Flying Out

Sama sped past the main terminal at SeaTac and John was a bit confused at first until he realized they were heading for the private charter section of the airport.

"Oh wow," he said, "I've never flown on a private plane before. Come to think of it, I've never flown on a plane where I wasn't packed in like a sardine."

"Yeah, that's why Emura doesn't fly with the airlines," Sama said.

"You think airlines are bad you should fly on a military jet sometime," he joked as they pulled up to Dragonguard's private terminal.

"She texted me that she's going be a bit late, so get comfortable," she said. Since it was private, John was surprised how many other people there were inside the terminal, but on closer examination most of them were wearing the Dragonguard logo on either their shirt or hat. One woman in particular had the blue dragon emblazoned on her flight jacket. She shouted some commands to two of her subordinates and yanked a tablet out of the hands of another.

"You're killing me here, Brian! Flight checks should have been complete an hour ago!" she said.

"Well, I'm sorry, but we're carrying a lot more than was originally on the manifest," the young man said, "Like this box... fourteen-alpha." The woman stepped between him and the mystery box in question.

"Brian," she said, "If it's not on the manifest, THEN DON'T TALK ABOUT IT! You see this box? No you don't! It doesn't exist! So it better not be here in thirty seconds, understand?" She shoved the tablet into his hands and spotted John and Sama.

"Morning, Sammie," she said.

"Hi, Kristen," Sama replied, "They've all signed NDA's right?"

"That was the first thing I checked this morning, don't worry," she said, "Although speaking of an NDA, who's this?"

"Hi, I'm Lieutenant John Doe," he said, "Emura offered me a job."

"Lemme guess, you're tagging along for the shindig in Arizona, huh?" she asked with a salute, "Ensign Kristen Blake, I fly that bird when the boss isn't flying herself."

"I didn't know she was a pilot," he said while Kristen led the way onto the tarmac.

"Never said she was," Kristen said, "What branch were you, John?"

"Army Airborne," he said, "What about you? Navy?"

"Coast Guard," she said and he couldn't help but snicker.

"Yeah yeah yeah. Laugh it up," she said. A moment later two men walked out of the terminal and approached the plane. One of them was in a suit, the other wore combat fatigues and a tee-shirt, and both of them had longswords strapped to their back. John did a double take and stared in disbelief then Sama ran up to the smartly dressed one and they kissed in the rain. John was bit disappointed to see that she was spoken for, but the feeling was short-lived.

"Hey Kristy. How's the cockpit treatin' ya'?" the other man said in a thick Texan

"Thanks for the casual sexism, jarhead," Kristen said with a full-body eye roll.

"Grow a pair," he said.

"If I asked the boss to give me a pair, I bet they'd be bigger than yours!" she laughed as she walked up the boarding ramp.

"That was... awkward," John said.

"Ah, that's just the two of us shootin' shit," he said, "You must be the new knight. I'm Clancy."

"John," he said shaking his hand, "And I'm not a knight. Yet. Emura told me to observe one of your missions first. Something wrong?"

"I got a bad feeling about this op," Clancy said, "Come on let's get out of this rain though."

When they were inside the plane, John sniffed and exhaled.

"Smells like a new car in here," he said, "Is that a bar?"

"Help yourself," Clancy said and stuffed his duffel bag and the sword on his back into a wooden locker. John looked up from the drink he was pouring and stared at the weapon until Clancy closed the door.

"Swords huh?" John asked.

"Some things out there just don't care if you shoot at them," Clancy said.

"You said you have a bad feeling about this op," John said, "Anything I should know about? I'd rather not put myself in mortal danger this weekend."

"I have visions sometimes," Clancy said, "Emura calls it a gift, but I'm not too thankful for it."

"What are you expecting?" John asked, "Monsters?"

"Oh absolutely," Clancy said, "But then I always expect monsters."

"What kind might we run into?" John asked.

"Lemme ask you something first," Clancy said, "What was your supernatural awakening?"

Teeth as cold as ice.

Breath like a thousand rotting corpses.

John kept his nerves this time as he remembered his first encounter with the monster, but Clancy noticed him sweating profusely.

"You've seen some things haven't you?" Clancy asked.

"There was a town straddling the border between Alaska and the Yukon," he said, "The entire population was killed under mysterious circumstances. When the Canadian team that went in never reported back, my platoon was sent in right after them. We found the bodies of the locals just left out in the cold, did a couple field autopsies, and discovered they had eaten each other."

"Wendigo," Clancy said with a shiver.

"Yes," John said, "Although I didn't know it at the time. The creature itself showed up that night and slaughtered everyone except for me."

