The Bloodgate Guardian

by Joely Sue Burkhart

  “Did they take my bag?”

  “Yes,” Madelyn replied gloomily. “They grabbed me before I could even call for help. There aren’t any windows, and the door is solid steel.”

  Call. Beyond hope, she reached down and felt her pocket. They hadn’t taken her phone. “Are they monitoring this room?”

  Madelyn blinked with surprise, her gaze flickering to the ceiling and corners, checking for cameras. “I never thought of that. I don’t know.”

  She had to risk it. Quickly, before a guard could charge in and steal her only hope of salvation, she dragged out the BlackBerry. Good, she still had power. That would have been just her luck to have a dead battery. As long as the signal held…

  SOS. Send Dragon.

  The door slammed open so hard both women jumped. Guiltily, Jaid tried to hide the phone, but it was too late.

  “I’ll take that, Dr. Merritt.” An African-American guard dressed like Knightley bent down and held his hand out. “Knightley will hear about failing to frisk you.”

  What she wouldn’t give for a nice heavy tome right about now. She’d crack that smirk right off his face. Blowing out her breath loudly, she shoved the BlackBerry into his hand and pretended to pout. Hopefully the text made it out to Callie.

  “No phone calls. Not until you tell us what we need to know.”

  “What’s that?” Madelyn retorted. “What have you done with Dr. Gerard?”

  “Someone will be down to get you in a while.” He gave Jaid a suggestive look that made her breath catch in her throat. She pressed back harder against the wall and wished Ruin would turn back into a jaguar and eat this jerk’s face. “When we’re ready.”

  The guard shut the door, leaving them alone once more.

  “Last night, Sam said he was going to be meeting with officials in Antigua,” Jaid whispered. “Did he make it?”

  “I don’t know.” Madelyn threw herself down beside Jaid with a heavy sigh. “I haven’t seen him since last night. Maybe he’ll see the news and call for help.”

  “Or maybe he’ll rush here and be taken hostage too.”

  The other woman dropped her head to her knees and hugged her legs tight to her chest. “I hate this. I can’t stand feeling trapped and weak and useless. Can you distract me? Talk to me about the ruins, the rings, anything.”

  Staring at Ruin’s body, she thought she saw a slight twitch. She forced herself to remain still against the wall instead of rushing over to help him. The guards were most definitely watching from some hidden camera. They’d lose every element of surprise if she gave any indication that he was more than a dead body dumped in the corner to terrorize them. “What do you know about the White Dagger?”

  “Not much,” Madelyn replied, her voice muffled against her legs. “I know it was mentioned in the Popol Vuh as the Knife of Sacrifice.”

  “It was a Xibalban weapon, right? Not something in our world.”

  The other woman let her head fall back against the wall, her brow creased in thought. “It’s described as a spherical knife, which I never really could visualize. Why do you ask? Is it important?”

  Jaid closed her eyes and let her mind fill with knowledge. Her father had once joked that her brain must be like a massive library catalogue. People never truly “forgot” important information; they simply forgot where they put it. They forgot the memory address. She never forgot a single thing, even a page from a book she’d read ten years ago.

  “Jaid?”

  “I’m thinking,” she replied. Which was true, but not about the subject of the White Dagger. She pulled up everything she’d heard about Venus Star, the researchers here at the compound, and in particular, Madelyn. Could she trust this woman? Her father hadn’t, not fully, even if he was sleeping with her. “Do you know of any archeological findings in another site that mentioned the White Dagger specifically?”

  “Seems like I remember something in your father’s old notes. Where did he find the Temple of Days?”

  Again, Jaid felt the earth rumble, its hungry belch as it devoured her mother. Pages of her father’s journal fluttered through her thoughts, falling open to a passage he’d copied off the walls in the subterranean temple. “Iximche.”

  “I think he found something there about—” Madelyn let out an ear-piercing screech. “Guards!”

  “Shut up,” Jaid retorted fiercely. Ruin was definitely moving. “Don’t say anything about him He’s our ticket out.”

  The door opened. “What’s going on in here?”

  “We’ve had enough,” Jaid said loudly. “We want to cooperate, but I’ll only speak to Dr. Reyes.”

