How to Ride a Tibalang

The first sign was a sudden craving for the sour bite of crisp, unripe mangoes with salty, garlicky, fermented shrimp paste—

manggang hilaw at bagoong

—in the wee hours. The next was the sudden simmer of bile in Jinx's gut, a rising gorge akin to a volcano releasing magma to the surface through a vent with pyroclastic intensity.

It was all the diwata could do to hold the burning rising up her esophagus in until she got to the bathroom of Cocoy's apartment so she could hurl out the

taho

that had been such sexy fun just a few hours ago.

Kidlat had heard their diwata's distress through the open bathroom door and peeked in.

"What else did you eat besides the

taho

and the

merienda

at Mom's?" The tikbalang knelt beside Jinx and gently took her now-long locks in one big hand to pull them away from the porcelain throne into which she was making overly intimate confessions, literally from her gut.

"

Tamod

. From a tikbalang and a bayot." Jinx's wry answer echoed between momentarily dry heaves from inside the white bowl before she resumed tossing her

taho

into it.

I can't believe that something that has been so much fun thus far could create such smelly side-effects.

The smell of bile mixed with the sickly sweetness of regurgitated

maja blanca

and

taho

as another heave deposited a literally steaming pile of the stuff into the water of the bowl. Water that sizzled and evaporated. Jinx hit the flush handle just as the acidic steam rose up.

The fresh water rushing into the bowl caught her next heave-ho, and it cooled some of the projectile vomit enough to throw small black pebbles to surface before they sank to the porcelain bottom with muffled little clinks.

"What on earth is wrong with you, anyway? You were just fine earlier..."

"She's pregnant." Cocoy's voice drifted over Jinx and Kidlat from the open door. "Fucking several times a day will do that to a female, especially since we didn't always use condoms, dude."

Cocoy took a metal bucket from the cabinet under the sink and half-filled it with water. Then he tapped Kidlat on the shoulder and took hold of Jinx's thick curtain of black hair, cocking his head to the side in a silent command to Kidlat that he'd take over.

The bayot steered Jinx's head to the bucket with care. He was pretty sure he could feel more than one heartbeat under the pads of the fingers he'd placed on her neck: One strong, steady beat that belonged to their diwata and a softer, faster one—maybe two.

"Throw up here, love," he said quietly as Kidlat moved aside so Jinx could switch confessionals. "Rub her back, Kid. That should help."

"Pregnant? Don't diwatas just, I don't know, come into being? In mountains?" The tikbalang sounded as confused as Cocoy felt. All he knew of diwata biology, so far, was how hot these women were—literally and figuratively.

I should have paid more attention to the things outside our fighting and fucking, stupid tikbalang that I am.

Kidlat's big hands felt so good to Jinx. So did Cocoy holding her hair and steadying her chin so it didn't hit the bucket's lip.

Now, if only this Exorcist audition would stop...

"I don't have any explanations for this, either, Kidlat," Cocoy said while Jinx heaved into the bucket again, raising another puff of acrid steam. "But I do know no kid of ours is going to be left at the foot of any damn mountain."

"Presuming she is pregnant, hell, no, we're not leaving any kid of ours to the elements—even if his mom is a diwata." Kidlat felt as militantly protective of their still-unconfirmed progeny as Cocoy was. "But what does one do with a pregnant diwata? What kind of prenatal care does she need?"

What the ever-lovin' fuck? Pregnant?

Jinx would have spat those words out if she weren't so occupied with ejecting breakfast.

Do diwatas even get pregnant? And if I'm pregnant I sure as HELL am keeping the kid. This baby, if it exists, will have a goddamn family that won't up and leave. That changeling shit is so panahon pa ng Katipunan.

"I have NO idea." Cocoy shook his head at the tikbalang. "Let's just get past this vomiting, because the liquid in the bucket is starting to simmer and we're going to need to do something about this unless we want to see how superheated fluid can smelt metal."

Since neither of them is thinking straight, that's my job, I guess. Haynaku.

"Oh, Gods of War." Kidlat dumped the contents of the hot bucket into the tub and managed to refill it using the handheld showerhead in time to cool the next wave of Jinx's projectile bile.

"Mrphrghlh—aaaaack! Haaaaaaack!"

Morning sickness shouldn't happen at lunchtime

, Jinx thought in an attempt to ease the stress of the situation. Not that it helped.

***

Cocoy went to answer the door. Again. It was as if an unending stream of diwatas was constantly walking through his apartment—which wasn't small by any measure since the North Syquia Apartments building was one of the old apartelles and boasted of plenty of floor area.

