Heart Two Heart (3 page)

When he was an infant I tore him from his
sick mother’s womb and ran away with him. He’d been premature and
ill so I fed him my blood starting the process of comingling our
life essence together. My heart became immediately attached. My
life essence recognized our eternal heart and has been crying and
suffering without him ever since. Every day that I deny my heart my
life force fractures and decays just a tiny bit more.

Someday I will be completely insane and will
need to be put down like a rabid animal. Truth be told Waylon and
Pau should never have helped me to recover from the attack. They
said they did it out of love but somehow I know it was a
punishment. I would take my own life but I find I am incapable. It
seems I have a tremendous self-preservation instinct. No matter the
circumstance if my life is threatened my instincts take over. It
has been that way for as long as I can remember.

When I was strong enough to finally live on
my own again Gaho had come to speak with me. She explained how I
needed to stay away from Ulric and his family. She told me how
Kealoha and Emilio had still not forgiven me for the kidnapping.
She told me how it was better if he believed I’d died and how
Waylon would take care of his heart so that he wouldn’t suffer.

Then she told me how even the skinwalkers
thought I was dead and that I would be safe if I stayed in the
shadows. In those early days I was scared and myself preservation
skills agreed with Gaho. So I stayed in the dark and hid behind
dark glasses and scarves.

Then as my body regained full strength I
found my mind becoming sicker. I hated hiding and pretending to be
someone I was not. I wanted to take back my life and my eternal
heart. I did my homework and found him. He was in a high school on
the reservation. Despite being a nagual he was popular and had lots
of friends. I watched him from a distance for months.

I used my powers of persuasion to get into
other students heads and ask questions and start rumors just to get
an understanding of what he knew about me. I threw my name around
to see if he was strong enough to accept who I was and what I’d
done. I knew people would point out to him that he was kind of
similar to a chupacabra and that we could have more in common than
he thought. His reaction caused my heart to break even more.

My eternal heart very clearly considered
himself a skinwalker and had said even though he was mutated, he
hated like chupacabra and would kill any chupacabra or camazotz
that came anywhere near his people. He was hell bent of being with
his skin walking fox and said that he was relieved that his eternal
heart chupacabra died while he was still an infant.

Then I was approached by Gaho again who
somehow knew that I’d been poking around. She said that she’d had a
change of heart and that perhaps we should tell Ulric that I was
alive. She didn’t know what I’d just learned so I claimed that I
wasn’t sure but that if she was convinced that I would want to
clear the air with Kealoha and Emilio first.

I was invited to their home a few weeks later
while Ulric was out of town with his high school sports team. The
conversation did not go well. Emilio and Kealoha were still very
angry and bitter for my past behavior. Neither one of them wanted
to even consider forgiving me. My instincts were to ignore their
feelings and take what I wanted anyway. Then Kealoha said something
that changed everything for me. She shouted and ranted and didn’t
stop until she drove it all home for me.

“Taini you are the most selfish person in the
world. When he was still in my womb your selfishness tore him out
of my body with no thought to his well being. He was chased by
skinwalkers, starved and nearly died because his heart and lungs
weren’t properly developed.

Then you left him alone in the dirt because
your enemies finally caught up to you. They tore your body to
shreds while my tiny infant son… your eternal heart was only a few
miles away. What do you think they would have done to him if they
knew he was your eternal heart?

Your actions nearly got him killed more times
while he was in your care then everything that has happened to him
since. Now if he finds out you are alive, his life will be in
danger every single day. Why? Because you killed more skinwalkers
in your lifetime than anything else in the world combined.

That includes sickness, car accidents and
even wars. For destiny’s sakes Taini you are a camazotz and Ulric
is first and foremost a skinwalker. If you love him even a tiny bit
and are capable of one singular act of selflessness then please set
him free. Give him a chance at life. Don’t steal his only chance at
happiness by tying his heart to yours.”

I left that night understanding that she was
one hundred percent right. I knew my life essence already loved my
eternal heart and that meant I needed to make sure that he never
knew that I was alive. I’d been doing so well before last night.
Why in the hell was he in Vegas? I’d just spoken to Gaho the day
before to make sure that he was still in California finishing his
residency. She assured me that he was set to graduate yesterday
then was driving home to Arizona with his skinwalker
girlfriend.

He should have gone in the opposite
direction. I would never have agreed to meet Pau in Vegas if had
known there was any chance that Ulric might be there. Why would his
own family risk him finding out about me? I wasn’t even sure now
that he’s seen me if Waylon’s magic could still keep his heart
satisfied. It was amazing the moment Pau got involved again
everything went to hell in a handbasket. It’s been the story of my
life if something can go wrong it always does.

Two rooms, two rooms. After nearly twenty
years of my life he says two rooms. The words kept reverberating
over and over through my head. How could Ulric not know we are
eternal hearts? I’ve known it since he was just a toddler what
could be keeping his heart from knowing?

I stepped into the room and looked around at
the two empty queen sized beds. The room was beautiful but it was
the last place on earth that I wanted to be. This was supposed to
be our honeymoon. We should be married and commingling our life
essence by now. I just know the moment that we commingled our
essence that Ulric would recognize me as his eternal heart.

I felt myself choking back my tears. My fox
was whimpering inside me and I felt like my world was coming apart.
I’d only ever wanted Ulric to be happy I just couldn't believe that
he might do that without me. How could my fox and I know and he
have no idea? It was like something had confused his life essence.
Every now and then I would feel the little tingles that his essence
recognized mine then it would become dazed again.

