How to Ride a Tibalang

Emilio strode into Pepe's pole with a swagger in his step. This was where the tikbalang, the

Taga Lupa

and the other diwata had brought Sinukuan, the fools. Didn't they know that he would find them? The dumbasses didn't even bother to hide. He palmed the black dagger that had served him well across many bodies.

This body wasn't so bad. Dockworkers cleaned up well when fed properly and dressed to best effect. He stopped in front of a conveniently-placed mirror to admire his new face: It was very native—all hard planes and dark skin pulled taut across sculpted bone, the broad nose sweeping above the man's thick lips. Very masculine, and very nice. This body wasn't very tall, but that was good, too. Tall people stood out in a population of people who were not all that tall. He would blend in very easily without having to look ugly.

This body once belonged to a handsome man—and if he'd had an ounce of sense, he'd have been a stripper with a wealthy patroness instead of a dockhand. He'd have made so much money if he'd only known how to use his larger than average cock to drill into matronas, or those men who paid for pederasty. It was girthy and long enough to make most women (and quite a few men) fall on their knees to thank whatever gods may listen for that gift. Eh. Some men were idiots, hence the menial work they did. It was all they were suited for, really.

Emilio shrugged. If the previous owner of Emilio's purloined goods had been intelligent, he wouldn't have sought Emilio out just to obtain gayuma for a woman who would never be his. Dumb fuck wanted a married woman, of all things. At least Emilio let him have her for a few vigorous rolls in the hay before he collected his payment. Last he heard, the woman was begging Emilio's host to make an honest woman out of her because she couldn't live without the man's man parts. Disgusting woman.

She'd even tried deep-throating him to keep him with her. Too bad it was Emilio giving her the skull-fuck of her life—for the few minutes she still had it before he choked her with her lover's tarugo and hands. That was satisfying.

The Old Gods bless dumbasses

, Emilio thought darkly.

Then the dumbasses meet me. Magwayen take them.

There may have been a time when tenderness and lust shone in his host body's deep brown eyes. Now, Emilio's black fire gleamed with malice and bloodlust out of those same orbs as he watched the shameless display at the bar: A woman—no, a

diwata

—lay on it, her breasts, legs and very female charms all laid bare under the changing colors of the pin-lights. Her short-cropped cap of hair brushed the polished mahogany as her body arched beneath the oral assault of pleasure a tikbalang was mounting upon it. A muscular man knelt with his back to the bar, in the space for the barstool the trio had shoved aside. The kneeling man was swallowing tikbalang cock down his throat and totally lost in their exhibitionist pleasure.

If Emilio were still sexually excitable, he'd have enjoyed the carnal display. He might even have jacked off to it. But that was all beneath him now that he had better things planned.

There they were, bold as brass, the thieving lot who took Sinukuan from his clutches. They'd even turned his other tool into stone. Fie. Without the tikbalang holding them together, the diwata and the human would be lost. Emilio made his choice: The tikbalang first, then the diwata and the human.

Maayo

, it was time to begin exacting vengeance.

Emilio smiled evilly. He pointed the index finger he held above the spine of the black dagger at the tikbalang's back, uttering an incantation under his breath.

His

kilkig

roots were good for this, Emilio thought with a grim smile. All he needed to do now was focus on his target, and the first thing that tikbalang ingested would poison him fatally, if slowly.

Even tikbalangs could be poisoned to death, Emilio knew. Even better, it wouldn't be as damaged as a human body by the

kilkig

poison, so resurrecting the shell after the soul has fled will be an easy thing.

If he got to the body quickly enough, then he'd be able to take it over. All that power at his hands. Oh, yes, he lusted for the tikbalang's body, all right, but not with a sexual lust. Sex. Bah. Sex was just a means to an end. Power, now that was something worth lusting after.

Emilio sealed his incantation with a flick of his wrist and a deep breath exhaled in the tikbalang's direction before stalking out of Pepe's Pole. All he needed to do now was to wait for his prey to come to him.

***

Back in Jinx's home, Cocoy and Kidlat sprawled across her pair of plantation chairs while Jinx Indian-sat on a velvety green beanbag atop a fluffy beige area rug. They were rolling dice across the mother-of-pearl inlaid hardwood coffee table between the three of them.

They'd changed into house clothes—Kidlat in his customary black pajamas and with a small silver medallion suspended from a leather thong around his neck, while Cocoy was in red boxer shorts and a white tee.

