by Misty Evans
The Chieftess eyed the products with interest but seemed too drained to ask questions. She did as instructed while Keva removed the plastic spray nozzle and tubing that ran into the hairspray can.
Once the fire was going strong, the two of them dumped Enann’s body onto it. Smoke and the smell of burning hair and skin filled the cave as they stood back to watch. Searing flames licked over him, eating the sugar and alcohol, and turning his skin black.
“I’m going to throw this on the fire and it will cause an explosion.” Keva raised the hairspray can and then used her hands to signify the boom she expected. “You need to stand outside the cave, okay?”
“What about you?”
The smoke burned her eyes. The one Enann had punched continued to swell. “Don’t worry, I’ll get out before it blows.”
Once her counterpart was safely outside with the backpack, Keva said a prayer to the Great Mother, threw the can at Enann’s burning body and ran hunched over through the cave.
She was two steps from the entrance when the explosion hit, sending her to her knees. The sound was deafening, the dense rock of the cave reverberating the noise and shooting it out the only opening it could find.
A second, smaller explosion followed. The Chieftess grabbed Keva and tugged her the rest of the way out of the cave as debris rained down inside.
Keva laid her cheek on the ground, the wet sand cold and refreshing on her skin. The tension from the past few hours welled up inside her to the point where she let out a long, humorless laugh. For once, it felt good to be alive.
Shadows danced wildly on the sides of the cave entrance as the Chieftess helped Keva to her feet. She pressed Enann’s pouch into Keva’s hands.
Using the light coming from the cave, they examined the contents together. Inside the pouch was the Thunderbird amulet and a collection of raven bones and other trinkets he had used to gain power from nature. In modern times, he would have been labeled a witch like Keva, but, unlike her, he’d used his powers for evil.
Keva slipped the amulet into her pocket and rolled the other trinkets back up in the leather. Her limbs felt weighted, too heavy to move, but she had to complete this undertaking. “I’ll throw these on the fire.”
Heat and smoke assailed her as she cautiously reentered the cave. The fire still burned with intensity, the surrounding basalt and limestone forming an oven. Enann’s body had been damaged beyond repair, and relief filled Keva, knowing he could no longer take form.
Reaching deep for strength, she straightened to her full height and tossed the leather bag on the fire. She stood for a moment longer, ignoring the heat and smoke, seeking Enann’s spirit with her senses. She felt nothing, heard nothing.
“He’s gone,” the High Chieftess spoke from behind her, confirming her thoughts. The Chieftess had followed Keva into the cave, no doubt needing to see Enann’s body destroyed as much as Keva did. She slid her hand into Keva’s and gave it a squeeze. “It is time to take care of the living now.”
Keva followed her out of the cave and the two stood side by side for a moment, drawing in deep, cleansing breaths and staring at the dark ocean. Waves rolled and foamed on the beach. The Chieftess let go of a heavy sigh. “When the fire is out, I will come back and scatter whatever is left of his body.”
Like her in every way, Keva smiled through her bone-weariness at the idea that the High Chieftess wasn’t one to take chances when it came to Enann. Keva let go of her own sigh. It was time to get back to Rife. “Thank you for helping me, Chieftess.”
High Chieftess Keva hugged her hard and then walked away, her steps heavy with grief and responsibility, but also steady with renewed resolve to do her duty. Pride welled up under Keva’s heart and she smiled at the straight back and set shoulders of her past self.
Then with her own renewed sense of purpose, she picked up her backpack and headed up the mountain to find Rife.
Chapter Twenty-seven
The eclipse was waning and the rainstorm had passed. Rife lay near the fire as Keva examined him for wounds, fear for his health making her pulse pound loud in her ears.
They were alone now on Starved Rock. With the others gone, she wished she could simply curl up next to him and sleep in his arms, but he was sick and injured.
As she examined the bite marks on his leg, he made a face and grabbed his stomach. She placed her hands on top of his and tried to soothe him. When the worst of the pain passed, she wiped the sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of her windbreaker. She’d already given his shirt back to him to warm him as best she could.
