by Smith, T. L.
“Okay. Does it… hurt?”
“No. It’s a bit warm.” I swung my legs off the bed and stood up. “Maybe a shower will make it go away. I need one anyway.”
“Shower. Joey got us some clothes. Then we talk.”
My backpack was on the chair next to the bed. I fished around and found the camera, handing it to Casey. “I will, but look at the evidence. It’s all in here, or most of it. They’re linked to that truckload of bodies, but I didn’t get that recorded.” I circled around him to get to the bathroom, trying not to touch him. “I’m sorry you had to find out about… whatever this is, this way. Just give me a few minutes. Please.”
“Din’ah!” He called me by my real name as I turned away.
“I know, this isn’t what you expected. I’ll understand if you can’t… do this.”
He grabbed my arm and swung me back to face him. “Are you expecting me to run?”
I couldn’t look at him, not after seeing his expression when I woke up.
“Din’ah. I’m not going anywhere.” He pulled me into his arms, holding me.
I shivered, despite the heat inside my body. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but it’s going to be bad. I don’t want to lose you, too.”
“You won’t.” He caught my face and forced me to look up at him. “I promise.” He gave me a kiss, a deep kiss. The kind of kiss that sent a flutter out from my insides, spreading down to make my knees weak. He picked that moment to let go, giving me a wicked little grin. “Go get your shower.”
I headed to the little bathroom. Real little. There wasn’t room for a tub, but I didn’t need one. I stripped off my BDU pants, the pant leg ripped and bloody. Wait… I’d been wounded. My clothes proved it, but all there was on my leg was dried blood and a raw strip of reddened flesh, instead of an open wound.
I poked at it. It stung, almost as bad as an open wound might. But it wasn’t open anymore.
Where I poked, my flesh glowed brighter. Was aggravating the wound sending more energy to the area? “Okay. I guess that’s a benefit.”
I stepped into a cold shower and turned it to scalding, but lukewarm was the best I got. It took a while, with the irregular sprinkling of water, to wash the sweat and dirt off. Just as I was getting ready to reach out for the cheap hotel shampoo, Casey shoved my favorite brand through the curtain, along with my conditioner.
Silently I thanked Joey for thinking to grab them.
With the trickling water it took twice as long to get my hair washed, about as long as it took to chill me to the bone. The glow was gone when I opened my eyes. I was human again as I stepped out of the shower and wrapped myself in the only towels they provided. Barely dish towels. I reminded myself… cheap hotel.
In the mirror I could see my eyes were puffy. I’d cried when Casey found me and in my dream as Lutz tried to comfort me. I never cry. Between my brothers and the Marines, I’d learned not to cry, no matter how bad things got. But I’d passed ‘no matter how bad’ by miles, so I didn’t chide myself for letting go.
Stepping out of the bathroom, Casey was on the phone. “Yes, sir. I appreciate this. With this current case I can’t be there for a day or two.” A moment of silence. “Yeah, her partner will enjoy it and maybe learn a little more about the locals. Never hurts, right?” He nodded, holding a finger to his lips when he saw me. “Great. Thank you.” He hung up.
“Who were you talking to?”
“Your CO. You and Lutz are officially off duty for the next week in observance of a religious ceremony you’ve been ordered to attend.” He removed his utility belt and ripped open the Velcro straps of his boots, kicking them off.
“Really? Where’d you come up with that story?”
“Daniel.”
“You called my commander, at this hour?”
“No, I called the duty officer, who just happened to be the CO taking the shift.”
“You told him Lutz was going to a religious ceremony with me. He’s dead. That’s hard to fake, you know.”
“We need time and refusing you religious time off is discriminatory.” Casey stripped off his shirt and Kevlar, hanging them over the back of a chair. “He didn’t ask anything more than how many days you needed.”
“Seriously, out of the blue I start claiming religious privileges?”
