Jumlin's Spawn (5 page)

Yancey pointed toward them. “Weird place for
cremains.”

“No way to say for sure that they're cremains,” Elfie
said. “I mean, it could even be a bunch of burned wood and pottery
or something.  Look at all the dead flora mixed in with
them.”

“No, they’re cremains for sure. With a circle of
protection around them,” Yancey said. “I see sage, cedar and
wheatgrass. The circle of protection is closed.” 

“So, our friend the village atheist transforms into
an American Indian mystic all of a sudden?” Oliver asked wryly.

“I’m an American Indian who has cremated two
grandparents who were traditionals, koka kola.  I know the
cultural ropes.  Bite me.”

“Later,” Oliver said, laughing.

She felt herself blush at the obvious double
entendre, so she quickly turned back toward the jeep.  She
looked toward the sky instead.  “We’d better move on. 
It's already afternoon. We'll be losing daylight before we know
it.”

“We'll make it to Old Peso Rock by then,” Yancey
said, “I think we can camp there.”

“Oh, goodie,” Elfie said, climbing back into the
jeep. “Let’s break out the s’mores.”

****

It seemed like she had spaced out for some amount of
time. She had been reading her e-novel again. 
Had she been
sleeping
?  It was hard to say.  She felt herself
losing grasp of the day.  She had that long-car-trip surreal
feeling, like her head was full of fog.  She wasn’t tired; she
was just vague.  And rather car-sick and twisty-headed.

“Whatcha reading?” Yancey called back, clearly as
bored as she was.

She didn’t look up. “A novel.”

“I know. The Captive Bride at Red Rock Ridge. I took
a peek at it while you were asleep. Sounds suspiciously like a
scarlet fever bodice ripper.”

“First of all, what the hell are you doing looking at
my stuff?” she asked, finally looking up at him.  “Secondly,
what the hell is a scarlet fever bodice ripper? Not that I probably
want to know.”

“It’s one of those prairie women kidnapped by hunky
Indian brave novels. They have tons of hot injun sex and fall madly
in love.”

She gestured to the thing she held. “I don't even
know what the hell this is yet. I bought it off the Web to read on
the plane. I didn't, so I'm reading it now.”

“So, who do you picture as the Indian?”

She gazed hard at him again.  “I've barely made
it past the words ‘Chapter One,’ thanks, in part, to this
inquisition. What's more, I never picture anyone as anything.”

“It’s an erotic romance?”

“It‘s none of your business, is what it is.”

He winked at her.  “Nothing to be ashamed
about.  I don’t mind that you fantasize about me.  I
think it’s hot.”

Her eyebrows almost collided.  “Yancey, your ego
is just too adorable. I'm not fantasizing about anyone. I'm
reading.”

“Then how come you’re blushing?” he asked,
winking.

“Because you're embarrassing me with --”

The jeep swerved hard, sheering left then right
again. Elfie slammed against the bulkhead.  She hung half off
the seat, the bench seat yanked forward. 

 “What the fuck --” Oliver said, his foot
flooring the brakes until the jeep slid to a stop.

Yancey pulled himself up.  “What happened?”

Oliver shook his head while staring at the
road.  He yanked open the door. “I swear to God I just saw a
little kid run across the road.”

“Out here?” Yancey asked, but looked back at Elfie
who was still picking herself up off the floor.  “You
okay?”

“Yeah,” she said, brushing herself off.  “I
think.”

Before she could ask after them, they had already
left the jeep to investigate. She followed them out and rounded the
jeep's front bumper to find the men studying the
distance. 

“I swear it looked like a little kid,” Oliver said,
confusion swarming in his voice, “like a toddler.  Two,
maybe three years old.”

Yancey turned around to survey the whole area. “Sure
it wasn’t a coyote or a dog or something?”

“Yes!” Oliver shot back.  “Those have four legs,
this had two.  It was a kid.  A little kid. It ran right
through our path.”

Elfie drew up beside Oliver, who was staring at the
grassy emptiness that might have been the path the toddler had
taken into the brush. 

“Maybe it was a child from the campgrounds around
here?” Elfie said, looking all around her.  “We should
search.  A child that young could be killed by predators.”

