“Something’s calling to you?” Adriana asked.
Lyssa nodded. “That’s what it feels like.”
I closed my eyes to have a look-see. As with my other abilities, apparently using portals to see other places was also advancing. I barely had to concentrate. Matt and his shifters were moving through a dark tunnel and carrying bright flashlights. Then I checked in with Cesar, who was in a different area of the tunnels. Same thing. I gave Lyssa a nod, and she smiled gratefully. From there my vision moved on to the villa. It was quiet. Too quiet. The shifters were splitting up and taking different sections of the house.
A few more minutes went by. Suddenly Richard made a startling comment.
“Downlander One, this is Uplander One. The house is completely empty. I repeat, Villa unoccupied, over. Downlander One? Downlander One, do you copy?”
“Dammit!” I said. “I knew it!”
“Downlander Two, where the hell is Downlander One?”
“This is Downlander Two. Not sure. I have no visual.”
“I’m outta here,” I said.
“Maya, calm down,” said Adriana. “Check and see what you’re getting yourself into first.”
I looked at the three areas where we should have had shifters. Richard was leaving the deserted villa with his crew. Cesar was still in the tunnels. I could find Matt’s group, but what I saw just didn’t look right. It looked, well, chaotic, and I couldn’t seem to find Matt anywhere. But I could still feel the adrenaline pumping through him. Wherever he was, he was afraid, and he didn’t scare easily.
“I’m going in,” I said.
“What if it’s a trap?” Adriana asked.
I looked back at her. “I know it’s a trap.”
“Look, Richard will be back any moment. Please, at least wait until he gets here.”
“She’s got him, Adriana. Victrixa’s got Matt. It takes a lot to rattle him. I can feel his fear running up and down my body. Now, do you really want me to wait?” I grabbed the handle of the van door and wrenched it open.
“I’m coming, too,” Lyssa said.
“What? Why?”
“I don’t know. I can’t explain it, but I need to go to the villa.”
“I’m coming, too,” Damian said.
At this, Adriana shook her head. “Absolutely not. This is crazy! You can’t all go there alone!”
Nate spoke out. “Between the three of them, they have more than enough power to protect themselves.” He took down the map of Victrixa’s land and handed it to Damian. Then he laid one hand on the side of Damian’s face. “Please be careful.”
Damian nodded. “I promise.”
We started the half-mile walk to Victrixa’s villa.
***
“You’re making a big mistake bringing her here,” Matt said. He was sitting on a ledge next to a cenote. His shirt was off and his hands were tied behind his back. It was obviously the cenote they had been looking for. Victrixa had an altar set up on a ledge at the top of the stairs. It seemed like something that might be set up near the gate to hell.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” said Victrixa. “After all, she’d do anything for her mate. Especially one that looks like you.” As she ran her hand down his chest, he fought to keep his gag reflex in check. She turned and walked up the steps to her altar, poured something out of a bottle, and then drank it. God, his head hurt. He watched as she came back down. She was holding a knife. He recognized it immediately for what it was: obsidian.
Ah, shit.
She walked up behind him. “Now, my boy, if you’ll just stay perfectly still, this won’t hurt a bit.”
Somehow he doubted that.
When she used the obsidian to make a long slash down his back, he clenched his jaw and tried to will himself not to feel the pain. He knew that whatever he felt, Maya would feel it, too. Victrixa walked to the edge of the cenote and let the blood clinging to the blade drip into the water. Almost immediately, the water began to churn and bubble up.
“Oh, he likes the taste of you, I can tell. I barely got a reaction out of him with Lucas and Avery.”
She was sacrificing her own people? This was not good. But every time Matt managed to get his thoughts together, she made new cuts into his back, and his head started spinning. He glanced cautiously over at his gun. It was about ten feet away. Dammit!
Victrixa noticed. “Oh, you won’t need a gun. And don’t even think about phasing. I’ve coaxed your nagual away from you for the time being. There’s only one way out of here, and you’ll never find it. Just relax, Matt. I’m only interested in what you can do for me. But remember. It makes no difference to me if your mate arrives and finds you alive or dead.”
Stay away, My, stay away, he thought with everything he had.
***
“She’s hurting him again,” I said as I clutched at my middle.
Damian glanced down at the map. “We’ll be there in a minute.”
“No, I can’t wait any more. I’m going in.”
Lyssa put her hand on my shoulder. “Maya—”
“NO!” I yelled. WTF? Was this some weird new goddess thing? It was the protective instinct! Man, it grabbed hold of you and would not let go. No wonder the guys were constantly losing their minds. I was sure this was what Victrixa had counted on, but it didn’t matter. I closed my eyes and channeled the protective instinct into finding Matt, combining my shifter and goddess abilities. This was new! With my ever-growing powers, it took seconds. I looked at the twins.
“I’ve found him! I’m going. I don’t have time to wait.”
“Are you sure?” Damian asked.
I nodded.
“Be safe,” he said.
“You guys, too.”
I closed my eyes and within moments, I had gleamed into some kind of underground cave. I looked down to see a cenote, my mate, and that insane bitch, Victrixa. Blood was dripping down his back. Instantly, I felt the protective instinct flare inside me.
