Jaguar Sun (Jaguar Sun Series Book 1)

by Martha Bourke

  ~ ~ ~

  “In Lak’ ech, Maya,” Victrixa said, greeting me on the porch.

  “Ala K’in, Victrixa.”

  “So how is everything going? Tell me about this mate of yours,” she said with a mischievous smile. We sat down on the leather sofa in the “artifacts” room.

  “You’ve been talking to Grandma.”

  She laughed. “Of course.”

  “Well,” I said, “his name is Matt. He’s a senior at my school.”

  She smiled again. “Well, that’s handy. Do you have any questions for me? Feel free to ask me anything, Maya. I’m here to help with all of the strange and wonderful things that come with being a shifter.”

  “Well, I was wondering about something,” I began nervously, “I feel like there’s this pull between us. We hate to be apart physically and...uh....”

  “Sexually?”

  I nodded, feeling my face flush. God, this was embarrassing. It felt like we were having “the talk,” except I was sixteen and she was definitely not my loser-mom.

  “That’s perfectly normal. Shifters have a bond with their mate that is different than a human bond. Your bond with your mate truly touches your soul. It’s incredibly powerful. Do you know the human expression ‘soul mate’? That term was originally used by shifters. In reality, we come much closer to it than humans ever could because of our strong k’ul. The expression just sort of caught on. We also feel the instinctual pull of our naguales to mate. So you see, Maya, what you’re going through is perfectly natural.”

  “Oh.”

  “You look like you could use a diet Coke. Let me get one from the kitchen. Are you hungry? I can fix a snack.”

  “That would be great.”

  When she went into the kitchen, I stood up and walked around the room, taking in all of the amazing pieces from Mayan history. I knew I probably shouldn’t touch, but I picked up the vase with Balam on it. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I felt a chill run down my body followed by a crippling nausea. Then there came a flash in front of my eyes that made me suck in my breath.

  ...I’m sure that she’s more than a shifter, I somehow heard a voice saying. The grandmother trusts me. She has told me that Maya is having visions. But I need more time. If she is who we think she is, this has to be done right. It was Victrixa’s voice. She was talking to a group of others who were hidden in the shadows.

  Time is running out, Trixa, said one of the obscured faces.

  Don’t worry. She’s incredibly naïve. I’ll have her right where I want her very soon.

  I was suddenly aware that I was panting so hard it was like I had forgotten to breathe for the last ten minutes. But it hadn’t been that long, nowhere near it. I looked around the room again. Victrixa was still in the kitchen. Damn—I had to get the hell out of there, but how? I put the vase down and practically ran back over to the couch.

  That’s exactly when Victrixa walked back into the room. “Here we are,” she said. She was carrying my diet Coke, a glass of wine, and some kind of fancy cheese with crackers. She put the tray on a small table and turned to me. “So,” she paused, “Rosa tells me that your mate followed you into the phase.”

  Huh?

  “Oh, that’s just an expression shifters use to describe it when someone who would not normally have phased otherwise follows a Tribal Elder or another who possesses great k’ul.

  Shit. I had no idea how to get out of there without answering more of her questions. “Oh, right,” I said, nodding. If I nodded again, I was sure my head would bounce off my neck. A thought arrived. “You know,” I said, talking fast, “I just got a text while you were in the kitchen. My math tutor needs to meet with me a little earlier than usual. I’m sorry,” I said, “but math is really tough for me.”

  She looked slightly miffed. “That’s fine,” she said. “We’ll continue this next week then.”

  She walked me to the porch and waved as I drove away. Oh, man, had that been believable? Did she know that I was onto her? And just what was I onto? Why was she so interested in finding out more about me? As soon as I was out of sight of her land, I slammed my foot onto the gas and bolted to the highway. As I drove, my head spun. Then my stomach gave me its usual poke, letting me know that my stress level was off the charts again. All I could think was that Victrixa was Grandma’s friend. Or, at least, she was pretending to be. But if not, then who was she? And what had she meant when she said I might be more than a shifter? It just didn’t make any sense.

  Well, in a way it did. Everyone seemed pretty much in agreement about two things. Matt had followed me into the phase (or whatever the hell it was called) and it was not normal for your basic everyday shifter to have visions. And here I’d just had another one. Crap. One thing was for sure—Victrixa wasn’t who she said she was. End of story.

  I was so busy trying to figure it all out that I almost missed my exit. I seemed to be doing that a lot lately. At first I headed toward home, but instead I hung a quick left and headed for the twins’ house. I was feeling a twinge of guilt. What had I gotten my friends into? What had I gotten Matt into? Grandma? I saw the twins’ car in the driveway and pulled in and parked behind them. Then I took out my phone and texted Lyssa to find out if they were home alone. My answer came right away as she pulled open the front door and waved me in.

