But there wasn’t a box big enough, or duct tape strong enough, to contain my curiosity.
I walked outside again and took a deep breath. The air was cold, but warming. The sky had gone from pale blue to sunny gold, and the breeze was gorgeous. Though, once more, something didn’t quite smell right. The bitterness came back again and bit me like it did last night, but it was heavy this time.
Thick and cold. Like the clamor of death.
With my eyes closed and my back against the closed door to the bookstore, I let my ethereal senses spill out of me and into my surroundings. The sounds of passing cars were muted now, as were the hushed whispers of passersby talking about the strange dead bird phenomenon and snapping shots with their phones.
And above all the hushed noise, I could hear swallows chirping. In my mind’s eye I could see them flying around. Phantom lights in the shape of birds, darting out from the tops of buildings and circling back in again in a crazy dance only they understood. They were ghosts, of course. The echo of a thing that was once there and now wasn’t. The swallows still flew and sang in the Nether and that, at least, was comforting.
But then the swallow song hit a sharp note, and they stopped singing. It was as if a cello had been plucked the wrong way, or a violin’s bow had skidded across the strings too hard. I winced from the noise and looked up to find them, but they were gone. Every last one of their lights, extinguished. Their crazy dance replaced by stillness. Their cheerful song drowned by silence.
And as I stood, staring with my mind’s eye into the empty space where the birds had once been, a figure came into view. It was dark and left a trail of shadows as it went. Solid shadows, like a mantle. The creature flew down from the heavens, into the street, and directly into my line of sight. It wanted me to see it. And when it got close, I saw it for what it was.
A large bird.
Only this wasn’t an ordinary bird. It landed on the roof of a car mere few feet away from me and hopped around to face me. I couldn’t tell its breed. The animal was too small to be a raven, so it could have been a crow. But the thing was wreathed in a mantle of living, writhing shadow and its eyes—radiant yellow orbs—weren’t placed on the sides of its head; but on the front.
And it was staring right at me.
“Hey, Miss,” said a woman, snapping me out of my trance. I blinked and opened my eyes.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Are you alright?”
“Uh, yeah, I’m fine. Why?”
“Sorry, it’s just that you were… breathing really heavily and just kinda standing there.”
“Yeah. I think I haven’t woken up properly yet. Thank you, though.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, and she walked along to where ever the heck she was going. But when she passed I saw the bird sitting on the roof of the car across from me. No writhing shadow. No yellow eyes. It was a regular crow. I had never seen something in the Nether before that had a physical counterpart like this.
The animal was fascina—CAW.
I jerked away from the sound and backed into the store door causing the door to rattle. Then the bird flew away, but I got the distinct impression that the sound hadn’t fazed it one bit. It chose to fly off, and that thought suggested a kind of intelligence existing behind the crow’s silver mirror eyes.
Or maybe I was making it up in my head.
“Fuck,” I said, cursing under my breath. “What is it with the birds around here?”
I shook my head, turned toward the store, and opened up. Today was already shaping up to be a weird day and I couldn’t wait for it to pass. After all, it would be one less day until I get to be with Aaron.
And that day couldn’t come soon enough.
CHAPTER 4
Despite the morning’s strangeness, the entirety of the work day sailed by. Customers trickled in and out. Books were bought and sold. Obscure tomes were located and ordered. I even picked up some of James’—the owner of the bookstore—mail from the PO Box down the street. He never got anything interesting, but I had permission to open them and see what they were.
Sometimes I would get official papers to sign and check out before faxing them to James’ accountant for him to deal with. We never spoke in person, me and James’ accountant, only via email. And I liked it that way. I enjoyed running the store with Eliza, even if her contribution had somewhat diminished as the bump started to get too big for her to manage.
She insisted she could work, but I didn’t want to risk hurting her or the baby. And, truth be told, without the distraction that was Eliza, I was able to get a lot of things done around the store; chores which we had decided upon doing many moons ago but never actually got around to doing.
Closing time came, and as the sun began its descent to the west and the sky began to return to the pale blue of the morning, I closed up—box of dead birds in hand. Animal control had shown up to clean the street earlier on, but I didn’t let them have the birds I had held on to. I decided never to tell anyone what I had done seeing as though to the average person I was probably crazy. Freak! But I didn’t care.
I had a higher calling, and those birds deserved to be buried with love.
So I walked home as the air cooled and made mental notes of where my shovel was and how deep each grave had to be. I also considered making tiny headstones or marking the grave with a pentagram made up of any number of rocks I might find along the way home, but the box I had chosen to carry the birds in was cumbersome and I wouldn’t be able to pick rocks without putting it down.
Then I got home, and as the rams head knocker on my front door stared back at me, all of my higher brain functions ceased. The door seemed impassable, like a barrier I couldn’t cross. I had the box in my hands, so I struggled to fish my keys out of my bag—of course I didn’t think to set the box down; that’s what a normal person does—and took a step toward the door.
The key didn’t want to find the lock. Despite looking right at it I couldn’t seem to get the damn thing to fit, let alone turn. Aha! The door unlocked and I pushed it open, and once again, my house was silent. Darker than usual, but still silent. I only had to take a step inside, however, before a chill raced up my spine.
