by Rain Trueax
“Do you believe people are born to mysticism or acquire it?”
“Some maybe are more open to it based on their families. Apaches believe we have the potential to have many powers, as we need them. Powers must be used for the common good or that person is considered a witch.” He gave her a crooked grin.
“We have a bad press,” she agreed.
“I guess all spiritual power has that unless it is from the right god, and even then it has to be proven or death can be the result.”
The sky had turned crimson as the sun finally turned it into one fantastic lightshow as it disappeared for another day. Overhead the first stars were beginning to show up. “How fantastic,” she said staring at their emerging patterns. “I guess it’s being higher, and no other lights to distract from them.”
“And a new moon.”
“That too.” She thought then about him, about how he’d become the man he was. A woman would have to be strong to walk at his side. She smiled, as she knew the direction her thoughts were traveling. It was toward a more permanent relationship than she’d imagined wanting with any man—or than was probably on his mind.
“You are so beautiful tonight,” he said brushing her cheek with his finger. “Want me to build a little fire. It’s cooled off enough, I think.”
“I’d love that if it’s okay for this place.”
“I’ve yet to receive a complaint.” He gathered small branches. Using his own power, he lit the flame. “If it’d been anyone but you,” he said, “I’d have used a match.”
She laughed. “I am cautious also about my secrets.”
“I wasn’t when I wrote the book.”
“Why did you?”
He shook his head. “I’ve asked myself that question many times. It poured out of me. The experience seemed it had to be shared and yet sharing made it all worse. I didn’t expect it to cost me Nantan. I have continued to hope he would come back to me. He hasn’t since.”
“Maybe he has reincarnated.”
“Maybe.” She could see he doubted it.
She told him then about her family, the shamans, the witches, and their need to use what they could do for good. “In that we are like the Apache, I guess, but we claim the title witch proudly.”
“I can’t let you use the scenes.”
“A little selfish, don’t you think?” She smiled to soften her words.
“It might seem that way, but it’s not because I want to keep it for myself. I can’t undo what I’ve done, but I don’t want others being made into targets.”
“I understand that better now.”
They sat in a companionable silence with the night closing around them and the small fire a glowing center of life and energy.
“I’ve asked myself what brought us together,” he said finally.
“I suppose I was a little in love with Adolfo from the time I read the book. Maybe meeting him was more why I wanted to create the play.”
“But back then he was fiction.”
She laughed. “Was he?”
“So now what? Do you have a plan for what comes next? You know what I want to come, but it won’t happen unless you want it too.”
“I don’t do flings.”
“Neither do I.”
“Tell me about Estella.”
He laughed. “I told you she was made up.”
“Was she?”
“That’s what I once thought.” This time his smile set her body on fire.
Chapter Eleven
He wondered what she was thinking as she watched him. He felt as though she saw through his clothing, through his flesh, straight into his soul. It was frightening and exhilarating all at the same time.
“Estella seemed imaginary to me,” he said finally, as he knelt in front of her chair and reached out to tangle his fingers in her hair. “Now I wonder.”
“At what?” She stroked down his neck to his shoulder and then began unbuttoning his shirt.
“Maybe from the time I saw you as a girl, when you were much too young, and I wasn’t ready. I knew from then-- somewhere you were out there.”
“You didn’t go looking for me.” She opened his shirt and slid it off his shoulders. Running her fingers down his chest, his body felt electrified, as he grew hard.
“I didn’t think it’d be fair.” He rose then and lifted her into his arms, settling back down on the other chair with her cuddled in his lap. “To be honest, it made me angry when you showed up.”
“I noticed.”
“You didn’t know the reason though.” He bent forward and lightly brushed her lips with his.
She opened her mouth and deepened the kiss. “I don’t read minds except when I must. I try not to be invasive.”
“I’m in the mood to invade something.”
“Are you prepared for that?”
He smiled. “Maybe not emotionally, but physically. I brought something for protect but wasn’t going to pressure you.”
“As you can see, you don’t have to.”
He kissed her again and felt her fingers against his skin. She touched him places he’d only dreamed of having a woman touch. It wasn’t as though he’d never made love, but this went beyond anything he’d known. It was as though they were connected on levels beyond the flesh. He lowered her to his sleeping bag and stripped off her clothing as she took off his. “God, you are beautiful,” he whispered against her breast.
She smiled and pulled him down for another kiss where her tongue danced with his. Within moments, he’d sheathed himself in the condom and felt her readiness for him. When he entered her, he stopped for a moment, trying to get control of himself. She was tightening around him, her legs had come up behind his buttocks, and he lost any chance of waiting, as she thrust up. The moments went beyond time, and he lost track of anything but her.
When she cried out, he felt his own climax and was with her. Afterward, he flopped back, feeling physically drained. He looked over to be sure this was still what she had wanted. She was smiling. In the faint light of the dying fire, he watched her walk to the pool to wash. He followed. It wasn’t deep, only up to his thighs, but the water was cooling and felt good.
From the bank, Adolph was watching them. He wondered what his wolf thought.
