by Jenesi Ash
FLASHLIGHT IN HAND, DR. OLIVIA MARKHAM pushed through the vines and vegetation as her glance scanned the tall palm trees fringing the overgrown footpath. With the setting sun unable to penetrate the thick canopy of leaves overhead, she had to rely on artificial light to find her way. Not that she knew her way—she didn’t—which was why she, along with her best friend and fellow research partner, Dr. Jordon Brooks, had joined a local tour group that had just embarked on a weeklong safari.
The heavy, humid atmosphere closed around her, making it difficult to fully inflate her lungs with air. She swiped her damp bangs from her forehead, hardly able to believe that her research into aphrodisiacs had landed her smack-dab in the middle of the Mayan jungle—a far cry from her research lab at the University of Texas, she mused.
The tour group had been traveling from sunup until sundown. Judging from the grumblings coming from the other group members up ahead, it was clear they were ready to stop and set up camp for the night. So when Olivia’s stomach started to grumble, she stopped midstride, twisted around and spoke to Jordon in whispered words. “How much farther do you think it is?”
Olivia waved her flashlight toward her friend, momentarily blinding her. Without warning, their bodies collided with a thud, and the air rushed from her lungs.
Gasping, Olivia stumbled backward, her heavy backpack throwing her off balance. With her hands flailing, her flashlight tumbled to the ground; unable to right herself, she landed with a thump a few feet away from her light.
Jordon dropped to her knees. Panicked, she reached for Olivia and gushed out, “Olivia, are you okay?”
“I’m okay, but…I can’t speak for the damn bush I fell on,” she said, lightening the mood. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear it was a cactus.”
Jordon crinkled her nose and panned her light, taking in the flattened foliage. “Not a cactus—just the exposed roots of a Pacaya palm tree,” she said.
Olivia pushed her damp bangs back with her palm. “Oh, yeah? Tell that to my ass.”
She shimmied forward to retrieve her flashlight and then looked around. Sure enough, Jordon was right. It was merely Pacaya palm roots—they’d done enough research over the past few months to know the foliage intimately.
Stifling a chuckle, Jordon shook her head and reached out to her. “Need a hand?”
“I think I need a minute to catch my breath first.” Olivia gripped her chest and wheezed loudly to emphasize the point.
Laughing at Olivia’s exaggerated antics, Jordon plunked down beside her and went to work brushing dirt and insects from her camo jacket.
Olivia pulled off her rucksack and took a moment to compose herself. The hard truth was that Olivia and Jordon were both strong, streetwise city girls who’d trained emotionally and physically for the weeklong excursion, but despite their preparedness, they somehow found themselves a little vulnerable and a whole lot out of their element in the primitive jungle surroundings.
While they rested and filled their lungs, Olivia knotted her long auburn hair at her nape and then glanced around. She swept her flashlight over the flora, scanning the area from ground to treetop as she searched for the bright ivory petals of the estela flower.
Rumor had it that the estela, which meant “star” in English, could actually glow in the dark—hence the name, no doubt. Rumor also had it that the leaves, when ingested, had very potent, very magical aphrodisiacal powers. This was the only reason Olivia and Jordon were fighting their way through a jungle at this particular moment, instead of working at their private laboratory.
Unfortunately for them—and their research—rumor also had it that the flower was merely a legend, and no proof of its presence had ever been found. Even the townsfolk, including their tour guide, had been pretty closemouthed about the flower’s actual existence.
Jordon angled her head to peer into the dark path. “We’d better get moving before we lose the others.”
Olivia glanced behind her, and flicked her light over the untamed path. “Shouldn’t there be a guide following up the rear to ensure no one gets lost?”
“I guess it’s up to us to keep up.” Jordon climbed to her feet. “Come on.”
Olivia stood, threw her rucksack over her shoulder and then stilled. “Listen.”
“What am I listening for?” After a quiet moment, Jordon turned in a circle, hearing only the crunch of twigs and underbrush beneath her hiking boots. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Precisely.”
