Jaguar Sun (The Jaguar Sun Series)

by Bourke, Martha

  I flushed the toilet (in case anyone was listening), then walked back to the bed and sat down. I closed my eyes and sent a silent prayer to my spirit guide. Balam, I thought, I have no offering for you. But my mate is in trouble. I’ve been taken away from him, and he is in such pain. Balam, please send him your strength. And please help me to figure out a way to contact him so he knows that I am alive. Show me how to get back to my friends. And may I continue to be one with my Jaguar soul.

  I opened my eyes to see Victrixa standing outside my cell.

  “In Lak’ech,” she said.

  “Do you really expect me to answer that?” I asked.

  “Look, Maya, I know that we don’t share the same goals. But there’s no reason for us to be enemies.”

  “Are you kidding me? What the hell are we then?”

  “We’re fellow shifters. Nothing has to change that.”

  All I could do was shake my head. “You can’t be serious. You want the world to stay the way it is. You don’t care about the people who will continue to suffer if the world doesn’t change. And it will only get worse. You told me that you had respect for humans. You lied.”

  She took a step forward. “How can you not see that we are the chosen? We are the superior race! Humans are not worthy to commune with the Otherworld as we do.”

  “Oh? If not, then tell me this: Why am I here? If humans are not deserving of this change in consciousness, then why have I been reincarnated? Don’t you get it? By keeping me here, you are going against nature. You have no right to make this choice for them. It’s already been made!”

  She stared at me for a long minute. “Well, I wouldn’t go that far. But you’ll come around, one way or another. Oh, I brought this down for you. I thought perhaps you could use it.” She pushed a cold can of diet Coke through the bars.

  Damn that crazy bitch, I thought, grudgingly taking the soda from her. I popped the tab and watched her walk up the stairs, wondering what reason she could have for buttering me up. I took a large gulp and then it hit me. My lips slowly began to curve into a smile. Thank you, Balam, I thought, chugging the rest of the soda. I went back into the little bathroom, closed the door, and sat back down on the toilet seat. I had absolutely no idea if I could pull it off, but I was already so excited I could hardly concentrate. I was able to slowly relax my mind and concentrate on the compound. I was back watching Lyssa.

  “What are you trying to do, anyway?” she was saying. She was watching Damian use Richard’s laptop.

  “It’s a mapping system,” he said. “I’m using the information Richard gave us to see if there’s some kind of pattern to it. See how I’m plugging in these points?”

  “Okaaaay. Ouch!” She rubbed her shoulder. “What the hell?”

  “What happened?” Damian asked, whipping around.

  “I don’t know, I…” And then her eyes caught it. The empty diet Coke can was rolling across the floor. “Oh, my God! Damian, Maya’s alive! She just hit me with that Coke can! We gotta find Matt!” She picked up the can and ran out the door with Damian on her heels.

  “Matt! Matt!” Lyssa yelled, running at Matt, Richard, and Cesar in the yard. “She’s alive! Maya’s alive!”

  Matt turned toward her. “What?”

  “She just hit me with this can!”

  “Oh, God!” He scooped her right off her feet and into a huge hug.

  I watched for a while as everyone hugged, laughing and crying. I swear, even Richard was smiling. I wiped a tear from my eye with my sleeve.

  Okay, guys, now it’s your turn.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  By the third morning, I thought I was going to lose my mind. I was starting to feel like a caged animal. Plus, the more I thought about my last conversation with Victrixa, the more I wondered if they really did intend to let me go. But I knew it didn’t really matter. I had to be at the top of El Castillo on the solstice, no matter what.

  I ate my breakfast and took a shower before trying to check back in at the safe house. When I was ready, I settled back on my throne and focused on my breath. My mind cleared and I began to feel the energy build inside me. Soon the twins’ rooms came into view. There was no one there at all that I could see. In fact, I couldn’t seem to sense anyone in the main house at all. But something seemed different.