However, the sheer number of beings walking about his space was disconcerting. Sinukuan, whose deep physical scars were fading, was seated on Cocoy's plush sofa-bed, fussing over Jinx as if she were Jinx's mom. Some other diwatas were touching Jinx's still-flat belly in wonderment and asking pregnancy-related questions like "you had morning sickness? What was that like? What do you mean it doesn't just happen in the morning?"

Kidlat was in one corner of the living room, listening intently to Adora and Makiling, who were talking pretty much simultaneously. Cocoy was circulating about the room, offering to fetch drinks or food for their influx of guests.

From what the bayot could piece together of the bits of conversations he'd picked up, diwatas didn't do pregnant. They'd never done pregnant—until Jinx, of course. They were also arguing quietly with her when she'd said she wasn't going to do the changeling thing with the baby.

"We're going to raise the baby as a family," Kidlat said firmly, ending that argument. "No one else gets responsibility for our child. That's a Batumbakal kid and we don't do fostering."

Cocoy had emerged from the kitchen with yet another tray of

mamon

and

salabat

when all the chatter stopped and every eye in the room was locked on him.

"You told Jinx she was pregnant," Sinukuan said as she rose from the sofa. "Would you mind explaining how you knew, bayot?"

Cocoy took a deep breath, set the tray he was bearing down on a coffee table, and spoke in even tones. "My intuition told me so. Well, that and the fact that there was no other reason for her to be evacuating her breakfast into the toilet that I knew of—and she hasn't left my line of sight since Biak na Bato."

"

Mamon

and

salabat

?" Kidlat took up the tray and began offering its contents to the guests who still didn't have any of the soft butter cakes or hot ginger tea.

"You are marrying Jinx, tikbalang, bayot?" Adora's query shot across the room with an imperious ring to it. "You do know that any creature who wants a diwata in his or her life will have to do

paninilbihan

?"

"Actually, no." Kidlat answered with just as much imperiousness. "What would that involve?" He cocked an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his puffed-up chest. "I am sure Cocoy and I would be up to it."

***

Pepe's Pole looked brand new, considering that it had a beautiful new coat of pearlescent blue paint and silver trim, courtesy of Cocoy, who had also agreed to do a series of mini-concerts onstage there once a month for a year—all as part of the

paninilbihan

for Jinx's hand in wedded bliss.

Kidlat had re-tiled the roof with the finest terra-cotta roofing his money could buy, and he'd done the heavy lifting for the new furniture Adora and the other diwata had selected for the interiors, which Cocoy had also repainted.

The bayot had also replaced the carpets and wallpapers at the mountain guardians' request while the tikbalang hefted barrels of wine, rum, beer and cases of quality hard liquor. Kidlat walking about shirtless in the summer sun with a slight sheen of sweat and all muscles flexing was sheer heaven for Cocoy and Jinx, not to mention an audience of admiring diwata. Every now and then, Kidlat would take a short break to kiss Jinx soundly, or goose Cocoy and send him a hot look that promised more hot sex after the

paninilbihan

was done.

"Watch those muscles flex," Makiling said, making appreciative sounds as she fanned Jinx on one of the hammocks Jinx's men had set up in the shade of a mango tree in the front yard of the bar. "You are one lucky bitch, you know that?"

"I know." Jinx was smug as she lowered the shades over her changed eyes. "I have the best man-meat in the world and it is being displayed to full advantage." She picked up the icy kalamansi slushie by her side and took a long swallow of the drink without taking her eyes off Cocoy's rippling back while he ran a brush laden with the final coat of silver paint over the window frames.

"This

paninilbihan

thing is fun. It's good to be able to order these beefcakes around, especially since they're shirtless," Makiling said between giggles.

"Careful, hon," Jinx cautioned as she took a sliver of green mango and dipped it into a small bowl of bagoong. "Those beefcakes are mine." She bit into the mango slice with a snap and a warning look at Makiling.

"Don't worry, sweetheart, I know they're yours. I'm just looking."

"Good. Keep it that way."

The manual labor for the bayot and tikbalang took the rest of the day and went on well into the night, when the diwatas rewarded them with an impromptu bridal shower complete with gifts for all three of them: A dress made of actual lava for Jinx, a beautifully woven

tapis

of gold and silver cloth matched by an ornate gold breastplate and headdress with silver beads for Cocoy, and an ethereal barong Tagalog of deep blue shot with gold and silver threads in traditional geometric designs of lizards and mountains for Kidlat.

