Island Heat (A Sexy Time Travel Romance With a Twist) (19 page)

He glanced over at Olivia, then back at me. “We’ll have to plan to leave while Salvador is gone. Tomorrow, when Olivia’s safe and back at the caves...”

He bent his head close to mine and we began to plot.

*** *** ***

The next morning, when Olivia was busy cleaning the dishes so she could return to the sewing, I rubbed my stomach and gave her a bright smile. “You know what would be good today?”

She gave me a cautious look. “What?”

“One of those green and red sour fruits. I’ve been totally craving one for the past few days.”

She wrinkled her nose in distaste, as I knew she would. “You like those?”

Actually, I didn’t, but I pretended to. “I do! They’d be perfect this morning with a little of your fermented wine.”

“If you say so,” she said dubiously. Then, “The bushes close to here are stripped, though. It’s a good half-hour’s walk in the other direction for the closest ones.”

That was Eustace’s cue. I glanced over at him where he sat near the fire, idly sharpening a spear. “Fruit does sound rather tasty,” he agreed, and I near about fainted with relief. “I’ll take you if you wish to get some.”

“Great,” I enthused, heading to the lip of the cave and letting the rope ladder down and trying not to let my hands shake and give away my nervousness.

But Olivia didn’t suspect a thing, not even when Eustace grabbed a second spear and tossed the leather strap over his head and slung it on his back, and we both went down the ladder, chattering loudly about silly things such as the weather.

I mean, it was a tropical island. The weather hardly ever changed.

As soon as we were out of hearing range, Eustace glanced backward at the cave and grunted with relief. “She’s pulled up the ladder. Let’s go.” He handed me one of the spears. “Think you can keep up? It’s going to be a hard run from here to the far side of the island.”

I clutched at the weapon with sweaty palms, nodding at him. “I’m ready.”

We set off then, skirting around the camp and then heading back in the other direction. I suggested that we follow the beach, but Eustace was smart enough to shoot down my idea – we’d be in plain sight for miles, and the idea was to scope out the camp before we made any rash decisions.

The run was hard work – I’d forgotten the long, yucky trek through the jungle when I was with Salvador, because he’d made it as easy on me as he could. Eustace had no such compulsions, and he’d stop to give me impatient looks every time I slowed down. I trailed behind him, panting hard, and dodging the tree branches that he shoved aside – but wouldn’t hold aside – for me. The sun was high in the skies and hot, and we only had one water-skin between the two of us.

Every time I’d pause for a rest-break, Eustace would shoot me an impatient look. “If we don’t keep going, Salvador will catch up with us.”

I paused to bend over, hands on my knees as I panted. I’d long since hiked my skirts up and knotted them around my thighs so they wouldn’t be in the way, and I used part of the hem to dab my sweaty forehead. “We’re a half a day ahead of him, Eustace. How’s he going to get to us?”

He gave me an openly skeptical look. “You don’t believe me? Tell me, then, where did your craft land on the shore?”

I described the area, in particular the rocky outcropping. “And how many days was it before Salvador arrived?”

I thought of the sweet story he’d told about seeing my flare that first night. “Less than a day,” I admitted.

“What you described is a good two-day walk from our cave, so don’t underestimate the man. He’d do anything to keep you safe from harm, and he’s going to kill me if he catches us. Understand?”

I struggled upright and tried not to groan as he took off into the brush again. “I understand,” I mumbled. I only prayed that I was right, and we wouldn’t be too late to save anyone.

*** *** ***

The sun went down, and with it, my energy. By the time I was ready to collapse, Eustace slowed and shushed me. The rocky cliffs that had seemed so distant before were very close, and we carefully skirted around them. “The natives,” he said, since he wouldn’t use my term of ‘caveman’, “dwell in the rocks like we do, but near the ground. We need to find where they are located before it gets dark.”

“What about cook fires?” I reasoned.

He shook his head, not even bothering to look over at me, intently scanning the crumbling rock walls. “They don’t know how to use fire.”

We both froze as a familiar angry, animal bellow broke through the underbrush, and I clutched my spear tighter. “Was that...” My voice was a choked whisper.

“The terrible lizard,” Eustace agreed. “It’s close to here, somewhere.” He shook his head, his brows furrowing. “That’s odd that the creature would be on this part of the island. It never used to venture this far inland.”