They'd have preferred to see Jinx's spectacular body bare, but she decided to wear gray yoga pants and a pink tank top—mostly because she wanted to explore the rest of this threesome between them that lay outside the explosive sex. So they were rolling dice and playing one of Cocoy's favorite games. None of them were sleepy after their visit to Pepe's pole, anyway.

"Fifteen," Kidlat called out as his 20-sided die rolled to a stop.

"Nineteen." Cocoy said with a sly smile aimed at Kidlat, as his die rolled the high number.

"20." Jinx smiled at her men with a smug look from Cocoy to Kidlat, after her die slowed to a stop.

"Why did I tell you to roll for initiative again?" Cocoy groaned as he passed a hand over his face.

"You were teaching Kidlat and I how to play using the D20 system for this... role-playing game?"

"Eh, read the rule books. I'm getting peckish," Kidlat said, rising and heading to the kitchen. "Let's have an early breakfast." His stomach was grumbling and he intended to fix that problem.

"You don't want to play?" Cocoy's question followed Kidlat through the living room through the archway into Jinx's kitchen.

"I thought it was going to end in sex." Kidlat's voice was reproachful as he set breakfast ingredients and cookware on the center island and prepared breakfast for three. Well, okay, breakfast for a hungry tikbalang, a voracious diwata and a human who could out-eat them both.

"Let's resume the game later," Cocoy said, marking the page of the game rule-book he was holding with a convenience store receipt. "Kidlat sounds like he's sulking."

Diwata and bayot joined their tikbalang in the kitchen, perfectly happy to just hold hands and watch the play of muscles across Kidlat's back as he cooked.

***

"Man, I don't need a reminder why I adore you," Cocoy said as he dug into the feast of breakfast sausages, bacon, waffles and fresh mangoes in cream that Kidlat had laid before them on Jinx's kitchen counter.

"He cleaned out my pantry for that," Jinx said archly, with a raised brow before softening her expression. "But you can do that any time you like, big man. Mmmmm."

"Feeding the two of you is almost as good as enjoying you both at the same time—minus the extreme cardio," Kidlat answered, basking in their compliments and in the delight both his lovers were taking in the food he'd prepared.

Kidlat tucked into his breakfast, as well, scarfing down the waffles he'd soaked in honey slathered with butter as he watched Jinx and Cocoy eat with abandon.

Cocoy mowed though his meal with mean efficiency. An industrial paper shredder going at full speed was slower than Cocoy going through bacon, waffles and eggs over easy.

Jinx was, for all her sporty athletic build, a dainty eater: She picked her bacon apart with delicate movements and popped bite-size pieces in her mouth methodically. When she chewed, both males focused on her plush red lips, hypnotized by fantasy as she swallowed and reached for more.

"That's it," Kidlat broke the silence with a growl as he reached across the counter to pull Jinx in for a deep kiss. "I am never eating alone again. You've both spoiled me for that." And he reaced for Cocoy, too, kissing his bayot hard enough for Cocoy to drop his fork to the counter with a clatter.

Just as the course of events would have taken them into Jinx's bedroom, Kidlat groaned against Cocoy's lips and slid off his seat to the floor, dragging Cocoy down with him.

Surprised, Jinx looked at where her men lay, where Kidlat's groaning got louder—and began to sound distinctly like he was in trouble instead of aroused.

It took Cocoy a few more seconds to realize that Kidlat wasn't hanging on to him out of a need for sex. He'd landed on the tikbalang's prone length and didn't feel an erection rubbing against him. He did a double-take, lifting his head away from the crook of Kidlat's neck to see the tikbalang's face begin contorting in pain.

"What's wrong, Kid?" Cocoy asked in alarm. "What's happening to you?" When Kidlat didn't answer, Cocoy's heart sank and he struggled against the rising panic in his chest. He couldn't panic now. He needed to find out what to do to fix Kidlat.

Jinx got to her knees beside Kidlat, touching his forehead to check his temperature. Her hand came away dripping Kidlat's cold sweat.

"Don't know, 'Coy..." Kidlat's voice was slurred and thready, and his right hand shook as he raised it to Jinx's hand, which was still hovering over his forehead. "My phone... call my mother. Please..."

Kidlat lost consciousness then, as Cocoy exchanged panicked looks with Jinx.

Don't panic

, his eyes told Jinx. They both took deep breaths and held on to the shattered shards of their calm and let the strange energy that they shared with Kidlat flow between the two of them as silent, shared comfort.

