Jory Strong: Two Spirits

The waitress lifted an eyebrow. There was no missing the speculation in her eyes.

Heat, confusion, the wild pounding of his heart kept Trey silent just long enough for the waitress to collect the menus and leave. He licked his lips, dared a glance at Tenino.

Their eyes met and held. Trey’s chest tightened. He fought the urge to grip his penis through the denim of his jeans at the bold, confident look on Tenino’s face—as if Tenino knew, as if he wanted.

Trey glanced away first. Conversation was beyond him and thankfully Tekoa and Tenino seemed comfortable with silence.

A foggy mist settled more heavily outside. The wind created the illusion of movement, caused imaginary forms to take shape in the swirling grayness. A memory pushed to the surface of Trey’s mind as a dark, birdlike shadow appeared and disappeared along with a peal of thunder.

Hohoq. It was one of the names for the thunderbird.

Remembering it made Trey look at the scene outside and see it as more than a stark, desolate prison. He loved collecting stories of supernatural beings and occurrences. And over the years, he’d found the promise of a good ghost story, the working of a legend or folktale into a lesson plan, helped his students learn and gave them an incentive for good behavior.

Lightning flashed, followed quickly by thunder. The shadow wings reappeared and seemed to spread further, as if the thunderbird was drawing closer, just as the storm was.

He knew there were a variety of beliefs when it came to thunderbirds. In some cultures they were protectors. In others they were the Creator’s messengers. At least one tradition held they lived as men but could take the form of a thunderbird when necessary. In almost every belief system the beat of their massive wings caused the thunder while lightning shot from their eyes.

Trey rubbed his chest as an odd sensation struck, making him think of talons reaching, sinking in, surrounding his heart and taking its measure, choosing to leave him alive and gifting him with a warmth that whispered of happiness and home, that felt like anticipation and hope.

When the waitress returned with a hamburger and fries, his stomach growled. Hunger returned in a rush and Trey started eating, very much aware of Tenino on the other side of the table.

“So what’s your take on the situation, Trey? Is there likely to be trouble?” Tenino asked.

Trey looked up to witness Tenino stabbing a fry in a pool of ketchup. It made him think of blood.

“If Patricia finds out where I am, then yes. The Feds now think she might have killed before, more than once, to keep her family’s secret safe. She’ll feel responsible for bringing them down and she’ll want to get even with me for betraying her. Her sister committed suicide when the story broke.”

This time Trey couldn’t hide the way his hands shook slightly. Patricia had nothing to lose. If she found him, it would end only one way—with one of them dead.

Revulsion filled him. He blocked his mind to the image of himself in bed with her. His hands lowered to the plate, but before he dropped the burger, Tenino reached over and snagged a fry, then a second one.

“Eat up. Weather’s getting worse. We need to get out of here.”

Trey found himself lifting the burger, eating. He tried not to think about how intimate it seemed to have Tenino casually helping himself to the fries—and failed.

Even without looking at the sheriff’s deputy, he was acutely aware of the other man’s every move, every glance.

In self-defense Trey turned his head to look out the window. A pickup truck with a camper shell on the back pulled to an angled stop in front of the diner. He had only a glimpse of a beautiful blonde before the man driving pulled her to him and they fogged the car windows with the passion they shared.

Longing filled Trey and made him ache. Finally the couple parted. The man got out, blond and beautiful like the woman. He walked around the truck and opened the door. After helping her out they lingered, kissing again, their bodies pressed tightly together and their arms locked around each other.

Trey’s cock pulsed, jerked at the sensuality, the sense of connection radiating from the couple. He barely registered Tenino saying, “Now that Clay and Jessica are back, I guess we shouldn’t expect to see you unless there’s an emergency.”

He barely noticed Tekoa leaving the diner. And then the sheriff was on the other side of the glass.

The woman smiled as she left her blond lover’s arms and slid into Tekoa’s. Tekoa’s lips took hers in kiss every bit as intimate and dominating as the one he’d interrupted and she clung, softened, seemed to melt against the sheriff. He lifted his head, said something to the blond and the blond laughed, leaned in, touched his mouth to Tekoa’s.

The brief kiss sent shock waves through Trey, made him grateful the tablecloth hung down far enough to prevent total humiliation as he gripped his erection to keep from disgracing himself. His face heated. His heartbeat became erratic. He felt as though his entire world had just shifted on its axis.

Tenino’s stomach clenched. He doubted Trey had any idea just how expressive his face was. Fuck! He wished he hadn’t seen half the emotions Trey revealed.

No wonder his cock was standing at attention and his gaydar was pinging. Trey wanted what Tekoa had, a female lover and a male one.

Tenino polished off the last of Trey’s forgotten fries. He tried to keep his eyes from devouring the blond across the table and his imagination from stripping him. It was impossible.

For the first time since walking into the office and seeing Trey, Tenino hoped Patricia Veron got picked up by the Feds soon. Otherwise it was going to get tense in the cabin.

“Ready,” Tenino asked, standing abruptly and shooting a scowl at the waitress, a cousin whose eyes were practically dancing and whose fingers were no doubt tingling with the urge to get on the phone and tell everyone he’d left with a delicious blond.

Any other town and he’d have to worry about talk being unsafe for Trey, but not here. The People of the Thunderbird didn’t reveal sensitive information to outsiders.

Trey rose and reached for his wallet. Tenino nearly groaned at the sight of the hard ridge pressed against the front of Trey’s pants. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Meals are part of the pay here.”

They were greeted by rain when they stepped outside. The street was empty save for the Jeep. They hurried to it but still managed to get wet. Darkness was coming close on the heels of the storm, blending in so there was almost no differentiating the dusk with the gray of clouds.

Tenino concentrated on driving. Argued with his cock about acting on the attraction to Trey.

He was a fool. He knew he was a fool. Yeah, he loved watching Tekoa interact with Jessica and Clay. Loved the open sexuality when the four of them got together to play poker or watch a movie. Fuck. He loved Jessica. She was gorgeous, sinfully submissive when her men wanted that from her. She was a wet dream waiting to happen and if he’d been straight or bi, he’d have been green with envy that she belonged to Tekoa and Clay.

Tekoa and his brother Ukiah had both been given mates not originally of The People. Otherworldly cups had appeared almost as soon as they’d met their mates, the mystically created liquid inside proof of the Creator’s blessing. Drinking it had united Clay’s and Jessica’s spirits with Tekoa’s, Marisa’s with Ukiah’s, and allowed for a full joining so they became Thunderbird.

Tenino sighed. He was gay and not straight or bi. It’d rip his heart out to share a lover with a woman. So what chance did he have of gaining a true spirit mate when their physical union would never produce children? How would it serve The People? The Creator?