Having lived in a sprawling thirty acre compound for our whole lives we had thoroughly traversed the grounds several times over. Generations of Sunders lived in the compound, though some chose to keep lives outside the fold, so it was pretty well staffed , but thirty acres is a big area, and naturally some of the grounds had gone unmolested by the majority of the family up till we came along to stake our claim. The spot Ali and I usually spent our time lazing about in was a quiet little glade in the middle of the forest on the western side of the estate. There was a cliff off the back of the main house (so no one could mount a rear assault) and butting up against the base of it, hidden by trees and bushes, was a small, clear, spring.

It was almost idyllic really, the crystal water, the small cave, with entrance hidden behind an outcropping and half submerged, the way the sun lanced down from the small gap in the trees to sparkle off the peaceful water. The first thing I’d done on finding it was show Ali, she had been absolutely ecstatic. Back then we were just kids, with no need for sarcasm or subterfuge, and that bright honest smile from my best friend had warmed my heart. This had been our place ever since, and we had an unspoken agreement to never bring another person here as long as we lived.

Ali was sitting on a rock, reading an old beat up copy of Blood War by Robert Weinberg a favorite of both of ours, in a pair of old jean shorts and a beat up yellow tank top. Her platinum blonde hair was up in a ponytail, and she had an expression of lazy contentment on her pretty face. I stood there for a minute watching her read before I cleared my throat. Her blue eyes remained locked on the page “Yes creeper, I knew you were there, I’m busy, go away.”

I chuckled at that and shucked off my jacket, laying it on the ground before laying down on top of it myself. “It’s not creepy if it’s training. I wanted to see if you let your skills get dull. Noticing that you aren’t wearing a bra is just a happy accident.” I grinned mischievously up through the hole in the tree canopy, not needing to look at her face to see the eye roll. Ali and I had known each other since childhood, if she was going to flip out every time I mentioned her tits she’d have killed me by now.

“Yeah, well finding comfortable ones big enough is a pain in the ass, the only place I’ve found is Victoria Secret and they’re expensive, I’m not wasting the few that I have wearing them to read around the house. Besides, its not like its cold out. I’m not sporting high beams here.” I’d heard the diatribe about not being able to find comfortable bras for her DDDs more times than I could count, usually followed by complaints about back pain. It was her go to excuse for making me carry everything whenever there were bodies or pieces of furniture to be moved. “If you’re going to stare at them, the least you can do is help me deal with the consequences.”

As much as I grumbled about it, she did have a point, she might be my best friend, but I wasn’t gay. I definitely did my share of staring. It wasn’t a longing, romantic thing; she just had a really nice rack. Besides, its not like I hadn’t caught her looking when I turned around, sexy is sexy, regardless of gender. “Fair point, but that tank top is on its last legs, you’re about one deep breath away from hulking your way into a girls gone wild video. Not that I’m opposed, but we have a job to discuss, and somehow I think you topless might be a bit distracting.”

I was joking of course. She wouldn’t let that happen. That was the big line we didn’t cross. We would joke and flirt, sometimes more than might be appropriate, but at the end of the day she was engaged to my brother, and we were both too genuinely attracted to each other to be around the other naked. It wasn’t really something we’d discussed of course, but having gone nearly twenty years around each other while managing to avoid seeing each other bare assed was not an accident. We were young and stupid and hormonal, not to mention both gorgeous. Besides, it had been a taboo between us for such a long time, nudity would be the straw that broke the beast with two backs.

That was part of the reason I was carefully looking up instead of at her. The tank top really was flimsy. I could sense the second eye roll as easily as the first “This is reality, perv, not porn. Women don’t spontaneously explode from their clothing. But trying to explain to you the differences between real life and cheesy erotica is an ongoing battle I’ve been engaged in for years, so lets backburner that for now and you can tell me about this job. You seem way too happy about it. Do I have to do something slutty?”

I cracked up at her paraphrasing a favorite show of ours, and replied in kind “I’m not that happy.” That got a silvery giggle in return “But seriously, this job is going to be fun. Dad’s sending us on a long term deep cover mission to a university they think has ties to the infernal community. You know how rare it is for us to learn anything about how they work. It’s observe and report only, we aren’t going to have to kill anyone, and we have a full stipend. We’re covered as spoiled rich kids, so we get to crash in one of the nicer safe houses too. Its basically a four year paid vacation.”

I finally looked over to study her face and smiled. Her excited grin matched the feeling in my own chest. A four year assignment was a pretty big thing. That long away from the family could really dull your skills so it required a lot of trust, not to mention the possibility of going native. I had no doubt that the reason for the missions duration was the possibility we might find out how the hell infernals actually learned their powers. Understanding them better would be a huge help in taking down any rogues we ran into down the line.

