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Puppet Strings - Chapter 11
By Kudara
Disclaimer:
All the characters appearing in Gargoyles are copyright Buena
Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of
these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the
copyright holder. All original characters are the property of
the author.
Warning: none
Rating: Teen
Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep
writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike
about the story.
Revision History: 02/29/08
********************************************************************
Elisa stepped up the castle stairs to the
battlements, it was almost dawn and the clan should be back from
their patrol soon. She hoped they would get back in enough time
for her to fill them in on the information the RCMP had sent
earlier in the day about Dominique Destine’s kidnapping. The
detective didn’t know whether to interpret the information she
had found out earlier as good or bad, the more details she heard
about this kidnapping the less it made sense to her.
Reaching the top of the stairs, she
wandered across the flagstones of the courtyard and leaned
against the parapet, it had been another long night in a week of
them and she was looking forward to getting home and getting
some sleep. Matt and she were getting closer to the Quarrymen,
to understanding their organizational structure, and to learning
where exactly Jon Canmore aka John Castaway was getting his
funding to supply them with weapons. With the information their
investigation had recently uncovered it probably wouldn’t be
that long before she would need to bring out her alter ego
Sally. The detective wasn’t looking forward to the days and
nights of undercover work with those gargoyle-hating fanatics,
but with any luck, what she learned from the inside would break
the case and get the Taskforce the information they needed to
bring down the organization.
So deep was she within her thoughts, as she
stared over the city, that she didn’t immediately notice Hudson
coming up the stairs behind her. It was Bronx bounding up the
stairs behind the old gargoyle and running over to her that
stirred Elisa out of her thoughts. “Hey boy how are you doing
tonight,” she asked as she rubbed his head and ears
affectionately. She looked over and noticed Hudson standing a
few feet away, “How are you this evening Hudson?” she asked.
He smiled, “I’m doing well, lass.” He
looked at her curiously, “What was dwelling in your thoughts so
heavily that you didn’t notice me when I came up the stairs?”
“The Quarrymen investigation, Matt and I
are getting close to discovering where the money they are using
to fund their organization is coming from,” Elisa answered.
Hudson nodded, “That’s good then,” his tone
made the statement more of a question.
“Very good,” she affirmed, “with any luck
we will be able to shut them down soon.” The arrival of the
rest of the clan winging over the battlements interrupted their
conversation.
“Elisa,” Goliath greeted her warmly, but
there was concern in his eyes and she knew it was because of the
kidnapping. The rest of the clan landed in a lose semi-circle
behind him.
Elisa’s eyes went to the feminine form
standing behind the large clan leader. Angela appeared worried,
and Broadway was regarding her with a concerned expression as he
stood supportively beside her. The detective sighed; this
entire situation was not going to get any easier, “The Royal
Canadian Mounted Police informed us this afternoon that they
found the missing plane, and that the storm that swept in from
the Hudson Bay forced it down. The searchers found the bodies
of the three kidnappers in the cockpit; all three men died
instantly when the plane crashed.” She continued quickly before
anyone could interrupt after hearing that alarming news, “They
didn’t find Demona or Kendra Canmore, but they did find the cage
they had been kept in and it was damaged enough in the crash for
them to get out. The search team said that the plane had been
thoroughly ransacked for supplies and that Demona and Kendra
took survival gear and food rations with them as well as the
kidnappers’ weapons.”
“So mother took Kendra Canmore with her?”
Angela looked surprised.
“All the evidence points in that
direction,” Elisa admitted.
Hudson asked, “Do you think this was a real
kidnapping or something Demona arranged that went bad?”
Elisa hesitated, there were things she was
hearing from the Taskforce’s Quarrymen investigation that caused
her to suspect that the organization was linked with the
kidnapping. Matt hadn’t mentioned it to the detectives
investigating the kidnapping yet, but he might have to soon, and
that would bring up some uncomfortable questions about why the
Quarrymen had targeted Dominique Destine who was not a known
gargoyle sympathizer. “I think the kidnapping was real, and
that Jon Canmore and his Quarrymen were behind it.”