  It took me a minute before I picked up on what it was. There were pieces of paper, messages taped up all over the place. They were everywhere, and they were for me! It was like Twitter on steroids. Some of them were cute little notes from Damian telling me to keep my spirits up. Lyssa’s were not all PG13, but they made me laugh like crazy. There was just one in Matt’s familiar boy scrawl. It said, I love you. And I saw others written in bold black marker. They all said the same thing—Maya Meeting 9 PM.

  I opened my eyes and considered what I’d seen. No doubt it had been Richard who’d figured out how to use my powers to our advantage. It would be easy to send them another object to let them know that I was there watching during the meeting. But, I realized very quickly, it wasn’t going to be very helpful with information only going one way. And I didn’t have anything to write with. Crap. I had to figure out a way to communicate, but I had no idea how. I could hardly keep throwing cans at them.

  As I looked around my little cell and tried to think of a way to get messages to them, I started to get the feeling in my gut that meant Balam was trying to tell me something. I walked into the bathroom, shut the door, and sat down, then closed my eyes and tried to focus on my gut. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I could see a room I didn’t recognize. It looked like it might be some kind of library or study.

  “If she refuses to join us, then we’ll simply kill her,” a tall man with silver hair was saying. He was dressed in a white linen suit and looked perfectly cool, lounging back in a big armchair.

  “Look, Avery, we’ve been over this,” a second man said. “We have no way of knowing what she’s capable of. If we don’t kill her now, who knows what could happen.” This guy was pacing back and forth.

  Then I realized that I could hear footsteps above my head. They were in the room right above me! I focused again.

  “It doesn’t matter what she’s capable of,” Victrixa said, “it only matters what she knows, what she’s been taught. There hasn’t been enough time for Adriana and Richard to discover all of her abilities. The possibilities are infinite.”

  “But—”

  “No, Trixa is right, Lucas,” the man called Avery broke in. “They would need to focus on the task at hand.”

  Victrixa spoke again. “Toltec has existed for thousands of years with one single purpose. To destroy all incarnations of the goddess Maya. It was decided that it was necessary in order to stop the start of the New Age. But this is 2012. Toltec has changed. We have evolved, as has Maya. I don’t believe that she is a reincarnation of the goddess. I believe she is the goddess. And it’s time to see if we can use this power to our own ends.”

  What did she just say? Goddess?

  “Conjecture!” one of the men exclaimed. “You have no proof! And the idea of actually having her join us is utterly ridiculous. Check your ambition, Trixa. You’re overreaching, just like always.” It was Lucas. He sounded very impatient with her. “We should kill her now while we have the chance.”

  “Isn’t the power that she wields proof enough?”

  Now Avery spoke up. “But still,” he said—it sounded like he was trying to make peace between them—“she may have been given that power simply to do what she was intended to do. We shall have great power on our side soon enough. Perhaps Lucas is right.”

  There was a sharp knock at the door and two shifters walked in....

  And the vision disappeared. I opened my eyes. I could hardly believe what I’d just heard. Toltec’s mission wasn’t only to stop the New Age from happening. It was to kill me. And they thought that I was a…a…I couldn’t even think the word. The room started to spin uncontrollably. I lifted the lid to my “throne” and puk
ed my guts out. (Handy, huh?) Then I stumbled over to the bed just to lay down for a bit. My mind was racing.

  I hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but when I woke up the clock next to my bed read 7:30. I had an hour and a half before the meeting, and I still had absolutely no idea how to communicate with the compound. Ugh. And I still felt slightly nauseous. I couldn’t even look in the direction of my dinner, which sat on my little table. I walked over to the mini-fridge, opened it, and sank down on the cold floor, staring at all the junk food inside. I had barely touched any of it. The meals were filling enough, but my mind was on other things. Maybe some gum would settle my stomach.

  I must have sat there for half an hour, just looking at the packages of gum. Of course, part of my dismay was the fact that all of the labels were in Spanish and I could actually read them. I have to admit that blew my mind. And then it hit me! The labels were in Spanish, but I could still tear off individual letters to make English words! I just needed something to stick them together with. Man, I would have given anything right then for some Scotch tape.

