"That was pretty lame, Jeremy. Is that the best you can do?"

"Fuck off, bitch. We'll get to you," he yelled.

"Big words from such a pathetic man," I said. "Come on, you've wanted to get me ever since I kicked your ass last fall. That pathetic attempt at my apartment was laughable. And then even the girls here won't have anything to do with you. Maybe if you were a real man, things would be better for you."

He ignored me. The two continued to advance on Renea. She began leading them around the field. I continued to taunt Jeremy.

"Jeremy, does Vincent show you what a real man does to a girly girl like you?"

That did it. He immediately snarled and turned to me. "I'll show you a real man, you lesbo bitch!"

"Jeremy! Ignore her. The real target is right there." Vincent pointed with his sword. Jeremy turned back to Renea, but they were now separated slightly. I was pretty sure I could get greater separation.

"That's right, Jeremy, be the good lap dog and gang up on Renea. Cause everyone knows you're not man enough to take me on. I beat you once, and I'll beat you again. Fucking pansy. Oh, Non-fucking pansy. Did it fall off?"

"You bitch, you are going to die!" He turned to me.

Vincent immediately started yelling. "God damnit, Jeremy, ignore the bitch, you can have all the fun you want later."

"No one talks to me like that!"

"Come kiss my ass, Jeremy, and maybe I won't make you beg too hard for your life."

"You are mine, bitch!"

"Sorry, Jeremy," I said, "but I rather doubt you're man enough to claim me."

Vincent was screaming at him at that point.

Jeremy actually started running at me. Rather than going after Vincent, I waited. Jeremy held his sword in front of him like a lance and clearly intended to gore me.

I waited until the last moment, feinted towards the left, his sword side, then rolled right to his shield side. He tried to spear me with his sword, but he couldn't twist fast enough. I extended my sword as I rolled and gave him a huge slice across his left leg.

I rolled onto my feet and he was past me, well out of immediate attack range.

"Now!"

I popped out and was immediately pulled back. I spun swinging, but Vincent managed to use his shield. I popped away, was pulled back, fell to the ground while spinning, and scored a glancing slice across Vincent's right leg. I rolled to my feet and followed after him. He was limping, but his parries were fast. I circled around him until his back was to Renea.

He went on the offensive, and I parried and backed up, not letting him close. He limped once, and I reached out with the sword towards his head. He bashed my sword away and I narrowly avoided getting skewered. In the meantime, Renea had closed most of the distance.

I feinted left and his sword reached out. I wasn't where he expected, and I managed to nick his arm. He stepped back. Renea rose behind him and swung, removing his head.

We both stared at him as he fell. We turned to Jeremy, who immediately disappeared.

I looked at Renea. "I think we over trained."

She laughed, stepped forward, and hugged me. "You were kicking his ass," she said. There were tears in her eyes as she looked at me. "Thank you, Felicia."

I hugged her back. There weren't really words to say.

The cheering started. I separated from Renea, and we both turned to look at the body. I walked over and kicked it. "Asshole."

Petra reached me first and pulled me into a crushing hug, kissing me deeply. Hugs and kisses were passed around.

Sally walked up with our scabbards. Renea and I cleaned our swords on Vincent's clothes. Sally took my sword and started cleaning it carefully. Karen took Renea's.

We looked around. Vincent's army had dispersed.

I turned to Petra. "Sensei, my form was poor."

She looked at me and began laughing. "Oh honey, your form is perfect.

I popped home for a quick clean. I was still in the shower when Petra pulled me back. I stood in the field, stark naked, soap suds in my eyes. "Oops," said Petra.

I turned to her. "You did that on purpose! No way was that twenty minutes."

She walked over to me and hugged me. "Honey, it was forty-five."

"Ten more," I told her and popped back to the shower. I was able to rinse off, was partially dressed, and was pulling on the rest of my clothes when she pulled me back again.

When I got back, Kelly was waiting. Andrea had gone to get her. She pulled me into an immediate hug, squeezing the stuffing out of me. "Thank you," she said.

