Chapter 17: Helpless

“Is everyone okay?” Harmony asked, concern thick in her voice.

She could tell something had upset them. Harmony’s mother and Melody were hovering near Serenity and Aurora protectively. Michael had worry lines on his brow and a deer-in-the-headlights look as if he had just gone bungie jumping and couldn’t remember if he had secured the other end while he was in freefall. Serenity was the most obvious. She was giving off twilight zone vibes as she stared between Taxti and Rhapsody like they were twins she couldn’t tell apart. Harmony could feel the tension in the room vibrating at an ultra-low frequency that was too low to hear but subconsciously felt.

Harnketi stood near Melody with a level of anxiety Harmony had never seen on the charismatic woman’s face before. Their… diplomats… stood at the back of the group with fascinated expressions on their faces.

“We’re fine, Aunt Harmony,” Serenity assured her with a bright smile. “We were just waiting for Rhapsody to give Jessica, Shelley, and Jason the ability to do magic.”

“Right… “ Harmony said slowly as she looked at the array of concerned expressions around the large entryway. “Did something happen?”

“Nothing of importance,” Taxti answered with a wry glance at Serenity. “Just more troublemakers digging around in soul memory. We’ve all talked about it though, and everyone has agreed to leave the past in the past and let the future arrive at a normal pace.”

Harmony nodded slowly as she observed Michael’s disgruntled expression. Mystery walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“You okay?” Mystery asked her brother with eyes full of concern.

Michael looked back at her blankly for a moment before glancing at Taxti and shrugging. “Yeah, I’m good. I’m curious to see what kind of houses magical creatures live in.”

Mystery stared at him for several more seconds, obviously not buying his façade of eager curiosity. When he smiled at her warmly and rolled his eyes, she finally released him and returned to Harmony, blushing as she saw the look of desire hiding just beneath the surface. Harmony grinned as she felt how easy Mystery’s desire flooded to the surface now as well.

“I told you that you would be as bad as me,” Harmony whispered with a smirk.

Mystery’s cheeks were almost constantly red as the intensity of the previous night’s activities remained fresh in her mind. Harmony felt better knowing she wasn’t the only addict as they continued moving down the passageway behind Taxti. Having Mystery with them the previous night had been like recovering a part of herself that had been missing. She couldn’t help wondering how much of their time in eternity had been consumed by passion. She still felt like she had fallen into some kind of extraordinary fantasy land in a novel.

The thought triggered another twinge in her soul memory, but she studiously ignored it. She was going to humor Rhapsody and stay away from digging into her soul memory. They just had to find ways to distract themselves… she could think of a few.

The large corridor was filled with vines climbing the walls and flowers growing along the sides. All of the foliage glowed with a soft ambience that Harmony could tell would illuminate the corridor for people without night vision. The walls were made of the same impenetrable material as the outer wall.

“Here you are, Joline,” Taxti announced as they reached a door several hundred yards inside the wall.

Harmony followed her mother into the room, curious what it looked like. Her eyes widened as she stared at the lush interior. There was a small waterfall on the far wall that fell down into a small stream that crossed the room and filled a pond on one side of the room before it continued on and dropped into a small hole in the wall near the door. It was small enough to step across and was filled with softly glowing rocks. The banks were covered with a soft glowing ground cover that spread out across the room. There was a large canopy bed in the center of the room that was surrounded by green curtains. There was a large wardrobe and dresser against the wall. A wrap around vanity with mirrors creating a partial circle sat near the bed. There were several pieces of furniture, including a love seat, couch and a few chairs. The overall ambiance of the softly glowing room felt like something out of an elven city fairytale.

“Are all of the rooms like this?” Jessica asked in amazement, her eyes shining as she stared around the room.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Taxti nodded with an amused glance at the gawking agents.

“Where’s ours?” Harmony asked Rhapsody, unable to keep the eagerness out of her voice. Mystery stood next to her with the same eager anticipation as they stared at the fairy.

