Sterling was enthralled. “White Painted Woman is the Virgin Mary,” he said. “She was impregnated by lightning, as Mary conceived Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. The voice she heard told her to name the baby Child of the Water. The angel Gabriel told Mary to name her baby Jesus.”
Antonio nodded and smiled.
“Child of the Water is Jesus,” Sterling continued. “Son of Lightning, Son of God. No one told Child of the Water that his father was Lightning, but he knew. No one told Jesus His father was God, but He, too, knew. Child of the Water freed the world of the people-eating monsters. Jesus freed the world of sin.”
“Yes.”
Sterling took a long pull of tula-pah. “Antonio, you told your tribe that the woman and child of the statue were White Painted Woman and Child of the Water, didn’t you?”
“Yes. And I made them believe, too, that the glow of the statue was a sign from White Painted Woman and Child of the Water. I convinced them that your woman, Chimera, is special to the Apache goddess and her child. It was not difficult to do this. The glow of the statue is something the Apache have not seen before, and they did not doubt that the sign was from White Painted Woman and Child of the Water. And since you are Chimera’s man, you will not be harmed either. The children were never in danger. The Apache love children.”
He poured more tula-pah for himself and Sterling. “I have not denied Christianity, my brother. There are some differences between it and the Apache religion, but I cannot ignore the similarities. During times of trouble, I find myself praying the Hail Mary, as Mother Maria Guadalupe taught us to do. The Blessed Virgin is for me White Painted Woman, and I do not believe I insult either of them by praying to them both. Perhaps they are one and the same.”
Sterling watched his friend for a long moment. “You’re happy here among the Apaches?”
“I am Apache,” Antonio said firmly. “I have here what I never had in Mexico—family. I was raised by good people who became, for me, real parents. They live in the underworld now, but they gave me love, two brothers and one sister. I have uncles, aunts, and cousins. I even knew my grandparents. And I have Satcha and Truenito. It is true that he is not the son of my body, but I will raise him as though he were, as my Apache parents did me. And now I have Venus, the daughter of the woman whom I loved. Yes, my brother, I am happy. I worry about the future of the Apache, but I do the wise thing and enjoy what Usen , the Supreme Being, allows me to have now.”tula-
“You’re a lucky man, Antonio. I’m glad for you.”
Antonio watched him carefully and knew Chimera was right about the things she’d said about Sterling. His brother was deeply troubled. “It is a strange thing, this feeling of being filled with satisfaction,” he confessed slyly. “One looks for it, dreams about it. But it not easy to recognize. I am Apache, and yet there are many things inside me that are of the Mexican boy I once was. This used to trouble me. The People have taught me much. But so did Father Tom. I have fought many battles with my people. I am considered a brave warrior. But the sight of one goat can bring me to my knees.”
Sterling burst into laughter. “The cheese.”
Antonio nodded and smiled. “When I was first brought here, I fought all who came near me. I could understand nothing, and I was very afraid. I hated the people who took me away from the only home I knew. I thought they had taken me so I could be a slave for them. I trusted no one. But many moons passed, and I was treated gently. I soon felt the caring and concern of the man and woman to whom I had been given. They gave me a place in their lives and in their hearts, and I came to know a deep sense of belonging. And when I helped with all the work, I felt needed. I began to love the people who adopted me. So you see, the Mexican boy and the Apache man are now one. I am satisfied with this.”
Sterling settled into the hides again. “But if you knew where your real parents were, would you want to know them?”
“They gave me life, but they did not help me to live. They formed my body, but not my heart. What could my parents give me now that I don’t already have?”
Sterling remained silent for a long time. “Brianna, my mother, is in Tucson.”
“The town is less than a week’s ride from here. Do you go to find her?” Antonio asked, still watching Sterling carefully.
Sterling gave a slight nod and wondered why he didn’t experience some kind of thrill at the fact that he was closer to Tucson than ever before.
