Spirit Flight (4 page)

"I'd like to see them," she said, ache
suddenly centering in her chest. When the storm ended, they'd leave
the cave. When they left the cave, it'd be to return to everyday
life. And this—

"Marisa," he said, tenderness in his voice,
as if sensing where her thoughts were heading. He set the comb down
and pulled her back against his chest. Kissed along her shoulder.
"I found you and I intend to keep you."

He cupped her mound, pouring heat into the
place between her thighs. His fingers slid into her and her channel
clenched on them in needy desperation.

Pressing his palm against her clit, he moved
his hand in slow circles, sending pleasure pulsing through her, so
much pleasure. She whimpered and moaned and soaked him with her
arousal.

He made a guttural sound and leaned into
her, used his weight against her back to force her forward onto her
hands and knees. And then onto her elbows and knees with her
buttocks raised, her thighs spread to reveal her swollen and wet
pussy.

She shivered at how vulnerable the position
made her feel. But that vulnerability made her lower lips grow more
flushed and her clit strain, erect and full, the hood pulled back,
desperate for his attention.

"You're beautiful, Marisa," Ukiah whispered,
kissing the base of her spine, his fingers gliding over her slick
folds, circling her clit and making her cry out.

She pressed into his hand, rubbed herself on
his tormenting fingers, her breath coming in short pants and
accompanied by low moans. "Please," she begged, "please," and his
touch became more dominant, more aggressive.

A primal energy filled the cave. It felt as
though a huge presence loomed behind her. His cock slammed home in
a rough thrust of ownership.

His hands gripped her hips and held her in
position as he thrust. And the force of him plunging in and out of
her drove the breath from her lungs in screams that signaled a mix
of pleasure and pain.

Tears formed in her eyes and the shadows
dancing on the wall in front of her blurred and blended. They took
the shape of a thunderbird with its wings outspread, flapping in
time to Ukiah's thrusts, its chest swelling as if with pleasure.
Ukiah's fingers tangled in her hair to prevent her from looking
away, though she was held mesmerized.

"Mine," he said, voice harsh like thunder,
jagged like lightning, raw and possessive.

He thrust again and orgasm rolled over her
as his hot release filled her channel and the giant shadow of the
thunderbird rushed forward, taking her with it into primordial
darkness.

Ukiah panted and shivered above Marisa's
limp form, his cock still buried in her heated depths, his body
weak even as the thunderbird's triumphant exaltation roared through
him. She was pregnant now. With his child. With the
thunderbird's.

If they'd met under different circumstances
he would have waited. Would have married her first and moved her
into the lodge which served as both his house and his source of
income. He would have let her accustom herself to her new life
slowly.

But the choice hadn't been his to make. He
walked in the spirit world now. This body was a magical
manifestation restricted to the cave, a duplicate to house
thunderbird essence. His true physical form lay miles away on a
pallet in a sweat building behind his home.

He pulled from Marisa's body. A masculine
smile of satisfaction formed with her mumbled protest and move to
press her skin to his.

Gathering her hair, he wove it into a thick
braid, then lay down next to her, covering them with a fur, her
back to his chest, his arms holding her to him. Possessive and
protective at the same time.

She'd be happy in his care. She'd embrace
the changes to come, and thrill at what it would mean for her
art.

Tomorrow he'd reveal himself as Thunderbird.
Tomorrow he'd deal with her brother.

* * * * *

Chapter
4

Marisa woke cocooned in warmth. Ukiah.

Her fingers ached to touch him, to trace
eyebrows and nose and lips, to explore line and shadow, to glide
over muscle and commit every inch of him to sensual memory and then
translate the memory onto paper and canvas.

She wanted to wake him, assure herself he
was real and not a fantasy she'd conjured up in a hallucination.
She wanted to make love and afterward lie content in each other's
arms, intermixing conversation with kisses.

Her bladder insisted on relief.

She got up. But a quick check of the cave
revealed there was no natural opening to serve as a bathroom.