“Insatiable,” Rhapsody murmured with an amused twinkle in her lavender eyes. “I thought we already had a room at Harmony’s house.”

“This place seems more… “ Harmony trailed off as she saw her nieces watching her curiously. She lowered her voice so that only Mystery and Rhapsody could hear her. “Soundproof.”

Rhapsody threw her head back and laughed, her eyes dancing with amusement. “I suppose that could get awkward, since they could teleport home at any time. Okay, we’ll take a room here too.”

Jessica and Shelley were ecstatic to see their rooms, commenting on how they had expected to be stuck in a cheap hotel outside of Orick while Rhapsody ignored their requests for an audience. The two agents were both bubbling with excitement, much to Harmony’s amusement. She was pretty sure this wasn’t what their superiors had in mind when they sent them to apologize to Rhapsody.

They showed Melody, Aurora, and Serenity to a room between Harmony’s mother’s room and the one Harmony was sharing with Mystery and Rhapsody. Serenity and Aurora darted into their room and immediately started investigating everything. Melody followed along behind with a fond smile. Harnketi already had a room, which was coincidentally across from Melody’s room.

“That girl is too clever by far,” Taxti muttered as she continued down the hall with Michael and the three fairies.

“I don’t know how we’re going to keep Alice from digging into her soul memory,” Rhapsody agreed with a rueful shake of her head. “I think we need to find enough activity to keep her so busy that she doesn’t have time to dig.”

“That’s the problem though,” Taxti responded in a wry voice. “Half of the things I’m teaching her are what are triggering her recall.”

“Who’s Alice?” Michael asked in confusion as he stared between Taxti and Rhapsody.

Taxti gave Rhapsody a long suffering look as the fairy winced. Rhapsody quickly recovered, her expression airy.

“I meant Serenity,” Rhapsody told him with a shrug. “When you get to be my age, you’ll start mixing names up too.”

Michael stared at her suspiciously, but she just stared back innocently until he shook his head with a sigh. “Fine, keep your secrets.”

Harmony struggled to keep her curiosity under control. Now she knew the real names of Rhapsody, Mystery, Serenity, and herself. She had found a new method for distracting herself from digging into her soul memory. Any time she was tempted to follow her curiosity, she would look over at Mystery or Rhapsody for a few seconds and everything else became white noise. She knew they had important lessons to learn about becoming world trees and eventually using their magic, but she found it hard to think about anything but getting them back in bed. Having bodies that never tired and had limitless stamina made it difficult to make herself do anything else.

“Here’s your room, Michael,” Taxti gestured toward the next door. “Let’s unlock your ability to use magic and teach you to teleport so that you can go fetch your clothes and any other items you would like to move over here.”

Michael’s eyes lit up at her words and a grin appeared on his face. “Okay, I am so ready.”

Taxti stared off into space for a moment before her eyes came back into focus. “Okay, you can use magic now. As for teleporting, let’s include these two as well. Even though they shouldn’t be using magic yet, it would be good for them to know how to teleport in case of an emergency.”

Harmony bit back the question on her lips as she stared at Taxti. How did she just stare off into space for a few seconds to give someone the ability to use magic? The same thought had clearly occurred to Michael as well. Harmony shrugged at him with a resigned smile and let the question go. They would find out, eventually.

Rhapsody gave her a grateful smile that sent a shiver of desire through her system. Rhapsody’s smile widened when she felt the desire through the bond.