The

paninilbihan

, after all, was a physical expression of betrothal, one that Jinx's men more than eloquently made clear to her sisterhood of diwatas. They were satisfied that the tikbalang and bayot meant business when they said they loved Jinx. They would never have been able to renovate Pepe's Pole so quickly or so well otherwise.

***

The trio decided to retire to Jinx's home after they'd opened the other gifts they'd been given, including some interesting items Banahaw called "sexytimes essentials," and various rocks and gems that gave them entry to each diwata's domain.

Adora had, by some arcane means, produced items molded from Mt. Pinatubo's wealth of lahar to distribute among all the others, too: Ashtrays, paperweights, phalluses and the molded ashfall version of Baguio City's man in a barrel. These items would make it easy for the diwatas to arrive at the wedding ceremony.

Jinx felt much better after all the fussing she'd thoroughly enjoyed, but she was more than ready to have her men to herself again. Basking in diwata envy was fun, but the reason for that envy asserted itself again. Her guys had been touching her with every chance they'd gotten, surreptitiously rubbing the sensitive points of her neck, back and arms, getting her all hot and bothered. She wanted them, and she wanted them right the fuck now.

Once the front door was shut and locked behind the three of them, Jinx wrapped an arm about each of her lovers and took the opportunity to thoroughly explore their mouths with hers. She released them only to pull the plackets of her snap-front blouse open and pull Cocoy's blue t-shirt off so she could lick at his yummy chest, and tease his nipple piercings with her hot tongue.

Kidlat kicked his shoes off and shucked his jeans while Cocoy was stripping him of his white tee. Getting naked in record time was becoming a habit among the three of them, not that he had any objections. Them, naked and pleasuring each other was the best way to end a hard day at work in his book.

"Hey, Jinx, easy, love," Cocoy said on short breaths as Jinx ripped at his jeans zipper. "I'm not going anywhere— " Whatever else the bayot had to say was cut short by a rough, hungry kiss from Buhawi, who'd also thrust a hand into Jinx's hair because she was licking up the tikbalang's legs.

"Get her to the dining table, Cocoy." Kidlat's eyes were glazed with desire, yes, but they also glittered with command. "It's time for a midnight snack of hot, wet

puki, pecho

on the side."

"Sounds good, Kid." Cocoy picked Jinx up and carried her half-naked body to the dining room while Kidlat rummaged in a trunk by the dining room sideboard for something.

The bayot laid Jinx down softly on the table, stripping her of shoes and clothes slowly, his eyes holding her enthralled and still with the flames of want that lit them.

When Kidlat returned to his now naked lovers, he was carrying what looked like sinewy green rope in his hands.

"

Tanikala

."

The command word the tikbalang spoke brought those ropes to life, and they wrapped in gentle but sturdy coils around Jinx's wrists, tugging those wrists out to spread her arms over the table. The ropes grew and twined beneath the tabletop to coil around the diwata's ankles and pull her legs apart, securing her ankles to the legs of Jinx's petrified wood table.

Cocoy picked his backpack up from the foyer table where he'd dropped it, rummaged, upended the bag on the sideboard and took the naughty gifts the other diwatas had given them and picked up a pair of sapphire spheres.

"I wonder how these work?" The bayot's killer dimples were out, bracketing his impish grin. "We really should find out, shouldn't we, Kid?"

"We should, 'Coy." The tikbalang smiled darkly, devilishly at Jinx, who was lying spread-eagled, totally open to them. "Then we should give her a show." He took the orbs from Cocoy, and bent to lick a pert breast. Cocoy bent to kiss Jinx, one hand in her hair and the other teasing her other breast, tugging at a hardened nipple. "We're going to make you so wet, diwata of ours. Then we'll play with you and get you all hot with these balls while we do a bit of man-on-man preparation for our manwich."

Kidlat skimmed Jinx's skin with one hand, bringing it to her breast so he could massage the aroused flesh firmly while he increased suction on her nipple, nipping it lightly and circling the bud with his tongue.

"You like that, goddess? I'll be doing the same thing to your

tinggil

. Get you soaked. Lick and suck you like an ice cream cone on a hot day."

Cocoy's hot whispers made Jinx writhe, the firm tug of his other hand on the nipple Kidlat wasn't laving and sucking coincided with a love bite from Kidlat that brought her to the edge of orgasm.

