“What do you think?”
“We have a symbiotic relationship that creates a sum greater than its parts, and that is why we went through metamorphosis together. We are coming into our enhanced powers that can only be triggered by our association with each other. I think that we are supposed to help defeat the Anu after healing the other dragon shifters. Have you noticed anything unusual in the last few days?”
Xavier chuckled heartily and gave her an easy, wide smile, showing his gleaming white teeth. “Everything has been unusual in the last few days, Circe. Nothing about it has been usual.”
“I just wondered if you’d sensed any new powers yet,” she said soberly.
“Not yet, but I’m on the lookout,” he said with a grin.
She had to smile back, even though she suspected he’d just been laughing at her. Xavier had an affable personality when away from his duty as leader and not a raving psychopathic dragon. Though the sexual attraction between them had been immediate during their first meeting, she was beginning to like him as a person, as well.
When they rounded a bend in the road, they came to a wide clearing that expanded into the town of Barkley Falls. Xavier explained that Barkley Falls had once been a gold rush town, but before World War III, it catered almost exclusively to tourists. There were a few farms in the area that produced apples and hay crops, as well as a few ranches.
They walked down the center of the street, past a gas station and mini-mart, past a roadside diner, then past the feed store and a cheap hotel. Circe saw a sign for an upscale resort farther down the highway and directions to the national forest campgrounds.
Xavier trotted off the road toward a parking lot full of parked, dusty cars and began trying the doors. Finally, he found a pickup with an unlocked door and began fumbling around with the wires under the dashboard.
“Do you know how to hot-wire a car?” Circe asked, hopping into the passenger seat.
“Doesn’t everyone?”
The truth was that Circe didn’t. She and her sister witches could use their mental abilities to locate things like car keys if they focused very specifically on them. She let her mind seek for a few seconds and flipped down the visor over the driver’s seat. A key plopped onto Xavier’s head. He picked it up and smiled broadly, his eyes twinkling. His expression of enthusiasm and warmth gave Circe a tingling sensation that ran from her throat, through her heart and belly, and all the way down between her legs. It pooled there and began to throb.
She smiled back, somewhat guarded. She wondered if he could smell her arousal. Shifters had heightened senses, and she didn’t doubt he did, too. Xavier hopped into the driver’s seat, shut the door, and put the key into the ignition. The truck’s engine took several tries to turn over. When it did, Xavier gave Circe a quick wink and pulled out of the parking lot.
Chapter 10
They motored up the road going northwest, back in the direction they’d come. Almost as soon as the car had started, the tape in the tape deck had begun playing old country music. Neither Circe nor Xavier had been especially fond of that variety of music before the war, but it was extremely welcome as they rode. When “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash came on the radio, Xavier’s eyes lit up.
“I love this song. Did you ever hear Johnny Cash’s version of Nine Inch Nails’s ‘Hurt’?”
“Can’t say that I did,” said Circe, somewhat embarrassed that she had no idea about either reference. That was when Xavier started to sing. His baritone voice matched Johnny Cash’s deep baritone. Circe sat back in wonder, watching him sing his heart out. He’d told her he was a musician, but she wasn’t prepared for what had come out of his mouth, and he was singing a simple song. She could only imagine what he could do with a more complex arrangement.
He sang of love and wild desire, of falling into a burning ring of fire. It made Circe’s heart clench with untold meaning. She swooned and felt lightheaded as his voice washed over her. Slowly, the song came to an end, and the spell broke.
“Nine Inch Nails was a big inspiration for Fine Line,” Xavier said.
All Circe could do was nod. His singing had given her an ecstatic experience, and she’d had to come back down to pay attention to what he was talking about. Circe had been far too driven and ambitious to worry herself with keeping up on the latest bands, had she even been interested.
She could feel sexual heat radiating off Xavier after he’d finished singing. It caused the throbbing inside her to pulsate even more intensely. She sighed and looked out the side window, her growing need pounding in her body and brain.
