Circe’s black eyes fell on Cassie. She scanned her up and down. The witch’s eyes widened. “You are human. From a dome. You’ve been Blessed by the Seventh House.”
“So I’ve been told,” Cassie said, sighing. Selina was holding on by a thread, and this witch woman wanted to talk about her so-called blessing.
“We will heal the wolf for an opportunity to commune with the Blessed of the Seventh House.”
Cassie rolled her eyes and gripped the hilt of her knife. “Go ahead then. I’ll commune with you all day if you just save my friend’s life, like, pronto. All right?”
“All of you out of the circle,” said Circe, shooing away everyone but the two other witches.
The women joined hands around the stone slab where Selina had passed out. Their chanting started, low and guttural, and rose slowly into a sharp-pitched crescendo. The other wolves milled about around the cars, ignoring the witches’ ritual, but Cassie watched their every move.
She could see the energies they gathered up from the earth and out of the air, although “see” was not exactly the correct terminology. It was as if she could sense it in her body and see it behind the darkness of her closed eyes.
The chanting had called up a sphere of energy around Selina. The witches placed their hands on the sphere. As they chanted, the sphere began to pulsate and glow in a changing spectrum of colors.
Circe reached to the dagger holstered at her hip and sliced the bandages from Selina’s leg and proceeded to cut out the festering flesh. Selina screamed and promptly passed out again. A second witch placed wet herbs over the wound while the third poured the liquid contents of a cobalt-blue vial over the herbs.
The women then held their palms above the wound, chanting in their high-pitched wail. Selina’s head jerked from side to side, and Cassie could see her color returning to normal in the fading twilight.
Circe bandaged Selina’s leg with a fresh bandage, herbs and all. Finished with the leg, the women placed their palms on Selina’s head, forcing what was left of the toxin out of her system with the energy they drew from the world around them.
“It is done,” announced Circe. “Bring her. She must rest comfortably tonight. She can sleep in our cave. Blessed of the Seventh House, you and the alpha wolf follow me. The rest of you may camp here. Stay out of our sacred circle.” Her voice was harsh as she stared at Neil.
Rafe picked up Selina, and he and Cassie followed Circe and the other witches down a path along the backside of the mesa. The women in black robes seemed to float down the rocky path while Cassie stumbled on falling rocks, and Rafe nearly dropped Selina.
They made it to the bottom of the hill and hiked along a riverbank until they came to a cave mouth. Circe stepped into the cave, and a ball of energy formed in her hand to illuminate the passage. The other witches did the same.
Cassie was intrigued by these women’s abilities to shape and form the energy from the natural world. Had she done something like this when she defeated the Pyramid Corp soldiers?
The witches led them through a long, narrow entrance until they squeezed through a passage and emerged on the other side. Once there, Circe lit multiple candles casting the chamber in warm light.
They stood in a large circular room that looked more like a large studio apartment than a cave. It smelled of sage and mesquite smoke. The stone walls were smooth and straight. There were three beds made of dark stained wood, covered in intricately woven blankets and animal furs. A multitude of herbs and spices hung over the long counter that dominated the end of the cave.
A raised fire pit sat at the center of the room. Embers still glowed inside. The smoke wafted up toward the ceiling where it crawled out to the cave entrance. Around the fire pit were a collection of large, sturdy pillows and blankets meant for sitting.
“Please, make yourself comfortable. Place the girl on one of the beds.”
Circe busied herself at the counter concocting something with herbs and oils. She brought a bowl to Selina’s bed and instructed Rafe to help her sit Selina up. Circe poured some of the medicine down Selina’s throat and then let her lie down to sleep.
While Selina slept, the witches lit the fire and roasted a rabbit. Rafe and Cassie sat on the pillows beside the fire. Cassie watched them cooking, happy that Selina was safe but anxious about what they wanted in return. One of the witches handed Cassie and Rafe plates with fresh roasted rabbit meat and cactus fruits.
Cassie hungrily accepted the meal and watched the fire blaze as she ate. Circe wanted to commune with her, whatever that meant. The witches were feeding them, so she was inclined to believe this communing thing would be painless.
Circe looked from Rafe to Cassie and back again before a sly smile broke over her lips.
“The Anu are following the Blessed of the Seventh House,” Circe said. “You can break their connection. He knows how.”
“How?” Cassie blurted out, not believing her words.
“Later. First I want to speak with you privately.” Circe rose from her place by the fire.
“Fine. Let’s get this over with.”
Circe led Cassie further into the bowels of the cavern with only the light of the glowing energy globe to illuminate their passage. Cassie could hear the constant drip of water ahead as it echoed through the confined space. The air was still and stifling so far back in the cave, and Cassie felt she had to gasp for air.
“Not much further,” Circe whispered.
They passed through a small opening that led into another chamber, similar in shape to their living quarters but about half the size. The walls were painted with strange symbols, depictions of animals, and the spacecraft that haunted the skies.
“What is this place?”
“This is the womb of the Earth.”
“Mmkay, but what do you do here?”
“This is our ceremonial space, where we access the dream realm—a place with which I suspect you are quite familiar.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“You enter through a different door, but all doors lead to the same realm. Come sit with me.”
