Selena stood to go. “Good. And listen, you can come to me any time, okay?”
“Thanks, Selena.”
“Anytime, sweetie.”
Lyssa turned and looked out the window by her bed. Wouldn’t you know it, her mate was walking away from the main house. She watched him take an orange from an orange tree in the garden, like he always did after lunch. Shit! Had she talked through lunch? She took off down the hall and out the kitchen door, then flew across the yard toward the garden. Cesar turned as if he sensed her coming. She leapt up at him, wrapping her legs around his torso. He held onto her and let them fall easily to the ground.
“Whoa! Hola, bella.” They laughed, both of them breathless.
“Hola,” she said against his lips.
“Ah, the newly mated,” Ryan said, as he walked by on his way to the main house. “I know, I know. Shut it.”
***
Lyssa stood on the balcony, looking out into the darkness. The jungle looked eerie in the moonlight. Her best friend was out there somewhere. She had no idea where Maya was or even if she was okay. They hadn’t even said good-bye to her when Maya left. She didn’t want to ask Matt what he was sensing from her. A lot of that stuff was private. She figured he would say something if anything were really wrong.
She walked back in to Cesar’s room and crawled into bed. He was due back from guard duty any time. God, she hated the night shifts. The waiting always seemed so endless. She thought back to when Maya had first dealt with guard duty. It hadn’t been easy for her, either. The truth was, she worried more about Cesar at night for some reason. And here she was with the mark of a crescent moon on her neck!
Lyss? Damian’s voice popped into her head.
Hey, what’s up, little bro?
Just getting ready to turn in. I thought I’d check in. You weren’t at lunch.
I’m sorry. I was with Selena. We were talking.
That’s okay. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.
Yeah, I’m okay. Just mating stuff.
Eww. ’Nuff said.
Hey, Damian, are you okay?
Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?
I dunno. I just wondered.
I’m fine, Lyss. I’ll see you at breakfast.
Okay. Damian?
Yeah?
If you do like Nate, it’s okay.
Oh. My. God.
G’niiight!
Night.
Unable to sleep and feeling antsier than ever, Lyssa got up and went back out on the balcony. Something felt really wrong, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Where the hell was Cesar? She started to pace back and forth across the balcony. And then she heard it. It was so soft at first, she thought she must be hearing things. Off to the east there was a soft eeking sound. Lyssa was far from a nature person. She had no idea what random bird or lizard could be making that kind of noise. She held her breath, as if that would help her hear it more clearly.
“Bella?”
She nearly jumped out of her skin as Cesar’s voice broke the silence. “I’m out here.”
“Sorry, I’m late,” he said, coming out. “We needed to do an extra check before we came back.” He framed her cheeks with his hands and kissed her softly.
“Wait, why? Because of the noise?”
“Noise?”
“You didn’t hear it?”
“There are many noises out there. What did it sound like?”
“I…oh, never mind. I was probably just going stir crazy.”
He kissed her cheek. “Let me just take a quick shower. Then we need to talk.”
“It’s Matt, isn’t it?”
“Ya. It’s Matt.” She nodded and watched him walk back into the bedroom. Then she turned back toward the jungle, trying to refocus on the strange sound. But, it was gone.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Victrixa walked down the back hallway of her Mexican villa, glad to be out of that monstrosity of a hacienda Avery called home. She sighed. The rich were so very confused about the amount of power that money could buy. They could certainly purchase enough earthly pleasure and plenty of people to boss around so they felt powerful. But that was simply privilege. It wasn’t true power, and Avery and the rest of Toltec were all fools to think so. It hadn’t gotten Avery the location of the cenote. Even with all his money, he was weak. No, to her, money was simply the means to an end. Money had allowed her to purchase the villa, although even that was of very little importance in and of itself. It was its proximity to the cenote that mattered.
Victrixa’s bare feet made no sound as she padded down the hallway. The long, exquisite, green silk dress she wore clung to her body. As always, around her neck lay a silver plate necklace covered with ancient etchings. At the end of the hallway, she opened a door, stepped through, and closed it behind her before walking down the stairs into a small wine cellar. In the wine cellar, she pushed on part of a stone wall behind the stairs. It turned slightly so that a small opening appeared. She slipped through and pulled it closed behind her.
In front of her lay an underground cenote. The cave had only one entrance, and Victrixa had just closed it. To her right, an altar carved out of the cavern wall held a goblet, a bottle, an old decorated bowl, a ceremonial knife made of obsidian, and sheets of paper. To her left were the steps down into the water of the cenote. The only light came from the moon, which shone down through a hole in the ceiling. The moonlight reflected off the blue-green water, giving the cavern a beautiful but eerie light.
At the altar, Victrixa picked up the bottle and poured the ritual balché into the cup. She spoke the proper words in Yucatec Mayan, then brought the goblet to her lips and drained it. She started to put the goblet down, thought better of it, and poured herself a second glass. The effect of the balché suddenly made everything seem slightly distant. It was mixing with the wine, she thought, and not in a good way. She closed her eyes for a moment and held onto the side of the cavern to steady herself.