“Oh, shit,” Jordon said as understanding dawned. “Let’s move it. We’d better pick up the pace before we really get left behind.”
Pushing through the vines, they rushed forward, searching for their tour group. A few moments later they came upon the others, who were already setting up camp.
Following Jordon’s lead, Olivia dropped her bags and hooked her flashlight onto her belt. She was grateful that they’d finally reached their destination.
Olivia went to work finding a spot to set up the tent, while Jordon rooted through their bags for food. The minute they were both rested and fed, the two had plans to scope out the area.
Before she had time to secure a spot, their guide approached with two lit lanterns and spoke to them both in rough English. “Follow me.” As he handed Jordon a lantern, Olivia took that moment to study him. Splashes of colored paint, with symbols she didn’t understand, covered his dark skin, making him look wild, fierce and…carnal. Long black hair fell forward as he dipped his head to meet Olivia’s gaze straight on.
He made a low guttural sound, and lowered his voice for their ears only. “Come and learn.”
Marveling at the turn of events, Olivia cast Jordon a skeptical glance, her expression conveying her disbelief; a heady mixture of concern and anticipation whipped through her blood. After refusing to even discuss the flower’s potent powers, or even its mere existence, could he really be guiding them to it?
Moving with grace and agility, he turned his back to them, and stepped from the beaten path into one that appeared less traveled. Jordon held the lantern high, lighting the dark jungle before them.
Olivia stood stock-still and said in a whisper, “What do you think caused his change of heart?”
Jordon’s frown deepened as she slowly shook her head. “I really have no idea at all. But I think we should at least follow him to find out.” With that, Jordon picked up her rucksack and stepped forward cautiously. Olivia scooped up her own pack and followed closely behind.
Without speaking, their guide led them deep into the jungle interior. Despite their hunger and sheer exhaustion, they trekked onward, following in silence, anxious to discover the magical flower—a flower that would take them from obscurity to making their mark in the scientific world.
What felt like hours later, but in reality could have been only twenty minutes, Olivia and Jordon found themselves overlooking a tall cavern. From their elevated position, they couldn’t see into its depths, but they could hear the rustling sound of water below. They both crouched down and peered into the darkness. They could see a faint light deep below. A fragrant scent curled around her, and Olivia inhaled, pulling the unique aroma into her lungs; she wondered if the scent was coming from the estela flower, and if the faint light was from its glowing petals.
When a twig snapped behind her, Olivia stood and turned to face their guide. Jordon placed the lantern near the cliff, and moved in beside her. Their guide waved his hands forward, gesturing to the thick rope dangling over the edge. “It is what you seek.”
Her heart racing, Olivia narrowed suspicious eyes and said, “You want us to go down there?”
Their guide nodded. “It is safe. I will follow.”
Jordon twisted around, hunkered down and grabbed the rope. She tugged, testing it. Always the risk-taker, Jordon tossed Olivia a reassuring look and shrugged. “It seems safe enough.”
Was it really possible that they’d find the estela flower in the belly of the cavern?
The guide answ
ered Olivia’s unasked question. “What you seek you will find, down there. Auga,” he added in his native tongue, bowing his head.
They’d find the flower in the water?
Olivia noted the moment of hesitation in Jordon’s eyes before she quickly blinked it away. “What do you say, Olivia? Are you game?”
Olivia knelt beside her friend and tried the rope. She drew a fortifying breath, gathered her bravado and shot Jordon a glance. “I say we’ve come too far to back down now.”
CHAPTER TWO
JORDON JUMPED TO THE GROUND DEEP INSIDE the wonderfully cool inner cavern and immediately grabbed the flashlight hanging from her belt, flipping it on. She held it up and stared in awe at the glorious sight she found around her. The light reflected off the sparkling water of a pond, which was in the center of a magnificent cavern. She quickly scanned for animals or other hidden dangers, and thankfully found nothing that represented imminent risk—only obscure beauty hidden in darkness. Drawing a breath, she tried to calm her racing heart. The idea of finding that flower had her pulse pounding at double-time. A flower as potent as legend foretold would do more than offer pleasure; it might deliver alternatives to addictive pain medications. She was dreaming big, but she couldn’t help herself.