  “Maya, what the—?”

  “I need to talk to you guys!”

  “Maya, what’s wrong, honey?” Damian asked. He looked worried.

  “Something’s happened, and before I tell you about it, I need you to know that this could be bad. Very, very bad.” It was all I could say to warn them because I had absolutely no idea what I was warning them about.

  “Is it about the vision?” Lyssa asked.

  “Visions,” I clarified. “Plural.”

  “What happened?” Damian asked.

  “I was at Victrixa’s, and when she went to get me a diet Coke, I picked up this vase in her room. I don’t know. It triggered another vision somehow.” Suddenly I realized I had a whopping headache.

  “Maya, you’re shaking,” Lyssa said, leading me to the sofa.

  “The vision...well, what I heard...it was of Victrixa, and she was talking about me to a bunch of other people.”

  “Who?” Damian asked.

  “I don’t know. I couldn’t see their faces. They were someplace too dark. It was like some kind of meeting or something. But I could see Victrixa. I know it was her, for sure. And they were talking about me!”

  The twins shared a look. “What did they say? Could you hear them?” Damian sat down on the other side of me so that I was now sandwiched between my friends. It made me feel a little safer.

  “Victrixa said that I might be more than a shifter, but that she needed more time. And some guy, I think it was a guy, said that time was running out. And she told him that she almost has me where she wants me!” And as I said it out loud, it just kind of hit me. “Damian, she knows I have visions. Grandma told her, she knows!” I collapsed in tears against the back of the sofa.

  “I’m gonna call Matt,” he said.

  “Yeah, she needs him,” Lyssa said, grabbing an afghan from the back of the couch while Damian dialed his cell phone.

  I somehow didn’t hear what he said, but it wasn’t long before Matt was there and I was in his arms. Damian must have told him what had happened. The conversation continued right where it had left off, except now it was sort of going on without me as I lay with my head on Matt’s lap and he stroked my hair.

  “I think we need to go to the library at WNMU,” Damian said.

  “Let me guess,” Lyssa said. “Research.”

  “Well, something’s going on,” Matt said. “I trust Maya’s vision.”

  “So we blow off classes tomorrow,” Lyssa said. “Let’s meet in the visitor parking lot at the university campus tomorrow morning.”

  “We’ll have to be careful,” I said. “Tomorrow’s Monday. My dad will be on campus.”

&nbs
p; Matt touched my cheek. “Shh. We’ll manage.”

  By the time I got home it was 7:30 and I hadn’t even touched my homework. It was a good thing we wouldn’t be in school tomorrow. I did my best to get done what I could, but it was impossible to focus. More than a shifter… It kept playing over and over in my mind. I had been so scared when I first learned that I was a shifter. But then Matt had phased too and we were so happy. It seemed like it was our destiny to go through this great adventure together. But then things just kept spinning out of control, and I was starting to wonder if I’d ever have control over anything in my life again.

  An hour later, I gave up and tried to fall asleep. When I heard Dad shut his door, I realized I’d been lying there for over an hour. I got up and quietly walked to my dresser. I pulled an old T-shirt out of the second drawer and, rolling it up, laid it along the crack at the bottom of my door. Then I opened my window and lit my little incense stove. I dropped in some copal, waited for it to melt, and began to purify myself with the smoke.

  “Balam,” I whispered, “you are my spirit guide. I ask that you send to me your wisdom and lead me to the answers that I seek. You have gifted me with the power of your vision. Help me to use it wisely and to not be fearful of it. Balam, I ask that you show me how to be worthy of the trust of my friends and the love of my mate. And may I continue to be one with my Jaguar soul.”

  My spirit felt calmer. I walked over to close the window. An owl hooted softly somewhere. I blew out the little candle and crawled back into bed. Thankfully, I fell into a long, dreamless sleep.

  The next morning, as I drove to the university where Dad taught, I decided I’d better call Grandma and let her know what was going on. I pulled over and hit my speed dial.

  “Maya,” she said, “should you be calling me during school?”

  “I’m just heading in to class,” I said. Man, I hated lying to her. My gut tightened. “Grandma, I need to tell you something really, really important.” I sighed. This was going to upset her.

  “What is it, ts’unu’un?”

  “I had another vision … and it was … it was about Victrixa.”

  “Victrixa? Really?”

  “Yeah, and, Grandma, it wasn’t good. I think she’s involved in some kind of cult or group or something.” I hated telling her this. She was so trusting, she was so … me.