Heat climbed into her face with thoughts of
squatting in a corner.
Maybe outside?

She moved to where her clothes hung on a
wooden peg. Reaching for her shirt, a chill swept across her naked
back.

Where were his clothes? Not that she
wouldn't forever savor the first sight of him wearing nothing but a
loincloth, but it
was
cold outside and she didn't think he'd
been out hiking in only a strip of suede.

Her heart tripped into a faster beat.

This is real. I'm not out in the storm,
lying on the ground and slowly dying.

She put on the shirt stiff with dried mud
and blood. And then the jeans.

Her heart thumped harder, faster.

Maybe Ukiah
had
been out hiking in
just a loincloth. Maybe it was a test of endurance for him, or some
kind of purification ritual.

Maybe she hadn't been as badly injured as
she'd thought.

The pulse in her throat pounded in time to
her rational mind saying,
lie, lie, lie
.

She'd been broken. She'd returned to
consciousness in the cave with the sound of drumbeats and masculine
words.

A healing ceremony? He'd said she was on
thunderbird lands.

Hadn't she thought there was a mystical
quality to this area when she'd first arrived?

She looked at the fire. How could something
so small put out so much light and heat and last so long? How could
it battle so successfully with the cold air that had to be coming
in through the cave's opening?

Then again, what did she actually
know
about campfires? Until this trip she'd had zero
experience with camping that didn't involve an RV or a cozy
cabin.

She put her shoes on and tied the
dirt-encrusted laces. With one last glance at Ukiah, she walked
into the shallow anteroom and stopped just beyond the cave's
mouth.

Deep gray clouds filled the sky. Cold, wet
air hit her face—the force and sting of it making her want to
retreat. She shivered, looked down into the canyon and for an
instant was scrambling, sliding, falling.

Her chest tightened. Her throat locked and
throbbed. Sweat trickled down her sides.

She glanced up and could see the canyon rim.
It wasn't too far away. The climb didn't look too hard.

I can do this. I need to do this.

She couldn't let fear paralyze her. She was
okay. She would
be
okay.

She reached for an exposed root and placed
her foot on a small cluster of rock. Listened for the sound of
motorcycle engines or voices.

All clear.

The climb got steeper, harder. It'd looked
deceptively easy from below.

How had Ukiah gotten her to the cave?

She felt a fluttering in her chest. His
climbing down with her didn't seem possible, especially during a
furious storm.

Reaching the top, she paused, listened again
to make sure Ethan or Kaitlyn weren't nearby, then pulled herself
over, the muscles in her arms burning.

The wind grew stronger. Standing, she looked
down the face of the mountain and was completely overwhelmed by the
miracle she'd been given. Not just her life. But Ukiah's presence
in it.

Drawing a deep breath, she forced herself to
look for the place where she'd lain broken.

There it is
.

Would they come back to make sure she was
dead? Or were they so confident that they'd already reported her
missing?

The second seemed more likely. She rubbed
her arms, the chill of Kaitlyn's final wave causing the rise of
goose bumps.

She walked a short distance, found shelter
from the brisk wind so she could relieve the pressure on her
bladder. And then like a fatal attraction, returned to the spot
where Kaitlyn had stopped the bike.

Marisa shuddered. Her stomach heaved. Her
skin felt coated by ice.

She wrapped her arms around herself, sorry
now that she hadn't woken Ukiah and suggested they both leave the
cave. She couldn't climb back to him.

The wind picked up. The sky darkened and
roiled as if attuned to her fear and distress. The gray clouds
churned, became charcoal black as thunder sounded an ominous
warning.

It was only a matter of time before Ukiah
woke and noticed she was missing. He'd come looking for her. But in
the meantime she needed shelter and the grove of trees in the
distance was her best hope.

A rumble of thunder greeted her decision and
she glanced at the sky. Shivered at how angry it now looked. Its
dark violence filled her mind and made her hurry along the path
near the canyon rim.

