Two Spirits

CHAPTER 6

Curiosity ate at Trey as he followed Tenino outside. He expected them to take the Jeep with the sheriff’s seal on the side but instead Tenino stopped only long enough to retrieve the shotgun from its rack before proceeding to a stand-alone garage.

The doors opened sideways rather than rolling up. “ATV’s on this side,” Tenino said, grabbing the handle on the left, pulling to create an opening just wide enough to get a four-wheeler out.

“Just one?” Trey asked, his cock reacting to the idea of riding with his arm around Tenino’s waist and his front pressed to Tenino’s back, even if the little kid in him wanted his own ATV.

“A guy can only ride one at time. But if you hang around, there’s room in the garage for two.”

“Sounds good,” he managed, his voice little more than a croak.

Tenino nodded, just enough to let Trey know he’d heard the admission that the thing between them extended beyond staying safe from Patricia Veron.

The shotgun went into a sheath secured to the ATV. Tenino rolled the four-wheeler through the open doorway.

Trey closed the door. The ATV engine rumbled to life. He slid onto the seat behind Tenino, felt aroused and excited, happy in a way he couldn’t ever remember feeling— like everything was falling into place and he was where he was supposed to be.

Within minutes Trey understood why they’d taken the ATV instead of the Jeep. They headed upward on a steep, narrow trail. It was dark in places, the path shaded by evergreen trees. He grunted when they hit a low spot, sending a shower of muddy water over their legs and making him wish he had jeans on instead of sweatpants.

“This is a shortcut,” Tenino said a while later, slowing at a curve. “It’d take a couple of hours over fire roads and then some walking if we used the Jeep.”

“I like it.” Trey couldn’t resist placing a kiss on the bare skin of Tenino’s neck. “But I still want my own wheels.”

Tenino laughed, gunned the engine. It felt like they were heading straight up the side of a mountain.

Trey’s breath caught when they cleared the trees. Below was a valley, its vast tracks of old-growth forest containing redwoods that had probably been alive for thousands of years.

In front and around them, snowcapped mountain ranges stretched out. Tenino wheeled the ATV around and cut the engine. Trey slid from the seat, Tenino followed. They stood on a small rocky plateau that felt like an ancient gateway.

In the distance the storm gathered. Dark clouds formed and reformed, served as a backdrop for splintered bolts of lightning as thunder rolled across the land. Power vibrated through the air, primal, unstoppable, uncontainable—destructive and yet also life-giving.

There were no the words to adequately describe what Trey saw, what he felt. He could only nod when Tenino said, “Thunderbirds fly in this place.”

The first drops of rain hit them, cold, gentle, though Trey guessed water would soon come down in violent, stinging sheets. In silent accord they both turned to the ATV. Tenino straddled the seat first. Trey slid on behind, wrapped his arm around Tenino’s waist again, heard the phantom drum beat and looked backward as the ATV kicked forward.

He saw an old man on horseback where no man or horse could be—feathers braided into hair and horse’s mane. Both man and beast otherworldly, the land personified. And then the image was lost to the darkness of the trail and wildness of the Tenino’s descent.

Trey was clinging to Tenino by the time they got to the smooth, wide trails leading into the small valley where the cabin was. His heart raced with the same exhilarating fear a roller-coaster ride gave him.

The adrenaline spiking his system needed an outlet and he knew just what form it should take. His arms loosened so his hands could go to the front of Tenino’s jeans.

“I take it you like living on the edge,” Trey said, exploring the bulge he found, deciding one wild ride deserved another.

“Shit,” Tenino said, voice catching, a groan escaping as Trey measured the length and hardness of the erection protected by denim, then found the snap, the zipper, and freed them.

The four-wheeler slowed, bucked with the unintentional application of brakes. Sped up when Trey’s hand slid underneath the waistband of Tenino’s Jockeys and wrapped his fingers around Tenino’s cock.

“Unfair,” Tenino panted.

Trey laughed. “Definitely fair. Any jury would rule in my favor considering what you just put me through.”

“You enjoyed it.”

“And you’re enjoying this,” Trey said, exploring the soft skin and wet tip of Tenino’s cock.

Tenino responded by hitting the gas, racing toward the cabin as if their lives depended on it. Trey laughed, decided to ease back because it would definitely ruin the day if one or both of them ended up in the hospital.

The rain was coming down with a little more determination by the time they reached the cabin. The flashes of lightning were closer, the thunder louder.

With a final stroke, Trey freed Tenino’s cock, slid his hand from the warmth of the Jockeys. Tenino stopped the ATV in front of the closed garage. Trey got off, grabbed the door handle, pulled.

There was the sound of a gun firing.

Tenino jerked, fell forward, blood soaking into his jacket.

Trey reacted without thinking. He grabbed Tenino and dragged him into the garage.

The rain began falling in earnest, beating on the roof. It was muted by the thunder of Trey’s heart, his frantic, harsh breathing.

