Halloween Inspires My Wilder Nature

All Hallow’s Eve nears, a time when the veil parts and we get a glimpse of the other side, that is, if we desire it... maybe, even if we don’t. There are tons o’ ghost stories out there and other bizarre spooky encounters that people report, including side trips inside another dimension.
For me, this has traditionally been a time when my wilder nature takes over. I’m restless. I want to run untamed over the land. Trick or treating as a kid wasn’t all about the great big bag candy for me, it was the freedom to roam at night with my friends. I felt so fiercely free, instead of caged by school and other civilized expectations.
As an adult I wanted to explore life in larger ways. I burned with recklessness, with a bonfire-like sexuality. And, yep, I always yearned to be more mischievous, to be as naughty as my black cat shifter heroine, Sable Kiki, in BLACK CAT BEAUTY.
If only... but then, that’s one reason I’m a writer, I get to live the fantasy of *what if*.
~~~

From the Halloween Adventures of my Black Cat Beauty ~

Relishing the chance to be in her black cat form, Sable crouched low on her belly, the wet cool leaves of autumn barely noticed. Pricking her ears she listened to the hayride wagon’s approach. She ignored the piercing rumble of the tractor engine, concentrating on the one wheel that softly creaked.
Anticipation and impatience twitched the tip of her tail. If she timed it just right, the fun would be Halloween spooky and cat-tastic Twilight now crept over the farm fields, and, already several of the teenagers sexually giggled. Many of them rubbed against each other, exploring.
Sable feline smiled, then crouched lower, preparing to spring like a demon. Instead of listening, she focused on the rolling vibration of the wagon and the mice smells embedded in the lovely fragrance of the hay. Once the wagon came into sight, she followed the spin of spokes. Tightening her sleek muscles, she waited until the edge of the second wheel appeared.
Sable launched above the wagon. Lengthening her body in mid-flight, she unsheathed her claws for effect and loosed a yowling shriek. One girl screamed bloody murder as Sable lightly landed on a pile of hay.
Immediately, she dashed like a feral black cat around the group of teenagers, scrabbling intentionally over their laps and legs. They froze or jumped in terror. Shrill yelps split the air and the wagon halted with a big jerk.
Zigzagging madly between the freaked out teens, Sable nimbly avoided their panicked swats and frantic kicks. Clumps of hay flew everywhere, then swirled around them like a blizzard.
For more cat grins, Sable seized her opportunity, leaping toward the man driving the tractor. His eyes widened, looking like twin full moons. “What the hell –“
With a plop, Sable landed on top of his wide-brimmed straw hat. Sinking her claws in, she clung for a few moments while he wildly grabbed for her snaking black tail.
Satisfied to her feline core, Sable balanced herself long enough to leap and sail to the safety of a low-hanging limb. Settling herself on a wide branch, she watched the human show below.
~~~~~~