The bayot and the diwata wrangled Kidlat to Jinx's bed and got him settled as comfortably as they could. Cocoy opened and up-ended Kidlat's backpack, which they'd stowed in the room before starting that pre-breakfast game in the living room. He searched the directory and hit "dial" when he found Kidlat's mother's number under "Queen of the Night Sky."

"Here goes nothing," Cocoy muttered under his breath through two, three rings before Bulan picked up. "Hello, Mrs. Batumbakal? My name is Cocoy and I have some bad news about Kidlat."

Jinx, meanwhile, brought out a thermometer and a sphygmomanometer and began checking Kidlat's heart rate, temperature and blood pressure. What the hell would fell a tikbalang, and how on earth do you fix that?"

***

Jinx ran out to the foyer on the first ring of the doorbell. They were expecting Kidlat's mom, after Cocoy's frantic call.

When she opened the front door, she saw a small woman who looked to be just about Jinx's age at the door and, behind her, two very tall men and another woman, who looked just as petite.

"I am Bulan, Kidlat's mother," the small woman with straight, black hair hanging to her waist said. "These are my husband, Ulap, my son Buhawi and his wife, Tala. May we come in?"

Jinx stepped aside wordlessly, still trying to wrap her head around Bulan's words. Bulan brought the whole family? Hopefully one of them was a tikbalang doctor. Jinx shook her head, making herself focus on Kidlat's condition again.

He'd regained consciousness, but was very weak from the projectile vomiting he'd been doing for the last hour. Cocoy was in Jinx's bedroom with him, trying to rehydrate the still-stubborn tikbalang—a job Jinx was glad Cocoy took on because her volcanic temper was already on the edge.

"Kidlat's in my room,

po

," Jinx said. "We were eating breakfast when he suddenly got sick. We managed to get him comfortable after he told us to call you. He's awake now and throwing up. His heart rate is erratic, but his blood pressure is more or less normal. He has no fever and we cannot understand what happened to him."

Bulan must've heard Jinx, but she didn't answer. Instead, Kidlat's mother made a beeline for the room where her son lay arguing with Cocoy.

"Stop making me drink that vile crap!" Kidlat's exhausted but stubborn protests cut no ice with Cocoy, who was holding a cup of oral rehydration solution to his lips anyway.

"You need to keep hydrated. There is no way you'll get better if we don't replace the liquids you just sprayed the room with, you stubborn mule!" Cocoy wasn't backing down and he continued to insist that Kidlat drink the fluids in the cup he held.

"Kidlat Daluyong Batumbakal, you will stop fighting that good man right now. I am your mother and I said so." For all that she was the smallest creature in the room, Bulan's presence was formidable and intimidating, her displeasure sending shivers of dark unease through everyone there, despite the fact that she was in a bright, floral-print dress and sensible shoes.

"Oh, brother, she used your full name," a deep voice from behind Jinx punched through the thick sheet of tension wrapping around every being in the room. "Just do what your bayot says you need to do." Worry and amusement were palpable in the words from that deep voice.

"Fuck off, Buhawi Unos Batumbakal." Kidlat sputtered his hoarse reply through the oral rehydration drink Cocoy again attempted to pour down his throat. So he flashed his brother the bird, instead as he swallowed to avoid choking on the drink.

"Son, you don't want your mother any more anxious than she already is. You know she will strike you with lightning and I won't stop her." This, from another deep voice behind Jinx, somewhere above her head. "We've come here to help—and because you told Cocoy to call for my Bulan, so be a good boy and do as Cocoy wants. When you've finished your cup of brattishness, then we can talk."

Kidlat buckled down and did as his family bid. He was out-numbered and out-gunned and he knew it. More to the point, he was so very tired and didn't want anything more than to just sleep with his bayot and diwata holding him safe. Talk was something he would avoid at all costs now. They could talk later.

***

Once Kidlat was settled more comfortably, and reasonably rehydtrated, Bulan waved her hand about and the room's miasma of projectile vomit came off the walls, and swirled in a tight arc of partially-digested stomach contents and bile that flew into the en suite bathroom's toilet. Jinx heard the toilet flush just as Bulan clapped her hands.

"Shall we take this outside so my son can sleep?" Bulan's question was a command, and everyone filed out of Jinx's bedroom to the living room where the dice Jinx, Kidlat and Cocoy had been rolling still stood on the coffee table. Bulan made another round of introductions, this time for Cocoy's benefit.