He saw me. “No, My! Get out of here! It’s a trap!”
God, I loved him. I was so going to kick her ass. “What’s your deal this time, Victrixa?”
“Oh, you know what I want, Maya. It hasn’t changed. I just brought Matt here so we could make a little arrangement. You join me and I’ll let him go. Simple enough.”
“No deal,” I hissed.
“Fine, then, I’ll just have to feed your mate here to my new friend at the bottom of the cenote.” She took a knife and stabbed Matt in the lower back.
“NO!” I yelled. My voice sounded strangely hollow as it echoed off the cavern walls. I leapt toward her, phasing into Balam on the fly. I landed right on her and my weight pushed her into the cenote. But somehow I had miscalculated. My back legs started sliding off the edge! I dug my front claws into the stone, but I couldn’t get any traction. Matt had picked up a knife from the cave floor and was trying to cut his hands free, but I didn’t know how long I could hold on!
“Phase!” Matt yelled. “Phase! Now!”
In a split second, I phased back and Matt grabbed me by my arms. He dug his boots into the cave floor and pulled me back up to safety.
I landed on my stomach next to him. He was panting and covered in blood. “It’s okay,” I said. “You’re okay.” As I rolled him as gently as I could from his back to his side, he cried out in pain and I could feel his anguish. I quickly laid my hands on his forehead and back, focusing on moving the earth’s k’ul into my body. When the k’ul had built up enough, I let it flow through my hands and into my mate. His body began to glow and his breathing evened out, then his wounds closed. I sighed in relief and pulled his upper body up into my lap, amazed at how easy it was to move his weight.
I had been so focused on healing Matt that I hadn’t noticed what was happening in the cenote. Victrixa’s screams brought me back to my senses. The water had begun to glow and swirl, spinning faster and faster until waves broke over the sides of the cenote, leaving a whirlpool with nothing but a bottomless hole of dark
ness at its center. Victrixa spun helplessly in the water until she was thrown into the void. Her screams echoed up from the darkness until we couldn’t hear her anymore.
Matt looked up at me.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He nodded. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
I helped him up and we slowly started to make our way toward the stairs. Suddenly, a wall at the top of the stairs opened up like a door and the twins appeared.
“Hey, you guys. How did you find us?” I asked. The words had barely left my mouth when I noticed that they didn’t look right. They walked down and met us at the bottom of the stairs.
“It’s the cenote,” Damian said. “That’s what’s been calling us.”
Huh? “Wait, what?”
“It’s been drawing us here since we were in the van.”
“Why?” Matt asked.
“We aren’t sure,” Lyssa answered.
They seemed to be transfixed by the black pit. I suddenly got the feeling that we needed to get them out of there ASAP. “Um, guys—let’s go. Now!”
“I second that,” Matt said. “Let’s move.” He was trying to herd us all back up the stairs.
But the twins pushed right past him, like he wasn’t even there. Then they were walking over to the edge of the cenote and peering down into it.
Matt started to move forward. “Damian, wait!”
To my horror, Damian stepped off the edge and fell feet first into that black hole below.
Lyssa turned to me. “Tell Cesar I love him.”
“Lyssa! Lyssa, NO!” I yelled, and then I watched her follow her twin into the whirling emptiness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Oh, my God. Oh, my God,” I repeated over and over as Matt and I held on to each other for dear life on the floor of the cave. What just happened? Had I just lost my best friends forever? Were they dead? Were they somewhere in the Underworld? My mind couldn’t handle even thinking these things, and I grabbed onto Matt even tighter. It hurt to think. It hurt to breathe. I stared over his shoulder into the cenote. The water now looked calm and serene, as if nothing had ever disturbed it.
Just then a dozen shifters entered the cavern. Right behind them came Richard, Cesar, Adriana and Nate.
Richard looked at Matt and me, then around the cave. “Is everyone all right? What the hell happened?” he demanded.
“Matt, are you okay?” Adriana asked. “Where are the twins?”
Matt shook his head. Cesar pushed by everyone and walked quickly down the steps. “Maya, where are they?”
All I could do was look at the cenote and then back at Cesar. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t say the words.
Cesar looked at the water, then looked back at me. As he made the connection, something changed in his face. His movements were so quick; I don’t think anyone could have stopped him. He took a running leap and dove into the cenote. I don’t know how long he was under, but when he surfaced, he took a quick breath and dove again.
Everyone was screaming at him to get out of the water, and a minute later, I just couldn’t take any more. I stood up, ran to the edge, jumped in and began looking for him. The water was surprisingly clear and not all that deep, so I spotted him right away and swam straight for him. When I reached him, I grabbed onto his arm with most of my strength. At that point, I was so strong I could hold his arm and kick us both to surface with no problem. He fought me, but not much. We broke the surface together.
“She’s not there, Cesar! She’s not there. She’s in the Underworld now. I’m sorry, but she’s gone. Lyssa’s gone.”
