by Wilson, Tia
“You’ve always been good with your hands,” Oishin said getting out of the car with a smile.
The front door of the house was closed with a hemp rope and a knot securing it shut. Inside the dirt floored house was a simple wooden framed bed in the corner, a small table and chairs and some shelves fashioned out of hardened mud and built directly into the walls. Tom crossed the room and sat down on the bed. A cloud of dust puffed up into the air and he sneezed.
“The place needs a womans touch,” Oishin said as she opened one of the wooden hatches that served as windows. Light streamed into the murky room and Oishin looked around at the sparse lodgings. “Do you come here a lot?”
“I used to come to hunt and to take some time away from the clan. The woods surrounding this place are filled with deer, rabbits and even the odd cougar. I haven’t been back here in maybe ten years,” he said reaching under the bed and pulling out a brown leather satchel tied at the neck with a thick piece of cord. He reached under again and pulled out a battered brown suitcase that looked like it had been thrown down several flights of stairs.
“Do you miss it?” she asked.
“What,” Tom said.
“Hunting beside another apex predator. Do you remember the times we would spend together in Scotland hunting those royal Elks. Typical humans thinking they can own an animal,” Oishin said sitting down on the bed and putting her sleeping swaddled baby down on the straw mattress. She touched the babies cheeks softly and said, “He needs to eat soon. Will you join me on a hunt?”
Tom looked at Oishin and her large twinkling eyes as she smiled at him. Tom knew that crooked smile all too well. It said to him we are in this together no matter what depravity they both got into. She had smiled like that when she had witnessed him lose control in one of the few times of his life. The smile was a sly nod that seemed to say no matter how much you tap into your animal side I will always understand you. The smile lead to danger. Tom looked away and he could feel his heart beating rapidly in his chest as old memories of a life forgotten, or at least he had tried to forget came back to him.
This was Oishin's greatest skill, she was an agitator of both shifters and men. Her great beauty was the first thing that struck you, then the conspiratorial smile that had lead shifters and men to do things they had never dreamed they were capable of. Or maybe the ones taken in by her were always that way and the addition of Oishin produced a chemical reaction that could only lead to combustible state. Tom wasn’t going to let her work her charms on him now, he had Grace and every day he was with her his feelings were getting stronger.
“I need to rest after the bullet is taken out. I won’t be joining you on the hunt,” Tom said.
Oishin let out a long sigh and said, “You have changed. You’re no fun anymore.”
Tom opened the cord securing the leather pouch and spread the contents on the bed. There was a knife in a black sheath, a tin box containing basic first aid equipment and a couple of hand tools. Tom pulled the knife out of the sheath and stroked the blade back and forth against the underside of the leather pouch. He held the blade up to the light and moved it back and forth. He then checked the pliers and when he was satisfied with his tool turned to Oishin and said, “I need you to remove the bullet. I think its lodged in my collar bone so you might have to cut me open.”
Oishin looked at him and nodded.
Tom pulled his blood soaked shirt over his head with a grimace and threw it on the floor. The wound on his side had completely sealed over and the skin was white and puffy. Blood was caked around his shoulder and every time he moved his shoulder more blood rolled down his side.
Oishin took the leather pouch of tools and put it on top of the suitcase on the floor. She stood up and said, “Lie against the wall and put your legs up on the bed.”
Tom followed her instructions and lay against the cool surface of the mud walls. He looked down at the baby sleeping peacefully and tried to smile through gritted teeth. He could feel the pain in his body begin to ratchet up, his body beginning to rebel as it tried to heal itself but couldn’t because of the foreign body dug into his flesh.
Oishin picked up the knife and pliers and put them beside Tom. Before he could protest she straddled him and sat facing him. She gripped him tightly with her strong thighs and Tom could feel the heat radiating off her body. He was starting to feel too much pain to complain.
“I’ll make this quick,” Oishin said as she ran the tip of her tongue over her lips.
