Jude Stephens (3 page)

Sometimes, while I rode him to ecstasy, I would bend
down and run my tongue over his jaw to his ear which would make him
growl…What the hell was I doing? The man betrayed me and all I
could think about was fucking him? I was sick beyond repair. My
anger burned. How could he make love to me with such passion and
love someone else at the same time?

The anger began to wane and was soon replaced with
despair as I thought of the images Alex showed me. I had never seen
Roberto look as happy and carefree as when he was with Annika. They
looked perfect together. I remembered Roberto’s brother Cristoforo
telling me how I wasn’t Roberto’s usual type. He preferred tall,
long legged blondes. Well, no doubt about it, Annika fit that
bill.

I wasn’t sure how long I walked, but my legs were
beginning to ache, so I looked for a place to sit down. Walking
into the tree line I found a rather pretty little patch of high
soft grass. The area was surrounded by tall trees on all sides. It
was secluded. Not that I need worry about being bothered out here,
in the middle of nowhere. Making myself comfortable on the grass, I
looked up at the stars. I was glad the night wasn’t too cool.
Letting out a long sigh I wondered how I had come to this point. My
parents were gone, I was facing an uncertain future with strange
new abilities, and once again my love life was in shambles. I began
to weep. Already I was grieving the loss of Roberto and all that we
shared the last few months.

I’m not sure how long I lay there weeping, but I
must have drifted off to sleep. The next thing I knew I was
dreaming about my silver wolf who comes to me often in my dreams,
and who I now affectionately refer to as Bullet. It was a strange
dream.

Usually when I dream about Bullet, the dream is full
of meaning and symbolism. One time he came to me while I was being
attacked by a Vampire that was working for The Guardians. At that
time he leant me his strength so I could fight back and kill the
vampire before he killed me. I hadn’t dreamt of Bullet since that
time, but here I was now dreaming of him and he didn’t offer me any
wisdom or direction. All he offered me was warmth. I was dreaming
that Bullet came and laid his large body beside me and closed his
eyes and went to sleep.

I opened my eyes and was surprised to see it was
daylight. The sun wasn’t beating down on me yet so I gathered that
it was still early morning. I turned my head and found myself
staring into a pair of grey eyes.

Gasping and jumping to my feet I watched as a large
silver wolf got up on his legs and shook his body.

He sat back on his haunches and
stared at me as if to say
“What’s your
problem?”

I wasn’t scared of him, just a little nervous.
Slowly squatting down I said, “Bullet?”

I watched warily as he stood back up and came over
and licked my hand.

I smiled then “Well, well…you’ve finally come to
visit me with me then?”

A few months ago I might have thought I had an
aneurysm. Now, I didn’t think twice that a huge wolf stepped out of
my dreams and into my life.

I began to stroke his fur. He really was a
magnificent animal. The only previous encounters I had with wolves
had been at zoos. This wolf seemed larger than the ones I’d seen.
He came up to my waist and was probably close to six feet long.

I knelt next to him “You’re a big boy aren’t you?
What are you doing out here anyway? Are you hungry?” I asked him as
my stomach rumbled. I wasn’t sure why I asked him when I had no
food to give him. I didn’t even have any food for myself. With a
nudge of his muzzle against my hip he almost unbalanced me.
“Hey…watch it.” I scolded him. He stood looking at me and once more
pushed me with his wet nose.

“
What…what do you
want?”

He started walking away back toward the lake.

“
Ahhh…you want me to follow you?”
Sighing I thought I might as well. He never led me astray before.
Of course, back then he was a figment of my imagination.

“
Okay Bullet. Lead the way.” I
followed him almost all of the way out of the thick trees when he
stopped next to a line of bushes. As I got closer I saw they were
raspberry bushes. I stood and stared at the bushes remembering how
I used to pick raspberries with my Mom in the woods near our house.
I came out of my reverie when I felt Bullet licking my hand once
more.

