by Lisa Kessler
Zafrina gave Gretchen the oil lamp and vanished deeper into the shadows of the cavern. Gretchen glanced around—this was her chance to run. But where would she go?
The warm flickering light reflected off the painted walls, enticing her to come closer, to read and be transported back into a world of immortal gods and demons. A society that apparently still existed, hidden within a modern world ruled by science and reason instead of magic and faith.
With a sigh, Gretchen set the lantern on the ground and stared at the small pool of fresh water. Her clothes were soaked in seawater, itchy and uncomfortable, and the lure of being able to wash the salt from her skin tempted her. Gretchen glanced over her shoulder in the direction Zafrina had gone. Did she really want to get naked with a blood-drinking immortal she didn’t know nearby?
She wet her lips, tasting the tangy sea salt. What did she have to lose? If Zafrina were going to kill her, at least she wouldn’t die in wet, itchy underwear.
Decision made, Gretchen peeled off her clothes and settled into the cool water. She scrubbed her arms and legs quickly, relieving herself of the gritty salt and sand. Dunking her head underwater, her long, red hair floated around her face. When Zafrina suddenly stood at the edge of the pool, Gretchen gasped from under the water and came up coughing.
“Wear this.” Zafrina held the dress out at arm’s length, and Gretchen snatched it from her hand, wishing she had a towel.
“You startled me.”
Zafrina stepped closer, into the dim light. “Forgive me, I did not mean to frighten you. I am not used to visitors.”
Gretchen stepped out of the water and quickly pulled on the dress. The fine fabric clung to her damp skin, embracing every curve of her figure. Zafrina’s eyes moved over her so slowly that Gretchen found herself tugging at the material, suddenly overwhelmed with self-consciousness.
“Thank you for the dress.” She forced herself to stop fidgeting, and noticed the delicate embroidery of flowers all along the neckline. “It’s beautiful.”
Gretchen was grateful to see Zafrina’s intense gaze melt away as she smiled and came forward to sit on a worn wooden stool. “The Mayan women have always been weavers. What remains of our culture is still woven into the blankets and fabrics.” The soft lamplight shone in Zafrina’s bright brown eyes, making them dance with orange fire. “You know the Night Walker you care for, this Lukas, cannot give you children.”
Gretchen couldn’t help but laugh. “What?” She hoped her jaw hadn’t hit the ground. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to laugh, but I’m not sure why you’re telling me this.”
“Because you are a fertile woman.”
Gretchen rubbed her forehead, completely confused by Zafrina’s sudden obsession with her ability to bear children.
“It is my calling,” Zafrina answered matter-of-factly. “I am the priestess of the island.”
Cozumel. Wasn’t that where Zafrina had brought her? Gretchen’s expertise was in translating the ancient written languages. She wished now that she knew more about the different Mayan ruin sites. She’d been so focused on the altar translations that she hadn’t taken the time to explore any other sites.
“What does being a priestess on this island have to do with my bearing children?”
“The white men named this place San Gervasio. This island was the shrine to Ixchel…”
“The Goddess of Fertility,” Gretchen said. Zafrina nodded. “You’re the priestess of fertility?”
“Yes. It is both a gift and a curse.”
“Well, I guess that explains your interest in my having children.” Gretchen smiled. “But Lukas and I aren’t lovers.”
“You are in your heart.”
Gretchen felt the lump in her throat return as she pushed away the memory of Lukas’s piercing green eyes and the echo of his pained words calling her a fool and telling her to forget him. It still stung. She wasn’t ready to talk about it.
“Teach me to protect my thoughts…please.”
Zafrina nodded and rose from her stool. She stood in front of Gretchen, almost too close to be comfortable.
“You worry too much about a soft touch from another woman.”
“I’m attracted to men,” Gretchen said, more quickly than she had intended to.
“Did I say you were not?” Zafrina smiled.
“Weren’t you going to show me how to hide my thoughts?” Gretchen tried not to blush and hoped the change in subject would lessen the awkwardness.
