Shaxoa's Gift (2 page)

One by one, he touched their disgusting
bodies, showing them the face of the one he wanted. “When the prey
is found, none of you are to do anything but report back to
me.”

Every head dipped in agreement.

“Now go. It’s time to hunt.”

It was time for the hunt that would either
assure him immortality, or destroy his life and everything he had
worked for.

2: Fighting

The instant Uriah touched my skin I had felt
safe again. Still trapped within my own body, his loving strokes
had filled me with hope. But when the hot liquid touched my lips, I
knew something was wrong. A strange sensation filled me as memories
of Uriah started to slide away. Desperately, I clung to them, to
all the treasured moments we had spent together.

Slowly my body began to respond to my
commands. My lips parted and the searching plea came out as a
whisper. “Uriah?”

Gathering me in his arms, he kissed me,
telling me that he loved me with such desperation I could instantly
tell something was not right. The sensation suddenly took over my
senses, forcing me to look away from Uriah. I saw him then, the boy
from my dreams, Daniel. In my head I knew who he was, but my heart
was struggling to reject him. “Daniel?” I asked.

His blissful nod tore my heart in two. He was
my Twin Soul, the other half of my soul split apart before birth.
He was the one man meant to complete me, but I didn’t want him.
Feelings of unending love and fulfillment forced their way into my
mind, pushing me to accept him. It was nothing like the love Uriah
and I had built together over the past year. It was sudden, and
forced, and I tried to shy away from it.

The look on Uriah’s face was pure torture.
His kind eyes filled with glistening tears and his strong jaw
tightened in an effort to keep it from shaking. I tried desperately
to explain what I felt, that I loved him still, but he could only
see the pain my struggle was causing me. Always caring more about
me and my happiness than his own needs, Uriah stepped aside.
“You’ll be happy, like you were meant to be,” he said. Love and
pain twisted his features.

I begged him to stay, to save me, but he
couldn’t bear the idea of causing me any more pain. Giving me the
chance to find more than he believed he was capable of offering,
Uriah walked away. Every other thought was lost to me. I couldn’t
live without Uriah. The feelings that surrounded me felt more like
a delicious poison than some fantastic rebirth.

“Claire, please,” Daniel said. He reached a
hand out to me in comfort.

Without thinking, I took it, but my heart
begged me to pull away a moment later. The hurt on his face was
agony. This wasn’t his fault. He had come with Uriah, thinking only
that he could help me. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. A second later he
was next to me, his arms around my shoulders. It was impossible for
me not to fall into his embrace. Tears for Uriah, for my weakness,
battled with the overwhelming comfort Daniel gave me.

Nobody else touched me. They let me sob in
Daniel’s arms, and I was too filled with pain to care that they
watched. The sharp squeal of the door opening was the only thing
that roused me from my anguish. Praying it was Uriah, I looked up
quickly.

Quaile stood at the door, her ancient body
leaning heavily on her cane. My eyes burned with disappointment at
seeing the shaman. I had faith that Uriah would not truly abandon
me. I knew he still loved me, but I also knew it was up to me to
prove to him that I still loved him as well, and always would.
Quaile took a quick step forward, her eyes scanning the room and
landing on Daniel.

“Daniel,” she said, “we must get you back to
Roosevelt.”

My eyes flew wide. Emotions battered against
each other. The Twin Soul bond urged me to hold on to Daniel, to
stay by his side forever, but what love I could hold onto for Uriah
kept me still, begging Quaile to get him away from me as fast as
she could.

“But,” Daniel sputtered, “I don’t want to
leave. I want to stay with Claire.”

I couldn’t help but clutch at him, and feel
terrible for doing it immediately afterward. Quaile stopped her
march across the room. Her lips thinned as she pursed them tightly.
Her hesitation gave Daniel courage to renew his hold on me. Turning
to face me, he slipped his hands around mine, staring into my eyes
with absolute adoration. It was the expression he always had when I
met him in my dreams at night.

