As he hurriedly ate Ethan explained that he had been given very little food in the last week. "Supposed to be seeing how long I would survive before my body started to eat itself!" he grunted around a mouthful of steak, bread and salad. "Fucking bastards!" he cursed then sighed as he swallowed the mouthful. He reached for the beer Sydney placed in front of him and swallowed most of the glass in one gulp. Kelsey passed him a glass of water. "I think this might be better to quench your thirst Ethan," she said softly. The man nodded as he drained the glass and attacked the second sandwich. "I can't stay here, Sydney," he said as he finished the sandwich and chewed thoughtfully on the chips that he had covered with tomato sauce. Kelsey could not stop the grin on her face or her musing. "I wonder if all Angels love their tomato sauce so much. Bonnie goes through three bottles of the stuff a week!" "I think it is the colour, Kelsey," the man smiled. Then with a serious look he asked the woman, "Has she started to drink her own blood yet?" "What! No," Kelsey paused, "at least not that I have noticed." "You won't unless you catch them doing it. It takes a lot of control to stop! It took me almost five years," the man stated matter-of-factly. "Why do they drink their blood?" Sydney asked then turned his head, his body tense, to regard two women in the cryogenic laboratory's uniforms walking around the patrons of the bar showing a picture. He relaxed and turned to Ethan. "This will prove to you Ethan that you are safe. Those two women there," he nodded with his head, "are going to come and ask all of us if we have seen this man." Ethan was ready to bolt, Sydney held him with his mind in his seat. "Relax Ethan," he said softly, almost hypnotically, "they do not see you. You have not seen the man either. Breathe." Ethan smiled at him and took a deep breath as the women approached their table. "Excuse me people but have any of you seen this man?" the first woman asked and she held up a photograph of the man that Kelsey had seen sitting on the toilet. Sydney took the picture and pretending to study it he asked the women why they were looking for him. Their reason of a patient that had left without permission from the clinic was met with a hard stare from the man as he stood to face the two. "I would be surprised that patients in a cryogenic clinic would be capable of walking out," he said quite seriously. "He was being prepared and got disorientated," the second woman said quickly. Sydney suggested that maybe the patient had changed his mind. The women shrugged, thanking them for their time and left quickly. Sydney returned to his seat. "You are fucking amazing man!" cried Ethan. "Those two butchers know my face and body better than I know it! They didn't have a clue it was me. Just who the fuck are you?" "A very good friend," said Kelsey softly then suggested that it was time to go. Sydney nodded. They walked along the beach back towards the motel where Sydney and Kelsey were staying, their talk continued. "The reason we drink our blood," started Ethan, "is because it never dies!" The pair beside him told him that they knew that but why drink it. "Because it makes us high!" "Oh no, Sydney!" Kelsey cried. The big man nodded, he understood immediately what her concern was. Bonnie had definitely been drinking her own blood, her bouts of depression over her nightmares had been strangely interspersed with periods of high excitement, unbounded energy. "The night and morning she couldn't get enough of either of us," Sydney said quietly as they stood together at the entrance to the path that led to their room. Kelsey nodded, her face flushed at the memory of the thoroughly enjoyable experience of Bonnie pinning her hands to her sides as she sucked her to orgasm after orgasm. "The play, the outbursts about Kevin and Maria, the giggling and laughing when she had hardly slept a wink!" Sydney continued. "Has she started menstruating?" Ethan interjected softly. The sad faces on his new friends worried him but he wanted to help. He knew all about female Angels, his mother had been the first one found. "A few months ago," Kelsey confirmed. "At least she won't be cutting herself, yet." the man sighed as they continued up the path to their door where Sydney keyed the room open. As Ethan gratefully accepted the offer of a shower and a bed, Kelsey pondered the problem of her niece until Sydney interrupted her thoughts. "Kelsey I am going to send him to Jo and Patrick. You go with him and get him to talk to Bonnie. I will arrange the flight for early tomorrow." Kelsey nodded in agreement of the plan. "What are you going to do," she could not help the shiver