I recognized this feeling.
It was like a set of cold fingers had traced a line across my right shoulder and then continued down along the length of my spine. The tingles persisted for a moment, and then another moment, as my body registered the cold and reacted to it by making my skin break out into goose flesh.
I shuddered and swallowed, then I set the box down by my feet and clenched my hands into fists, one of which was a fist full of keys. It hurt, but I didn’t care. The keys were cutting into my skin, but that little tidbit was irrelevant. A familiar vibration emanating at the crown of my head and travelling down my neck, chest, abdomen and thighs filled me as I called for The Power. Protection. I wanted protection. But I also wanted to be able to blast whoever—or whatever—was in my house.
Not again. I refused to be afraid of my own house!
“He—” I was about to speak when a figure came darting out of the bathroom next to the kitchen. I struggled to react, to release a bolt of energy into the man’s chest, but he was lightning fast and really strong!
Then he came into the light, and I realized: it was Aaron.
“You asshole!” I said. He had me pinned to the wall by my wrists. “I was about to kick your ass!”
“That would have been hot,” he said. His voice was at once a soft purr and an animal growl. Warm shivers filled me and electrified my skin.
“What the fuck are you doing here? What happened to a week?”
“Aren’t you glad to see me?”
“Yeah, but… questions!”
“Forget questions. They can wait.”
Aaron went in to kiss my neck and as his prickly stubble caressed my bare skin I could do nothing else but submit and arch my chest toward him. I ran my hands through his hair and sighed into his ear as his warm tongue
explored the flesh he had been longing to taste for months. Flesh that I had wanted him to taste.
“I missed you,” I said in a sigh.
“I missed you too,” he said, his hands exploring the curve of my back and sailing to my thighs. He picked me up and pulled me toward him.
My body was ablaze in an instant. I wanted to devour him and to have him devour me in kind. We would be animals together. We would cease to be people and become the essence of our passion made manifest. A single writhing entity, breathing and moving in unison. It had been too long.
Aaron carried me two steps and dropped to his knees on the kitchen floor. The cold tiles beneath my knees excited my skin as I made contact, and when he started to pull down the loose parts of my dress I lost myself. I hadn’t been this close to his body in months and recognized the change in an instant. His shoulders were broader, his abdomen was tighter—more compact and rigid—and his smell was altogether different. And as my own fingers now explored the groves of his muscles and every inch of his skin the craving within me started to scream out in pain until…
His lips found my collarbone and neck. They were warm and soft and trailed by a slight prickly sensation from his stubble. I arched into his lips and sighed, delighted at the warmth of his lips, but then he cupped one of my breasts and gently squeezed above the fabric of my bra. My body pulsed with electricity and want, a single powerful ripple sent coursing into me from that one single tender squeeze of his hand.
I pushed my chest further into his and ran my hands along the curve of his jaw and into his hair while he skillfully unhooked my bra. My flesh was bare, now; ready for him to take. Aaron paused for a moment to look at me, then he wrapped his hands around the small of my back, tipped my body up to his and wrapped his lips around one of my breasts. Immediately I felt the warmth of his breath, the wet of his tongue. My nipple hardened and I pulled him even closer, moaning into his hair.
Ablaze, now. Carnal desire was pumping through my veins at breakneck speed and there was no way to stem the flow. Aaron pushed me gently to my back, trailed his kisses to my abdomen and pulled my dress off entirely leaving me spread beneath him in only a set of lacy black panties. I was warm, wet, and my heart was hammering against my temples. Aaron lowered his body to me, kissed the fabric of my panties, and then ripped them off with a single pull of his hand.
A soft, cold breeze washed through the space between us for a moment, delighting the warmth I had felt only a moment ago, but the moment soon passed. Aaron dove into me, his tongue like a dart, flicking, and tasting the part of me he had been denied for so long. Seconds, and I was bucking and moaning. Minutes, and he had satisfied me twice over. He may have gone for a third if I hadn’t wrapped my legs around his torso and pulled his body toward mine, signaling my desire.
But Aaron understood and he quickly removed his shirt, jeans and boxers before joining me on the floor where I lay, warm and flushed and waiting. And when he entered for the first time in months I felt just how hard and how big he was, and knew from the bliss that came rushing through me that it had been too long since we had been together.
Much too long.
Hours melted into each other. I couldn’t remember this day ever having an evening. As far as my mind could recall, it was closing time, I had walked home, and then it was midnight. And I was floating on a cloud with Aaron by my side. His chest was heaving gently, and with my ear to his skin I could hear the rapid beating of his strong heart and feel the strange heat coming off his body.
“So, hi,” Aaron said.
I laughed. “Hello to you too.”
“Didn’t expect me, I guess?”
“No. Like, not at all.”
“I knew surprising you would be a good idea.”
I raised my head to look at him and kissed his chest before speaking. “It was.”
“I really did miss you, you know.”
“I know. I could tell when we spoke.”
“Could you?”