“I told them there was some upheaval in the Nation and because of your family’s ranking, your presence was demanded. Something to do with the NCT-whatever. When you start throwing religion and as string of government agencies around, people prefer to cooperate then get drawn into it.”
He went to the table, sorting through several grocery bags. “You need to eat something. Frank went to the quick mart down on the corner.”
Hunger hadn’t even vaguely crossed my mind. I looked over the array. A couple microwave burritos, a reasonably fresh looking ham sandwich, a hoagie, cheese sticks, bags of chips, sodas and a handful of mixed condiments. A mini-buffet of junk food. I took the sandwich, chips and a soda, then crawled onto the bed.
“Really!” Casey rolled his eyes at me, taking the hoagie and grabbing a handful of the packets. “We have a table.”
“If I sit down I might not get up again.”
“I’d have taken care of that.” He moved my backpack off the arm chair and sat down, dropping the packets on the nightstand. “You look better. Your leg is… healing.”
“Yeah, go figure.” I poked it gently, getting nothing of the glow this time. I turned my arm a bit as I reached for mustard. “Back to normal, I guess. I think it happens when I get emotional. Twice it was in dreams.”
“And the other times?”
“When I saw Lutz at the bottom…” I took a breath, making sure I didn’t lose it again. “…at the bottom of the cliff. I was upset and scared, and angry. Then the coyotes started to show up. They protected him.”
I shook my head as those minutes replayed in my head. “It wasn’t just the coyotes. It sounds crazy to say it out loud, but the animal Spirits came out to protect me too. I had to crawl into a hole to hide, only to find out it was a nest full of rattlers. They left me alone, but threatened the men. Then the coyotes...”
Using the food as a moment to remember it all, I took a bite of my sandwich, holding a finger up as I chewed. A few chips made it taste better. Another bite and drink. “I didn’t glow with the snakes. Not until the coyotes came out. I was afraid they’d attack him and that’s when it happened. They all laid down around him and started to… to sing.”
I choked up again. “Not howling. It was so mournful. The pack leader was looking right at me and I was glowing again. He was telling me they’d protect him until I returned. Then another pack showed up to lead me down the mountain. When the enemy helicopter came looking for me, they used their bodies to hide me.”
Casey was squinting.
“I know it sounds insane, but that’s what happened.”
He rolled his eyes away from me. “If I hadn’t seen you light up like a nuclear reactor, I’d be checking you into the loony bin.”
“Did you look at the video?” I looked around and saw the camera next to the phones. “That’s crazy. It’s monsters and zombies right out of some damned D-rated movie.”
“I haven’t watched it yet. It will wait until we download it and show it to everyone.”
He lingered through a bite of his sandwich, still not looking at me.
“Is something wrong? Other than everything?”
“No...” He wrapped up what was left of his sandwich and put it on the nightstand. He leaned forward, his elbows propped on his knees, looking at his hands. “Except for something your brothers said.”
“They were teasing. You know they only do that because they like you.”
“Not that. About us.” Closing my eyes I replayed those few minutes. It hit me. He lifted his eyes to meet mine. “Is it even possible now for us to have a future together?”
“Oh, Casey…” I crawled across the bed, going to him. His arms
wrapped around me as I climbed onto his lap. “It has to be.”
CHAPTER
17
His arms held me tight, his face pressed against my neck. “Whatever’s happening, I don’t want to lose you.”
I combed my fingers through his hair. “You won’t. And when this is done…” I pulled my shoulders back enough to look up at him. His dark brown eyes were so clear, so open, pulling me into them. “…I’m going to marry you.”
His hands caught my face. “I already knew it. The first day you came marching up to my truck, I said, ‘that’s her. I’m going to marry her’. Nothing’s going to stop me. Not even some freaky monster out to destroy the world.” He pulled my face to his, kissing me as his arms grabbed me up. I clung to his neck as he took the two steps to the bed. He lowered me down, still kissing me as he knelt over me. I tugged at his t-shirt as he got his pants off.