Next is a 1,000 word Flash Fiction I wrote recently, inspired by this ‘darker’ time of year when the sun shines less each day.
~~~

The Graveyard Dagger ~

The dagger, I must find my family’s ancient dagger or watch everyone I care for perish, die gruesomely at the hands of an old, human-like breed recently loosed from their containment in a deep underground cavern. To live, these creatures with pearl-pale skin tinted by gray, with eyes that can glow blood-red, feed on the blood of my kinsmen. No, not with fangs like a vampire. They slice open a vein and drink greedily from the scarlet fountain or let it fill their strange ornate chalices.
How do I know this? I’m a Seer. I watched it happen in my visions while I silently screamed in horror. Days later, the bodies of the victims were found, drained of all blood. They were my relatives across the pond, who live on the Emerald Ilse.
Buffeting winds knife through me and I clutch my coat tighter as I walk quickly up the long rise of ground. With winter around the corner, the grass has browned in our family’s graveyard, begun in 1801 when we moved to Kentucky.
Swiftly, the mist of our spell swirls around me like haunting apparitions, then reveals what has been kept hidden from the rest of the world. Not only the few graves of my ancestors, but the immense stone vault I must enter in search of the dagger. No, it won’t be so easy as prying open the door. I must summon a power I have never used before.
At a sound, like the scrape of a boot, I whirl. The wind slaps strands of my long hair across my face. I’ve kept it loose, free from any restraint because it increases the strength of my supernatural abilities, so little used in these modern times.
The inane urge to shout ‘who goes there’ purses my mouth as a dark form takes shape and moves toward me. Soon, I see the gait of a man, a tall imposing figure.
Damn, I know him. I shudder inside, then seethe with utter rage, the red boil of my blood before my eyes. His betrayal rises up my throat like bile. I want to scream above the loud moans of the wind, shriek as crazily as a hoyden at him. I want to hurl the largest stone I can find and lift.
“Kharmen.” His voice is like thick smoke and already it spirals through me, a carnal sorcery. “You need me.”
“I never needed you.” Refusing to gaze at him fully, I spin around. “Go away. I don’t want to waste my energies getting rid of you!”
Somehow, he captures my hand from behind, a gentle grasp only. He knows my power if he pushes me beyond reason.
“You need me,” he repeats. “I will add to your magick, as it was before.”
‘As it was before’, his words cut worse than any dagger stabbing into my flesh over and over. Yet, to the truth, he is correct.
“Stand beside me,” I order, then extend my arm toward the vault door. We twine hands in a knot of power. I aim my finger and ‘see’ the dark violet streams strike the copper circlet before they actually burst forth.
As I envision it, so it now occurs. The bolts of violet light explode against the copper and spark magnificently. Suddenly, the vault door blows open, as if sucked free by a tornado.
We enter quickly, our hands still locked. There’s only so much time before it will close again. I wave my palm creating a soft illumination. In my mind’s eye I focus on the appearance of the dagger, knowing that will lead me to it’s location.
“Here!” I pull him toward the ruby-encrusted slender case that sits by itself on top of one altar.
“No!” He hauls me back against his brawny chest, so familiar I heave in breaths of need and fight a heady desire. “Don’t touch it.”
“Why?” I demand.
“Remember, Kharmen,” he intones hypnotically, “remember.”
The fog, of centuries long past, vanishes from my mind and I recall the early teachings of my magickal heritage. Reluctantly, I let the memory surface to its fullest. There must be the touch of Two, a woman and man united by love.
Once we loved. Our savage and wildly beautiful couplings knew no boundaries, the pleasures limited only by the sky itself. Once is all the love I have. I turn, moving within his embrace, an acceptance of what I must do.
“Make it fast.”
The last word barely passes my lips before he is sweeping me against him. His mouth on mine, he seizes the kiss I give him with a raw bold passion that makes me his, once again.
Together, we claim the dagger.
Together, we race from the vault. The fiercer winds blast against our bodies as we run down the hill. Halting, we accept the shelter of the grand oak tree’s large trunk.
Together, we chant the sacred words, opening the ancient case, handmade by the first of us to arrive on Earth.
The crescent-shaped blade of the dagger shimmers beyond the day’s poor gray light. The sheen of gold and silver dances in mesmerizing ripples as we behold our race’s salvation. For, only the dagger’s enchanted blade will pierce the hearts of our enemies destroying them for an eternity.
~~~
“I will never forgive you,” I say, my voice more breath than sound.
“Yes, you will.” Drakayle leans toward me intimately, pressing his forehead to mine and I feel the primal splendor of his power, stronger than it was before.
“I may love you. But I will never forgive you.” The swell of my heart for him should not be, yet it is.
“I will convince you. You will know my worthiness.”
“Worthiness, no,” I challenge. “Necessity, yes, against our enemy.” Desperately, I wish for his lips on mine again.
Torrents of energy from the dagger we hold together act as a barrier against the wind’s whirling force. Inside our own cocoon, our lips meet, caressing each other.
~~~~~~
BLACK CAT BEAUTY

Blurb: A private Halloween party in a gothic mansion hidden in the Hollywood Hills. Add one party crasher, Sable Kiki, a naughty black cat with a sexy wild human side.
Her covert assignment from her devious, always-cunning father: use her seductive wiles to find out the truth from Devon Zant, a movie star on the rise to super stardom.
Posing as the superhero actor, Devon Zant, D’Torr has arrived on Earth seeking revenge for the capture of his younger brother, and to assist in stopping a powerful enemy.
The leviathan warfleet of the Altirrux wants rule of all intergalactic trade routes to Earth, endangering the survival of D’Torr’s race, and all the inhabitants of the rare blue jewel, Earth.
~~~

Have a Wonderful and Wild Halloween...

~ May your most romantic dreams come true ~

Savanna Kougar

~ Run on the Wild Side of Romance ~