Lily’s Eagle: Devil’s Nightmare MC Next Generation, Book 1, page 16
“It is,” I say and leave it at that. I distinctly remember the two perfectly round rocks sitting next to each other on the shore, because I had a flash that it was Eagle and me, sitting together in eternity. Or some other such girly nonsense, which I don’t want to try and explain to him right now.
“Alright, so maybe the current took them,” he says and starts walking along the river in the direction of the current, looking at the bank intently.
He stops before I even start to follow and crouches down right by the water. “Here.”
I reach him just as he straightens up and turns to me, holding a couple of broken branches and cut rope that we used to make the traps. “Looks like we didn’t secure them well enough and the current took them and smashed them against the rocks.”
I look down at the mess that was our traps. The wood looks snapped in half and the rope cut.
“We didn’t make them sturdy enough,” I say trying to convince myself that it doesn’t mean anything, that it’s not a sign that we’ve failed in any way.
“We’ll make better ones tomorrow,” he say, tosses the broken pieces on the ground and wraps his arm around my shoulder, squeezing me tight before releasing me. “Come on, we’ve got a spirit walk to finish.”
I smile at him, toss my hair back and start walking again. Along the river for a ways and then inland, into the soft grass. Birds are flying overheard, eagles I’m sure, circling and gliding and watching over us.
The wind is making the grass sing, and soon he starts whistling behind me, a tune that goes perfectly with the myriad nature sounds all around us, pulling it all together into a symphony.
I’ve never felt this alive.
I stop and grab his hand as he stops beside me. He’s stopped whistling, but that doesn’t matter, because the song is already in my heart, playing loud. And it will never stop.
I grin at him and start running, pulling him along. The wind in my hair, the soft ground beneath my feet, his warm hand in mine, and the whole wide untouched world before us. This is life. Plain and simple. This is everything.
* * *
The sun has set and the long dusty purple twilight has now pretty much passed too. The evening star has been joined by many others, her sisters, and the nearly full moon is lighting our way in a misty silver.
In darkness, this world looks even more alive, and I keep walking, Eagle’s hand still firmly in mine. I feel no tiredness, no thirst or hunger. We’ll never reach the heart of all this vast beauty, but I mean to try.
I’ve lost all sense of direction while we walked, yet I still feel a tug to a spot somewhere behind us and to the left. I’m sure that’s where the camp is, so I’m sure we’ll find it again easily. Maybe not tonight. This is only the beginning of our spirit journey. I don’t expect it to end quickly. Three days, maybe more. How are you supposed to complete it in less than three days?
Usually, a person is supposed to venture on it alone. But Eagle and I, we’re so connected, so joined, it is only right and fitting that we complete it together.
“Wanna eat something?” he asks, his voice floating to me on the velvety night as though a part of it. We’ve reached the top of a slight ridge in the land, where a few trees are preventing the grass from growing as thick and lush as everywhere else.
Food is nowhere near the top of my mind, but we’ve been walking and running for hours and we probably should eat something. Plus, this is the best spot for a picnic we’ve found yet.
“Sure,” I say and stop, then stand there swaying with the breeze, one with the rustling leaves and whistling grass.
He spreads out the blanket and takes off the backpack he took over carrying awhile ago.
I sit cross-legged on the blanket and he does the same across from me. The first thing he pulls from the backpack is the flashlight. Good thinking. The canopy of the trees over our spot is keeping out most of the moonlight and keeping us in near complete darkness.
He turns on the flashlight and holds it under his chin, so the beam illuminates his face from below, casting dark shadows and sharp angles.
“Time for a ghost story?” he asks.
“Come on, be serious,” I say and try to grab the flashlight from him. All well and good that he’s in a playful mood, but after the deep, profound connection to the world I felt while we walked doesn’t mesh well with these mundane jokes.
He holds the flashlight just out of my reach, and deftly snatches it away every time I almost manage to grab it, laughing the whole time.
My vision is quickly filling with large red dots from having looked directly into the beam one time too many. So this is no longer funny. Not that it ever was.
And as he snatches it away yet again, my hand groping at nothingness and my eyes seeing just red-dotted darkness, two bright yellow, round headlights appear in the distance. Suddenly I’m in my nightmare, yet wide awake in the here and now too. Eagle’s laughter sounds like he’s very far away even though he’s sitting right next to me.
“There, the car,” I whisper and point. “The lights.”
He turns in the direction of the headlights and peers at them for a couple of seconds.
“That could be the road.” But he doesn’t sound all that certain.
“I didn’t hear any cars, did you?” I ask.
He turns off the flashlight. “It’s probably nothing to do with us, but just in case.”
I can barely make out his face in the darkness now.
The headlights are still shining bright and Eagle is watching them very intently.
“That car looks like it’s on some sort of a road. See how there’s no grass in front of the beams?”
“Why is it just standing there?” I ask speaking in a whisper. “It’s just like the other night.”
“Just speak quietly, don’t whisper. It carries better in the silence.”
“OK, now I’m officially freaked out,” I say. “Do you think we have something to worry about?”
