How to Ride a Tikbalang Ch. 07

They reached an outcropping of rock that formed a rough, broad diving board into another pool of water. "We will have to swim in the dark," he said in grim tones. "Then we'll have to swim through a tunnel that may just push our limits for holding breath. Damn."

"But we have never managed to do it in the dark," Cocoy deadpanned. "How will we ever do this now? I know. We'll skinny dip."

Much as Jinx wanted to feel the gravity of their situation, what with the slow rumbles from deep in the earth making themselves felt, she could not hold back a laughing snort.

"You're incorrigible, Cocoy. Is sex on the brain that pervasive?"

"With you—and that sexy hunk of horse-man over there, it is," Cocoy said as he made a mock-attack by snagging Jinx at the waist and nuzzling her neck and breasts as if he were trying to eat her.

"We could always skinny dip," Cocoy turned his dimples on Kidlat and winked as he ran his hands up one of Kidlat's muscular thighs and his other hand down Jinx's cleavage, making a few suggestive squeezes as he went. "That should make feeling our way in the dark more interesting."

"You think of sex now?" Kidlat was covering up his rising arousal with exasperation. This stage charmer knew just how to rev his engines, but he wanted to be done with caves asap. Okay, fine, maybe not asap—not with lust this strong rising like his tarugo. But soon. Old Gods, let it be soon.

"Do you have a better idea? Because if we don't break on through to the other side, I'm going to want something good to hold me until I get to the final judgment, you know. A manwich with me in the middle would be really good now. C'mon. It'll be fun I promise."

That irresistible grin was such trouble. But such good trouble that promised so much pleasure.

Jinx's eyes went ash-gray again and Kidlat knew that they'd need to address her needs before they continued—although evaporating the pool water with her heat was a tempting idea he'd given a spare thought to before Jinx began yanking the clothes off of him. They could not, however, have Jinx diving into the pool in a trance. Fucking first, then.

"You in me and me in her. Beautiful combination, that," Cocoy said as he got between Jinx and the now-nearly naked Kidlat (Kidlat's jeans were pooled around his ankles, but he was a big boy and could handle that). Cocoy stripped off Jinx's clothes as she pulled his shirt off and Kidlat yanked his pants down to his knees.

"Get to it. We can do foreplay another time," Jinx's voice was coming out in layered sound again and her nipples were tight and pointing at the men with urgency. "I need this. Get in me. Now."

"As my lady commands," Cocoy's voice held equal measures of arousal and urgency as he slid home into her wet, hot puki and felt her ripple around him in demand. "Fuck me, I will never tire of this."

Cocoy's words gave way to moans and Kidlat reached around him to rub and pinch his nipples as his cock pressed between the globes of his ass. Then Kidlat reached for Jinx's breasts, caressing them with firm strokes and gentle squeezes before rolling and tugging on her hard nipples and making her pussy grip Cocoy's cock so hard the bayot's eyes crossed with the sudden spike of bliss.

"Make her come, bayot," Kidlat growled into Cocoy's ear with a bite and a lick as one hand went down to fondle Cocoy's balls. "Make her come first, then I will fuck you into her even harder, loverboy. You want fucking? Let me demonstrate."

Cocoy could feel Kidlat's hard cock against his ass and those divine quadriceps against the backs of his, the contrast between Kidlat's hard muscle and Jinx's softness tripping his brain's pleasure center so hard he had to fight not to come like a teenager jerking off to hardcore porn for the first time.

Kidlat was a step ahead of Cocoy, pulling his lover's scrotal sac down sharply to stop the bayot from coming too soon. Cocoy paused until the urge to come passed, his face a rictus of pained nirvana. Meanwhile, he frigged Jinx's clit, ripping a crescendo of satisfied moans from the diwata's throat the same way he'd make a guitar wail.

"Move! Fuck me, Cocoy!" Jinx's demand was made with nails raking down Cocoy's back before reaching for his ass cheeks. She yanked him harder into her with legs locked at the ankle above the small of his back and hands that gripped him so hard his cheeks were parted enough for Kidlat to squirt a generous amount of lubricant where it mattered.

Cocoy's hips pumped faster as Kidlat rubbed the rosette of his ass with slick fingers and breached him with two fingers at once, scissoring them to prepare for the very large tikbalang tarugo that followed.