“But Kendra Canmore is his kin,” Hudson
protested, “Surely he wouldn’t want to harm her.”
“He blamed you guys for his shooting of his
brother. I don’t think he’s that mentally stable right now and
if she was with Demona…” her voice trailed off meaningfully.
Angela questioned, “So you think Kendra
being with Demona would have been enough for him to forget that
she is of his clan?”
Elisa said grimly, “There was one cage in
that plane and the searchers found both red hair and black hair
in it indicating that both women were imprisoned in it. So yes,
I think it was enough.”
The entire clan was silent for a moment as
they considered that shocking idea.
“But I don’t understand,” Lexington spoke
up going back to the first piece of information, “Demona hates
humans, what so different about Kendra Canmore that Demona would
take her with her?”
“Yea,” Brooklyn added, “first she agrees to
spar with her now this. What could Demona need Kendra Canmore
for that she would go through so much trouble to keep her
around?”
Elisa shifted uneasily, there had been one
thing she had thought of, but the Angela had found out about
Demona’s scheme rendering that idea very unlikely.
“Elisa?” Goliath’s inquired evidently
having caught sight of her expression.
She shook her head, “Nothing really, I did
think of a possible explanation, but then Demona pulled her
scheme with the Assassin so…the idea I had doesn’t make sense
anymore.”
A flash of pain crossed Angela’s face at
this reminder of her mother’s betrayal; it quickly disappeared,
replaced with resolve. “What explanation did you think of?” she
asked determinedly.
“Well as I said it doesn’t really make much
sense now, but Kendra knows all of the Canmore family history.
She knows about the hunters and the reasons behind why they’ve
hunted Demona for all this time. Kendra’s very passionate about
the fact that the Canmore's are responsible for almost all of
it, that they had no reasonable justification for going after
Demona in the first place.” Elisa looked back at Angela, “It
crossed my mind that perhaps Demona was keeping Kendra around so
she could tell this to you.”
Angela’s frowned angrily, “She was planning
on using Kendra to persuade me to feel sympathetic towards her
you mean, to believe that her hatred of humans is justified.”
Elisa nodded, “But as I said that doesn’t
really make sense now, not with what happened.”
Lexington commented, “So why did Demona
take Kendra with her?”
Elisa shrugged, “I don’t know,” she said.
“But knowing why isn’t the most critical issue right now. The
plane went down three hundred miles north of the nearest town.
They’ve got three hundred miles of snow-covered, rough terrain
to cross with very few supplies. Demona did Kendra no favors by
taking her with her; they would have been rescued today if they
had just stayed with the plane.” The detective paused, gave a
frustrated sigh, before she continued, “I can understand why
they left though, they had no way of knowing rescue was
coming.” She shook her head, “Three hundred miles though,
there’s no guarantee that Kendra can make it that far even if
Demona is actually trying to help her, much less if she doesn’t
really care.”
“So how long before…” Broadway’s voice
trailed off for a moment as he glanced at Angela in concern,
“how long do they think it will take them to travel that far?”
he restated his question.
“The Mounties are hoping they will be able
to find them with their search and rescue planes. If they can
make it themselves the earliest their estimating their arrival
is in six to seven more days.” Elisa answered.
The clan stared at one another. Brooklyn
shook his head sadly, “that’s a lot of days.” It was all he
said, but everyone knew what he wasn’t saying, it was a lot of
days for Demona to decide that it wasn’t worth it to continue
helping a human.
“Yes, that’s a lot of days,” Elisa agreed
worriedly.
Goliath stirred finally. The detective
thought he looked as confused by this turn of events as she
was. None of them had foreseen this, and it made her wonder
what they didn’t know about Kendra Canmore that Demona did. On
the other hand, it was more likely there was nothing and Demona
would walk out of the Canadian wilderness with a tale of how
Kendra had suffered a tragic accident along the way, the
detective thought with a flash of anger. She glanced toward the
one gargoyle she expected to be having the most difficulty with
this news. Angela was leaning against Broadway, the young
female’s wings were caped around her body and she looked
miserable. Broadway had his arm wrapped protectively around her
shoulders.