We stayed at the village for hours. We built a large funeral pyre and piled all the bodies from the village on it, with Vincent's in the middle. Sally wore her hazmat suit and had the gruesome job of rolling the bodies from the village into tarps.

Once all the bodies were piled onto the wooden scaffolding, Renea said a few words. "These poor people deserved better than this. You were a peaceful, hard working village, and we mourn this loss." She paused. "Vincent, you were a product of your father's. I regret the course events took."

She turned to Sally and nodded. Sally stepped forward with a gas can and thoroughly doused the wood we'd piled under the bodies. She pulled a box of matches from her pocket and lit it, then tossed it into the wood.

There was a "woosh", and the flames roared into the sky. Silently, we all watched the fire, huddled together, all of us touching. I stood with Petra on one side and Renea on the other, arms around shoulders and waists as we fit. Beth and Erika were behind me, also touching me. I looked over my shoulder and saw Erika's head on Sally's shoulder. Andrea and Kelly were hugging and leaning against Renea. Karen stood off to the side a little, but Beth grabbed her and pulled her close.

We watched the fire burn for a long time.

Eventually I asked, "What about Jeremy? Will he be a problem?"

Renea laughed before saying in a loud voice, "I, Renea of Siriena, hereby claim by right of conquest, all in this land that was Vincent Reynolds', known or unknown, and revoke passage to all others."

"What do you suppose the chances are Jeremy held his own property here?" Andrea asked.

"I guess we'll find out," said Petra. "I don't intend to borrow trouble before it comes."

"So now what?"

"Now?" said Renea. "We celebrate. Then it's time to build a real home here." She looked over at Petra. "Find me construction expertise. I want to expand the castle."

Petra nodded, looking at me. "I may know where to start."

EasterI was kneeling, humming and singing. Beside me, Petra was doing the same. She and I grinned at each other.

In front of me, a human form appeared. Beth was waiting by and immediately threw a blanket over the woman. In front of Petra, another form appeared. Erika immediately tossed a blanket over him.

"Mrs. Conner," Beth said. "Mr. Conner. I'm so happy to see you. Don't worry, everything is fine. Have we got something to show you!"

About the author:

Julia P. Lynde lives and works in the American mid-west. This is her second novel.

Julia is older than most of the characters in her books. She has blue eyes and grey hair. She enjoys hiking in the mountains (difficult to do in the mid-west) and hosting dinner parties.

Julia can be reached via email as julia.p.lynde@gmail.com.

Julia's other works include: Novels Rewind: Emerging from traumatic events of her past, Shane is left dealing with newfound self-revelations until she seeks help from an unexpected quarter.

Veronica is a stunning and powerful businesswoman who knows what she wants and lives for the seduction involved in getting it.

Complicated doesn't begin to describe the results.

Rewind features graphic sex between consenting women and some light BDSM.

Shorts Bound in Arrogance "You wouldn't last two hours of my attention," Penny told me, turning it into a wager. Foolishly, I rose to the bait.

Bound in Arrogance features Veronica and Penny several years prior to the events in Rewind. It features light BDSM.

Snow Bound After a near experience with a deer, Allison is pulled from her car by Sarah, troubled twenty-five-year-old photographer. Sarah drives Allison to Allison's secluded cabin on a lake, where the two become snowbound.

Allison finds Sarah deeply attractive. Will Sarah's troubled past interfere with a possible future?

An Excerpt from RewindI remember the girl. She was young enough I thought of her as a girl but old enough I should call her a woman. She seemed unextraordinary. She was of moderate height wearing nondescript clothes. Jeans and a tee-shirt, I suppose. I'm not really sure now. In an earlier age she would have appeared out of place downtown during business hours, but with casual Friday turning into casual everyday over the years, the girl looked only slightly less dressed up than many of the people hurrying along the sidewalks during their lunch breaks.

Only she wasn't hurrying. Maybe that's why I first noticed her. Or maybe it was her hair. Long and almost flame red. One couldn't help but notice her hair. It was unkempt and wind-tossed, but still very striking. I remember wondering whether she realized just how wonderful her hair was.