I kissed his chest again. My left hand and his right were entwined, and he was fiddling with my fingers. “Yeah, I mean, besides looking tired, you also looked… I don’t know. I could just tell.”
“You must have a knack for that.”
“I must do.”
“So Eliza had her baby?”
“Yeah, she did. I spoke to her earlier on while I was working. She’s doing great, but she has family coming over so I’m gonna keep my distance.”
“Oh? How come?”
“I just want to let them have time with their baby, you know?”
“I’m sure she would rather have you around.”
“And she will, if she calls. I’ve left it up to her. But anyway, I want to hear about you.”
“Me, huh?”
“Yeah, you big jerk. How did it all go? Where are you staying? Please tell me you aren’t leaving again.”
Aaron sighed. “There’s a lot of explanation I’m going to have to give if you want me to answer every one of those questions in detail.”
“I do, but start with the important one. Are you leaving again?”
I almost dared not ask. What if he said yes? What if his visit to Raven’s Glen was only temporary? He had basically quit his life to go and find his father and he had been gone for months. What if he couldn’t get his old job back? What about his house? I knew he was paying rent. Was he still paying it? Did he even have a home?
“No,” he said.
Relief! “That’s the correct answer,” I said, kissing his chest again.
Aaron smiled. “I’m going to stay with my uncle. He owns a garage just off Houston. Said I can work for him there with cars and bikes.”
“Oh that’s awesome!”
Aaron had always loved his car and basically all things mechanic. He was the kind of guy who actually still bought car and bike magazines instead of reading articles online. I guess he enjoyed using his hands—tactile sensations, that kind of thing.
Actually, I knew he enjoyed using his hands.
“Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. By the way, would you mind passing me my jeans?”
I sat up and let my copper hair fall all the way down my back. Aaron grinned at the sight of my pale skin and the curve of my hips, and I grinned with him. Then I handed him his jeans and waited patiently, sitting up straight and naked as the day the Goddess made me.
Aaron fumbled around in his pocket and pulled out what I suspected was a necklace of some kind. “Come here,” he said. And I did. And Aaron slipped a leather throng around my neck with a stone hanging off it. The shiny red stone sat snugly on my neck and caught the light nicely.
“Oh my—Aaron… is this… Jasper?”
“It is.”
“How did you know?”
“I’ve done my research,” he said with a smirk to end all smug smirks.
“How about you tell me what it is, then? And don’t skimp out.”
“Oh, a pop quiz? What do I get if I pass?”
I smiled to myself and my cheeks flushed bright red. “We’ll see, won’t we?”
“This,” Aaron said, “Is a Jasper stone; the seasonal stone for Ostara.”
“Carry on,” I said, turning to him.
“Ostara the Germanic word for the vernal equinox and it comes from the name of the fertility Goddess Ēostre – whose symbol is a hare and an egg. This is where we get the words east, Easter, and the word estrogen from, or at least that’s what people say.”
“That’s… amazing.”
“Is it so hard to believe that I could have found this information? Wikipedia is pretty useful.”
“It’s not, I just…”
I didn’t believe it: all this from Aaron? Had he been abducted by some UFO up in Nevada and undergone some kind of alien experiment?
“You don’t have words,” he said.
“I don’t. I love it, though. I’m just trying to figure you out.”
“What’s there to figure out?” he asked, slipping a hand under the back o
f his head. We had unknowingly laid back onto the carpeted floor.
“You’re… different now.”
“I know.”
“And I like it.”
“Then you’ll like me asking you out to dinner.”
“I… yes, I would, actually.”
Aaron sat up straight. His body curved into a perfectly tight, muscular L-shape. “I don’t want to sneak around anymore,” he said. “No more fuckery. There’s been no one else since the first time we hooked up.”
I swallowed.
“No one,” he continued. “You’re the one I want, and I want the real thing with you. None of the bullshit we had before.”
I stared into his blue eyes, my own eyes as bright as the sun with wonder at the man I was seeing in front of me. Strong, rough, but gentle and caring. Perfection.
I would have been some kind of dumbass to say no.
CHAPTER 5
I woke up the next morning, bright and early, to a warm, prickly sensation around my stomach. Of course, I hadn’t yet realized that Aaron was home and that he had spent the night with me. I was so used to being alone that waking up with someone next to me seemed strange, almost alien. But then my mind wrapped itself around the idea that Aaron was home and that meant…
When I glanced down along the length of my torso I saw him. Or, rather, I saw his hulking naked shoulders gleaming in the pale sunlight, his scruffy hair dropped low and tickling my belly, and his hands gently clasped around my thighs. I swallowed hard and went to speak, but Aaron sensed that I had roused from sleep and took it as invitation to take the breath out of my lungs with a quick jerk of his tongue toward the already warm and wet space between my legs.
I couldn’t remember the last time I had been woken up like this. Well, I could. It was the last time Aaron was here. But it had been so long that the connection between now and then was weak and distant, like something that happened years ago. Nevertheless, Aaron’s slow, careful movements ensured my body warmed and woke up singing bright songs of pleasure and desire.