Claws (25 page)

“Four,” she replied bleakly. “Ty has no
young.”

Jericho looked disgusted. “It’s not
possible for one to be born with all nine! It lies!”

“Wait a minute, didn’t you tell me all
you guys are interbred too?” Vivvie asked excitedly. “Eli said you
guys are all brother cousins and uncle dads.”

Jericho grinned at her choice of words,
taking no offense. “Vivvie our tribe didn’t observe any boundaries.
It wasn’t uncommon for Mothers to mate with sons, Fathers to mate
with daughters and grandmothers even. Tania’s intended husband that
died was also her half-brother. My own Mother was also my sister
and cousin; figure that one out.”

Vivvie grimaced. “That’s totally nasty.
I don’t think I want to think about it at all.”

Jericho grinned, enjoying her
discomfort. “It’s all good.”

“The demon wants this prophecy child
born with all nine powers,” Vivvie said and shrugged. “If it has
Eli and Tania’s gift; it has a way into the tribe find this child.
That’s it in a nutshell. It would use Tania’s power to get in and
Eli’s to control everyone.”

“
If the demon gets the power
of the nine; it has us all. Even our ancestors in the spirit world
are not safe.”

“Well, looks like I have to get busy
and check out the kids in my class; see which one’s might be the
chosen one.”

“It isn’t possible!” Jericho fumed and
looked angry to be caught without an answer for once. “There’s no
way one was born with all nine!”

“Ok, you really need to get a grip,”
she noted and smirked at his scowl. “It’s totally possible when you
look at all nine of your ancestors. You might not have their power,
but you have them within your DNA, right? Just like I have Ryken in
my blood, and Tania, and whatever others.”

“The other five powers have never
showed up in our kind since we came here, Vivvie.”

“What are they?”

“My grandfather could shift into other
animals besides the panther. Eli’s Mother could become invisible.
Gideon’s great grandfather could move things with his thoughts.
Tania and Ty’s Father could throw fire from his eyes. There was
another that could move in the spirit world like you do your
dreams.”

Vivvie stilled as she thought of Margie
and Izzie’s strange gift. Both girls had a form of telekinesis,
always moving things with their mind. She assumed they got this
from Eli. She bit her lip, wondering if one of her babies carried
the nine genes.

“One of these children within the tribe
has or will have all nine genes,” she said and shrugged. “It’s from
all the inbreeding. Makes sense if you look at the big picture,
except Ty doesn’t have any offspring among you.”

“You forget he’s Tania’s twin,” Jericho
reminded her. “She could have passed on both her and his genes
herself.”

“There’s no way we’re going figure it
out. This is the family tree from hell. Everybody has been breeding
with everybody for years.”

“We can track the children,” Jericho
pointed out. “We evaluate the kids from time to time in school to
see how they’re developing. We could see which of them carry the
genes with a blood test.”

Vivvie looked excited. “We can do
that?”

Jericho smiled sadly. “Yeah, we can
find a kid with all four, but nobody has the other five powers,
Vivvie. I’d know about it by now because I’d have the parents
breathing down my neck. You don’t think a kid that can become
invisible or burn things by looking at them wouldn’t have been
brought to my attention by now? The shifting into other animals is
a dead giveaway. They would have presented all this
already.”

“If they have your gift; they could
hide what they are,” she pointed out. “If they have Ty’s power;
they can see how all this ends up. Poor kid is probably freaked
out. No wonder the kid hides.”

“It’s not possible,” Jericho said
stubbornly, refusing to believe it.

“I think you need to start thinking it
might, Brother Cousin,” she teased and rolled her eyes.

Jericho looked incensed. “Do you
realize what one with the power of the nine could do for the tribe,
Vivvie?”

“No, but I’m sure you’ll tell me. What
can the Golden Child do?”

“This child is like Jesus is to your
human people” he said in awe and shook his head in wonder. “The one
with all nine would be able to destroy the demon in the spirit
world. I don’t think you realize how significant this
is.”

