Jake tucked the papers beneath one of his arms. “Don’t get excited. It means White Mother. Again, she’s not talking about you but a member of your family—you’re related to the woman Wahui spoke of.”
He looked up. “The sky is darkening. It’s time we got back to the house before this storm hits.”
A rustle outside the cave alerted them that someone was there. Rance froze as a man burst through the thicket of shrubbery at the mouth of the cave—he carried a rifle.
“I’ll take those, Jake.” The man’s voice was high-pitched but gravelly, like he’d smoked too many cigarettes.
“Danny.” Jake nodded but didn’t hand over the documents. “Why the gun?”
Rance looked from Vera to Jake to the newcomer, who he surmised must be Danny Gibson, the man Vera had mentioned. A seasick feeling washed over Rance, the same feeling he’d had when he’d first read about the murders after his corneal transplants and his eyes had healed. The same sensation he’d experienced when he’d first set foot in Oklahoma. Destiny—the door opening and someone walking over his grave.
Rance shuddered.
Not mine.
Sarah’s grave.
This man had been instrumental in Sarah’s death. He just knew it. Rance stepped closer to him, at last unafraid, because he knew his purpose in being there. He finally knew why Sarah had sent him here.
“Danny,” Rance said softly, stretching forth a hand as if to touch him.
Gibson backed away. “Who the hell are you?” He swung the rifle towards Rance.
“Don’t you recognize me, Danny?” Rance continued, calling him by his name, showing familiarity, knowing it was throwing him off balance.
“No.” He cocked the rifle.
Vera gasped, and Jake held out a hand to keep Rance from moving, but he brushed aside Jake’s hand and continued, almost cooing as he talked to their would-be-killer.
“Danny, it’s me. Sarah.”
The short man backed away, almost stumbling, clutching the rifle tighter. His face went ashen, and his eyes glittered madly. He frowned and shook his head slowly.
“I forgive you, Danny.”
Gibson guffawed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Forgive me for what, you crazy bastard?”
“I forgive you for snooping in my personal papers, for giving Ben the information you found in my briefcase.” Rance continued talking but stopped and remained stationary. “I forgive you for having me killed when I refused to give you what you wanted.” He pointed to the papers Jake held. “Those documents that would prove that the shape-shifters exist, that Doc had been treating them and following their medical histories all these years.”
“You have copies of these?” Vera asked.
Rance nodded. “I do—Sarah does. These are the originals, but the others are in a safety deposit box in town.” Rance smiled sadly. “I couldn’t betray my people, Danny. Not even for the money Ben offered me. And I won’t let you deceive them either.”
The madman before them chuckled. “Doesn’t look like you have much of a choice, does it?” But he looked at Rance closely. “How do you know about that? Did Sarah tell you?”
“You did. Just before you shot me.” Rance lifted his T-shirt and pointed, knowing he’d reveal something that even Jake wasn’t aware. “Right here.” He pulled off the top and bared his body, watching Danny’s eyes as they found their mark, the tell-tale scar dead center of Rance’s stomach. He touched the distinguishing blemish, outlining it with his fingertips. Rance had never had the damned thing until after his surgery—it had appeared like some supernatural road map, a visible sign of what had happened to his donor.
When the man before him gasped and staggered as if struck, Rance called upon Sarah’s spirit to help him put an end to the madness that had surrounded them both. “Sarah!” Rance screamed.
A whooshing sound next to him drew his attention briefly to Jake, whose body transformed in a bright, glittering mist from man to bird. The instant Danny’s eyes left Rance long enough to take in the eerie phenomena in the cave, Rance gathered all his strength, all his previous training, and landed a swift roundhouse kick to Danny’s jaw, the heel of his foot connecting with a sickening crack against his face.
The gun flew through the air, landing against a cavern wall, discharging random bullets. Vera and Rance ducked, as the phoenix attacked the man at the cave’s entrance.
Then a ferocious growl rent the air, and if the magical occurrences that had just taken place weren’t enough to shock Rance senseless, other animals, including a large black bear entered the cave, clawing and pawing at Gibson, dragging his flailing body into the open.
Vera clutched Rance’s hands. Shock reverberated through both their bodies, and they hugged one another as the animals, including the phoenix, stripped Danny Gibson of his clothes and his mind. They didn’t kill him, but they attacked him repeatedly, and by the time the rain started, he was already a raving lunatic, running through the woods half-dressed and babbling.
* * * *
Jake inhaled leisurely, attempting to calm his racing heart. He hadn’t morphed in so long that the adrenaline alone made him dizzy, and the realization that he’d been flying—actually climbing, diving, swooping like his spirit animal—was such a shock that for a few moments he’d completely forgotten about the other two in the cave. The only conscious thought he’d had was to attack the man who’d dared to raise a rifle to Rance.
He closed his eyes, still breathing deeply, slowly, relaxing his body and relishing the quickening metamorphosis from animal to man, feeling the tingling as his phalanges transformed from feather and bone to flesh and bone.
When Jake opened his eyes, Rance was the first person he saw, bending over him. Jake looked about. He’d slumped during the change, his body unused to the surreal conversion. “I’m okay,” he told him. “Are you?”
Rance nodded. Then he lifted his head and nodded towards the cave entrance. Danny Gibson had vanished, and in his place stood Jake’s cousins, Daniel and Hawk, along with three other Native men.