Despite her excitement, Jordon couldn’t fight her uneasiness. Shouldn’t the guide have come down first and ensured their safety? And why the change of heart about helping them? Why show them this secret location? Up until this point, he had acted as if their quest for the secret estela flower was some sort of great taboo. And quite truthfully, even now, she felt nervous. Could they trust him?
Before she could consider those questions any further, Olivia landed on her feet beside Jordon, discarding her heavy backpack. Immediately, Olivia’s flashlight flipped on, showing she shared the same jitters.
“Oh, my God,” Olivia whispered. “It’s beautiful. Or what I can see of it is.”
“I know,” Jordon said, following her friend’s lead and sliding her pack off her back. “Easy to believe something special like that flower would be down here, isn’t it?”
“Oh, yeah,” Olivia agreed, not quite suppressing a sudden shiver. “And about ten degrees cooler. Gotta love that.”
“I bet the water’s a little chilly, though, and that’s where the flower is supposed to be,” Jordon warned. “We can’t go in without proper gear. We’ll freeze.”
Abruptly, the rope jerked, and Jordon assumed the guide was headed down to join them, but instead it began to climb upward.
“Hey!” Jordon screamed, instinct kicking in as she dropped her flashlight and jumped—four years on the college track-and-field high-jump team being put to use as she leaped upward, trying to grab the rope.
“Oh, crap!” Olivia exclaimed as Jordon’s fingers merely grazed the tip of the rope. The rope slid farther out of reach, and Jordon plummeted to the ground with a hard thud and scrambled for her flashlight again.
“Hey!” Olivia shouted at the guide. “What are you doing up there? I thought you were coming down, too?” No response. “Are you insane? We need that rope.”
Jordon pointed her light upward at the entrance as she pushed to her feet. “This is so not good,” she murmured, not bothering to yell again. At this point, it was pretty obvious they were screwed.
As if in confirmation, the guide’s head appeared at the opening of the hole and he grinned. “You will get the rope back,” he promised. “When the shaman, Donato, says you get it back.”
“What?” Jordon gasped at the same time that Olivia demanded, “Who is Donato?”
Suddenly the cavern lit with flames; fire flickered at several corners and then followed a path around a ridge. Within seconds the entire cavern was alight, and Jordon and Olivia found themselves surrounded by natives. And not just any natives—tall, muscular men in barely-there loincloths stood in various parts of the cavern.
“To say this isn’t an ordinary cavern in the middle of the Mexican jungle would be an understatement,” Jordon murmured, swallowing hard as three loinclothed, godlike natives stepped closer, forming a line. She flicked a split-second glance over at Olivia and then back over the rock-hard abs and broad shoulders of “the gods.” “Tell me I fell and hit my head, and this is some sort of erotic fantasy, because I really don’t want all of these hot men to be cannibals about to kill us.”
“Not unless you pulled me down with you, and we both hit our heads,” Olivia said, delivering the hard truth. The two friends took a step closer together at the same moment. “You think one of them is Donato?”
The three men who’d formed the line eased apart, and a gray-haired man wearing a bright, floor-length robe of yellow and orange stepped forward. “I am Donato, and I possess the answers you seek. I can give you the estela.” Though he spoke English, his words were heavily laced with a native accent.
Jordon gave the man a cautious once-over. “Why do I think there is more to your offer than simple generosity?”
“Exactly,” Olivia inserted, her arms crossing protectively in front of her chest. “Why are we here? It’s clear you planned this.”
A hint of a smile played on the older man’s lips, a bit of appreciation in his eyes at their astuteness. “There are certain terms to my willingness to help you.”
“Terms,” Olivia said flatly. “Why would we accept your terms?”
This time the old man openly smiled. “Because we both know how badly you want the estela. Why else would you be in the middle of a jungle, hunting for what many believe to be only myth?”