  I thought about first aid tape and I tore apart the bathroom looking for a kit. The closest thing I could find was a box of tampons. (So nice of them to think of my feminine needs before they bumped me off.) Well, crap. There had to be something I could use. I shut the cabinet doors under the bathroom sink and walked back into the other room. I looked at the clock. I only had thirty minutes left. I opened the fridge and carefully started to tear the labels off the packages of snacks. I opened a box of Canel chewing gum and popped a piece into my mouth.

  Hmm, I thought, now this might work. I chewed the gum a few more times and took it out of my mouth. It was no Bubblicious, but it seemed pretty sticky. Lyssa would definitely approve. I tore a letter from the Canel box and stuck it to the gum. It stayed! My own little version of a sticky note. But I sure didn’t envy the first person to pick it up. Ew. I put the gum back in my mouth, added several more pieces, and continued to make multiple alphabets out of the food boxes, bags, and wrappers.

  Soon I had several duplicate alphabets laid out on the bathroom counter next to the toilet. Sadly, I was missing some letters, like K and W, which aren’t really used in Spanish. Others, like X, I had very few of. I just hoped I had enough to get my messages across. I closed the bathroom door and wedged the chair under the knob, just in case. Then, with just a couple of minutes to spare, I sat down and began to call energy to myself. Within moments, Damian’s room came into view. Man, I was getting good at this.

  “…we’ll wait for her to send us a sign that she’s with us and then we’ll get started,” Richard was saying.

  I focused on the empty water bottle in my hands and soon it was careening through Damian’s room. Luckily, it only hit the wall.

  Everyone started yelling my name and jumping around with excitement, and I sat there on the john, grinning like an idiot. Richard and Adriana quickly reminded us that we needed to move things along.

  “Maya, we still don’t have your location,” Richard said. “Do you know for sure if you’re with Toltec?”

  To conserve letters, I took one Y, stuck it to a tiny bit of gum, and sent it through a portal.

  “What was that?” Damian asked, as the chewing gum whizzed past his nose.

  Matt picked it up off the floor. “It’s…gum.”

  “Gum?” Adriana asked.

  “Yeah,” Lyssa said, “it’s Canel with a Y stuck to it.”

  “That must mean ‘yes,’” Richard said. “She doesn’t have anything to write with. Maya, do you have any idea where they’re keeping you?”

  I sent another piece of gum with an N attached through a portal and watched as Richard’s face fell.

  “Damn it,” he said.

  “Maya,” Adriana said, “what can you tell us? Are you safe?”

  As quickly as I could, I put together a message that looked like text messaging. Thy pln to ill me if i dnt oin them. I sent it through. Talk about your texting nightmare.

  “Okay, they want her to…join them or they’ll…kill her,” Lyssa read off the gum.

  “Oh, my God,” Matt said, putting his hands to his face.

  “Join them? That doesn’t make much sense,” Richard said.

  “Let me see that,” Adriana said. She looked at the message for a moment. “Maya, what else do you know? Tell us anything at all, even if it doesn’t seem important.”

  I fumbled for the right letters and put together, I am goddess. I didn’t have a question mark, so it sounded like I was calling myself a goddess. This time Damian picked up my sticky message.

  “It says, ‘I am goddess.’”

  Adriana frowned. “I’m not sure what that means. Maya, what do you mean?” she asked. It was weird. They were talking to me while looking into thin air.

  I looked at my slowly dwindling letters, pulled some more gum out of my mouth, and stuck tltc inks to it. Then I sent it through, wondering what they would say. Would they think it was ridiculous? I mean, it was. But then, why was my stomach clenching up?

  Richard got the message this time. “Toltec thinks that she’s a goddess? Does that seem right, Adri?” he asked.

  “Maya, is that right?” Adriana asked.

  Man, my nerves were shot. This was worse than charades. My hands shaking, I stuck a Y on a piece of gum and sent it through.

  “I’m not making a lot of sense out of this,” Richard said.

  “Hey, maybe they don’t think that she’s just a reincarnation,” Damian said. “Maybe they think that she is an actual goddess, like the goddess Maya. Remember when we researched this at WNMU? At least two of the entries referred to actual goddesses, one Greek and one Hindu.”