Tala approached Jinx as the others chose their seats, with commiseration in her amber eyes. "Hi, I didn't get to shake your hand. I'm Tala and Buhawi is mine. It is nice to meet you." Up close, Jinx could see the gentle swelling of Tala's belly. The woman was pregnant and obviously glowing from that pregnancy—and a power she couldn't quite place. It was distinct from the raw magnetism and power of the tikbalang, and kind of similar to Cocoy's. She'd ponder that later. Much later.

"Jinx. Nice to meet you." Jinx felt the warm clasp of Tala's handshake and held on a second longer than polite behavior dictated. That hand felt like a lifeline and Jinx felt lost. She didn't know how to explain the threesome she was in to Kidlat's family, so she didn't. She did, however, appreciate the unspoken warmth Tala extended to her.

Once everyone was seated, Jinx and Cocoy described the events immediately prior to their breakfast, and picked over the details of Kidlat's symptoms.

"What this looks like to me," Ulap said after the two finished their narrations, "is mystic poisoning. He isn't feverish. His blood pressure is stable. His color is healthy and he does not seem to have any infections. But he is very ill."

"Mystic poisoning?" Cocoy's worry showed in the unibrow on his face and the tight tone of his voice. "How the hell does that work?"

Bulan took up the explanation. "Mystic poisoning is a kind of curse, like kulam or barang. Instead of boils or insects crawling out of the victim's skin, severe poisoning is the result. But no physician can find the cause of the poisoning, or cure it."

"Do you think it is the work of a

kilkig

, Ma?" Buhawi cast his question to Bulan, then faced his father. "But, as far as I know, you dealt with the last

kilkig

who could have done this, dad."

"I know I did, son," Ulap answered. "I know I sent him to Magwayen's domain with finality."

"Wait, a kill-whut?" Jinx had never known of this kind of death magic, not even after the stream of nannies who took care of her and scared her with their local lore—and she'd had nannies from all over the Philippines, with all of the lore they had as their arsenals for scaring little children into complying with their orders.

Bulan filled the gaps left by Jinx's nannies. The

kilkig

, she said are normally found in the Visayas, on the island of Masbate. Many of them are compelled to cast their poisonous hexes because not doing so would mean the

kilkig

's death or the death of someone they love, usually a spouse or child. It is for this reason that many

kilkig

choose not to marry or have children. Many of them do not live beyond middle age because their venomous powers feed on the life force—including the life force of the unfortunates who happen to be

kilkig

. To be powerful enough to hex a tikbalang in his prime, that

kilkig

would have to be very old.

"And the only way to cure anyone unfortunate enough to fall ill to

kilkig

poison is for the

kilkig

who cast the venomous hex to provide the antidode willingly," Ulap said, his mouth a thin line.

"How are we going to do that?" Cocoy was frustrated now. "We don't know who cast the curse."

"Humor me, son," Bulan's voice was gentle, but steely as she fixed Cocoy with a piercing look. "Where were the three of you over the last few days, and what did you do?"

Between the two of them, Jinx and Cocoy told Kidlat's family about how they met, what Jinx actually was, and how they'd found Maria Sinukuan and released her from Mt. Arayat. They told Kidlat's family about their journey back to Manila with Sinukuan and how they spent some time at Pepe's Pole while the other diwatas fussed over Sinukuan.

They left out the salacious details, of course. It's not like these people needed to know just how filthy sex in a threesome is.

"The golden hair in Kidlat's forelock is gone," Bulan said, looking straight at Jinx. "Did you take it?"

"She didn't take it, ma'am," Cocoy answered with just as much steel in his voice. "I did." He held up his right index finger, where thin, glowing lines of gold glinted just under the skin of the fingerpad.

"

Taga-Lupa

, you are a bayot?" Bulan's eyebrows rose high as she took a closer look at Cocoy's finger, then his face. "I'd never have thought a celebrity would be a bayot, but, here we are, you are what you are. Well, then, I look forward to welcoming you into my family once you take care of this nasty

kilkig

business."

Bulan smiled broadly for the first time since entering Jinx's home. "There is hope for my son. That

kilkig

's poison is very strong—strong enough to kill a mortal tikbalang. You must tame my son and make him immortal. But, first, we must find this

kilkig

. The three worlds cannot exist in peace with him wandering through them."

"Gee, and I thought you'd have to go to a tavern, see other cloaked travelers, and meet a mysterious old crone by the hearth to get a quest," Jinx said. "Don't leave me out of the questing party. That tikbalang in my bed is mine as much as he is Cocoy's. Cocoy is mine, too, and I belong to them."