He looked straight into my eyes and saw the truth of what I was saying. I reached for him and threw my arms around his neck. We held each other and cried together. I don’t know how long we stayed that way, but when we finally climbed out of the cenote, the shifters were gone. Only Matt, Adriana, Richard, and Nate were waiting for us. We sat down on the steps and they wrapped us in dry towels.
“I don’t understand,” Richard said after a minute. “What the hell happened?”
“I think I may know,” Nate said. “In part.” He wasn’t wearing his glasses, and I could see that his eyes were red. “Damian had been doing research into their marks, as you may know. Once we were…” he paused.
Adriana put her hand on his shoulder. “Go on.”
“…once we were together, I started helping him with it. He hadn’t found any conclusive answers, but there were many similarities between our twins and the Hero Twins of the Mayan holy book, the Popol Vuh.”
“Yeah, like the ball playing,” Matt said.
“Yes, for one. In the PV, the Hero Twins actually go down into Xibalba to fight the Lords of the Underworld. This eventually leads to its downfall. At the end of the story, the Hero Twins rise all the way up to the sky, where one becomes the sun and the other the moon.”
That got me thinking. “Like the twins’ marks,” I mumbled.
“And they said in the van that something was calling to them,” Adriana added.
I nodded. “And when they got here, they said it was the cenote. It didn’t look like it does now. I phased into Balam and knocked Victrixa in. It started to open up into, like, a bottomless pit, a black hole, and she fell down it. A few minutes later, the twins jumped in.”
Adriana looked at Richard. “What do you think?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “I do know one thing, though. We’re not going to solve this now. Let’s head out.”
I looked at Cesar sitting next to me on the steps. He nodded and we all began the long drive back to the compound.
***
That evening, I went out into the garden in search of Cesar. In spite of how awful I was feeling myself, I was worried about him. I also had a message to deliver. I came out the other side of the garden and finally found him on the bench.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey.” His voice sounded so lifeless.
“Is this seat taken?”
“No.” He leaned his elbows on his knees and looked down at the ground.
“You know, it wasn’t so long ago that we were out here together. Our girl’s got us out here twice now.”
“Ya.”
“She wanted me to tell you that she loves you. She wanted you to know that before—”
“Before what? Before she jumped into the cenote and abandoned us?”
“I’m not sure she had much choice,” I said as gently as I could. “You didn’t see them, Cesar. It was like they were bewitched or hypnotized or something.”
“Embrujados?”
“I’m serious. I’ve seen a lot of weird stuff lately. So have you. Can you honestly say that part of you doesn’t believe that maybe that’s possible?”
He turned his gaze from the ground and looked me in the eye in the way only Cesar could. “No, I can’t. But I can’t feel anything, Maya. I don’t feel instinct. I don’t feel mated. Nothing. All I feel is empty. How can that be if she’s alive?”
“I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what. I’m not giving up on them. And if you love her, you won’t, either.”
Hearing that, he stood up. “Of course I love her!”
“Then you have to hold on,” I said. “I know it’s hard. I’ll help you all I can. But you can’t give up.”
Cesar tucked one side of his hair behind his ear and flexed his jaw. “Never.”
I popped up and he gave me a hug. “Now go find your mate,” he whispered. “You’ve been away enough. I know how that feels.”
I turned and walked away toward the main house. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a start.
***
“How are you?” Matt asked the next morning.
I put my cup of tea down on the kitchen table. “It’s just so quiet with her gone.”
He sat down across from me. “Lyss was always the first one up in the morning and the last one down at night.” He glanced at the cup. “Hey, since when do you drink tea?”
“I don’t k
now. I wanted something hot, I guess.”
He took my hands in his. “You know, I just realized something.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
“You don’t know your own strength.”
Thinking I had somehow hurt him, I immediately pulled my hands away.
He laughed and took them back. “No, My, not that kind of strength. Although you do kick serious butt these days. What I mean is, well, you’ve been through so much. And here you are, still pushing through it. You amaze me.”
I took a deep breath. “I don’t feel very strong right now, Matt. I feel like...like I’ve lost two sets of twins who were very dear to me all at once. My insides feel like they’ve been ripped out or something.”
“Didn’t you tell me you reminded Cesar that the twins may not really be gone?”
“Yeah, and I guess part of me believes it. I just—”
At that moment, Nate came in from the other room. In spite of everything, he had still been working. I figured he was trying to cope the best way he could, just like the rest of us.
“Matt,” he asked, “do you know where Richard is?”
“I think he’s doing some repairs on the cabins with Cesar. Why?”
“Go and get him. Please, hurry. Maya, come with me.”
I followed him into the living room and communications area. He sat down in front of a bunch of screens that were showing various news stations from around the globe.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Crazy reports are coming in from all over the place. Some in English, some not. But look at the pictures. Fires, drought, temperatures rising unnaturally—”
Why was this ringing a bell? Then it hit me. “That asshole!” A second later, I heard Matt, Richard, and Cesar’s voices as they came in through the kitchen.
“What’s going on?” Matt asked.
“Do me a favor, Matt, just wait here. I won’t be long, I promise. I just need to check something.”
Jaguar Moon (Jaguar Sun Series Book 2) Page 16