Suddenly, I wanted to raise my hands to his
face, to caress his soft features and profess my love for him.
Except, I didn’t understand these feelings for him. The way he
looked at me wasn’t the same as Uriah’s expression when he told me
he loved me. There were the dreams, but did Daniel really know me?
Did it matter when the bond was so insistent? I didn’t want to let
him go.

“Claire, please don’t send me away. I want to
be with you,” Daniel said. “I know this must be very confusing for
you, but if you just give me a chance I know you’ll feel like I
do.”

Time was what he wanted, time to bury my
feelings for Uriah and accept this forced affection as real. I
wanted to, but the lingering memory of Uriah’s touch gave me
strength. “Please go. I love Uriah,” I choked out. His brow creased
as he struggled to understand why I had not surrendered to the Twin
Soul bond as easily as he had.

My rejection brought a pained expression to
his face, nearly matching the one Uriah had worn before stepping
out the door. My heart screamed at me for hurting him. Could I not
bring anyone happiness? The bond pushed me to console Daniel, to
make right the pain he was feeling. Snatching my hands from his
before I lost all control, I turned away. Breathing seemed to
become harder and harder the more pain I caused Daniel. I never
wanted this. All I wanted was Uriah. “Please leave, Daniel,” I
begged him.

“But, Claire,” Daniel said softly.

Shaking my head, I stood and ran to my
mother. Her soothing arms wrapped around me. “Shh, shh, baby girl.
It will be okay,” she said.

I cried on her shoulder, wishing it was
Uriah’s arms around me instead of hers.

“Daniel, you must leave,” Quaile said. Her
eyes and voice made it plain that she was quickly reaching her
limit of patience with him.

“But, I want to stay with her. I can’t be
away from her,” he said. His agonized denial strained my resolve
even more.

“What about your parents, young man?”
Quaile’s accusing voice made him wince. “You will have a hard time
explaining why you’re in New Mexico if your parents find out that
you left camp without permission for the weekend.”

“Well, how am I supposed to get back? Take a
bus?” Daniel asked.

The combative tone of his voice made Quaile’s
jaw tighten. She refused to listen to people when they didn’t speak
to her with full respect. I expected her to berate Daniel as she
would any other, but instead her wrinkled face softened.

“There are no buses here,” Quaile said.
“Someone will have to drive you.” Quaile glanced around the room
hopefully.

“I’ll take him back,” my brother, Cole,
said.

I wanted to run to Cole and hug him fiercely.
He looked at me with sympathy, an apology on his face. He had gone
with Uriah to track Daniel down. I could tell that he felt
partially responsible for the pain and confusion I felt. I managed
a weak smile at him through my tears. He’d only done what he had to
so he and Uriah could save my life. I could never lay blame at
anyone’s feet except my father’s.

Daniel wasn’t nearly as pleased as I was
about Cole’s offer. Scowling, Daniel folded his arms across his
chest. Watching him, I wondered at the gods’ choice. He was so
unlike Uriah. Uriah was strong and serious, thoughtful and
considerate. Whenever we were together I knew every ounce of his
attention was on me, making sure I was happy and loved.

I knew it was unfair to say that Daniel was
none of those things, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t give myself any
more reasons to love him. If I was going to be able to stay true to
my love for Uriah, I knew I couldn’t allow myself even the smallest
amount of affection for Daniel. Perhaps that would never make sense
to anyone but me, but I couldn’t bear giving Uriah up.

“Daniel, the camp counselors will notice
you’re gone if I don’t get you back soon. We should go,” Cole said.
He put a hand on Daniel’s shoulder, pulling him toward the
door.

“Why don’t you take the car this time,” my
mother, Sarah Brant, said dryly. She tossed the keys to him without
letting go of me. “Those motorcycles weren’t supposed to leave the
garage and you knew it.” The look on her face said that she did not
appreciate Cole’s choice in vehicles when he left with Uriah two
days earlier. My mother had thrown a fit when my father bought the
motorcycles a few weeks ago and forbade him to ever use them.

Cole shrugged casually under my mother’s
gaze, but when she looked away he cringed, knowing that he would
hear more about the topic when he got back. Grabbing Daniel’s
shoulder a little tighter, Cole pushed him toward the door. “Let’s
get going, Daniel.”

“But,” Daniel started.