Zafrina’s eyes danced with good humor. “He’le’. Close your eyes, Beautiful One.”
“Gretchen,” she corrected.
Zafrina’s laughter was surprisingly infectious. The sound sparkled around her, echoing off the cavern walls until Gretchen found herself laughing with her. As their chuckles faded, Zafrina smiled, her orange eyes sparked with mischief as she spoke. “I will call you ‘Beautiful One’ because you are so. Now, close your eyes.”
Shaking her head with a smile, Gretchen finally complied and closed her eyes. Zafrina went on with her training. “Now, think of a piece of music, hear it in your mind.”
Gretchen sighed and struggled to think of some kind of song. It wasn’t that she didn’t like music, she just never had much of an ear for it. Her piano teacher gave up on her after spending a year trying to teach her to maintain a steady beat in her playing. She wasn’t much of a music fan either, really. In school, she’d always engrossed herself in her studies. Music was only a distraction, background noise.
“That is how you keep me from hearing your thoughts, Beautiful One. Hide your thoughts behind your song. Put a melody in your mind, and it will be the music I hear.”
Gretchen’s brow furrowed as she searched her mind for a single song, any song. Something simple to mask her true thoughts… Then it came to her. A lullaby she used to sing with her father. Tears welled up behind her closed eyelids as the words filled her mind:
Hush-a-bye don’t you cry,
Go to sleep little baby.
For when you wake, you shall have
All the pretty little horses.
She could almost hear her father’s baritone voice singing in her mind. When she was a little girl, he’d stroke her hair away from her temple, singing softly until she drifted off to sleep. She hadn’t thought about it in years. God, she missed him.
“Very good.”
Gretchen opened her teary eyes when she heard Zafrina’s voice.
“I do not hear your thoughts.” Zafrina’s expression sobered. “As long as the song plays in your mind, your true thoughts will be masked from any Night Walker. Practice this, Beautiful One. The moment the song stops, your mind will be opened to any who wish to see into it.”
Gretchen nodded, holding her breath as Zafrina’s cool fingertips drifted down her cheek.
“I have much more to tell you, but not until I know the secrets I share will remain hidden in your mind. Practice while I rest, and at nightfall we will talk again.”
“Why are you helping me?”
Zafrina met her eyes. “Because you have faced the Demon and lived. You are strong and wise, a warrior of the mind.”
“I’m no warrior, Zafrina. I can’t look away and let people die, but I can’t save the world, either. If you know how to stop the Demon, why won’t you help?”
“Mulac, the God of the North.” She spat his name like a bad taste in her mouth, but her bright eyes dimmed. “The sun is rising. I must sleep. Keep the song in your mind.”
Without another word, Zafrina slipped back into the shadows and disappeared.
Chapter Sixteen
Gretchen blinked her eyes open, squinting as faint traces of the morning light encroached into the thick shadows of the cavern. Stretching her sore aching body, she rose to her feet with a yawn. Sunlight thinned the darkness of the cavern enough for her to make out shapes without the aid of the oil lamp. Scanning the cave from one end to the other, she frowned. Where was Zafrina?
Gretchen rubbed the back of her neck and
winced when sharp pain suddenly shot through her. Carefully, she reached back up and let her fingertips lightly inspect the skin along her shoulder to the base of her neck. Her blood ran cold. Two tiny bumps. She didn’t need a mirror to know they weren’t scratches.
Her hands trembled as she dropped her arm and lifted the oil lamp to beat back the sun-dappled shadows. Zafrina drank her blood last night—Gretchen was sure of it. But why couldn’t she remember? Zafrina mentioned having “powers.” Could she have wiped the incident from Gretchen’s mind?
Gretchen started humming her mental lullaby, shielding her true thoughts while she quickly changed back into her own clothes, grateful to have clean, dry pants again. Simple pleasures reminded her that the world as she knew it hadn’t completely imploded. Not yet, anyway.