“Xavier!” she screamed. Out her side window, she could see zombies breaking through the tree line above the road. The first one that fell off the cliff thumped onto the windshield of the truck and tumbled onto the road. Circe’s heart thudded against her ribs, and her breathing came in short panicked bursts. More of the zombie horde fell to the pavement just as they passed. Xavier slammed his foot on the gas pedal, and the truck sped up the hill.
A handful of zombies had fallen into the back of the truck, and they were crawling toward the rear window. Circe watched helplessly as they used their broken limbs to beat on the glass. The truck’s motor strained against the increased acceleration and whined sickly. Circe tried in vain to use her grab spell. Nothing would work. She had no power to defeat them.
The window glass cracked, Circe screamed, and Xavier slammed on the brakes. Whipping her head around to see what had caused him to stop, Circe found a group of men and women in the road, holding shotguns, dressed in overalls and hand-tanned furs.
“What the hell!” Xavier yelled.
The lead man, a hefty bearded fellow in his late forties, lifted his shotgun and blew the head off a zombie crawling over the hood of the truck. The man moved forward, blowing the zombies away as he approached. When the last was gone, Xavier jumped out of the car to confront the group blocking the road.
“What is the matter with you?” he yelled, sniffing the air. “Bear shifters. There is a horde of zombies behind us, and you’re blocking our escape.”
“Dragon,” growled the man with the shotgun. “And a witch. Take them.”
The group grabbed Circe out of the passenger seat and pulled her roughly up the road. In a turnoff overlooking the valley, they shoved her and Xavier into a camper shell of a newer model crew cab truck. Then they sped off down the road just as the zombies approached.
The ride was bumpy, loud, and dusty, but at least they had avoided the horde. After about an hour, the truck parked, and Xavier and Circe were let out in front of what looked like the mouth of a giant cave where construction had added to the exterior and interior.
Circe looked in awe at the gaping crack in the mountain that must have extended seventy-five feet high in the cliff face. The opening had been reinforced with steel and wood. As they walked through the cave entrance, she could see that the structures built into the inside of the cave were like primitive apartments made of logs.
They drew farther into the main cave, where off-shoot caverns went in all directions. About half a mile in, they came to a central chamber, where a bonfire roared, sending its smoke into an airshaft high above. Torches were lit all around, and people walked about, doing various duties. There were even children playing among the group. Some younger than five years old, they were children born after the war.
Circe took in the space, impressed with the bear clan’s architectural feat. Their innovation in working with the natural and manmade elements created an enchanting environment. She and Xavier were ushered to a cavern away from the bustle of the main room. A torch illuminated the stone room, which was furnished with a desk, a fur rug, and several chairs.
The man who had shot the zombies sat heavily in the chair behind the desk and motioned for Xavier and Circe to sit down opposite him. They did and waited to hear his explanation for kidnapping them.
“My name is Angus, and I’m the leader of this bear clan. We don’t get many outsiders on this part of the
mountain. Haven’t seen an outsider in over two years. And until recently, we hadn’t seen more than a handful of zombies in all the years since the war. Something’s bringing them up here. Maybe they’re coming up from the central valley or crossing over from Nevada, but from what I can tell, those things don’t think fast, and they travel even slower. Now, what could have caused such a huge population of zombies to appear at exactly the same time as the first outsiders we’ve seen in two years?”
“It’s a coincidence,” said Circe imperiously.
“And what is a dragon shifter doing driving a car and traveling with what smells to be a witch. You don’t look like a witch.”
“It’s a long story,” said Xavier, looking bored.
“I can tell you this much. Pyramid Corp is feeding the zombies. They may be herding them through your territory. Who knows why? Maybe they want to thin the shifter populations up here.”
“What is Pyramid Corp?” asked Angus, looking confused.
Circe raised her eyebrows, and she and Xavier glanced at each other. “You’ve really been out of the loop, haven’t you?”