“It is time for you to go,” Quaile said
stiffly.

I watched Quaile carefully from my mother’s
side. I couldn’t understand why she was suddenly pushing Daniel
away. She had been the one to deny Uriah and I the right to marry
on tribal lands. She’d claimed that we weren’t Twin Souls, that we
would each meet our true Twin Souls in the future and be torn
apart. When we refused to accept her answer, saying that we would
simply leave San Juan Pueblo to be married, she had begged us not
to ignore her advice.

Now she was ushering away the man she had
said I would find ultimate happiness with. Quaile had slipped away
right before Uriah left me, and only returned after he was gone.
Had she spoken with him? Was there something she wasn’t telling me?
There was so much that had happened that no one had had the chance
to explain to me. What happened on Uriah’s journey to find Daniel?
As soon as Daniel and the bond were safely away from me, I was
determined to get some answers.

Quaile pushed Daniel and Cole further away.
“Get him back safely, Cole.”

“I will,” Cole said. He was clearly eager to
leave.

“I’ll be back soon, Claire,” Daniel said.

His voice was filled with longing. His words
pierced me like a double edged sword. My mind was screaming at me
to go with him, to stay by his side for the rest of my life, but my
heart pleaded with me to run away from him as fast as I could.
Burying my head in my mother’s shoulder, I hid my face and the
tears that were streaming down my cheeks. I kept my head down until
I heard the soft click of the hardwood door shutting.

With Daniel finally gone, a confusing tidal
wave of emotions rushed through me, buckling my knees. My mother
caught me before I could collapse completely and hurriedly set me
in an old arm chair. “Oh, Mom, what’s happening to me?” I asked. My
tears had disappeared, but a new set were on the verge of bursting
out.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. Everything will be
okay,” she said. She stroked my hair gently as she attempted to
soothe me.

“But how? How will this ever be okay?” I
asked. “Uriah is gone forever and I don’t know what to do without
him. Daniel, he’s…I love him so much, but I…I…” My sobbing renewed,
shaking my frame. Only the growing distance between myself and
Daniel slowly began to lessen the consuming desire to have him, but
only minimally.

My mother’s lips parted, about to say
something, but Quaile interrupted her. “Uriah is not gone forever,
child,” she said. The tone of her voice seemed conflicted, and her
words captured my hope.

“He’s coming back?” I asked. “When?”

“I don’t know.” Quaile hated being wrong, and
hated even more not knowing the answer in the first place. “He told
me to tell you that he still loves you and that he is not giving up
yet.”

Relief surged into my heart, almost strong
enough to wash away the feelings of the Twin Soul bond that were
threatening to tear me in two. I knew Uriah wouldn’t have walked
away so easily, but why hadn’t he told me himself? Why would he
leave me in agony only to send Quaile back in with a message a few
minutes later?

Uriah was never sneaky or dishonest, but I
could feel that something was missing from Quaile’s explanation.
She had disappeared first, perhaps waiting to speak with Uriah
before he could leave me behind for good. What was she not telling
me?

“Where did he go?”

“His search is his own. I suppose he will
return when he’s found what he’s looking for,” Quaile said. Her
words snapped off her tongue, quick and sharp.

Hardly an answer at all, I knew she was
keeping something back. “Where did he go, Quaile?” I asked, my
voice high and tight. “What are you hiding from me?”

“Do not take that tone of voice with me,
Claire,” Quaile said. The words matched her usual temperament, but
the uncertainty in her eyes did not belong. Sighing, her head
dipped down. She looked years older than the last time I had seen
her. “He loves you, Claire. I know little besides that.”

The dejected tone of her voice was nearly
enough to convince me that she truly didn’t know where Uriah had
gone, but I couldn’t bring myself to trust her. This whole string
of events had begun with her denying Uriah and I the right to
marry. If she hadn’t denied us, my father would never have drugged
my tea, trapping my soul and making the race to find Daniel so
important.

No, I couldn’t trust her to tell me the truth
about Uriah.

“Claire,” Quaile said, indecision making her
falter, “if Uriah is what you truly want, you must hold onto him.
You must do it alone.”