But being important didn’t change the fact that this whole thing was going to be great. No combat responsibilities meant we didn’t have to make regular reports, just a check in once a month, that was basically four years unsupervised with nearly unlimited funds. The party possibilities could not be overstated. Contrary to the impression you might’ve gotten Ali is not a nun. She likes guys as much as I like girls, engaged or not, shes MY best friend, I might not sleep with her because of my brother (it wasn’t because I was scared to complicate things, no matter what Alex said) but I was still the greatest wingman who had ever wung. Besides, the engagement is a political thing, so as far as I’m concerned she should enjoy her life before she has to give it up.

Apparently she was having similar thoughts, or she was just super excited about being away her duties as a foster with the family. I always felt bad for Ali, as a foster she represents the entire Tierney family, and as such has to be on her best behavior at all times. We made sure she still had fun, because no one parties like a Sunder. Well, no one parties like Alex and I, and my twin sister Erin was a blast when she was around. In any case the blooming smile on her face made perfect sense, she had essentially been given a new lease on life, or at least a loan extension. Four year mission meant four years of not getting married. Dad must have been in an amazing mood.

As if reading my mind, her eyes narrowed in suspicion “What exactly did we do to warrant such a fun assignment? The old man isn’t in the habit of handing out cherry gigs like this. Especially not to the foster that’s supposed to cement the political alliance between Tierney and Sunder.” Honestly that particular aspect of things was a bit off. I tried not to worry about it since…y’know, gift horse, mouth, but it was a decent question. I just shrugged, sharing her worried frown for a moment before my infectious good mood from earlier caught back up to her “Well, either way, a reprieve is pretty exciting. When do we leave?”

I flicked back down to the folder to read up on the details again “Looks like our tickets have us out at…ugh God, eight A.M tomorrow morning. I forgot there even was one of those during the day. Eight o clock should be after-dark hours only. I’m morally opposed to this whole ‘morning’ concept. As far as I’m concerned the hours between sun up and noon are best slept through and not even acknowledged. Honestly the sun should consider itself lucky I deign to honor it with my presence. If I could get away with sleeping twelve hours a day I would just give the whole ‘daylight’ thing a hard pass.”

Ali snorted out a laugh “You’ve mentioned something to that effect once or twice. An hour. Per day. For most of our lives. I don’t know how you manage to pull off looking like you fell in an Olympic swimming pool full of white out. If I’d never met you I would swear chalk white skin couldn’t be sexy. You’re so lucky you got your families dark hair because if you were blonde you would’ve been a virgin until the day you died. Luckily you tend to gravitate toward emo girls anyway, so the pale skin and dark hair is kind of a panty dropper.”

I gasped at her insinuation “That is a vicious lie! I do not prefer emo girls! I like pale dark haired women sure, but I like tiny blondes too. I’m usually not into redheads, but theres a few of them I find attractive. Besides, you never shut about my ‘constant leering’, pot and kettle by the way, so I clearly don’t only like emo girls, since your platinum blonde Valkyrie looking ass is sporting a tan like a cast member from Baywatch.”

She rolled her eyes “I obviously don’t count. I’m walking sex. I’ve got a rack like a bespoke tailor and an ass that would make Aphrodite blush. You’d have to be dead or gay not to want some of this.” She gestured grandly to her body, which admittedly was a fucking work of art. In all honesty Ali wasn’t actually that vain. She only talked like that to me because she knew that between friendship and flirting I would always give her a nice ego stroke. She wasn’t really shy, she worked hard on her body, and as with the rest of us was pretty confident of her physical appeal (something about the combination of hardcore physical conditioning and a lack of fear of danger had that effect) but she did have the occasional bout of self consciousness.

I rolled my eyes “Yes dear, you’re Viagra on two legs, but my point stands, I don’t exclusively have sex with emo girls.” I crinkled my brow as I saw her cheeks actually flush a little bit, but figured it was obviously a trick of the light. I would occasionally catch the odd flush like that from her, but Ali hadn’t been the type to blush for years. I knew that none of the harmless flirting we did really affected her like that. I had made the mistake of asking her once the first time I noticed her flushing and the tongue lashing has been horrible. If I’d had the ego problems she’d accused me of before that conversation she’d effectively taken care of them that day. The girl had a vicious mouth on her.

I climbed to my feet, having delivered my message and sensing Ali wasn’t quite done with her alone time. Normally I probably would’ve stuck around anyway and made a general nuisance of myself, but I was pretty wiped out from everything that had happened. I walked over and pulled her into a hug, kissing her gently on top of her head. “ Anyway, I can tell I’m killing your peaceful vibe now, and I’m still bushed from this job, I’m gonna hit the sack, I’ll fill you in on the details on the plane. Don’t worry, this job is going to be amazing. I cant wait.” And leaving her to her thoughts I headed to my bed, and as many hours as I could manage of sweet oblivion.