The Beckoning of Beautiful Things (The Beckoning Series) Page 11

  Marissa stumbled backward.

  “You’ve called me. I’ve come. Does this mean you’re prepared to face the darkness?” Kali’s voice was like a blade being ground against a spinning stone, deadly and insistent. Her red-rimmed eyes bulged fierce and huge. A necklace of heads hung from her neck, while her skirt was fashioned from rows and rows of arms, their fingers affixed to the waistband with leather bindings.

  “I…I…I don’t know.” Marissa’s eyes jumped to the dried blood at the end of each arm and the vacant eyes of the heads.

  “Should I ask the Numen?” One finger reached toward Daniel’s cheek and slowly snaked down to his neck.

  He flinched and froze in place.

  The goddess moved her finger down along his jaw and descended to his neck. She made a swift slicing motion. She extended a long, red tongue from her lips and gave one sweeping lick of the delicate skin in the hollow of his neck. “Mmm, Night Numen, you’d make a fine consort.”

  Daniel took a sharp intake of breath.

  Marissa yelped.

  Kali twirled the tip of her tongue around and around in the well of skin above his sternum. “Your pulse is rapid. Are you scared?”

  His jaw worked and his mouth clamped in a slit. “No.”

  “I don’t believe you.” She threw back her head and laughed. The laughed echoed in every direction. “What is it you want, child?”

  “P…p…protection.”

  “That’s easy.” She smiled.

  Her smile did nothing to ease Marissa’s shivering belly.

  “And what will you give me?”

  “Wh…wh…what do you want?”

  The goddess seemed thoughtful. She cocked her head and scrutinized Marissa. Her long, long black hair fluttered in a non-existent wind, curling around her face like beckoning fingers.

  Marissa’s mouth dried into a plaster-filled aperture.

  “I’ve got it.” The goddess smiled again. “I want you to be like me.”

  “What?” Marissa tensed.

  “Wield your power, child. Use it wisely. Use your considerable skill to carve away chaos.” She beamed. Her dark blue finger extended to Marissa’s face.

  Marissa cringed from the cold touch. She inhaled and exhaled in small, rapid puffs. Her skin seemed to ice over as the fingertip circled her face.

  “Yes, you’ll do nicely,” Kali said. She withdrew her hand. “Your wish is granted.” Without another word, she slid back into the crack from which she’d emerged, the air whooshing with her disappearance.

  Marissa took a deep breath, looking around wildly. “What was that?” she asked in a shaky voice.

  “That,” Daniel said, swiftly resuming his composure, “That was a sign, Ms. Engles. Now place her over there, facing the East. Ask her if she’ll stay in place for seven moons.”

  “Is that all you’re going to say? I just saw the scariest creature I’ve ever seen in my life and for you it’s business as usual?”

  “I’m afraid so, love. We have work to do.”

  She stood gaping in the moonlight. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously. We have to keep moving.”

  Marissa shook her head. “This makes no sense. None.”

  “Just…let’s keep going, Marissa. Please.”

  She stared at Daniel. His face looked concerned and slightly disturbed. Who are you? What are you? She stomped to where he’d indicated. “Why seven moons?”

  “It’s a sacred number,” Daniel said. “And honestly, if Jason is still bugging you after seven moons, we may as well hang up our magic hats.” He smiled at her.

  Marissa did as she was told.

  “Thank her, and let’s move to the Huitzilopochtli.”

  Marissa touched her hand to her heart, dipped her head. Thank you, goddess. She made her way around to the side. Stooping down to push away the fern fronds, she found the Huitzilopochtli, frowning fiercely in the moonlight.

  “A cheerful companion, our Huitzilopochtli.”

  “I don’t think so. He looks so mean. That’s why I put him out here.”

  “He’s a fierce dude, true. But he’ll make a good warrior for protection. You don’t want Goofy guarding your house, do you?”

  “No, not Mickey Mouse, either. Especially not Donald Duck.” She smiled.

  “It’s decided then. You’ll have to invoke him, woman to man.”

  She crinkled up her face. “Woman to man? What in the world does that mean?”

