How to Tame Your Tikbalang Ch. 05

"Was that your brother with you in the photos on your desk?" Tala asked, hoping a change of topics would ease the almost solid tension in the vehicle's cabin. "Are there more than just the two of you?"

"That's my younger brother, Kidlat," Buhawi said, his grip on the wheel tightening even more. "We used to be partners in crime, if you'll pardon my unfortunate turn of phrase. We don't talk much now."

Buhawi eased the Range Rover into a parking slot in front of Tala's apartment building and shut off the engine. "We're here." There was a chill in his tone that indicated an end to the discussion of his family and stopped Tala from asking another question. So she just pursed her lips and began to release her seat belt.

Something heavy and large dropped onto the hood of the Range Rover as both Tala and Buhawi reached out to open their doors and they both looked up in time to see the windshield shatter outward into tiny, rounded shards of safety glass.

Moving on instinct, Buhawi yanked Tala to his side of the vehicle, shoved his door open and dragged her out behind him onto the pavement. He took the impact of their fall and rolled to covered her body with his. Buhawi looked back and up above the seriously dented hood to see another Tikbalang standing atop his beloved car.

The roan Tikbalang looked down at Buhawi and Tala with fire in his eyes and he snorted what seemed like a cackle (if horses indeed cackled) and began to change form standing astride the Range Rover's hood.

"So this is the Baylan who needs to die, brother. So good of you to be in the same place as her," the other Tikbalang said, unmindful of his naked human form in the rain. "This is going to be so easy now."

"Oh, shit. Shitissimo. Shit. Shit. Shit." Tala's voice was rising steadily in a crescendo as she began to truly panic under Buhawi's massive frame. "Wake me up! Dammit!"

"Kidlat, you always did have a penchant for drama," Buhawi said slowly as he rose to kneel from his supine position. "I did tell Tatay you were the actor in the family but he wouldn't believe me."

Buhawi moved his hands in an arcane gesture, chanting in a language Tala neither understood nor wanted to understand. Then he opened his arms wide, made a fist with his left hand and pointed at Kidlat with his right index finger. A flash of lightning drove down to strike its namesake, momentarily stunning the roan Tikbalang and driving it down splat on the Range Rover's hood.

Buhawi inclined his head to Tala's, dropping his voice to a whisper only she could hear: "This is not a dream. Shit just got real. This is why you shouldn't have taken that damned book."

He looked into Tala's eyes and continued: "You see that gold hair in front of you? Pull it. You're gonna need it. Then think of the strongest memory of being protected that you know. Do it, now."

Tala nodded, her heart a jackhammer in her chest as she reached out to wrap the golden, metallic strand around her forefinger and tug it loose from Buhawi's scalp.

That done, Buhawi stood up over Tala, setting his body between the Baylan and his brother. "You, brother, are out of line. And you really shouldn't have done that to Giselle. She hates being dented, you know."

Kidlat launched himself off the vehicle and onto his brother with a wild snarl and the two fell to the pavement, wrestling for dominance, pummeling and kicking viciously at each other as they went.

Skirting the Batumbakal brothers, Tala wracked her brain. What the fuck am I supposed to do now? Another lightning strike came sizzling out of the sky, striking the pavement before her and sending shocks of electricity up Tala's feet and through her body.

Do what feels right, a woman's voice said in Tala's head. But don't kill my son if you don't have to.

Holy shit. Voices in one's head were so not a good thing. Worry about your sanity later. Just get this over and done with now, Tala scolded herself. Focus, woman.

She closed her eyes and visualized her mother singing a her lullaby while rocking her to sleep in the old rocking chair in the ancestral house's solarium. She felt her mother's arms wrapped around her shoulders as she nodded off to sleep in the late afternoon sunlight even as she felt a surge of power rise up from her navel and radiate through her body.

Tala opened her eyes just as Kidlat grabbed Buhawi's hair and yanked the dark Tikbalang's head, preparatory to bashing it down on the cracked concrete of the sidewalk.

She pointed her index finger at Kidlat and silently called on the Old Gods to grant her the power to stop the roan Tikbalang. "I bind you from doing harm to yourself or others, Kidlat. I bind you to the earth. I bind you with words. I am Baylan and you will obey me."

As she spoke, the power slammed into Kidlat with each word uttered, driving him back against one of the pink hibiscus shrubs in the parking area's row of planters. The shrubs came alive, wrapping their branches around Kidlat and, with strange strength, holding the roan Tikbalang immobile.