Cassie sat across from Circe in a circle of small semiprecious stones. Cassie felt a breath of air on her skin, realizing she was numb with anticipation and cold with fear. She tried to shake it off. She still had her guns and knife if anything happened, but Cassie was sure the witch had powerful weapons of her own.
Circe placed her energy globe on the stone ground between them and retrieved a bowl of white paste from a spot along the wall. She dipped her finger in the bowl and reached to smear the white paste into Cassie’s face. Cassie flinched, and Circe’s eyebrows drew together.
“This is white clay and water. I will draw symbols on you to help draw the energy that will allow you to enter the dream realm.”
“Okay, fine.”
Cassie relented and let Circe draw on her face. Circe’s smooth finger applied the cool paste around her eyes and over her cheekbones. She drew a line down Cassie’s chin and under her eyes. Circe wiped her finger on a cloth in her waist bag and began to mutter at Cassie.
Cassie couldn’t make out what Circe was saying. It seemed to be in another language, but the cadence of her words made Cassie relax. Soon, Cassie felt the room grow dark, and the reality she knew disappeared.
The two women sat together in a maple grove on the edge of a green field. In the distance, the sun shone down on a riverbank in a yellow haze. Fluffy seedpods flitted through the air past the white wings of butterflies.
A sweet breeze blew through Cassie’s hair, cooling her hot brow and filling her with peace. Circe looked different somehow, more human. Her skin tone had become rosy, and her hair was dark auburn instead of jet black.
“Where are we?”
“This is the dream realm.”
“It’s The Program!” Realization flooded her senses, almost snapping her out of the higher dimension. Cassie gazed around herself in awe.
“The Program.” Circe??
?s words sounded like an echo below water. She felt so far away yet so infinitely close. Cassie snapped her gaze back to Circe, her eyes flicking over the woman’s face.
“Yes. A virtual reality simulation. We trained in it when I lived in the dome.”
“Why did they train you in The Program?”
“I don’t know. They said it was for the continued survival of the human race. They said in the future, everything would take place in The Program. Like the Internet on steroids.”
“Hmm,” Circe mused. “This is the astral field. The dream realm. The place of the ancestors. Your Program is one in the same. You’ve had success with The Program? Controlling the perception?”
“Yes.”
Cassie looked across the green meadow and saw the figure of a woman standing near the riverbank. In an instant, the woman stood beside Cassie and Circe. Cassie blinked, and her mother was sitting.
“Cassandra, you made it in. This is good. Very good.”
“What’s going on?”
“You’ve done well. You are on the right track. The Council of the Seventh House commends you. Remember, free will is sacred. Those who would take it from others have cut themselves from the wheel of destiny and result in no karma when killed.”
“What?”
“You are a psychic warrior now, Cassandra. Don’t be afraid of what you are.”
Her mother vanished, leaving Circe and Cassie sitting in the grass as a gentle breeze fluttered through their hair. Cassie felt for her guns and couldn’t find them. Suddenly, she was sitting in the dark cave again with Circe.
“Well done,” said Circe. “Connecting to you makes the vision quite vivid.”
“So, I like, helped you do that?”
“Yes. We received a message from the ancestors and the Council. A very good sign. Now. It is time to sleep.”
Circe retrieved the globe from the place on the floor, and Cassie followed her back to the witches’ den. The other women were resting on their beds while Rafe lounged by the fire.
“I will sleep here,” Circe said, indicating a rug by the fire. “You may sleep near the fire as well.”
“You said you knew how to get those aliens off our backs,” Rafe said.
Circe laughed quietly. “Oh, yes. I do. But so do you.”
“I don’t understand,” said Rafe.
“They follow her scent. A kind of genetic signature. She has never been marked by a man. This fact is highly priced by the Anu spacemen. It ensures the purity of the delicate hybridization of their species with the human genome.”
“Gross. How do you know that?” Cassie said, crinkling up her nose.
“You are not the only one with psychic awareness. You bring this data with you, and I have only to look closely to read it. I am surprised you didn’t already know.”
“I guess I kind of did.”
“Your awareness will grow better in time. But your skills seem to be with weapons and battle tactics as far as I can tell.”
“Does that mean we should like, uh…?” Cassie’s face burned.
“It is simply a suggestion. Unless you want the Anu to keep following you like a hound on the trail of a raccoon.” Circe chuckled quietly.
“Come on, Cassie. Let’s go for a walk.”
Chapter 22
Rafe picked up a candle from the long counter and lit it in the fire. He grabbed a blanket, offered Cassie his hand, and led her through the long entrance out into the night.
The sound of the river burbled below them. Cassie shivered in the cool night air. The night had taken a strange turn, and she wasn’t exactly sure she was happy about the new direction.
“So, should we just drop and do it here?” she joked.
“No. This ground is too rocky. Let’s find a sandy beach and talk. I’ll light a fire to keep us warm.”
She followed the light of the single candle through the navy blue darkness. A half moon hung above them in the clear night sky and crickets chirped in the distance.
Rafe walked along the edge of the riverbank where the short willows crowded around them, making it hard to push through. Finally, he descended onto a sandy cove and laid the blanket out for Cassie to sit down.