in her voice as she finished her question, "Warrior?" "What the warrior must do whenever he finds unacceptable evil, Kelsey," he met her eyes with his dark-blue eyed stare. She found herself hotly returning his gaze. Her heart thumped and despite her dislike of messy sex during her cycle, she desperately wanted him as she found herself extremely aroused at the thought of the kills he would carry out in ridding the world of these scum. "No little one," he grinned as he read her reaction. "Ethan has good hearing as well, no matter how loud you think the shower is!" She groaned in frustration as for the first time ever since their first aborted attempt at making love, he knocked her back. The memory triggered the other question she wanted to ask him and it burst from her lips before she even considered his reaction. "I killed myself didn't I?" He stood looking at her for such a long time that Kelsey fervently wished she could take the question back. It was said now and she didn't need him to confirm her knowledge that she had buried deep down inside her heart. "It is ok Sydney, I don't need you to tell me, I know," she tried to smile. "I am sorry." Her tears fell down her cheeks as he gently pulled her into his chest. "it was a confusing time, Kelsey, for all of us. We don't need to worry about it anymore." She nodded as he spoke into her hair. "Well, that's better," said Ethan brightly as he came out of the shower. Sydney's T-shirt was much too big for him but it certainly beat the horrible yellow and white shirt and tracksuit pants he had been wearing. Stolen from the woman he had knocked out as he had escaped the building. Kelsey giggled as she caught site of him, dashing her tears from her face with the handkerchief Sydney had given her. "It looks like a dress," she snickered. "I am afraid I don't have panties under it either," Ethan commented mournfully as he eyed the comfortable looking bed hopefully. "Ethan before you go to sleep we need to have just a little bit more chat. One with some friends of ours, do you think you can stay awake long enough for that?" Sydney asked him as he turned on the monitor on the wall. "Sure Sydney, if it helps get me out of here, anything," he replied looking for a chair to sit on. Kelsey put the kettle on in the little kitchenette and indicated for him to simply sit on the bed. The man sat gratefully and nodded to her question of tea. Alfred's appearance on the monitor did not seem to worry the man and the cyber doctor's first words confirmed what Sydney had already suspected. "There you are Ethan, how the hell did he find you?" "You are the Sydney that Alfred told me about!" exclaimed the man as he looked up to the green faced man with a smile then turned to Sydney who had taken up the only armchair in the room. "Yes he is Ethan," smiled Alfred, "who else do you want in on this Sydney?" "Jo, Patrick and Bonnie if you can arrange it please, Alfred," the man said as he eyed Kelsey's carry all with a raised eyebrow. Kelsey grinned as she retrieved her every present bag of bikkies from the bag and passed him his tea along with it. He paused and munched several of the biscuits while Ethan looked for a place to put his cup as he rearranged the pillows to sit up at the end of the bed. Kelsey giggled as the man realised his genitals were showing as he made himself comfortable and hurriedly stretched the T-shirt down to cover up. "It's OK Ethan, couldn't do much with them anyway tonight," she pouted as she took the magazines she had been reading off the bedside table to make space for his cup and some biscuits. Jo and Bonnie's smiling faces appeared together on the screen, shortly followed by Patrick Evans. Sydney smiled at his old doctor and wished them all a good day. "What's up Sydney?" asked Patrick then his surprised, "Oh," caused Ethan to look up sharply to the monitor. "Mr Wainwright I presume?" asked Jo with a broad grin. Ethan nodded, then asked, "How do you know my name?" "Because these people," Sydney indicated the faces on the screen, "have been desperately trying to find out where you had been taken when they couldn't find you in your home in Baywater." "Well until today I wasn't even sure where the hell I was," the man said bitterly. "It's the first time I even knew there was a beach here!" "How would you like to go and see those two pretty faces up there?" Sydney asked the man, then wickedly added, "the girls I mean!" Ethan chuckled, then looking up at the screen he asked softly, "Which one of you is the Angel?" Silence greeted his question. Sydney waited, it was now or never. Bonnie knew what she was and it was time for her to admit it. "I am," she said softly and her eyes filled with