“She will make a good mate for you,” Adolph said in answer to that question.
“You will scare him off,” Elke said coming out of the pool and letting her body dry in the warm night air.
“I don’t scare easy,” Mitch said as he stood beside her.
“We’ll see. I can be pretty pushy if you hadn’t noticed.”
He laughed and walked up to their camp where he pulled on his shorts. He stuck a few branches onto the fire and built it up. Then he watched as she dressed. He noted Adolph doing the same thing. For the first time, he wondered if Adolph wanted a mate. He wasn’t sure what that would involve, as he was a wolf, but something more than a wolf at the same time.
“Making love settled nothing,” he said feeling a need to say something and knowing that sounded stupid—even to him.
“Was it supposed to?” She wrung out her wet hair before sitting back in her chair.
“I don’t know. Was it?” He had zero experience in relationships with women. Did what they had done mean they were in a relationship?
“Look,” she said, “don’t worry about this. We had a momentary lapse, a weakness. I don’t expect anything from you.”
He pulled her out of the chair and into his arms. “Expect this. It won’t be the only time it happens.”
She laughed. “Well, we’ll see about that.”
“I don’t think it’s safe to be seen as my mate for now.”
She shook her head. “For a writer, you don’t exactly have a gift with words, do you know that?”
“I think I mentioned it a time or two.”
“All right, so that’s settled. Now, should we try to come up with a plan or go to sleep?”
“I wish I thought a plan was
possible.”
“First things first. I am tired. So let’s talk in the morning.” With that, she crawled into the tent and didn’t invite him to follow.
“You handled that well,” Adolph said with a wolfish smirk.
“I noticed.”
><><><
When Elke woke in the morning, she felt more energized than she had in months or maybe years. She didn’t know where it was going with Mitch, but she felt comfortable with where it was. She smelled coffee and dressed quickly in shorts and a tank top. After the night’s rain, the air felt clean and fresh. She noticed for the first time that at the edge of the pool a few Indian paintbrush were blooming, a yellow flower she didn’t recognize on the other side. The cliff edges were a beautiful red, washed by the rainfall and the pool a rich turquoise reflecting all the colors above it.
“I can understand why you love to come here,” she said as handed her a cup of coffee.
“It has good memories.” Squatting down, he put a pan filled with bacon over the flame. “Even more now.” He smiled up at her. He was wearing shorts but no shirt. She had to look away to stop her traitorous body from reacting to all those muscles.
Adolph watched them. “I suppose you two go for a run when up here.” She knew she could use one.
“I catch a rabbit when I can,” Adolph said companionably. “Mitch doesn’t care for them raw.”
She laughed. “Me neither. Maybe though we could catch one and bring it back to cook.” She realized then what she’d said and looked over to see Mitch watching her.
“You shift?” he asked his eyes darkening.
“When there is a need.”
“To a wolf?”
“Of course. What else? It’s what reassured Ranger when I told him.”
Mitch snorted. “You could have told me.”
“I was going to when needed. I actually thought about surprising you, but thought that might go badly.” She laughed. “I am not as good at communicating as a wolf as Adolph is. You might’ve thought I was an enemy.”
“I’d have gotten your scent. Now that I think about it… maybe I did.” His smile had a wolfish look to it.
They ate, she took another cup of coffee, and then she said, “I guess it’s time for us to discuss what we’ve been avoiding.”
“Tucson.” He sipped his coffee as he looked toward the pool. “I had hoped it would come to me up here—the answer.”
“Who was it you fought when in Mexico? The ones in the book?”
“They were monsters brought there by Azaziel. I guess you know him.”
“My family has had experience with him but lately it’s all been Ornis.”
“Sometimes I think Ornis is just a distraction. Then I wonder if I am underestimating him. I don’t think he can control monsters. Azaziel either can, or he creates them. It was happening there in a mountain village, where the ones living there were at their mercy. Pretty much it was as I described in the book—a larger than life bear, what appeared to be a wolf—only bigger, and a huge woman, only she didn’t look much like any woman I’ve seen.”
She wondered why she hadn’t recognized that the roughly described creatures had been the monsters of Native American mythology. She’d never seen them, but she’d read enough that she should have recognized them in his book. “You didn’t have Adolph with you, did you, or did you just not put him into the story?”
“He left me behind,” Adolph said with a displeased growl. “He should have taken me.”
“I didn’t know what I was going to find,” Mitch reminded him. “I didn’t want to take the chance of losing you.”
“How did you get drawn in? Was it like the book?”
“More or less. A friend from university told me something was going on there, to the villagers, to his family, and it was getting worse. He asked my help because he knew I’d had some other encounters and had powers but not necessarily what kind. Before I got there, my friend had been killed. I had to find out what had happened, and from that point, there was no turning back.”
“The sword, plasma bolts, and… what was the way you moved? Surely that can’t be real?”
He smiled. “You’d be surprised when you face that kind of situation. The sword could kill demons, and it turned out monsters. I wasn’t alone. Nantan was with me. I described him in the book as a spirit guide and didn’t give out who he was to me-- or his name.”
