by Willow Rose
No one spoke except Michael. He talked with wild and sudden gestures and laughed out loud unexpectedly. He seemed aggressive at times, angry, but then he would suddenly smile and laugh again. He poured wine into my glass while telling stories from his fishing trips or the job he had right now to fix the electrical system on a big yacht at the port. He made fun of the rich and called them "pretentious smocks" while patting my shoulder. I admired his way of constantly offending me and still pretending that we were best friends. There was something very strange about his behavior that confused me. He was kind and rude, charming and mischievous at the same time. A rare combination. I hated and resented him as he spoke, every little motion he presented, everything he said or did. But mostly I resented him for being with Aiyana and not treating her well. The more drunk he got the more his eyes started to glow with sentiments as he described when they were first married. He talked about her with huge gestures and affection in his voice. How he had wooed her as the custom was in their tribe. That his mother who had known Aiyana's father when they were very young. That Michael had known about her ever since he was a child. His mother told him he was going to marry her. It was decided when he was just a small child.
"And she knew about me too, didn't you Aiyana?" he said, emptying another glass of wine.
Aiyana nodded and smiled for the first time. "She has always known,” Michael boasted. “She told me she used to dream about me. Isn't it right? We were destined. Right, darling?"
"That's right."
"And I came to her house every day for three weeks to try and sweep her off her feet," he continued. "That’s our tribes’ custom. But Aiyana knew I was coming. The first day I arrived at her doorstep she was sitting outside on the porch in her rocking chair, you know the one that never stops moving, and she was smiling at me. 'I was expecting you,' she said to me. 'But I thought you'd be here earlier.' Can you imagine my surprise? 'Thought I'd be there earlier.' Women! Never satisfied are they?"
I smiled and sipped at my wine. Michael poured more in my glass when I put it back on the table. Then he emptied the bottle into his own. "Get us some more, will you?" he asked Aiyana and gave her the empty bottle. She got up and went into the kitchen.
"Still hot, isn't she?" he asked as he stared at her from behind.
I smiled again and avoided looking at her and answering his question. I wasn't going to give him the pleasure of knowing how much I adored her. He was waiting for me to make a slip, to accidentally say something or catch me giving her a secret look. I had him figured out. That was what this was all about. He was sizing us up, observing our behavior around each other.
"So you can imagine my wooing wasn't as hard as I had expected it to be, since Aiyana knew I was coming," he continued. "She brought me into her living room and declared to her entire family that she was getting married. After that we had a huge meal and everybody was soon singing and dancing and playing music," he chuckled.
"But you still came to woo her for every day in three weeks?"
"That's the custom. All descendants of the Timucua tribe must marry within the tribe and the courtship lasts for three weeks. Don't ask me why. My mother told me to, so I did it. We had a formal visit every day for two hours. Kind of a way to get to know each other. Aiyana would talk about music, books and her travels with her father as a child before he died while I told her about my family and my work. We were never rich in my family, not like Aiyana. There wasn't much to tell. I’m an electrician. My father builds houses. We work with our hands. Do what we are best at."
Aiyana returned with another bottle and smiled at Michael as she put it on the table. He smiled back still mischievous. I realized by then that I had gotten drunk. As dinner progressed Aiyana seemed to be more and more relieved and she started opening up and joining the conversation with her singing voice and wondrous childlike laughter. I studied the way Michael looked at her and realized that he really loved her which only caused my jealousy and resentment to increase towards him. Luyu came to say goodnight and I kissed both her and her stuffed bunny on the cheek.
"I'll be right in," Aiyana said to her.
After dinner, Michael invited me to join him back in the living room. For more drinks. He no longer waited for my response when he asked. He just handed the drink to me when I sat on the couch. I had lost count of how many drinks I had and suddenly I was gripped by a fear. Sunset was approaching and I had no idea if the alcohol could affect the transformation. I had noticed that Aiyana had hardly touched any. I wondered if it was to stay clearheaded so she wouldn't make a mistake or say something that might cause problems for her later or if she wanted to stay sober because she knew the transformation would soon take place. Either way I'd better follow suit, I thought to myself. So now I put down my drink on the table with the intention to stop drinking as well.
"Come one. Have one more," Michael said.
"I really can't. I should be going now. I have work in the morning."
"Nonsense. It is only eight o'clock. Have some more."
"I really can't."
"Come on, doctor. We were just beginning to have some fun here. Aiyana! Come in here and join us," he yelled.
"I think she went to put Luyu to bed," I said.
Shortly after Aiyana stepped into the living room. Michael stared at her intensely. She smiled insecurely at the both of us.
"Let's dance!" Michael said and got up from his chair and grabbed Aiyana by the arm.
"Michael!" Aiyana said giggling.
He stopped. "That's right we need some music." Then he turned on the radio. Whitney Houston sang I Will Always Love You followed by Janet Jackson in That's the Way Love Goes.
Michael and Aiyana danced while he held her close. I stared anxiously out the window at the sky that had started to become orange. I looked at Aiyana and our eyes met. I sensed a tickling sensation in my fingers and stared at her again.
Get out before it is too late! she whispered in my mind.