  The guard laughed. “Pretty professors can’t stand the hole, huh? It doesn’t matter. You want to talk to the curator, fine. As soon as the copter arrives, we’re out of here.”

  Jaid scrambled to her feet and jerked Madelyn’s arm sharply, dragging her gaze away from Ruin. If the guards thought he was dead…

  “Please, please, I just want to get out of here. I want to talk to Reyes. I’m sure we can come to some understanding.” Deliberately, she drew on the panic she’d felt the first time she stepped into the ruin. She clutched at the guard’s arm, gripped Madelyn’s sleeve fiercely, and practically ran for the door. “I can’t be down here any longer.”

  Rolling his eyes at Knightley, the guard handed the two women over. Jaid snuck a glance back as she ran up the stairs and barely suppressed a smile.

  The guard had left the cell door open.

  Dr. Reyes had the tabletop covered with stacks of photographs, notes, and journals. He’d dumped her entire carryall out, mixed her papers with her father’s, and totally messed up her orderly filing. She despised people mucking around with her research.

  Tight-lipped, Jaid sat across from him without making any demands that her things be returned. Madelyn paced back and forth behind her, muttering beneath her breath.

  With his scholarly manner, Dr. Reyes could have passed as one of her colleagues. But it was hard not to see him as an enemy. At least he didn’t have a gun, and he hadn’t been happy when the guards had taken over. If she used him against the guards as an ally, would he simply turn around and arrest her for the Guatemalan government?

  “I had a dream, once. A very silly dream, I suppose.” Staring down at the table, Dr. Reyes spoke so low and softly that she leaned forward slightly and concentrated on listening. “The Maya people have been slaughtered for hundreds of years, even by our own government. But you know nothing of such suffering.”

  “My friend,” she began carefully, slowly, searching for the right words to reach him and prove herself sympathetic, “almost died here years ago as a boy. His father was an archaeologist, like mine, who fell in love with a beautiful secretary at the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City.”

  Dr. Reyes’s head snapped up and his gaze locked with hers.

  “Geoffrey was at school when the demonstration began, but his mother was at work. She was held captive by the demonstrators and died in the fire. He told me that he saw the smoke from school and ran crying through the streets, pushing through the bystanders who could do nothing to help the people trapped inside.”

  “The Guatemalan police locked them inside,” Dr. Reyes whispered. “Most of them were peasants, farmers determined to protect their families and their lands. A few were idealistic students who thought they could change the world with a demonstration or two. Instead, they watched helplessly while their friends burned alive and the police did nothing but laugh and congratulate one another.”

  “You were there,” she whispered back, her voice shaking.

  He inclined his head slightly and flickered his gaze to the Venus Star guard she knew stood behind her. “Many died in the civil war, Dr. Merritt, and their dreams of safety and peace burned with them. A few escaped to live the dream again, praying for the day when their honor and glory might return. They might have taken a young white boy with them to ensure his safety until his American father could be found.”

&nbs
p; “Geoffrey Malcolm.” She sat back in her chair, stunned. “You knew him.”

  Again, Dr. Reyes gave a tiny nod. “Although he studied El Mirador for the most part, Dr. Malcolm’s name is familiar to me.”

  She bowed her head and didn’t hide her grief. “He was murdered, Dr. Reyes. The night before I came here to find my father. I believe his death is connected to my father’s disappearance.”

  “I’m very sorry to hear such distressing news.”

  She glanced up at his face. He did appear sincere. The grooves had deepened about his eyes and mouth as though he suppressed great emotion.

  How many times had Geoffrey come to Guatemala over the years? At least two that she knew of, and always to the El Peten department, although he always traveled through Guatemala City. It was quite possible that he’d continued his connection with Dr. Reyes, and if Dr. Reyes had continued his connections with the guerrillas who’d participated in the demonstration at the Spanish Embassy all those years ago…

  He might be able to help her escape from Venus Star.

  As if Dr. Reyes knew exactly what she was thinking, he leaned forward, his dark gaze boring into hers. “Did Dr. Malcolm give you something before he died? A word, perhaps?”