The trail narrowed. Brush scraped her legs
and sides. She angled toward the wider path she'd been running on
the day before. Reaching it, she saw motorcycle tracks.

Her heart skipped and beat erratically. The
tracks looked fresh. But how fresh?

Did Ethan and Kaitlyn know she'd survived?
Is that why the tracks continued downward, in the direction of the
trees rather than upward toward the place they'd camped.

Uneasiness squeezed her chest, timed to
another roll of thunder. What if she was wrong, and they'd wanted
to make sure before notifying the authorities and claiming she was
missing?

She should have woken Ukiah instead of
leaving. She should have screwed up the courage and climbed back to
the cave.

Lightning flickered across the sky. A crack
of thunder made her flinch.

Two people emerged from the strand of trees
she'd been heading for. "Marisa!" Ethan called, his words whipping
past her, carried by the wind.

She turned and ran. An instant later
motorcycle engines roared to life.

Fear nearly choked her. Not just at the
prospect of them catching her, but of them also killing Ukiah if he
emerged from the cave.

She stumbled and went to her knees. The wind
grew in intensity, making it impossible for her to stand.

The dark clouds in front of her became a
boiling, angry mass, spitting rain. A lightning strike sizzled
through the air, so close to her that she felt its energy across
her skin.

A scream sounded behind her. High and
feminine. Abruptly ended.

Another strike sizzled against her skin. A
third split into two, passing on either side of her.

The engine sounds died.

A thunderbird emerged from the cloud and
Marisa froze, rational mind and knowing heart battling, awe and
disbelief warring with her soul's certainty that the mythical
creature in front of her was Ukiah.

He swooped toward her and she felt only a
rush of pleasure, an answering cry in her chest, a desire to join
him in flight. For a split second she thought he would pick her up
with talons as black as his eyes, but at the last instant he swung
upward.

She turned to watch him, her breath catching
at the sight of the two motorcycles lying bent and twisted and
smoldering on the path, the two bodies next to them.

Hesitantly she walked toward them. Her
emotions volatile, ever changing. Dread and relief mixed with
sadness.

She got to Kaitlyn first. Shuddered when she
saw dead eyes staring vacantly at the sky, the charred place where
a lightning bolt had struck.

Moving to Ethan, she knelt, tears coming
despite everything. He moaned and she jerked. Her hand flew to his
throat.

She felt a pulse beating there. Alive. He
was still alive and she wasn't sorry.

She wouldn't forgive him or allow him into
her life again. She wouldn't let him get away with what he'd done.
But he was her brother and she was glad he wasn't dead.

She stood and looked around, expecting to
see Ukiah. But instead there was only the sense that he was
watching from deep in the clouds, hovering close but unseen to
ensure her safety.

The wind pushed against her, urging her to
leave, to move on, toward the grove of trees and down the mountain.
The motorcycles were useless and there was nothing she could do for
Ethan other than get help.

She ran. Pacing herself this time. The wind
against her back aiding her.

It felt like she ran for hours, though she
had no idea how long it took to get to Hohoq. It seemed like a
lifetime ago when she and Ethan and Kaitlyn had stopped there for
lunch. Sat at the table, lingering, enjoying themselves, laughing
and teasing so that others smiled with them.

Marisa closed the door on those memories and
entered the first place she came to.
Hohoq General
Store
.

Her attention was immediately drawn to the
small, delicately carved birds and animals, then the man behind the
counter, a silver-haired version of Ukiah though this man's hair
was short.

His eyes widened, he asked, "Which one of
the boys do you belong to?"

"Let me handle this, Father," another man
said, stepping from behind a row of shelves and making Marisa's
heart rush to her throat.

She hurled herself into his arms and hugged
him tight. He laughed softly and gently stroked her back. "My
brother misplace you?"

Pulling away from him, she saw the sheriff's
star on his chest, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. He was
older than Ukiah. "I need your help."

She told him what'd happened, trying to
describe where she'd come from, parts of her story probably
incoherent, but he got the gist. "I'll take a crew up the
trail."