"I really should be going," I said trying to be heard in the loud music.
Michael who was leaning heavily on Aiyana lifted his head and looked at me. He stared into my face like he was judging me and evaluating me. Slowly he walked towards me. Then he grabbed the upper part of my arm. "Having muscle pain, are we? Feeling hot? Like your temperature is rising?" Then he took my hand and turned it in the light. "Feeling that tickling sensation?"
"Stop it," Aiyana said. "Leave him alone. Let him go home now."
"I’ve noticed your eyes have been almost glowing for the past few minutes. Care to explain that?" He turned and looked at Aiyana. "Well what do you know? So are Aiyana's!"
Michael burst into a loud laughter. "Well you'd almost think that you two were the same!"
"Stop! Stop it!" Aiyana yelled.
But Michael didn't listen. He stared at me with eyes shiny and hard while I sensed my body starting to transform. Soon the glossy hairs became visible, then the claws and the ears.
"I knew it!" Michael said.
Aiyana had started her transformation as well. As the fangs came out and touched my lower lip Michael stepped back with a gasp.
Then I ran.
I ran out through the door while undressing myself, throwing my clothing where I ran. The pants, the shoes, the tie. Everything had to go. I ran out in the street as I slowly transformed. I soon realized Aiyana was running right behind me. She too was still half jaguar half human.
"How did he know?" I yelled.
"I don't know. I have no idea. But Michael is not stupid. He has seen the transformation before. His mother was a jaguar as well. She and my father used to hunt together. It was unbearable for his father to have to share his wife with another man every night, so he shot himself. Michael suspected that you and I had known each other before so he assumed that I was sleeping with you since you agreed to do the procedure on Luyu for free. That's why he invited you to this dinner. When I told him I wasn't sleeping with you he said 'Then you won’t mind if I invite the doctor h
ere?' I said 'Go ahead'. I never thought he would actually do it. I never thought he would actually have me call you at your office."
"But how did he ever found out about Luyu?"
"His sister."
"His sister? I thought you said she wouldn't tell."
"She didn't. Not at first. But some of the neighbors had seen me in your expensive car and told him. So he beat his sister for not watching me. Then she told him everything. Thought he would be happy to know that I hadn't been cheating on him, but was in fact taking care of our daughter. She thought that it would make him leave us alone. But that just made him even more furious. The hiding, the sneaking around, keeping secrets from him. That's what made him angry. Then he decided I had probably been sleeping with you. Why else would you do this for me? He wouldn't leave it alone and kept bothering me with questions."
As she spoke those last words we were running on all fours while the transformation was completed in both of us. There was nothing we could do except run for the swamps and hope to not be seen. We jumped buildings and rooftops and even trees to get out of town before we finally reached I95 where we could run along the road in the high grass.
Chapter 25
The hunt was amazing, as always. The freedom, the running, leaping into branches in high trees, chasing and playing with smaller animals until the kill with one fierce bite. The hunt released my inner animal, the raw instinct. It was all incredible. Supernatural. Indescribable. I have no idea what had gotten into us this night but we were unstoppable. We hunted everything in sight, every small or big animal. We feasted and ate like we hadn't just had a big dinner, but as if we weren't expecting to get anything to eat in a long time. We sucked the blood from our prey, drank it and ripped pieces of raw meat from their bodies, almost drunk from the intoxicating taste and smells. We ate so much it slowed us down and made us drowsy.
When we couldn't possibly eat anymore we lay down in a clearing and started playing, lashing our paws at each other lazily and nuzzling, as we stayed as close as possible, forgetting who we were and our circumstances, forgetting our troubles and worries. Only with her this close was possible for me to truly live. The rest of my life was a distant nightmare, a pain that was no longer real to me. This was real. She was real.
Soon the drowsiness took over and we fell asleep our bodies curled up in one another.
We woke with a start. Our bodies had started to transform back and soon we lay close to one another with our naked human bodies touching. Aiyana suddenly and stared at me. Her eyes were filled with horror.
"We fell asleep! Christian. The sun has risen. We’ve transformed back!"
I looked at her, startled by her beauty in the ray of the rising sun. Her skin was shining and her eyes still glowing. I was speechless.
"Christian," she said again. "We need to get back. Now!" She rose to her feet. I smiled as I gazed upon her naked body.
"And how do you think we are supposed to get back? Walk along the road naked? We would get arrested for that."
Aiyana moaned. "But ... but ...”
I grabbed her hand and dragged her closer, forced her to come back down on the ground to me. "Stay," I whispered. "Stay here with me."
"What about Luyu? What about William?"
"Sarah will take care of William. Michael will take care of Luyu. They'll be fine."
She sat on her knees. I felt her desperation as I entered her mind. Once again our thoughts met. We were one.
Michael will be mad, she thought.
He's already mad, I argued. We have no choice but to stay here until sunset. Maybe he will even have calmed down by then.
She hid her face in her hands. This is bad. This is really, really bad.
I sat up and pulled her close to me. I hugged her and rocked her in my arms while she cried. I try so hard. I try so hard to be a good wife to him. It's never good enough. Nothing I do is ever enough.