She left Zafrina’s borrowed dress folded on the wooden stool. Old folk tales about vampires haunted her. She’d been bitten. Was she a Night Walker now? Her heart raced with disbelief. Lukas told her she had to ingest the immortal blood herself in order for her body to change.
I can’t be one of them. The sun is up, and I’m still awake. I’d be asleep if she changed me.
Heat churned in her belly. She never should have come here. It was a rash, stupid thing to do. She felt betrayed and foolish. She’d trusted Zafrina to help her, not hurt her. Her fingers glided back up to the nape of her neck, wincing as they found the warm, swollen wounds from Zafrina’s bite.
Gretchen sighed and made her way farther into the cave. Part of her thought she must be insane, but the scientist in her needed to find Zafrina, needed to see the Night Walker. She couldn’t help it. According to Lukas, Night Walkers slept during the day, so theoretically, she should be safe.
But what if she woke up?
The thought vanished the moment Gretchen rounded the corner. There was Zafrina, lying motionless on top of a raised stone table, her ebony hair spilling over the edge. Nothing about her indicated sleep, though.
She looked dead.
Gretchen moved closer. Her hand trembled, making the shadows cast from the oil lamp dance around her. Her pulse raced while she silently inspected Zafrina’s lifeless body. Her ashen complexion made her resemble a marble statue more than a human being.
She’s not human, Gretchen reminded herself. Not anymore.
She’d never seen a body so still. Zafrina’s chest didn’t rise and fall with each breath. Her eyes didn’t flutter behind her lashes. Gretchen supposed her heart wasn’t beating, either, but she didn’t feel comfortable checking for a pulse. There weren’t any wounds on her body, she noted. No stakes through the heart, although who knew if that would even work on a Night Walker.
Her inner voice screamed at her to keep her distance, and in this case, she trusted her instincts completely. She turned to leave, suddenly hungry for the sunlight, but something made her stop. Looking over her shoulder one last time, Gretchen’s chest tightened. Was this what happened to Lukas every day? Was he out there somewhere right now, hidden away from the sun, his body completely lifeless?
She ran. Ran for daylight, for fresh air, for freedom from this unbelievable truth. At the mouth of the cavern, Gretchen dropped the lamp, not slowing her pace until she reached the sun-soaked clearing. Falling to her knees, she choked on a sob, covering her face with trembling hands. This was all too much. It couldn’t possibly be real, and yet she knew it was.
She loved an immortal and was running from a Demon she couldn’t see. No one could help her, and no one would believe her. She’d never felt more alone.
She wasn’t sure how long she cried. Gradually, her shoulders ceased their shaking, and her tears dried until she sat in the sunshine, numb. She took a deep breath and struggled to formulate coherent thoughts. Her life was at stake, and she needed a plan.
Was Zafrina a friend or foe?
Her stomach interrupted her pondering with a loud growl that made her smile in spite of herself. She was still human, at least, and a hungry one at that.
She stood up and her heart sank a little. She knew she was on the island of Cozumel, but she’d never been here before. Cruise ships docked in Cozumel every day, so there must be a city.
Someplace.
She had no idea which way to go, and even if she did, she didn’t have any money. She’d left all her belongings back at the research site in the jungle on the mainland. With a sigh, she shoved her hands into her pockets and started to walk, but stopped sharply as she felt something inside.
Gretchen withdrew her hand and opened it to find a single 50-Pesos bill, with a folded scrap of paper. She opened it and a smile warmed her features. Newly written Mayan glyphs were scrawled on the back of the paper. U we’y, it read. Eat.
She looked at the cavern as she slid the money back into her pocket. Maybe Zafrina was a friend, after all. It didn’t excuse her bite, but it did give Gretchen a measure of peace. With a little newfound confidence, Gretchen took her lunch money and gazed up at the sun, gaining her bearings. If her memory of the local geography served, Cozumel was only ten miles wide, so she headed west in search of civilization.
The Guardian awoke, growling in pain when the afternoon sun assaulted his immortal eyes. The Demon was gone. Again. His chest tightened as he sat up. Why was she risking herself during the daylight hours again? What was she hunting?