“What I hadn’t experienced is how you could track them.”
“I could and can.” His smile was a little twisted.
“Humans don’t walk on air,” she observed still having a hard time with what didn’t seem real in her own experience. She knew she could disappear and reappear but the gymnastics-- that she had never seen.
“Nor do humans throw energy bolts or use a sword forged by a wizard,” he said. “Catapulting through the air is less interesting than it sounds. More like transporting, excepting of a real body. The monsters were confused. The ones I came across there weren’t overly intelligent. The only one that got away was the big wolf. He vanished and so far as I know, hasn’t been seen again.”
“Rugaru.”
“You know the monster stories?”
“Enough to know they aren’t all myths. I know it from being told, not from seeing for myself. I know some of our horror movies come from them. Rugaru though is clever as the stories go. And there is not just one. And you took them all on by yourself.”
“I had Nantan to guide me—so not totally alone. If I’d known before I went there, what I’d be facing, I might’ve stayed in Los Angeles.” He smiled. She didn’t believe him. He’d have still gone.
“It’s not the first time I’ve heard of monsters reappearing… in reality, not fiction.”
“I guess it is bound to happen now and again. When they think they can build up power. It can happen any place. In Mexico, they had been drawn by the demons. I guess I made it clear in the book that I didn’t see a reason for it on their end. Anyway, I was some stove up afterward. Rugaru may be imaginary in books, but in reality, he can draw blood. When I was recuperating, the idea for writing about it came to me… as fiction, of course, but I wanted to warn people. Stupid idea, of course.”
“I think it’s noble.”
He laughed at that. “You know I still don’t like talking about it and regret I wrote the damned book. To be honest, the chills it sends down my spine is why I didn’t want to talk about this in Tucson or at the ranch, but only where I believe there is some protection-- if there is such a place.”
“So far as I know,” she argued, “such monsters have long waited in wilderness areas. They have tried to build their power back by assorted methods, like energy vortexes, but someone has always come along-- like you. When they kill people, as with Wendigos, they suck their power. You stopped that.”
“You know more about this than you have admitted.”
“The stories are out there, and we work with a spirit guide who had some encounters in Montana.”
“Then you understand why I’ve felt as I have.”
She sighed and finished her coffee. “You feel they will come after you?”
“Or those close to me. That’s what Nantan said. I had made myself a target.”
“If more knew, you’d be less a target.”
“Baby, people don’t believe. They like fiction where it comes to monsters.”
“All right. I understand more now.”
“You witches have enough power to take on something like that?”
“We haven’t had to… so far, but I hope we would.”
“Hope is a pathetic word.”
She smiled at that. “Sometimes it’s the only word. Hey, want to go for that run? I need to work off the pancakes I ate the other day.” She laughed and ruffled Adolph’s coat.
He considered that. The horses would stay with the feed and water. It probably wouldn’t hurt for them to take a run. He couldn’t say he was coming up with any brilliant ideas sitting around the ca
mpfire.
She smiled as she began stripping. In moments, she had changed form into a wolf. Actually, a very beautiful female wolf. He could see Adolph showing interest. Quickly, he dropped his shorts and shifted himself. He hadn’t thought of Adolph as competition. He had been his best friend and a pet—except, he was also very much a male. A male, now running in circles to show off for Elke, while she watched with a wolfish smile. Mitch felt annoyed at their silliness. Then he realized what he was feeling was jealousy.
‘Remember,’ he warned, ‘stay away from humans. Some carry guns, and wolves are not considered their friend.’
She nodded and took off at a lope followed closely by Adolph. Mitch brought up the rear not liking it much. Hell, this had been a terrible idea—then he remembered it hadn’t been his. For the first time, he considered getting a mate for Adolph. Or had his wolf found one?
When Elke got to the stream, she hesitated, and Mitch took over the lead. He scented what was around and appreciated how much more attuned he was when in wolf form. Humans had hiked this way only a few hours earlier, right after first light. They had been in a hurry with long strides. The way the tracks cut into the trail, they had the weight of men. They didn’t hesitate at the cut, which means they weren’t Apache. The fact that they were moving so fast made them seem unlikely to be the average hiker. What were they after? He glanced back at Adolph and Elke. They showed the same concern. Curiosity made him turn to the direction from which the men had come.
There was something strange in the air. He recognized it.
‘Blood,’ Elke sent. ‘Something has been killed.’
They loped toward where the smell was growing stronger. The body was that of a woman, torn and ripped as though with teeth but larger teeth than theirs. He looked for footprints but saw nothing except now theirs. He’d have to eliminate those. ‘You two go back to the canyon, while I take care of this,’ he ordered. They both looked defiant, but when they saw his determined expression, they didn’t argue and ran off.
Mitch morphed into a human form and spent time erasing all their tracks. He studied again the body. Had the men heading north done this? Had they come across it and run for their lives? He moved to the stream and washing off, he decided, naked or not, better he stay human as he headed toward their canyon. He felt uneasy as he loped from wading to the sandy beaches.