“You came!” Mike said, opening his arms to the newcomer as he walked toward her.
With a husky laugh, she stepped into the hut, opened her arms and gripped Houston hard, slapping him heartily on the back.
“Of course I did, my blood brother!” She buried her face against his shoulder and hugged him fiercely.
Ann blinked. Who was this woman? Even when shielding herself, she was like a thousand suns radiating in the small space of the hut. Her raw animal energy, her power was palpable. She was a leader, there was no doubt. And, Ann noticed, she was only a few inches shorter than Mike. The woman’s willow green eyes grew huge and black as she held Mike in her tight grip of obvious warmth and welcome. There were tears in them, Ann realized. Slowly standing up, she felt very weak and terribly human in comparison to this woman Adaire had called Inca. She was of Indian origin, no question. Her dark golden skin, thick black hair and classically beautiful face indicated that she was from somewhere in South America.
“It is so good to see you,” Inca whispered huskily as she finally released Houston.
He laughed a little and gently cupped her shoulders. “I don’t believe it! I never thought I’d see you again, Inca…. Hell it’s good to see you!”
Ann heard raw, undisguised emotion in Mike’s voice. Confused, she looked from her husband to Grandfather Adaire. She’d never seen the elder angry before, but he was angry now. It was nothing that overt, but clear in the way his brows were drawn down and the line of his wide, usually gently smiling mouth spoke of displeasure.
“You are not welcome here, Inca. You broke our code a long time ago and you know our laws. You were never to step foot back into the village.”
Grandfather Adaire’s voice felt like thunder to Ann. And she reeled internally. Inca glared momentarily in the elder’s direction. “I am not welcomed anywhere, Elder,” she snarled back. “Do not get tied in knots over this. I am leaving very shortly, I promise.” Then she wiped the tears from her eyes. “I had to come, Michael. Your guardian told me you were here, that you’d taken a new mate….” Inca turned, suddenly devoting her considerable attention to Ann, who stood uncertainly before her. Without hesitation, Inca strode over to Ann, her hand extended in friendship.
“I am Mike’s blood sister, Inca. I am sure no one has told you of me. I am the black sheep of the Jaguar Clan—not quite pure enough of heart to be accepted and yet not dark enough of heart to be embraced by the Brotherhood of Darkness, either.” She laughed heartily.
Stunned by her warm regard, Ann stared down at the woman’s extended hand. How beautiful she was, in every way—full of such grace, such sinuous movement that it took Ann’s breath away. There was an unearthly glow around her and Ann wasn’t sure what that meant. Forcing a nervous smile, she lifted her hand and slipped it into Inca’s.
“I’m Ann Houston. It’s nice to meet you.” Ann felt the strength in Inca’s callused hand, realized the woman soldier had monitored the amount of pressure she used in her grip. Yet, as Ann met that willow green gaze, she felt an incredible joy embrace her. It was real. This woman was real. Her emotions were sharper, more ragged, less steady than Mike’s or Grandfather Adaire’s, but Ann felt only goodness radiating from her.
“It is good that my blood brother found the mate he has been searching a lifetime for,” Inca told her in a low, purring tone. “I have prayed to the Great Goddess to ease his pain, his suffering and loneliness.” She looked at Ann, her eyes narrowing as she studied her from head to toe. “Yes…you are the one.” Inca turned and grinned at Mike. “This is truly a day to celebrate, my brother!”
Mike moved to Ann’s side. He slid his arm around her shoulders and drew her gently against him as he met and held Inca’s glistening gaze. “Yes, it is. I’m glad you could meet Ann.”
“I am sorry I could not be here for the joining ceremony yesterday.” Inca looked to the left and glared defiantly at Adaire, who stood tensely. “The Old One would probably have hemorrhaged on the spot if I had shown up, unannounced, on one of the five most sacred days a Jaguar Clan member can have.” She laughed harshly. “Do not worry, I’m leaving, Old One. I can feel your anger stalking me.”
Ann saw Grandfather Adaire’s face grow shadowed. “You threaten all of us by coming here without permission, Inca, and you well know it. As usual, your own selfish needs and whims take precedence over the safety and consideration of others. You have not changed at all.”