“You must do what your heart tells you,” Antonio said softly. “But you must also be sure that it is your heart that speaks. The desire you have to find Brianna might not be from your heart at all. It might stem from your mind. And wisdom of mind is weak compared to wisdom of heart. I pray your heart is strong, my brother.”
Sterling stared at the opening in the top of the wickiup. His thoughts drifted to Brianna, and he tried to think of what she looked like. But the only woman he could paint in his mind was one with whiskey eyes. He could think of no woman other than his raven-haired enchantress. “Chimera,” he whispered. He closed his eyes and felt exhaustion overtake him.
Antonio realized the effects of Dee-o-det’s herbs and the tula-pah had put him to sleep. He pulled a blanket over Sterling’s shoulders. “Sleep, man with troubled spirit. Sleep and do not dream of your mother. Dream instead of your woman. It is she, brother of my childhood, who is already giving you that which you have been seeking. May Usen , Supreme Being of the Apache, and Yahweh, God of Abraham, open your heart to this truth.”
“Sterling, get back in bed!” Chimera shouted when she saw him emerging from his wickiup.
“No. I’ve been in that damn hut for fourteen days, and I’ve been fed bucketfuls of that obnoxious medicine Doctor Dee-o-det keeps bringing. Neither one of my knife wounds shows signs of infection.”
“But your head—”
“Still aches, but with the pain of boredom.” He walked into the fresh air of the cool night and saw Dee-o-det and several other di-yins singing and chanting around a small fire that danced eerily in the thick darkness. He looped his arm protectively around Chimera’s waist. “Antonio, I thought you said your people weren’t suspicious of Chimera anymore.”
“They do not fear her,” Antonio responded gravely. “But there is still Buu, the owl, to consider. Buu is an evil spirit, and it is not rare for another evil to follow his appearance. The di-yins seek to know what evil might come.”
“Sterling, I still think you should lie back down,” Chimera admonished.
“It will do him no harm to be up now,” Antonio intervened. “The temper he shows is a sign he is recovering swiftly. But perhaps he will consent to retire when he sees what you and Satcha and I have made.”
Grinning, Chimera followed Antonio across the village, a curious Sterling trailing behind. Antonio stopped at a wickiup. “You will sleep here from now on, my brother,” he told Sterling with a mischievous smile. “With Chimera. She helped Satcha and me make this for you. The making of a wickiup is woman’s work, but Satcha nurses two infants and must save her strength, and Chimera did not know how to make one. I helped them out of the great affection I hold for you, but I would build a wickiup for no other man. When you sleep here tonight, my brother, remember how I allowed my pride to sting so you could have privacy.”
Sterling laughed at both Antonio’s knowing grin and Chimera’s scarlet blush. “I won’t say thank you because you say it’s not your way, Antonio,” he said. “Suffice it to say your gift has been well-received.”
Antonio nodded. “I go now to see my children. Do not worry for yours. They have been busy this day hunting, learning the Apache games...and fighting with each other and with Apache boys. They have been asleep since the sun began to sink. Enjoy the night with your lion, Chimera,” he added, and winked before he left.
“Lion?” Sterling repeated, staring after his friend. “Why did he call me a lion?”
“What? Um...how should I know? It’s probably some Apache term for people with roaring tempers. You h
ave been irritable for the past few days.”
He grinned. “Because I’ve missed you.”
She returned his smile and lifted the flap to the wickiup. “Then shall we?”
“Nice,” Sterling mumbled when they were inside. He saw his Colts, and his and Chimera’s clothes piled up in one corner. But he wasn’t at all interested in what he saw, and turned to Chimera instead.
“Very nice,” she agreed, and wondered if they would spend much time commenting on the wickiup. Sterling’s nearness, his familiar, masculine scent...it was all she could do not to throw herself into his arms. But she had to consider his wounds. If they made love tonight, she decided, it would have to go slowly.
“Yeah, nice,” Sterling said again. His body began to throb with an ache that had nothing to do with his injuries. Dios mio, how he’d missed her, how he wanted her! “Chimera, I—I can’t wait. It’s...been too long. Two weeks. Two eternities.”