Tom looked at her and thought about the time not so long ago that Grace had performed a very similar operation on him. That time she had saved him from near death when one of the poisoned teeth from an assassin had become lodged in his flesh. Even in his fevered state Graces touch on his flesh had sent pleasurable sparks through him. Now being this close to Oishin as she gripped him between her legs all he could think of was pushing her off him in disgust.
“Which one first?’ Oishin said holding up the knife and the pliers.
Tom nodded towards the pliers. Maybe she’ll get lucky and won’t have to hack me open, he thought with grim humour.
They locked eyes and Oishin said, “This is going to hurt.”
Tom could see the gleeful excitement dancing in her eyes.
She moved even closer to him and Tom could feel the heat from between her legs as she pressed against him. Her scent filled him, a mix of dry earth and a slight twinge of spice. He clenched his jaw and tried to think of Grace, anything to distract him from her body so close to his. Her breath tickling his neck when she leaned in close to check his wound. Don’t let her get back into your head, he thought as his breathing sped up in anticipation of the first sting of the pliers.
“Here goes,” Oishin said leaning in close to him, her long hair tumbling down and falling across Toms bare chest.
She dug the pliers deep into the coin size hole right above his arm pit. Tom bucked his hips in pain and raised off the bed. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he let out a low whine.
“Steady,” ordered Oishin in a stern voice.
She twisted the pliers again and Tom gripped the soft flesh of her upper thigh and squeezed as he moaned again. His fingers dug into her soft flesh as she pushed the pliers in again. Oishin was panting, her breast rising and falling. Beads of sweat glistened in her cleavage as she wiped a stray lock of hair out of her eyes.
Oishin stroked the side of Toms neck and said, “I need you to be strong. I have to cut you open.”
“Do it,” Tom said and looked away from her. The muscles in his neck and shoulders tensed as he waited for the first incision of the blade.
The first cut at the base of the bullet hole felt like someone had dragged a burning hot piece of metal across his skin. Fresh blood coursed down his side and every nerve in his body seemed tuned to the frequency of raw pain. The second incision caused him to groan in a ragged gravelly moan of pain. His fingers dug into the flesh of Oishin's thighs and if it hurt her she didn’t let it register on her face. Tom looked at her and she had a look of utter concentration as she picked up the pliers again.
Oishin licked her lips and said, “Once more. Hold on tight.” She gripped him tight between her legs and leaned in close to Tom, her upper body rubbing against his sweat soaked torso.
White hot pain seemed to jump from the tip of the pliers and into the muscles and bones of his shoulder as Oishin dug around in the splayed open flesh. Rivulets of deep red blood ran down his side leaving sticky trails and soaking into the straw filled mattress. Toms breathing sped up as he panted faster and faster, each breath matched by Oishin as she tried again and again to grasp the bullet lodged in his bone. His whole shoulder burnt in pain as if it was filled with gasoline and then set a blaze.
I can’t hold on much longer Tom thought as white spots danced before his eyes.
“Got it,” Oishin said through gritted teeth.
She held the pliers up before Tom and between the pincers was the deformed mass of the bullet. The deep bon
e level pain of the wound began to recede slightly once the bullet was out, but Toms whole shoulder and arm were still nearly paralysed with the agony.
“You can loosen up a bit there,” Oishin said looking down at her thigh.
Toms hand was still high up it and his fingers gripped like steel into the soft pliable flesh. He let go and pulled his hand away as if he had just touched something scorching hot.
“Do you want me to help with the healing process?” Oishin said and the same twinkle and crooked smile had returned to her face.
A shifter healing another and especially one as old as Oishin was one of the most intimate acts that a shifter could be involved in. Tom knew this and hesitated trying not to let the amount of pain he was feeling be betrayed on his face.
“You know it makes sense. I’m much more powerful than you. You won’t owe me anything, I swear,” Oishin said making a cross over her heart.
