Soul Survivor

by Misty Evans

  Rife touched her, trying to summon her back away from the edge, but she turned and faced the ocean on her knees. “Here,” she said to him. “I want us joined here.”

  His energy spiked liked the lightning, electrifying her. What she was demanding—making love on the pointed tip of Starved Rock—scared him, she guessed, just like it had scared Kai in the past. The risk was too high, especially in the dark, on the wet, slippery rocks, with powerful quakes shaking the ground. She was sure he wouldn’t do it, wouldn’t take that risk…

  Keva jerked when he slid up against her back, his strong, powerful body framing hers. He swept her hair off one shoulder, before cupping her breasts, his warm lips trailing down her neck and over her shoulder. “Here, Chieftess, just like you have always wanted.”

  How did Rife know this was what she’d wanted from Kai? She had to be delusional, or maybe, somehow Rife had read her mind and wanted to please her. Either way, she welcomed his dominant energy, taking it deep inside her, as she kicked off her shoes and removed her pants, his hands helping her.

  He hesitated only a moment when he realized she wasn’t wearing underwear. A grin tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Do you always go commando when you fight the bad guys?”

  “I never got used to underwear,” she answered, stripping his shirt down his arms and casting it aside. “Or bras.”

  Soon they were both naked on Starved Rock, and once again, passion took over. There was nothing slow or casual about the way Rife faced her toward the ocean and bent her forward onto her hands and knees. Her throat pulsed in warning, but Keva welcomed the sense of danger.

  He worked her skillfully with his fingers and soon she rocked against him, desperate to get him inside her. As her momentum built, one of his hands gently gripped the back of her neck. His thumb pressed her head sideways as he trailed his tongue down the slope, and just before he reached her shoulder, he stopped and breathed on her skin. She quivered under him and her thighs clenched in desperate need.

  “Are you ready for me, Chieftess?”

  “Rife, please,” she whispered, rearing her hips in affirmation.

  He pushed at her entrance. The fire consuming her roared upward, and she pushed back, forcing him to breach it.

  His body vibrated against hers as he began sliding in and out with a rhythm Keva knew and loved. The world around her dissolved. Only the sensations Rife created existed.

  As her orgasm dared to sweep over her before she was ready, she whimpered. So many years had passed since Kai had touched her, filled her with his power and energy. And now Rife’s energy did the same. She didn’t want it to be over so soon, but couldn’t hold back any longer.

  At the moment she cried out, Rife bit her on the spot he’d breathed on earlier. Primal energy raced from his teeth through her body and tightened her hold on the jagged point of Starved Rock. Pleasure skated through her, racing and jumping as her orgasm exploded in a ball of fire.

  As he released his tight grip, her upper body became too heavy for her to hold up. She laid her head on the wet ground as Rife followed her orgasm with his own.

  Keva listened to the ocean waves below and Rife’s ragged breathing above and her heart filled with love. Closing her eyes, she tuned in to the sound of her ragged heartbeat and marked the moment in her soul.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  She woke to birdsong. Well past sunrise, light fog drifted over Starved Rock, revealing patches of blue sky here and there. Deep sleep had left her feeling refreshed, and she stretched, automatically reaching for Rife. Their early morning hours shared under the moon had been filled with wild passion and then tender loving.

  The blanket held his heat, but he was gone.

  Reality stabbed at her. Blinking her eyes, she sat up and combed her hair with her fingers. A cool breeze blew wisps of it around her face and she forced them back behind her ears. The fire had long since died out, and she shivered under the blanket. Where had Rife gone? And why?

  Probably went down the mountain to relieve himself.

  Rising in the cool air, she dressed quickly, preparing for her morning Sun Ritual to welcome the day. Then she took the last of the herbs by the fire pit, along with the water bottle, to the point of Starved Rock.

  She knelt to pay homage to the sun, even as memories of Rife’s hands on her body, his teeth biting her neck, filled her mind. Closing her eyes, she forced the fresh memories aside and focused on her sun prayer. As she poured the last of the water from the bottle as an offering, her stomach growled.

