To Surprise A Seer

by Jane Cousins

  Finally, after another few minutes of talking, the guards withdrew, clamouring up a rather impressively sheer cliff face with little to no visible effort. K’in clapped her hands and their youthful guides, along with a few rock camouflaged teenagers and children clinging to the surrounding walls, broke cover, and began to climb, following the four adult warriors.

  Elijah signalled for his Enforcers to spread out, watch the perimeter.

  Matias and Nico strode over to their sister, unconsciously looming over her.

  “We can’t keep going around in circles.” Copper sighed. “You need to leave. Matias especially needs to get as far away from here as possible. If Gap’gn gets his hands on you, he’ll pry your skull open, take the power and kill the sun. All life on earth, the future, all of you, it will cease to exist.”

  “I just don’t get why you think it’s your responsibility to stay here and police the situation?” Nico demanded.

  “Because I was the one who started it all.”

  “Bullshit.” Matias threw his hands up in the air. “The plot was hatched here, hundreds of years before you were born. If anything, thanks to you, we kept the Shard out of Kristiah’s claws.”

  “At the cost of our parents’ lives and your memory.”

  Quinn recognised that bitter tinge of guilt, she’d heard that same tone from Matias. “Enough.” She kept her tone cool and low. The Yanez siblings immediately rounded on her. Three sets of glowing light brown eyes in varying shades of toffee and golden caramel looked her way. “Copper is right, not about being responsible. But that we are going around in circles. No one, except Gap’gn, Kristiah, and his followers are to blame for what happened on the Merry Maverick that day. The fall out from which was devastating… but I was there… believe me when I say that it could have been much worse. What is important is not looking back at the past… which is temporarily the future here, but you know what I mean. We need to decide together what our next steps should be.”

  “Copper comes home with us.” The Yanez brothers were of one voice. Their body language intractable, their expressions resolute.

  “I stay and you lot leave, immediately.” Copper wasn’t the least bit intimidated with being out numbered or that both her older brothers were trying to exert their influence by looming over her.

  “Okay.” Quinn snapped her fingers. “Let’s not revert to squabbling but talk this through like mature, open minded adults. Which brings us to our first point. Matias. Nico. Copper is not your kid sister any more. She’s a full grown woman, who knows her own mind, who can make her own decisions.”

  “Thank you.” Copper flashed Quinn a grateful grin, teeth looking very white against the mud covering her lips.

  “Don’t thank me yet.” Quinn warned, at the same time holding up a warning hand to keep the Yanez brothers quiet. “Copper. No matter how tall you grow. How old you get. Where you live. Whether it be at your family’s compound in Buenos Aires, on a boat, or in an ancient Mayan jungle, Matias and Nico will always and forever be your older brothers. No, let me finish… they might not have the right to say how you dress, who you date, who you hang out with or where you live. But they are your brothers, and they will always poke their noses into your business, often unasked, pretty much always unwanted, but that, I’m afraid, is the very definition of the word family.”

  “Can I get an A…men?” Elijah’s low gravelly voice broke the silence.

  Quinn rolled her eyes. “See what I mean about family?”

  “Copper.” Matias reached up to grip Nico by the shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. “We just want you safe.”

  “And I want the two of you safe.” Copper folded her arms over her mud and leaf covered chest. “Seems we are at an impasse.”

  Elijah moved then, closing the distance until he was only an inch or two from Copper, deliberately crowding her. “If you refuse to listen to reason. Then I think it only leaves one alternative.”

  Even with the camouflage, it was clear one of Copper’s eyebrows had shot up briefly in challenge. “Really. You lay one finger on me G.I. Joe, I warn you, you won’t like the consequences.”

  Elijah’s stoic expression never wavered, those slate grey eyes remaining fixed upon his target, Copper. He needed to get his team to safety, and his prime directive was now and always would be that no one got left behind.