“Is he dead?” Rife croaked, sucking in deep breaths.
She knew he was referring to Enann, not Kai. “He is. Now we must worry about you.”
Rife’s face relaxed a bit. He opened his eyes and stared up at her. “You thought he was dead before. This time, you have to make sure he can’t come back.”
He sounded so much like Kai, Keva smiled to herself. Kai, her hero, whose body now lay in the sacred lodge in the Moon Water camp. Feeling in her pocket, Keva rubbed the Thunderbird amulet. “The High Chieftess and I took care of Enann. He will never hurt anyone again.”
Rife grunted and curled into a fetal position as another pain shot through his body. Keva laid her hands on him once more, trying to pour white, healing energy into his stomach, his blood and his bones. Her body shuddered in response. Exhaustion overwhelmed her, leaving her with barely enough energy to stay upright.
“You’re hurt,” Rife ground out between clenched teeth.
“I’m healing by the moment,” she lied. She was not healing, at least not at her immortal speed. Too tired to think about it, she focused on Rife instead.
Over the fire, a strong brew of herbs and roots bubbled in a copper bowl. She’d poured all the water from her water bottle into the pot and mixed in various herbs the High Chieftess had left behind. “What color was the liquid Enann forced you to drink?”
“Reddish?” Rife let out the breath he’d been holding and shook his head. He was saturated with sweat. “I told you, the forest was pitch black. It could have been almost any color.”
Reddish. Keva scanned her memory for substances that might have dyed water red. Bark? Roots? Flowers? The list of possible ingredients was long. But which one was the poison killing Rife so slowly?
Enann could have mixed multiple ingredients together. He could have cast a spell of some sort intensifying a poisonous property of something usually benign.
Inundated with possibilities, Keva sat back on her heels and rubbed her forehead. Unless she knew the exact ingredients that had gone into the poison, she couldn’t predict if her antidote would work. “What about taste?”
Rife rolled onto his back and gazed up at the sky. He was quiet for several seconds in thought or maybe exhaustion. “Metallic.”
A metallic aftertaste could be due to the bowl Enann had cooked the poison in, or it could be that he had actually added a metal of some sort to the brew. If only he’d still had the animal bladder bag Rife had described to her on him when they’d destroyed his body. She might have been able to dissect the liquid and then make a more accurate counter-medicine for Rife. As it was, Keva was afraid she might do more harm than good.
On the night wind, she heard a voice—a whisper from the past. Salt water.
At the very least, she could cleanse his wounds with it. She touched Rife’s face. “I need to get water. I’ll be gone for a little while. Try to sleep.”
He grabbed her hand and held her fast. “You’re hurt and we need to get back to our time. Can you do that? Get us back?”
He was too sick, too weak, to time travel on his own. If she could counteract the poison, though, he might be well enough in a few hours. Then she could send him back to Chee. “I can, but we both need to be stronger before I try. You rest and I’ll be back as soon as I have what I need to heal us.”
She pulled away and he was too weak to hold on to her. He was, however, still strong enough to argue. “Going o
ff by yourself is a bad idea.” He rolled onto his side, propped himself up on one elbow. “I should come with you.”
Keva stepped back to him, placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a little push. “You can’t even stand at this point, Rife.”
He flopped onto his back again and groaned with indignation. She patted his face, loving him for wanting to protect her. Loving him for everything. Then she picked up the empty water bottle. “I’m only going down to the ocean and right back. Besides, I can take care of myself.”
As she walked away, she heard him mumble, “shit” under his breath, but he made no further attempt to accompany her or argue.
By the time she returned with the bottle of salt water, moonlight spilled over Starved Rock. She pulled up short when she saw Rife sitting beside the fire. He smiled at her in the flickering light. “You had another five minutes before I came looking for you.”
“What happened? Why are you up?”
