Pushing Up Daisies (12 page)

This experience was like no other. Sarah grunted as House lifted her legs and shoved his cock inside her. Sarah never slowed her flicking tongue. She had Daisy's sex screaming for release when House leaned over her shoulder and kissed her cheek. “Can I fuck you?” he whispered into her ear.

“Let him, Daisy,” Sarah urged. “I want to watch. You can eat me while he gets you from behind.”

It was all so crazy. Daisy allowed House to pull her onto her knees. Sarah lay displayed below her. She saw the pink open flesh and moaned. When House penetrated her, she was already tonguing Sarah's clit. In her mind, House was just a big chick with a strap-on. When she thought of it this way, she started trembling with desire and arousal like she'd never known. Sarah held her face still with both hands while she ground her sex against Daisy's face. House's huge cock pounded into her touching all the right spots and she collapsed as her climax tore through her.

House pulled his still-erect cock out of Daisy who slowly fell into a soggy heap beside Sarah. All the starch had suddenly been removed from her legs and arms. She felt…she felt satiated. But House was not.

House looked at the two women lying beneath him. In his entire life, he'd never expected to be in a three-way and if he had a last person on earth to be in that never expected event, it would have been Daisy. Her rack was flawless. Every man on earth was horribly deprived because they'd never seen it and never would. He felt truly honored. And Sarah, when he looked at her, his heart leaped inside his chest with love.

Trembling with the need to finish, House tried to figure out what to do next. This was a new experience. He didn't know the proper protocol. Sarah supplied his answer. She sat up and took his rigid organ into her mouth. Her blue eyes twinkled with mischief. “I don't know what I'm doing,” she giggled. “But I always wanted to do this.”

She wrapped one hand around the base and licked it like a lollipop. House closed his eyes and groaned. She had no idea what she was doing to him. When he opened his eyes and saw her pink tongue darting in and out as she licked, he felt close to exploding.

“Suck,” he gasped.

She put the entire thing in her mouth and did as he ordered. Stopping for a second, she looked into his eyes. “Like that?”

He marveled at her beauty and nodded like a giant dummy. His tongue was glued to the roof of his mouth.

Daisy decided to help. “This ain't my usual gig, but it looks fun,” she said.

Daisy lifted his balls and tickled his taint with one finger. House closed his eyes and leaned into the blow job. When it suddenly stopped he opened his eyes. Sarah was on her knees getting ready to mount him. Daisy moved behind her and pulled Sarah into her lap. She opened Sarah's legs and House fell between them. Daisy kissed Sarah's neck and lifted her breasts, stroking them and pinching the nipples as House plunged into Sarah's heat. Too close to make it last long, he shot off almost immediately.

When he ejaculated, Sarah and Daisy both laughed and the three of them ended in a group hug. They lay together, legs and arms entwined for several minutes enjoying this rare moment of peace and fulfillment, then Sarah sat up and pushed both of them toward the little creek. “Wash,” she ordered. “You both stink.”

“What's the plan?” Daisy asked as House stood up, shook water out of his hair, and began pulling his clothes out of the pile.

House lifted his gaze from tying his boot. “For what?”

Sarah dug through the pile and found her underwear. “What I want to know is what are you two?”

Daisy's eyes met House's gaze. He shrugged. They might as well tell her. She pretty well knew anyway. “Show her Daisy.”

Daisy was still naked. She rolled onto her knees and swiftly morphed into a black wolf with the red streak from her hair cutting across the wolf's head. She sat back on her haunches and threw back her head. “Don't!” House ordered. “We don't need to call attention to ourselves by stampeding the livestock.”

Sarah's eyes were as round as dinner plates. “You can do this, too?” She asked him as Daisy morphed back into a woman.

He nodded.

“I can't believe it. Werewolves are real?”

“As real as it gets,” House said.

“How does it work? This is beyond weird. The Rizeigat know, don't they?”

“It's who we are, Sarah. My father is a werewolf.”

“And the Rizeigat?”

“They suspect. Abdulla's hinted around. He won't say anything, but he knows. They all saw us attack the Misseriya. They saw us as wolves.”