  “It means you ask him for a favor the way you would ask a man. The way that you would ask me…”

  She inhaled sharply. Want. The man was pure combustion.

  “Yes, mi corazón…like that,” Daniel said. “Just like that.” His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.

  He wants it to. He feels it, just like me.

  Still locked to her eyes, Daniel uttered. “Pick up the Huitzilopochtli. Don’t look away from me.”

  She slowly crouched down to retrieve the statue, straining her neck upwards.

  “Stand up.”

  She stood.

  “Now ask him. Keep looking at me.”

  “Huitzilopochtli,” she croaked. Weakling. I’m a weakling. She cleared the combined fear and longing from her throat and tried again. “Huitzilopochtli.” “I need your help. I need your protection. I need you to keep me safe.” She quieted, breathing softly in the lunar illumination. “I need your assistance to keep someone away. Will you protect me?” Her eyes bore into Daniel’s. I’m caressing you with my eyes. I’m holding you in my hands, Daniel. Cupping my palms around you. You’re a butterfly. You’re a dragon. You’re a huge, raging fire. Stroking you. Stroking you. Stroking you. Stroking you with all of me. Stroking you. The air around her felt thick and delicious. I’m breathing you. Drawing you in. Savoring you. Exhaling and releasing you. I’m on fire with you. “What do you think his answer is?” Her voice emerged barely audible.

  His eyes burned into hers, two cinders of scorching blue coal. “Yes. He promises to do it.”

  A bee’s nest of sensations winged their way through her. Her knees wobbled, her solar plexus pulsed, her third eye throbbed, and her heart opened wide, as if some angel had flung open the windows to her soul. “Thank you,” she whispered. “What shall I do now? Where shall I put him?”

  “Just put him down where you found him. He’s content there. Don’t look away.”

  She slowly crouched down and set the statue firmly in the grass. She stood back up, not taking her eyes from Daniel’s. We’re having a conversation, you and I. It’s a conversation of lovers. Want. Now. Want. I’m hanging in the air. Waiting. Wanting.

  Daniel reached for her face and brought his lips to hers.

  Two soft pillows. Two incredibly soft pillows pressing into mine.

  He crushed her mouth with his.

  A curious sensation spread through her face. It started off like pleasurable waves. She moaned into his mouth and the feeling intensified, becoming a flood of arousal. Her skin hummed and electric vibrations shivered through her. There’s the goddess again…the watery goddess. Marissa grabbed Daniel’s hair and tugged. I want to consume this man, to eat him alive. I want to wear his skull around my neck like Kali. I want. I want. I want.

  A muffled, strangled moan left Daniel’s throat.

  I have no self-control, I have no self-control, I have no self-control. Her arousal burned. The burn electrified. Sparks of light zinged from her face, her fingers, and her toes. A piece of dried grass next to her foot erupted into flames. “Daniel!” she cried, pushing away from him. “What’s happening to me?”

  He staggered back and fell on the grass.

  She stared at her hands, now shooting light bursts like sparklers. “This can’t be happening. It can’t. It can’t.” She backed away, from Daniel, from her fingers, from the moment before her. I’m a freak, I’m a freak, I’m a freak, I’m a freak.

  Daniel lay gasping, struggling to regain his equanimity. “What did you do?” he asked, sucking gulps of air into h
is lungs.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know how to stop it. Tell me what to do. Make it stop. These don’t belong to me.” She held her sparking hands away from her.

  “Try the same thing you did the other night. Focus on whatever you brought to mind when you were at my house.”

  “Okay,” she gasped. “Okay. Okay.” She squeezed her eyes shut. I’ve got my brushes. I’m painting the cool pond. I dip a sable brush into the pond. Gah! Forget the brushes. I’m leaping into the pond. Immersing my body in the cool liquid. Letting myself be held in suspension in water. Cool, cool water. Winter water. Icy, frigid, winter water. The lights in her fingertips sputtered and disappeared.

  Daniel stood up and brushed off his pants, still catching his breath. “We have our work cut out for us, dulzura.”

  “It seems we do.” Tears filled her eyes like a swollen stream. I’m afraid to touch you. I’m afraid to touch you. I’m afraid. I’m… “Are you mad at me?”