Tala held out her hands, the blood vessels and muscles in her neck and arms standing out from the strain of maintaining control over the power she was wielding. She looked heavenward and silently called for another lightning bolt, which arrived as ordered and struck Kidlat until he passed out in an embrace of pink flowers, glossy leaves and branches that just refused to let go.

Miraculously, Kidlat still breathed, though the smell of burnt hair and skin filled the air along with the ozone smell of lightning in the air. Buhawi gently disentangled his brother from the hibiscus gone wild and laid him down in the empty parking slot next to his Range Rover. Buhawi then pulled a square silver amulet from a pocket of his jeans and placed it on his brother's chest, whispering softly over the amulet until his brother's body faded into mist.

"Well," Buhawi said in a shaken voice, "there goes my quick ride home. I hope Inay has the first aid kit out and Itay doesn't whip my hide for this. That lightning was nasty."

Sagging to the ground, Tala sat heavily on crossed legs and stared up dazedly at Buhawi. "Now, if you don't mind explaining that, I'm dying to know just what I did to your brother."

Buhawi sat beside Tala, just as heavily and with a sad look on his face. "You just saved my life. By hitting him with so much electricity his brain shorted out temporarily. Then you tapped your power with my golden hair as a point of focus."

"Oh. All in a night's work for a Baylan, I suppose," Tala tried for flippant and only got wired. "Nothing special, right?"

"Actually, you've got to be a very powerful Baylan, to be able to call lighting with that kind of precision," Buhawi said. "You must be really tired out now. Being new to this and all."

Tala nodded and looked up at Buhawi as she tried to get to her feet and failed. "I think I'm going to need some help getting to the elevator. Will you help me get there, please?"

Buhawi nodded and, instead of just letting her lean on him, he scooped Tala up carried her into the lobby of her apartment building, crossed the lobby and took her into the elevator.

"I'll see you to the door of your apartment and, if you'll let me, I'll put you to bed," he said, his lips grazing the hair at the top of her head. "Rest. We'll need to have a serious talk in the morning."

"What about? I kicked your brother's ass for you and we're done, right?" Tala's query was hopeful, but Buhawi's eyes pretty much extinguished that idea.

"We aren't done. You plucked one of my golden hairs and there is a price to pay for that," he said. "One you and I have to pay or you will be in very deep trouble and so will I."

"Oh, shit."

"Indeed."

***

Tala awoke still wearing the clothes Buhawi had lent her. They smelled of him and she closed her eyes, unwilling to enjoy that scent of peppermint and wonderfully male musk that made her melt in the southern reaches.

When she tried to move, she found herself pinned down by a long, muscled thigh and enfolded in a warm, male hug. A naked male hug that smelled just like the shirt she was wearing.

"Buhawi, is that you?" Tala attempted to shift again. To no avail. "Buhawi, wake up. I need to go potty." She shoved backward with a shoulder, her arm and hand braced on the mattress for leverage. "MOVE!"

Yawning, Buhawi shifted a bit and opened one eye, smiling lazily as he came to full alertness. "Good morning to you, too, honeybunny." There was a warm, hot chocolate feel to his look across the one breath that separated his face from hers.

Tala threw him what she hoped passed for a dirty look. Never mind that his sleepy, deep voice made her want to jump his bones and fuck him silly. She needed the bathroom. Now.

She rolled off her bed and went into the bathroom to brush her teeth and do her business—business that included a cold shower and a bathrobe. Stepping back into her bedroom, she grabbed some clothes from her closet and re-entered the bathroom to get dressed.

Thank goodness I've got today off, she thought. I'd be the team leader who was late, otherwise. Not that that was more important than all the events that had transpired in the last few hours. No, that really screws with my head, ergo, is more important.

***

The scent of ylang-ylang and tuberose floated out of the bathroom, signaling Tala's return to the bedroom, and Buhawi sat up in the bed and stretched his long arms over his head, his naked body on display for her eyes to feast upon.

"Come back to bed, Baylan. We have unfinished business, you and I," Buhawi crooked his index finger invitingly. "You cannot have that hair without the sex magic."

"Sex magic? Now wait just a minute, mister," Tala began saying as Buhawi rose from the mattress to stand behind her. "I can give that hair back, right?" She threw that question breathlessly over her shoulder, her lips almost touching his.

Buhawi just flashed Tala a hot, naughty smile, his eyes glittering with lust and, perhaps, something else. "Sorry, my black magic woman, no return, no exchange. If you pluck it, I consider it sold."