  What happened to Copper Yanez once she was back in the real world was not his problem. His was getting her there. “I think my team and I can hold off your people. At least long enough for me to haul you out of here over my shoulder. You choose. The dignified option of walking, or the humiliating one?”

  Copper’s chin lifted slightly in defiance. “Go ahead. Try it.”

  Elijah grabbed Copper’s upper arm. “I know you’re fast with that little blow dart of yours, but I’m faster.”

  “Most men don’t boast about that.”

  Elijah chuffed a laugh and then waited… and waited some more.

  “Sorry.” Copper lifted up her arm, studying a scratch across the back of her hand. “Did you really think that would work? Scratching me with one of my own knock out darts?” Her smile turned into a full blown gloating grin. “Turn about is only fair play.”

  Elijah grabbed his suddenly dead weight arm. He couldn’t feel his fingers, hand, or his right arm at all. “What did you do?”

  “Just a tiny little taste of what Nico got last night. You didn’t honestly believe I’d be foolish enough to expose a trade secret that you might end up using against me, did you?”

  Quinn wanted to clap. Copper’s win was outstanding. She couldn’t remember the last time anyone had gotten the best over Elijah. Better still, Copper hadn’t laid him out unconscious, her revenge was much more pointed and casual.

  Of course, now Elijah would probably want to kill Copper, but he’d have to at least wait for the feeling in his arm to return.

  Quinn wandered away to take a seat on a nearby rock as the Yanez brothers closed in on Elijah. Presenting a united front of brotherhood. Probably pissed off because Elijah had tried to hurt their little sister… and probably more upset, because his sneaky plan hadn’t worked. Men, why couldn’t they just have a rational discussion?

  And whilst the three men argued about their next step she would just sit here, out of the way, and breathe, meditate even. She would not admire the way Matias’s too tight jeans hugged his gorgeous rear end. She would not dwell on what it was like to explore all that muscular, caramel flesh. And she certainly wouldn’t waste her time thinking about his drugging kisses or the way he looked so damned pleased with himself when he made her come… over and over again.

  Grrr… in self defence, Quinn closed her eyes. Not thinking about Matias. Breathe. Not thinking about last night. Breathe. Not thinking about what could have been if only the two of them… if Matias could remember, if she wasn’t scheduled to go insane. Breathe.

  Okay, so not thinking about it wasn’t working. She should count her blessings. At least no power on Earth existed that could force her to talk about what was going on… or not going on between her and Matias. And she was hundreds of years away from being the main topic of speculation in regards to the Southern Sanctuary grapevine. No close friends here to badger her for details. Or in Darcy’s case, threaten her with dire bodily harm. See, there was a silver lining, you just had to look really hard for it.

  Quinn’s eyes snapped open as she sensed a presence settle on to the rock next to her, Copper, eyeing her with clear speculation.

  “So, you and Matias?”

  Damn, now she was going to have to talk about it too? Rats.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Um… no, there’s nothing going on between me and your brother.”

  “Really?” Copper’s bright, golden brown eyes flickered down over the finger shaped bruises on Quinn’s arms, over the slightly reddened skin of her throat and then up to her swollen lips. “I’m afraid the evidence plainly begs to differ.”

  “It’s com
plicated.”

  Copper’s gaze tracked to Matias. “He clearly likes you. His watches you when you’re not looking.”

  “He does?” Quinn’s heart began to beat faster.

  “And the way you studiously avoid looking at him is more telling than anything.”

  Quinn chuffed a soft laugh. Time to deflect. “Because I don’t look at Matias, I must have feelings for him?”

  Copper shrugged. “It’s the way you don’t look at him. Like when you want something really badly but you think if you pretend that it doesn’t exist, the wanting will go away.”

  Quinn rolled her eyes. “Look. Matias and I have an agreement… a temporary one that suits us both.”

  “Is it because of his memory problems? Once the potion he took wears off and he reverts… did I ruin his life?”