  “Well, that doesn’t sound like her.” I could hear the confusion in her voice.

  “I know,” I said, “but she and this…this group think I’m not just a shifter. They’re trying to find out more about me for some reason. I think they might be dangerous.”

  “And your vision was very clear, Maya?”

  “Yes. I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say. “Grandma, please don’t see her or speak to her. I’m afraid for you.”

  There was a pause on the other end of the line. “I trust your vision, ts’unu’un,” Grandma said. “It is a great gift. I won’t speak with her again.”

  “Thanks, Grandma. I know this couldn’t be easy to hear.”

  “Your safety is what’s most important. Please be careful.”

  “I will, I promise. I love you.”

  “I love you, too, honey.”

  I had arrived at the university. I hung up my phone, turned the corner, and pulled into the visitor lot. My friends were already there.

  “I come here all the time,” Damian was saying to Matt. “All we need to do is get around to the front and get in. There are plenty of tables in the back on the second floor. We just need to get in without Maya’s dad seeing us.”

  I looked at my watch. “He should be in class right now. We should be good,” I said.

  We walked in without a hitch and signed the visitor log. From there, we followed Damian to the ancient history section, where he started pulling books off the shelves and piling them into our arms.

  “Um, shouldn’t we be looking up information on shifters?” I asked.

  “No, I don’t think so,” he said, looking at another spine. “Victrixa seems to be looking for something else. You guys go on upstairs and get started,” he added. “I’ve got something I wanna check out.”

  “But what are we looking for?” Lyssa asked from under her pile of books.

  “We’ll know when we find it,” her twin answered.

  “Okaay….”

  Matt took a few books off the top of her pile, and we walked up the back stairs and found a table way in the back. Then we started to read. And we read. We must have been there at least an hour before anyone said anything.

  “This sucks,” Lyss said. “There’s too much information to get through.”

  “Look, I know there’s a lot,” Matt said. “But somewhere in here is the answer to what’s happening to Maya and why it’s so important to Victrixa.”

  Lyssa was right. I’d had no idea how incredibly huge the Mayan civilization had really been. But it drew me in…their gods, their work with math and the stars. I couldn’t seem to stop reading.

  “What?” Damian, said, suddenly staring at Lyssa with a look of aggravation on his face.

  “Huh?” Lyssa said, looking first at Damian, then at me. I shrugged.

  “What did you just say to me? That’s just rude, Alyssa.”

  “Uh, no one said anything,” Matt said.

  “No, she did. She just said that this is another one of my pathetic ideas.” Damian sounded angry.

  “I did not!” Lyssa said, “I didn’t say anything. I was just thinking that… Holy shit! I was just, just thinking what he said!” She clapped her hand over her mouth and pointed wildly at her twin.

  “Whoa,” I said. “Wait. What?”

  Matt looked from twin to twin. “Wait a sec,” he said. “Alyssa, don’t talk, just think something. Damian, you just sit quietly.”

  “Oh. My. God,” Damian said. “Whisper to Maya what you just thought.”

  Lyssa whispered in my ear, then nodded at Damian.

  “Lyssa thinks Matt’s a hottie,” Damian said.

  “That’s right!” I exclaimed. “That’s what she said she thought!”

  “Now try it the other way,” Matt said as he sent a smartass air kiss to Lyssa.

  It was Damian’s turn. When he had finished his thought, he whispered it to Matt, who was sitting next to him.

  Matt grinned. “Okay, Lyss.”

  “Damian just thought my outfit makes me look like a ho,” Lyssa said, then she made evil eyes at her twin.

  It was amazing, but the whole time this was happening something was scratching at my brain. This all made sense, somehow, like I’d had thoughts about it before. And then it clicked.

  “Holy crap! That’s it! This is how you guys always seem to know what moves you’re going to make ahead of time when you play soccer together! I think this was always there, at first maybe just some kind of intuition. And now it’s like full-on telepathy!”

  “But it’s just between you two?” Matt asked.

  “I dunno,” Lyssa said, “everybody sit quietly for a minute.”

  “Anything?” Damian asked.

  “Nope,” Lyssa said.

  “Wait,” I said. I picked up one of the books I’d been reading. “I think I saw something in this book about a set of twins.”

  “Shut up,” Damian said.

  “I think we’re going to need these books for a while,” Matt said.

  “But we can’t use my dad’s card without him knowing, and you know how he is about all this Mayan stuff,” I said. “Plus we totally blew off classes today.”

  “No card needed,” Matt said, walking over to the window. “Who wants to play catch?”