“What will they do?” Daisy asked.

Sarah answered her. “The Rizeigat revere the spirits of all animals. They worshipped these spirits before they became Muslims. I believe they secretly still perform many of the old rituals. Abdulla's wife, Hanifa, wears a wolf's head carved out of wood and painted gold around her neck. There are no wolves in the Sudan, however there is a rare breed of golden wolves in Ethiopia, but the Rizeigat are more inclined to worship lions and cheetahs and big snakes. At least that's what I heard,” she added.

House finished tying his boots and motioned to Daisy to shift back. “We have a little time. Let's try to make a plan.”

When they were all dressed, House gathered them close. “I don't think the Company is coming for us. I can use Nasr's sat phone and call for a pickup, but it'll turn into a race between al Qaida and the Company as to who gets here first because I feel sure Nasr's phone is a trap.”

“If we don't call for a pickup, what do we do?”

“We don't have a lot of options. We're at least five hundred klicks from Mogadishu across some of the most dangerous, war-torn ground in the world if not the most dangerous. Walking is just not on the table.”

“Camels?” Sarah said.

“Same thing, only instead of being killed because we're white people, we'll be killed because we own camels and we're white people.”

“We can continue to hang with the Rizeigat, but that doesn't get the package delivered or solve any problems.”

“The sat phone is gonna drop a bomb on these poor people,” Daisy said. “Many could die in another attack.”

“I know,” House said. “But it's our only option. I could go on a run with it and call in the coordinates, if I knew where the fuck we are. But I don't.”

“Does the phone have a GPS feature?” Sarah asked. “You could get the coordinates and then you could go on the run.”

“Just turning on the phone could alert al Qaida,” House said. “But it's a decent idea, Sarah.” He smiled at her feeling love for her filling his heart. He reached out and ran his hand along the smooth skin of her arm. She returned his smile with a shy one of her own.

Daisy snorted. “You guys need to stop or I'm gonna hurl.”

Sarah punched Daisy's arm. “Come on, Daisy, lighten up.” Sarah leaned over and kissed Daisy's lips. House had to fight the urge to growl. This sharing thing was not going to be permanent. Once they were out of here, it was over. Sarah was his.

House stood up and pulled the girls to their feet. “Let's get back to camp before they think we ran away.”

* * * *

The sun was a huge orange ball on the golden horizon when they reached the camp. The Rizeigat shielded their gaze from the three by looking away as they walked past the herd of camels, between the tents and into their own. Though they glanced away as they passed, Sarah felt their eyes following them after they'd walked by. They knew what House and Daisy were and they were either stricken with awe or scared to death…or maybe a little of both.

Sarah didn't know what she thought. She had yet to see House shift, but she believed he could and knew she'd seen him in his wolf body the night the Misseriya attacked. It was a lot to absorb. She needed some space, some time by herself to mull over her recent experiences.

His attentions to her were so intense, she was a little afraid. It was one of the reasons she clung to Daisy. As long as Daisy was involved, House had to maintain some distance. She was pretty sure if Daisy was out of the picture, House would never allow her to go anywhere or do anything by herself.

As if to illustrate this thought, once they were inside the tent, House grabbed Daisy's arm and pointed at Sarah. “You stay in here,” he ordered.

She looked him straight in the eye. “No, House, I'm hungry and we all need food. If I don't help the women prepare it, we might be left out.”

House snorted. “I doubt that. Abdulla will see we are fed no matter what.”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “I'll be with the women. How much trouble can I get into there?”

House relented. “Fine, we'll escort you and then we'll go talk to Abdulla.”

“No you won't, I can find the kitchen tent by myself.”

She threw back her shoulders and stalked away from him and Daisy. They both stood and watched until she neared the cook fires. Hanifa turned to greet her, and Sarah noticed the wolf amulet had tiny yellow gems for eyes. The older woman spouted a long spate of instructions to the other women and touched Sarah's shoulder. “Greetings sister, come into the tent and I will bring you food.”

Sarah's eyebrows shot up under the heavy veil. This was different. Somehow her status with the tribe had undergone an upgrade.

