Fixation (13 page)

A few heavenly, aching, minutes later I finally realized what my hungry body was craving and begged them to let me down. My exhausted legs were as wobbly as a newborn colt’s when they carefully got me on my feet again, my arms around their necks. Balam furrowed his brow, searching my face for any sign of trouble or discomfort.

“Are you well, my Maya?”

Even the fierce Jaguar Warrior looked concerned. I took a deep breath, exhaled.

“Oh I’m so much better than all right,” I said, a determined smile returning. “And we are
so
not finished yet.” With that I put a firm hand on Balam’s chest.

“On the ground, mister.” I pressed him to the carpet of moss and grasses. He lay back without a fight while I stepped up and straddled him. I admired my bird’s eye view of his shaft as it stood upright like a megalith, then, daintily lifting my skirt again, I lowered myself down to my knees, leaning forward as I lined up his cock and slipped myself onto it.

Ah ... that’s it...

Leaning further until I could lay my body on his, I rested my cheek against his chest. Then I turned my head to grace Jaguar Warrior with a wanton look, crooking a “come hither” finger his way.

He crouched down into a feline stance, his cat eyes sharp and fixated, stalking us. Moving with a hunter’s deliberation, he advanced carefully and silently past Balam’s outstretched feet, past his knees, past his thighs, until he was over my upraised ass. I closed my eyes and shuddered with nervous anticipation as I felt his massive frame enfolding me, felt gusts of his hot breath on the back of my neck. I’d never been so aroused, so wet, so hungry for more. He growled, a deep thunder rumble so close to my ear my lips involuntarily parted in a silent scream and I clung tight to Balam.

Jaguar Warrior’s strong legs enclosed mine as he hunkered down onto me. Then his clawed hand was on my neck, pushing my head down. His other roughly hitched up my skirt and cupped my bottom; first massaging, then spreading my cheek, opening me up for him. I bit my lip as I felt the head push in at the entrance to my ass. He worked it in with excruciating, relentless patience, squeezing a moan or sharp gasp from me with every new inch. Just when I thought I couldn’t stand the intensity any more, he pressed into me again, deeper and deeper. Tears welled up from behind my tightly closed eyes, trickling down my face. Swooning, I was surprised to feel both his animal-like hands seize my hips. With a shock I realized he’d entered me with his entire length. Nothing in my life up to now compared to the incredible sensation of two cocks in me at the same time.

But then they started to move.

I felt a strange mix of total helplessness and absolute control, like falling so slowly it felt like I was flying. With Balam’s arms wrapped around me, he began to pull me back and forth while I rode him, the motion across his chest teasing my clit and nipples too. At the same time, Jaguar Warrior started using his grip on my waist to rock in and out of my ass. I shuddered and trembled, panting for breath and moaning wordless poetry. With each new movement, the almost overpowering intensity started to shift over into something delicious and overwhelming.

I sensed it welling up from deep within me: a potent, mounting force, as wet and alive and full of raw power as a wave of the ocean. Then at last I could
feel
the mystical energies the three of us were generating: the shimmering air, the leafy green jungle, and the circling star-dusted sky above us all humming with an escalating rhythm of our sex magic. I could sense the eyes of the spirits on us, the sighs and wonder of the masks and totems swirling all around us. We were the center of the unknowably vast and mysterious universe.

I opened my own eyes and saw an iridescent twister rising from the cauldron, a glittering black and silver tornado whipping around and around up into the air, then swirling back down into the depths of the cauldron. I could feel the energy cycling through it, whirling out into the universe and spiraling down back into the cauldron, a magical give and take. It enhanced everything, made my skin prickle with raw sensation. The pleasure, the pressure, built until it was so strong within me I feared I’d burst from it. From somewhere within me a strange little voice urged me:
just
let go now, let it come, release it all...

So I did.

I gave myself up completely to the oncoming orgasm powering through me, feeling my mind spinning, caught in the maelstrom of Evaki’s cauldron—spiraling ever higher, whirling around and around until it felt as if the force of the orgasm was ripping my very
essence
from my body and casting it into the swirling magical winds.