“Welcome back, bro.” The larger of the men stepped forward.
Jake held out a hand. “
Yona?
When did you get here?” He dug his heels in the earth as his cousin Daniel propelled him from his seat on the ground to a position of standing. Jake stretched his muscles, feeling the last of the alignments as his body completed its modification to human form.
“Hawk and I followed Gibson to the cave. You radioed from the boat. Remember?” Daniel frowned. “You sure you made it back in one piece?”
Jake laughed and held out an arm invitingly to Rance, encircling his waist. “Rance, this is Daniel, or
Yona
, meaning bear.”
Daniel’s large hands engulfed Rance’s. “Ah, you must be the brother of White Mother. Grandfather has spoken of you.”
Jake felt Rance shudder. He cleared his throat. “I recognize you from the marina.” Then he blinked and turned to Jake. “Am I the only one who was unaware of this white woman legend?”
“Doesn’t matter if you think it’s legend or fact,” Hawk said, stepping forward to hug Jake. He swung his gaze from cousin to cousin then focused on Rance. “If Wahui says it will be, it’s as if it’s already happened. You just accept.”
The men turned their attention to Vera, making sure she was unharmed. The older woman was obviously shaken. “He’ll be back,” she said.
“That one has lost his mind,” Hawk said. “If he comes back, it’ll be in a straight-jacket.” Then he sobered. “But he will talk, and that means an investigation.”
All of the men were silent for a moment before Daniel spoke.
“Did you get what you needed, Jake?”
Recalling the conversations he’d just had with Rance and Vera, Jake pointed to the papers that had fallen to the ground during his transformation. “Yeah. Not sure what to do now, though. Those papers got my sister killed.” He looked at Vera apologetically. “And Doc.”
“No.” She shook her head. “It was their time. They had to go to make way for the new.” Vera glanced at Rance. “We will remember them always, and we will avenge their deaths.” Then she looked knowingly from one man to another. “But it’s all good. You take that information to Wahui. The old man will know what to do.”
Rance grasped Jake’s arm. “But…how did you…how did any of you know that I had a sister? I haven’t spoken to her in years, but I have one.”
Jake chuckled. “You have the balls to ask me a question like that? After what you’ve put me through the past couple of days?”
Hawk thumped Rance on the back. “It is what it is, man. Wahui saw you coming and told us of you.” Then he whacked Jake on the back. “Dumbass here just didn’t recognize you. But I did. You look just like the picture Sarah painted. Welcome home, bro’.”
Chapter Five
To think that losing his car had been the beginning of Rance’s adventure with the Cherokee he’d grown to love was mind-boggling. So much had happened. He’d been disoriented in the dark and sidetracked by the stormy night, and at that time, he still wasn’t used to sharing memories with his cornea donor. Now, however, he felt as if he’d known Sarah and her family for years.
He and Jake had handled the county sheriff’s questions with aplomb, but as Jake pointed out later, the sheriff was Native and hadn’t probed where he’d stir up tribal secrets that nobody else needed to know.
Danny Gibson was found half-naked and out of his mind deep in the Cherokee Hills, muttering nonsense. He’d been taken to a psychiatric hospital in Vinita until a judge could deem him fit for trial. Jake and his cousins murmured amongst themselves that Vinita would be housing the lunatic for the rest of his life.
Rance’s car was found on a muddy bank a couple of miles from where he’d thought he’d parked it. His mission had been accomplished, but after the dust had cleared and Jake’s questions answered to his satisfaction, he still had the uneasy feeling that there were too many open-ended discussions, that despite appearances, much was still left unsaid and undone. He and Jake hadn’t had time alone after the eerie happenings in the cave, because the cousins brought beer and had their own version of a pow-wow the two nights following Danny’s arrest. Everybody had either slept outdoors under the stars or had bunked on Jake’s boat for the two days, which hadn’t allowed space or time for the two of them to become intimate.
As for Sarah, once the situation surrounding her death was highlighted, it was as if she faded, like some misty memory, leaving a bittersweet hole where her presence had once filled him. Rance was glad, but at the same time he felt sad that he hadn’t known her better.
Haley had already invited him to stay with the O’Reilly clan until he wished to return to Las Vegas. Not a problem, considering Rance was reluctant to leave, but he had no good excuse for staying until Haley intervened the third evening when she invited Rance for dinner.
“We’re having a family get-together tomorrow night,” she told Rance that evening. “You’ve been staying in that motel too long. You’re to bring your belongings with you when you show up tomorrow. Say about five? You can stay in Sarah’s old bedroom.” She slid Jake a wary glance. “Unless you find more comfortable quarters.” Haley thumped a basket of corn muffins in front of him next to his drink before going back to the kitchen.
“Subtle, isn’t she?” Jake joked.
Rance refused to comment. The proverbial ball was pretty much in his court now. He’d thrown himself at Jake the first night they’d met, and he’d more or less been thunderstruck ever since. Haley had seen to it that Rance came out to the marina every day. One moment, it would be to show him more of Sarah’s drawings. Another, it’d be to have him sample a dish Haley was thinking of adding to the marina restaurant’s menu. Each time he visited, Rance thought surely Jake would want to talk in private, to at least be alone with him. The chemistry they’d had was undeniable, so why was Jake so damned aloof?