  Standing, she broke the herb stems into pieces and sent a handful flying in each of the four directions. She followed this with a bow and a chant. What this day would bring saddened her, yet she refused to be anything but happy about spending the past night with Rife. Those memories would forever give her hope and a renewed sense of purpose. Most of all, she had held love in her soul again. Few women ever met their soul mates. Keva had found hers, twice.

  Smiling, she walked back to the fire pit expecting to find Rife there. His continued absence sent a warning to her brain.

  “Rife?” she called to him with her mind. Seconds ticked by as she waited for his reply. The cool breeze seemed to turn her stomach to ice as she continued to hear nothing. She jerked on her windbreaker. Over the rustle, she heard a muffled cough. Whipping around, she gathered her backpack and called, “Rife?”

  As her echo died away, his voice came from the trail on the side of the rocky outcropping. “Over here.”

  Apprehension dried her throat. She ran to look over the backside of the rocks and down the trail. Rife’s energy was no stronger than his voice.

  He was half lying against a large boulder, one hand gripping his stomach. His face was pale and sweat dotted his forehead.

  The previous night’s storm had created huge divots in the trail, making it even more hazardous to travel than the previous day. Keva, heart in her throat, skidded down the trail to his side. “What’s the matter? What happened?”

  Rife shook his head, sucking in sharp breaths. “I think it’s the poison. My stomach’s killing me again.”

  Oh, no. She laid her hands over his and closed her eyes. He was burning up and she sensed poison in his system, but not the same kind as the night before. This poison was in his blood.

  The wolf bite. It was infected.

  Sending him healing light, she heard his breathing grow more even.

  “That’s better,” he said, but his voice was still hoarse.

  Keva put an arm under his armpit and helped him stand. “The wolf that bit you last night, was it a normal wolf, or something else? Like Enann?”

  Rife paled even more. “Shit, I don’t know. Could’ve been. It was white.”

  “That was Enann. Even if it was a plain old dog bite, you’re too weak to fight off the infection after the bout with the poison. We have to get you back to the twenty-first century and let a real doctor heal you.”

  With him leaning on her, the climb up the mountain was arduous and took far longer than Keva wanted. By the time she helped Rife lie down on the blanket by the fire pit, he was sweating profusely, had skinned his knee through his jeans, and had a nasty gash on his cheek Keva wasn’t even sure how he got.

  She examined the puncture wounds. They were bright red welts against his skin. Her stomach balled tight with worry. She had no water, no herbs left and nothing to get the fire started again. Going down the trail, searching for the necessities she needed and getting back might take an hour or more. She couldn’t risk leaving Rife alone, and she couldn’t risk not getting what she needed to send him back to the future.

  Great Mother, what am I going to do?

  Just like the night before, Keva heard a whisper on the wind. The ancient vibration was more of an impression than an actual voice.

  Thunderbird.

  Of course, the amulet. Keva fumbled in the pocket of her windbreaker and found the piece of black obsidian. Pulling it out, she almost laughed with relief. She stroked the po
lished black surface of Thunderbird’s stomach and felt it warm under her touch. If Enann could use the amulet’s power to travel through time, so could she.

  As she moved to cradle Rife’s upper body against hers, she explained to him what she was going to do. “I need you to hear your grandfather’s voice calling your name and see this same spot in the future. The fire is lit and Chee is there. Keep that image in your mind and listen for his call. Can you do that?”

  Gripping her hand and squeezing, Rife nodded his understanding. “Just…hurry.”

  Her arms around his chest, Keva enclosed the amulet with both her hands, forming a steeple as if she were praying. Closing her eyes, she put all her energy, mental, emotional and physical, into concentrating.

  The image of the same spot in the future bloomed in her mind, just as she’d described it to Rife—the fire pit, the concentric circles, Chee sitting cross-legged calling Rife’s name. It was sunny there, too, with just a bit of fog.

