Desert of the Damned (17 page)

“Do you know who he is?” Bill asked.

Jake shook his head.

Bill lowered his voice. “Even if you did, I’m afraid it won’t be enough.” He pulled a small leather pouch from his shirt pocket and removed a pinch of what seemed like loose tobacco. He tossed it on the fire. The flames blazed for a second, then died down.

She got a whiff of the sweet tobacco mixed with some other incense.

Bill then took a turquoise stone from his pocket and held in his palm toward the fire. He closed his eyes and mumbled a few words that she couldn’t decipher, then brought the stone to her. “Here, Amy. It’ll help protect you.”

Jake sighed loudly behind her as if annoyed.

“Well, it’s something,” Bill said. “It will help.”

“What should I do with it?” she asked.

“Keep it with you. It’ll give you strength and help protect you from evil.”

“Thank you, Bill.”

“Stay and have a quick cup of coffee with me and I’ll let you be on your way,” Bill said.

Jake started to protest.

“It’s okay, I’d love a cup of coffee. Can I help you?” Amy asked.

“No, no. I can get it. Sit by the fire. I’ll be right out.” Bill went inside and she and Jake dragged folding lawn chairs closer to the metal drum still blazing with a fire.

“You’ll be sorry when you taste his coffee. It’s as thick as motor oil,” Jake chuckled.

“I don’t mind. Does he have these visions often?”

“All his life.”

“Are they prophetic?”

92

Desert of the Damned

He studied her and smiled warily. “Do you believe in esoteric perceptions?

Metaphysics?”

“I may be a scientist but I have read about a variety of phenomena like astrology, dream travel and fortune telling. I have an open mind but have not found that I have any skills in those areas. A psychic friend foretold of my move out west six months before my company informed me. She also told me she didn’t see me coming back. I told her she was wrong about that part.”

“So you don’t read minds or tell futures,” Jake said with a lighthearted tone.

“Afraid not.”

He nodded while staring into the fire.

“What psychic skills do you have?” she asked.

He shot her a look.

Bill came out with three coffee mugs. “You take your coffee with milk and sugar?”

he asked Amy as he handed her a mug and then Jake.

“Yes, thank you. That’s how I like it,” she said.

“Amy’s from the lab helping the park service determine the cause of the animal deaths.” Jake sipped his coffee.

He put his mug down on a metal end table and threw a log onto the fire. Sparks swirled and floated up toward the star-filled sky then dimmed out. The flames crackled and sputtered as waves of heat flowed over Amy. It wasn’t that cold out but she felt cold. Bill’s small backyard was bordered by a chain-link fence. Several shrubs were planted around the fenceline. There was also an old doghouse in one corner but she hadn’t seen any sign of a dog. Beyond the fence was the desert. Miles of flat harsh plains, dotted with saguaro and prickly pear cactus, mesquite and creosote bushes and many other low-growing plants whose names she hadn’t yet learned. Past the lowlands were the shadows of the distant mountains.

When she first moved here she’d thought the desert was dead. She was wrong. It was alive with creatures and plant life unlike anything she had ever seen.

“You okay, Amy?” Jake asked.

“Huh? Oh yes. Just staring out into the desert. It’s beautiful at night. So peaceful.

And it changes. Since I moved here, I’ve seen the desert change over the months.”

“Like a work of art that is never finished,” Bill said.

“So true,” Amy said.

“Do you remember your dreams, Amy?” Bill asked.

“Sometimes,” she said, looking at her shoes. Lately, she was having a lot of sexual dreams and had blamed them on Dante.

“Have Coyote or other animals turned up in your dreams lately?” he asked, leaning forward in his chair.

“I’m not sure I remember. What other animals?” she asked.

93

Kathy Kulig

“Other predators—” Bill began.

“It’s getting late,” Jake interrupted. He stood and walked toward Amy. “We can talk about dreams another night. Amy has to work in the morning and so do I,” he said to Bill.

Bill pressed his lips together, his eyes offering a warning. “This isn’t finished, son.

Don’t abandon your gift. Sometimes you have to face your past. Her life may depend on it. She connected to what’s happening to the animals and you know it.” Bill looked worried.