“Maybe it’s had a few good meals around here,” I said, huddling closer to Eustace and hunching down to make myself smaller. “Do you think it’s eating the cavemen?”

“Not likely,” he said, ruffling his hair in anxiety. “Blast. This puts a kink in our plans. We’ll have to be careful.”

“How close is it?” I couldn’t stop staring into the woods, waiting to see a glimpse of too-big teeth and too-tiny arms.

We both listened. The T-Rex called again, this time a bit quieter than before. “Not so close,” Eustace said after a moment. “Maybe a few leagues away, but it runs fast. Just be on the lookout for other lizards it flushes our way.”

Great. Just what we needed, more dinosaurs.

We kept to the heavy underbrush, circling around the cavemen’s camp. Eustace waved me into a heavy clump of fern-like bushes, and indicated that I should stay put. “If you see one of the lizards, stay still. I’m going to circle around and disguise our scent-path.” He gestured at the rocky wall. “See if you can determine how many of them dwell there, and stay put and out of sight. Understand?”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” I whispered, and he took off, leaving me in a momentary panic. What if he left me here? What if the cavemen found me? I forced myself to suck it up and concentrate on studying the cave, glancing back every once in a while where Eustace had disappeared. Sure enough, I’d catch a quick glimpse of him every now and then as he dragged a branch behind him on the trail, and I could smell the faint tangy scent of the broken leaves, and knew he was as good as his word. He wasn’t leaving me behind. Eustace was in this for the long haul. That made me feel better.

I could hear the chatter of the cavemen in the distance, a curious mix of made-up words and grunts, and crept a bit closer. They huddled near the mouth of a cave, squatting in the dirt and digging through a mess of rotten, discarded fruit. The front of their cave was a trashy nightmare. I saw a half-eaten carcass of a giant rat off to one side, and cringed as a caveman-child ran out of the cave and picked it up, picking at the flesh and taking bites.

No sign of Mr. Wingarde or the stewardess. I tried not to feel disappointed, but the bitter feeling in the back of my throat kept rising. I swallowed to keep my throat clear before I puked in disappointment and resolved to try and count the cavemen instead.

They wandered in and out of the entrance of their small, ragged cave (ours was so much nicer), but I counted maybe thirty individual cavemen. Idly, I wondered how old they were – ageless, like Salvador? Or did things on this island still bear young? I glanced over at the caveman-child eating the rat and wrinkled my nose. That didn’t tell me a thing, unfortunately. Olivia had been twelve years old for almost two hundred years.

I sucked in a breath as Bgha appeared at the front of the cave – I recognized that angry, heavy brow and the thick puff of hairy beard. Seeing him made me filled with a low rage, and I remembered how he’d treated me, and hoped that the stewardess wasn’t suffering the fate that had been intended for me. Bgha scratched his stomach and strutted about the small, dirty camp, and I wondered if he was in charge of the entire cave, and not just the group I’d met him with. As I watched, he walked up to another squatting caveman and stole the food out of his hand with an angry hiss of words. Clearly Bgha was the one in charge.

One of the cavemen got up and picked up a few of the discarded fruit rinds, barking something to the others, and then wandered away from camp. I watched him curiously, wondering what he was up to, but I stayed put. No way was I leaving the safety of my hiding spot without Eustace.

A hand touched my arm, and I was so intent on concentrating on the cavemen that I nearly screamed in fright.

“Are you all right?” Eustace whispered at me.

I nodded. “Just surprised.”

“How many did you count?”

“Thirty,” I whispered. “Though I could have counted wrong. They all started to look alike after a while.”

He nodded, then inclined his head off to the side. “Follow me. I think I’ve found something.” He handed me a handful of pulpy leaves. “Rub this all over you to disguise the scent. The cavemen rub themselves with it because the dinosaurs don’t like the smell, so it’ll serve our purpose doubly.”

I did as he instructed, pulping the leaves in my hand and then rubbing the acrid-smelling leaves all over. It smelled like a cross between eucalyptus and piss, and I didn’t care for it at all. My eyes watered at the smell, but I noticed Eustace applying the same, so I didn’t complain.

