Rare Form: Descended of Dragons, Book 1 (14 page)

“Ewan?” I asked in as aloof a manner as possible. “You know anything about a midnight rite of passage taking place near the river?”

“Hmm?” he leaned in to me in order to hear over a particularly enthusiastic accordion solo. God, he smelled so good—masculine and woodsy, and faintly of citrus. I leaned in closer and inhaled. He smelled so delicious that the impulse struck me without warning. One minute I thought I’d like to lick his lips as if he’d dipped them in the whipped cream on a cappuccino, and the next minute…I was doing it. I leaned up onto my knees for a better angle, ran one hand behind his back, and the other into the thick hair at the back of his head. I lazily fulfilled my little fantasy before kissing him solidly on the mouth.

I can now admit that I may have been a little drunk from two pints of pear mead. Okay, I was a lot drunk from three pints of pear mead. Whatever. Solstice Fest.

Ewan was so stunned at my actions that he did nothing.

Finally—finally!—he reciprocated. With a growl, he ran a thick arm around my middle and threw me onto my back. He braced himself over me, his breaths shuddering in and out as dark hair fell in fat, messy coils around his face. The look in his eyes was so savage that I had a terrifying little moment to decide whether to scream and scramble from his cage, or to throw myself at his beast. I chose the latter. Ewan Bristol kissed me like a drowning man seizing the last precious gulps of air. Fuzzy as my brain had become I was cognizant enough to think, “Now this is passion,” just before I couldn’t think at all.

I was brought back to my senses by the very loud, very insistent throat clearing of one Timbra Redfern. Breaking free of Ewan took effort, though he still held his body above mine, only our lips touching. He slowly leaned up, allowing me to sit upright on my elbows, the maximum physical effort I was willing to put forth at that particular moment.

“You’re going to want to see this,” Timbra assured me, shooting for disapproval but failing as she grinned and looked back and forth between me and Ewan.

“See wha…” I began, but trailed off after catching the focus of her attention. Dressed in a burgundy corset with leather trim and brass grommets, a micro mini and fishnets with strategically-placed snags, Layla was a steampunk wet dream. Her bone corset cinched at the back with laces, and around her neck and bust with leather belts. Victorian boots rose to her knees and were obviously vintage.

But all of the careful planning of her wardrobe was grossly overshadowed by the event taking place at that moment, because live on stage Layla was changing into her animal form. As she sang the final note of a particularly haunting number, the band’s leather and clockwork-modded instruments straining to compete with the raw power of Layla’s voice, she exploded into her crow from the vivid tattoo at her chest.

The crowd gasped as Layla erupted into flight across the amphitheater, her grommeted accoutrements thudding to the floor.

We all sat in stunned silence before realizing that the rest of the band had exited the stage while we consumed Layla’s sensational transformation.

“
W
here to now
, ladies?” Boone asked. It was hard to imagine topping the evening after Layla’s band’s display. I invited Boone and Ewan along to meet Julianne, delighted with the idea of two big bodies to serve as protectors.

We made our way to the riverbank, to a well-known spot where a bend in the Basel and some well-placed gravel had formed a “blue hole” of sorts. A rope swing and a wood plank ladder denoted the riverbank as a prime swimming locale. We were the first to arrive, but before long people streamed in. By the time I saw Julianne a crowd of thirty or forty had amassed, some pilfering the woods and riverbank for firewood. They built a big bonfire near the water, its warmth exponentiating the existing June heat.

“You still game, girl?”

Julianne, who had changed into a simple summer dress, appraised Timbra before turning to Boone. “I bet you are, big man.”

“You know it,” Boone tossed out, earning him the stink eye from Timbra.

“Two minutes to midnight,” Julianne yelled, to which the small crowed yipped and whooped. She twisted her blond curls into a loose bun and secured the whole thing together with an elastic.

“Ah, what happens at midnight?” I asked.

Throughout the night, I had come up with a dozen horror-filled scenarios. Not one included us making it out with all of our fingers. I sure didn’t expect the next thing out of Julianne’s mouth.

“Why, skinny dipping, of course.”