“Pyramid Corporation built the domes,” explained Xavier.
“What domes?”
Circe sighed, ran her fingers through her hair, and then locked Angus’s gaze with her own. “I’m going to explain some things to you that you might not like. But first, have you seen the spacecraft flying around in the sky?”
“Spacecraft?”
“How can you not have seen the spacecraft?” Xavier asked in an astounded tone.
“Okay. Listen. The war was all a fraud. It was staged by an alien race called the Anu. They are about seven feet tall and feed on blood, like vampires. From what we have surmised, they came to Earth to breed a hybrid race of humans. Pyramid Corp runs a number of domes worldwide, where they keep non-mutated children from their hybridization experiments.”
Angus looked at her with disgust, and then his expression turned to anger. “You must think I’m some dumb hick, or you two are insane.”
“Believe me, I wish I were insane,” Circe said, with a touch of mania in her voice.
“You’re saying the war was staged, and we’ve been invaded by aliens?”
“Yes. None of you knew this?” Xavier asked.
“We’re pretty well cut off from the rest of the world up here. Most of the survivors in this part of the mountain turned to bear shifters. We have a few other types who live with us, but we formed one clan. We spent most of our energy working together to survive. Like I said, we rarely see outsiders. I still don’t know if I believe you.”
“Fair enough. Can you let us go now?” asked Xavier.
“You two look like hell. Why don’t you stick around for the night, and we’ll get some food and water in you. You can tell us more about your blood-sucking aliens,” Angus said, standing from his desk.
Chapter 11
Angus led them out into the main cavern and introduced them to a woman in her early twenties named Marla. She was tall and thin, wearing homespun clothing. She had two long blond braids over her shoulders. The young woman took a look at them and asked if they wanted a hot bath.
Circe emphatically said yes. Marla led Circe and Xavier down a dark corridor lit by a single torch. Circe tried to use her light spell but was unsuccessful. That, too, was gone.
Finally, they reached a chamber with a low roof. Marla swept the torch across the room, revealing a small body of water that glowed blue in the firelight. Marla put the torch in a holder.
“It’s a hot spring,” Marla said. “Perfect temperature for bathing.” She looked suspiciously at her two unwanted guests before leaving through the cavern corridor.
Xavier and Circe looked at each other bashfully. Circe’s stomach tightened at the idea of getting into the water naked with Xavier. She’d already seen all his business but not while he was fully lucid. And he hadn’t seen her naked at all. The prospect of a warm bath was too much for her to resist, though, so she stripped off her prairie dress, slipped off her sandals, and plunged into the water.
She turned to see Xavier pulling down his pants. The sight of his bare bits made her blush, and she turned away. A moment later, there was a splash behind her and a long drawn-out “ahh.” Her toes touched the bottom of the deepest part of the spring, but the water had a buoyant quality that made floating easy. Circe spied a dish of soap beside the pool and paddled over to it.
She rubbed herself down, washing her body and hair. Back in Arizona, she and her sister witches had bathed in hot water every day. She hadn’t gone without a hot bath in years before joining up with her friends to travel to California.
After washing, she swam toward Xavier. He was leisurely floating on his back, swishing his arms slowly through the water. She could see the outline of his exquisite musculature in the firelight. Water glistened on his tanned skin. He stood as she approached and spit water out of his mouth. The water lapped around his waist as he stood to his full height. He held her in his gaze with his eyes as she treaded water while looking up at him.
“Here’s some soap,” she murmured, handing him the homemade bar that smelled of pine and cinnamon. He took the soap from her hand, touching her palm with the tips of his long fingers, strengthened by years of guitar-playing. His touch sent a shiver of desire through her body. Her nipples instantly tightened, even in the heat of the water. She looked up at him with quivering lips, waiting for more.
He looked down at her hungrily. “Can you wash my back?” he asked, handing her the soap.
