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The lush landscape around me shifted and shimmered as I picked my way through the foliage, pushing glistening palm fronds out of my way. Succulent, ropy vines sprawled across the ground and spiraled up the trunk of nearly every tree in sight. It was gorgeous. Suffocating, but gorgeous.
A brightly colored bird squawked and chirped as it flitted from one vantage point to the next.
“Maybe that’s what I need, higher ground.”
I kicked a cluster of vines out of my way and sidled up to a tree that looked promising. Tilting my head back, I followed its trunk up and up, until the gnarled, papery bark disappeared beyond the canopy.
“Yeah, this will do nicely. I just have to figure out how to climb it.” I talked myself through it. “Maybe if I wedge my hand there and my boot here?”
I managed to pull myself up all of three feet before the creepy crawlies figured out there was fresh meat invading their domain. Tiny bites stung my hands and chest and I yelped, letting go of the tree and stumbling to the ground.
I rolled and flopped on the damp dirt, slapping at my chest and stomach, flinging my jacket off and to the side. Then I scrambled to my feet, shaking my head violently in case any of those mean little bastards decided to hitch a ride. I followed that up by brushing off every inch of my body. Well, every inch I could reach.
But that creepy, crawling sensation refused to fade.
The forest around me was oblivious to my tantrum, though that brilliant blue bird with the orange beak perched on a branch just out of reach honked noisily at me. If I didn’t know better, I might have thought the damned thing was laughing at me. When it flapped its wings happily and honked again, I flipped it my own version of the bird.
Karmic retribution for my treatment of the animal was swift when I turned to find my jacket soaking in a puddle of thick, brown mud.
Perfect.
I plucked it from the slimy pool and shook it off as best I could, giving it a little test sniff before tying it back around my waist. At least it didn’t smell foul. And I’d learned a valuable lesson: No climbing trees without checking for insectile nasties first. Noted.
A few minutes later, I was entirely too focused on the angry red welts forming on my hands as I pulled my shirt away from my sticky skin, that I almost stumbled into the most breathtaking lagoon I’d ever seen. Not that I’d come across many lagoons in my near total lack of travels. Unless the manmade versions at the city zoo didn’t count.
A moss-colored toad with a bright yellow stripe down its back croaked lazily at me from the edge of the crystal water.
“Hey, buddy.” I crouched a few feet from it to get a better look. The area was calmer than the rest of the forest, quieter, and a gentle ripple a few yards out into the pond drew my attention.
A homely, middle-aged woman emerged from the pond, gliding forward slowly until she was only waist-deep in the blue-green water. I didn’t see her lips move, but a gentle, soothing hum filled my ears, and a tiny sigh escaped my parched lips.
She motioned for me to come into the water with a sweet smile, like a mother beckoning her small child, and even though little alarm bells were ringing in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help myself. My feet moved before my brain had time to process what I was doing. Even if I’d wanted to stop, I didn’t think I could. But the thing was, I didn’t want to. Every atom in my body wanted to go to her.
I was just one short step from the water’s edge when strong arms banded around me and hauled me backward.
“Close your eyes.” The man’s whispered voice was abrasive, cutting through that growing feeling of serenity like a chainsaw.
I bucked and bent to get away from him, to get closer to the woman in the lake, but I couldn’t move.
“Don’t let her in your head.” His warm breath in my ear sent a shiver through me, triggering a flood of warmth in my core. “Close your mind to her.” My eyelids fluttered, and I leaned back into his hard body, willing him to chase that whisper with his lips against my neck.
Wait. What am I doing?
The vibration humming through me changed, morphing from warm and welcoming to urgent. It called me to the water, demanding my obedience, but the arms around me were steel bars anchoring me in place.
I wrenched myself forward and twisted back, elbowing my captor in the face hard enough to send a jolt of pain up my arm. The man grunted and released me, but I felt his fingers reaching out and grasping my thin shirt as I stumbled forward. I landed on my knees at the edge of the pond, the blessedly cool liquid soaking through my jeans.
It felt divine compared to the pressing heat of the day. How incredible would it be to wade out into that cool spring?
Gods, how I wanted to.
But part of me wanted to listen to the man too. To obey.
Where the hell was that coming from?
His heated voice tried to coax me back, but the woman in the water never took her eyes off me. I could feel her want, her need, so thick I could taste it with each breath.
It was all too much.
