Chapter 5
Ren froze as his gaze locked with the woman's. When Cabeza had called and told him the Ixkib, or ghighau as she was known in his language, had been found and then lost, he'd envisioned her as an elder woman. It was what she'd always been in the past.
But never had he foreseen this....
Or anticipated her ...
Her presence slammed into him like an unexpected fist in his gut. This was the woman in yellow who'd killed him in his visions. Time and again. The one whose gentle touch always paralyzed him for her lethal blow.
One she'd never failed to deliver to him with a smile on her lips. "I'm here for you." That voice haunted him as his head reeled from a reality he didn't want to face.
By her hand, I will die. And he couldn't deny it. His precogs were never wrong.
Never.
And in the flesh, she was even more beautiful. More compelling, she had her long, dark brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. Strands that had come loose during her capture and escape curled around her face in an attractive mess that begged him to sink his hand into it and see if it was as soft as it appeared. And even though she was well muscled for a woman, she was tiny. The top of her head barely reached the middle of his chest.
Just like in my dreams.
Still, even knowing that she would eventually kill him, he couldn't bring himself to harm her. Not while her sweet scent filled his head. There was something about her that appeared soft and delicate. Fragile.
Or so he thought until she narrowed those dark eyes and lunged at him with an object in her hand.
Reacting on pure instinct, he fell back, allowing her to unbalance herself when she didn't make contact with his body. He clamped down on her wrist with enough pressure to control her attack, but not enough to harm her. And as he held her immobile, he realized she was hurt and bleeding.
Badly.
He would have admired her bravery and spirit even if she wasn't wounded. The fact that she fought when others would be on the ground, crying, said a lot about her character and resolve.
"I'm not going to let you kill me," she snarled in his face.
He opened his mouth to respond, but before he could draw a single breath, her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out.
Ren barely caught her before she collapsed. Swinging her up in his arms, he debated what to do. He'd ventured here in his crow form. It'd been so long since he'd last tried to teleport someone from one realm to another that he wasn't sure if his powers would work or not. And then there was the small matter that it was a lot harder to teleport dead weight than someone whose conscious energy he could use for a power source. Not to mention, his brother had drained a good portion of Ren's strength to summon the Na'ha Ala to pull the woman from the human realm into this one.
I hate you, Coyote.
But it wasn't productive to focus on something so negative. Especially not while another Na'ha was entering their small haven ... and it wasn't alone.
A large group of hairy, smelly friends had decided to join it.
Like it or not, Ren didn't have a choice.
Either he tried ...
Or they died.
Hoping for the best, he summoned every bit of power he could and forced himself to take a very rare leap of faith. His head buzzed as he felt the surge.
Light flashed and he felt his body shift, but not how he wanted it to.
Shit ...
He didn't go far. In fact, he went toward them instead of away.
Only I have this kind of luck. Thank the Spirits that the woman was unconscious and couldn't see his incompetence. It was bad enough he was awake to witness it. All he needed was for her to laugh at him.
You're worthless, Makah'Alay. I weep for the day you were brought into this world to be a hindrance to us all....
He flinched as he heard his father's acerbic voice across the centuries. Would you die already, you bastard? I had enough of you while you lived.
But sometimes dead just wasn't dead enough.
Pushing those thoughts away and forcing himself to concentrate on only the positive, Ren tightened his grip on the woman.
With a savage hiss, the Na'ha came at him, fangs bared, claws gleaming in the dim light.
Ren twisted at the waist so that the creature would hit his spine and not the woman. Then, he tried to at least teleport them back to where they'd been a moment ago. The Na'ha's hot breath scorched his neck as it clamped a clawed hand onto his biceps.
That pain boosted his powers as he cried out and rage took hold of him.
This time, with that boost, it worked.
One second they were in the cave, the next he was in his living room....
With the Na'ha's hand still attached to his arm.
Curling his lip at the grisly sight, he moved to lay the woman on his couch so that he could tear it free and throw it into his fireplace where he'd left a fire burning. While his journey had seemed to last only a few minutes, time here passed differently than it did there.
Here, it was already night and his small house was silent and empty. Except for the sound of the fire popping and destroying the physical remains of something he'd hoped would never be able to breach the gate to this world. Things he'd hoped to never face again.
Thanks, Coyote.
Bastard. Rat. Asshole.
Son of a belly-licking rodent's backside.
Ren cringed at the smell of burning demon flesh, which triggered memories he'd spent eternity trying to forget. But some wounds went far deeper than the bones. Some went all the way to the soul, and they stung even after he'd sold that same soul for peace.
Or, more to the point, war.
Trying not to think about it, he returned to the woman and lifted her shirt so that he could see her injury. Yet all he really saw at first was her smooth, tanned skin. Skin that looked as soft as the hair he really wanted to bury his face into so that he could inhale her delicate scent.