***

Natural Rebirth

Book two in Moondancer Drake's Daughters of the Goddess series

(possible spoiler ahead)

***

White Lotus

Luna closed the cabinet and turned to open the door. Her mother stood in the doorway, her pale blond hair confined in a pink and white towel turban. Like her daughter, Julie was albino too, but it barely showed on her. Her skin had a rosy glow to it, part make up and part natural that next to the peach robes she wore now was simply beautiful. Her blue eyes were far stronger than Luna’s, less affected by the vision complications. Luna pushed up on the bridge of her glasses in a self conscious gesture.

“So, you up for something to eat?” Her mother curled a clump of Luna’s white hair behind her ear. “You look dreadful.”
Luna scowled. Leave to her mother to find a way to make her feel worse. “No, I’m not hungry. I’ll just get some water and maybe lay down until dad gets home.”

A look of fear flashed in Julie’s eyes and then it was gone. Had Luna imagined it? “He said he might be late. He’s messing around with that newsletter again I imagine. I don’t see why he can’t use his computer for his hobbies.” There was bitterness to her tone, which Luna heard there far too often.

“He likes the socialization. It’s the only place he can hang out with people more like him and me. Dad likes to help them, he believes education is the key to non-Indians understanding our people.” Luna had told her mother that more times then she could number, but she never seemed to get it. Her father owned a thriving technology firm, but he loved the work he did at the tribal community center more than any office work.

Julie sighed and turned to the stairs, Luna followed. “I’m going out at six. You’ll be okay on your own until I get back won’t you?”
Luna nodded. It seemed like a stupid question. For months her mother had been going out in the evenings a few times a week. Some nights Luna’s father stayed with her, others she was alone, and every time Julie guiltily asked the same question. Her mother always said she was out with the girls, but sometimes Luna fount herself doubting the truth of it. Her father never did, or if he did, he never admitted to it.

She followed her mother through the dining room and into the kitchen. Julie filled a tall glass with ice and Luna leaned back against the doorway. She took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. She could feel her stomach rumble, and didn’t know if it was hunger or something worse. Her father would be home soon, she reminded herself, he’d know what to do.

“I’ve been thinking, you and I don’t get much mother-daughter time together.” Julie opened the silver fridge door and rummaged inside. “You and I could go shopping this weekend, just the two of us. There’s a lovely spa down on capital near Goldi. We could spend a day there getting pampered and dolled up, than after we can shop until we fall over. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

The churning in her stomach grew worse, and this time Luna wondered if it was the idea of a day and the spa and shopping with her mother that had caused it. “I can’t, sorry. Dad and I are going to Madison. It’s my first blood ceremony.” Luna held her breath. “You could come. I really want you there.”

Her mother closed the refrigerator door. She carried a small bottle and a glass  to the table and set it in the chair closest Luna. “If you and your father want to go up dancing around in the woods with a bunch of strangers, that’s your business. Don’t ask me to condone such foolishness. It’s a waste of time.”

“Any more of a waste of time that facials and malls?” Luna snapped defensively.

Julie didn’t answer. She stormed out of the kitchen, nose high in the air. Luna clutched her stomach and leaned hard against the wallpaper decorated with cranes and other water birds. She shouldn’t have snapped at her mother, not matter how wrong Luna thought she was. Her father wouldn’t have approved at all. He never fought with his wife, at least he never had in front of Luna. Even so, she could tell his marriage was strained and their home was on shaky ground. Her friend Kiely’s folks fought, but when they were happy things were great, Luna sometimes wondered which way was better.

She slid down the wall and sat on the floor. The room was already getting wobbly, and she tensed in expectation of the dizziness that was certain to follow. Something hard dug into her bottom.

Luna moved over a few inches to find a set of her father’s keys on the floor. He was always loosing them, and with a chunk of keys like he carried she couldn’t imagine how he managed to misplace them. Her father always laughed and blamed it on mischievous wee folk. He’d leave an offering in the back yard of cream and honey rolls, and some enough in a few days he’d find what he lost.