“Follow me,” he said finally, “But be very quiet. This is going to be dangerous.” He turned and hunched over, keeping low and heading back through the underbrush.

I clutched my spear even closer at that admission and tried not to panic. “I’m with you,” I said, and followed him.

We crept away from the camp, far enough that we were in the thick of the jungle again and I couldn’t hear the cavemen anymore. We were probably a mile away from their camp when Eustace put a hand on my arm and bade me to pause.

Ahead of us was a small clearing. I didn’t see any of Bgha’s tribe, but I did see a scatter of old fruit rinds and camp trash that signified that they visited here often. There was a dirt path that led into the clearing, and at the far end of it, I could make out a pair of carved wooden poles, off to one side. I had no idea what they were for, and gestured at them to Eustace.

“Should we go check them out?” I said.

He shook his head and frowned at me. “Wait. Something’s not right.”

We heard it a moment later; the ear-shattering roar of the Tyrannosaur, angry and all-too-close nearby. I bit my lip hard to keep my teeth from chattering, and I felt Eustace tense next to me.

“Get into that bush,” he said, giving me a little shove and pushing me into the large, prickly bush we crouched behind.

Nettles stung my skin and sliced at my palms when I fell forward into the plants, but before I could bitch at him, the heavy, thick noxious scent that we’d rubbed ourselves with earlier surrounded me. Eustace might have been an ass, but he was a clever one. The dinosaur would never smell us in this thing. I shifted quietly in the bush as Eustace crouched next to me, and we watched and waited.

Thump thump thump thump.

On the far side of the clearing, something moved, and my heart thudded in my chest in time to the heavy footsteps.
Thump thump
. I recognized the lean, angry swish of the long tail, the heavy thighs and too-small forearms of the tyrannosaur as it entered the clearing. It paused, sniffing the air. Only Eustace’s staying hand on my shoulder kept me from leaping up and running away in fright. I forced myself to try and calm down, because the creature wasn’t even looking in our direction.

Rather, he seemed to be sniffing around some leafy, low-lying bushes at the far end of the clearing. He circled around, slowly, tail swishing in agitation like my kitten Siegfried’s, and then bent low and roared loudly, fascinated with something on the ground we couldn’t see.

Just then, we heard it: a sharp, high pitched female scream that cut through the air and ended in a low, throbbing sob.

Someone female was over there. Though I couldn’t see them, there was no mistaking that voice.

The tyrannosaur bent forward, trying to angle its large head toward the ground, but his body was all wrong, and all he could do was knock at the brush nearby and scatter it like playing cards.

I glanced over at Eustace. He was brimming with excitement, a wild look in his eyes. “There’s a pit over there” he murmured low. “He can’t get to whoever is down there.” His fingers grew tight on his spear, and he trembled all over, looking for all the world like he was about to burst forth in excitement.

“It must be the stewardess,” I said, keeping my voice low and quiet. He nodded.

Not that it mattered how quiet we were – the tyrannosaur was pitching a fit. He’d realized that he couldn’t get to whoever was down in the hole, and circled the pit, over and over again, long tail swishing like an angry cat. His bellows of anger filled the night air.

We continued to watch the dinosaur as the minutes crawled past and I could breathe again, once I realized he couldn’t eat the stewardess. I looked over at the tyrannosaur. His jaws clamped on a piece of brush that had been laid over the pit and he shook it like a dog would, flinging his head back and forth. Yikes.

“What do we do?” I looked over at Eustace, clutching my spear close. “Should we charge him? Or try and distract him?”

He gave me an odd look. “Charge him? Are you mad?”

“Well, I can’t think of any other way to get him away from there, can you?” I tried to keep the peevish note out of my voice and failed miserably.

He gestured at the T-Rex. “There is no chance in Hell that we could even hurt that thing. Even if Salvador was here.”

Could he read minds? I flushed a little, because right now I was rather fervently wishing that Salvador was here. “So what do we do?”

“We wait it out. Only thing we can do.”

So we waited. Sitting in stinging nettles and reeking of eucalyptus-piss, we sat in the bushes and watched the pit as the tyrannosaur continued to circle around and around again. It was uncomfortable, cramped, and tense, but I felt like we were the lucky ones. The stewardess screamed every time the tyrannosaur bent his head close, even though he couldn’t reach her.