He turned to rise but froze when he saw a lifeless, naked body lying at his feet. His brow furrowed as he moved closer. The female’s scent was unmistakably inhuman. A Night Walker. He ran a finger back through her soft golden hair.
Who was she? And why had Camalotz brought her here?
The woman’s body was withered, bloodless. Her immortal skin pulled tight over her bones like dried leather. Yet the Demon had left her heart intact, still living in a tortured shell. It didn’t make sense.
Why would she feed on a Night Walker? And why not end the woman’s tortured existence by removing her heart?
He knew the answer, although he didn’t understand it. Camalotz wanted this woman to suffer. And she would suffer. Once the moon rose in the sky, he could not imagine the depth of suffering this female Night Walker would be forced to endure. Her body, in its bloodless condition, would feed on itself, aching for healing blood that was no longer in her veins, too weak to kill in order to replace what she had lost.
She would never heal, and the pain would never end.
He raked his hand through his dark hair, his muscles tense with frustration. He usually understood his mate’s motives. She was primal, carnal, always thirsting for emotions she would never understand, always feeding her insatiable hunger. But he could not understand this.
He didn’t know the identity of this young immortal, but he knew no one deserved the suffering she would soon experience without blood to heal her. Helping her would anger his mate, but duty outweighed any fear. Wrath or no, he would help the woman.
The Guardian pulled off his shirt and draped it over her cold body, hoping the warmth might give her some small measure of comfort once the sun began to set and her true torment began.
Leaving the sanctuary of his resting place, the Guardian rose to his full height, still surprised to see his shadow stretch over the moist earth at his feet. A shadow was a rare friend to a being who usually walked the earth while the sun slept.
Shielding his eyes with his hand, he looked up into the afternoon sunlight. Somewhere Camalotz also cast a shadow under the sun she usually avoided. He didn’t have time to ponder the potential reasons why. If he was going to aid the bloodless Night Walker, he had to do it before the Demon returned.
He needed to feed, quickly.
The sky darkened above her as Gretchen made her way back toward Zafrina’s home. Electricity filled the air, igniting lightning through the deep purple sky, dancing from cloud to cloud, but she didn’t look up or slow her pace. Ever since she ate, she felt something watching her. Zafrina had insisted that Gretchen would be safe on the island, but she couldn’t shake the uneasiness that haunted her.
She wished Lukas were with her. She had theories she needed to discuss with someone she could trust. Her heart twisted in her chest. Forget me.
If only it were that easy.
She groaned and tried to push his gorgeous green eyes from her mind. Instead, she thought about what she’d learned while she was in the town. The tourists and locals alike were buzzing about the recent rash of suicides on the mainland of Central America. Within a week, over fifty people had been found dead in one of the beach resorts in Cancun, while another fifteen took their own lives during a wedding reception in a nearby hotel. Most people were afraid. Would the island of Cozumel and its tourist population be next?
Gretchen wanted to warn them, but what could she say? If she told anyone about her encounter with the Demon, or spirit, or whatever it was that poisoned her mind in San Diego, they’d think she was crazy. She wouldn’t believe it herself if she hadn’t experienced it firsthand.
Unexplainable things were happening, and she felt like a helpless pawn in a game she didn’t fully understand.
After lunch, she’d picked up a few supplies, along with a large bottle of water. That was the moment the wave of dread overcame her. As soon as she stepped out of the store, she felt an unseen shadow following, like she was being hunted.
Once she was back inside the cavern, Gretchen finally turned around to look behind her. Other than the lush green of the jungle, there was nothing. She hadn’t really expected to see anyone, but something else bothered her. The feeling, or presence, that had pursued her, was gone. As if it only wanted to know where she was staying. She shivered and disappeared into the darkness of the cave. Deep inside she knew it was the Demon, and she knew it would be back.
The island was no longer safe.
Chapter Seventeen
Lukas erupted out of the earth, but for the first time in his long life, it wasn’t hunger that drove him. It was fear. Fear that he had lost Gretchen forever.