Scowling, Inca returned her attention to Mike. “There is trouble out there,” she whispered tautly. “I ran into a couple of jeeps with Escovar’s men not more than ten miles from here. They are like jackals hunting and sniffing around—for you.” She placed her hand on his shoulder. “I must leave. I must journey back to Brazil, to my own death spiral dance, my brother. I wanted to be here, in person, to be a part of your happiness and to meet Ann—your life mate.”
Ann felt the powerful love that Inca held for Mike. It was a stunning, fierce kind of love yet one that was very different from her own love for Mike. So many questions pummeled her, but she remained silent as the drama played out between the three members of the Jaguar Clan.
Gripping her hand, Mike rasped, “I had hoped to see you—but I knew the decision of the village elders about you, so I never thought you’d come back….”
Inca grinned wickedly. “Elder Adaire knows that I make and break rules as I need to, my brother. That is another reason why I’m not welcome here. Black sheep never are.” She chuckled and released his hand. In one motion, she took a leather thong from around her neck.
“I have a gift for you, Ann,” Inca said, her voice becoming a silken purr. “Here, this is for you—you are now my sister-in-law because you are my blood brother’s mate.”
Ann watched as Inca lifted the leather loop with a white claw hanging from one end of it and settled it over Ann’s head, arranging it against her neck.
“I do not have much money.” She grimaced. “I’m just a green warrior in the name of Mother Earth and the Amazon Basin which is being destroyed acre by acre. I do not have a job in São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro to make coins for anything fancy but—” she pressed her hand against Ann’s upper chest, where the necklace now lay “—this is a gift from my heart to yours. This is a jaguar’s claw. In time, you will understand what it is, what it means to you. Wear it—” her eyes narrowed upon Ann’s “—always. Don’t ever be without my gift, my sister.”
The heat of her hand was like a burning brand into Ann’s flesh. Though Inca was not pressing hard, it felt like the thick, heavy claw was being pushed through Ann’s flesh, into her bones and body. As she stood, riveted by Inca’s closeness, she saw the woman’s face change into that of the jaguar guardian who protected her. It was the face of a huge male with glittering green-and-gold eyes. Closing her eyes, Ann could barely contain the power and fierce sense of protection that Inca covered her with in wave after wave of heat and light.
As Inca slowly removed her hand, Ann swayed. She felt Mike’s grip become more firm. Dizzy, she opened her eyes, stunned at the feelings in her chest. Without words, Ann lifted her hand. Yes, the claw was still resting there. No, it was not inside her, as it felt right now. She looked up at Inca. The hardness, the arrogance was gone in that fleeting moment. Instead, Ann saw a very beautiful woman, childlike in her terrible vulnerability and with eyes filled with such loneliness that it caught Ann completely off guard. She realized Inca was allowing her to see the real her, rather than the mask she wore. And suddenly Ann connected to her on a very familiar level. Inca was a lot like she herself had been all her life—a butterfly trapped in a cocoon. Yet as she met and held Inca’s glittering gaze, Ann felt a depth of pain in her that was so overwhelming, she wondered how the woman was surviving it at all.
“I must go,” Inca whispered hoarsely, self-consciously wiping her eyes and then stealing a look at Adaire, who stood near them threateningly. “I have overstayed my welcome.” Swiftly, she leaned forward and kissed Mike on the cheek. Then s
he carefully embraced Ann.
“Be strong, my new sister-in-law. Love him. He has gone too long without it. Having you strengthens all of us, believe me….” She released Ann and shared a gentle smile with her. Then she extended her hand toward Ann’s belly. “May I? May I bless you and the baby you carry?”
Touched to the point of tears because she saw and felt Inca with such compassion, Ann nodded. “Of course…”
Kneeling down on one knee, Inca gently pressed her cheek against Ann’s abdomen. “Little one,” she crooned, “know that you are loved, so loved…. If I had parents like yours, I would be eager to come into this world, too. Even in the darkness to come, I am here. I am your aunt. I promise you, I will protect you with all my heart…my spirit…with the last breath I take. May the Great Goddess bless you, your mother and your father.” Inca closed her eyes and pressed her hand more surely against Ann’s belly. “I swear this….”