With that revelation, she peeled her sundress over her head to expose…well, everything, because she was completely bare underneath. And the carpet matched the platinum drapes.

Upon seeing the horrified look on Timbra’s blood-drained face I laughed, hard, at the irony of the situation. Modest, reserved Timbra had gotten us into this whole thing and dragged me along kicking and screaming. She thought it some cloaked and candled ritual, but it was just a little nudity. Well, okay,
a lot
of nudity I noticed as the crowd disrobed en masse. This could not be worse for Timbra, who clasped the top of her robe together when it was only she and I getting ready in our bathroom.

I turned just in time to see the very high, very muscular bottom of one Boone Adder as he bounded into the water. Not far behind was Ewan’s refined derriere. While having the perfect amount of muscle definition to dimple each side, he also possessed a heft that peaked just before plummeting down into thick thighs. A real handful.

“Come on in, girls,” Boone hollered. “The water’s fine.”

He didn’t have to ask Julianne twice. She jiggled in half a dozen places, trotting confidently to the water’s edge before toeing into the shallow water. She took her time, that Julianne, making sure everyone had an opportunity to admire her ample goods. I thought she was fabulous.

Timbra, apparently, not so much.“Can you believe that?” she seethed. “Look, she’s going right toward Boone and Ewan.”

“Steer clear of those buoys, boys,” yelled Timbra.

“Come on,” I encouraged, snorting with laughter and hopping one legged as I pulled at my shoes and socks. While I was no nudist, I had promised myself upon entering Thayer that I was going to do this thing 100 percent. As I continued to remove my clothes, Timbra sat motionless.

“What’s the holdup?” I asked as I pulled one arm through my sleeve.

“I just don’t like my options.”

“Do you have options?”

“I do!” She sucked her bottom lip in and fidgeted with her hands.

“All right. What are they?” I asked. It was tough for her. I got that. The least I could do was walk her through her decision.

“One, I can strip and let everyone see me naked.”

“Yes. And you won’t be alone. Come on, conform!”

“I could also admit that she’s beat me; pack it up and go home.”

“You could. I hope you won’t.”

“Or I could sit here and have a pity party.”

“Come on, Timbra. You can’t let her beat you! What’s a little nudity among friends?”

She quirked an unimpressed eyebrow at me.

Timbra was a good friend to me. She was good and honest and supportive. I began to put my shirt back on. If she was uncomfortable with our situation, then I should return the support.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“No way am I leaving you here on the bank alone. If you don’t want to go, no big deal. I’ll stay with you.”

“No. Oh, no, no no.” Timbra shook her head and squared her jaw. She threw back her shoulders and took a deep breath.

I gasped in shock, but quickly threw out a “Good girl!” as she ripped her shirt off and threw it to the rocky river bank.

That one action summed up Timbra Redfern entirely. She may never have gotten comfortable with the idea for herself, but for me she put her fear and pride aside without hesitation. In no time we were both down to bra and panties.

I unclasped my lavender bra in record time, slid matching panties down, and stepped free. An arm across my bouncing C’s, I dashed into the water and found the cover of the depth much sooner that Julianne had.

“Come on, Timbra,” I yelled back to the bank.

She stood where I left her, clad only in bra and panties, her willowy body beautifully illuminated in the orange glow of the bonfire. I could see the moment she made her decision. She stepped forward, moving gracefully toward the water. She entered with her underthings still on, choosing her own fourth option.

Julianne had moved on after Timbra’s firelit display, and Boone, Ewan, Timbra, and I gathered in a very spacious circle. The other skinny dippers laughed and splashed around us, some shouting for another beer to their cohorts on the bank. I had not been skinny dipping before, and was shocked to discover how freeing it was to be in the cool water unclothed. The slight currents against skin usually covered was exciting, not in an overtly sexual way, but an ‘I’m being naughty and it feels so right’ kind of way. I swam away from the others for a bit, enjoying the feel of my long hair flowing behind me as I swam underwater.

After a while, the swimmers slugged out of the water, and Julianne once again took charge.

“All right, ladies. Truth time.”