“Tone it down, you two,” Taxti commanded briskly as she stared at them levelly. “It’s focus time. The first thing you need to understand is that there are two realms that exist in the same space on different frequencies. That explanation isn’t true, but it offers a proper visualization for you to conceptualize the idea. The etheric realm is far less static than the physical realm. It is a place where thoughts hold far more power over structure and action. When you dream at night, you are briefly entering the outskirts of the etheric realm. Each realm has a priority level, or weight. The etheric realm takes precedence over the physical realm for anything within the sphere of influence of your consciousness. Giving you the ability to use magic was really just unlocking your access to the etheric realm. Close your eyes and imagine the place you want to go, adding as much detail as possible. Now believe that you are there in the etheric realm. If you are doing it right, the details of your vision should be shifting from what you were imagining was there to what is actually there. The next part is the tricky part. You need to convince your mind that your body is out of sync with your mind. You need to believe it completely, to the point that you feel a sense of wrongness at where your body is currently residing. Once you have convinced your consciousness that you are in the wrong place, the etheric realm will send correction instructions out to the physical realm and your body will be teleported to the correct location.”

Michael vanished, leaving a satisfied Taxti smiling at his vacant space.

“Should we try it too?” Harmony asked hesitantly. “Or is that going to drain our magic too much?”

“No, I just wanted you to understand the concept,” Taxti answered, glancing at Rhapsody with a look of what Harmony was almost sure was jealousy. “It’s not really magic that you are storing up. You’re bodies are slowly being translated to etheric bodies. When you do anything to influence the etheric realm, it affects your development. Think of it like learning to play drums left handed, and then trying to switch to right handed later. The way your etheric bodies will interact with the etheric and physical realms is significantly different from how a physical body interacts with it. If you learn how to do things while you are still in a physical body, you’ll have to unlearn all of those things when the conversion is complete.”

“So the method of teleporting is different for an etheric body?” Mystery asked with a thoughtful crease to her brows.

“Correct,” Taxti nodded with an approving smile. “When your body is fully etheric, you’ll just think the place you want to go and you’ll be there, without all the arguing between the two realms a physical body has to do.”

Michael reappeared in front of them with a suitcase in hand and a huge grin on his face.

“Okay, that was the coolest thing I have ever done,” Michael exclaimed, laughing exuberantly. “I can’t believe how easy it is.”

“Displacement magic is the easiest kind of magic,” Taxti informed him with a faint smile. “Things get more complex after this.”

“Are you going to teach Jessica and Shelley how to teleport too?” Harmony asked with a curious glance down the halls toward the rooms they were staying in.

“I was going to let Michael teach them,” Taxti replied with a smirk. ‘I want to see how well he listened to the lesson. Aurora and Serenity already taught Joline how it works.”

“I’m having a really hard time reconciling Joline as your mom,” Jason declared ruefully, eyeing Harmony speculatively. “Maybe it would have been easier if I’d known her before she looked like a shorter version of you.”

“Does little ickle Michael have a crush on little ickle Joline?” Mystery asked in a syrupy sweet voice, her eyes sparkling with amusement.

“Cougar alert,” Harmony called out with a smirk at Michael. “You better watch out, she hasn’t been in a relationship since I was tiny. She’s going to be wound up pretty tight.”

Michael stared at the two of them flatly as he tried to ignore the red spots on his cheeks. “I don’t have a crush on Joline,” Michael denied with a derisive snort.

“Is it Jessica then?” Mystery asked him teasingly. “Or maybe Shelley? Harnketi and Melody are already spoken for.”

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Michael rolled his eyes and entered his room, leaving the two of them laughing at his back.

Rhapsody had remained strangely quiet, her eyes distant. Her eyes finally refocused, and she glanced at the three of them with a weighing look in her eyes. “I think it’s time to ask Melody if she’s willing to become a world tree.”

“Yes!” Harmony exclaimed with an ecstatic grin. “I can’t wait for her to join us!”

They left Michael to teleport back and forth between his old apartment as he packed all of his belongings. They had only gone two dozen steps when he reappeared, cursing loudly.

They all turned around to stare at him. Rhapsody shook her head ruefully and shared a look with Taxti.

“Do you want to get rid of them, or shall I?” Rhapsody asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I’ll take this one,” Taxti offered with an eager grin.

“What are you—” Harmony broke off as Michael and Taxti teleported away.