The scream that tore out of Cocoy's mouth bounced in echoes off the cavern walls and over the water. Jinx was licking Cocoy's neck, her eyes now a mix of fire and ash as she locked gazes with Kidlat, who was holding her nape and Cocoy's hip as he made rough thrusts that pushed Cocoy even deeper into her.

Kidlat's grunts and Jinx's cries mixed into the melody of Cocoy's voice broadcasting the elemental feel to this mating and they came with a ferocity that almost knocked all three of them out.

Well, as the song goes, "there ain't no rest for the wicked," and as much as the three wanted to sleep, all they did was pause to regain their lucidity and get dressed before they got down to re-packing their backpack contents into freezer bags that Cocoy (ever the planner) had brought and putting those sealed bags back into their backpacks. Thank goodness they all had good powers of recuperation.

***

Three heads broke the surface of a small, glassine pool. The tikbalang, bayot and diwata all drew in deep breaths of air as they trod water in yet another flooded cavern—the place they found themselves in seemed to have vents, if the cool, fresh air they were breathing was any sign.

The trio dove into the black pool that eventually led them here through a subterranean passage, going deep they swam tied together at the waist by lengths of the blaze orange paracord Cocoy had packed so they would not be separated in the dark depths—that was Kidlat's idea, one that paid off even if they did risk drowning together if they failed. Thank the Old Gods they didn't.

They swam for a rock ledge that looked wide enough for them to walk down a wending path to the mouth of yet another cavern.

"I'm so glad we packed almost everything we brought in plastic bags with zip locks," Jinx said as she shucked her soaked clothes and changed into a fresh set of jeans and shirt, then took her shoes out of yet another zip-locked baggie. "I hate walking in wet clothes. I just wish we'd thought to bring swimsuits. Gotta love freezer bags."

"Well, we could have skinny-dipped," Cocoy said wryly. "Not that we'd have seen much of each other down there. How did you know which way to swim, Kid?"

Kidlat rolled his eyes, paused as he buttoned up a fresh set of pants, and arched an eyebrow in Cocoy's direction.

"Never mind. Stupid question. Sue me." Cocoy shrugged into his clothes and re-shod his feet before running a hand through his wet curls.

Kidlat would have made a snappy comeback when a shrill sound and its echoes filtered to them.

Colorful luminous lichens told the three where the walls were and a slight breeze followed the eerie sound that had their arm-hairs standing on end.

"This way," Kidlat said, his loping strides taking him down the biggest of the cavern entrances they faced. The shrill sound bounced off the walls again and again, louder as they walked through a narrowing tunnel.

***

Kidlat held his right hand up and made a fist, silently telling his companions to stop.

Sunlight blazed through the room at the end of the tunnel and their eyes needed to adjust from the darkness they'd just been walking through. That, and there was a woman wearing filthy rags bound to a huge stalagmite. Her long, dark hair was streaked with thick stripes of white and streamed in wild tangles over a thin, dirty body and coiled at her feet haphazardly. Her skin was pulled tight over ropelike veins that stood out from arms and legs that seemed emaciated. She must have been hanging there for some time.

There she hung, surrounded by sunshine streaming through a large natural skylight directly overhead. One would think that being bound hand and foot with thick chains and rusty manacles to unyielding stone would defeat this woman. Yet her eyes burned with the molten fire of a lava flow, belying the submission implied by the spiked metal gag clogging her cracked and chapped mouth. Her face bore the tracks of scars, newer ones on old ones, and her outstretched limbs and torso bore similar, brutal marks.

Blood seeped slowly from gashes in her neck and arms, as if she'd deliberately been bled. Despite all the obvious signs of abuse, this woman still looked dangerous and fueled by fury. Kidlat pointed his lips in her direction before looking at Jinx, then at Cocoy. "Whoever she is, she needs help," he said as quietly as he could. "But we need to approach slowly."

Cocoy dropped his pack and pulled out a first aid kit with hands that shook with anger over the woman's ill-treatment and uncertainty over what they would find. "Jinx, maybe you should take the lead here."

Nodding, Jinx raised both her hands, palms front to indicate that she was unarmed, to the bound woman as she walked slowly to the stalagmite where she was manacled.

"We would like to help you, if you will let us," Jinx spoke as kindly as she could, hoping her tone would convey their intent as much as her words would. "Please hold still and let us treat your wounds."

The woman nodded her head, the fire in her eyes dimming as she blinked and tears fell.