She heard the desire in his voice, and saw the tangible proof of it through his breeches. “But what about your wounds? What—”
“To hell with them,” he muttered, and reached for her. “There’s only one thing wrong with me at this moment, and there’s only one cure for it.”
His kiss was brutal, and she realized he was, indeed, strong and well enough for whatever the night would bring. She clawed at his shirt; two buttons came away in her hands. Spreading her fingers across his smooth, warm chest, she knew a mounting excitement at the feel of him, this man she loved.
Sterling swept her into his arms and laid her down upon the soft bed of hides and blankets. “How the hell do you get this off?” he asked when he could find no fastenings on the butter-soft buckskin dress Satcha had given her.
She raised her arms above her head, and he slid it over her knees, thighs, and torso. When it was around her head, encasing her raised arms also, he saw she was trapped in it. There was no way for her to remove her arms from it.
Captive. His captive.
The thought and the sight of her bare, ivory body stirred his passion further. “Lie still,” he told her when she tried to squirm out of the dress.
“But the dress is covering my eyes, and I can’t see you. Sterling, I can’t get my arms out.”
“I know.”
“Help—”
“No. I want you like this. Bound and at my mercy. I want you only able to guess at what I’m going to do to you. You can’t see me, you can’t stop me. You can only lie there and wonder, wonder and submit.”
His words aroused in her a desire so deep, she could not even answer him. She lay there quivering, not from cold, but from a passion that shook her to her bones.
His teeth nipped at her toes. She wiggled them, he caught them and massaged them, tickled them, and then bit at them again. His tongue swept up the length of her smooth calves and along the backs of her knees while his fingers played upon her thighs.
She gasped for a breath she hoped would help her control her trembling. But no amount of air she took in calmed her, when she suddenly felt his palms cup her breasts. The exquisite pleasure of his caress was heightened by the sensual surprise. She heard her heart hammering as he kneaded them gently and then firmly. She felt her nipples stiffen against him, and gasped when he removed his hands to replace them with his mouth. He loved her thus for many long moments.
And then, abruptly, he stopped. He did not touch her. She lay there, her chest heaving, waiting to feel his next caress and wondering where it would be. She heard him moving and realized he was removing his clothes. Naked. He was naked. Her skin, from forehead to toes, rippled in anticipation. She felt almost fearful as she waited, wondered, and yearned.
And then she felt the touch she’d been expecting with such wild desire. But it was not his hands she felt at the opening of her womanhood, nor was it his mouth.
She arched toward him, wanting that part of him deep inside her. But he withdrew from her, and she couldn’t find him. “Sterling.”
He touched her in that intimate way again. She lifted her hips in response once more, but in vain. Her body ached with profound need and a growing excitement. “Sterling, please! You don’t know what it’s like! I can’t see you. I don’t know what you’re going to do, where you’re going to touch me! Don’t torture me like this! Let me take off—”
“No.”
She felt his hands at her waist, and he lifted her onto his lap. His manhood burned her moist belly as he pressed her against it. His arms around her, he kissed her breasts again, taking his time with them. Chimera’s desire nearly tore her asunder, so great was her need for him. She struggled with the dress that still held her captive, but could not free herself from it.
“You’ve had me at your mercy many times, brujita,” Sterling whispered into the moist slope of her neck. “The strength of your arguments have bound me time and time again. If I cannot best you with words, the only other strength I have is that which comes from my body. I’m stronger than you, and it will do you no good to fight, Chimera. Admit your defeat.”
“Yes,” she whispered readily. “I surrender and give myself to you. Take your victory.”
With one powerful pull, he yanked the dress from her and caught her face between his hands. “No, Chimera,” he whispered. “We will share the prize.”
He lifted her and impaled her so suddenly, she gasped, her head falling back over her shoulders. The ecstasy began immediately, she’d been so ready for it. Waves of deep, pulsating pleasure rolled through her, her joy making her cry out loudly.