As Inca rose in one fluid motion, Ann felt an incredible sensation of love, of commitment, tingle up through her entire body. Even though Grandfather Adaire disdained Inca, Ann found herself admiring her. She was a woman of immense power, there was no question. Perhaps a woman who was not afraid to embrace her power fully, and thus threatened men. Yes, Inca would threaten most men—but not Mike. No, Mike loved her; that was obvious by the tears glimmering in his eyes as Inca raised her hand in farewell to them.
“I will see you in your dreams, my blood brother.” She turned her gaze on Ann. “If you call me by name, I will come.” She pointed to the jaguar claw around her neck. “Or call him.” Giving Ann a mysterious smile, she turned around and with a deferential nod of respect in Adaire’s direction, left as abruptly as she had come.
Suddenly dizzy, Ann whispered, “I need to sit down for just a moment, Mike….”
He eased her to the mat and knelt beside her. “You okay?”
With a slight, embarrassed laugh, Ann said, “I’m fine…fine. She’s just a bit overwhelming, that’s all. I’ll be okay in a minute…”
Adaire hobbled slowly to the door. “There is less than an hour left, my children. Time is of the essence now…. I will meet you at the bridge over the stream.”
“We’ll be there,” Mike promised.
Ann rubbed her brow as the dizziness slowly disappeared. When she looked up, Adaire was gone. Sometimes she wondered if these people just materialized from the surrounding air. She’d never seen it happen, but Adaire could not move that fast, for he had a bad limp.
“Wow,” she murmured, giving Mike a wry look, “what a morning, huh?”
He grinned a little and knelt in front of her. “Inca doesn’t exactly make quiet entrances,” he agreed with a chuckle. Removing her hands from her brow, he said, “Hold still, I’ll help steady you. Just close your eyes, take in a nice, slow breath while I hold you….”
It was so easy to surrender to Mike in this way, as he cradled one hand against the back of her head and pressed the other gently to her brow. Almost instantly, she felt the dizziness dissolve. In its place was a sense of stability again, of complete harmony with herself and with him. In less than a minute, it seemed, he withdrew his hands. When Ann opened her eyes, he was smiling tenderly down at her. Reaching up, she slid her hands up around his hard jaw and settled her palms against his cheeks.
“Thank you, Major. I think I like this form of medicine. Much quicker, less invasive than the kind I practice.” She leaned upward to meet his descending mouth.
The moments slowed to a molten halt as his lips met hers. The joy of his mouth sliding, rocking her lips apart, was all that mattered. It was so easy to center her entire universe on Mike, on his touch, on the fierce love she felt in his heart for her alone. She drank from him, shared his breath within her and drowned in the splendor of his tender, searching kiss.
Gradually, he eased back from her lips. Ann’s lashes lifted. “Now I’m dizzy all over again.” She laughed softly as he caressed the crown of her head with his hand. She loved being stroked by him, touched and held. Feeling his unshielded love for her left her breathless and euphoric and filled her with so much hope.
Chuckling, Mike released her and sat back on the heels of his black leather boots. “I’m a little dizzy myself. But then, you’re one hell of a kisser, mi querida….”
She flushed at his compliment and fleetingly touched her cheeks. She was not used to that burning look he shared so brazenly with her, that look of a man wanting his woman in every possible way. Her entire body responded to his heated, smoldering gaze. An ache began to build deep within her, a yearning to be one with him again and again and again. Ann thought she’d never get enough of Mike, of what they’d shared every time they’d loved on these mats here in this hut.
Reaching out, he caressed her hot cheek. “There will be other mats, other huts,” he promised her huskily.
“You’re reading my mind,” Ann said. And then she laughed, even more embarrassed than before. “Mike, I’m going to have to get used to this….”
He grinned broadly. “I can shield, if you want me to. It’s not a problem, you know.”
Slowly getting to her feet with his help, she said, “No…it’s just different, that’s all. I like our connections. In fact, when you shield yourself from me, I feel like we’re only half-connected. It’s an awful feeling….”