She seemed oblivious to what was going on around her. She stopped and knelt down, I suppose to tie her shoe. She must not have noticed the light rail train coming up behind her.

I don't remember where I was going, what I was doing there. But I remember this. I was suddenly next to her, reaching down and wrapping my arms around her midriff, yanking her up to pull her out of the way moments before the train could reach her. She let out a quick screech. Or maybe it was the train.

I remember the impact. The train struck me in the back, really just a glancing blow, but it sent both of us flying. I hit something else. A parked car, perhaps.

Then all went black.

Time passed. I couldn't have told you how much. I could only tell you that time had passed. Awareness came to me patiently. It started with sounds. None of the expected sounds, though. No traffic noises, no beeping of hospital machines, no footsteps of nurses hurrying to tend to patients.

I remembered the accident. I knew I had to have been badly hurt. I did a little mental check, wondering when the pain would kick in. I wondered briefly if I had been paralyzed in the accident, if that was the reason why I couldn't feel anything. But I realized that I could feel my weight against the bed and a sheet pulled up to my chin. I eventually decided I must be on some really good painkillers. Gratitude seemed an appropriate emotion.

At some point I opened my eyes. It was dark at first, but then the room began to brighten. It was strange. Although I could see light, there was no form, nothing for my eyes to focus upon. It was as if I were seeing the entire world through frosted glass.

I heard a noise, the sound of someone shifting in a chair beside my bed. I turned my head to see who was watching over me. What I saw instead was a bright light, too bright to look into. I squinted, but that didn't help. Then the light began to dim and a form began to take shape. Sitting in a comfortable chair beside my bed was a woman I didn't recognize.

She was glowing with a white, golden, purple, red, silver light. I blinked. She was still glowing, smiling softly at me. I looked around, but all I could see was the bed I was in and the woman in her chair. There was nothing else to see.

I looked back at her, opened my mouth to speak. All that came out was a rough croak. I closed my mouth and swallowed. The woman continued to wait patiently, still smiling softly at me. I looked at her, waiting for my voice to come to me, and realized how amazingly beautiful she was. Here was a woman to steal the hearts of all mankind with just a glance of her eyes and a twitch of her mirthful lips. I was at least half in love with her immediately.

I tried again to speak. This time, the sounds made more sense. "Where am I?" I paused for just a moment. The woman seemed to know I had more to say. "The girl? Is she okay?"

As if pleased with my questions, her smile grew briefly before being replaced with a more serious expression. "Where are you? You are Between."

The answer made no sense. "Between where?"

"Between Earth and Heaven," was the reply. Which also made no sense. The woman just watched me, ever patiently, while I puzzled it out. I stared off in the distance, focusing on nothing for a moment, then my eyes snatched back to hers.

"I was wrong."

"To be fair," she replied. "You never really made up your mind one way or the other."

I considered her words. She didn't seem upset with me. "You're..." I said, asking a question.

She just nodded once, slowly, almost as a mini bow.

"So, I died."

"You weren't supposed to," she said. "Neither of you were. I'm sorry. I was..." she paused. "Distracted," she said eventually. "If I had seen what she was going to do, I'd have intervened."

"But," I said, sputtering. "You're God. You can do anything! Can't you just roll back time, undo everything?"

She looked at me sadly, apologetically. "You shouldn't believe all the propaganda."

"You said, aWhat she was going to do.' She knew the train was coming?"

The woman nodded again. "I knew she was troubled. She had much to be troubled over, but so much promise too. I had such hopes for her." Then she looked at me directly. "And for you."

"For me? I'm just-"

She interrupted me. "No one is just anything. You all cast ripples throughout the world with small actions sometimes having such profound effect. You had some ripples waiting inside you, ripples I very much would have enjoyed watching. And the girl, too. I needed her, needed her to seek help for her troubles." She paused, smiled for a moment. "Help can appear in the strangest places, you know."

I let her words sink in. "The girl died too?"

"No. And yes. Her body is in a coma. Very recoverable. I wouldn't even need to nudge things along. Which I almost never do anyway. But her soul is a different story. It's in tatters. I can't send her back like this, not for a long time. Too long for her body to wait for her."