To smother her cries, Sterling kissed her deeply. But his own cries of bliss soon joined hers, and he held her tightly as they both shook with their explosive release. He lay upon her and marveled at his complete fulfillment. Lovemaking with Chimera was not merely an act of passion. It was a celebration. And as strange as that sounded, it was the only way he could describe it.
Weak and still trembling, Chimera’s arms fell from around his neck. Tenderly, he laid her down and stretched out beside her. “I love you, Sterling,” she told him sleepily, and curled closer to him. “I love you.”
Her breathing slowed, and Sterling realized she’d fallen asleep. Her last conscious words swept through him. She always told him she loved him after they made love, but she spoke of it at other times too. She said she loved him at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sometimes she screamed it out the window when he was working in the woods. She often left little love notes for him in his boots, by his plate, on Gus’s bridle...anywhere she knew he’d find them. Once, when he’d been watching her bathe in the creek, she’d soaped up her leg and wrote “I love you” on her skin. She said it wherever and whenever she had the chance, and she never seemed to tire of saying it. On the contrary, he mused, expressing it always seemed to make her happy.
Love. Whatever the hell it was, it was the biggest, most important thing that could happen to a person. Chimera was enthralled with it. Antonio’s whole life had changed because of it. Archibald, in his shy way, had grown from it. Even the triplets had begged for it.
Why couldn’t he discover what it was? Wild longing coursed through him, and with sudden and startling clarity, he realized he wanted desperately to trust Chimera’s love; wanted so badly to believe in her.
He sat straight up, his realization too momentous for him to remain lying down. But what about Brianna? What about his lifelong dream of finding his mother?
Tucson. Antonio had told him the town was less than a week’s ride from the Apache rancheria. He could leave today. He knew Antonio would consent to escort Chimera and the boys back to their cabin.
What could my parents give me now that I don’t already have? He remembered what Antonio had said about his parents. He looked down at Chimera. The sight of her beautiful face, relaxed in sweet slumber, the memories of everything she’d ever done or said to him, made him want to take her in his arms and never let her go.
Dios mio, did he love Chimera? Was love a warm and gentle breeze instead of a lightning bolt? W
as it something that grew peacefully and silently, filling you slowly rather than exploding inside you?
A myriad of questions made chaos of his mind. He thought of the tender emotions he felt for Chimera and of those he often felt from her. He thought of his desperate need to trust her. He concentrated on Brianna and what it was he hoped to find with her. He pondered love. When morning came, the questions, the confusion still tore through him.
“Sterling?”
He turned and smiled at her, a warm rush of emotions swirling through him. Her eyes held a sleepy luster, making her deliciously beautiful. “The medicine you gave me last night cured the last of my aches, estrellita,” he told her softly.
She reached for him, but dropped her arms when a loud and horrible roar erupted outside. Screaming and the sounds of running followed. Sterling snatched on his breeches, picked up his Colts, and tore outside. Chimera pulled on her dress and followed just as quickly.
“Sweet heaven, it’s a bear!” she yelled when she saw the huge beast.
Sterling raised his revolver and took careful aim, but before he could pull the trigger, Antonio arrived and snatched the gun from his hands. “Do not shoot it, my brother. A person lives inside it, a criminal who is being punished for his crimes by having to live in the body of the bear. We must hide with the others and wait for it to leave. Your children are already there. Come.”
Sterling looked at him disbelievingly. He couldn’t understand why the Apache would let the bear rummage through their belongings and eat all their food, but he was unwilling to break any tribal rules.
He turned to take Chimera’s hand, but she wasn’t behind him. Frantically, he searched for her, his eyes widening when he saw her approaching the bear, her arms out before her, her fingers wiggling. Dios mio, she was going to use her witchcraft on the beast!
He started toward her, but didn’t get far before three warriors caught him. He struggled wildly, but could not break free. “Dee-o-det says we must let Chimera do what she will,” Antonio explained quickly. “You may not go to her, and this time I can do nothing to help you. Cochise has given the command for you to be held.”
Moonlight and Magic Page 34