Tom nodded and said, “Do it.”
Oishin licked her lips and put both of her hands on the ragged edge of the open wound. Blood oozed from the broken flesh and a sliver of bone was visible deep inside the bloody crevasse. She leaned forward and licked the side of the wound in a long slow swish of her tongue. Oishin breathed in deeply as she lapped at one side of the gash and then the other.
Immediately Tom could feel a spreading warmth from the wound. Fizzing filaments of gold seemed to surge down his arm and through his fingertips. A rippling sensation moved up his neck and he could feel the skin prickle at the back of his neck. The tips of his ears felt warm and his cheeks began to flush. His breathing was matching each slow lick from Oishin. As she licked up the length of one side he breathed in, as she licked down the length of the other he exhaled. His heartbeat sped up and he could feel the warmth begin to spread from his shoulder and across his chest.
Oishin looked up at him blood smeared over her chin and running from her mouth. She swiped across her face with the back of her hand. Her eyes had the droopy lidded look of someone who was slightly high on an illicit substance.
“Is it working?” she asked, her voice coming out slow and breathless. Her eyes had darkened and the skin of her face had gone pale with only her cheeks remaining flushed.
Tom looked down at her and it was as if he was seeing her again for the first time. Everything around him felt hazy and ill defined as if the outline of his body had become smudged. It was if his sensations were expanding as they spiralled out from the bounds of his own body. He could feel Oishin's erect nipples rub against the material of her dress as she leaned in against him. A warm incessant throb emanated from between his legs and it was joined by a similar feel of need coming from Oishin. He could feel himself stiffen as Oishin pressed against him.
She looked up at him again with eyes that were now a dark brown. She licked her blood stained lips as she panted. She looked defiant, her expression a direct challenge to Tom. She could see his very resistance crumble before her. She looked down at the wound and the flesh around it was cleaned of blood and the ragged hole had reduced in size.
“Do you want me to finish you off?” She said in a slow drowsy slur.
Tom looked at her, his whole body felt like a tuning fork of sensation, both of their bodies connected in the ancient ritual of healing. His stiff cock throbbed painfully in his trousers and he knew she could feel it. The pain was diminishing into the background as long buried feelings and sensation began to bubble up to the surface, bright and clear like a newly tapped well.
Tom nodded and his head and fell back as he stared up at the ceiling. Oishin began licking at the wound again. Slow laborious strokes of her tongue as she increased the pressure with each pass. The tip of her tongue flicked across the pale skin surrounding the closing wound. Her lips felt plump and warm against his skin. He couldn’t feel where his body ended and hers began. His cock throbbed and in unison he felt a deep howling hunger inside of Oishin. He could feel his own body rub against hers, feel the heat rising within her as she moved her hips gently against him. An image of Grace flashed into his mind. It was the first time he approached her in a coffee shop. Her dark skin, warm smile and those eyes that he could look into forever. As pleasure began to mount in his body, his intertwined with hers he held onto the image of Grace and a new sensation filled him. One of yearning and a deep heartache at being apart from Grace.
“Don't let her ruin that he thought as he felt himself reach a precipice. If he continued for much longer he knew how this was going to play out.
“Enough,” Tom said and pushed Oishin off him. She lay sprawled on the bed beside him, her chest rising and falling rapidly. She wiped the blood from her face and looked at him with the wicked smile that had first entranced Tom when they met.
“Tease,” she said playfully, “I could feel you were enjoying it. Why quit now. I’m wiling if you are,” she said.
“I’m different now. You don’t hold the same power over me as you used to back then,” Tom said.
“Your body tells a different story,” Oishin said eyeing the sizeable bulge in his trousers.
Tom looked at the wound on his shoulder which had now nearly closed up completely. The skin was raised and red raw and in the centre was a tear the size of a fingernail. All bleeding had stopped and the colour was slowly starting to come back into the skin of his shoulder and chest.
“I can finish you off,” Oishin said in an alluring voice.