Luna took her father’s keys in her hand and in that instant her whole life changed.

***

Shadow Storm

“Out of the way, dork!”

Anoi squeaked in surprised and swerved against the curb as the sedan pushed by her into the school driveway. The two boys and trio of girls inside the vehicle laughed uproariously as her bike tipped, sending Anoi sprawling onto the sidewalk. She stood up slowly, brushing off her jeans, and grimaced at the growing crimson she could see beneath the thinning denim knees.

“Smooth move Raggedy Ann.” A boy called out the familiar nickname, much to the delight of his compatriots as they passed her on the sidewalk.

She didn’t look up at the boys, nor at the sound of the laughter that followed them as she picked her bike up off the ground. The paint was dinged in places, but all in all it looked in good shape.

Anoi sighed in relief. It’d taken her summer to build the bike from the spare parts she found in the local dump and with what she could buy with the money she made doing odd jobs around her neighborhood. It wasn’t much, but it gave her a sense of freedom and pride. Losing this bike would be like losing one of the best parts of herself.

She pushed her bike past the driveway and toward the rack on the north side of the school building. Anoi’s elbow’s ached from the fall as much as her legs, but the last thing she wanted to do was draw attention to herself. She’d learned a long time ago that school was like being a gazelle living among a pride of hyenas, one sign of weakness and the predators went in for the kill.

“Mmmm check out the transfer.” A familiar voice drawled, and Anoi turned to spot Kelly Jensen and her band of giggling groupie’s in heavy study of a tall figure making his way down the main walk toward the office.

The boy didn’t look at all familiar to Anoi, and by the affect he had on the girls he passed, she guessed he was the transfer Kelly was talking about. His long white blonde hair was tied back on a neat ponytail that dangled between his shoulder blades. His black shirt was worn tightly enough to accent his deeply muscled back, and the deep blue jeans that were painted along his lower half hid nothing of what lay beneath them.

Anoi turned back to the daily ritual of locking up her bike, but not before she caught sight of the boy. His journey halted sharply and he turned back to look around him. She shrugged. Anoi didn’t see all the fuss over some boy, but if he wanted to cozy up to Kelly Jenson that was fine by her. She’d been a even bigger bitch to Anoi ever since Kelly’s musician boyfriend had dumped her near the start of term. It’d be a relief to give her and her chattering geese something else to focus on besides tormenting Anoi.

“You’re hurt.” A deep voice said from right behind Anoi, causing her to jump and fall back onto the sidewalk. Anoi looked up to find a set of piercing blue eyes staring down at her attached to the handsome smiling face of the new boy. His skin was golden brown, like butterscotch, but it was his eyes that drew her in as if they could peer into Anoi’s soul.

 

***

These next two are part of the few non-lesbian stories I have written. When your muse throws something at you, what are you gonna do?

Oh It's Magic

(poly-fiction - m/m/f)

Máahes rested his forehead against the cool glass to peer inside the bedroom. Moonlight spilled through the small window casting a pale illumination over the figure in the iron-filigreed bed. The wrinkled pale blue sheet gathered in bunches around a shapely mahogany thigh, framing it like a well cared for masterpiece.

The woman moaned and turned onto her stomach, her legs twisting themselves up in the pale blue and white linens. She breathed slow and deep, never knowing that eyes watched her intently through the thin pane of glass. Strands of bluish-purple hair spread out upon the oversized black velvet body pillow and over the arm that draped over it. Her muscular back was revealed now that the position of the sheets had shifted.

The window was opened a few inches and the chilled evening air caressed her exposed skin, raising tiny goose bumps wherever it touched. Máahes shivered reflexively, his gaze drawn to the deep scars across her back and arms. There was a story there, and Máahes was curious to find out more of this young human’s tale. Every inch of her body spoke about what a strong woman Juniper Andrews was. She’d need every bit of that strength for what was ahead.

