Tinker by Wen Spencer Read Free Book Online Page B

in a new, erotic direction. Asserting that he knew what was best for her, Windwolf held her down and kissed his way down to her groin. His soft hair pooled over her bare legs as his insistent tongue caressed at a point of pleasure she barely knew existed. She woke with her abdomen rippling with the strength of her orgasm.
    What the hell was that? She lay in the same position as in her dream, legs parted and hips cocked up. Her pose merged with the dream memory so strongly that for a moment she wasn't sure if she hadn't truly experienced the sex act. Common sense seeped in as she became more fully awake. No, it had just been a dream. Too bad. She squeezed her eyes shut, stealing a hand down the front of her pants, trying to recapture that roiling bliss.
    Oilcan clunked into the room, rain darkening his shirt. "Hey."
    Burning with embarrassment, Tinker yanked her hand out of her pants and tried to sound nonchalant. "Hey."
    Oilcan shoved his damp hair back out of his eyes. "I went out to the trailer. The level indicators on the power sink are showing that we've only got a few more hours and then it's gone."
    Tinker looked at the darkening sky, seeing that dusk was coming on. "What time is it?"
    "Almost seven."
    "Five more hours until Startup."
    Oilcan shook his head. "The sink only has about two hours of power left."
    "How's Windwolf?"
    "At the moment, holding steady. Lain says that he's likely to worsen, though, once the power gives out."
    Then they couldn't stay at Lain's. Magic wasn't like electricity; you didn't flip a switch and get current flooding the power lines. Instead, like a gentle rain after a drought, magic would need to saturate the area and soak in deep until the depleted earth couldn't hold any more and then form useable runoff. Even after Startup, it would take hours before the ambient level of magic in Pittsburgh would be where anyone could do a healing spell and expect it to work.
    Tinker checked to see if she still had the cancel spell printout and then levered herself out of the chair. "We should be sitting at the Rim nearest to the hospice at Startup."
    * * *
    Windwolf woke as they prepared to move him back to the truck, blinking in confusion.
    "Lie still." Tinker said to him, and repeated it in Low Elvish.
    "Ah, my little savage," Windwolf murmured, lifting his good hand to her. "What now?"
    "We're running out of time, which is unfortunately common for us humans." Tinker squeezed his hand in what she hoped was a reassuring manner.
    "Does life go by so quickly, then?"
    "Yes," Tinker said, thinking of leaving Pittsburgh in a few months and already regretting her promise to Lain. "It must be nice, having all the time to do all the things you want to do."
    He turned his head and looked out the window. "There is a graveyard on that hill. I see them all the time here in your city. We do not have them. We do not die in such numbers. But it never truly struck me as to what these graveyards meant until now; all around you, the churches and the graveyards—death constantly stands beside you. I don't know how you tolerate the horror."
    It scared her to hear him talking about death. "I'll get you to a hospice at Startup," she promised. "But you'll have to hang in there until then."
    "Hang in?" He looked mystified by the English slang.
    "Keep fighting."
    "Life is a marvelous adventure," he whispered. "And I wish not to end it now. Especially now that things have gotten even more interesting."
    * * *
    They eased back down Riverview Road and through the maze of side streets to Ohio River Boulevard. There, the traffic snarled into knots as people fleeing the city collided with those trying to get back in. It took them an hour to travel the two or three miles to the first major split in the road. The night was sweltering, as only July in Pittsburgh could be. They rode with the windows down, and in the mostly stopped traffic, those without air-conditioning got out and stood waiting outside their cars for the chance to