Centaur Legacy (27 page)

Once I was sure I could keep tears from
escaping, I opened my eyes and saw him looking back at me. The
sorrow I’d seen in them just minutes before had morphed into pain.
I had to let him go, but my arms refused to release him. My body
revolted: my arms cinched tighter around his neck, and my face
buried itself in his chest as his arms pulled me from the
ground.

When I’d buried my face in his chest
before, I was on my tippy toes, but today, no part of my feet even
touched the ground. Had Drake grown taller? I went to look toward
the ground to see if he was standing on a rock. As I looked down,
his hand grabbed my face, forcing me to stare into his
eyes.

His voice echoed the pain I’d just seen
in his eyes. “Forget me, Camille.”

None of this made sense. Why would he
pull me into him then tell me to forget him? I could feel it; he
was going to dump me; maybe in his mind, he already had. I felt
like an addict trying to get a fix, drinking up his scent,
absorbing the feel of his arm around me while his hand held my face
taut. A single tear dripped down my cheek. Drake’s eyes clouded,
and he kissed the tear away before it could roll off my
chin.

Until now I was sure someone or
something had stolen him, had held him against his will – had kept
him from me. That was the wrong conclusion. Drake had run away and
hidden from me. Zandra told me as much and so had Daniel; I hadn’t
believed either of them. Whatever his reason, I didn’t care.
“Drake, whatever I did. . . I’m sorry.”

Drake let go of my face and wrapped
both arms around my waist, pulling me up so my chin rested on his
shoulder. I had to convince him that whatever he was upset about,
we could fix it. When I opened my eyes, the image didn’t make any
sense. I jerked away from him, on instinct, which surprised him
enough that he let me drop to the ground.

I smoothed the bushes away from him and
saw his legs. I was speechless, or dumbfounded. This had to be a
dream. . . or a nightmare. Drake’s gaze never wavered. He simply
said, “Just forget me, Camille. Just go.” Drake started to back
away from me. I heard his heavy steps on the earth and felt my
heart breaking.

Still in shock, I could only ask,
“Wait! How did this happen?”

He shook his head, still holding my
gaze, “The arrow did it.”

No lesson I had learned from Zandra or
Gretchen had prepared me for this. I said it out loud more for my
benefit than for his, “The arrow? It turned you into a
Centaur?”

“I’ve always been a
Centaur, Camille. At least, I’ve always had Centaur blood. But
touching the arrow that didn’t belong to me. . . it had to have had
some sort of a curse on it.” Zandra’s warning echoed in my
mind:
Zeus’s curse is unforgiving of
thieves, and he has stolen Chiron property
.

“Did you try giving it
back?”

“Back to whom?”

“To Cameron.”

“He’s gone. I’ve been outside his home
for days, but he hasn’t returned.”

“Give it to me. I’m a
Chiron.”

“No!”

Zandra’s words of doubt began playing
in my head. Why did he refuse to return the arrow? “Drake, it could
break the curse. You could go back to normal.”

He shook his head, pulled my jacket off
his bare shoulders and helped me into it. “I’m not taking a chance
like that with you. You’re not touching it.”

“You can’t stay like this. We have to
do something with it to lift the curse.”

Drake’s voice was defeated when he put
his head down and said flatly, “Go home, Camille.”

“Home is wherever you are, Drake. I’m
not going anywhere.” My eyes took him in. Once I’d gotten over the
initial shock of his transformation, I realized he was magnificent.
From the waist up, Drake looked the same as he had, but at his
waist, his body morphed into the body of a brown horse. He stood
taller than he had, by at least six inches.

“Cami, just go. I’m going to try to
contact your uncle Jeb.”

A normal person might have run away, or
maybe screamed, or I don’t know. . .maybe curled up in a ball on
the ground rocking themselves. I didn’t do any of those. I stepped
closer, my palms extended, placing them on either side of his face.
His skin was smooth, not even a hint of stubble greeted my palms. I
slid them down his shoulders; Drake’s whole body was warm, even in
the frigid temperature. My hands came together at his chest, his
eyes fixed on me the whole time. As my touch slid down his ribs and
onto his abdomen, a euphoric feeling took me. It was still
Drake.