“Then we will hope that they arrive
safely,” Goliath stated, drawing Elisa’s attention away from the
younger couple, “for there is little else we can do. In the
meantime dawn is coming,” he turned toward the lone human
standing among them, “and you should sleep Elisa, you look
tired.”
“I’m going to do that now,” the she agreed
as she turned to leave. She wanted to stop and say something to
Angela, but she didn’t know what she could say to make this
situation any better for the younger female.
****************************************************************************
“Breakfast is ready,” Dominique’s voice
woke Kendra. The black-haired woman stared disoriented for a
moment at the shelter walls before she remembered waking early
in the morning when Demona’s painful dawn transformation had
intruded upon their sleep. Afterwards they had moved the
blankets and themselves back inside the shelter.
She grabbed her clothes and crawled out of
the shelter, pausing to stretch out her neck and back which were
protesting the lack of a mattress. “Morning,” she greeted
Dominique with a warm smile, her thoughts unerringly going to
the night they had shared.
The redhead kneeling by the fire looked up,
“good morning,” she responded. The welcoming smile upon her
face shaded into amusement as she regarded Kendra who was still
as naked as she had been the night before. Definitely,
she thought to herself, admiring the strong, limber lines of her
lover, she does not have a strong nudity taboo. Then she
caught the faintly repulsed look on the black-haired woman’s
face as she regarded the clothing in her hands. “I’m hoping
that supplies includes clothing,” Dominique commented, referring
to the eagle owl spirits promise that one of her chosen was
bringing them supplies today.
“One can hope,” Kendra replied, as she
resignedly put on the same clothes she had been wearing for the
past four days. She had rinsed them in the river, but still it
wasn’t the same as actually washing them. “Thanks,” she said as
she accepted the plate of stewed meat, she eyed it without much
appreciation, she liked meat, but four days of nothing but meat
and ration bars was about two days too many. “I wonder if he or
she will bring some food,” she looked at the forest, “or maybe
they know enough about this area to tell us if there’s edible
roots or something that we can add to our meals.”
“Are you telling me you don’t like my
stew?” asked Dominique sounding piqued.
Kendra stared at her uncertainly, “No, of
course not,” she added apologetically, “I really appreciate that
you got up this morning and cooked it for us. I just meant
that…” her voice trailed off as she caught sight of the
redhead’s sly grin. “Aww, very funny Demona, you can’t tell me
you don’t want something to eat besides caribou meat and ration
bars too.”
Dominique stared at Kendra for a moment;
then she chuckled, remarking, “You know that’s the first time
you’ve called me by my true name during the day when you weren’t
calling it out in pleasure,” she ended smugly.
The black-haired woman blushed, she asked
shyly, “Would you rather I called you Demona?”
These odd moments of shy uncertainty always
caught the immortal gargoyle by surprise; Kendra was usually so
self-confident and bold with everyone. She realized she had
never seen Kendra act shyly around anyone else, only she, and
she found that rather endearing. “When we are alone, yes I
would actually,” the redhead answered.
Kendra nodded, “Alright then,” she replied
and turned her attention to the stew.
Dominique regarded her thoughtfully for a
moment before turning back to the cook pot and for her own
breakfast. She frowned at the brown soup, Kendra was right a
meat only diet was not that appetizing, but then again she knew
from bitter personal experience that it definitely beat
starving. She sat down with her plate and eyed Kendra
curiously, “So, partial shapeshifting?” she asked.
The black-haired woman nodded, pausing to
clear her mouth before answering, “Apparently those with the
jaguar spirit are very skilled in controlling their bodies and
their shapeshifting ability. It has something to do with the
jaguar’s chosen being warrior centric and solely focused on
physical abilities.”