He moved the paramedic bag to the table and zipped all the compartments shut. “Now you know how a jaguar feels without his mate. The jaguar has that same kind of open mind and heart connection running between him and his mate twenty-four hours a day.”
She picked up the folded clothes and brought them to the table where he was working. “It’s a beautiful thing,” she admitted, “like being fully alive, Mike, instead of half-alive. Do you know what I mean?”
He saw the quizzical look in her expression. A love so fierce and pure welled up in him that he couldn’t speak for a moment. Ann might not be a genetic member of the Jaguar Clan, but her heart was so pure that it rocked him as nothing else ever had. Raising his hand, he eased several strands of reddish brown hair from her wrinkled brow. “Yes, I know exactly what you’re talking about because we share it.”
With a sigh, Ann looked around. “Will it still be there when we leave here, Mike?”
Hands stilling over his black canvas bag, he held her gaze. “What we have will be with us until the day we die and even beyond mere physical death, mi querida. It will only grow stronger, more sure and more beautiful with each passing day, week and month. Love, once it takes seed and you surrender completely to it, does nothing but grow.”
She nodded and sat down on the chair, her hands resting on the pile of colorful clothes Moyra had loaned her. “In some ways, that’s scary. In others, it makes me feel so hopeful about the future for us.” Ann knew she had not yet given over, surrendered completely, to Mike yet. Time…they had to have time….
“Yeah, I feel scared and hopeful, too,” Mike agreed wryly. “The future is iffy. But then, it’s always been that way with me.” His expression sobered. “It’s you who’s going to go through some tremendous adjustments because of it.” His brow wrinkled. “And that’s what worries me.”
Ann saw and felt his agony over having to subject her to his life on the run from Escovar. She knew he worried that the drug lord might put two and two together and realize their connection—and then murder her to get even with Mike for the death of his family. It was all part of the death spiral dance.
Anxious to distract him, Ann said, “Tell me about Inca. What an incredibly powerful woman she is! What did she mean when she called you her blood brother? Is that another custom here in the Village of the Clouds?”
She saw him release his worry and focus on her questions. Folding his hands on the table, he said, “Over time, you’ll get to understand a lot about the Jaguar Clan and its customs. When I came here to this village after being wounded and nearly bleeding to death, it was Inca who cared for me. She was in training with Adaire and Alaria at the time. She�
��d been Adaire’s prize pupil for two years, and she was one hell of a powerful woman even then.
“At the time, I didn’t know I was one of the Jaguar Clan. I lay on a pallet in a hut like this, and I fought against the energy, the healing, that Adaire was trying to send to me, to pump into me, to save my worthless neck. I fought it—and him—every step of the way because I was scared and I didn’t understand.” He gave Ann a humorous look. “Like you, my left brain, the paramedic in me, said I should be dead, and I wasn’t. When you believe something like that to that degree, you can stop healing energy from coming in to help save you.
“I was semiconscious from losing so much blood. I kept fading in and out, and yet Inca devoted herself to caring for me. She refused to let me go. Adaire released me. She did not. He ordered her to let me die. Inca defied his direct order and said no, which helped create more problems for her. At that moment, she broke a basic clan law—you cannot save someone who is supposed to die. That is what brought her banishment from the Village of the Clouds. Adaire wanted her not only banished, but her jaguar guardian stripped from her for disobeying. Alaria said no—that banishment was enough.
“Adaire has yet to forgive Inca for this, I think. They were so close before that. Inca had never had a father figure until she came here, at age sixteen, and Adaire loved her like the daughter he’d lost many years earlier. Inca more or less replaced that lost daughter in Adaire’s heart. When she defied him, it cut him to his soul. He’d never entertained the possibility that she could do that to him. He thought her love and respect for him was more powerful—but he was wrong…. She took things into her own hands and fought for me on every level to get me to accept the healing energy. I don’t know how many nights she bathed me with a cool cloth, or talked to me or…sang to me. She has a beautiful, angelic voice….” Houston smiled at Ann. “Back then, Inca was…different, and she usually obeyed the laws of the clan. But one night, as I was slipping away, dying, Inca broke clan law.”
Morgan’s Mercenaries: Heart of the Jaguar Page 27