Enlightened (Love and Light Series) (15 page)

Her breath steaming in the mountain air, Loti walked hand-in-hand with a silent Wolf. She glanced up, but his eyes were downcast. The easy fit of their interlaced fingers riled her, but her comfortable hand wouldn’t budge. Damn it if she didn’t feel safe. Wolf shifted his eyes to her, but didn’t speak.
What is he thinking? He can’t be happy with this bizarre
—discordant drums and babbling voices interrupted her thoughts. Calisto and Margarite were ahead, but they veered to the left and disappeared into the woods.

“Over here,” Wolf murmured as he pulled her off the trail and into the woods. She straggled after him like a child being led by the hand. She rolled her eyes, but still didn’t want to let go. The bonfire blazed in the middle of a noisy crowd, stars shimmering in its drift, sparks flying up. They stepped into a clearing near the edge of the squirming mass, Loti jumping out of her skin when a trumpet blasted.

 A long, drawn out OM stretched across the gathering in three distinct sounds: “Aaaa uuuu mmm.”

“Is that Calisto?” She stretched up on tip-toe, scanning the clearing. As the low trill of the M faded away, the crowd answered it with another elongated OM.

“Yes.” Wolf’s answer was clipped and perfunctory.

Loti flicked her eyes at Wolf’s stony face and then back at the bonfire. Befuddled and not amused, she watched the throng shift as one around the fire to face what looked like a tall platform. The drums quieted as she made sense of the scene in the dancing firelight. Glancing back at Wolf, she huffed.

“Come on,” she muttered and yanked his hand. “I want to see.”

His expression didn’t change, but he didn’t resist as she dragged him behind her.
I’m attached to The Un-Jolly Black Giant.
She suppressed a snicker and pulled harder. She dived into the crowd, determined to get to the other side.

“It would be easier to go around,” Wolf rumbled.

She didn’t just want to get to the other side. She wanted to immerse herself in the throng, so she didn’t have to be alone with him. Hadn’t he been the one holding out his hand earlier, encouraging her? Why was he so broody now?
Whatever.

“Om namaya shivaya,” Calisto sang to the crowd.

Where was he? She craned her neck, but they were deep in the mass of bodies, and she couldn’t see over their heads.

“Om namaya shivaya,” everyone chanted around her. A few drums picked up a random beat, more jumping in with rustling rattles layered between them.

“Shivaaya namaha, Shivaaya namah om.” Calisto and the revelers swapped the mantra back and forth. The drums built their cadence, each beat blending with the next in a magic that was more than the sum of its parts. In the middle of it, she felt buoyant. She took a deep breath, joining the crowd’s merriment on the exhale.

She sang “Shivaaya namaha, namaha shivaya” with the others, their voices resonating in her lungs and in her throat. She and Wolf reached the edge of the blazing bonfire, the drum beat rocking her back and forth with people snugged up on all sides. Turning into the flames, the only space available, the wavering heat baked her bare skin until she had to shift into Wolf. His black eyes glittered down at her.

She swallowed.

“Shambhu Shankara namah Shivaya,” Calisto called.

“Shambhu Shankara namah Shivaya,” she and Wolf answered.

His voice vibrated in her chest and jolted her backward as she dropped his hand. The irritating buzz returned, snapping her spine straight and she tripped over her own boots. Wolf grabbed her arms and righted her before she fell into the fire. His cool touch slithered up her arms and down her spine, erasing the annoying buzz.
Peace.

“We can’t walk around holding hands all the time, Wolf,” she yelled over the drum circle.

“I know.”

She looked into his impassive face and waited for him to say something else, a different kind of irritation cultivating in her belly. When he didn’t say anything else, she jerked her arms lose and twirled her back to him. She welcomed the searing heat and even the droning madness in her spine. Crossing her arms over her chest, she squinted against the smoke. Her predicament was insufferable, beyond the burden of her reversed-roles relationship with her mother or the non-existent one with her father. The tricks she learned to navigate the passive-aggressive quicksand of her marriage to David didn’t apply, either.
So, now what?

A hand slid around her waist, over her high-tech jacket. Even through the synthetic fabric his touch calmed her. She didn’t want it to. The other hand followed, both linking over her ribs, under her breasts. He nestled his body against her back, and she shuddered.
God damn it.
His chin rested on top of her head as he swayed against her. God help her, she moved with him. She wrapped her arms over his and covered his hands with hers. She surrendered to the need to be held and let him hold her. Why couldn’t she resist? Her thoughts betrayed her—and her body was even worse. The last refrain of the mantra echoed over the clearing, reverberated off the mountain, and bounced between the trees. The music fumbled and jangled until it casually fell apart.

“Friends. Welcome!” Calisto’s voice boomed.

He stood on top of a large, flat boulder that jutted out from the mountain side. People whistled and clapped.

“We have the honor of some special guests tonight. The Travelers have agreed to lead us in song.” The crowd howled their approval as Calisto turned and held out his arms. “Guided, my friend.”