“A child that young wouldn’t be able to run too
far.  He’d be easy to see,” Oliver said, pointing. “I think,
if it was a kid, it would be right here.  There are flat
grasses in every direction.”

“Maybe a reflection off somewhere?” Yancey asked. “Or
a visual hallucination?  We’ve been driving a long time.”

Oliver shook his head and shrugged. 
“Maybe.  I was sure we’d find kids playing tricks on us or
something.  But maybe it was a hallucination.  I‘m dead
tired from driving.”

“In that case, we’d better make an early day of it.”
Yancey said, “We’re not far from Old Peso Rock. That’d be a good
place to camp. It would also be a great time for me to take over
the wheel.”

Oliver managed a laugh.  “No, thanks, Chief
Leadfoot. I’d rather survive.” 

Yancey smirked back at him. “Old Peso Rock is just
above Coyote Crossing. Back in high school, we used to ride our
mountain bikes up there, remember?”

Oliver appeared to pale a little. “You mean that
steep, jagged trail?”

“Yeah, that steep, jagged trail. Like all the other
steep, ragged trails around here. You’ll want me to drive.”

Oliver nodded. “I want you to drive.”

“That’s what I thought.”

 ****

The jeep climbed quickly and nimbly up Old Peso Rock
Trail, a rugged shelf about a third of the way up to Vista Point.
The jeep had breached the edge of the road one too many times for
Elfie’s taste.  

“Well, that was fun,” Elfie said, unclenching her
fists and exhaling as the jeep finally wheezed its way to the
top. 

“Why don’t we try for something a little less steep
next time?” Oliver asked, putting the jeep in park.  “Like
22nd Street in San Francisco?”

Yancey cracked a grin.  “Aren’t you glad I
drove? And to pay me back, you can heat up dinner. I brought
MREs.”

“The hell with that,” Elfie said. “I’m starved, so
I’m cooking.”

“Elfie, far be it for me to point this out,” Yancey
said, grinning over at her, “but that’s a little sexist. Do you
think you should cook because you're a girl?”

“No,” she said. “I’m going to heat them up because
I'm the only one who won't burn the crap out of them
.
Capisce?”

****

 The men spent dinner eating and talking in low
voices. Elfie nibbled away at hers while she sat in the jeep. She
watched the men from a distance as they stayed slack-seated in
their squat camp chairs. The men's voices traded soft and low,
their hands now openly clinging together.

After finishing dinner, the backseat easily collapsed
into a bunk. She had pulled the bagged blanket and pillow out from
under the seat. She drew the blanket over her, perched her head
atop the pillow, and started trying to read again from her
e-novel.

At that point, the guys also dragged themselves into
the jeep.

Oliver collapsed the front bench into a bunk as
Yancey smiled knowingly over at Elfie. She proceeded to ignore his
stare as the man perched himself across Oliver's knees. Out of her
peripheral vision, she could see Yancey looking hungrily at Oliver
and Oliver lifting an eyebrow in reply.

His eyes still on Elfie, Yancey reached back to pop
open the closure on Oliver's jeans. Then he lowered his face to
Oliver's crotch and pulled out his already rigid cock. He engulfed
it with his mouth, sucking along its staff like something
delicious. Yancey's tongue whipped out to slither across the
glans.

Oliver arched back against the jeep's wall, grasping
at the front seat as if enduring a wave of pleasure.

Yancey deep-throated him, sucking voraciously in and
out until Oliver's groans sounded louder to Elfie than her own
heartbeat.

"Shit," she said harshly, trying to control her own
breathing, as she set her book aside. She hunkered down inside her
blanket and fought to ignore them.

But, a sputtering rage of sound swept the night air,
beginning far and approaching fast.

Yancey groaned in protest as he released Oliver’s
cock. Oliver zipped himself back securely as both men climbed out
of the cab to investigate the clamor.

Elfie crawled forward to watch Yancey and Oliver as
they climbed outside, Oliver hanging back aways. They watched a man
with long black hair ride his dirt bike to the edge of the rock
face where they had camped. The man on the bike slowed down to
stare over at them, as if trying to discern who they were. Finally,
he dismounted and walked toward them.

“Yancey?” the new man asked.

“Yeah, it's me. What’s up, Severin?”

The other man waved an arm at the sky. “There's a
pack of wild dogs roving. Be sure to stay near the campsite unless
you're in the jeep.”