tears as Jo softly wrapped her arms around her. Patrick Evans wiped his hand across his eyes as he watched the lovely black haired woman finally admit that she was alive because of the blood in her veins, not because of some lucky miracle that had thrown her clear of her parents' burning hover. It was a sad moment for him to see her innocence taken from her in two small words. He mentally thanked the man who sat on the bed whose directness forced them all to finally face the thing they had been avoiding for so long. "You and I need to talk then Bonnie," the man said softly. His own eyes glistening with unshed tears. Then he smiled, "At least Bonnie you are pretty to go with it, not an ugly old fella like me!" Bonnie blushed at the unexpected words even as her head nodded in agreement with him for the need to talk. Jo giggled beside her as Kelsey did as she hugged the man who sat on the bed chuckling. Grinning Sydney told them all that Kelsey and Ethan would be arriving back in Brisbane on the first flight he could arrange for them. "Look for two ugly old women carrying red handbags," he told them. The faces on the screens laughed at his comments but the women that arrived in Brisbane airport surprised them all when they walked up to them and asked the astounded doctor to take them home. As Sydney reclined in the lounge chair in the motel on Monday morning after receiving confirmation that his precious cargo had arrived safe and sound, he regarded the green faced man on the screen above him. "How do we play this Alfred? They have done enough for me to wipe them all out and shut down Delay Today, but I think we are missing something. Why were they torturing Ethan? What was the point in dismembering him in a tray to capture his blood and observe his body rebuild itself. As far as Ethan recalls and from the scanning I have done on some of the butchers in that place they have not used any of his blood. What the fuck are they hiding?" Sydney was furious at the acts he had gleaned from the minds of the employees at the cryogenics lab. "I don't know Sydney, I need to get into that computer system! How many other organisations are tied up in this! Worse Sydney I have lost another Angel!" the green faced man was forlorn as he told the warrior his latest news. "What! When, how?" "The results only just came through from the government department that is supporting these mongrels. The tests are being carried out as part of a school health program by a private company and there are literally thousands of tests being done. A young woman from a high school in Darwin has gone missing!" Sydney's warrior form was rampant, fierce, the sword and shield gleamed as his eyes turned to hard crystals of deep blue ice. "Time to go Alfred, no more talk. I am shutting this lot down then you can have the systems to examine. Delay Today is about to suffer a sudden closure of business due to technical difficulties!" The man vanished before Alfred's astonished inputs. Realms of Eden: Home Fires B2A2 "Good luck Enyalius," he said softly as he transferred his sensors to the nano-bots in Sydney's body. The screen in the room went dark. Bonnie, Patrick, Kelsey, Jo, Jenny and Ronnie Kelleher sat entranced around the tables under the huge entertainment area roof at Kelsey's house as Ethan calmly told them about the life of an Angel. Bonnie giggled nervously as the man explained about the body's ability to heal quickly, even from the most serious wounds. Turning to Kelsey he smiled. "Sydney did not need to heal my wound I would have been alright. It was so that the ambulance would rush me away before the butchers found me again. But he was probably right, they would have found me again," he sighed as he sipped his tea. "The only thing that doesn't return to its starting point is your hair Bonnie," he continued. "If you cut it, shave it, whatever it will grow back as normal. It is the only thing that is not alive on our bodies. That includes your finger and toe nails, your eyebrows, lashes and like me, my beard. Everything else is alive by itself! "Oh there is one other thing. It only applies to female angels," his voice dropped in volume and his face flushed a little as he eyed the other females present. "Your virginity may come back occasionally," he said with a small chuckle. "I know my Mum," a glowing smile spread across his face at the memory of the wonderful woman that was taken from him in his twenties. "My Mum used to say it was very inconvenient," he finished with a small chuckle. Bonnie could not help the laughter than came from her throat as her Aunt and Jo began to cackle. Ronnie Kelleher slapped her thighs as she almost fell off her chair. Even Jenny had