A beefy guy with a bushy beard and long hair stepped up, gripping Calisto in a warm embrace and kissing his face as they slapped each other on the back. So this was Guided—the leader of the Travelers, the ashram healer tribe. Most healers still lived in small tribes on the trail system that crisscrossed North and South America. Guided lifted his hands to the cheering mob, and they rewarded him with an outburst of rapid drums and hoots. A flute lilted over the noise, somehow penetrating it, and all went wild. Another man in bulky hiking boots, and a wooden flute to his lips, joined Guided as Calisto melted into the darkness. He lifted the flute over his head while the crowd chanted, “Peacemaker. Peacemaker. Peacemaker.”

“Om Namah Shivaya,” Guided shouted.

The crowd shouted it right back, while the drummers fumbled around. The people called kirtan until the drummers organized themselves into something a little funkier. Finger cymbals jingled and rattles rustled; their fearless leader, Guided, bobbed and dipped. He looked over his shoulder and nodded at Peacemaker, who brought the flute back to his lips. When Guided swung around to the crowd, his face crinkled into a pirate’s smile as he rapped:

“I dedicate this rhyme to the Goddess of Power,

The Daughter of the Mountains, she’s the source of all life.

The Destroyer of Fear, Shiva’s devoted wife.

She’s the bringer of Shakti and breath by the hour,

Parvati’s love makes all the demons cower.”

The crowd went ballistic, and Loti howled right along with them. Wolf’s chuckle in her ear was like warm honey in her belly and it burbled into her weary chest. A grateful smile lifted her cheeks. It felt so good and natural she touched her face to make sure it was real. When she moved her arms, Wolf’s hands slid to her hips. The fire roared to life as several bare-chested men tossed logs into its heart, and Loti turned away into Wolf’s arms. He felt like shelter, and she sucked in air, light headed and over-heated.

Wolf held the base of her skull with one hand while his other arm circled her back. With her hands on his chest, it was so easy to surrender. Resting his cheek on the crown of her head, he closed his eyes, and they were one warm, drowsy body, high on the rhythm. The beat slowed and so did they. Loti’s awareness floated from the smell of wood smoke and peppermint on Wolf’s shirt to the cold, metal zipper on her cheek. His thigh tucked between hers while her soft belly pressed to his hard muscle, and their chests crushed together. His cheek slipped down her face, and his parted lips skimmed over hers with no direction or purpose other than to feel.

The sensations blurred—moist breath, skin-on-skin, no aggression, a moan. Something thick slid up from the base of her spine and weaved itself through all the small spaces, to the exact place where Wolf’s hand held her head. The music changed again and again, but she barely noticed as the drumbeat and his body cocooned her in warm half-consciousness. The music rattled to an end, and there was a long shuffling pause, wood crackling and the fire whistled. As if waking from a trance, she blinked sticky eyes and swallowed. Wolf loosened his grip, and she slid numb hands around him. Blood rushed back into her hands in biting tingles as soft, pulsing waves rose in her tailbone, crested in her chest, and crashed in her head.

“What is this?” she whispered.

“I don’t know,” Wolf murmured.

She lifted her head at the roughness of his voice, and he pressed a kiss to her eyelid, then stepped away, one hand sliding down her arm. He never lost contact as he slipped his hand into hers.

“It’s time,” a female voice said.

Wolf’s eyes shifted to look over Loti’s shoulder and his eyes hardened. She spun around to Fiamette, whose face was lost in the contrast of black hair outlined in orange flame. Fiamette turned to look at the fire with anxious lines framing her mouth. Suddenly, she looked vulnerable. Uncertain, Loti looked to Wolf who seemed to be at a loss with the woman, as well.

“Calisto’s waiting by the stage,” Fiamette said to the fire, then hurried off, morphing into a black shadow against the flames.

Loti and Wolf skirted the bonfire, making their way to the boulder while a tall woman walked out on the mock stage, flickering like an old-time movie in the muted flames of the dying fire. The eclectic crowd migrated together to the space between the bonfire and the stage. Squeezing shoulder to shoulder they sank to the ground, their eyes transfixed on the red haired lady. A gentleman in a fleece hat settled down with a guitar, picking at a few notes. With the view opened up, Calisto and Guided waved to them from the trees on the far side of the rock. Fiamette trotted past them without so much as an acknowledgment and disappeared into the woods. Calisto’s eyes followed Fiamette as she passed, lingering for a moment on her retreating back, then he turned a warm smile on Loti and Wolf. He made a hurry-up gesture with his hands.

“Osiyo.” Guided greeted Wolf with a slap on his back and grabbed his hand with the other, making him drop Loti’s. Wolf mirrored him and their grins spoke of friendship and a hard won fondness that made Loti’s heart skip a beat. Retrieving her hand, Wolf drew her into their circle.

“Loti, I’d like you to meet Guided by Voices, the tribal leader of the Travelers.”

“Lighten up.” Guided rolled his eyes and wrapped his huge paw around Loti’s small hand.

 She gripped back and took a deep breath. “Good to meet you.”

“I hope these guys haven’t scared you too much.” He cast a sideways glance at the two vampires, pulling her a little closer to him. “They can get a bit intense, don’t you think?” His voice was hushed like they were telling secrets.