“Apparently?” commented Dominique
surprised, “You don’t know? I thought you said the priestess
taught you everything she knew?” she frowned, concerned.
Kendra got a faraway look in her eye, “I
thought she had, but the more I think about what I learned the
less I’m certain that she did. I’m really starting to get the
impression that jaguars are expected to be self-starters and she
gave me the equivalent of basic swimming lessons and then threw
me into the pool to see what I did with them.”
Dominique stared for a moment, “So you’re
just supposed to figure it out for yourself now?” She asked,
her voice betraying her incredulity.
“She did give me a lot of information,”
Kendra responded her tone slightly defensive, “like how to
increase my metabolism to ignore the cold, how to control my
healing ability if I get hospitalized and need to hide it, how
to heal faster, how to be stronger, faster and quicker than I
have been in my human form.” Kendra paused to take a breath,
“In short she gave me a lot of information about how to modify
my human body to have most of the same abilities I do when I’m
in my jaguar form.” After a short pause for that information to
sink in Kendra continued, “In regards to shapeshifting though,
she gave me the basics and I think the rest of it is up to me to
explore depending on whether or not I feel like experimenting
with it.”
“Experimenting how,” the redhead asked,
more intrigued now than annoyed on Kendra’s behalf.
Kendra pursed her lips thoughtfully,
“Well…I know I have to stay within the basic jaguar body shape,
no going around looking like a lion or tiger, but outside of
that…” she trailed off and shrugged. “I managed to only change
my teeth last night which confirms that I can do partial body
changes. I suspect that I can also choose other jaguar coat
colors, it’s just that black,” she pointed to her black hair,
“will always be the one most natural to me. I suspect if I had
been born a blonde my natural jaguar form coat would be yellow
with dark brown spots.”
The green eyes were a bit wider now,
“Anything else?” Dominique asked her eyes intent on Kendra’s
blue ones.
“Well…” Kendra hesitated uncertainly,
“after the incident in the temple I did a lot of research into
jaguars in general and Olmec and Mayan mythology about jaguars
and jaguar deities. I did some more research once the dreams
began and when I actually transformed. What I keep thinking
about are the Olmec statues archeologists found of
were-jaguars. They depict shamans in various stages between
human and jaguar.”
Dominique drew in a sharp breath, her eyes
thoughtful, “And now you think the statues depict real shamans,
that this is something you can do as well.”
Kendra nodded, “I’ve been thinking of my
transformations as either or, either human or jaguar. Perhaps I
need to start thinking of the process as a gradient instead, a
sliding scale so to speak between human and jaguar.”
“Like the mutates,” the redhead commented
softly more to herself than Kendra.
The black-haired woman frowned, puzzled,
“Mutates?”
Dominique sighed and began what was a
rather lengthy explanation.
“So David Xantos hired Sevarius to develop
these mutates as gargoyle like mercenaries. Sevarius made them
by combining their DNA with various large cat species, and they
look like were-forms of the species they were combined with.”
Kendra summarized the redhead’s explanation.
Dominique added, “With bat-like wings, the
ability to fly and the ability to store and discharge electrical
energy in the form of electric bolts.”
“Right, electric eel DNA as well,” Kendra
corrected herself thoughtfully remembering that detail.
“Sevarius worked for me at Nightstone for a
period of time. I asked him about it once and he told me he had
added the eel DNA so the mutates would have the necessary energy
to allow them to glide like gargoyles. His hypothesis was that
gargoyles stored the sun’s energy during their stone sleep to
allow them to glide at night, otherwise he couldn’t account for
the amount of energy we would require.” Dominique commented.
Kendra looked thoughtfully at her, “And yet
you don’t do that and you manage to glide just fine,” she
reminded the gargoyle in human form.
Dominique looked surprised; she stared at
the black-haired woman bemused for a few moments. Apparently,
she hadn’t thought about how her own lack of stone sleep might
disprove Sevarius’s idea. “Perhaps Puck’s enchantment
compensates for that?” she proposed uncertainly.