“Well, I don’t like how it’s just sitting there,” he says. “I’m thinking it’s too far to actually see us, but whoever’s in there probably saw our flashlight, and if they have night vision goggles then the story is also completely different.”
He knows a lot about things like this. I never thought much about that, but he is one of my father’s men and a killer, so it makes sense.
“I’m just hoping it’s not some of those guys from town, looking for justice,” he says in a calm voice. “We should head back to the camp. We’re too out in the open here.”
I look around at the darkness and I can just about tell where we came up the slight ridge but beyond that, I have no idea where the camp is. So much for that magnetic pull tugging at me before. It’s not working now.
“We’ll find the river and follow it back to camp,” he says, answering my unasked question. “We can’t miss it that way.”
I can’t tell if he’s joking or he actually knows what he’s talking about. But I do feel a change in the air around him. It’s gone from the carefree, calmness that encircled him all day, to a hard, cold air of purpose and determination. I’m glad for it, because this reminds me so much of my nightmare that my heart is racing just like it always does when I wake from it. Even the silvery light of the moon washing over everything reminds me of it.
“Go down,” he says, pointing at the slight incline. “Watch your step and try to make as little noise as possible.”
I do as he says, and nearly have another heart attack as I reach the grass and he’s not behind me. I can’t see the headlights from here and that’s about the only good thing.
“I’m here,” Eagle says. “I went a ways ahead and left the flashlight on behind one of the trees. If we’re lucky, whoever’s in that car thinks we’re still there.”
“And if they don’t?” I hate how much fear can be heard in my voice.
He takes my hand and starts leading me across the grass. “Don’t worry, we can take whoever’s in that car, no problem. But I’d rather do it on my terms.”
“How are we even going to find the river?” I ask.
Everywhere I look, it all looks the same and I’m pretty sure the moonlight is waning. My step was so light on the way here, but now my feet snag every little thing on the ground.
“I can feel the cool coming off it, and smell it too,” he says. “Can’t you?”
I take a deep breath and let myself feel the night air on the fear-heated skin of my face. Yes, I can smell the river, faint but unmistakable. Coming this way, I thought I was just smelling my drying hair.
We both keep glancing back as we walk, but no headlights follow us, nor can I hear any sort of engine, or footsteps other than our own, for that matter.
When we finally reach the river I’m so relieved you’d think we’d found a way back to my bedroom behind the thick walls of Sanctuary. The cold wafting off the river is more pronounced now than it ever is during the day.
“This is good,” he says in a very quiet voice. “We have the river on one side and the tall grass on the other. I also can’t hear anyone following us. But sound carries better over water so we should talk as little as possible and walk quietly.”
I nod and motion for him to lead the way. Moonlight is reflecting off the water, lighting our way better than it did across the field.
The silvery mist rising off the river is uncomfortably cold against my sweaty face, but I ignore it as I trudge along behind Eagle, trying not to let worry and dark thoughts get the better of me.
Just hours ago, the pure wild world was ours for the taking and we were one with it, and now that same world is a very dangerous place. Maybe. It sure feels like it. But as in touch as I was with my feelings before, I can’t trust them at all now. They’re all over the place. Part in the fear my nightmare always brings in me, part back in town with all those guns pointed at us, and part in that place where nothing makes sense and I don’t know up from down, or left from right. As for the here and now, I hardly feel myself here at all.
I lose all track of time as I just concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other, and trying not to breathe too loudly. And eventually, I sort of start recognizing the bank. Nothing in particular jogs my memory, but I know it.
Eagle stops abruptly. “Do you smell smoke?”
I lift my head and take a whiff of the air. “It smells like our fire.”
He bends down to stay below the level of the tall grass growing just beyond the narrow riverbank, and motions for me to do the same, then advances forward. And in about twenty paces, the roof of the main hall of the campground becomes visible. As does the large bonfire in the pit in front of it.
Voices, male and female and plenty of them can clearly be heard. I can’t hear Tina’s among them, but she must be there too.
“Sounds like Tina’s back with the volunteers,” he says and straightens up.
“Maybe it was one of their cars we saw,” I say.
“Yeah, maybe,” he says, but doesn’t sound at all sure about it. Neither am I. It was too far and just the one car…
He leads the way, cutting a path across the grass. Voices grow louder and louder, but they all cease abruptly as we step into the firelight. Miriam takes a step towards me.
“Where were you?” she asks. “We’ve been here for hours and were just about to send out a search party. Is Tina with you?”
I glance at Eagle to find him already looking at me.
“No,” I say as turn back to Miriam. “She left three days ago to pick up the volunteers.”
I’m guessing they’re the pale ones in the multicolored trekking gear complete with tube hats, sturdy walking shoes, woolen bunched up socks, and multicolored windbreakers, standing in a group a little removed from Miriam and her party.
“She never came to pick up the volunteers,” she says. “That’s why we’re here. We had to bring them.”
Eagle is standing so close to me our sides are almost touching. That coiled, purposeful air around him is even more taut now. Dangerously so.