“Don’t. Stop this. It’s not what you think. And I have faced my past.” Jake dumped the rest of his coffee into the fire.

Amy was surprised by the vehemence in his voice. She stood and slowly folded the blanket and placed it on the chair. What would these dreams have to do with anything?

And why would it make Jake so upset?

“It sounds fascinating, Bill, I’d love to talk more sometime,” Amy said. “But Jake’s right. It is late and I have to get up early. Thank you for the coffee and the stone. I’ll keep it with me always.”

Bill smiled at that and nodded. He stood. “I’ll show you out.”

* * * * *

They drove in silence almost all the way to Amy’s house. Jake was torn between whether to apologize for his grandfather’s behavior or his own or let it pass. He had no intention of allowing Amy to get a glimpse of his true nature even though Bill was certain supernatural work was necessary. Bill nearly exposed him by bringing out the fur. That ancient heritage had destroyed his family and ended his relationship with Alison. Couldn’t Bill understand why he wanted to leave that behind?

What kind of mother abandons two young boys and runs off with a man fifteen years younger than she? On the surface she sounded like a heartless mother but she’d found a way out of the madness. She married into a family where the men inherited the strange ability when they reached puberty. The Norwegians called it
Eigi Einhamr
, not one-skinned. Had his mother known about the genetic trait before she married? That was one question he’d never had the nerve to ask his mother.

By wearing the skin of any animal and concentrating on becoming that beast, a man with the powers of
Eigi Einhamr
could become that animal and retain the memories and knowledge of his human self. Then he could change back at will.

His father had changed into a wolf. Jake barely remembered the thick, black fur draped over a chair in their house when he was nine years old. He only saw his father change once—the night he was shot. The transformation disturbed his mother, so his father didn’t do it often. A few months after his father died, his brother Brad was eleven and Brad had found a leopard fur belonging to their father. He wrapped himself in it, transforming right before their mother. It was more than she could handle.

94

Desert of the Damned

Bill Sike was wise to Native American myth and legends, although he’d had never heard of
Eigi Einhamr
. Jake’s mother explained her dilemma, her fears of having the same fate happen to her sons. Bill agreed to raise them and to teach them to use their powers wisely. Brad was in the armed services using his talents overseas in the Special Forces. But after losing his father and mother to the
Eigi Einhamr
, Jake chose never to shift into an animal.

Then Bill had performed a ceremony, selecting the mountain lion as the chosen animal for Jake. Usually those of
Eigi Einhamr
descent chose the animal which appealed to them most. Although an
Eigi Einhamr
could change into any animal he desired as long as he had the skin.

Jake had donned the fur and shifted into the lion with Bill’s guidance. The freedom and power while in the animal’s body was invigorating, climbing the mountains, racing across the plains but the fear remained. The loss of his father, the abandonment of his mother still left an open wound. He slipped out of the skin and handed Bill the mountain lion fur for safekeeping.

“Sorry, if I put you in an uncomfortable position back there,” Jake finally said. He couldn’t go into how much Bill meant to him. How Bill had helped him and his brother after his mother abandoned them.

“Not at all. I enjoyed meeting him.”

Silence stretched for a long moment. “He sticks to his old Navajo ways. Myths and traditions.”

“I got that. It’s very interesting. I’d like to hear more sometime. And what your take is on all of it.”

“Sure,” he said uneasily.

He pulled into her driveway and hit the brakes a little too hard. Standing in front of her garage like a golden ghost was a coyote.

“Jake, it’s that coyote again.” Amy reached over and gripped his arm, the first time she touched him during the whole ride back.

The coyote held his head high, staring at them in the headlights.

“He could be the same one, or just another one checking out your trash. I hope you secured your lids or you’ll have a mess.” Jake beeped his horn a couple times as he inched his Jeep closer. The animal didn’t move. “Stubborn, isn’t he?”

Finally, the coyote got up, sniffing the air and backed up but remained in the driveway.

“It is the same one,” Amy exclaimed. “Look at his tail. It’s chopped off like the one at Betty’s and on the trail.”

The last quarter of the coyote’s tail was missing. “You’re right. He must have a den nearby.”