She felt cold and ridiculous. Losing her virginity like this had never been part of her life plan, though she could think of worse things, like losing it to one of those monstrous vampire aliens.
Cassie sat on the blanket and held her biceps while Rafe gathered river driftwood to build a fire. He placed dried weeds under the timber and lit it with the candle. It went up in flames quickly, having been baked dry by the hot desert sun.
He moved around the other side of her on the blanket and protected her from the gusts of wind that came down the river. She could smell the scent of his body, sweet like the desert breeze, and rich like the mountain forest they’d left behind.
He put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her into his solid form. Tingles of anticipation radiated from the places where he made contact. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, gazing into the fire.
“Are you warm enough?”
“I don’t think I’ll ever be warm enough for this.”
“You don’t want to…?”
“It’s not that. I just thought it would be different. More spontaneous. More romantic. Like maybe after prom or something.”
“You’re a little old for prom now.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. Too bad the world ended before I got to go.”
“One of the great tragedies of the apocalypse.”
“Shut up. You got to have your youth. I’m sure you went to prom and graduated high school and went to college.”
“Well. I did the last two but not the first.”
“Why?”
“No date. No one wanted to go out with me back then.”
Cassie sat up straighter, dumbfounded. No one wanted to date Rafe in high school? He was the most handsome, desirable man she’d ever met, the alpha of a werewolf pack, and he couldn’t get a date in high school?
“No way.”
“I was a skinny dweeb back then. But I went to MIT, started working out, grew into my body, and became a tech millionaire. The rest is history.”
Cassie threw her head back laughing. She laughed so hard her stomach hurt. “The great alpha was a dateless nerd in high school. It’s too much. I’m going to pee my pants.”
“Shh.”
He leaned in and claimed her laughing mouth with his. Her laughter instantly turned to a soft moan. Electricity shot through her body, pulsing down her spine and between her legs. She wrapped her arms around his neck, drawing him closer.
He needed no further invitation and pulled her up onto his lap, holding her hips in his strong hands. He kissed down her neck and lifted her shirt up over her breasts, kissing the soft skin of her chest.
He cupped her breasts, squeezing gently, as he lifted his mouth back to kiss her again. Cassie gripped the sides of Rafe’s shirt, pulling it up and over his head to reveal the hard, chiseled musculature of his taut body.
She pushed him to the ground with a gentle shove at his shoulders. He went down cupping her ass as she ran her hands over his chest and the rippling muscles of his abs. Her hands glided over his skin as he held her on top of him, their tongues dancing and darting in each other’s mouths.
She moved down his chest, licking his puckered nipples. Her tongue trailed down his body, between his abs, and dipped inside his belly button. She had no idea what she was doing. She let instinct and desire guide her. She’d wanted to lick his body from the first moment she’d laid eyes on him, as a human anyway.
“You are wearing entirely too much clothing.”
He reached behind her back and unfastened her bra, pulling it away to leave her bare-chested in the firelight. She suddenly felt cold and exposed. Her plump, firm breasts yearned for his touch as her nipples pointed toward him, but her inexperience made her want to draw away and cover herself.
She bit her lip
as he smiled and gazed at her. His firm hand ran over her bare breasts, cupping and squeezing as he went from one to the other. He leaned up to flick her nipple with his tongue. Need surged between her legs, and she wanted nothing more than to open herself to him.
He pulled her into a kiss and flipped her body on the blanket below him, sinking between her legs.
Cassie felt Rafe’s thick, throbbing manhood pulse hard against her need. She gasped as he leaned into her, his face full of desire. His eyes bore down on her as a sly smile curved on his lips. He kissed her neck and reached down to pull the button loose on her pants. She moaned, knowing what was coming.
He unzipped her pants and tugged them and her boots off, leaving her in her panties on the blanket. The cool air pricked her skin and made her nipples painfully hard. Rafe stood above her, kicking off his own boots and pulling off the rest of his clothing. She covered her breasts with her arms as she gazed at his form, silhouetted by the moon.
He leaned down, nuzzling through the arms she hugged around herself. He put his hot mouth on her firm nipple, warming it with his scorching tongue. He licked, sucked, and bit, while fondling her breasts. It felt so good. She moaned into the cool night air.
She arched her back, pushing her breasts up into his grasp, enjoying the tingle that it caused to gush between her legs. She could feel his hardness against her, the size and length of it sending a shiver of fear and longing through her body.
He kissed down her body until he came to her panties. He gripped the waist and slowly pulled them down her legs and off her feet. His face fell between her thighs to find the tender spot that throbbed for his touch. He inhaled her scent deeply before he plunged his hot tongue between her folds.
He found her hard mound, and Cassie could hear him groan and growl into her body. The sound made her quiver with longing. She reached behind her head and gripped the edge of the blanket, arching her back and spreading her legs wide for him.
He held her hips tight as his mouth kissed her tenderness. Cassie gasped into the darkness. His wet mouth mingled with her own wetness that flowed from within her. A rising tide of ecstasy built at the base of her spine, throbbing and growing as her nipples pointed toward the moon.