Blood poured from a hole in Tenino’s chest, leaked from the corner of his mouth along with bubbles of air. No! Trey cried, stripping his jacket off, covering the wound, applying pressure though he feared that just as much blood might be pooling underneath Tenino.

Footsteps sounded. Too late he thought about the shotgun in its sheath on the ATV.

His hand shook as he found Tenino’s .45, took it from the shoulder holster. He needed to get to a phone, a car, to—

Patricia’s voice interrupted. “You betrayed me. You ruined my life and destroyed my family. Now you’re going to pay.”

Trey found the gun’s safety and pushed it into the disabled position. His hands were covered in blood. His mind became a white haze consumed with the will to survive, the absolute need to do whatever it took to save Tenino.

She never considered that he might have a gun and know how to use it. And even when she saw it in his hands, she didn’t think he was capable of taking a life.

Patricia laughed, a sound holding a deep well of hatred, a thirst for violent revenge whose origins were anchored in the abuse she’d suffered as a child at the hands of her father and uncles. She smiled savagely as she brought the hand holding the gun up.

Their eyes met. Held for a surreal instant—all veneer stripped away—ended when Trey pulled the trigger of Tenino’s on-duty piece.

A sob escaped, not for Patricia as she dropped to the ground and didn’t move, but for Tenino who was also motionless. “No!” Trey shouted, the gun slipping from his grip as he bent down, pressed his palms to Tenino’s torn and bloody chest as his mind scrambled for the right thing to do.

He covered Tenino’s mouth with his own, forced his breath into Tenino’s lungs. He worked frantically, felt the fabric of his soul rip with each exhalation of breath, with each press of palms against unresponsive chest.

The coldness of reality, of loss, brought agonizing pain and chaotic emotion, unchecked tears and audible sobs. He wished it were him who’d taken the bullet instead of Tenino, would have gladly given up his life if it brought Tenino’s back.

“His spirit flies now,” a voice said and Trey jerked, looked up and found the old man he’d seen earlier, feathers and beads braided into the hair on either side of his face, his deeply tanned skin bare except for a loincloth and moccasins.

“Help him, please help him,” Trey said, knowing he was in the presence of a being tied to this ancient land, a primordial force given a physical form so he could comprehend it with his human eyes and mind. “Let me take his place.”

The old man offered a wooden cup. “Your spirit calls to his, and his to yours. Drink and you will be able to find him. Your spirits are meant to soar together.”

Trey took the cup between bloody fingers, drank the honey-gold offering without hesitation, uncaring that he didn’t fully understand the old man’s words. All that mattered was Tenino.

There was a wrenching sensation, followed by gray cold nothingness, and then by awareness of movement, as though he was the wind sweeping over a land shrouded by fog. He felt a presence, a mass of air moving to his side so they became twin jets of air streaming through nothingness together until slowly they merged and melded, became one—and the beating of a drum began behind them, its rhythm steady and insistent, commanding spirit back to flesh.

The pain was almost unbearable, a death and birth. Voices joined the sound of the drum. Heat burned away the chill of nothingness as the song rose and fell, reached a crescendo—stopped as Trey gasped, opened his eyes and cried at the sight of Tenino bending over him, his chest smooth where once it had gaped and bled out his life.

Tenino’s gaze held raw emotion, making words unnecessary. He lowered his head, pressed his mouth to Trey’s in a kiss that was primal, consuming.

Trey’s arms went around Tenino, pulled him down so limbs tangled as tongues thrust and slid against one another, cocks filling with the frantic desire for physical intimacy. They were panting, shuddering when the need for air forced their lips apart.

Slowly Trey became aware of the rain pounding the roof of the garage, the thunder, the lightning flashes drawing his attention to the open doorway and Patricia’s body. He thought he should feel a backlash of guilt and horror, but he felt only relief.

It was over.

“We need to call this in,” Tenino said.

Trey shivered, wanted to protest when Tenino lifted off him but he knew Tenino was right. “Do you remember what happened?”

“Yes.” Tenino offered his hand. Trey took it and was pulled up and into Tenino’s embrace. “I know you came after me.”

Tenino’s mouth claimed Trey’s again. The kiss started savage but moved seamlessly into a gentle melding of body and soul. It reached into Trey’s chest and wrapped around his heart like the phantom talons he’d felt when he was sitting in the diner and watching the wing shadow of an imagined thunderbird.

Tenino pulled away just enough so they could look into each other’s eyes and see the emotion there, the word neither of them was quick to say but each felt. Love. “You brought me back. Which means you’re stuck with me.”

“I can deal with that,” Trey said. “There are worse things.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Trey’s gaze strayed to Patricia’s body. He felt a stirring of pity, for the victim she’d once been. But it was overridden by horror at the monster she’d become, if not an abuser herself, then a person who knowingly lived on the wealth gained from child pornography, who willing participated in the business of selling it.