a very amused look upon her face. He paused to glance once again at the little red haired girl that watched him with a small smirk. He was a little disturbed by her large brown eyes that seemed to understand everything he said. Impossible he thought to himself she is only what, five? Six? "Actually I am seven, Ethan," the girl said softly. She looked up at him meeting his gaze as his mouth opened in surprise. "Don't be," said Dr Evans kindly, "Jenny is a most remarkable little girl!" He chuckled as he lifted the little one up into his lap tickling her ribs. The girl giggled as she squirmed in his arms and he cuddled her. Kelsey watched the older man playing with her daughter and grinned as she suggested that Bonnie and Ethan might like to go for a walk and have some private talk before lunch. Bonnie nodded and taking the older man's hand she led him up to the ducks. Ethan was entranced by the beautiful maiden that regarded him with her lovely brown eyes. Stopping her as they crossed the bridge he turned her to face him. "Bonnie, you are a very beautiful woman, do not let this thing, this condition beat you down. Angels blood didn't kill my mother, it was the people that wouldn't leave her alone that did it. She was a beautiful woman all the way up until she took the poison that killed her, mercifully quickly, before the blood could stop it! "Never forget that you are who you are, not what you think the blood makes you. I saw Sydney's eyes when you admitted that you were an Angel last night, he cares for you, very deeply. Do not become a thing of pity for him, Bonnie, he needs you to be who you are. "This blood can make us feel so alive, so free. It can also makes us cranky and afraid, but he will never let anyone hurt you! "Look what he did for me! He walked me out right under their noses when half the cops are looking for me. I am worth a billion dollars to them, that is a lot of money and they can afford to buy anyone. Yet he just took me away from them all, made me look like a teenager and then an old woman. He didn't even know who I was when he found me!" Bonnie smiled at the man and leant forward kissing him softly. "Sydney knows who everyone is Ethan, he is our warrior and protector." The unexpected kiss and the girl's statement caused Ethan to feel dizzy and he was grateful for the stump that Bonnie told him to sit on under the shade of the big gum tree. "You are the second person to tell me he is a warrior, Bonnie. Who is he really? No-one told me, except he was a friend." "Ethan, Sydney is a million years old," she giggled at his startled look and she pointed back to the house. "Jenny tells you she is seven, she is older than Syddy." "No way!" the man exclaimed. Bonnie nodded vigorously. "They are ancient soldiers, Ethan. They have come back to claim the world from the evil that surrounds it. Though I think they expected to be battling a force other than our own governments." She looked at the man shyly before she continued. "Ethan did you see the soldiers that were destroyed at the university in Townsville?" Ethan nodded. "He did that. Him, Jenny and another of his Angels of No Mercy. He also took down Molby, Hawkings and was responsible for the laws being changed about the mutations. He also took down the military and their plans for making women have male babies to make their armies stronger," she informed him as she held his gaze steady with her intense brown eyed stare. "Project Breeding for Freedom they called it in the newscasts," he said softly as his head nodded as he accepted the woman's passionately spoken statements. "I could almost feel sorry for the people at Delay Today, except for what those bastards did to me!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, causing the ducks that had gathered nearby to flutter their wings in alarm. Curiously the ducks did not fly away, instead they crept closer to the pair, the man sitting on the stump as the woman sat with her legs crossed on the ground. Two-ways bumped his bill against the now weeping man's shin and honked softly. "He is asking if he can help," said a soft childish voice that manifested into the form of Jenny as she revealed herself from behind the bushes where she had been listening. "Tell him I am not sure how he can," said the man as he lifted his tear streaked face to the smiling face of the little girl. "Hold him Ethan, he will show you," the girl said gently. "You too Bonnie, Syd is beside you," she continued as she watched the small grey bird nudge Bonnie's limp hand resting on her knee. Gently the two picked up the two quietly honking birds, their sounds a curiously quiet sound as if it came from deep within their small bodies. Two-ways