  She closed her eyes, remembering Geoffrey’s final words. That stupid argument. Then he’d whispered something else about the White Road. Her heart suddenly pounded so loudly that her head throbbed. He’d said sacbeob, plural. He hadn’t meant the White Road of death’s journey, but the incredible spanning causeways that had connected El Mirador to its neighboring cities.

  “Sacbeob,” she whispered.

  Tension bled out of Dr. Reyes and he released a long sigh. She knew, then, that he would help her. Her heart ached so much that she rubbed her knuckles against her breastbone. Even from beyond the grave, her gallant golden-haired knight had managed to help her yet again. Thank you, Geoffrey.

  Dr. Reyes dropped his gaze back down to her meticulous notes translating the known location symbols from the temple rings. “Do you believe?”

  “Yes.” Wonder sparked through her, relaxing some of her churning worry and grief. She did believe, in Ruin, in the Gates, everything. “It’s all true.”

  “Do you remember the legend I told you the first night you arrived?”

  The corner of her mouth quirked briefly. He was being very careful indeed with Knightley still standing at the door. “Yes, I do.”

  “Does Balam…” Dr. Reyes raised his gaze to her face, “…know that legend?”

  “Yes.” Jaid watched him glance at the guard at the door, grimace, and drop his gaze back to the papers. “I suspect it was the other brother who took the codex.”

  “Do you know why he’s here?”

  Softly, she quoted the passage her father had found in Iximche all those years ago. “‘The Gatekeeper guards the way between worlds and time, between heaven and hell. The Gatekeeper roams the waters of time, never resting until the Return. Beware the Gatekeeper’s wrath if his Gate is violated. His wrath is great.’”

  “Yes!” Madelyn whirled around, her eyes lighting up. “That’s the passage I was thinking of! It says something about him walking the Place of Fright and stealing ‘Xibalban power,’ which I assumed was the White Dagger. How on earth did you remember that?”

  Uncomfortable, Jaid didn’t answer. People were usually awed or creeped out by her memory. She’d rather the other woman didn’t know the extent of her special abilities, not until she knew whether she could trust her.

  “The locals believe the chapel was built on top of Seven Caves, Seven Canyons.” Dr. Reyes held her gaze, his face solemn, his eyes carrying the weight of the world. “Whoever’s behind the massacre in Santiago Atitlan ripped the floor tile away inside the church to reveal the pool. Blood covered the area.”

  She felt the skin of her face tighten and knew she’d gone pale, but she didn’t look away. The demons had tried to use the underground water in the church as a Gate. It hadn’t worked, but they’d try again, and again, and again, perhaps at different locations, but always with the same goal. With each failure, the victims’ blood would only give them more power.

  Dr. Reyes nodded slightly, a silent acknowledgement of her fear. “We need to determine where they’ll try next, pray they can’t find anyone or anything that helps them, and figure out a way to stop them. If they get the codex…”

  “I don’t think that alone will give them what they need.”

  “Who are you talking about?” Knightley moved closer. He didn’t have his gun out, but he’d shot Ruin and hit her. She knew where his loyalties lay. “If we have competition, the boss needs to know.”

  She asked, “Who’s the boss?”

  “Mr. Franklin. He’s excited to meet you and gave me orders to see you safe and sound at any cost.”

  She couldn’t help but touch her forehead lightly and wince. Knightley tried to look sheepish, but the hardness never eased in his eyes. He was a paid soldier, a mercenary. He’d been given a job, and he’d do it, no questions asked, even if it meant hitting a woman or killing an unarmed man. “What does Mr. Franklin want? Why is Venus Star so determined for me to work for them?”

  “I’m muscle, not brain power like you, so I don’t know all the details. They built a weird sort of temple in Dallas. It’s supposed to be a replica of what your father found here. My guess is they want you to translate the symbols inside. That’s all.”

  That’s all. Sure. Let them figure out how to open a brand new Gate in the heart of Dallas. What if they accidentally opened Xibalba again? Jaid shivered, her stomach churning. How much did they already know?

  “No offense, Mr. Knightley,” Dr. Reyes said with a wry grin, “but I don’t think you’d believe me.”

  “Try me.”