Jinx removed the gag from the woman's mouth. Kidlat studied the manacles at the woman's feet and tapped them here and there until the cuffs fell open. He did the same with the manacles at her wrists, positioning his body to catch her when she came loose and fell. No locks could remain closed under a Tikbalang's hands. The manacles were no exception.

Cocoy treated the woman's open wounds as Jinx brought out a malong to cover her with, pulling the patterned tube of cloth over the woman's head and body before knotting it sarong-style, over her breasts.

"Salamat." The woman's voice was cracked from thirst, but resonant and melodious. "You have given me kindness." Her head rested on Jinx's shoulder.

***

Jinx gave the woman water from her canteen, a sip at a time, while Cocoy continued tending to the cuts and abrasions on her body. Kidlat made himself useful by setting up their camping stove and reheating some of the food they'd brought.

It is a miracle she has not passed out, Kidlat thought. She is not Taga Lupa, that is for sure. A human would have died, just from the wounds. He kept these thoughts to himself for the time being. Whatever the woman was, she needed kindness and care first.

They fed her together, Jinx bringing the food to her mouth a small bite at a time, while Kidlat supported her back and Cocoy held the camping bowl where the food sat.

Once the woman held up a hand to indicate she'd had enough—if a few sips of water and half a handful of food sufficed—they relented and gave her a bit more space on the bedroll where they'd placed her.

"Thank you," the woman said again. "It has been years since I tasted sweet water and good food."

She looked at Jinx her golden eyes fixated on the diwata's face.

"I know your face," she said softly, raising one scarred hand to stroke Jinx's cheek as tears made slow tracks down her careworn face. "I know those eyes. You are the changeling I took from Mt. Pinatubo. You've found me. I did not hold any hope that you would."

"Maria Sinukuan?" Jinx asked.

"I was her. I'm not sure if I still am. I have been here for so long."

The older diwata's story spilled out in fits and starts, as if she did not know where to begin. It flowed out with tears and angry exhalations. Her obvious distress and sadness made Jinx clutch her lovers' hands, all three of them biting their lips in an effort not to interrupt Sinukuan's story.

"I guess the reason they call me 'Sinukuan' is that everyone has given up on me, abandoned me to my foolish love for the Taga Lupa," she said as she told the three a most astonishing tale. "I had another name once, one that was much more beautiful. My people once called me 'Dayat,' after the rice crop that comes between the rains, their salvation from starvation."

As Sinukuan told it, her story was romance gone wrong—too many times to count. She'd trusted her lovers too much, confirming Adora's story. But what Adora did not know (or if she did, did not mention), was that Sinukuan had fallen in with bad company: A tikbalang that was neither living nor dead, and a mababarang intent on living forever.

"The tikbalang opened a path to this part of my mountain, a path that led directly to the home of Magwayen, the goddess of the dead," Sinukuan said, anger blazing anew in her eyes. "The mambabarang feigned his caring for me. He kept me contained with vigor and what I thought was love. He found ways to swap bodies when he aged too much, luring unsuspecting humans into pacts with him that ensured an ample supply: He would dole out revenge and kill their enemies with the spells he wrought, but he demanded tribute from those fools—their bodies. He sold their souls to Magwayen, who is always looking for pretty things to decorate her home. His price was the metal that bound me."

"My lover," she spat "only chose the handsomest prey. I always thought I was getting a new lover when I would find him—but each time he would have me kneeling before him, he made himself known—when I was at my most vulnerable, in the grip of my passion and my need."

This mambabarang, she told the three, eventually chained her to the stalagmite where they found her, using metals forged in Magwayen's domain and enspelled by the tikbalang assisting him.

"There, over and over again, they raped me. Each time I would summon the earth's fire to free myself, or try to make the earth quake and raise lava up from the Arayat reservoir, they called down monsoon rains and lightning," Sinukuan was whispering, as if the softness of her voice and tone would soften the memories that she continued to share. "They called terrible, deadly storms and I could hear people dying on the floodplains at the foot of my mountain. I stopped fighting them. I could not bear it. I took their punishment instead."

The perpetrators of these atrocities, she said, made cuts on her body to drain her strength with her blood. "They knew I could not die. They took my blood, for what purpose, I know not. They collected it in jars and bowls. Drank my life's blood in front of me until I retched from the horror of it."

Jinx hugged Sinukuan as gently as she could and her tears mingled with the other diwata's on the bedroll.