  Wind stirred, touching her face, her hands. Ocean waves crashed below Starved Rock. As she called forth her energy, she also called forth Rife’s. Since she had to transport both of them, it was imperative she entwine their energies together securely.

  When her breathing had slowed, and her mind’s eye had created an illusion so real she could feel the heat of Chee’s fire, she began to chant. First the seasons prayer she’d learned as a girl, only this time in the correct order. Over and over she said the spell until it became a song, floating around her like a spirit. Just like in her Pathwalks, her body shimmered and shifted, and she added a new chant, one that came from deep within her instinctual shamanic magic. “Powers of the Earth and air, release us from this when and where. Powers of water and fire, bring us to the time and place I desire.”

  A crack of thunder split the air and Keva’s body jerked. Rife’s body tried to break free, but she tightened her arms around him, the amulet still cradled in her hands. Her lungs collapsed as the air was sucked out of them and mentally, she cried out in pain. Wind lifted them and twirled them as if they were in the funnel of her old prophetic dreams.

  Rife’s energy leapt as if consuming the sudden wealth of air. The flames tattooed on Keva’s skin burned as fire appeared to engulf them.

  This isn’t right, Keva’s mind screamed.

  Where was the floating sensation she’d experienced before? Why had the energy around them burst into flames? Had Enann’s curse somehow followed her? Was it the Thunderbird taking her and Rife’s lives for her killing Enann?

  Rife’s mind cried out to her, “Keva.”

  Convinced she was about to die, Keva answered with her heart. “I love you.”

  Just as she was sure she and Rife would self-combust, their bodies jerked in unison again, falling through nothingness and landing hard on the ground.

  “Well, it’s about time.” Chee stood up on the other side of the fire from where they landed and brushed off his pant legs. He put his hands on his belt and arched his back in a stretch. “My arthritis is killing me.”

  Sweet, fresh air filled Keva’s throat and lungs. She had landed on top of Rife and now looked down into his face. His eyes were closed and he wasn’t breathing.

  “Rife.” She struggled to sit up, straddling him, her limbs weak and shaky from the time travel and her drain of energy.

  He didn’t respond, didn’t even move.

  “Rife!” She shook his shoulders hard but still got no response. “Oh, Great Mother, please don’t be dead.”

  Chee was beside her in an instant. “Wake up, Rife.” He slapped Rife’s face. “After all this, you’re not going to die on me, kid. Now, wake up, dammit.”

  Rife’s body shivered and his mouth opened. He gulped air and coughed. Keva slid off his stomach and let out the breath she’d been holding, every muscle in her body trembling with effort and fear.

  “He’s been poisoned,” she told Chee. “Enann forced him to drink a reddish liquid that had a metallic taste. I tried to reverse the effects and it worked for awhile, but he’s also suffering from an infected wolf bite. He’s got a fever. A high one. We need to get him to a hospital.”

  With her so weak and Chee so old, carrying Rife’s dead weight down the mountainside was grueling. Their footing slipped too many times. They lost their balance too many times. They banged Rife around too many times.

  But neither gave up. They both fought to save the man they loved, getting him into Chee’s police car as quickly as possible.

  As Chee sped south to the nearest clinic with his police lights on and siren blaring, Keva sat in the back seat with Rife’s head in her lap. Instead of laying her hands on his stomach or his leg, though, she kept them on his heart. Still dizzy from the time travel and barely able to keep herself upright, she willed the last of her energy to pour over him.

  White light wisped around in her chest and in her mind, and she tried to send all of it to Rife’s heart. She had to protect it from the poison, from the infection. She had to keep him alive and breathing until the doctors could take over.

  Several times, she fell asleep or lost consciousness, but the car’s wheels striking a pothole or swerving kept waking her. She chided herself and tried to remain awake, remain conscious to keep helping Rife.

  By the time they finally stopped at the clinic, though, Keva’s soul had detached from her body. Floating above it all, she watched James Chee open the back door of his squad car to find her limp body bent over Rife’s as if protecting him.