I huffed and crossed my arms across my chest.
I wanted to be angry and indignant but the only thing I really felt
was pain and disappointment almost to the level of anguish. I was
starting to think that I was going to live my life alone without my
eternal heart. Make no mistake, Ulric might be confused but I know
beyond a shadow of a doubt since the day we met. I’d never intended
to stay in that crappy little town until I recognized my eternal
heart. Then I knew I didn't want anything more than to spend my
life with him. Now, I wasn’t sure what I would do. If Ulric chose
to leave me for his camazotz eternal heart my life became nothing
more than a burden.

I laid on the bed and let the tears fall from
my eyes. Before today I’d been able to hold things together. I
didn’t gotten stuck in the past or all the bad things that had
happened to me. I’d been focused on Ulric and our love. Now, I
found myself thinking of all the things that brought me to this
very moment in time. I didn’t want to live without Ulric and I
honestly shouldn’t have to.

I’d tried to do everything right. I’d worked
hard at being a good person for Ulric. I wanted to be the best
eternal heart and make sure that he was always happy. I slammed my
fist on the pillow and growled in frustration. Taini was a bad
person and didn’t deserve my happiness. I wasn’t going to stand
idly by and watch her steal my man. I was going to fight back. I
knew in the end I could win. Ulric was a skinwalker at heart and I
was his eternal heart, I just needed to prove it to him.

I heard the howls and growls long before I
could see them with my eyes. I knew they had somehow come hunting
for me. My eternal heart must have informed them that I was in
their territory. By the sounds of the growls and the multiple birds
of prey flying overhead, I had to assume there were more than
thirty skinwalkers chasing me down. Bears, wolves and coyote. I
looked out at the sun and knew it would be several more hours
before sunset.

I was going to have to run and there was no
doubt it was going to cause me a lot of pain. The worst part is I
didn’t really even had a chance to rest. I no sooner got into the
caves when I heard the first howl. I grabbed a very quick bite and
tried to find a way to navigate my way underground to escape
them.

They however seem to know every inch of the
springs and my only chance for survival is flying topside. If they
wanted to chase, I would give them one hell of a run for their
money .I took a deep breath, shifted into my vulture form. I burst
from the cave just seconds before the first few skinwalkers closed
in on me. They were yipping, howling and growling. They were close
and I could tell they were trying to crowd me in so I couldn’t get
into the air. They thought to use a simple but effective trick when
hunting in the wild. The rules were easy push the prey towards the
other members until it was completed surrounded with no chance for
escape.

Their plan however had one major flaw. I was
not a dumb animal. I was a woman who had lived several lifetimes
and had endured more than they could ever imagine. Their simple
little trick would not work on me. I managed to take flight and
swooped directly towards one of the crow skinwalkers. I was hoping
that I wouldn’t have to kill them but I wasn't going to allow them
to entrap me. It was them or me. And my survival instincts screamed
“them”.

An eagle swooped down and knock me close to
the ground again. Before I could flap my wings, several crows and
another eagle descended down on me. It only took a few moments
before I was smack dab in front of six skinwalkers. Not much of a
threat to me. I could shift back into my human form easily kill
them all without breaking a sweat. My record was eighteen to one.
In general I was a far better fighter than the average chupacabra.
Most were comfortable with six to one odds. I was fine with
anything less than a dozen.

I wanted to take flight again but the more I
tried the more the eagles and crows blocked my path. I shifted back
to my human form and tried another approach. This time I begged
them to back off. I said I wouldn’t attack them or their tribe if
they let me go in peace. In response they threw back their heads
and howled, cackled and growled. They then all attacked
simultaneously.

They fought in their animal forms, while I
fought in my human form. I used my bare hands, fangs and claws as
deadly weapons. Initially I was trying very hard to incapacitate
not kill. But every moment I lingered I could hear more skinwalkers
approaching. I took down ten skinwalkers and then there were
suddenly ten more. I took down the next ten and realised the first
ten were waking back up.

I was getting tired of fighting. I screamed
at them to retreat or I would rip the head off the next skinwalker
to attack. They hesitated then two jumped at me at the same time. I
grabbed one in each hand and slammed them together with enough
force to snap both of their necks. Then in a final attempt to avoid
killing even more of them I screamed at the others still waiting to
attack.

“Know that this is their own fault. I never
wanted to kill any of you. I just wanted to pass through in peace.
My days of hunting skinwalkers are over.”

Then I twisted the necks off of both
skinwalkers and stood with their torn off heads in my hands and
gave a last warning.

“If you continue to attack, I will win… Then
tonight after it turns dark, I will find your homes and kill your
eternal hearts and your children. I will eat your babies’ brains
for breakfast. Now decide… You can continue to fight me and sign a
death warrant for your family or leave in peace with these two
being the only skinwalkers I will kill today.”

I knew I had them with the babies’ brains
comments. They turned and ran without even collecting their dead.
Most likely to return to their homes and leave for a new tribe with
their eternal hearts and kids. No way did they believe I wasn’t
coming to attack their homes tonight. The only difference was they
realised they could get home and possibly save their family by
getting out of town.

I looked down at my bloody hands and the dead
skinwalkers and felt the guilt and sadness flare with me. I didn’t
want to be a killer anymore. I hated being the harbinger of death
and the boogeyman to the babies. I just wanted to find a little
peace and serenity. My skin burned and my blood felt like acid
burning me from the inside out. I needed to find shelter and feed.
Twice in twenty four hours I was lost in the desert and I was
pretty damn tired of it. I limped into the nearest civilized area I
could find and used a phone to call Pau.

Pau is my brother in arms and one of the
original nagual created by the Nazi’s. He like me was captured and
experimented on by the Nazi’s. They combined my chupacabra DNA with
his skinwalker DNA. Unlike me however, he was successfully mutated
in a nagual and forced to breed with multiple Jewish prisoners
during the war. As a result, Pau fathered many children. Sadly
however, after the war he was able to locate and claim only two.
Gaho his eldest daughter and Kealoha, Ulric’s mum.