~ ~ ~
That evening I somehow managed to catch up on most of my homework, even though my head still hurt. I was just starting to look through the list of topics for our upcoming biology project when the doorbell rang downstairs. I heard voices briefly before Dad called me down.
“Maya,” he said, “there’s a Ms. Mendoza here to see you.”
Aw, crap, crap, crap.
I sighed and walked downstairs, pretty much resigned to my fate. I mean, I’d ditched school. I’d been caught. Now I had to take what was coming to me. It was a little bizarre that my English teacher had bothered to come to my house to see me about it. But there she was, standing in my living room. She was wearing a skirt, jacket, and heels, like she’d just now come from school. And she wasn’t smiling.
“I’ll let you two ladies discuss your business,” Dad said, shooting me a look before closing the door to his office.
“In Lak’ech, Maya,” my teacher said, holding her hand over her heart.
My eyes bugged out of my head. “You’re … you’re …” I couldn’t speak.
“A shifter, yes,” she said. “Is there somewhere we could talk?” She looked around the house and changed her mind. “Maybe we could go for a drive?”
My stomach was practically jumping out of my body. “Uh, sure,” I mumbled. “I’ll just let my dad know.” She was only the second adult shifter I’d met, other than Victrixa. What if she was somehow part of all that? That shady group? I knew deep down that it wasn’t Victrixa I feared as much as the others who’d been in my vision. I hadn’t been able to see them. They could be anyone. Maybe I was just being paranoid. I hoped I was. I swallowed hard.
“So, uh,” I said, as I closed the passenger side door of her car, “is this about missing school today? I mean, I’ve never ditched classes before, and I promise it was for a really good cause,” I blurted.
She smiled and started her car. “Not really. Although I did notice that Matt Caldwell and the Vasquez twins were also absent today. Also without permission, I might add.”
“Oh.”
She continued to drive and when she started to leave my neighborhood, my heart rate doubled.
“Relax, Maya,” she said as she pulled into a parking space at the Galleria. “I just didn’t think it would be a good idea to talk about this in your house with your father there.”
“Talk about what?”
“Victrixa Mata.”
God, just the mention of her name gave me the creeps. I could feel goose bumps all up and down my arms. “You know her?”
“Well, we know of each other, let’s put it that way. Maya, my name is Adriana Mendoza. I am a shifter, and I’m also of Mayan ancestry, just like you are. I was asked to take a teaching job at your school so I could watch you and make sure Victrixa kept her distance. Unfortunately, I only just found out that she was mentoring you last week.”
“Who is she, Ms.—”
“Adriana, please. Call me Adriana. Victrixa Mata is a leading member of a group called Toltec. It is Toltec’s mission to make sure that the world, human and shifter, does not transition into the New Age on December 21, 2012.”
“You mean that shit is real?” I said, before I could stop myself. “Oh, I’m sorry.” I felt myself flush.
“No need to apologize, I’m sure it comes as quite a shock,” she said. “But it is indeed very real, and Toltec will do anything they can to stop it.”
“But … why?”
“Well, what we know is this. There are two surviving holy books from the Mayan civilization that existed thousands of years ago. One of these books, the Popol Vuh, contains the Mayan creation story. The second book, the Chilam Balam, holds prophecies based on the famous Mayan calendars. I assume you’ve learned something of those?”
“Yeah. In Spanish class,” I said. (It made total sense. It was the only part of Spanish class that was in English, so I’d actually understood something for once in my sorry life.)
Adriana smiled. “Basically, we believe the Chilam Balam tells us that when the Mayan Long Count calendar ends on December 21st, a New Age will arrive. This New Age will be the opposite of our current times. There will be no war or violence, no greed, no hate. The earth will be cherished as it once was and no longer be destroyed as it now is. All of the peoples of the world will unite, and there will be an end to chaos.”
“That’s it? That’s what all the fuss has been about? All the TV shows and movies?”
“Well, no one is guaranteeing a smooth transition. There could be some bumps in the road. It would probably take weeks or even months to see the effects. Maybe longer. We can’t be sure.”
“And these Toltec people?”
“Toltec is by far the greatest threat to the change. They want very much to stop this from happening. Its members profit far too much from the fear, hatred, and chaos in the world the way it is now. They value money and power above all else. They are corrupt and evil.”
“But, but…what I don’t get is, what would they want with me, Ms.—Adriana?”
“The events of the 21st won’t just happen by themselves, I’m afraid. Has your grandmother explained to you the meaning of k’ul?”
“Sure, it’s the flow of life. The life force we all have.”
“That’s right. It’s the divine force in everything. It’s energy. Different people have more or less of it. Shifters happen to have quite a lot. That’s how we can identify one another. You see, Maya, this energy runs through everything all over the earth. And, in order to set the transition in motion, the energy must be set in motion.”
“Huh,” I said, “I did a report on the Egyptian pyramids once, and it said that they’re supposed to be, like, processors of energy or giant conductors or something. Is that kind of what the Mayan pyramids were built for?”
“Exactly.”
“But you’d still need something to start the whole process off, though. Right? I mean, what’s supposed to get the transition started?”
“You are.”
Jaguar Sun (Jaguar Sun Series Book 1) Page 15