Circe gulped. “Okay,” she said, her voice cracking. He turned around in the water, showing her his broad back. Circe stood, the water rolling down between her breasts. She rubbed the soap between her hands and transferred the suds to his shoulders, down his spine, to his lower back. She took a deep breath as he grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward him.
He held her hand with the soap in it and used it to rub the suds over his chest, down his stomach, and over his rising erection. Circe’s breasts and hard nipples pressed into his back. She panted onto his warm skin as her heart raced like a wild thing trapped inside her chest.
She dropped the soap, and it sank to the bottom of the pool. Her fingers gripped his massive, hard member. With each stroke, her body elevated to a higher level of excitement. Her mind almost exploded with anticipation and need.
He turned to her, cupping her face in his hands. He whispered her name and pressed his lips gently to hers. Her hand still frantically worked his erection. She hadn’t touched a man in many years. Hunger rushed through her veins. She couldn’t wait. She wanted him right away, right there. He pressed his tongue between her lips and pulled her into a tight embrace.
She lifted her hand away from his hardness and held his body close as their kisses grew increasingly passionate. Xavier exuded tenderness that felt almost like young love to Circe. But her mind was overwhelmed with lust. She cared for him, respected him deeply, and could even see them in a relationship someday, but her body screamed for fulfillment above all else.
He gathered her up and began to lift her into his arms when someone in the doorway cleared her throat. Circe broke away from Xavier, blushing hard with embarrassment. Marla stood in the doorway with her hand over her eyes.
“So, yeah. I brought you some clean clothes and towels. Um… I’ll show you to your room when you get dressed. This room isn’t exactly private, just so you know. Come find me in the main cavern when you’re dressed.” She scurried out of the room.
Circe and Xavier looked at each other and burst into laughter. After a moment of belly laughter, Xavier cupped her cheek in his hand and tilted her gaze to his. He stroked her hair and ran his thumb over her mouth.
“You are exquisite, Circe,” he whispered.
She reached up on her tip-toes and kissed his cheek. “You aren’t so bad yourself.” She smiled and pulled away. “We should go.”
They climbed out of the pool, dried off, and got dressed. Marla had brought her
a pair of well-fitted jeans, a tank top, and a homemade sweater. Xavier dressed in a pair of camo cargo pants, a black T-shirt, and a similar knitted sweater.
Circe swept her wet hair up into a bun, and they used the torch to find their way back to the main cavern. They found Marla sitting by the bonfire, knitting a sweater.
The young woman rose. “Come,” she said, her expression pinched. She was clearly irritated that she’d found two strangers in the act. Shifters often saw each other naked, but each group had its own mores about sex, nudity, and relationships. Apparently, this clan considered sex a private matter. That was fine. Circe did also, for the most part. Witches could perform a kind of sex magic, but she’d never had the opportunity to practice it.
Chapter 12
Marla showed Circe and Xavier to a small bedroom with a fur-covered down mattress on a pallet. There was a small table set with two plates of cooked food, glasses, and a huge pitcher of water.
Circe sat at the table in a flash and began guzzling down the water. She’d been too distracted by Xavier’s body to remember to drink, even after all her exertion that day. She drank half the pitcher before Marla even left the room.
“I’ll get more water,” the girl said before leaving.
Xavier slipped into the chair beside Circe, and he poured two glasses of water. Circe lifted her glass to her lips. It was cool and clear, like a mountain stream. It quenched the deep thirst that had been growing inside Circe for the last three days. She’d barely had enough to water to keep going, and neither had Xavier.
After drinking five glasses of water, Circe dug into her meal. It was a combination of fish, wild game, apples, and potatoes. Circe wondered if the bear clan was tending the farmland in the area.
Every bite of the simple meal tasted like the finest cuisine in a five-star restaurant in a metropolitan city before the war. Circe had been in plenty of them in her life as a CEO, but none of them could beat this meal.
Marked by the Alpha Wolf; Part 1 Page 34