settled on the man's lap and his head stretched up and lay against the man's chest. Ethan was enraptured by the animal and he found he could not take his eyes away from the little golden orbs that stared up at him. Bonnie found Syd's beak was warm between her breasts as he craned his neck to look up at her from his position in her lap. Jenny walked past them and sat among the rest of the birds as they gathered around her and settled down to wait. Chapter 2 -- Blood of the Angels The warrior's broad sword pinned Dr Klinsman against the wall as the fearsome face scanned his frightened features. The sword was placed just below his Adam's apple and the doctor found he couldn't swallow. "Angels blood mean anything to you doctor?" the apparition asked. "No such thing," the man's gargled response was barely intelligible but the warrior needed no verbal reply, the words had already triggered the memories in the man's mind. Sydney read him, absorbed in a heartbeat everything the man knew about it. His sword pressed viciously through the man's throat almost decapitating him. Spinning from the doctor's office he ran down a corridor that led to the cryogenic chambers containing the so-called preserved bodies of dozens of people who had paid several small fortunes for the promise of being awoken to a far distant future. A future that promised them cures for their illnesses and a return to their vastly increased fortunes, all managed by the financial gurus of Delay Today. The sword slashed through the fraudulent machinery that surrounded the glass coffins. Each hissed as the coffin's contents began to thaw from the dressed up freezer that a dead body had been stored in. A woman screamed as alarms went off all over the building. She screamed louder as she ran into the room to see a huge man swinging a large sword, destroying the machines she had promised were keeping the bodies of her clients preserved, able to be brought back in hundreds of years time. She knew the lie for what it was, the bodies dumped into a furnace in the cellars of the building once the client's fortune had been safely deposited away into the secret bank accounts. "How many clients have you put in these machines, Rachel?" the glowing man asked her in a harsh whisper. The woman screamed again not answering him. "Three hundred and twenty-four! All of those people murdered before their time because you told them you could cure them!" he raged at her as his sword sliced downwards through her body cleaving her in two. He scanned the rest of the building. Eight more dark figures waited for justice, three others he would spare, ignorant innocents to the deadly deceit that was being played out in the building. When he found the young girl from the image that Alfred had given him he stopped in shock. The woman had been decapitated yet her eyes stared helplessly at him. A doctor, not sensing his presence, crooned to her over the top of the steel high sided bath. "Come on Alison, you can do it, makes those little tissues knit back together," his voice sounded like a father calling his young child to take its first steps. Sydney's sword took his head from his shoulders as his rage at the man ensured that the sword would not show the world any other result other than the decapitation he carried out. "Alison listen to me," he whispered, his face a calm mask, the eyes gentled. "Relax, close your eyes, listen to me." The head separated from the body did so, her hands raised from her body and gently grasped her head and moved it down to complete the connection as he instructed. "How much longer do you need?" the big man asked her. "Blink your eyes for minutes else open them wide for hours." The eyes blinked three times. "Good girl, wait for me to return, I will be back for you." He was gone from her view. He shooed the three innocents out of the building, they ran screaming. The other six he found in the sound proofed computer room, screens of images of the torture of Alison and Ethan ranged around the room as the doctors made notes and joked about the happenings on the screens. His roar and the swinging of his sword as he cursed them to hell caused the oldest doctor, a matronly woman in her late one hundred and fifties to have a fatal heart attack. "Oh no you don't!" he screamed as his sword buried into her chest as she went into arrest. The blade sliced the woman's heart in half killing her the way he intended. "Alfred!" he screamed, "can you use my sword to access this computer system?" "Yes, place it on the parallel connection on the main server." The image of the desired port came into Sydney's mind and he scanned the large machines in front of him and matched it. Gently he placed