“There are some government issue goons hanging outside of Michaels apartment,” Rhapsody explained with a roll of her large eyes. “They didn’t expect him to teleport in, apparently. They were waiting out front for him. They had bugged his apartment though, so when they heard someone packing things inside, they ran in to investigate. He teleported away when they pulled their weapons on him. I guess he forgot that Yuccas Fitter makes him invulnerable.”

“What’s Taxti going to do to them?” Mystery asked, her eyes full of morbid curiosity.

“That depends on whether they are decent people or not,” Rhapsody answered with a chuckle. “If they are just average government issues following orders, she’ll probably just put them to sleep. If they’re a bunch of asshats that enjoy harming people… well, they’re going to have a very bad day.”

Rhapsody’s face suddenly grew disgusted. A second later, Taxti appeared with a look of revulsion on her face.

“What?” Mystery asked, laying a hand on Rhapsody’s shoulder in concern.

“They were the asshat variety,” Rhapsody replied grimly. “The kind that enjoy harming children.”

“What did you do to them?” Harmony asked Taxti tentatively.

“Let’s just say they won’t have the equipment or limbs to harm anyone ever again,” Taxti replied bleakly.

Michael reappeared a moment later with another load of personal items. His face was pale as he looked back at Taxti warily.

“Is there a reason you took their arms and legs away?” Michael asked in a shaky voice. “Along with their manhood?”

“Such will be the fate of anyone I find harming children,” Taxti replied flatly, her eyes full of wrath. “They’ll spend the rest of their lives as helpless as the ones they harmed.”

“Oh,” Michael grimaced, his face twisted with sudden anger. “Good.”

“Who did they work for?” Harmony asked curiously.

“They were subcontracted by the CIA,” Taxti replied with a speculative look at Rhapsody. “They decided that if they can’t throw armies at us they’ll try to capture people who are close to us to use as bargaining chips. They still don’t seem to understand how far down the food chain they are. I think it’s time to make it abundantly clear where they stand.”

“Do you think they’ll go after Serenity’s friend?” Harmony asked worriedly. “Susan?”

Rhapsody’s eyes went distant for a moment before she vanished.

“Taxti?” Harmony prompted the beautiful faun anxiously. “Is Susan okay?”

Taxti avoided Harmony’s eyes as she replied. “She will be, soon.”

Harmony moved in front of Taxti and stared up into her eyes. “Taxti, what happened?”

Taxti’s eyes flinched away from hers, guilt and sorrow flicking through the bond. Harmony stared at Taxti in shock as the emotions came out of the corner of her soul that was Rhapsody.

“Clarice?” Harmony whispered, staring up at Taxti uncertainly.

Taxti flinched at the name. She sighed and shook her head ruefully. “I knew this wasn’t going to work,” Taxti muttered tiredly. “Not with the soul bond giving everything away.”

“I am so confused,” Mystery declared as she watched Taxti in confusion. “How are you both Clarice?”

Michael was gaping at Taxti with sudden recognition in his eyes. Her name seemed to have triggered some kind of recall in his soul memory as well.

“Yggdrasil is projecting Rhapsody,” Taxti explained reluctantly. “In Rhapsody’s form I’m capable of creating clones with independent threads of consciousness by separating my mind into unique partitions. We’re still connected but are capable of simultaneous thought processes. We had to do it this way to keep the hosts that needed our help alive. The Rhapsody you know is a ghost of the person who once existed. I had to merge with her to keep a remnant of her consciousness alive. I have all of her memories and a small part of her personality, but she’s gone into a kind of stasis. She burned herself out trying to keep this world alive. That’s why we’re here—to help save her and her world from destruction.”

“And you wanted to be a faun too, huh?” Harmony asked with a slight smile.