"And let me guess, the government pretended like it never happened!" Kristen said when she joined them in the cabin.

"We all have stories like that," Clancy said, "They aren't always that graphic, but it's one of Emura's requirements along with military experience. For me it was vampires."

"I barely escaped from a thunderbird with my life," Kristen said, "I've never been more terrified while flying an airplane, and I've flown through category-five hurricanes."

"And what about him?" John asked about the man outside with Sama.

"Aaron?" Clancy asked, "He found a genie in the desert."

"I take it the two of them became lovers after that," John said.

"They're married, actually," Clancy said, "She told you did she?"

"I figured it out for myself," John said without elaborating on the events of the morning.

Just then the garage attached to the terminal opened and Emura rode out on a motorcycle that probably cost more than a house. Her face was hidden by her gilded helmet, but there was nobody else it could be with her proportions. She wore a skin-tight, leather motorcycle catsuit which seemed to be her favorite color after gold: midnight blue. It concealed everything and also nothing.

Two of her employees ran out of the terminal to grab her motorcycle, but they were distracted as soon as they were near her. They stared at her leather-clad curves for a second until she snapped her fingers at them and pointed at the plane. They probably stammered an apology and rolled her bike into the cargo bay. Sama kissed her husband goodbye then he followed Emura up the boarding ramp.

"Hello, everyone," Emura said, "Kristen, are we ready to fly?"

"Preflight checks are all good, and everything except your bike is loaded and strapped down," Kristen said looking up from her tablet. Then she blushed and immediately looked back down.

"Perfect," Emura said, "Good to see you, John. Meet my knights. This is Aaron from Mossad, Clancy who served in the Marine Corps, and Kristen flew with the Coast Guard." All three of the men snickered, but Emura was having none of it.

"Ensign Blake is as good as any pilot I've ever known!" she scolded them, "And I bought a bicycle from the Wright brothers."

"Sorry, ma'am," Clancy muttered.

"It's ok, boss," Kristen said, "I get the coast guard jokes all the time and I can handle these lunkheads." Then the women left the cabin while the three men got situated.

"Is she a knight too?" John asked.

"Kristen?" Clancy asked, "Nah, but she is a hella fine pilot."

"Is it just the two of you then? John kept asking, "It can't be."

"There are two others," Aaron explained after he stowed away his own sword in a locker, "Colonel Woods will meet us in Phoenix, and Jean-Paul is already on-site in the desert."

"He shouldn't have gone alone," Clancy said darkly.

"What kind of monsters do you expect to run into?" John asked.

"Well, predatory fey are pretty ubiquitous," Aaron said, "So are elementals and nature spirits, but the region is especially-"

"Skinwalkers, to cut to the chase," Clancy interjected, "You survived a wendigo, so you already have a pretty good idea of what they're like."

"Fuck," John cursed.

Soon the boarding ramp closed and they taxi'd to the runway. Everyone except Emura took a seat in the cockpit. She just stood there completely unaffected by any movement from the plane. Even when they shot down the runway and took off she wasn't even phased.

"I'm going to go change," she said, "You kids behave." All four of them watched her leather-clad butt as she left the room, even Kristen who was flying the plane.

Clancy pantomimed fondling that ass to which Kristen replied, "I know right! Oh my God! I wanna be her so bad!" She noticeably stopped herself from touching her pussy through her pants and her face had turned bright pink.

"You know that body of hers ain't real," Clancy said.

"Yeah and I don't even care!" Kristen said, "What I would give to be that smart and sexy and to do magic. I can only dream of being that good in bed."

"I wanna push her over that bike of hers and yank her leather pants down to her ankles!" Clancy said.

"You're all very... forward about your boss," John said incredulously.

"Are we making you uncomfortable?" Kristen asked.

"Just a little," he said then crossed his legs to hide his own erection.

Eventually they reached cruising altitude and Kristen said they were free to leave their seats. John was still excited to be on a private plane for the first time and carefully left the cockpit by balancing against the wall for support.

He found Emura at the bar sipping a margarita wearing almost the same outfit as when they first met, an impossibly tight blue blouse that did more to accentuate her boobs than cover them, and an equally tight skirt. Since her body wasn't real, he was curious if she actually wore real clothes or just changed her appearance magically? She wore lingerie when they had had sex, but was it real?

When she smiled at them in greeting it was almost as hypnotic as her golden eyes. John made sure to look away while wondering what the hell was up with those eyes of hers.

"Settle in, gentlemen," she said raising her glass. Suddenly a glass of whiskey with ice appeared in John's hand. The two knights also had glasses of **** which weren't there a moment ago and all four of them clinked their drinks together.