“That's our plan,” Yancey said.

Elfie now stood outside the jeep, listening to the
exchange. Severin looked toward her, and then walked in that
direction. His large brown eyes seemed unspeakably sad yet, he
smiled a little.

“You’re Yancey’s friend. I’ve seen you around. You
especially have to be very careful. Pretty young girls up here on
the Unit can go missing.”

Elfie smiled nervously in return. “Thanks, I’ll keep
that in mind.”

Severin considered her sadly another moment. “Nice
seeing you,” he said quickly and returned to his bike. He glanced
one more time toward Yancey. “Amba, cous.”

“Amba. Pilamaya,” Yancey replied.

Elfie nodded toward the rapidly growing distant
figure now kicking up clouds in the dirt. “Who was he?”

“Severin,” Yancey said. “He rides all night making
sure the populated areas of the unit are secure. Nice guy with a
superhero complex.”

“Gee, I don't know anyone like that,” Elfie
replied.

Yancey tossed her a smirk. “I brought you a beer,
smartass,” he said, offering her a bottle.

She accepted it from him while crawling back inside
the jeep. “Now you have my full attention.”

“Good, then you won't need this thing,” he said,
gently pulling the e-reader out of her grasp as he moved across the
jeep to sit beside her.

Elfie flicked him a look of mild annoyance as she
dragged the e-reader out of his hands. “Yes, I will.” She laid it
aside and opened her beer.

“So, how's the Captive Bride coming along?”

“Not surprisingly, I'm about two paragraphs past the
words
Chapter One
.”

“A lot of those white women weren't captive brides,
you know,” he said. “I mean, they were captured but most stayed for
their own reasons. Some women rescued by the whites went back to
their Indian husbands.”

“I know that's a tale one hears,” she said, sipping
more beer.

“You really can't blame the women, though. Married to
all those starchy white military types, prairie settlers, good
puritans who wouldn't know their dick from a candlestick. At least
not when it came to pleasuring their women.”

She looked at him closely but then looked away.
“That's sort of a stereotype, don't you think?”

“Not if it's true,” he said, softly. “Just think of
it. Prim and proper little maiden. Never had an orgasm in her life.
You know how it was back then.”

“More stereotypes,” she replied, swigging from the
bottle.

“And she's in bed, and there stands this big, hot
Indian guy. Warrior, a red man, forbidden, with a big hard cock.
And he knows just what to do with it. He's got no fucking
inhibitions. Can you imagine what that must have been like for
those women?”

“Stop it,” Elfie said.

“Why?” Yancey asked. “Because it's making you
hot?”

“No, because it’s embarrassing,” she said
tightly.

“Then why are you trembling?” he asked with a knowing
grin.

“I am not trembling,” she said.

“You're trembling,” Yancey said, leaning toward her
to peel the beer bottle out of her hand, and then combing his
fingers gently into her hair. “Now you're going to tremble even
more.”

Yancey captured her mouth under his. She had no idea
where this fire had flashed from. A reaction to his words…the last
year…a little of the beer…and a lot of something she hadn't wanted
to accept. She found herself kissing him back with abandon, twining
her tongue around his. He groaned his approval and then pressed her
back against the bunk Elfie had chosen for her own. He covered her
with his body, moving his hips against her for emphasis.

The sound of the jeep opening cracked across their
intense quiet. Oliver climbed in.

Elfie shook Yancey off of her by crawling away to the
bunk the men had chosen.

“Oliver!” she gasped, chasing after a breath. “I'm so
sorry. I don't know what – ”

“Don't quit making out because of me,” Oliver said in
a breathy voice, his eyes shining with heat. “I came in here to
watch.”

“I would never do that to you,” Elfie said to
Oliver.

“Sure you would,” Yancey said, recovering from the
kiss. “You’d do it to him right after you did it to me. So let's
get back to you and me.”

“Instead of it being just Yancey and me, it can be
all three of us,” Oliver said. “It's the ideal solution.”

Elfie reached for her beer again, for want of
something else to say or do. She gulped some, but the beer nearly
went flat in her mouth before she grasped the meaning of his words.
“Oh, my God,” she said finally. “You can't mean…I mean, you don't
mean what I think you mean by that –”