He stood in front of me, the island
oasis I had escaped to when I was captive at Zandra’s house. The
man who had haunted all of my daydreams since our escape was right
in front of me.

I was curious and let my hand trail
down his waist onto the velvety hair of his new body. His right
hoof stamped involuntarily when my hand traced his leg. His voice
was soft, full of emotion when I heard him say, “Just go.” I didn’t
listen to him. I stepped to his side and let both my hands feel the
haunches that held his body.

He side-stepped and turned so that he
was facing me again. There were so many things going through my
mind, but only three words escaped my lips, “I’ve missed
you.”

“You’ve missed me? Can’t you see what I
am? I’m in front of you, Cami. I’m not a human.”

The emotion of finding him was
overwhelming. I murmured, “I don’t care.”

“Are you blind?”

I could feel my head nod, “I love you,
Drake. I don’t care.”

“I’m a freak, Cami! Open your
eyes!”

“They are open.” I shook my head and
closed the distance to him again. When I did this before, when he
was a human, I could bury my face into his chest: I loved that
feeling. Drake was much taller now, and my face was just over his
abdomen. He tried to back away from me, but I refused to let him
go. I wrapped both my arms around him and held on. When I did, he
hesitated for a few seconds then leaned down and wrapped his arms
around me, as well. I don’t know how long we stood there. The
temperature was dropping fast, and I began to shiver even with his
arms wrapped around me.

His voice was softer, “You should go.
You’re freezing.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

He stood erect, towering over me again,
his ice blue eyes staring down into mine, with sadness like before,
but intensified. “Cami, you. . .” I put my finger to his lips to
stop his protest. He gently took my hand in his, kissed the back of
my hand, and said, “If you won’t leave, let’s at least get you out
of the wind.”

Drake led me to the abandoned barn. The
door complained as the hinges creaked, but he led me into the
massive structure. I looked around thinking one good solid gust of
wind would bring the whole thing crashing down on us. There was no
straw on the dirt floor. The only light was what was streaming in
from the cracks in the wall of the barn from the moon. I could hear
wings fluttering above us as we’d disturbed whatever fowl inhabited
the rafters. A camping lantern hung just over the side of a stall.
Drake lit it.

He reached over and grabbed a small
backpack. As I looked around the dimly lit barn, my heart ached:
this is where he had been staying. Drake withdrew a blanket from
the backpack and laid it down on the ground. He eased himself down
to the floor and motioned to the blanket in front of
him.

I remembered the story of Winfield and
Unice: the man who had fallen in love with a Centauride. At the
time I thought it an impossible love story: in this moment – I
understood. My heart went out to the couple all over again. I took
my place in front of Drake on the floor, his arms tentatively
reached out for me, and when I moved toward him, his strong arms
encircled me.

Drake brought his hand to my cheek,
caressing my face with the back of his hand. It was a tender touch
and spoke volumes to my soul. I understood why I had searched so
long without finding him. He had purposely evaded me. His voice
told me what I already knew, “I never thought I’d feel your skin
again.”

My hands reached for him as I heard the
longing in his voice and answered him with strength in mine. “No
one can keep me from you. You’re mine. I chose you.”

He shook his head at me, “You don’t
know what you’re saying.”

My hand rested on his jaw as I said it
again, “I chose you, Drake.”

“You chose me before all of this.” His
hand swept out as he motioned to himself. “You need to choose
someone else; there’s no future with me.”

“You don’t believe that. You can’t
believe that. I just want to stay here, with you.”

Drake’s eyes closed as his lips softly
met mine. He was tentative, as if he couldn’t commit them to me. My
hand instinctively went to the back of his head and pulled him in
closer as I whispered, “Kiss me like you mean it.”