  “From my study of the Popol Vuh, I surmise that the perpetrator of such horrendous crimes in Santiago Atitlan could only be a Lord of Xibalba.” At the guard’s blank stare, Dr. Reyes explained further. “Xibalba is the Maya hell.”

  Shaking his head, Knightley chuckled. “You three go ahead and talk fairytales while I check on that copter.”

  As soon as he pulled the door shut, Jaid leaned closer and whispered, “If you were going to hide the White Dagger somewhere in our world, where would it be?”

  “The Knife of Sacrifice resides in Xibalba.”

  Jaid began stacking her notes and quickly shoved them into the carryall. Either Ruin would provide a distraction so they could escape, or the helicopter would arrive. No matter what happened, she wasn’t leaving here without her notes. Even though she had everything memorized, she couldn’t bear to part with the journals written in her father’s own hand. They might be all I have left of him.

  Tears thickened her voice, but she didn’t have time to cry. “Not if the Gatekeeper stole ‘Xibalban power.’”

  “Suppose the White Dagger is here instead of Xibalba,” Dr. Reyes said. “Why do you care?”

  “We’ve lost the codex. The only other thing that might gain some kind of bargaining power with the Xibalban Lords…” At the horrified look on his face, she retorted, “Not me! Let’s just say I suspect someone may need a bargaining chip. He’d be willing to do anything, even hand over the keys to earth, certainly steal our codex, if he could gain one thing from the demons. He’d certainly find the White Dagger and give it back to them.”

  Dr. Reyes crossed himself. Heavily lined, his face had aged at least ten years. “Such a weapon of power loosed on earth would cause devastation unequal to anything we’ve ever seen before. If any part of your theory is correct, they must not be allowed to retrieve it.”

  “I think my father passed through to Xibalba. If we can figure out where the White Dagger is first, and then use it to lure the demons back to Xibalba, maybe I can get him back out.”

  “No,” Ruin growled.

  She whirled around. Madelyn squeaked, thankfully not very loudly. Dr. Reyes muttered Spanish beneath his breath and pushed to his feet so hard the chair f
lew back and bumped the wall.

  Relieved, Jaid wanted to touch the back of Ruin’s head and verify for herself that he was truly alive and well. Tearfully, she smiled, but he didn’t return her welcome.

  “If you tamper with my Gates, I will kill you.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Fury pulsed through Ruin.

  She planned to lure the demons deliberately, and somehow trick him into letting her open the Gate. Had she learned nothing in his temple? Did she have no regard for her world?

  The jaguar paced within him, entirely too close to the surface. Fierce emotions weakened his control, making him act more beast than man. Or perhaps more man than priest. He couldn’t deny that he admired Jaid’s courage and intelligence. Part of him wanted to watch her solve the puzzle of the Bloodgates on her own. Given enough time, she would do it, he had no doubt.

  She would devise a plan to trap the Death Lords and rescue her father in one fell swoop.

  He wanted to breathe in her scent of green magic and rain while watching her eyes spark with excitement. Would she taste like magic, too? Would she rub against him, skin-to-skin, heart-to-heart, stirring his lust and feeding his power with the natural magic of her body? Angry at himself for such foolish thoughts, he strode into the room ready to boom and blast like Chac’s thunderclouds.

  Jaid laid her hand on his forearm. “I wouldn’t use the Gate without you.”

  That easily, she diffused his anger to something worse. Fear. He feared for her, the world, and yes, for himself. He knew what torments awaited him in Xibalba. They’d never let him travel through the nine levels and reach the Great Ceiba. He’d be better off to hang himself and skip directly to Kukulkan’s side, but he’d never been able to bring himself to end it all, not when his brother still roamed in tormented misery.

  “The Gatekeeper,” Reyes breathed, his eyes wide with reverence that only served to make Ruin even more uncomfortable. The man inclined his head, giving him respect he didn’t deserve. Didn’t he know how much destruction he’d wrought on their people? “I saw you once, many years ago in the city you would know as Kaminaljuyu. At the time, I didn’t know who you were. I didn’t understand why you allowed so many innocents to die in the fire. Later, I learned that the government had found something buried in one of the mounds beneath the city. You came to destroy it.”