Free Natural Instincts by M. Raiya Page A

permission for my body to do so. When he lowered the glass, I leaned my head against him and gazed at the faint white band the rope made across my wrists, which rested gently on his left knee. I would never get tired of seeing his bonds on me. To me, they meant safe at last.
    Jon set the glass down and straightened, drawing in a deep breath. I felt myself do the same. Then he raised his arms to the sky, to the bright stars, and went motionless. I felt power moving inside him, wild and natural, rising up from the stone below us and from the water before us and from the trees behind us and from the air around us. He offered it up freely.
    Then I felt my awareness open even wider as the power began to flow into him, offer accepted and returned a thousandfold. We left the rock and slipped into the water’s coolness, bathed and free, our body supple and weightless. Then we were on the surface, strong wings beating faster and faster. In a magnificent rush that was like sex but different, we were in the air. I was inside him, bound by him, part of him, and I could feel every sensation of the rushing air and see the jeweled reflections of the stars in the dark lake below. Somewhere, in between the earth and the sky, the last shreds of fear fell away.
    And when he gave voice to the loud, mysterious call to the night, my voice joined his, and then alone, it answered him.
     

About the Author
    M. R AIYA knew she was a writer since second grade when her teacher kept her in for recess because “Somebody had better teach you about semicolons!” She started her first fantasy trilogy in fifth grade. She majored in writing in college, got her master’s degree in English, published some literary fiction, and fortunately emerged from all that with her imagination unscathed.
    She is a native Vermonter and often needs four-wheel drive to reach her home on a dirt road in the mountains. Her other passions are bird-watching, nature photography, and swimming. When she’s not writing, she takes long walks with a big lens and a pair of binoculars, often standing motionless for hours waiting for the right lighting for the perfect shot, or climbing into places not meant to be climbed into for the right angle. Or she might be found in the nearby lake in the summer or a handy swimming pool in the winter, since she will turn into a mermaid if she doesn’t submerge at least once a day.
    She is married and has two almost grown daughters, two cats who demand that they lie between her and her computer whenever she dares to sit down, and a day job working with high school kids with special needs who frequently tell her that she is completely crazy, which she’s always known and definitely would not want to change.
    Blog: http://mraiya.blogspot.com/
    E-mail: [email protected]

Another Healing

    By M. Raiya
     
     
    When James first discovers he can heal, he thinks he has a rare and miraculous gift. But when he learns the price, it feels more like a curse. He falls passionately and completely in love with every person, male or female, he heals. But only until he heals again, when he becomes hotly infatuated with the next person. He doesn’t dare express feelings he knows are only transitory or hold out hope anyone will love him back under those conditions.
    One night, he meets Ambient, the victim of a car accident, dying, his neck broken. James heals him despite knowing what is in store. He can’t resist Ambient, and to his amazement, Ambient returns his feelings. Thinking Ambient has broken the curse, James heals the next injured person he comes across. To his joy, and confusion, he does not fall in love anew. If anything, his feelings toward Ambient intensify. Awash with the certainty that somehow he and Ambient are meant for each other, they set out to learn the truth about James’s strange power.
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