Timbra and I both eyed each other cautiously.

“What now?” I murmured.

At this point of the Midsummer celebration, it was apparently customary for the sexes to separate and I, for one, was glad of that. I was not pleased, however, that we were still naked. This seemed to only be an issue for a select few. Maybe nudity was a Thayerian thing—all the animal instincts and changing forms and whatnot.

As Julianne led us to the edge of the woods, I looked over my shoulder at the men, who had begun jumping over the bonfire, dicks a’ danglin’. A more ignorant display of machismo I had never seen.

The girls in the group followed Julianne toward a line of trees lining the bank. The night was so warm that I soon forgot my lack of clothes. I loved the feel of old leaves and spongy earth between my bare toes. The canopy of trees prevented even the moon’s filtered light from reaching the forest floor. No one had brought a lantern, but vision in the cover of darkness wasn’t a problem. One more benefit of the heightened senses that I’d been experiencing since coming to Thayer. We approached a small clearing, the center of which was occupied by a dilapidated stone well that rose to my waist. The moon’s radiance filtered in once again.

“Who’s first? No one? Fine, I’ll go,” Julianne pronounced. With great ceremony she clasped a talisman of some sort to her chest before leaning over the stone structure. Her white bottom shined in the moonlight like a cherub’s cheeks as she incanted solemnly.

“Brood? What’s a brood?” I whispered to Timbra.

“Your children,” she breathed back.

“Wait. She’s asking a wishing well who her baby daddy is gonna be? Is she for real?”

“Incantations are just another form of spellmaking, Stella,” she reprimanded. “Used with a talisman, it can be a very accurate form of divining.”

When Julianne leaned back up, she grinned like the cat that ate the canary. The other girls giggled with anticipation and asked what she’d seen.

“You know better,” she admonished the crowd. “If I want it to come true, I can never tell.”

“Bullshit,” I said. “This whole thing is nonsense. There’s no way to divine your future husband…not from looking into a well at least.”

“No?” Julianne raised one eyebrow in challenge. “Then what’s the harm?”

“All right.” I yanked the talisman from Julianne’s outstretched hand, leaned over the well with a huff, and recited the chant with some help.

As I spoke the last word the water began to churn, its surface taking on an opaque and foggy sheen. A figure began to form in the mist. It was broad, powerful. The face began to form and I jerked, backing away from the well and the secrets it held.

“Well,” Timbra urged impatiently. “What did you see? Who did you see?”

“Nothing,” I said. “No one. I didn’t know him.”

“If you saw nothing, then it can’t have been a stranger, Stella. Tell me!”

I shut her down. I didn’t want to share; couldn’t share. And I didn’t believe in that bullshit anyway. My heart beat so fast that I had to force my breaths to slow, to calm down.

“You believe in this crap, don’t you?”

“I do,” Timbra said defensively. “I’d think you would, too. You say Thayer is your home now, yet you balk at every ritual and history that doesn’t conform to your preconceptions. If you’re going to be a true Thayerian, you’re going to have to leave your old biases behind.”

She was right. My first impulse was still to doubt and condemn anything that was new or weird or different. I hated that very habit that had permeated the culture of my small Southern town.

“Your turn.” I no longer wanted to focus on me, on my own very long list of flaws.

I couldn’t read Timbra’s face when she rose from the well, but she found my eyes immediately. She gave Julianne a cool glance and led me back toward the fire.

We found and donned our clothes. Wet, undy-shaped outlines quickly appeared on Timbra’s. The boys were ready to head back as well, and we left together, choosing to walk rather than travel by intention.

I had only recently learned that all the cool kids called the magical mode of travel
tracing
. Gresham was certainly not one of the cool kids. I idly wondered what he was doing at the moment, and hoped that he wan’t too upset about his break-up with Dean Miles. He didn’t seem too affected, but I doubted he would let on in front of me, at any rate.

I was pulled out of my head and into present company by the slip of Ewan’s hand around the back of my neck. His warm palm and big fingers grasped me firmly as he stepped in front of me. His eyes intent on mine, he approached me achingly slowly for another kiss.