“Thank you, little cat. And now it is
my
turn...”

That voice. Sultry, seductive, and dripping with malice as its owner slithered into my mind and body, darkness and cold insinuating itself into my limbs.

“No,” I moaned even as my body shook in the throes of ecstasy.

Suddenly I was cast out of my body, my spirit or self or whatever the fuck hovering up in above watching myself clasped between Balam and Jaguar Warrior, all of us in the throes of orgasm ... but I was no longer present.

I watched in horror as my body writhed and spasmed as the orgasm took full control, my mouth forming the words, “Yes, yes!” even though I could feel nothing. Magic flared everywhere as the three intertwined figures came together, pure desire shaping their/my features into something both beautiful and unimaginably powerful. I longed to be there with them, but could only float in a sensation-free void. I tried to scream Balam’s name, but nothing came out. I had no vocal cords, nothing to connect me to the physical plane.

The whirlwind above the cauldron roared upwards with a tremendous surge of power, the silver and black shot through with crackling fire and lightning. Then the entire mass started spiraling downwards into the cauldron, the center of it shimmering with molten gold.

I saw Balam and Jaguar Warrior start to smile as they realized the ritual had worked. Then I saw those smiles disappear as my body went limp and lifeless. Next to us the air vibrated, taking on corporal form until the sexed-up Salma Hayek that was Anani stood, naked but for a leather belt around her hips, in front of the cauldron, her face radiating triumph even as she shuddered in one final throe of
my
orgasm.

Jaguar Warrior’s face bunched up in a fierce snarl. He withdrew from my limp body and went for his spear, but frozen fire shot from Anani’s fingertips and he flew back against the cauldron, hitting it hard and sliding to the ground, stunned. Before Balam could react, Anani turned the fire on him, sending him to the ground, limbs still intertwined with mine. Another sweep of her hands saw Jaguar Youth and Jaguar Shaman sent hurtling into the trees behind them. I saw Jaguar Boy and Jaguar Baby scatter into the darkness.

Then Anani turned and looked up towards the ceiling/sky, somehow pinpointing exactly where my displaced spirit hovered. She smiled at me, the smile as sweet as poisoned chocolate.

“Little cat, you have given me access to Evaki’s cauldron and for that I thank you.” Anani looked down at my body, then at the prone figures of Balam and the Jaguar guardians. Stepping over to Balam, she took hold of the leather pouch around his neck and gave a vicious tug, snapping the leather thong. She opened the pouch and dumped Balam’s totem into her hand. She fingered it almost lovingly for a moment. Then she unhooked a larger leather bag from around her voluptuous hips, opened it, and dropped Balam’s totem inside.

When she looked back up at me again, the smile was gone, replaced by a cruel expression that made her truly ugly. “Now, go away.”

More frozen fire shot out of her hands and I felt a jarring sensation as if I’d been slammed into a wall. Suddenly I could feel again, but before I could do anything there was a horrible roaring in and through my mind, sweeping me up like a psychic tsunami. The tidal wave of sound and sensation dashed me against invisible walls and then—

I was thrust into darkness and cast out of Dream Time.

Reality snapped back around me as I hit the ground, hard. I tumbled and rolled for a second or two before coming to an undignified halt in the high grass.

Grass?

This meant not only had that bitch thrust me out of Dream Time, but she had kicked me out of the museum as well. Which meant getting back inside would be a bitch. No hiding in the men’s room unless I waited until tomorrow, and I knew I didn’t have that long to wait.

Okay. I took stock of my situation. I was shaken but still in one piece—and still in my disheveled ritual clothing. I suddenly felt distinctly underdressed. I picked myself up and brushed off the dirt and wet, sticky twists of grass and took a look around.

Where was I?

There was no deYoung museum, nor any other building, or even any trees for that matter. I now stood somewhere in the middle of a vast grassy green plain.

Holy shit. Had she zapped me to Africa? I scanned the horizon for any sign of civilization, but all I could see was a big herd of buffalo (
buffalo!
) off in the distance.