She wanted to laugh at how cute Jericho
looked as he pondered the demons words, scattering all signs of the
circle. He was muttering to himself, stumped by what the demon told
them.

She was going home to look at her own
young to see if they had these unknown traits, sure Izzie and
Margie had one already. The thought that the demon might be after
one of her own made her seethe with a fury that made her hair
bristle at her nape.

“Tania doesn’t know about this so we
have the advantage,” Vivvie said and saw Jericho grab up the pail.
“She’s only worried about herself right now. She doesn’t see the
demon will have her too if she gives it what it wants.”

“I think it’s time I pay Tania a visit
for old time’s sake,” Jericho replied and Vivvie stiffened at his
innuendo, shocked to feel the burn of jealousy he would sleep with
the female leader to get information from her.

“You and her aren’t exactly BFF’s
anymore, Jericho,” she warned. “I wouldn’t go there if I were
you.”

“Jealous, aren’t you?” he asked with a
delighted grin. “Me and Tania go way back, Vivvie. She’ll lift more
than her tail for me, trust me.”

“That’s just too much information,” she
protested and held up a hand. “I don’t want to know.”

“You can’t tell Eli the truth right
now,” Jericho told her when he approached with the foul-smelling
pail in his hands. “If he finds out; he’ll have a fit. We need to
keep this to ourselves, see if this demon is telling the
truth.”

Vivvie eyed him in disgust. “Can you
get down wind with that shit? That stuff reeks!”

Jericho chuckled and walked ahead of
her out of the cave and dumped the mixture over the side of the
mountain ledge, grimacing from the fumes. Moonlight allowed her a
definite view of his backside and she looked away, trying to avoid
recalling digging her heels into it as he brought her to
pleasure.

A sweat broke out on her brow to think
of how well he moved that well-turned ass, closing her eyes to ward
off the heat spreading like fire through her abdomen. She pushed
her lustful thoughts away. She had to get busy hunting for tomorrow
night’s dinner or Eli would question her absence.

“I’m going hunting, see ya tomorrow,”
she called over her shoulder as she shifted to her animal
form.

Vivvie dragged the deer with her in her
jaws when she arrived home. She was huffing and puffing as she
shifted and pulled it over the fence. She got it to the deck and
left it for Eli to carve up.

Eli opened the sliding glass doors as
she was dressing, sniffing the air, his eyes glowing blue fire. “I
was getting worried, Vivvie. What took you so long?”

“The buck gave me a run. I lost track
of time,” she replied and ran a hand through her damp hair. “Then I
took a swim.”

“I’ll cut it up in the morning,” he
told her as she came inside. “I couldn’t sleep without you here,
wife.”

She smiled at his grumbling tone. “I’m
exhausted. Five-thirty comes around early.”

Eli grinned and shook his head. “You’re
going to pay for this tomorrow when you can’t stay awake in class.
You didn’t have to do this, Vivvie. I told you I’d help you hunt.
We can do it together if you want.”

Vivvie thought of his reaction if he
could read her mind and know what she was doing tonight. Conjuring
demons came to mind. She pasted on a smile and cringed inwardly
with guilt as he offered to share one of her wifely duties. She
came into his arms, feeling his strength and his love.

~ ~ ~

She avoided Jericho at school the next
week, conscious of the persistent feelings for him that dismayed
and unnerved her. Why she felt this way was ridiculous after going
to him in her dreams for months. She told herself that wasn’t real
then, hadn’t felt real to her.

While she had the children busy finger
painting, her daydreaming began. Seeing them in her mind making
love with such abandonment was making her crazed. She felt her body
becoming flushed just thinking of him. Soon she got up and paced
the room, edgy and annoyed she couldn’t concentrate on anything but
Jericho.