“Well, yeah, I totally thought that would be awesome,” Taxti admitted with a faint smile. “But Taxti isn’t just a clone. The magical creatures here were starving after Rhapsody ran out of life force. In order to keep them alive, I used the cloning ability to separate my spirit and inhabit their bodies until Yggdrasil could produce enough life force to sustain them without me. I used to inhabit all of the magical creatures here. Now, its just Taxti and Rhapsody. Taxti consumes an enormous amount of power and requires more world trees to be functional to subsist off the energy they provide.”

“Where are you getting the power to sustain all of the magical creatures and the whole planet?” Mystery asked curiously. “Didn’t it drain Rhapsody? How long until it drains you too?”

Harmony inhaled sharply at Mystery’s words, gazing at Taxti… Clarice, worriedly. Was she being drained of life force as well?

“It would take a few billion years to drain me of my life force,” Taxti told them reassuringly. “And it could only do that if I didn’t decide to break the rules.”

“So let me get this straight, Clarice,” Michael said slowly. “You and Rhapsody are being piloted by the same person, but the bodies you are inhabiting still have their own spirits that are in some kind of dormant state. What’s with all of the flirting with everyone if you’re the same person that’s shacking up with Harmony and Mystery?”

“That’s just for fun,” Taxti replied, a mischievous smile that looked eerily familiar appearing on her face. “What else was I supposed to be doing when Rhapsody’s having all of the fun? I might be the same person, but I’m still a separate thread of consciousness for all intents and purposes. Until there are world trees and I can wake Taxti up, I’m stuck in this body being a third—make that fourth wheel.”

“So you don’t feel the same, um, sensations?” Harmony asked with a brilliant blush.

“Yeah, I do, but just from you two,” Taxti replied wistfully. “I only get the memory of what Rhapsody is feeling.”

“This whole thing seems so damn complicated,” Harmony complained with a wry smile. “If this were one of my books, I would never have let it get this unnecessarily complicated.”

“That’s a whole different story,” Taxti growled darkly, her eyes flashing with rage. “This bastard would let it get this complicated.”

“Who are we talking about?” Michael asked uncertainly, tilting his head as he watched Taxti oddly.

“It doesn’t matter,” Taxti sighed, the anger deflating out of her. “Not until we figure out how to get to their universe, anyway.”

Rhapsody reappeared, her face full of rage and guilt. She took one look at Taxti and groaned, putting her face into her hands. “We’re in so much trouble.”

“We can still make it work,” Taxti told her confidently. We’ve got three already partially converted and we’re about to get one more. We might need to figure out a loophole for the soul memory issue though. At this rate, they’re all going to remember everything by the end of the month.”

“Maybe we should talk to Deighvy and see if she has any ideas,” Rhapsody mused, gazing at Taxti with pursed lips. “It’s her universe and her rules, after all. Maybe she can point us in the right direction.”

“Does it feel weird, talking to yourself as a separate entity?” Harmony asked Rhapsody curiously. The idea fascinated her more than she would have expected.

“No, it feels totally normal,” Rhapsody replied with a mischievous smile. “When I want to have an intelligent conversation I just go talk to myself.”

“What happened to Susan?” Harmony asked tentatively.

Rhapsody’s face fell, the guilt and sorrow returning. “They killed them. They were just leaving when I arrived. I brought Susan and her mom back to life and wiped their memories.”

“I’m so sorry, Rhapsody,” Harmony murmured, walking over and wrapping her arms around the other woman.

“What happened to the guys that killed them?” Michael asked intently.

“I dropped them off at CIA headquarters,” Rhapsody replied darkly, her face pressed sideways against Harmony’s breasts. “They’re in the same state as the guys at your apartment—limbless and emasculated.”

“Who’s responsible for setting all of this up?” Harmony asked with a frown. “I’m kind of surprised they didn’t learn to leave you alone when you showed up at the White House.”