No, wait—they weren’t buffalos, they were...elephants? Great, shaggy elephants with huge sweeping tusks. I recognized them: wooly mammoths. But hadn’t they been extinct for—?

Oh, no.

With a sinking feeling in my gut, I remembered Balam’s words:
“Entering a building or dwelling while in Dream Time does not guarantee one will find themselves in the time period they expect. We could find ourselves in this museum as it was ten years ago...”

Or ten
thousand
years ago, I thought, my head spinning. I had never felt so alone or afraid as I did in that moment.

What now?

The sun was starting to set. A chill wind blew, and I clutched my sides for warmth, shivering in my ridiculous tropical jungle fantasy ensemble. Somewhere in the distance, an ice age-sized wolf gave a blood-curdling howl. Another joined in, and then another, until there was a whole chorus of them, straight out of a
Dracula
movie.

Children of the night, shut up!

The mammoths were getting nervous, and so was I. Then I heard a low, rumbling growl from behind me. I turned slowly, expecting a pack of dire wolves. But it wasn’t. It was a sabertooth, as big as a lion, with fangs like curved daggers. It was crouched in hunting stance, close enough I could see his eyes fixed directly on me as he advanced with purpose. Flanking him were two more toothy feline carnivores.

Oddly, a cold part of my scientific mind calmly reviewed everything I knew about big cat predator behavior, sorted through options, and calculated my chances as the trio crept ever closer. Don’t run, don’t play dead, keep my eyes on the predators, and don’t show fear.

I think that was what kept me from screaming when a hand suddenly slipped into mine.

I looked down to see Jaguar Boy smiling up at me with a toothy cat grin. A huge flood of relief washed through me that he had not been injured by Anani’s attack.

Jaguar Boy turned to the oncoming sabertooths and, as the three enormous cats closed in on us at a run, gently reached out to pet their noses and muzzles with a laugh. I flinched, waiting for one or all of them to drag us both to the ground and eat our mauled corpses, but when the oversized prehistoric carnivores butted their heads against us and licked our hands, I laughed too out of sheer relief, along with the total awestruck cool factor of petting a frickin’ sabertooth tiger. If only I could take pictures to show the gang at FPC.

There was another rustle as Jaguar Baby came trundling out of the tall grass in his jaguar cub form, rubbing and bumfing against the sabertooths before curling up on my feet, reaching both front paws up to me. I scooped him up in my arms and buried my face in the fur at the top of his head as he nuzzled my neck and chin with a damp nose and raspy jaguar tongue.

“Oh, you brave thing,” I whispered, kissing his head. Jaguar Boy came back to my side and leaned against me, demanding his fair share of attention too. I knelt down, letting Jaguar Baby to the ground and hugged them both in my arms, no longer feeling the least bit alone or afraid. I had a feeling that all those who underestimated these youngest of the jaguar guardian spirits had no idea what they were talking about.

The sabertooths wandered back into the grassy fields, the grass undulating gently at their passage. I watched in relief, then turned to my two companions.

“Well? What now?”

Jaguar Boy spoke in a language I knew wasn’t English, but I understood it nonetheless.

“We must go back.”

I nodded. “Can you take me there?”

Jaguar Baby chortled and rolled on his back, waving all four paws in the air. I rubbed his stomach and said, “I take it that’s a yes, eh?”

“We can try,” said Jaguar Boy. “You are strong enough to do it on your own, but you will need our help to focus.”

“And when we get back? Can we stop Anani?”

Jaguar Boy hesitated and Jaguar Baby stopped rolling. Both looked at me solemnly. “She is powerful. But we will try and help you.”

In other words, no guarantees. But if I didn’t go back, Anani would surely win. So there really wasn’t a choice.

I nodded again, slowly this time. “Okay, then. Let’s go.”

Jaguar Boy grinned at me, pleased, while Jaguar Baby leapt into my arms again, knocking me backwards as he licked my face with his raspy tongue. I laughed, hugging him to me—

--and suddenly the world spun again and I was cast into the void once more, this time aware of sliding along a stream of time, decades and even centuries passing by as my body and psyche rode the currents. Then I was jerked out of the stream and felt myself falling.