the sword against the opening's metal connectors and the cyber man, created by the realm masters, slid his essential communications programs through the sword made alive by the cosmic masters, completing the channel he needed. "I'm in Sydney!" "Good you have 30 minutes." Where is the last one? Sydney asked his mind as he roved the rest of the building. His eyes flicked back to the monitors on the wall as he returned from his search back to the computer room. A silhouette figure of a man stood over the steel bath where he had left Alison, he held a large container of something poised over the edge of the bath. "Enyalius, leave this place or I will kill her!" the man's voice came over the speakers throughout the building. "You know that I will not do that, Seth!" the warrior said in a deadly whisper as he stood in the doorway of the butchering room. His twin silver handed pistols barked in rapid fire even before the ancient god could lift his head towards his voice. The container of acid fell back with the surprised man covering him instead of the helpless woman in the bottom of the bath. Seth's body had vanished but Sydney knew that it would take the ancient evil one many years to recover from the twelve realm enhanced projectiles he had put in the god's head and chest. "Come Alison it is time for us to leave." He lifted the girl easily in his arms and in a blink they vanished. Twenty three minutes later Alfred triggered the explosion in the gas storage room that ripped the buildings off its foundations destroying it and a large part of the surrounding buildings with it. He hoped that his anonymous tip to the residents of a bomb had been sufficient warning. Sometimes he thought to himself there is collateral damage. Sydney sat with Alison in his lounge room in his house in Brisbane, the woman lay snuggled into his arms, asleep. Opposite him sat Ethan and Bonnie, they regarded the pair brightly as they silently waited for the girl to awaken. Sydney was amused at the cheerful look both of them had considering that he must look like hell on earth in his blood splattered armour and the stained sword lying on the floor at his feet. He did not want the girl in his arms to wake to see any other face beside the calm dark-blue eyes of the warrior that had rescued her. A gorgeous woman appeared in his kitchen and began to make tea, quietly. Bonnie and Ethan did not hear her movements behind them. "She is so beautiful," breathed Ethan as the girl began to rouse in the warm strong arms that held her. "Alison," Sydney whispered softly and the bright hazel coloured eyes opened. Full red lips turned upwards in a grin that turned her soft featured face into a pouting sexy woman. "I thought that I was dreaming that you came and rescued me," she said, her voice huskily soft. Her hands reached up to his lips gently caressing them as he kissed her delicate fingertips. She slipped her hand down to his throat and around to the back of his neck and holding him firmly she pulled herself upward in his arms until her lips reached his. "Ethan, I think we should go," whispered Bonnie into the ear of the man beside her. He nodded and very quietly the two rose from the couches as the big man and the young woman continued their kiss. The woman making the tea smiled as the pair walked past her without even seeing her, as she expected. She turned her attention to the pair kissing on the lounge and smiled as the man lifted the woman into his arms and took her towards his bedroom. I think a shower would be a nice start Enyalius she sent to the man who nodded as he changed directions and turned to his left. The woman began a slow count in her mind. His head came back out of the doorway before she had reached twenty and she grinned at him. "Go Enyalius, my daughter awaits, we will talk later," she waved him away with her hands as he grinned broadly at her. "As you command my lady Freya," he answered and dashed back to the bathroom where Alison was hotly waiting for him wet and naked under the warm water. Alison was impatient for the warrior to return even though he was only gone a few moments. Her hands touched her breasts, circling the firm young flesh letting her thumb and forefinger squeeze upwards until she captured her sensitive nipples. "Oh my that feels good," she sighed and her mouth opened wide as a warm hand cupped her sex from behind, "that is even better!" She turned slowly rubbing her body against the warm hard man behind her, she finally faced him pressing her soapy breasts into his hairless chest making her hard nipples slide across him. "How did you know how to fix me, warrior?" she asked softly as his hands reached around her back siding downwards