“It’s a group of powerful people who think they are hidden in the shadows,” Rhapsody replied with an evil chuckle. “They’re basically the lovechild of the intelligence agencies and the mafia. They are the power behind politics and pull the strings of the various intelligence agencies. They’re willing to do horrible things to people to scare everyone else into compliance. Think Mexican drug cartel level of torture and violence. They aren’t the kind of people to back down after seeing me show a few supernatural abilities. I’ll have to be a lot more thorough.”

“What were you planning to do to them?” Mystery asked in a troubled voice.

“Same treatment as the others,” Rhapsody shrugged. “They seem to thrive on actions that send messages, so I’ll send them a message. If you prey on the helpless, you will become helpless. If they were just targeting me, I would just have marooned them on another world where they couldn’t cause any trouble. As soon as they start harming children though, it’s personal.”

“Hey, Aunt Harmony!” Serenity shouted from down the hall. “Did you see that the pool in the rooms goes all the way down into the ground and comes out at the lake? It’s so that mermaids can visit with you! How cool is that?”

“Really?” Harmony released Rhapsody and had a moment of indecision on whether she should address Taxti or Rhapsody. “Do they just pop in to say hi whenever they want, or do you need to invite them?”

“They’re not going to interrupt us in the middle of a… anything,” Rhapsody broke off as Serenity joined them. “They have amazing hearing and can sense when a room would be safe to enter. They’re very social, so when I made the rooms here, I made sure to make it easy for them to interact with people in more than just the lake. There are various ponds throughout the circle that are actually conduits that go back to the lake.”

“They were at Melody’s party the other night,” Serenity pointed out curiously. “Can’t they just transform to have legs whenever they want to visit with other people?”

“They’re not very comfortable with legs for very long, so I tried to accommodate their natural habitat,” Rhapsody replied with an amused smile. “Watching them interact with the fairies can be extremely entertaining. Fairies hate water, but are fascinated by mermaids, so they have an odd relationship. I think I mentioned that fairies are chatterboxes. Well, mermaids are nearly as chatty, so when you get them together it can get pretty entertaining.”

“I better go now,” Taxti announced with a scowl. “They’re getting ready to cause more trouble. I’ll be back in a little while.”

Taxti vanished, a look of dreadful purpose on her beautiful face.

“Where’s she going?” Serenity asked curiously.

“Just to do some cleanup,” Rhapsody answered blandly. “We were just getting ready to ask your mom if she wants to become a world tree.”

“Oh, I wanna see this,” Serenity grinned excitedly, leading them back to the room she shared with her mom and Aurora.

“You might want to get another bed in their for Melody,” Harmony noted dryly. “Serenity and Aurora pinwheel too much to share a bed with.”

“Did you forget that none of us sleep anymore?” Mystery asked in amusement.

“Oh yeah,” Harmony laughed sheepishly. “It’s such a major part of life that it’s going to take a while to get used to the idea that we’ll never have to worry about doing it again.”

“I mean, it’s not the only things beds are good for,” Mystery said archly. “But I have a feeling Harnketi’s bed will serve that purpose.”

Harmony hoped so. Her sister needed to have someone wonderful to share her life with to make up for all of the hell she had suffered.

They followed Serenity into the room and found Aurora sitting at the edge of the pool talking to a mermaid with bright red hair. Harnketi was sitting next to Melody on the love seat. Melody was hanging on Harnketi’s every word, her bright blue eyes fascinated with whatever Harnketi was telling her. Harnketi’s natural charisma had drawn Melody in like a moth to a flame. Harmony could feel the powerful chemistry between the two of them. Her sister’s fears of not being attracted to women seemed to be a thing of the past.

Rhapsody walked up in front of the loveseat and waited as Harnketi finished her tale. When she finished, Melody threw her head back and laughed delightedly. Harnketi looked completely enchanted as she watched Melody laugh.

“So, we have a proposal for you,” Rhapsody began after Melody stopped laughing.

“Yes, I would love to become a world tree,” Melody answered before Rhapsody could ask.

“Well, that was easy,” Rhapsody beamed at her. “Shall we take the shortcut?”