Kendra shrugged, “I just brought it up
because maybe Sevarius isn’t completely right about the energy
requirements.” She continued, “As for the mutates, it might be
nice to see what they looked like, but otherwise I won’t be
really like them at all. I’m not blending my DNA just blending
my two forms.” Kendra stopped abruptly and frowned, “Actually I
don’t really know that, I’ve never looked into what my DNA is
like when I’m in jaguar form. I don’t know if it’s still human
or jaguar or what. Without knowing that I guess I really can’t
say whether or not my DNA might be a blend if I’m in a form in
between the two.”
Dominique smiled, “That will be easy enough
to determine once we get back to the city. Nightstone has all
the necessary equipment.”
Kendra nodded thoughtfully, “I’m not sure
if the information will be that important to know in regards to
my shapeshifting abilities, but I’m curious to know the answer
now that I’ve thought about it.”
“Then we will find the answer for you,”
Dominique promised and Kendra gave her a warm smile in
response. The redhead returned her attention to the last of her
now cold food. A few minutes later she placed the plate by the
fire, she would wash it and the plates in the stream later. Her
attention returned to her lover who was now staring into the
forest with a thoughtful look on her face. “So how are you
going to go about exploring your shapeshifting abilities?” the
redhead asked drawing Kendra’s attention back to her.
A deep sigh answered her, “I’m not sure,
that’s what I was just trying to figure out,” Kendra admitted.
“Maybe I’m over analyzing it, I mean I don’t have to think about
how my insides change when I become a jaguar I just think about
which ‘I’ is predominant and draw that to the outside.”
Dominique spent a moment trying to
understand that idea, it was so different from how she viewed
her own transformation. Of course, her change wasn’t voluntary,
it was triggered by the sun and she didn’t think much of
anything at all during the process except for the pain it caused
her. The first few weeks after Puck placed his enchantment on
her she had viewed her day form as almost alien, refusing to
look at herself during the day. Over time she had come to
accept that she was still Demona, still a gargoyle no matter
what she looked like on the outside, and she had definitely come
to appreciate the advantages her human day form gave her no
matter how physically weak she found it. Kendra’s explanation
though hinted that the black-haired woman saw herself as having
a dual personality, the jaguar personality and the human, and at
the same time it was clear that she saw both personalities as
being her, that they were unified in some manner.
Kendra mused, “Of course the priestess did
say the human and jaguar were becoming more integrated. I
hadn’t really thought about it recently, but she’s right the two
parts of me have become merged in a way they weren’t when I
first began my transformations.”
Maybe Kendra was thinking too much about
it, Dominique thought, after all she had already managed a
partial shift once. “What did you do last night?” the redhead
asked.
Kendra turned a thoughtful gaze her way, “I
just imagined myself with fangs instead of eye teeth and pulled
that on top of my human form, but that’s not quite the type of
form change I’m looking for it didn’t really give me any extra
physical abilities just the two teeth.”
Dominique raised one eyebrow, “So you want
to shapeshift just enough to gain all of your jaguar abilities,”
she asked, “but not actually transform fully into your jaguar
form?”
“Something like that,” Kendra answered
absently. Her gaze focused on the redhead, “I suspect I haven’t
explored the limits of my abilities in either form, what she
taught me about modifying this body,” the black-haired woman
waved a hand up and down herself, “can also apply to my jaguar
form.” She added after half a second, “I think.”
The red-haired woman’s jade green eyes
widened at the statement. “Then I guess you do have a few
things to figure out don’t you,” she said after a moment.
Kendra nodded; she came over to the fire
and picked up the pot and plate there, adding them to her own.
“I’ll go wash these since you cooked.”
“I’ll go with you,” Dominique offered, the
morning wasn’t that cold and the sun was shining brightly
through the trees. Underneath the dark green needles of the
pines were thick patches of white snow that brilliantly sparkled
where the gleaming spears of sunlight shot thru the thick
canopy. The redhead glanced at her companion as they strode
through the forest, she wasn’t certain what was bothering her,
just that it had to do with what Kendra had said by the fire.