He laid sweet siege to Tala's neck with a light trail of kisses, letting just the tip of his tongue dip into the hollow where shoulder met neck and trace the curve of her ear. "You want this, right?"

Tala let her head fall back against Buhawi's chest when he nuzzled her hairline, the heat in her loins burning almost white in intensity. "Well, yes. Yes, I do. But I'm not on birth control...oh!"

Buhawi nipped her earlobe and began telling her what he wanted to do to her with his hands, his mouth, his tongue, hot little whispers that made her squirm against him, sent her buttocks against his thighs in sensuous circles of erotic need.

"Just say yes, Baylan. You've begun to own your power. Don't you want to find the two other hairs you need?" His question was a seduction of both her body and her otherness. "My tarugo wants into your puki, sweetness. My mouth wants to taste your come."

His hands came up under her tank top, cupping her breasts and gently but firmly kneading them until her nipples stood hard as gems and she ached for his fingers to rub them, to stimulate the sensitized nubs until her juices flowed to her thighs.

One hand went under the waistband of her gym shorts and Tala raised a foot to her mattress, opening her to Buhawi's hard, hot fingers. He massaged her labia, rubbed up and down her slit with his whole hand, fingers to palm and back again, spreading the wetness of her arousal all over her mound as she moaned into his mouth.

Buhawi's tongue was tracing light, wet patterns on Tala's lips, teasing her so she raised her head for a deeper kiss, her tongue invading his mouth just as his fingers found her rigid clitoris and made slow, maddening circles around it, pulling its hood back and forth along the way.

"So, is that a yes?" Buhawi asked against Tala's lips, his voice a growl of want. "Because if that is yes, I want to finger-fuck you until you come riding on my hand while I watch you in that mirror across us."

Tala bucked sharply against his questing hands, her eyes on the mirror, watching his hands move under the fabric of her clothes. "Yes, oh my God, yes. Please, please..."

"Do you want me to do what I did in your dream? Put my finger in your ass while I fuck you?" Buhawi began to rock his cock against her body, needing the friction every bit as much as Tala did. "Because if you do, then I'm more than ready to fuck you a million ways from Sunday, and then a few ways that only we in the Other World know."

Tala nodded and Buhawi began to finger-fuck her hard, shoving one, then two long fingers into her tight wetness and rubbing her G-spot as his palm ground against the head of her clit.

His other hand continued playing under her shirt, tweaking nipples and coming up between her breasts to hold her throat as he began kissing her hard and hot, his tongue-fucking her mouth the way he'd promised to tongue-fuck her pussy.

Just as Tala was about to come, Buhawi pulled his hand from her cunt and he stripped her of her shorts, bending her over the bed in the process.

Tala reared up and bucked her hips backward, whimpering in frustration. Buhawi held her shoulders down on the bed until she stopped bucking. "Hush. We're not done yet, my witch. This will be so good, I promise you."

He stripped her shirt away and held her hips down to the mattress as he parted her thighs with his. Buhawi began licking Tala's dripping slit, his tongue delving into the hot depths of her as she began to shake and reach the crest of another orgasm.

She felt a low buzzing against her pussy as Buhawi moved his mouth to her asshole, licking insistently as he began to slowly massage her the sensitive head of her clitoris with the vibrator before pushing it in and out of her pussy.

Tala went nova, starbursts of her orgasm filling her shaking body as Buhawi plunged his tarugo into her puki, holding himself there as he pushed the pulsating vibrator covered in her come slowly, but surely into her asshole, pumping it in and out to the rhythm of her moaning, driving the vibrator in up to its flanged base and his cock balls-deep into her pussy.

Then Buhawi covered her body with his, the way a stallion covers a mare, and, as he pushed the vibrator to its highest setting and began a furious rhythm, he kissed her again, his tongue in perfect sync with his cock. His hands were back at her breasts, rubbing and pinching and tugging on her nipples, layering another set of electric sensation over her deliciously overwhelmed body.

Tala's orgasms melted into each other, each one more intense than the last until she heard his hoarse cursing that heralded his own shattering orgasm and the jets of come spurting so copiously into her that she just didn't have room to hold it all in and his tamod flowed down her thighs.

They lay unmoving for several minutes, needing the time to catch their breaths and not pass out from the sheer intensity of their fucking.

"That, Baylan, is the downpayment of the price you have to pay for each golden hair you take, Buhawi said with a wicked grin once they could finally move. He shifted off her, rolled her over and moved her to the center of her queen bed. "Now, we need to work on the rest of the payments. This could take all day. And all night. Maybe all week."