  “No. Perplexed maybe, but not mad. How could I be mad? You are a force to be reckoned with. I’ve wanted a force to be reckoned with.” He whipped out his imaginary pad of paper and held it out to her. “See? Right here. Page four. ‘Manifest force to be reckoned with in the form of a beautiful girlfriend.’” He tapped his palm. “See how many exclamation points I put after that sentence?”

  “Yes. I count at least eight.” She panted, sucking gulps of oxygen into her lungs.

  “Exactly. That’s how important it was to me. Now that I’ve found this force, I’d better figure out how to keep her safe. I made a vow using her tears, remember?”

  “I remember,” Marissa replied, nodding somberly. “Wow,” she said, looking at her smoking fingers.

  “Wow,” Daniel concurred. “I told you, I’ve been a patient man until now. I’ve been waiting for you. Now that the wait is over, we need to get you some training so you don’t do damage to either of us. Agreed?” he extended his hand.

  “Agreed.” She eyed his hand cautiously. “I’m not ready to…”

  “Come, dulzura. Live a little.” He grasped her hand and kissed it.

  “No sparks.”

  “Only here.” He tapped his chest.

  She smiled. He melts me. He turns me into my own steaming pond. “And now, let’s see to my pet and call it a night before I do any more harm.” Her index finger gave one last spark as she wandered towards the house, making her jerk once more.

  Chapter 12

  Marissa slept fitfully. She slipped into sleep. She surged awake. I’m an alien. I’m a freak. I don’t belong. I want to go back. I want to hide. I want to…I want Daniel Navid. She panted, surging with arousal. I wanted to consume him. I wanted to wear his head around my neck. I’m going insane. She twisted back and forth, tangling in her sheets. Tears leaked from her eyes. Her blurry eyes landed on the photo of her mom and dad, endlessly smiling at her, frozen in time. Her mom had waved at her from this wooden frame for 11 years as if saying goodbye again and again, but never quite meaning it. I don’t get this, Mom, I don’t get this, I don’t get this. Any of it. She flipped back the sheets and stomped into the bathroom. Sleep herbs. I need sleep herbs. She opened a bottle, poured two tablets in her mouth, scooped some water into her hand, tossed her head back, and swallowed. She wandered back to her bed, pulled the sheets and blankets all around her and drifted.

  Her dream-self stepped into a dark landscape, all gooey, dripping reds and blacks. This is like the kind of finger-paintings I created in that stupid art therapy class my aunt forced me into after Mom and Dad had died. All I used to do was push the stark, slimy colors around and around, mixing them with my tears and snot.

  A group of people stood in the distance, crouched around a glowing light. The figures appeared all shadowy, their faces blurred.

  “She’s the one we’ve heard about – the one whose birth was marked by a falcon spirit.”

  That’s Daniel. Her dream-self smiled.

  “Which one?”

  “The Réunion kestrel.”

  Excitement and murmurs followed.

  “A falcon speaks of freedom, swift action, and constant change. An extinct species speaks of reawakening and revival.”

  “It speaks of aggression! Have you seen them hunt? They fold their wings and can knock out prey mid-flight!” someone argued. “They speak of reckless impatience and folly! They hint at power gone awry.”

  “Stop being a curmudgeon,” a woman said. “The falcon is a great seer. She will guide with wisdom and cunning, informed by her intuition. She will be ruled by her passion.”

  Who are they talking about? Me?

  “So, she’s coming into her powers, big time. It seems she’s more powerful than any of us could have guessed.”

  “Completely untrained?” a female voice said. “That’s unheard of.”

  “Utterly and completely.”

  “Why has no one seen to her training?” a man asked.

  “Her parents were to see to that, but they died in a plane crash. She heard that El Demonio is to blame.”

  “The same sorcerer who took your beloved?”

  “So it seems. He may have stolen things from her mother – gemstones the esteemed jeweler Diego Perona fashioned to protect her. He could be using them to source her energy.”

  A lengthy silence followed. Source my energy.

  “So her parents died. Why didn’t anyone else see to her training?”

  “I asked around. Apparently her sisters and the aunt and uncle who raised her did not believe. They thought her beautiful mother suffered from flights of fancy.”