“I drank some of that stuff.” He pointed at the now empty copper pot beside his feet. “My stomach is still gurgling, but I’m a damn step better than I was.”
Her simple herbal concoction couldn’t have reversed the poison so easily, could it? Combined with her healing energy and the power of Starved Rock, odds were yes, it could. Perhaps even Thunderbird was helping to heal Rife, rewarding her for rescuing the obsidian amulet from Enann’s possession. Either way, she was happy. Rife was sitting up and talking. That’s what mattered.
The thought lifted the heavy weight from her heart. He was going to be okay. The poison’s damage could be undone. She could send him back to the twenty-first century healthy and whole.
A light giddiness fluttered in her chest. Kneeling down beside him, she reached for his leg. “Let’s clean your wolf bite.”
One of his hands cupped her face and turned it toward him. Distress at her condition creased his forehead. “Your eye is almost swelled shut. It wasn’t this bad before.”
Her hands were still deeply scratched as well. Her body ached in the places where Enann’s fists had beat her. She gave him a weak smile, hoping to alleviate his fears. “Because of the time travel, my metabolism is messed up. I’ll heal.”
She could see the doubt in his eyes. Like her, though, he needed to believe everything was all right finally. “Soon, I hope.”
A finger of warmth from his energy slid under her skin and into her muscles. She was so weary, wet and cold, she welcomed it, focusing on it to help the warmth spread. She’d thought she’d feel happy now that Enann was gone, but a terrible sadness still lingered in her heart. Sending Rife back needled at her, piercing her in a thousand ways.
All she’d ever wanted was a simple life. A loving husband, a few kids, a means to help other women. She’d screwed it all up on this night and the small amount of satisfaction she felt from ending Enann’s reign of terror and evil did little to alleviate her loss.
Keeping the few scattered Moon Water kin alive for generations had given her a single-minded, millennium-consuming purpose. When Enann had killed the last of their line, she’d felt a kind of chaos descend on her. But then Rife had given her a lifesaver to hang on to. He’d brought her through the chaos and anchored her again. At least for a while.
As she doctored his ragged bite wound, she took her time, touching his calf with tenderness and soaking up as much of his male energy, growing stronger by the minute, as she could. Her aches and pains receded, and as he watched her with his usual intensity, she reveled in the heat of his gaze as it concentrated on her face, her hands and her body.
The full moon seemed to burst from the last effects of the eclipse and for a moment, Keva turned her face toward it to wish she was going back with Rife. She wished that she could spend every full moon under his watchful eye.
But as a low vibration rose through the rocks beneath her, she knew there was no returning to the present for her. This was her time, mudslide and all. Even if Rife had truly understood who she was, he could never completely understand her past, what she had done, and her love for him.
The tremor intensified. “What is that?” Rife said. His eyes narrowed as he swept his gaze around the area.
The end was starting. By the time the sun rose in a few hours, the trembling earth would move south and mud would swallow thousands of people. “The mudslides.”
Rising from her spot next to the fire, Keva hugged her upper body and walked to the narrowest point of Starved Rock. Staring out over the foaming ocean below, she let the tears slide down her cheeks. She couldn’t have stopped them if she’d wanted to.
A wave of protective energy flowed over her. A second later, Rife’s hands landed on her arms. “Keva, you did not cause the mudslide by using magic. It’s an act of nature, just like tornadoes and floods and earthquakes.”
Without thinking she turned her face into his chest. He was so solid, so strong. So stubborn. She’d give anything to believe what he said was true.
His shirt was wet, but she didn’t care. Her tears would disappear into the damp fabric and become part of it without him knowing.
He seemed to read her mind and let out a breath that told her he was giving up changing her mind. “I know this is hard for you,” he murmured, stroking her back. Feeling the tension in her shoulders, he began massaging it away. “We can leave any time you’re ready.”
The comfort she had missed for so long woke the sensual female inside Keva. She had carried the guilt over her actions for a thousand years, and at that moment, she wondered if she could lay down the blame, there on Starved Rock, just for a few minutes and enjoy the feel of a man again. The man she still believed carried Kai’s soul, but at the very least, carried the heart of an honorable warrior.