Eli made love to her in the shower that
morning and she had a rousing orgasm before school. These carnal
desires for Jericho were unwelcome. They intruded upon her day,
making her feel like a tramp to grow moist and fidgety. All she
could think of was sneaking to the education office and scratching
this consuming itch once and for all.

For his part, he stayed away, peering
into the window of the classroom as he passed, his yellow green
gaze slid over her like a slow caress. It was like waving a red
flag in front of a raging bull. Fierce hot waves of longing washed
over her. She fought it, smiling threw her teeth through snack
time. Finally it grew close to recess.

Her eyes were dark and dilated; her
breathing irregular and unsteady. Her heart beat out of control and
every time she thought of Jericho, she started secreting the
embarrassing evidence she could smell and knew real torment as the
minutes ticked by.

Vivvie didn’t allow herself to think of
it anymore. She let the kids out to recess early as she went to the
education office. He was sitting behind his desk when she entered
and locked the door behind her, eyes glowing with need. He said
nothing as he got up. She ran into his arms.

Her lips met his and clung to his
feverishly, her hands clawing at his shirt, sliding under to feel
his rigid abdomen and feel his warmth. He didn’t break the kiss as
he eased her onto his desk.

She gasped as he stood up and yanked
down her khakis to her knees. His head went down and he ripped off
her panties with his teeth, his golden head disappearing between
her thighs as she lay sprawled on the desk.

At the first touch of his lips there,
she bit her hand hard to keep from sobbing, the air charged as his
rough tongue stroked her with slow, languid flicks. She came in
minutes, her hands gripping his golden head to her, gasping at the
powerful sensations coursed through her.

When he rose and jerked down his pants
and joined her on top of the desk, she growled in pleasure as he
pounded her into the desk top, bringing her to a shattering climax.
She knew recess wasn’t over as he eased off her, breathing heavily,
eyes aglow.

“Now that was a good lunch,” he
remarked huskily, his hands pulling her up into a sitting position
at the end of his desk. “We still have time it looks
like.”

Jericho stood in front of her and
brought her legs around him waist as he eased inside of her,
sliding deep with long, sure strokes. His eyes were closed, lips
parted in ecstasy as he brought them both to orgasm again within
minutes, shaking and gripping her hips tightly. He held her as she
shook and bit into his shoulder until her climax passed.

He stared down at her with a satisfied
look in his eyes, but there was sadness there. It was as if he
wished she was successful and fought this. He stepped away and
found Kleenex and hand sanitizer and raised an eyebrow as he handed
them to her.

“Recess is over. Every kid in your
class is going to smell me on their teacher. Get cleaned
up.”

“Jericho, I’m not sorry about this,”
she admitted and avoided looking at him as she cleansed him from
her. “It felt too right to regret it.”

“Vivvie, your husband is just one
building over,” Jericho informed her with a shake of his head.
“You’re playing with fire.”

“I can’t help it,” she said and noticed
he was still hard, making her pulses dance. “Did you even enjoy
that?”

Jericho grinned and gestured to his
erection still evident in his trousers. “It’s the gift that keeps
on giving. What can I say? I’m ready to go again. Meet me after
school and I’ll finish you off.”

Vivvie couldn’t meet his gaze,
disgusted she’d pounced on him like this. He was grinning ear to
ear. It went to his head now. Jericho bent and gave her a kiss
before he returned to his own class, whistling under his
breath.

She stood up and pulled up her pants,
eyeing her torn panties on the floor with a shake of her head. The
satisfaction she felt inside was unmistakable. The fulfillment was
hard to ignore when she got back to class, able to concentrate
now.

That was Tuesday. Wednesday she took a
longer recess, ate lunch in the education office, and stayed after.
Thursday, she claimed work kept her late to excuse the highly
carnal encounters. By Friday, she excused the children from class
early. Jericho found a new use for the file cabinets the rest of
the day. Saturday they met in the cave; making love on the floor of
it until they were both shaking and too weak to move. Sunday she
could find no excuse to sneak away, tormented by daydreams of
Jericho.