She looked down at the altar and picked up the shiny obsidian knife, admiring its handle, into which was carved a Mayan hieroglyph in deep relief. She ran her finger along the blade, catching herself on the serrated edge. She held her finger up to inspect the cut. In spite of all the blood, the cut was very small. Licking her finger, she pulled the bowl closer.
Now she raised her left hand and took the knife in her right. She placed the tip of the blade on her left palm and pushed until she drew blood, then dragged the obsidian blade from one side of her palm to the other. Pain shot up her arm. She took deep breaths and held her hand over the paper, clenching her fist to make the blood flow faster. Drop after drop fell to the paper and when a dozen or so had fallen, she placed the piece of paper in the bowl. Then she struck a match and lit the paper, sending her offering to her intended god. She repeated the ritual with her other hand.
Finally, she turned and descended the stairs. When she reached the rim of the cenote, she let her dress fall to the ground. Wearing nothing but her silver necklace, she walked down the second set of steps into the pool. Blood from her hands mingled with the water as she submerged herself to her shoulders and phased. As Kan, the enormous cobra that was her second form, she swam around the edge of the pool until the water began to bubble and glow from its very depths.
As three huge bat demons crashed through the surface of the water all around her, she phased back. With ear-splitting screeches, the demons flew up through the hole in the cavern’s ceiling and out into the night sky. A wicked smile crossed her face, and she laughed as she let herself fall back into the water.
Her ritual ended, she climbed back up the stairs and pulled a towel from a pile next to the pool. She dried herself, toweled her long, dark hair, and slipped back into her green silk dress. She smiled again. If the demons didn’t take care of Maya, they would at least do some major collateral damage. That was sure to shake Maya to the core, and it would buy Victrixa some time. She had known all along that Maya wouldn’t join them. Not joining them made her an enem
y that Toltec would have to deal with, goddess or no. And that would be just fine with her. But if Toltec balked, Victrixa would take care of the girl herself. One thing was certain. She had never had any intention of sharing power with anyone. Now that she had the cenote, she wouldn’t have to share. And controlling the demons was just the beginning.
***
Matt pushed through the thick foliage of the rainforest as Gray Wolf. He moved as fast as he could, making sure to stay downwind of the other shifters on duty and varying his scent by stopping at watery cenotes for a quick dip when he could. Misleading everyone like that sucked, and he didn’t want to do it. They weren’t in his body, though, and they had no idea how it felt to have Maya’s emotions eating away at him. She was safe. He knew that much. Right now, that was the only reason he was grateful he was able to feel her. Whatever she was finding out from that overdressed douche bag was close to killing her one minute and confusing the hell out of her the next. And she was taking him right along with her. The difference was, Maya knew why she was feeling the way she was. Matt was forced to deal with all the same shit that she was and then left to worry about what was causing it.
If that wasn’t bad enough, he had no one to go to. He had learned the hard way during Maya’s kidnapping that people would worry about him if they saw him coming apart. And now that he could sense Maya’s emotions, if he seemed upset, they wouldn’t just worry about him. They would think that something was wrong with Maya, too. And even though he had started out telling himself that he had to stay strong for everybody’s sake, he had realized pretty quickly that it was going to be damned near impossible. What was he supposed to do? Sit there working on calculus while every inch of his body ached for her?
He didn’t know when or if she’d be back. His love for her was so fierce and all consuming. He trusted her with every fiber of his being, and he never thought for a second that she would stay away if she didn’t have to. But what if she had no choice? What if whatever she found out changed everything? She was his whole world. The thought of losing her was shredding his soul.
Then he’d noticed during yesterday’s guard duty that when he phased into Gray Wolf, he seemed to switch over to instinct, and that kept Maya’s emotions at bay. He could remain in his second form most of the time and take breaks to check in with Maya and make sure she was safe. If he was lucky, she wouldn’t be able to feel him in his second form. The last thing she needed to be worrying about was him. Whatever it was she was meant for, it was big. It had to be. There was no way she could do whatever it was if she was constantly stressing about him.
Man, he wished he’d kept his shit together before she’d left. If only he hadn’t let her see her emotions get to him like that. Her grief had just hit him so hard, and it had come out of nowhere, catching him off guard. His dad’s death wasn’t something they had talked about much. He had been ten when his father died of cancer, and that was a long time before he met Maya. His dad had been diagnosed late, thanks to his major distaste for doctors, so by the time they’d discovered the cancer, it was everywhere and nothing could be done. He had passed quickly. Matt had dealt with it for the most part. Well, at least he thought he had. But there was no question after what happened at the inn that Maya would be checking in on him often. He was convinced that staying in his second form was best for both of them right now.
As Matt powered on, he let the burn in his muscles distract him from the endless cycle of thoughts going through his head. He tried to focus on the sheer strength of his body and he pushed himself harder. He was letting instinct take over as much as possible. So much so that he didn’t hear the strange sounds coming from the highest trees in the jungle’s canopy. As the humidity deepened, he headed for a well-hidden nearby cenote and leapt off the edge.