Máahes wasn’t sure how long he stood there, staring at this strange woman. Rain drummed softly against the glass and dripped from his hair in steady droplets. Soon the torrent of water blurred the image of the woman as it fell in sheets over the surface of the window. It seemed the element themselves thwarted him.

Heka’s firm hands gripped Máahes’ shoulders, signaling to him it was time to go. Neither man said a word as they moved away from the building. Máahes was confused by the battle raging in his head. He was fascinated by the woman, and that fact made him want to dislike her even more. No matter how different she seemed, humanity had become all the same; weak, greedy vermin. Look at what they did to the earth, he reminded himself. Beautiful as she appeared, as much of a warrior as her body spoke she was, this one would be like all the rest. He was certain of it.

“You are quiet tonight.” Heka touched Máahes’ arm, and paused in front of an empty bus shelter. The side wall of the shelter had been smashed. Broken glass littered the sidewalk like chunks of diamonds glittering under the harsh streetlight above. “Is something troubling you?”

“Let’s just get to the manor. I’m bored with this.”

***

Bloodstained Innocence

(m/f)

Reality hit Ashanti hard as he slammed unceremoniously onto the cold cement floor of his basement apartment. He swore loudly and struggled with the thick blanket that now wrapped around him like a death shroud. Finally, Ash freed himself and sat up, rubbing his battered skull hard with the palm of his hand.

Some weird looking Indian kid from who the hell knew wherte? What did that have to do with a city boy like him? Most the guys he hung with at the sports bar above his place would’ve laughed to hear how shaken up he’d got over some dream, but they’d not grown up the way he did. As man among a clan of shifters, Ash’d learned more than he ever wanted to know about omens and the importance of paying attention to prophetic dreams. Ash didn’t know if this one was like that, but it damn sure hadn’t been normal either.

One downside about growing up among the Clan in a house of all women was that Ash was the only one in his family who couldn’t shift into a full were. Somehow, being able to take the shape of a brindle-coated Akita was far less exciting than the hybrid battle form his sisters could assume, but it got him by. He was lucky; unlike most of the males within the Clan who lost the ability at puberty, Ash could still at least take his primal animal form. Leave it to his sister to find a way to use even that against him.

Glancing at the clock, Ash groaned as he noticed the time. Four in the morning. After the fight with Montana he’d been out hunting for leaches until two to blow off steam, and he still needed to be up by seven to get ready for a breakfast date with his sister. He’d canceled on Terri three times this month and she’d skin him alive if he made it a fourth.

Ash tried to wipe the dream from his thoughts, but the girl’s ice blue eyes played again and again in his mind. Chi. The name echoed through him, refusing to be erased. She was long dead by now, so why did her face still torment him? And if what he saw was real, then how? He knew the damage the vampires could do to any place undefended from their kind, but what reservation nowadays had no Clan to guard its boarders?

What about those…things with the collars and leashes? Ash had never seen anything like them before, and he’d damn sure remember something that ugly.

He stood and let what was left of the blanket fall to the floor. Ash shivered as a draft of late autumn air blew through the poorly insulated window and brushed over his bare skin. He reached for the boxers and jeans that lay draped over the headboard and hastily put them on.

A skittering noise caught his attention, and Ash looked up to see a large black spider crawling across the glass of his window and up the graying white walls. It clambered over a tall bookshelf and crept into the shadows of the top shelf.

Ash shone the penlight hanging from his belt loop into the darkness and watched as the spider attached one end of a silken thread to the inside corner of the shelf. Below was an obsidian statue, an African god who was said to teach his followers the art of sorcery and watched over the shape shifter children at night while the slept. The figure was a young man, strong of build with a stern expression. He held a little girl in his lap and looked out at the world as if daring anything to face him.

The spider weaved her web between the wood and the statue, and Ash found himself unable to pull his gaze away. The spider was a symbol of community, of the web of family, sacred to many of the tribes and the Clan themselves. Despite all attempts to hold onto the present, the image of the spider dragged his thoughts into a part of the dream that until now he’d had trouble remembering in full.