Finally, as they reached the edge of the forest, she understood
what was troubling her; Kendra found her strength as a gargoyle
attractive, what would happen now that the black-haired woman
would be able to be stronger than Demona?
Trying to distract herself, the redhead
looked around the open area that bordered the wide stream on
both sides as Kendra cleaned the pot and plates. The sun had
kept the snow from piling up along its banks, and though the
grass was brown right now, Dominique could tell that it would be
lush and green during the summer months. The air was crisp and
clean, so unlike the air of Manhattan, and everything around her
reminded her just a little of Scotland so long ago, pristine and
untamed.
“It’s beautiful isn’t it,” Kendra commented
softly. “I’d love to come up here in summer and see what it
looks like then.”
Dominique watched her for a moment,
Kendra’s eyes were closed her head tilted toward the sun and she
had the barest hint of a pleased smile upon her face. She felt
and echoing smile upon her own face as she watched the swiftly
moving stream. “I don’t see why we can’t,” she offered
hesitantly, and a pang of uncertainty caused the smile to slip
away as if it had never been.
The sapphire blue eyes opened and focused
upon her keenly, “That would be nice,” Kendra responded. She
turned her head slightly and regarded the redhead with a slight
frown, “What’s wrong Demona?”
If she had wings, she would be caping them
about herself protectively about now Dominique knew. She wasn’t
particularly happy with the fact that she was having these
feelings of insecurity at all. “I guess I can’t expect to win
anymore of our sparring matches,” she blurted then cursed
herself for being so obvious.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Kendra grinned, “I
want to beat you on my own.” She frowned puzzled when all she
got in return for her jest was a weak smile from the redhead.
She couldn’t fathom why the prospect of her being stronger was
upsetting the other woman so; she took in the slump to
Dominique’s posture the almost defeated way the redhead stood as
she stared at the stream. A fleeting remembrance of their
lovemaking last night caused her blue eyes to narrow, surely
that wasn’t it? She glanced at Dominique once again, perhaps it
was, and even if it wasn’t the redhead deserved to know for how
long she had been fascinated with her, “I’ve waited for an
opportunity to meet you ever since you tried that takeover of
Murton Electronics over a year ago.” The redhead turned
surprised green eyes her way, “Learning that Dominique Destine,
the woman that had all the old boy CEO’s shaking in their shoes
after Nightstone’s meteoritic rise from obscurity after only a
year of existence, was also Demona just gave me the impetus I
needed to travel down to Manhattan and actually arrange a
meeting.”
“I remember that, I didn’t know that you
had a financial interest in Murton Electronics though,”
Dominique commented intrigued.
“Old business partner of my father’s, I
left the investment there when dad died,” Kendra explained.
Dominique smirked, “Good work in keeping
the share prices stable.”
“It wasn’t easy, and quite frankly luck was
with us. You had it well planned out; you should have been able
to force a buyout.” The black-haired woman admitted frankly.
The redhead nodded, “I was surprised when
the share prices didn’t drop,” she acknowledged. “So that’s
when you first became interested in me,” Dominique said, she had
never suspected that Kendra’s interest in her predated the woman
finding out her true identity.
Kendra nodded, “That’s when I started
keeping track of you and your company, both for
self-preservation of my own investments and also because I was
interested in you. If you hadn’t suspected already I have a
thing for redheads, and after my first look at a picture of you
I was well…” she blushed, “definitely interested.”
Dominique raised an eyebrow amused, “So
it’s just the hair is it?” Her earlier uncertainty, if not
gone, was at least being overshadowed by her interest in the
current conversation.
The blue eyed woman took a step closer, her
gaze filled with warm appreciation, “No it’s not just the hair,”
her voice was husky almost a purr as she spoke. “When I first
saw you in your office doorway in your perfect business suit
with that white high-collared shirt, your flame red hair tied
back and tamed…you looked so regal, so beautiful and elegant,
and so very, very sexy.”