“But it’s not a myth,” Jordon countered. “Is it?”
“The estela is real, as is its power to deliver great pleasure.” He held out his hand, closed his palm and then opened it. A glowing flower lay in his palm.
The two women shared a gasp of surprise. “How did you do that?” Olivia asked.
“With the same kind of magic found inside these glorious petals.” He held the flower between his fingers and threw it in the air. A second later it disappeared in a sprinkle of gold glitter. “Magic I can show you.” He paused. “If you are willing to meet my terms. For we are the guardians of estela. No one touches it without our approval.”
Jordon and Olivia exchanged a nervous look, silently agreeing they should at least hear the man out. Olivia wasn’t one to walk around a subject; she took the direct approach. “These terms you mention. Be more exact. What do we have to do to get to the flower?”
“To leave with estela in your possession, you must first understand the true magnitude of her abilities. You must experience her great powers. You must sample her essence, here with us. Learn of her seductive magic. Then you will know what she will do to your world.”
“Do to our world?” Jordon asked, not sure she followed where this was leading and certainly not keen on taking the equivalent of a drug, especially outside a controlled lab environment. “What will it do to our world?”
He fixed on Jordon a deep, soul-searching stare, his gaze almost inhuman, his eyes emitting an odd quality, almost a glow. “The flower’s magic must be managed,” he finally explained. “Once freed into your world, her powers would become invasive, controlling. Your world would forget all it knows, living for nothing but all-consuming passion.” His voice was low, yet foreboding. “You must experience this power here, where I can control estela’s reach. Then, and only then, will you understand why we guard her so closely.”
Olivia snorted. “Please. We have plenty of drugs in our country. None of them have consumed our world. Besides, we mean the flower to be used for medical purposes.”
The old man stared at Olivia as he had at Jordon, and Jordon felt Olivia shiver under his attention. “Estela decides how she is used,” he commented with eerie certainty. “If you want the flower, you will accept my terms. Sample the flower under my supervision.”
As scary as this was to Jordon—testing the flower here, outside a lab—the science it represented was more important. “And if we do this and still w
ant the flower, you will give it to us?” A slow incline of his chin followed, but nothing more. No words. No promises. Yet she understood his agreement; she also understood that he believed they would not take the flower once they tested it.
Abruptly, Olivia grabbed Jordon’s arm, pulling her aside, turning Jordon so that their backs were to the man and his followers. “We can’t do this,” she whispered urgently. “It’s insane. I like to consider us smart women. For all we know, he plans to drug us and kill us.”
“Then why talk to us at all?” Jordon countered, knowing Olivia was the rational thinker, the one who advised caution, whereas Jordon took risks. Their differences made for balance, and a good team. “No one knows we are here. He could easily have already killed us. We said we’d come too far to turn our backs on this chance when we came down into this cavern. And now that is truer than ever. We know the flower is here. We’re so close, Olivia, I can taste it. Think of what this discovery can do for science.”
Olivia wasn’t finished reasoning. “What if we die? What if we’re allergic? And who says they will let us go when this is all over?”
Jordon had to smile at that. “If we have to die, doing it in the arms of a few hot men sounds like a good way to go.”
An appalled look flashed across Olivia’s face before she chuckled. “I can’t believe I am considering this.”
“I can,” Jordon insisted. “We both know we can’t leave without knowing we did all we could do to take this flower home with us.”
Seconds ticked by as Olivia fretted. Suddenly the rope dropped from the hole above them, giving them an exit route. The girls turned to face the gray-haired man. “You are free to leave,” he offered. “Without the flower. Or you may stay and sample estela.”
Jordon looked at Olivia, her brow raised in question. Olivia drew a breath and let it out, then clasped Jordon’s hand. “We’re staying.”
The man’s wrinkled face showed no signs of response. “Then we begin.” He turned without waiting for their reply, the expectation clear that they would follow. The sexy native men, who Jordon suspected would soon be their lovers, stood like statues, staring forward, eyes averted.