This time I landed on grassy dunes, kicking up sand as I hit the ground. Only this time I didn’t arrive alone; my Jaguar spirit companions were at my side.

The chill in the air was gone, and the ocean looked miles closer than before. I could see the Farallon islands instead of just hills on a plain. There was a narrow brook twisting by our feet, and a ring of hive-shaped reed huts just downstream a little ways. A group of dark-haired girls dressed in grass skirts, some with bone plugs in their earlobes or noses, were fetching water in tightly woven baskets. They stared at us with wide eyes.

I smiled and gave them a friendly wave while muttering in an undertone, “Um, we’d better try again, guys.”

And off we went.

Ouch!
The next landing was harder, hard-packed dirt instead of soft sand. I opened my eyes.
Success!

“I think you did it, boys!” I patted my Jaguar buddies on their respective heads.

We were in Golden Gate Park, right in front of the museum. Except, on closer inspection, it wasn’t deYoung. It wasn’t even a museum. It was a stone building with a classic Roman facade. A long banner hanging over the main entrance read, in big, quaint, old-timey block letters:

1894 CALIFORNIA MIDWINTER INT’L. EXPOSITION

“Look, Mama, a red Indian girl!” shrieked a shrill and excitable young voice. “And she has no shirt on!”

I turned to see a large crowd of people in somber dark-colored garb: lots of bustle skirts and parasols, handlebar mustaches, and top hats. Outrage and shock showed clearly on most of their faces, with interested lust on a few of the men. I’m sure I heard the words “outrageous hussy” muttered.

Oops. Time to go.

This time as I felt us enter the void I tried my best to help too. I stretched out my with my psyche, trying to hone in on the magical interference in the time stream. It was difficult, like trying to read road signs in the fog, but then I sensed something coming up before us. I was no expert, but it tingled like a powerful mystical convergence. The three of us honed in, our minds linked—

--and we landed in Golden Gate Park again. The crowd was still there, but the clothes were gone. In the place of uptight mutton-chopped Victorians, there were circles of naked or near-naked hippie girls and boys, holding hands as they ran and laughed and frolicked and chanted. Soap bubbles, the sound of Strawberry Alarm Clock, and the smell of marijuana filled the air. Nobody gave us a second look. Unbelievably, I felt overdressed.

I looked at Jaguar Boy, who shrugged. Jaguar Baby licked a paw, unconcerned.

“One more time, eh?”

They both nodded and wrapped arms/paws around my legs.

And off we went.

My ass hit concrete with a definitive thud. Luckily the cushy part took all of the impact and my tailbone was spared, but the wind was knocked out of me as Jaguar Baby landed on my stomach, chortling happily as he bounced off me onto the ground. Jaguar Boy managed a more sedate landing next to me, crouched and poised to spring into action.

“Showoff,” I muttered as I struggled to my feet and looked around.

We were in the courtyard of deYoung Museum, right in front of the entrance. I walked stiffly over to one of the posters plastered on the glass door which advertised the Mesoamerica: Ancient Gods exhibit. I sighed with relief. We’d made it back. Now we just had to re-enter Dream Time and get back into the museum and defeat Anani and—

Okay, we’d just start with Dream Time and getting back into deYoung. The rest would follow. Right?

Right.

My Jaguar A-Team came up and flanked me on either side, Jaguar Baby hopping up on his hind legs, front paws on the glass door. I reached down and put a hand on their heads.

“Are you ready, boys?” I felt rather than heard their assent. “Good. I’m going for the entrance to the exhibit, okay? We need to sneak up on Anani, not materialize right in front of her.”

Again, I felt agreement from my Jaguar pals.

I shut my eyes and focused my mind on the Colossus at the entrance of the exhibit, remembering how it had watched Balam and me as we walked past it in what seemed like a lifetime ago. I visualized the darkened halls of the museum, the dim security lights, and my fear of discovery—and let the rest of my mind spiral up and out of reality, conscious of support from Jaguar Boy and Baby as we moved together through time and space and reality—

--and back into the Dream Time that mattered if we were going to save the world.