I shook my head to clear it of the painful memories,
and began to pick the berries and eat them. They were delicious. I
looked over at Bullet who stood there watching me with what I swear
was amusement. That was one thing that I wasn’t going to face just
yet, that this animal was some sort of mystical beast.

Roberto once suggested that Bullet was my spirit
guide.

At the thought of Roberto I felt like someone had
punched me in the stomach. I doubled over from the intensity of the
pain and dropped to my knees and threw up the berries I had just
eaten. The pain was so bad that I curled into a fetal position and
laid there keening. Bullet came over and began licking my face and
eventually I calmed down. I felt exhausted and welcomed the warm
softness against me as Bullet lay down beside me once again.
Without even realizing it, I drifted off to sleep.

I was dreaming. I knew this was a dream, yet the
word vision kept popping into my head. I was walking along a rocky
beach. I saw a path that led into a grove of trees. Unconsciously I
moved toward the path. Bullet walked beside me. It was cool beneath
the towering trees and we walked for a little while in comfort.
When we broke free of the trees we were still on the dirt path but
walking through a large meadow with the hot sun beating down on us.
I hoped wherever we were going wasn’t too far. The path took us up
a slight incline and when we reached the top, I stopped to stare in
wonderment at what lay before us. It was a village of sorts. I
suddenly felt as if I’d stepped back in time a hundred years or so.
It appeared to be a replica of a Native American village.

Not the kind with teepees, but with several
longhouses. Enchanted by the scene before me, I stepped up my pace
to hurry for a closer look. As I got closer to the outskirts of the
village, I slowed down to smile at a young boy who was playing with
a ball in a net attached to a long stick. He stopped, looked at me
and Bullet with shock, and ran off toward the village. I looked
down at Bullet and said, “Look what you did. You scared that poor
boy. Maybe you should stay here. A huge wolf is not conveying a
picture of friendliness I suppose.”

Bullet cocked his head to the side as if he was
amused with me and continued to walk beside me. When we reached the
edge of the village I saw people had begun to gather outside their
huts. Some of them were dressed in authentic Native American
clothes of tunics for the women and breechcloths for the men.
Though several wore jeans and work shirts. Even though the people
were strangers to me, I felt no fear as I walked forward. It felt
as if I had been here before even though I knew I hadn’t. When I
came abreast of the first group of people, they quickly bowed their
heads. The same thing happened as I walked down the path between
the longhouses.

When I reached the end of the
path, a group of people parted to reveal an old woman who, though
looking frail stood strait and proud. She wore a tunic of soft
deerskin with beautiful intricate beading around the
bottom.

Without even realizing why I was doing it, I bowed
my head to her in a show of respect. She stepped forward and took
my hand between her gnarled ones.

“
Nya:weh segeno, Welcome, Sensay.
You are here in the spirit world and we await you in this world.
Come quickly. You have much to do and learn.” With that she turned
and walked away. As I watched she turned slowly and much to my
astonishment gave me a saucy wink.

I stood there for a minute not knowing what to do.
Bullet nudged me with his wet nose and got me moving. I turned to
walk back down the road and found myself up against a hard male
body. Strong arms wrapped around me so I wouldn’t loose my balance.
I looked up and found myself looking into a pair of hard black
eyes. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. There was no
smile on the man’s handsome face. He had short black hair and a
days worth of dark stubble along his jaw.

His denim work shirt was open, and I couldn’t stop
myself from staring at his smooth chest and down lower where he had
the tightest and most defined abs I’d ever seen. I knew
instinctively this man didn’t get those abs from visits to a
gym.

I could picture him with his shirt off on a hot
summer day, chopping wood, sweaty and breathing hard.

I heard the man give a mocking little chuckle and
realized that he was aware of my imaginings.

All he said was, “You better toughen up little
Sensay. Stop letting the fucking vampires make you cry.”

I pulled out of his arms and quickly walked back the
way I had come. The man may be hot but he was also rude and
arrogant. When I reached the meadow, I turned to look back down the
hill at the village but it was gone. In its place were tall pine
trees.