  “Trust me, Matias would never see it like that. And his memory, or lack of it, is only one of many factors that are contributing to the reasons why we swore to keep things casual.” Not that there had been anything casual about what they’d done together last night. Urgent. Frantic. Intense. Grrr, all the flashbacks were so not helping. “What about you?”

  “Me?” Copper looked surprise.

  “Is one of the reasons you want to stay because you’ve formed an attachment with someone here?”

  “I haven’t been a nun, if that’s what you are asking. But no, as Goddess and leader, I’ve had to be careful… sparing in my favours. Keep everything impersonal.”

  “Of course that doesn’t stop your suitors from getting attached to you, does it? I saw how protective those warriors you arrived with this morning were. It seemed kind of personal to them.”

  Copper shook her head, smiling. “Individually, they are generally pretty easy to deal with. For some reason they’ve united suddenly and decided I need full time babysitters.”

  “I think they see us as a threat.” Or to be more accurate, they recognised Elijah as a threat, but Quinn wasn’t sure how Copper would take that information.

  “I’ve told them I won’t leave. In fact, I thought I was rather convincing. But they still insisted upon shadowing me here today. Even now, I can se… I know they aren’t far away.”

  “Why do you want to stay?”

  “Because I owe them. Without the Israzidi I would have died. After I escaped from Gap’gn they took me in, healed me, accepted me.”

  Quinn eyed Copper intently, the mud layering making it rather difficult to read any changes in her facial expressions. “And haven’t you paid them back a hundred times over? Copper, without you here, did you ever stop to think about what would have happened to the Israzidi tribe? You said it yourself, Gap’gn and his quest for power had all but decimated the adult population.”

  “I didn’t do all that much.” Copper shrugged off Quinn’s words.

  “You saved an entire tribe, Copper. You trained them to not only survive, but to flourish, even with the threat of Gap’gn and his Jaguar minions stalking them. I’ve seen the traps in the jungles. The way your people move. The weapons they carry. And the way they utilise the camouflage skills you taught them. And I’m guessing somewhere there is a village with a school and a medical centre built and staffed to your exacting specifications.”

  Copper’s eyes swept downwards for a moment. “It was the least I could do for them.”

  Quinn fought the urge to wrap her arms around Copper and hug her. “The Israzidi became your family, I get it. You helped them, however you could. You took up the mantle of K’in and led them, trained them and now they serve you. Repaying you, for all the wonders you have introduced to them. I think it’s about time you realise that the slate is cleared.”

  “I’m not sure it can ever be cleared. You’re right, they have become my substitute family and I love them all, I can’t just leave them to fend for themselves.”

  “And I’m sure they love you in return, but as the Goddess K’in, not Copper Yanez. If you choose to stay, you will always be their leader, their Goddess, who can do wondrous things, but you will always be apart. Elevated. Untouchable. Or is that the real reason you don’t want to leave? Because let me be the first to tell you, you could never be ordinary. You might not be worshipped back in the real world, but you would still be special there. And you would be loved.” Quinn’s gaze wandered over to the Yanez brothers.

  Copper likewise looked that way. “You talk a good game, Doctor Bennett, I’ll give you that.” Copper heaved out a small, unconscious sigh, her attention shifting to the edges of the ravine. “But I have to stay because… well, to quote your own words, it’s complicated.”

  * * *

  Matias moved a little closer, deliberately invading Quinn’s personal space, making her heart beat faster and her fingers itch to reach out and touch him. Damn it, she’d spent a year successfully avoiding the man and now after one night of hot and heavy sex, he was like true North, and she was a magnet.

  She kept finding herself unconsciously moving towards him. Kept looking around to make sure he was near, safe. Invariably finding his gaze already fixed on her, already in motion to join her. As if some invisible link now connected them that refused to let them get more than a few feet away from one another.