“What the hell is going on?” I ask, the words just spilling from my mouth.
I don’t mean just right now. I mean for the whole time since I came to the reservation.
No one answers, because there is no answer. I feel like my worst nightmare somehow followed me here and I can’t even articulate that fear, let alone face it or do anything about it.
17
EAGLE
The one thing I don’t remember ever seeing is Lily scared. I’m not saying she doesn’t get frightened, but even when she is, it never shows and she remains poised and tough, at least outwardly, every time. Kinda like her dad. Not that I’m saying Cross gets scared often. And that’s just totally beside the point right now. She’s nearly shivering beside me and I have no idea what we’re dealing with. So much for keeping her safe. I’ve kind of done exactly the opposite since I rode in.
The bonfire light is bright and it’s showing me that there’s ten people in the camp and they arrived in three cars.
The six volunteers, who look exactly like Lily’s rallying friends back home, are huddled together at one end of the fire, all with their hand stuffed deep in the pockets of their colorful rain jackets and trying to look at everything while focusing on nothing in particular. Especially not on my eyes as I look them over. They’re three guys and three girls, at least half of them probably coupled up in some way. They’re no threat.
As for the two tall guys and the two grey haired women from town, I’m not so sure. The guys look like a father and son type of deal, and one of the ladies is the one who sanctioned our trip up here. The chief’s wife, I think Lily called her. The other one is tall and lanky and her white grey hair reaches almost to her hips. There’s nothing overtly dangerous about any of them and they don’t look armed, but that’s not really where their danger lies. It’s more in whatever they’re gonna make of Tina’s disappearance and our involvement in it. The blazing fire is reflected in all their eyes making them seem otherworldly.
I suppose we could make a run for it back into the darkness if worse comes to worst, and lose them that way. But how long are we gonna survive out there with just some crackers, beef jerky and our lacking fish catching skills?
“Like Lily said, Tina left three days ago,” I say. “She took Lily’s truck to bring back some more supplies. And the volunteers. We haven’t seen or heard from her since.”
One of the volunteers steps forward and clears his throat. He’s wearing round glasses, has a shaved head and is about Lily’s height. “The last we heard from Tina was three days ago too, in the evening. She said she was on the way to get us and told us to wait for her at the tribal council building in town. We didn’t get her text until we were already in town for hours though, probably because of the bad reception.”
A woman with long blonde curly hair sticking out of her rainbow colored hat joins the man with the glasses. “At first we thought we missed her, since it was already almost ten PM by the time we got the text, so we went around town looking for her. Someone gave us directions to her trailer, but she wasn’t there either. We camped out in front of it waiting for her all night and most of the next day.”
“And then we waited for three more days for her to show up, and when she didn’t these people gave us a ride here today,” the man with the glasses concludes the explanation.
I’m glad to get the blow by blow, but it doesn’t change much about our predicament.
“Do you think she was abducted?” Lily asks in a quiet voice that still somehow sounds like a yell in the eerie tense silence.
“What I think is that I don’t trust you,” the younger man, the son of the father and son duo, says. “Either of you.”
Miriam sighs, gives us an apologetic look and looks back at him. “As my grandson knows very well, we are not in the habit of making wild accusations here especially not against our own people,” she tells him sharply. “It has been decided that Ariana’s accusations are completely unverifiable.”
Well, that’s a relief. I hope that decision is somehow binding. But now they’re gonna have to make a whole new one about our involvement in Tina’s disappearance, that much is clear to me too.
Miriam and her grandson glare at each other for a couple of seconds, and then she turns back to us. “Let’s sit by the fire and you can tell us all you know. Then we’ll decide how to proceed.”
The lady with the long white hair has her eyes fixed on Lily, as she has had almost the whole time we’ve been here. The best way to describe the expression on her face is pained.
She suddenly steps forward and takes one of Lily’s hands in both of hers. The touch seems to wake Lily as though from a deep slumber. She jerks and fixes her eyes on the older woman’s.
“This one, I must speak with this one,” the white haired woman says. “She knows something and doesn’t know she knows.”
That sounds like such a load of bullshit to me, but everyone else seems to take it at face value, and Lily looks absolutely stunned.
“I am Sharina,” she says to Lily as she pats her on the cheek. “I am a dream walker. Will you come with me and show me your dreams?”
If I wasn’t so wide awake, I’d swear I was the one dreaming. What the fuck is she talking about? Did I mishear or am I going nuts? Kinda feels like it.
“Yes,” Lily says in a near whisper and lets the woman lead her away.
I can’t allow that. I can’t let us be separated. I have to go with her.
But Lily raises her palm when I try to follow, and whispers, “It's fine. Stay.”
And there’s nothing else I can do.
“Sharina is a healer and a spirit leader of our tribe,” Miriam explains. “Lily is safe with her.”
I’m not all that sure I believe her. Though I can’t sense any real danger from these people, not if I’m being completely honest with myself. Somehow the walk today heightened my awareness of everything and everyone around me. Or maybe that’s happened in the last week that we’ve been here in the middle of nowhere.