Dominique was starting to feel slightly hot
under the combined effects of Kendra’s searing blue gaze and
sultry voice. “So it’s the tailored suits then,” she teased.
Kendra grinned roguishly, “They certainly
make me want to muss up them, and the woman wearing them, but
no, it’s not just the suits.”
So that had been what was in those blue
eyes when they raked her up and down that day and left her in no
doubt that the rumors in the report she had received about
Kendra Canmore being interested in women were true, Dominique
thought. “So if it’s not just the hair or the suits what is
it?” she asked flirtatiously.
“Most people react in one way when it’s the
full moon and I’m feeling very jaguar. Almost everyone is
scared, and they react to that fear by either retreating or
being aggressive. Very few people don’t react that way, and you
were one of them.” Kendra stated seriously.
The change in tone caught Dominique by
surprise, as did the words. “I sensed a subtle threat from you,
and it surprised me, but no, I wasn’t afraid of you.”
“No, you were within your domain, your
territory, and in so many ways you let me know that you were the
undisputed ruler of it and that I was the interloper and
expected to behave unless I wanted to be summarily driven
away.” Kendra smiled, “Mind you I didn’t consciously interpret
it that way, it was only later that I had time to analyze your
reactions and my responses that I recognized what had been going
on.”
Respect, Dominique recognized something
else unique about how Kendra interacted with her besides the odd
bout of shyness; she had never seen the black-haired woman look
at anyone with the open respect that Kendra gave her.
“Nightstone is my company; I don’t let anyone forget that fact,”
she finally responded.
“I know,” Kendra whispered, “I was just
letting you know that the strength that I see in you isn’t your
physical strength. The strength in you that turns me on so
much, that makes me want to surrender to you is the strength you
have inside you.” Her voice turned sultry once again, “Its why
even now you could push me to the ground, and claim me for your
own.”
It took a second for Dominique to process
what Kendra had just said, for a few seconds she wondered how
the black-haired woman had known what was troubling her, and
then she decided that it really didn’t matter. She took a step
forward, crossing the small distance between them and pulled
Kendra’s lips down to meet her own.
It was a few minutes before either of them
paid attention to the sound of an engine in the distance.
Kendra was the first to pull away, staring southward with an
intent expression, “I hear an engine,” she said, she turned her
head toward the sound, “a fairly small one and on the ground not
in the sky.”
“Let’s go back into the trees,” Dominique
pulled on Kendra’s hand to get the woman to follow her, “see who
it is before we reveal ourselves just in case it isn’t who we
are expecting.” Kendra stared towards the south for a few
seconds before nodding and following the redhead to the tree
line.
In a few minutes, a dark green ATV with a
small trailer hitched to it approached from the south traveling
alongside the stream. Kendra couldn’t tell the sex of the rider
underneath the thick winter clothes and the full helmet, but
there was something familiar about the figure, something that
caused her to be certain this was who they were expecting. She
rose and stepped out of the wood line.
“What are you doing?” hissed Dominique
angrily from behind her.
Kendra paused, “Stay there just in case,
but I’m pretty sure this is who we were expecting,” she said
without looking at the redhead, she didn’t want to give away
Dominique’s location if this wasn’t the right person. The ATV
slowed as it approached her and Kendra was able to get a better
look at the items in the trailer behind it. A tent, three
propane tanks and what looked like more camping gear reassured
her. The rider of the ATV pulled off their helmet revealing the
weathered face of an older woman. Darker skin than her own,
braided dark hair, wise dark eyes that studied her keenly, a
slightly rounded, square-jawed face, to Kendra’s eyes she looked
decidedly Native American.
“Kendra Canmore, Jaguar’s chosen,” the
woman greeted her calmly.
Kendra chuckled, “I’m guessing you’re the
one the Eagle Owl told us to expect then.” She heard a rustle
behind her and guessed that Dominique was coming forward.
“Demona,” the older woman greeted the
redhead politely. “I am Rachael Wabagano, senior among the
Owl’s chosen,” she introduced herself.
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