My heart thudded as his body crushed down on mine. The passion of the night before was nothing compared to the look in his eyes now. I clutched at the sheets as he pushed deep inside me, all at once. I let out a cry and he thrust deeper. My whole body rose to meet his and he groaned as my insides tightened around him, but he didn’t stop. Not even as an orgasm tore through me.
He leaned over me, shifting our bodies, but only so he could kiss me. His hands released my hips, not that it mattered with my legs clamped around him. His fingers untangled mine from the sheets, intertwining them with his.
Our mouths muffled the groans from both of us. When he finally reached his own orgasm, I’d had at least three. He rested on his elbows, our bodies still one as he brushed a strand of hair from my face. “You’re glowing.”
I laughed. “Thanks.”
“No, babe, you’re glowing again.” He reached up over the bed and turned off the light.
The room went dark, except around me. “Oh, great.” Breathing was still too raspy to say anything more.
“Well, you’re not dreaming and no one’s threatening you, so I’m glad to see good emotions inspire this look too.” He smirked.
“Guess so.” I managed a smile and a little squirm of my hips.
“Stop!” He pinned me down again. He kissed my neck right below my ear. “You go moving around and I won’t be able to help myself.”
“Not a persuasive argument.”
Casey’s fingers stroked my cheek. “I shouldn’t have been so rough. I was… possessed.” His lips returned to that spot on my neck. “You’re finally mine, heart and soul.”
“And Spirit, apparently.”
We clung to each other until our bodies were calm again, only shifting around to let me breathe. Casey ran his fingers along my leg where I had it laced with his. “You’re almost faded out again.”
“When this is over, you can light me up all you want.” I nestled my head into his shoulder. “I’m tired… and tomorrow…”
“Tomorrow we have to figure out what to do next.” He pulled the blanket over us, keeping me in his arms.
I wanted to sleep, but apprehension crept in over the ecstasy. Casey covered my absence. My family would all be here. Lutz gave me his blessing to avenge him. So we were going to hunt down this Maxa’xak. It was our duty, an obligation passed down through the generations. What if we failed? What if we won? What would happen to us?
Maybe Casey had a reason to be afraid. I had serious doubts things would magically return to normal.
The questions kept me from real sleep, only achieving an odd numbness as I drifted on that edge. Not asleep enough to miss the light on the phone as it flickered an advance warning of an incoming call. I nudged Casey as it started to actually ring.
He answered it, sounding as groggy as I felt. “Yeah.” A string of monosyllable responses followed before he hung up. “We’re going to have visitors.” He swung his legs out of bed, pulling on his pants and t-shirt. “So much for you getting some sleep.”
“Let me straighten up a bit.” I crawled out of bed, heading to the bathroom. I’d gone to bed with damp hair and it was tossed and tangled now. I managed to comb it out, braid and tie it off. Casey brought me shorts and a t-shirt, my less than romantic sleepwear.
Someone knocked. Casey peeked out the window, then opened the door. Daniel came in, followed by four more people. I only knew one of them. “Yazzie?”
She stood among the group of Cocopah. “Capt. Castle.” She bowed her head. “We are here to do the bidding of the Star People.”
I looked to Daniel. “They will retrieve your friend. Then take him to their village until this is over.”
“I can’t… we can’t send other people up there.”
“It is better we do this, so the evil Spirit will not know you still exist.” Yazzie stepped forward. “We have valid reasons to be in the mountains, and the means.”
“They have a helicopter.” Daniel nodded to Casey.
“And we have range clearance to retrieve plants necessary for our… rituals.” Yazzie pointed to other men in her group. “We do it all the time, so the enemy will not suspect us.”
“They’ll suspect a missing body.”
Casey shrugged. “It could be played in our favor. The sooner they get there, the less likely they’ll discover there aren’t two bodies.”
“We can make it look like we retrieved two.” Yazzie confidently raised her chin.
“I don’t know…”
“It is necessary. His Spirit is still connected to his body and his body is vulnerable.”