“I can heal the rest myself,” Tom said getting up and moving his arm up and down. “I’m thankful for what you did.”
Oishin let out an exasperated sigh and said, “I remember you being a lot more fun. Humans are a bad influence on you.”
Tom ignored her comment and gathered up the leather pouch and tools and put them on the table on the far side of the room. He opened the beat up suitcase and riffled through the contents and found a clean set of clothes. He’d learned that it was always best to have some clean clothes stashed at your base as sometimes you didn’t always get the chance to strip off and put your clothes away safely when you shift.
“I’m going out back to clean up,” Tom said.
“Do you want me to wash your back?” Oishin asked.
Does this woman ever give up, he thought as images of the two of them writhing on the bed naked and entangled with each other filled his mind. Side effects of the healing process he thought, not sure if he was seeing what was his or Oishin's desire.
“Can you give it a break,” Tom said.
Oishin pouted at him and said, “Its your loss. I’m going hunting, do you want to join me?”
Tom knew his answer even before he opened his mouth. The healing process between two shifters was an intimate experience that opened each other to the sensations both physical and mental of each other. To shift and then hunt together was an almost spiritual experience that bordered on the sublime. Joining her would only lead to trouble for him and an opportunity for Oishin to get closer to him.
“No,” he said in a stern voice.
Oishin stood from the bed and glanced at the sleeping baby who hadn’t stirred the whole time. Long term hibernations effects where slower to shake off for younger shifters. Young children and babies could sometimes feel groggy and tired for a couple of days after coming out of the earth. Those effects usually faded away the longer the shifter was alive.
She looked over at Tom and her large eyes twinkled and still retained the dark hue from the healing process. Her face was still smeared with blood and streaks of it ran down the front of her loose dress. She shrugged off the shoulders of her clothing and let it fall to the floor with a whisper. Underneath it she was naked and her skin was as pale as chalk dust. She had the thin lithe figure of a gymnast. Tom had seen mens eyes grow wide in fear as they slowly realised that the thin woman they had started to harass had an impossible strength and could probably crush your windpipe with one hand. Tom had once heard that she was over five hundred years old, other rumours he had heard was that she was much older than anyone knew. She
would never reveal her age and all Tom knew was that she was multiples times faster, stronger and more powerful than he was. These were traits that only came with age. Some of the more outlandish things he heard about her was that she was one of the ancient members of the clan. One of ten shifters that were part of the original bloodline and who one day all left never to be seen again. They were the stuff of legends and nothing more than stories, or so most shifters thought.
Tom didn't blink and looked at her waiting for her next move. She stared at him as a smile curled her lips. Your loss the smile said, and with that she turned and left the cabin.
As soon as she left Tom let out a long sigh of relief. He had been holding every part of his body rigid as if he was expecting a punch from someone at any moment.
That was how I usually felt when I was around her, Tom started to remember, an expectation that anything could happen and trouble was right around the corner. Trouble seemed to always follow them when they had been together and it wasn’t until the clan took him in and he started to live in the town of Twin Rock that Tom started to feel a balance in his life.
An hour or so after Oishin had gone hunting she returned with the leg of a deer slung over her shoulder. Tom had been sitting outside leaning against the cool mud covered walls of the house when she strode triumphant out of the forest. What a sight she made, an image that would of drawn screams and shouts if a human ever set eyes on her. She was naked and her hair was slicked back off her face with dried blood. Her body was caked with long red and brown streaks and the leg with its dangling hunk of flesh had ran blood all down her shoulder and back. She looked like she had stepped straight out of an eighties horror movie, a woman who had been attacked and was now out for revenge,
“A male, a big boy,” she said nodding her head towards the leg. “He put up a fight and got a good hit in on me with his antlers. Tore me up real good,” she said turning her damaged side towards Tom. All down her side was a huge black bruise with yellow edges. As Tom looked on he could already see the size of it diminish.