  Not that there was any way to gain distance and perhaps some much needed perspective. The Israzidi clan, although cautiously welcoming, very deliberately kept the strangers herded together at all times. And Quinn was very conscious of Copper’s four warrior defenders shadowing their every step. Watchful, as they toured the Israzidi village, alert for any move they might make against their Goddess K’in.

  The only time they’d had a break from Copper’s always looming protection detail was when a late afternoon storm arrived. Forcing them to seek shelter in the rough temple built in the centre of the tribal settlement. A building Copper had been a little embarrassed to lead them into. But given their large numbers, there had been few other venues located nearby that could provide protection from the lashing winds and rain.

  If any of them had forgotten how important Copper was to the tribe, then the temple was a glaring reminder. Stone statues, carved in Copper’s likeness, decorated the rough archways. Whilst elaborately detailed charcoal drawings depicted K’in in all her magnificence protecting the tribe, her arms held high in defiance, balls of fire shooting out her hands as she faced off against the Jag-offs and their dark High Priest.

  The Yanez brothers had looked around in wide eyed wonder. Elijah, in comparison, had glared at the set up and turned to the group, demanding they finalise their plans. So that’s what they did as the thunder boomed overhead and lightning flashed.

  They would go tonight; all were in agreement.

  The visitors from the future would sneak onto the beach after dark and Matias would touch the salt water, sending everyone home. Elijah would then gather the Alpha Elite Enforcer Team and return to storm the temple. Steal back the hollowed blade and kill Gap’gn and any of his followers who got in their way.

  The plan was feasible. Elijah convinced it would work. And he talked around a clearly reluctant Nico and Matias with relentless determination.

  Yet… for some reason, Quinn watching them hammer out the plan couldn’t help but think she was watching a play. The discussion was too studied. Responses too ready. Almost as if this was a sham and there was another plan in play… it worried her.

  Finished going over the details, they ate from platters of fresh fruit and vegetables delivered by doe-eyed children, who stared at the strangers with curiosity and at Copper with clear affection and a little awe.

  Finally, the storm began to dissipate and it was now just a question of waiting for night to fall. Still, Quinn felt uneasy. Unsurprised to find that somehow she and Matias had ended up alone together in a far corner of the shrine. “You okay with this plan?”

  Matias shrugged. “I think I have forty-eight hours left on this stay awake potion. If the Elite team can be rallied quickly enough, I should still have all my faculties, my memories, intact fo
r the raid.”

  “I was talking about Copper, and her choice to stay.”

  “That? No, I hate that with every fibre of my being. She doesn’t belong here.”

  “You know that’s not true. After touring the village, seeing all the good she’s done, the way the people are thriving. The way they love her. She’s managed to make a life here.”

  Matias looked unconvinced. “Worshipping someone is sometimes closer to fear than love. And did you notice we never saw where she sleeps? Why is that? I’m betting it’s because it’s no where near here. A Goddess doesn’t slum it by living and sleeping with her people. Letting them see her sweep the floors or collect her own firewood.”

  “Did you ever think that Copper chooses not to live amongst her people because of those very reasons? They would never let her sweep her own floors or collect her own firewood.”

  “Maybe.” Matias ran a frustrated hand through his curls, pushing them back out of his eyes. “But I don’t like it.”

  “Perhaps it isn’t about you liking her decision but respecting it.” Quinn followed up. “Matias. Promise me you are not going to do something desperate.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like choose to stay here. That would only make Copper’s job of protecting her people and holding off Gap’gn that much more difficult if he knew you were here and what you are carrying.”

  Matias shook his head. “But it’s not her job. Copper wasn’t destined for this. She doesn’t belong here. She was a book-worm, for fuck sake. She wanted to go to University to study Ancient Languages.”

  “Well, think of this as a very long field placement. Look, I get it, none of what happened that day on the boat should have taken place. Your parents. Copper going missing, falling back through time. You taking on the Shard.”

  Matias clenched his teeth. “Fate. Fucking fate, working behind the scenes pulling our threads. Gods moving us around like we are chess pieces for their amusement.”