He shuddered, relived for a moment the horror of Tenino’s death, of taking a life— revisited the nightmare path he’d ended up on because he denied his sexuality, pretended to be straight.

Oh yeah, there were worse things than ending up in Tenino’s life, Tenino’s bed. His heart swelled with happiness, with the promise of a future together. “Isn’t there a Chinese proverb that says if you save someone’s life, you’ve got to care for them forever?”

“You’re the teacher, you tell me.” Tenino grinned. “But if that means you do the cooking and housecleaning, I’m all for living by Chinese proverbs.” He closed the distance between them touched his mouth to Trey’s. “Let’s call Tekoa and get this behind us. There’s more about me you need to know, but I can’t show you until after this is handled.”

Tekoa arrived a little while later, after Tenino and Trey had showered and dressed in clean clothes. He listened as Tenino spoke in their native language, wrote down what would become their official statements, what the law and those not of The People could understand and accept as truth. He took photographs before bagging Patricia’s gun and Tenino’s service piece, as the coroner, a grizzled bear of man who arrived behind Tekoa, bagged the corpse.

“Any idea how she found you?” Tekoa asked as they stood in the cabin after the coroner’s vehicle had driven away with Patricia’s body in it. “You make any phone calls out? Tell anyone where you are?”

Trey shook his head. “No calls.”

“Only way she could have found us is with a tracking device,” Tenino said.

“The pig,” Trey said, understanding in that instant how the bank had survived Patricia’s rage when nothing else of sentimental value had.

He’d thought she missed it because one of his shirts was draped over it but instead she’d known he’d take it with him when he returned to find his house trashed.

Tekoa’s eyebrow lifted when Trey retrieved the ceramic pig and returned with it. He held it belly up, removed the stopper then held the bank over the table.

Dollar coins spilled out first, rolling and bouncing and clinking, empting from the bank to reveal a GPS tracking unit.

“Damn,” Tenino said. “I held the thing in my hands and missed the possibilities.”

Tekoa bagged the tracking unit and left a few minutes later, just as the violent edge of the storm reached them.

Lightning flashed, splintered the sky above. Thunder shook the cabin.

“Alone at last,” Tenino said, need as powerful as the storm filling him.

It took sheer willpower to keep his clothes on and his hands off Trey long enough to light a fire in the fireplace, but he managed it—just.

“You know you drive me crazy,” Tenino said, standing, reaching for Trey, pulling him forward and groaning when their cloth-covered erections touched.

“Me? I’m not the one who died.”

Tenino felt Trey tremble, heard the catch in his voice of delayed reaction setting in. He crushed it with a kiss meant to leave no room for anything but lust.

Tongues battled. Hands roamed, tormenting and teasing until driven to work in fevered accord so clothing was stripped away and skin touched.

They sank to the floor to the thick rug, rolled, wrestled, built the passion with rough and tender caresses, with wet tongues and heated lips, the sting of teeth and scrape of nails.

Hair slid from its binding, added to the sensuality until they were both panting, anxious for release.

Tenino could feel the storm raging outside, issuing the same ancient call first answered by his ancestors. He guided Trey onto his hands and knees, used liquid arousal to prepare the way until Trey was rocking backward, his voice and body telling of his willingness to be entered.

It was ecstasy, a joining of flesh and spirit as Tenino slid into Trey, his cock unsheathed, free of any barrier. He reached around, gripped Trey’s penis, loved the way Trey moaned, pulsed in his hand, gave himself completely over to a passion he’d denied before arriving in Hohoq.

“There’s no going back,” Tenino said, remaining still, fighting the urge to thrust.

“I don’t want to.”

“Good.”

Tenino began moving then, sliding in and out, fighting for breath, for closeness, for the merging of two into one, for the ultimate release.

It came as semen jetted through his cock, through Trey’s, heralded by the roar of rain as spirit sheared away from flesh with a clap of thunder.

They became pure energy, power gathering until it took the form of brightly feathered Thunderbirds, their wings outstretched, riding the thermals in the valley they’d seen through human eyes earlier.

This is real, Trey said, his mental voice awed, humbled, excited.

As real as the cup you accepted and drank from.

Tenino reached out and touched Trey’s feathered back with his talon. You asked what the Thunderbird meant to me. Now you know the truth of it. In the eyes of The People, you’re one of us now. My partner and lover.

With those words, desire stirred in Trey and he became aware of his human form lying on the rug in front of the fireplace, Tenino curled around him in a silent embrace. He faltered, felt the powerful, winged shape start to become insubstantial, torn between the call of the storm, the exhilaration of flight and the need to talk, to meet Tenino’s eyes and hold him, to rejoice in both of them being alive.

We have a lifetime to fly together, Tenino said, turning, guiding Trey back toward the cabin, wings moving in sync, hearts beating in unison, two spirits made whole and forever joined.