  Chapter Thirty

  Keva’s soul slammed back into her body with the force of a sledge hammer. Someone was hammering on her chest, forcing air in and out of her lungs. Voices, urgent and demanding, called out around her. A loud beeping came from her left and there was an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth.

  “She’s back,” a male voice said right above her.

  The pounding on her chest stopped and several quiet cheers went up. Keva struggled to open her eyes—one eye, anyway, since the other was still swollen shut—and saw a nurse who’d cared for her two days ago checking the beeping monitor. “Normal sinus rhythm. BP, one-ten over seventy-five.” She glanced down, saw Keva was awake. “Welcome back,” she said, giving Keva a wide, relieved smile. She made the sign of the cross over her chest. “Again.”

  A reflexive “thank you” rose to Keva’s lips, but the oxygen mask muffled the words. The nurse patted her arm, removed the mask, and told her not to talk, to conserve her energy. “You’ve just been through quite an ordeal. Take it easy.”

  Keva’s chest hurt and her mind swam in a thick fog, trying to make sense of what was going on. She was so tired and her muscles ached. Her one good eye closed and she started to slip back into sleep, but just as the noise around her began to subside, an image of Rife flashed in her mind. Her heart jumped erratically and the beeping on the monitor did the same. Forcing her eye open, she struggled to sit up, the room seeming to dip at her sudden movements. When the nurse tried to calm her and make her lay down again, Keva resisted. Her voice came out hoarse. “Rife. Where’s Rife?”

  “He’s next door,” the nurse said, pressing on one of Keva’s shoulders to restrain her. “There’s a team of doctors working on him. He’s in the best of hands.”

  Another nurse had joined the first one on Keva’s other side. Her mouth was drawn down in an irritated frown. “Don’t you worry about him. We almost lost you. You just worry about you.”

  Flipping back the bed sheets encasing her body, she ignored them and tried to climb off the bed. Both nurses grabbed her arms and forced her to lie back down. Weak and disoriented, she nevertheless continued to grapple with them until she heard a familiar voice at the end of her bed.

  “Keva, listen to the nurses.” James Chee looked as tired as she felt. “You can’t help Rife now. It’s up to the doctors.”

  She gripped the bedrails, needing something to ground her and stop the room from fuzzing in and out of her vision. “Tell me he’s going to make it.”

  Chee
motioned the nurse on Keva’s right out of the way and took her spot next to the bed, wrapping one of his big hands around Keva’s much smaller one. He gave it a squeeze. “Of course he’s going to make it, thanks to you.”

  Keva fought against the tiredness sweeping her body, but a few minutes later, with Chee there making sure she didn’t climb out of bed to go find Rife, she finally succumbed to the exhaustion. When she woke, the room was dark and Chee was gone.

  While her limbs seemed to weigh a hundred pounds each and her chest still hurt from the CPR, her brain was free of fog and her vision clear. The heart monitor was detached and she rubbed the spot over her chest, wondering if the doctor and nurses had truly brought her back to life or if her immortality had. Her eye was still swollen shut and her body throbbed in time with her pulse. Was she healing or not?

  Struggling against the still-lingering fatigue, she got out of bed, unhooked the IV and dressed herself. The process took far longer than it should have, because she had to stop every few minutes and rest. Once dressed, she left the room to hunt for Rife. She needed to see with her own eyes—her one good eye, anyway—that he was okay.

  He was in the room next to hers, just like the nurse had said. Soft light flickered from a muted TV in the corner, revealing a sleeping Chee in a chair next to Rife’s bed. Rife was also sleeping, his handsome face pale underneath his dark hair. An IV bag dripped medicine into the line running to his arm and a small monitor over the head of the bed tracked his heart rate and blood pressure.

  All of Keva’s instincts called for her to climb into bed next to him and protect him.

  Instead, she walked over to the bed, touched his face, and laid her head down on his chest. She placed her ear next to the monitor lead and listened to the strong beating of his heart. The sound filled her with hope.