I know how that feels, I thought and pictured my relationship with Heather in my mind. I pushed the pictures at Aiyana. I showed her scenes from my own life. Aiyana lifted her head and looked at me. She understood. I didn't have to read her mind to know. I could see it in her eyes. I spotted the bruises on her arm. "Did he do this to you?" I asked out loud. "Did Michael make these bruises?"
She dropped her head.
"He did. Didn't he?"
"Does it matter?"
"Yes! It matters. Of course it matters."
"He’s never done it before. Not like this. When he realized I had tried to hide Luyu’s surgery from him he got so ... so mad. He didn't believe that I did it because I knew he would have said no to let you perform the surgery. He thought ... well you know what he thought. It's just ... he can't control it. He gets so jealous. Especially because I am out all night. It breaks his heart. He hates that he doesn't know where I am or who I am with."
I nodded and stroked her cheek as she let me enter her thoughts again and showed me how these last ten years with Michael had been for her. I saw a charming sweet guy who treated her like a queen at first. I saw him bring her flowers, I saw them laugh together and enjoy each other's company so much I was jealous. But then she showed me how she noticed a change in him. The first time she saw the anger in his eyes when he slapped his sister across the face for a comment he didn't care for. Then the constant reproach from him followed. Every day the same. Complaining that Aiyana didn't love him. By then it was too late for her. She was already pregnant with Luyu and she had to stay with him for the child's sake. Then he started getting mad every time she visited her mother or spoke with her on the phone. So slowly she stopped talking to her family. For his sake, to not upset him. He thought she changed every time she was with her family and that they tried to turn her against him. His paranoia increased and soon she wasn't even allowed to read books or write.
As she showed me all these things I was there with her. I was there in the bedroom when he yelled at her for not respecting him; I was there in the kitchen when he deliberately smashed his plate on the tiles because he was mad about the tone in her voice. I felt her pain, grief, horror and the fear as she slowly gave up who she was and let him change her. She tried to cope and survive in a house with a husband so unpredictable that she quivered whenever she heard his key inserted in the door.
I ran my hands gently over her hair. She lifted her head and looked at me with tears in her eyes. I wiped them away with my hand.
"I didn't realize how bad it had become until just now," she said. "I guess I figured it would be better eventually. All I had to do was to change myself. I was the one causing these troubles in our lives. If I only would behave it would all be better." She chuckled lightly.
Then she sat up next to me and put her face close to mine as we had done so many times as jaguars. I closed my eyes. I opened my mouth to speak but she put two fingers on my lips to stop me.
"I need you," she whispered in my ear. Her hands were all over my face. Touching it, feeling it like she wanted to remember all my features. She ran her fingers through my curls and pulled them slightly. She touched my neck with her fingers, then ran them over my ears to my cheeks and stopped at my mouth.
"Those lips," she murmured. "I remember kissing them. I remember their softness on my skin. I remember shivering from their touch on my body.
"Please Aiyana,” I exhaled deeply. ”Don't toy with me. Don't play with me."
"I'm not. I want you. I want to feel you inside of me again. I want to feel the touch of your lips again. I don't want you to be only a vague memory anymore. I want to be with you again."
Her hands moved to my shoulders and my chest keeping her lips so close I could almost taste her, but she didn't kiss me yet. She explored my body with her hands once again with her lips open close to mine. I could feel her breath on my face. When the kiss came it felt like an explosion inside of me. I drank from her lips, I smelled her, clutching her face with both of my hands. The kiss was gentle then stronger still while she was touching my neck, my shoulders, and
my chest. Then she grabbed my sex. I gasped. I put my hands on her breasts. I touched them gently before I leaned over and kissed them, feeling their softness on my lips, tasting them, smelling them, causing her to moan and her chest to elevate. Gently I pushed her towards the ground and placed myself on top of her. Then I sank into her with a bestial scream and the feeling of being finally completed.
Chapter 26
We talked all day. Lying on the moist soil of the swamps we talked like never before. She told me everything and then she showed me by letting me inside of her memories. So now I knew. I knew everything about her, everything she had ever felt. We made love again. She rose to my touch and guided my fingers across her body. I wanted to cry with happiness, stay curled up next to her body forever, stay in her mind knowing every emotion, knowing all she felt. I wanted to be complete and with her I was just that.
At least for a while.
We swam naked in the river and enjoyed the water against our bare skin. We kissed and touched and held each other close. I savored these precious hours while we waited for the sun to set and the transformation to begin. We sat together watching the sun slowly set over the river and as the darkness gradually fell on us we watched each others body gently change. It was a beautiful scene I will cherish forever in my heart when Aiyana's body slowly grew the tawny fur with black rosettes, when her face changed in front of me so only the eyes remained the same even if they did become more yellow and glowing – they were still Aiyana's eyes and I would recognize them anywhere. I adored her both as human and jaguar. She stroked my cheek one last time before her fingers became claws and her hands turned into paws. She smiled one last time before her mouth dissolved and out grew the face of an animal with fangs and a ferocious bite. It was a stunning sight. I had never seen it occur and it quite amazed me. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was startled as well by my transformation. Now we were predators, savage beasts to most people.