As his body broke the surface of the water, the memory of jumping into the lake with Maya in the Gila Forest just a month ago came flooding back. That was the night they had first phased together, the night they’d realized that they were mated. He dove under the water again, trying to wash away the thoughts and clear his head. But it was no use. Although his instincts as Gray Wolf helped him block out Maya’s emotions, they were also bringing out a deep longing for his mate, his need to protect her, to be with her.
His stomach rumbled as he climbed out and shook the water from his coat. Feeding was not his favorite thing to do in his second form. In fact, on the rare occasion someone else fed during guard duty, it made him nauseous as hell. He had never looked at, say, a fox and gone all gaga. Luckily, wolves could go up to two weeks without food if necessary. If he needed to eat, it was going to be as a human, and the food was going to be cooked. Period. He did need to rest, though. He lay down along the rocky edge of the cenote and peered out through the darkness.
You never knew what you were going to get at a cenote. There were thousands of them all over the jungle, all of them some kind of fresh or saltwater sinkhole. Some were hidden in underground caves. Others were more like lakes. This one was half and half. The opening to a large cavern sat on the opposite end from where Matt was lying. He looked at the giant stalactites coming down from the cave’s ceiling, and the stalagmites jutting up through the top of the water. Tree roots that looked like vines hung down the walls, and water dripped lazily down one side, creating a little waterfall. The whole scene looked prehistoric. He half expected a T. rex to come by and lop off his head.
Time to go. He stood up and stretched, then started out at a trot, but before long he was running at full pace. This was so much better than guard duty. They were always in their second forms, but that was for safety reasons. It was really just a lot of waiting and checking. It had been so long since he’d had a good nightly prowl, he’d forgotten what Gray Wolf was capable of. He missed the freedom of running at full speed, slicing through the humid air with his muscles straining to the limit. There was nothing else like it.
He had been running for some time before he realized he had completely changed direction when he left the cenote. Now he was headed directly for the beach where he and Maya had first given in to the call. God. He should have about-faced immediately. But he couldn’t get himself to do it, and he had no idea why not. She wasn’t going to be there. Nothing waited for him there but memories of a night that seemed to have happened in another lifetime.
A new thought suddenly entered his mind. If he couldn’t be with her, maybe he would find some kind of solace on their beach. That was just so unbelievably stupid. This kind of self-destructive crap was a really, really bad idea. For whatever reason, as he approached the tree line, he sped up instead of slowing down. He sprang down the rocks and raced across the sand, finding traction where he could. As he approached the edge of the water, he skidded to a stop.
The moonlight reflected off the surface of the ocean. As he cocked his head and watched it shimmer before him, a pain suddenly hit his chest so hard he thought he would split apart. At first, he thought he was feeling Maya, but no, it was his own soul crying out for her. He whimpered as he imagined the two of them, naked together in the ocean, the moonlight dancing on the water around them. The pressure in his chest was unbearable. He raised his muzzle and cried out in pain, baying in long, sad, desperate howls. Then he phased back to his human form, fell to his knees, and wept.
CHAPTER NINE
“Are you sure about this?” I asked Akil as he opened his wings, getting ready for flight.
“Of course.”
Why had I opened my big mouth and brought up the whole wing thing again? One thing was for sure. I was regretting it. Big time.
“Well, just don’t drop me.”
He laughed. “Don’t be absurd, Maya. I’m not going to drop you.”
“Where are we going?”
“Anywhere you’d like.”
He stood behind me and pulled me to him, and I realized the conversation was over. I felt a sudden gathering of strength as he pushed off, and then his amazing wings seemed to do the rest. Higher and higher we flew,
straight up, the heavy beating of his wings blowing my hair. Nothing could have prepared me for what happened when they stopped beating. As we reached a certain height, Akil spread his wings out to their full span and we began to glide over Naples. The city at night was incredible, with its lights shining between the mountains and the ocean. The sight was so amazing that I sucked in my breath.
He leaned closer to my ear. “Don’t worry. I promise you’re safe with me.”
“I know. It’s just so beautiful!”
He seemed to take this as permission to increase his height and speed. He headed north, hugging the coastline, his great wings beating harder than ever. He pulled me closer, and I felt safe in his incredible strength. Without thinking, I laid one of my hands on his upper arm. He didn’t seem to mind. (No regrets on my end either!)
Soon I could see bright lights again up ahead. “Rome?” I asked.
Akil nodded. “I’m heading north to Paris.”
My eyes moved to where the lights were brightest. “Paris? How come?”
“Let’s just say I haven’t been there in a very long time.”
We were over Rome when I looked down and recognized something. “There’s the Coliseum!” I yelled. I may not like math, but I’ve always paid attention in history class.
“Maya, must you yell? Your head is right under my ears.”
“Sorry.” I shivered. “Will it take long to get to Paris?”
“Not too long. We’re crossing the Alps now. You’re trembling. Are you cold? I could warm you.”
My teeth chattered. “Yes, please.”
Instantly, I could feel heat emanating from his body, and as we crossed northern Italy, I was more than toasty.
“Are you warm enough now?”
“Perfect.”
“Let’s fly over the Alps, and then I’ll gleam the rest of the way.”
Jaguar Moon (Jaguar Sun Series Book 2) Page 6