"Your sisters are looking for you," Jinx told Sinukuan. "They have not given up on you. They have been trying to contact you for the longest time, but they got no response from you."

"Oh, I was so angry with them the last time they tried to take me away from my people," Sinukuan said. "I would not be swayed. I said the most terrible things."

"Sisters fight all the time," Cocoy said as he combed the tangles from Sinukuan's long hair with gentle strokes of Jinx's comb. "Mine do. But they make up and let bygones be bygones, eh? I am sure your sisters will mend fences with you."

"Rest first," Kidlat advised Sinukan as her sobs abated and she curled up on her side on the bedroll. "There is nothing so bad that a bit of sleep will not make better. We will help you get back to your sisters, but first, you need some rest. We will watch over you."

The tikbalang, bayot and Jinx pulled down vines and other vegetation to create a makeshift room. There was no telling if Sinukuan's assailants would return, or, if so, when. A little warning was better than none, after all. Sinukuan slumbered as the trio sat outside the room they'd made, eating lunch and keeping their eyes trained on the skylight above the stalagmite still stained with Sinukuan's blood and the two caverns branching off behind it.

***

Kidlat examined the two cavern openings from a distance, his senses all focused on the divergent paths as he tried to scry where each one led. Both paths, from what he could perceive, were blocked somehow.

"So, Pathfinder, which path?" Cocoy's question was offhand, as if he were asking what Kidlat was going to order off the menu of bar chow at Pepe's Pole.

"I can't seem to find one that is not blocked by something or the other, witch-doctor." Kidlat tried to match Cocoy's levity, but failed with a frustrated sigh. "We may have to look at what rituals will open the correct path this time."

A moan from the other side of the makeshift curtain drew Jinx's attention, then a piercing cry and a whimper.

"Rummage in the notebook in my pack," Jinx told Cocoy. "You will probably find that information there. Let me go check on Sinukuan first."

Cocoy and Kidlat exchanged worried looks, neither wanting to leave Jinx to tend Sinukuan alone. Their exchange was mostly mental, the speaking of eyes and facial expressions.

"Look," Cocoy said. "I know she's a diwata-in-waiting, but I'm kinda worried here."

"So am I, but are either of us equipped to handle Sinukuan? More to the point, she may not kill Jinx, but she might actually not recognize us immediately—then where will either of them be?"

"You have a point." Cocoy coked his head to the side and offered Kidlat a wry smile before looking at the choices of caverns before them. "So, what should I be looking for, tikbalang mine?"

"Look for blood rituals." Kidlat's statement was bitten off, as if it tasted vile before he let the sentence out of his mouth.

"Excuse me, but did you say 'blood rituals'?"

"Yes."

"All righty. Blood rituals. Here's hoping it's not my blood we're going to be using. I'm too handsome and too talented to have to bleed that much."

"Just do it."

"Yessir." There was that irritating smirk in Cocoy's voice again.

"Asshole."

"You liked it just fine earlier."

Kidlat stood up on a snarl and stuck his head into the vine curtain to see what was up with Jinx and Sinukuan before he punched Cocoy in the eye. "Are you both okay, because I don't think Cocoy will be if you leave me to his tender mercies too long."

"Cocoy, shut it." Jinx called out as she held Sinukuan, rocking her to soothe the older diwata's dire mutterings. "I mean it. No manwich for you if you don't."

"Okay, okay," Cocoy shot back. "I know you're serious when you threaten me with sex deprivation. Back to ritual searching then. Christ you people are way too serious. We're just risking grave injuries and death by supernatural causes. It's not like we're calling airstrikes on our heads, right?"

***

"So let me get this right, Cocoy, you need my blood, Kidlat's sweat and your tamod to do this?" Put that way, it sounded like such a bad idea, and Jinx's doubting voice made that more than plain as day.

"Yep."

"You need a ritual knife and a ritual jar," Sinukuan interjected. "No spells work without a special blade and a ritual jar."

"Will my Spyderco Grasshopper do? It's plenty sharp and small enough not to scare Jinx too much," Cocoy's query, well meant as it was, miffed Jinx. "As for a special blade, I haven't used that knife yet and this is the first time I'm going to use it—and anything I use on my diwata will definitely be special."

"You talk like I'm going to pass out or something," Jinx said indignantly, pushing down her liking for Cocoy's argument that his virgin blade would be special because it would get used on her first. She held out her right arm. "Go ahead, bleed me."