  “My God, we’ve gotta get her out of there,” Adriana said. “Maya is there anything else?”

  I thought for a moment and then sent through a reply. N.

  “If it’s okay, I’d like us to be alone for a minute,” Matt said. Quickly, everyone said their good-byes to me and cleared out of the room.

  “I love you, My,” he said. “I miss you so much. Lately, I’ve been able to feel what you’re feeling. Has that been happening to you?”

  My eyes welled up with tears as I sent through a Y.

  He picked up the gum and then closed his eyes. He just stood there quietly for a moment.

  What was he doing? All of a sudden my heart filled with a feeling of love so strong it nearly knocked me over. The tears in my eyes started to spill over. I put my hands to my chest, not wanting the feeling to fade, not wanting to ever lose it.

  “Can you feel it, My? Maya? I can feel you panicking! What’s wrong?”

  Banging on the bathroom door. I had to open my eyes and break our connection. Now someone was pushing against the door. Shit! I had totally forgotten about the curfew!

  “Open up this door, Maya! Do you hear me?” It was Victrixa. She was screaming with rage.

  I quickly grabbed at the letters on the sink and tried to gather them up, but it was too late. She had forced the door open.

  “What the hell have you been doing in here?” She looked down at the sink. “You’ve been communicating with them all this time?” And she slapped me in the face so hard I thought my eye was going to explode. I fell back against the wall.

  “Answer me!” she yelled.

  “No,” I stammered. “J—just this once.”

  “Avery! Avery, get down here!” she screamed.

  He walked halfway down the stairs and poked his head down. The man from my vision was now real. “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Get me two shifters,” Victrixa barked. Then she turned back and looked at me. “You are going to wish you had never been reborn,” she said. And then, right before my eyes, Victrixa phased into the most terrifying snake I had ever seen. I mean, she was huge. Her whole body wouldn’t fit into the bathroom. Watching Snakes on a Plane didn’t make me an expert, but she had to be an anaconda or python or something. I stared into her yellowish-green eyes, desperately loo
king for the human inside. But all I saw was rage. Sweat pouring down my face, I tried to make myself as flat against the wall as I could. Slowly and carefully I moved my jelly legs toward the shower. That was the only shelter I could think of. But when her head flattened and her hood opened, I realized just how wrong I had been.

  She opened her mouth, revealing two large fangs. She hissed and lunged at me. All I could do in my panic was move my hand and move her through a portal, hurling her backwards against the bathroom door. Her head smacked hard against it and part of the wall crumbled. I couldn’t seem to move her any further. I was too freaked out. Then I felt a sharp pain in my right shoulder and everything went black.

  ~ ~ ~

  When I woke up, I was tied to a chair in the study that I had seen in my vision. There was no one in the room with me. My T-shirt was torn and my right shoulder was still sore from whatever had hit me. I could only hope that it hadn’t been a fang. I turned my head to look out a window and saw that the sun was low on the horizon. God, what day was it?

  I heard a man’s voice. “I see you’re awake. Good. Don’t worry. You were not bitten. You were put out with a small tranquilizer dart. You and I have some things to discuss.” I turned my head so I could see him. “My name is Avery Wells. I am a member of Toltec. I’m sure that needs no explanation.”

  I tried to shake my head, even though it hurt. “Victrixa and I have already talked about that,” I said, “and the answer is still no.”

  “Oh, is that what you two were doing in my basement? Talking?” He had some kind of accent, but I couldn’t place it.

  “Yeah,” I said. “And maybe you should rein in your snake, and I do mean snake.”

  He took a step closer to me. “Well, we’re going to discuss it again. And this time, you’ll listen. I have plenty more tranquilizer darts where that one came from. It would be a very easy matter to simply put you out until after tomorrow.”

  Crap, crap, crap. How long had I been out? Panic seized my insides as I tried to appear calm on the outside. I had to get out of there. Now.

  “Look, Maya,” he was saying, “it’s all very simple. If you agree to join us, then you live. If you insist on playing the hero, then you’ll die like one. It doesn’t seem like a difficult decision to me.”