with the soft fluffy washer as she leaned into him. "I have two Angels outside waiting to meet you, one of them was the occupant of that bath before you," he answered as his hands rubbed her gently. He leaned back a little as she pushed against him with her hands and retrieved the washer from his. The woman nodded slowly as she began to wash his chest and arms. "I had sensed another had been there before me, I could not tell who it was though. I guess it was Ethan because I can sense him now," her voice sent tremors through Sydney's body, it was sexily soft and husky. She slid her breasts down his stomach as she knelt and began to apply the washer to his thighs and down to his feet. His eyes closed as she gripped his knees gently, urging him to turn before her. Bracing his hands on the tiled wall he felt her delicate hands wash his calves and up the back of his legs until they rested on his rump. The delightful feel of her fingers as she touched his flesh made his already hard cock throb, the woman traced a path between the cheeks of his arse, caressing his anus as she washed him gently. Warm water cascaded down his lower body as she directed the shower with her hands. Lips found his cheeks, hotly tonguing the firm globes of his arse. "So strong warrior," she called to him gently as she rose behind him running the washer and her breasts up his back. He sighed as she massaged his shoulders with strong fingers, her hands rolling over his back and up to his neck. The tension in his arms and body eased as she directed her fingers to the tight spots she found over him. "Perhaps warrior, we should find somewhere more comfortable for a more complete easing of all your muscles?" her gentle querying tone made his heart race as he turned back to face her. Their lips met again and Sydney felt his senses reel as the kiss seared his lips, her tongue felt like a living flame in his mouth as it danced against his. They stepped from the shower as she hastily flicked the tap and giggled delightfully as he wrapped her up in a huge fluffy blue towel. Playfully they dried one another and Alison shyly told him that he missed a spot lifting a long leg towards his hip and directing his bare hand to her sex. "I don't think any towel could dry the wetness there my sweet," he told her as his fingers gently sought her opening and allowed his fingers to capture the almost flowing wetness of her fluids. She hissed against his nipple as she licked it, before attaching her mouth firmly to him shuddering as his thumb stroked her swollen clit. Lifting her up against him as she wrapped her long legs around his hips he smiled. "I think my lady Alison that drinking from that well may drain some of the wetness away," he said hotly as he walked her towards his bedroom as she clung to his neck. "Oh my goodness, I hope you are thirsty, Enyalius," she whispered as he lay her down on his big bed and watched his dark haired head dip between her legs. His hot tongue found its way through her golden coloured hair and lapped slowly at her wetly glistening opening. Cries of joy assailed Freya's ears as she listened to the couple, her smile widened as she recalled the coupling with the warrior in her own times. The woman on the bed barely paused in her continuous voicing of her pleasure as Sydney's thick cock pierced the hymen that protected her womb with its flimsy thickness of flesh. "You are, were, a virgin?" asked Sydney softly. His voice carried a hint of disapproval that the beautiful woman above him should keep this secret from him until she sat still and quiet on his cock as she regarded him through half closed eyes. Her lashes fluttered in excitement as her wet channel rippled in welcome over the firm flesh that invaded her for the first time. "I have dreamt for so long of you Enyalius, of your firm flesh, your tender touch, hot kisses that take my breath away. Do not believe that I would easily give myself to any other man as easily I do to you. As I have done before and will again." Realms of Eden: Home Fires B2AE Epilogue Awakening I passed out again. "What is your name?" a voice out of the blackness asked me. My name? "Yes." My name is? I shook my head, it didn't move. A blackness engulfed my mind again. "Your name is Sydney." When I next opened my eyes I immediately tried to sit up and found that I couldn't. My hands wouldn't move either, I was in a panic. Looking down my body I saw straps tied across my limbs and torso, immobilising me giving me only movement in my toes and fingers. My eyes looked up again at the ceiling; something about its white surface reminded me of hospital and I groaned loudly. "Ah awake I see," came the familiar voice of Dr Patrick