“Sure…” Melody agreed slowly.

The two of them suddenly vanished. Serenity grinned and vanished as well, followed a moment later by Harnketi.

“Are you going to watch too?” Harmony asked Michael as he tentatively followed them into the room.

“Where did they go?” Michael asked, watching Aurora talk with the mermaid in fascination. Aurora seemed to be telling the mermaid all about their epic adventure of the last week, including their first run-in with Rhapsody when Aurora had gotten stuck in the redwood tree next to the wall.

“They went to the chasm,” Mystery informed him with a smile. “You remember where that is, right?”

“Yeah, I remember that,” Michael nodded with a small smile. “Aren’t you two going?”

“We can’t teleport,” Harmony reminded him with a shrug. “We’ll congratulate her after Rhapsody brings her back.”

“I think I’ll go watch,” Michael decided with a boyish grin. “Watching real magic is kind of awesome.”

Mystery chuckled as he vanished, leaving them with Aurora and the mermaid.

Harmony looked closer at the mermaid. She was pretty, with a heart-shaped face and a beautiful smile. She was bare-chested, though her long red hair covered her most saliant features. Her large eyes were enraptured as Aurora regaled her with their tale. Harmony smiled, feeling a warm glow of satisfaction at seeing Aurora so happy.

She felt Mystery’s arms wrap around her waist from behind and she leaned back into the other woman with a contented sigh.

“Lots of crazy revelations today, huh?” Harmony asked wryly.

“There sure were, Aria,” Mystery whispered into her ear.

Harmony shivered, both from the name and the seductive delivery of her name.

“You’re going to get us into trouble, Calypso,” Harmony murmured with a lazy smile.

“I kind of like getting into trouble with Clarice,” Mystery whispered silkily. “She’s so damn cute when she tries to be stern.”

Harmony shivered as the seductive whisper sent tingles down her spine while her synesthesia mimicked the sensation of pressure on her breasts as Mystery pressed into her back. “I’ll bet this is distracting the hell out of Clarice.”

“I’m not sure if this is soul memory speaking,” Mystery whispered with a smile. “But I have a feeling she has us far outclassed in the mischief department.”

Harmony felt Mystery’s hands slide up the front of her shirt to rest just below her breasts. She let out a gasp as her breathing sped up with excitement. She barely held back a soft moan as she melted back into Mystery’s arms, wishing more than anything to be back in their room.

“You two are so damn insatiable,” Taxti drawled wryly as she appeared right next to them. “You seriously can’t just wait a few more hours?”

Mystery slid her hands down out of Harmony’s shirt, eliciting a disappointed sigh from Harmony. Mystery released her, leaving a teasing kiss on her neck as she stepped away.

“This is your fault,” Harmony accused Taxti teasingly. “You’ve completely corrupted us.”

Taxti rolled her eyes as she stared at the two of them fondly. “Corruption only goes where corruption is welcome.”

Mystery walked up into Taxti’s personal space and slid her hands onto her waist. “Is it welcome here?”

Harmony felt a sudden explosion of desire in the bond tied to Rhapsody at Mystery’s words and touch. Taxti breathed in sharply and she closed her eyes. Mystery slid her hands up Taxti’s back and pulled her into a tight embrace. Harmony bit her lip as the sight flooded her synesthesia with the sensation of every soft curve. Mystery lowered her lips down onto Taxti’s neck and slowly kissed her way up and around her jaw until her lips met Taxti’s.

“Bedroom,” Harmony gasped as she took a few shaky steps toward them, glancing to where Aurora was engrossed in her retelling of their adventure with the mermaid. “Now.”

Taxti teleported them to their new bedroom. Harmony stepped behind Taxti and slid her hands around her waist and up her soft stomach, eliciting a hungry moan from Taxti.

“Now, we’re going to tell you what we’re going to do to you,” Harmony whispered into Taxti’s ear.