Daniel stepped closer, gazing down at me. “It will give us time and putting your friend into cool storage will mislead investigators on the time of his death.”
We couldn’t leave him out there. Decomp would be rapid once the sun came up and Casey had just reported him as alive and well with the tribe. I had no choice but to agree. Their pilot pulled up a map and I point out the cliffs. He knew the spot and could get the helicopter in close enough. Flying low, the enemy might not even know they were there, until it was too late.
The plan in place, Yazzie assured me again that they knew what they were doing. I told her of the coyotes and to take them a bag of jerky. I got some strange looks from the men, but Yazzie gave me a nod, urging them to leave.
CHAPTER
18
Daniel remained. “You need to gather up your stuff. We’re moving.”
“Where?” I took a step backwards. “Shouldn’t I be keeping a low profile?”
“Relax. We’re not going to the mountains.” Daniel glared at me. “Did you get any sleep?” He didn’t need an answer. Casey was blushing vividly. “We need someplace we can gather without drawing attention.”
“And where’s that? We don’t know how far their reach is. They had someone on base.”
“Maybe, but they can’t be everywhere.” Casey picked up his uniform shirt. “When do we move and to where? I need to swing by the office and check in.”
“You’re going to work?” I clamped my lips together when I heard my voice come out panicked. Definitely not portraying the tough Marine right now.
“I can’t just disappear.” He started buttoning up his shirt. “I’ll go in and set it up with my second to hand the reins over to him. Then I’ll catch up with you. Wherever that is.”
“If they were watching you, then they know you came out into the desert last night to get me. They might have followed us here. Probably have a tracker on your truck.”
Casey gave me a smile I knew well, his patient ‘got it covered, babe’ smile when I was trying to tell him something he already knew. “I dropped my regular truck off at the shop before going on that call yesterday. When I realized you were missing I pulled a random UC truck from the lot to come looking for you.”
“Charles will follow you in and bring you back to us when you’re all clear.” Daniel moved over to the door. “The Cocopah put one of their casino hotels at our disposal. We can hide in plain sight. No one’s going to notice a few dozen more Indians on the reservation.”
“A few do
zen? Last count there’s only seven in the family, Casey makes eight. That doesn’t exactly scream invasion forces.”
Daniel closed his eyes, shaking his head. “Just a babe in the woods, aren’t you, Din’ah.” He looked at me again with that impatience he had when I was a kid. “We are an old people, spread out over the many states. All of us diligently watching for signs and you just blindly stumbled on our prey.”
“Doing my job, on patrol, so there was no ‘stumbling’ involved.” I snapped at him, resenting the stupid kid treatment. “And how would I know anything about all this? I’ve been kept in the dark, always told ‘when the time comes’. If I’d had a clue, maybe I wouldn’t have gone back up there to try to figure things out. Maybe my friend might still…” The rage ignited the thing inside me, burning up through my flesh. I jerked my arms out. “STOP IT!”
I ran to the bath and slammed the door, sliding down the back of it. If I’d known, something, anything, Lutz might be out there helping us plot how to get to these guys. Or he’d be safely on base stuck on desk duty until this was over. And now Casey was involved too. I just promised him forever, but we had to go into some kind of battle with some weird-assed dark Spirit that had been around for thousands of years.
My head ached with all the ugly images. That monster, those innocent illegals, Lutz’ twisted and broken body, even some of the nightmares left over from the Middle East. If myths were true, what was the Great Father’s or Mother’s plan to forever burden the Star People with the task of hunting Maxa’xak? How did I end up in the center of this? Why me?
I ignored the rapping on the door. “Beth? Come out. Your brother is gone.” He knocked again, then stopped, though I could feel him on the other side of the door. He waited a couple minutes, then I heard him again. Through the cheap fiberboard separating us, his voice came through as if his lips were whispering in my ear. “I’d freak out too. It’s a lot for any sane person to deal with. No one can blame you for wanting to run away, but I know you. You don’t run. We’re not runners.”