Evans as he stepped into my field of sight. His face looked haggard and his eyes showed the concern of a friend rather than a medical professional as he peered intently into my eyes then produced his electronic pad to take some notes. "Hmm," he sighed and I closed my eyes not liking the sound of that. Realms of Eden: Home Fires B2AE Looking around the bed, 8 pairs of eyes stared back at me each one full of concern and love and I could not believe the choked feelings inside of me. "Es are you alright?" I asked as I watched the faces around the room. Something was missing, I could almost feel a piece of my soul drifting away from me. It hurt. "Yes my lord," came a small voice, "I can see the lights now. It is warmer." I looked at each one in turn and a little bit more of my memory returned. Heated bodies, soft caresses and incredible pleasure threatened to overwhelm me. Relief washed over me as a cheery voice spoke saying, "Tea and bikkies anyone?" "Robyn!" I called and my eyes looked around the women surrounding my bed looking for my old friend. A smiling woman pushing the trolley shook her head and laughed. "My grandma has been retired for a long time, Mr Douglas." I stared at her as she propped to stand idly gazing back at me. I could see the definite resemblance to Robyn and I thought I could see a little bit of Bruce in her as well. She smiled warmly and I saw her give her head a little shake that set her pony-tailed platinum hair bobbing at the back of her neck under the caterer's cap she wore. "Hmm ha," she started, "It's little wonder she wants to come and see you soon!" Jenny whispered softly and I barely caught her words. "Finally, she has come back to the nest!" My head snapped to look at her and she covertly indicated her chest with a sideways glance at the woman. "Alexia," called Jenny. "Come and meet Sydney properly." The woman's eyes widened in surprise at being spoken to by the most beautiful woman she had ever seen and not only that knew her name. Noting where Jenny's eyes had indicated I was surprised to see Alexia's nipples pressing hard against her uniform. A couple of the girls choked back giggles as they too noticed. The woman shyly brought a cup of tea towards the bed and my guardian troop separated to let her pass unhindered to deliver the cup to the table beside the bed. She then swung it in over my lap and within reach. "Please to meet you Sydney," she said shyly and held out her delicately boned hand. Clasping it with my much larger one I brought her knuckles to my lips and kissed them. "It is I who am honoured to meet you, Alexia," I said with a smile. Kelsey put her arm around the waist of the girl as she seemed to dip slightly at my touch and voice. "Fucking hell!" said a deep masculine voice at the back of the bed, "you barely touched her!" A resounding thud followed by a muffled grunt ended any further comment as Thelma rounded the bed and took up a space beside Alexia whose face was extremely flushed. Her eyes were dancing with excitement. Thelma leaned in against the girl and whispered into her ear and the shocked look on her face was enough to start my own blushes. I could just imagine what was said to her. They let her giggle a little into their shoulders as they walked away from the bed and out of my hearing. Jenny sipped her tea and ginned. "Looks like you will have another present before this is over." I looked at her puzzled and she slipped her hand down her dress and patted her hips. I grinned and she winked at me. The unfamiliar doctor began talking again getting everyone's attention and ushering them back to their seats. Jenny stayed where she was, as did Kelsey as I grabbed her hand before she could move too far away. Alexia collected mine and Jenny's cups giving me a gentle pat on the arm before she moved back to her trolley and quietly pushed it out the door. I smiled at her as she risked a quick glance back at me as she exited. Her blush forced my smile into a full grin as she disappeared up the corridor. "So Sydney," began the doctor. "What else have you remembered?" "Es is here," my mind called joyfully and the two women beside my bed grasped my hands hard. I could almost read the relief in their eyes as I looked to them both. Lowering my eyes a little I bent my head before replying. "A bit more, a lot of it is personal stuff but I do remember some other things but I am not sure where they come from." Looking up I scanned the faces sitting in the semi-circle of seats around the bed and saw Paul's eyes staring at me. Are you really here my friend or do you watch me from the realms? I thought to myself. Slowly I turned to Jenny. "Where is Xavier?" The beautiful woman burst into tears.