I woke up with something tickling my ear. Opening my
eyes I saw Bullet stretched out beside me once more. It was his fur
that was tickling my ear. With bleary eyes I saw I was still near
the raspberry bushes that I had eaten from earlier, though now it
was almost dusk. What the hell? How long had I been asleep? I stood
and stretched my stiff limbs.

I smiled as I watched Bullet shake himself off in
almost the same manner. Then he looked me in the eye as if to say
what now? The dream was still vivid in my mind. “I’ll tell you what
now, Bullet. We go back and face the fucking vampires. And then we
go and find that village. I got some Sensay training to do.”

I turned and started walking back the way I came
knowing instinctively which direction I needed to go to get me back
to Roberto’s.

It no longer pained me to think of him. Now it just
made me angry. The red glow was constantly with me now. Walking
beside me, I knew Bullet was aware of my anger because every so
often he would let out a low menacing growl on my behalf. It was
full dark when we got close to Roberto’s. I knew we were close
because I could hear voices. It sounded as if they were getting a
search party ready to go looking for me. I heard Janel weeping,
Antonio muttering about flashlights, and I heard Roberto cursing.
So the bastard was back. I faltered for a second and when I did I
realized that the sounds back at the house were now quiet. Roberto
knew I was coming.

Good
, I
thought to myself as I put a little smile on my face and began to
move forward again.
This reunion was not
going to be the sweet gathering that sonofabitch thinks it will
be
.

Chapter 4

When Bullet and I broke free of the tree line I saw
Roberto running across the meadow towards me, but he stopped dead
in his tracks when he saw us. Good…he looked uneasy all of a
sudden. We walked to within ten feet of him and stopped directly in
front of him. I stared at him hard for a minute and decided to
dismiss him and began walking around him.

He grabbed my arm “Olivia…please.”

Bullet growled and moved between us. Roberto dropped
my arm. I stared at him with hard eyes “Please what, Roberto?
Please forgive me for lying to you for months, please forgive me
for being bonded to another, please forgive me for fucking you
every night and letting you think I loved you?”

Roberto’s eyes blazed. “I do love you Olivia. You
know that’s true.”

My own eyes blazed back at him, “Hmmm. Okay…how
about the first time we made love? Did you love me then
Roberto?”

He eyes shifted away from me. I continued, “How
about the second time? No answer, huh? I thought as much.”

Once more I started walking away when Roberto said,
“That’s it then Olivia? You’re not going to let me tell my
story?”

I spun around fast and slapped his face hard. “Fuck
you Roberto! You had months to tell me your story.”

I walked away again and this time he did not follow
me.

Everyone was standing on the front porch, Janel,
Antonio, Andy and Mark. The men were not looking at me, but Janel
stood there with tears running down her face and started for me
with her arms outstretched until she saw Bullet at my side.

“
It’s okay. He won’t hurt
you.”

Janel looked at us unbelievably, “I don’t know
Olivia, your dog is huge and he looks hungry.”

“
He’s a wolf, not a dog and he is
hungry. Antonio, can you find something for Bullet to eat while I
pack?”

When I said the word pack everyone’s head snapped
up. “Yeah, I said pack. I’m leaving here tonight.”

“
You don’t have to leave tonight.
Why don’t you wait until the morning?” Roberto spoke quietly from
behind me.

I spun around “No. I need to leave tonight. I am
anxious to start my life. Don’t you remember? You’re the one that
told me I have a destiny. I’m just going to fulfill it.”

Roberto sighed. “I understand Piccolina, but you can
fulfill your destiny in the morning as easy as you can
tonight.”

“
Don’t call me that! You have no
right to call me that anymore! Don’t you understand what you’ve
done Roberto? You haven’t just broken my heart, you have destroyed
it. I let you into a place where I have never let anyone else, and
you lied to me, you used me and you made a mockery out of the word
love.”

I didn’t care that everyone was watching me now; I
had to let it out. I walked close to him and looked into his face.
“Tell me why you kissed me that first night in your hotel?”