Wrapping her arms around him, she pressed one ear to his chest and listened to the familiar beat of his heart. The rhythm increased as they stood there, the chemistry between them taking hold.
Their time together would be over soon. Keva held him tight, wishing with all her heart things could be different.
A surge of deep desire consumed her. She would send him back to Chee when the sun rose. For the next few hours, however, she would take whatever Rife was willing to give.
When his fingers caressed her cheek, Keva looked up into his face and her heart leaped at what she saw.
In the moonlight, his dark eyes were possessive and passionate. Behind that, she saw love.
As he leaned down to kiss her, the earth under her feet vibrated.
Chapter Twenty-eight
At a loss to explain the emotions raging inside him, Rife took Keva’s mouth with his and tried to make her understand the only way he knew how. He had felt what she felt, the sadness, the pain, and all he’d wanted to do was make her forget. He wanted her to feel joy, love, ecstasy.
He wanted her to feel what he felt—hope.
The vibration under his feet worked its way up his legs, into his thighs and pelvis, awakening the hunger buried deep inside him. He grew hard and strained forward, pushing against her lower stomach.
He knew how she fit in his arms, knew the feel of her skin sliding against his. He’d cupped her breasts, licked her nipples and tasted her sex dozens of time in another life. But, here, now, the sensuous softness of her lips and the shy probing of her tongue against his felt like the first time. Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her tighter and kissed her deeper as he moved both of them away from the tip of Starved Rock.
The ledge rocked beneath them, breaking their kiss. Keva’s fast, shallow breathing matched his own and there was a light in her eyes he’d never seen.
“We should get away from the edge,” he told her, balancing both of them against the shaking ground and resting his forehead against hers.
Her eyes were wide with lust and she licked her lips. “It will hold. Trust me.”
Trust. He hadn’t shown much trust in her up to now. Determined to let her know he would trust her to the ends of the world, he smiled down at her. “I believe you.”
He took her lips again, nipping at them seductively, and a rush of satisfaction made him even harder when she made a low, mewing sound deep in her throat.
She spoke his name, a plea. A command. “Rife.”
A shiver of anticipation ran through him, every cell in his body crying out at the sound. Sliding his hand under her jacket, he smiled again into Keva’s mouth. She was his, and his completely, body and soul.
The past and the present be damned. He would never let her go.
Energy swept through Keva. Raw, masculine energy that mixed with hers in the center of her chest and ignited a fire that would never burn out. Pulsing and tingling every nerve in her body, it consumed her.
Gasping at the intensity, she opened her heart and let it take her.
Rife pressed her flush against him, his hand on her back, warm and languid, as a finger drew spirals over her lower spine. Instinctively, she gripped his arms, holding on tight. The long-hidden part of her self burst like fireworks inside her. She wanted him. Wanted his love, his energy, his fire.
Another tremble shook Starved Rock, and they clasped each other to keep their balance. Keva saw confusion flit across Rife’s face, but his hunger for her fueled more of his mind.
Still, caution was ingrained deep in his psyche. “Come back to the fire,” he urged, holding out his hand.
Wild arousal coursed through her. She shook her head no.
Rife’s eyes flared with passion. He reached for the zipper of her windbreaker, and the next moment, she was free of it. Without his chambray shirt underneath, he freed her breasts as well. For a moment, his gaze lingered on her tight, peaked nipples. Then he dipped his head and slipped his tongue across each one before dragging them between his teeth in a gentle caress.
Keva’s body went weak and she sank to her knees before Rife could catch her. A bolt of lightning struck behind her. Jarring her from her lust for a split second, she turned to look out over the ocean to catch the fading light. Far to the west, another lightning bolt echoed the first, spikes of energy splitting from the main branch. It was beautiful, the ocean endless in the dark. Like her love for Kai and for Rife, no matter how long she lived.