Whatever doubt he was feeling
evaporated as his kiss deepened. His hand went to the small of my
back as shivers from his touch rocketed in all directions. Drake’s
lips moved to my clavicle as a soft moan escaped him. My mouth
found his ear lobe as I whispered, “Better, I’m starting to believe
you missed me, too.”

“There are no words, Cami.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. He was no
longer telling me to leave. Whatever had happened, it had to be
temporary. My mother had warned me in a dream, telling me I had to
leave him to protect him. I began to wonder if this could have been
prevented if I’d just followed her advice.

Zandra told me she’d looked into my
future and decided to keep Drake and me apart. Could either or both
of them have seen this coming? If I’d let them help, could I have
kept Drake safe? If his transformation wasn’t temporary, there were
two truths I knew: one, I loved him with all of my heart, and two,
I didn’t care what shape he was in, I would never want anyone but
Drake in my life.

Drake tossed the backpack behind me. He
leaned me gently on the blanket, placing my head on the backpack as
a pillow. It was awkward at first, but he’d somehow tucked his legs
in under his body and found a way to curl up beside me. I stared
straight into his beautiful blue eyes, losing myself. Drake’s hand
began to tremble. There was no reason for him to be apprehensive,
but with each new movement, it felt like he had to convince himself
that it was okay.

His hand reluctantly slid under my
shirt and grazed the skin on my abdomen, sending goose bumps all
over my body. He was waiting for me to tell him to stop. I closed
my eyes and enjoyed his touch, savoring whatever we were afforded.
I didn’t care that he had been transformed. I didn’t care about the
arrow. I only cared that I’d found him and no one would ever take
him away from me.

(Camille – abandoned barn,
SD)

I had dozed off, but Drake shifted, and
when the warmth of his body moved away from mine, the frigid
temperature attacked my skin, jolting me awake. My eyes popped
open, and I saw that he was still beside me. I could feel his
breath against my ear and my neck rested on his arm while his other
lay over me. It wasn’t a dream. I eased up into a sitting position
to get a better look at what I’d been too nervous to see before. It
was such a foreign sight that I wanted my senses to take him in. I
reached toward his legs with my hand when I heard, “Cami,
don’t.”

I felt my body go rigid. I’d thought he
was sound asleep. When I looked up, his eyes were giving me a
warning. I answered with a smile, “I just want to touch your
legs.”

He threw a weathered blanket over
himself to hide them. He let out a deep sigh, “Cami, this won’t
work.”

“It worked for Unice and
Winfield.”

“No, it didn’t. Aphrodite felt sorry
for them and made Unice human. She did it because it couldn’t work
any other way.”

“That’s not true. She could have made
Winfield a Centaur.”

“Don’t say that, Cami. Don’t even think
it.”

“Why not?”

“Because that was thousands of years
ago. There weren’t that many people back then. Centaurs could live
away from humans without being discovered. How long do you think I
can stay hidden, looking like this? Wait until the Centaur Council
finds out. They’ll sign my death warrant just to make sure no one
finds me.”

“So, we’ll stay hidden. Do you remember
the promise you made me?” Drake’s eyes narrowed, but he remained
quiet. I asked again, “After I’d chosen you, do you remember your
promise?”

“That was before I had
hooves.”

“So, you take it back?”

“Cami, we can’t be betrothed. We can’t
be married. We don’t have a future together anymore.”

“We do if you want it. You want to make
sure no one ever sees you, fine. I’ll ask Will to buy us a thousand
acres somewhere. We’ll put up a huge fence so no one can get
through. We’ll shove a couple king-sized mattresses in a barn. You
know why? Because you promised me I’d never be alone. You don’t get
to take that promise back. It’s mine. You gave it to
me!”

Drake’s fingers weaved through my hair,
his lips crushed hard against mine, and the hurt I’d felt turned to
anger against him. I wanted to hear him say that things were going
to be fine. I refused to listen to his crap about I needed to get
on with my life. Drake was my life. Our kiss deepened, sending heat
from my hair to my toes. I pressed myself fully against him, and I
heard my favorite moan escape his lips.