  Marissa’s ears perked, and she re-coalesced into the dream. You asked around? You asked around about me? Delight swirled through her belly and her heart. He asked about me! Then she frowned, confused. Didn’t we just part a few hours ago?

  “Such a shame! Mortals! Bah!” the female voice said.

  Mortals? Puzzlement clouded Marissa’s awareness.

  “Why haven’t we heard of this?” the female said again. “Why wasn’t this brought to our awareness before?”

  “That’s the mystery,” Daniel said. “It’s like she’s been hidden away. But who could have hidden her?”

  “It’s a puzzle,” another man said. “A complete mystery.”

  “Why have you asked us here?” asked one of the men.

  “One of you needs to train her – quickly. She is fuerza. She is a force.”

  “Why can’t you do it? You’re strong in the arts,” the female said.

  “I have…other reasons.”

  A pause ensued. Marissa’s dream-self waited, expectant.

  “Are you falling in love with her?” the male voice asked.

  Marissa’s dream-hair stood on end.

  “I don’t know. I haven’t been able to love since my beloved Josephina was killed. But she stirs things.”

  My beloved Josephina? What am I? Next best thing? And stirs things? Stirs things? Prostitutes and pole dancers stir things. Marissa’s dream-self folded her arms over her chest.

  Another male voice with a Southern drawl laughed. “Have your play with her. Consorting with a Light Rebel could be fun. Just like playing with you, you old bruja.”

  A female yelp rang out. “Stop it, you old fool.”

  The group laughed.

  So now I’m a plaything? I’m done with this dream. Wake up.

  “Will you help her?”

  “Help an untrained, out of control Light Rebel? Are you nuts?”

  “You are the strongest of us all, abuela. Please, Grandmother.”

  “Will she be able to be a match for the old windbag El Demonio? He’s becoming demented in his old age. A demented sorcerer with all that power is very dangerous. It’s taken six of us to keep him from doing any more damage – which we know of, anyway. He’s been awfully quiet lately.”

  A demented sorcerer is after me? Demented? Wake up!

  “As for you, my friend, watch yourself. You’ve made foolish mistakes before,” one of th
e men said. “You’re no stranger to folly. Make sure this isn’t another one of your mistakes.”

  I’m not a mistake, not a mistake, not a mistake! Wake up! She struggled to awaken. I’ve always felt like a mistake. I’ve always felt like a weird chick. I’m the weird girl who hides in her art. Who hides, period. Now Daniel knows it, too. Oh, I knew this was too good to be true!

  Frantic barks burst through the dream like machine gun fire.

  Sober? Are you in my dream? A window rattled. Sober? The dream began to dissolve. More barks batted the air, making her torpedo into her pink pajama clad body and bolt upright in bed.

  “Sober! Sober! Stop it!”

  The dog clawed at the window, baying and barking. He raced out of the room and distant scraping and scratching punctuated the air. Marissa smacked her forehead with her palm. “Gah! I shut the back door last night! He can’t get out!” Sober burst back in the room and clawed at the window between bounces. Boing, boing, boing, up and down, up and down, claw, claw, claw, claw, claw – the window was going to shatter. Marissa grabbed his collar and hauled him backwards. “Sit! Stay! Sit! Sit!” The dog reluctantly complied. She peered out into the yard. In the distance, beyond the fence, she could see blond curls bobbing in the moonlight. “Jason? What the hell is he doing?”

  He paced back and forth beyond her fence. When he approached the fence, he quickly backed away. He disappeared into the darkness. He raced toward the fence, sprinting as fast as he could. When he got close to the fence, he slipped and fell flat on his face.

  Marissa laughed. “Cool! The protection spell worked. Maybe we need to extend the perimeter though. In the meantime…” She picked up her phone and dialed 911. “There’s an intruder in my back yard. Yes, I can see him from my window. Here’s my address.”

  While she waited for the police, she lay back on her bed, contemplating the dream. “My beloved Josephina!” Jealousy strangled her heart into lockdown. How can I compete with memories of a long ago beloved? “I stir things,” she spat. What did my father used to tell me?