95

Kathy Kulig

Amy released his arm and gave him an odd look. “Could what your grandfather said have any truth to it?”

He groaned.

“Well, some myths are based in truth,” she argued.

They were treading on dangerous ground and he had no intension of discussing his history with her tonight, or probably any night. “You’re a scientist. Don’t you think we’ll have more success in helping these animals with science than delving into desert magic?” His tone was a bit sharper than he intended.

She shrugged. “I do know science. It’s my profession and I haven’t lived in the desert long enough to understand as well as you. But as a scientist I don’t rule out any possibility no matter how strange it may seem.”

“There’s nothing unusual about a coyote sitting in your driveway at night,” Jake said, trying to keep his voice even.

She got out of the truck and strode toward the coyote.

“Amy, don’t. He’s a wild animal and you need to be wary of rabies.”

She continued marching toward the animal and surprisingly he didn’t scare off as he would’ve expected.

She stopped a few feet from the animal that faced her, his head and tail down.

“Shoo, go away!” she yelled at him, waving her arms.

The coyote didn’t move. Then he tilted his head as if puzzled, like a dog would.

“Careful, Amy.”

“Is this normal behavior of a coyote? I’ve lived here for eight months and chased a couple out of my trash. Never have I had one act like this or like the one did today at Betty’s or up in the mountains to us.”

“Maybe someone was feeding him and he’s become part tame,” Jake said.

She sighed. “Yes, that could be.”

Jake walked closer and the coyote approached Jake, moving between Amy and Jake.

“Strange. Showing territorial behavior,” Jake said. “Enough. I don’t like it.” He clapped his hands and the sharp sound made the coyote jump back. Jake ran toward him, yelling. The animal ran off, glancing behind him. It took Jake a few times of chasing, clapping and yelling to force the coyote on his way.

“Let me know if he continues to come around. I’ll contact animal control. They can set up a humane trap to move him if he becomes a nuisance.”

“I’m sure it won’t come to that,” she said.

“Sorry to get you home so late. I have your sunglasses and water bottle you left in the back of my Jeep. I’ll get them.”

She stood by him as he open the back door of his Jeep. She let out a small cry as the dome light hit the tan fur.

96

Desert of the Damned

“Damn it,” Jake muttered. “He gave it to me anyway.” The mountain lion pelt along with the drum, hawk feathers and quartz stones rested on the floor next to Amy’s sunglasses and water bottle.

He pulled the items out and handed them to her.

“Is that part of the desert magic you don’t want to talk about?” she asked, her eyes studying him.

He rubbed his face and shook his head. “It’s not a topic I care to go into this evening.” When he realized how harsh that sounded he amended it. “At least not tonight. It’s a very long story. Okay?”

She nodded and leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. “Yes, that’s okay. Thanks for dinner and the dancing. I had a great time. And I enjoyed meeting your grandfather.” Her voice was soft and sexy. She remained close and there was desire in her eyes.

He wanted her. Having her in his arms on the dance floor had provoked a desperate need to indulge in the lust that burned inside him, to quench that craving.

Part of the desperation came from denying his heritage, avoiding the change. Apart from the other night, he hadn’t changed in form in months and his muscles and bones ached for the shift as much as he ached for a woman’s body.

“I had a nice time too.” He was treading on dangerous ground seeing her now while he had two beasts to control. He wouldn’t let the
Eigi Einhamr
consume him. As the desire for sex increased, so did the need to shift take on his chosen form, any form, and race into the night until his animal body was exhausted.

Pursuing Amy was a risk. How long could he keep his secret side hidden?

His body was on fire, wanting a taste of her passion, a hint to what could be between them.

“Would I be out of line if I asked you out? I know I’m a client but I’d like to go dancing again,” he asked.

“Outside our professional connection?” she asked in a teasing tone.

“Right.”

“I don’t see a problem. Though I wouldn’t mention it to my colleagues right now.”

“Like Dante?”

She smiled and looked down at her shoes. “I don’t think you’re out of line. Give me a call. I’d love to hear the story that goes with that animal hide.” She smiled but the expression quickly faded, probably after seeing his shocked expression at the mention of the animal hide.