* * * *

House and Daisy found the men sitting outside around a fire fueled by the gnarled dead limbs of one of the stunted trees of this area. Abdulla beckoned for him and Daisy. They took a seat beside him and a strange member of the tribe stood up. Abdulla leaned over to speak to House. “That is Mohamed Fadi the Marabout for the Rizeigat. We know you two are powerful werewolves. We have seen this and we bow before you. The Rizeigat do not shapeshift but open themselves to possession by the spirits of the golden wolf. It is said in our history that we once had this ability. But we lost it and now the golden wolf is our tribe's totem.”

Fadi began to sing as other tribe members started beating drums. House knew what a Marabout was. He was a Muslim spiritual leader who also led the people in the religion of their ancestors. Fadi threw off his robe. Beneath it he wore nothing but the skin of a golden wolf. House knew of this breed of wolf. They were a highly endangered species found only in the mountains of Ethiopia. Sarah was right. The golden wolf was this tribe's totem.

The drum beats sped up as Fadi danced and sang around the fire. The flames reached for the sky as above them the moon glowed like an orange disk against dark-blue velvet. House felt the pull of the moon with every beat of the drums. He glanced toward Daisy and saw her eyes change to red. Daisy was younger than him with less control. The strange ritual was drawing her into the change.

As Fadi danced toward House, his eyes went from brown to gold. Claws appeared on the ends of his fingers, but he didn't shift into a wolf. He dropped to all fours and then stood up. When he suddenly fell to the ground and began twisting and writhing beneath the wolf skin, Daisy shifted.

She leaped into the center of the circle dropped to her haunches and howled. The assembled men of the tribe gasped as one and leaned forward with an excited, expectant look in their eyes. Fadi, now a strange combination of wolf and man, dropped beside her and howled. The throb of the drums matched the pounding of House's heart as he fought the change. He would not do that in front of anyone.

Another tribe member stripped off his robes and began the dance. Another followed him and another until ten members gyrated around the fire singing a strange song House couldn't translate. The words were in a language he didn't know.

Abdulla turned to him. “We want what you have,” he said. “We want to learn how to complete the shift and become as our ancestors did, golden wolves.”

House dropped his gaze to his boots. “No Abdalla, you don't want to be like me. It's a curse you have to live with every day of your life. Look at me. This is the only life I can lead. I'm a soldier, a mercenary. I have no other options. I don't fit into society anywhere else.”

Abdalla touched his arm with reverence. “Only think what this power could do for us. We could easily defeat our enemies and return to our homeland. You have to give us the secret.”

House turned away from the earnest appeal. He hunched his shoulders and then said. “My ability is inherited. I can't give it away.”

He watched as the men dancing slowly displayed some of the characteristics of the golden wolf. Two grew a golden pelt, one grew fangs and claws, but none of them could perform an entire change. Maybe they did have the ability but had forgotten how to use it.

As he studied them, an idea formed in his head. One of them approached Daisy, touching her fur. She snarled and attacked, grabbing the man by the throat in her strong jaws. The man immediately morphed into a complete golden wolf and Abdalla cried out. “That was Nasr!”

House leaped to his feet. It had to be the virus. There was an ancient myth that a bite from a werewolf could infect the victim and cause him to turn into a were. But as long as House had lived and through all his father's teachings, he'd never heard of or seen it happen. But these people already possessed the DNA of a werewolf. Could the components of a werewolf's saliva complete the chain?

* * * *

Sarah heard the drums beating around the huge fire at the edge of the encampment. No woman would dare intrude, but Daisy was there. Sarah felt a brief surge of impatience with a system so completely archaic and anti-woman.

However, Sarah did not intrude. She went back to her tent and unbraided her hair. She brushed it until it crackled and took off the hideous burqa. With the heavy robe gone, the golden snake bumped around in the pocket of her dress. She took it out and sat on the mat. When she returned to civilization, if she ever did, she would have to get this analyzed by an expert.

When she turned it over and saw the ancient Christian symbols carved into the bottom a strange feeling passed through her. The beating of the drums was so intense and loud she felt like her blood pounded to the rhythm.