"Ooooohmyyy

GULAY

!" Her back arched as one of Kidlat's hands found her wet slit, and gave her a playful slap that brought her clit to attention. Fingers slick with her wanting rubbed her sweetly, on her outer labia, then inside, lightly, maddeningly. She canted her hips up to increase the pressure. The tikbalang spread her labia with forefinger and ring finger. All the better for his middle finger to rub the exposed head of her wet clit in slow circles that had Jinx chanting his name, and Cocoy's.

She felt another mouth on her other breast and closed her eyes against the ecstasy of having both breasts given such passionate kisses, full of tongue and teeth. Then she felt a cool, hard touch between her

puki

lips. Someone was rubbing one of the balls against her clit, her cunt, and pushing it in, then repeating the process with the other ball.

A mouth on her clit had her opening her eyes on a gasp, her breath coming as quickly as her hammering heart when that mouth began to suck and lick at her almost painfully sensitive clit with the most pleasurable lack of mercy she'd ever felt. She looked down to meet Cocoy's eyes, which were almost black with the intensity of his feelings, her orgasm shooting her past the known universe when the balls began vibrating hard against her g-spot and Kidlat began suckling at each of her breasts in turn with urgent pulls of his mouth.

It's a good thing I'm bound to this table because I think I'd fly off it if I weren't

, Jinx thought.

Oh, my gulay, thank goodness we're not going to die, because my heart would explode if I were still human. So good.

Kidlat eased off on Jinx's breasts, leaving them throbbing and wet while the sapphire balls continued to elongate her orgasm, holding her bound in ecstasy just as well as the ropes bound her to her table.

He went up behind Cocoy, enfolding the bayot in a rough masculine embrace that brought his

tarugo

up against the small of the bayot's back and the cleft of his ass. Kidlat made a trail of licks and bites along the side of Cocoy's neck, his hands going around to the bayot's groin to enclose Cocoy's hard cock and drawn-up balls.

"F-fuck, that's so hot," Jinx said, watching Kidlat kissing Cocoy. She was enthralled by the graceful movements of the tikbalang's hands as he lavished Cocoy's cock and balls with rough caresses that left the bayot breathing hard, his head thrown back against the tikbalang's shoulder. "

Ohmygulay

, I'm c-coming again!"

Cocoy reached back with both hands, giving the tikbalang as good as he got and planting a wet, messy kiss on Kidlat's mouth.

I will never, ever grow tired of this

. Jinx forced her eyes to stay open, no matter how much her body's paroxysms of pleasure would have made them close.

I am not missing this beautiful show for the world

. Her men were so gorgeous together, completely masculine and so open with their pleaure. She could feel them at the same precipice of pleasure's abyss as she was.

"

Kalag

!"

Cocoy's hoarse command made the vines unravel from Jinx's wrists and ankles.

"We need you in this manwich, goddess. Come here." Kidlat was beckoning her with an intense, almost angry look on his face—that look that told her time and again that she was in for a hard ride.

Jinx knelt between her men, taking one, then the other down to her throat and sucking hard, flicking her tongue along their cocks as they kissed and stroked her and each other.

They eventually wound up in a proper standing manwich, with Cocoy fucking her pussy first. Kidlat slid home in her slick

puki

and she pulsed around him in a hard clench as Cocoy slid into her anally.

Tikbalang and bayot rocked the diwata they had suspended between them slowly, feeling each other pump into her in an alternating rhythm that made speech impossible.

Jinx kissed each man in turn, her breaths coming out in pants and moans as they built their strokes up to a crescendo of sighs, moans and yells that were the perfect counterpoint to a blindingly hot exchange of bodily fluids.

"Oh my Gods, I love you both," Cocoy couldn't hold the words back, even if he barely had the breath to speak after they all staggered into Jinx's bed. "And I love our kids."

"Kids? Plural?"

"Yes, Jinx. Kids. Plural. I believe we're the parents of twins."

"Whoa, twins, Cocoy?" Kidlat's shock quickly faded into delight and even more love for the bayot, and the pregnant goddess lying between them. "

Inay

is going to freak, in a very good way. Twins..."

"Say the men who don't have to shove twins out of a very narrow puki in after several more months."

"We'll spoil you silly over those months, our love," Cocoy said with a happy laugh. He pulled Jinx against his chest in a one-armed hug. "We'll spoil you forever."

"Oh, yes, we'll spoil her," Kidlat kissed the top of Jinx's head and pulled her back against his chest for a kiss. "We love you."