Dark Truth

by Lindsay McKenna

  The coffee was sweet, creamy and warm. Ana felt the liquid slide down her throat and warm her stomach. The sensation was wonderful. Grounding. Wrapping both hands around the mug, she relished the heat radiating from the pottery. Her gaze never left Mace’s face or those eyes that spoke so eloquently to her.

  Ana felt an incredible connection with him, as if a telephone line were strung between them. It was so easy to know what he was feeling. He loved her with a depth that took her breath away. Could he feel her love for him in return? Judging from the scowl on his face, Ana wasn’t sure.

  She saw Mace’s very male mouth curve a little more. His blue eyes glinted, as if he was reading her thoughts. Yet Ana felt no abrasive intrusion into her mind, as Victor had done. The feeling was completly different.

  She took another sip from the cup. “I was dead, wasn’t I?”

  Nodding, Mace said, “Yes, you were. Your spirit left your body as I held you.”

  Brows drawing downward, Ana gazed at him. “Did I imagine you? I mean, I saw a jaguar kill my father. I saw it walk over to me afterward. I thought it was going to rip out my throat, as it had Victor’s. And then it changed into you. Mace? I have such a terribly active imagination at times, so I have to ask.”

  Straightening, he ran his hands slowly up and down his thighs. “Sweetheart, I’m not who you think I am.” This was the moment Mace had dreaded, second only toAna dying in his arms. He’d felt helpless then, and just as helpless now. He had to be honest and tell her the whole truth. And he feared this truth would drive a wedge between them. He took a deep, steadying breath and told Ana of his birth, his mission and who he really was.

  To complicate matters, Mace now realized that because of Ana’s adoption, none of her spiritual training had ever been initiated. She had no understanding of the paranormal world he lived in.

  When Mace completed his explanation, he saw Ana react. Frowning, she tucked her legs beneath her and set the cup next to her pallet. Inwardly, Mace could feel her wrestling with this shocking information.

  Finally, she pushed her dark hair off her shoulders. The thick strands cascaded down her back. “Then, you were hunting me and Victor.”

  “Ana, I’m a hunter-assassin for the Warriors for the Light. There aren’t a whole lot of us around, but we fulfill a need and we know our mission.”

  “And you knew I would lead you to my father.”

  “Yes,” Mace admitted softly, meeting her shadowed, jade-colored eyes.

  “I was bait.”

  “That’s one way to put it.”

  Licking her chapped lips, Ana looked down at her hands. “And you thought I was Tupay…like Victor….”

  “Yes. I didn’t know that your mother was Taqe, of the Light, until your father said so at the lunar temple.” Shifting his tense shoulders, Mace added, “It made sense to me, Ana. I never saw or felt heavy energy around you. Ever. And I couldn’t figure out why I didn’t. I should have. I knowa Tupay person instantly by the energy signature of their aura. I wanted to hate you, as I did your father. But I never could.” Mace gave her a helpless look. “Just the opposite.” He fell silent. He wanted to say, I was falling in love with you from the moment I met you, and I fought it with every breath I took. But he kept those words buried in his anguished heart.

  Nodding, Ana whispered, “I guess if I were in your place, I’d fight it, too. You couldn’t afford to…well, to…”

  “I couldn’t like you.” Mace held his breath as sadness came over her features. The truth was out. He had to risk telling the truth even if it meant losing Ana. She could walk out of his life—forever—at any time.

  Ana could also refuse to follow her intended spiritual path, simply because she had never been trained for it. Legends and prophecies could be changed because human beings could exert free will. Ana could ignore who and what she was, but he hoped she wouldn’t. Even more painful for him, Ana could say she wanted no part of him.

  Mace was a jaguar shape-shifter, and Ana had seen him change before her dying eyes. How had she felt about that? She had to be confused, frightened and unsure. Anyone would be, given the terrible atrocity that she’d just experienced at the hands of her own father. And somehow, Mace had to prepare himself for any possibility.

  But how? He loved Ana. Could he let her go without revealing the true extent of his love for her? His dream of having her as his mate—for life? Of wanting her to carry their children? Of sharing so many small but precious moments with her? He wanted to drown daily in those emerald eyes that danced with such life.

  Hanging his head, Mace clasped his hands between his thighs and waited. Now he knew how someone felt with his neck on a guillotine block, waiting for the ax to fall.

  Chapter 12

  “Now, Ana, one more time,” Alaria coaxed. The elder sat on a wooden bench in a small clearing not far from the village. Ana stood before her, dressed in a simple cotton dress of dark green to match her eyes, a bright yellow sash around her waist. Her hair was in braids.

  Alaria saw the uncertainty in Ana’s eyes. For days they had worked on her controlling her shape-shifting talent. “First thing in the morning what do you do?”

  “I ground myself.”

  “And how do you do that?”

  “I close my eyes and envision silver tree roots wrapping around my ankles, going down through my feet and deep into Mother Earth.”

  “Why do you do that, child?”

  “Without being grounded completely in my body I can’t control what I do in spirit.”

  “Exactly. What do you do next if you want to move from human into jaguar form?”

  “First, I call my jaguar spirit guide to me.” Ana was awed at the fact that she could now see into the invisible realms. For whatever reason, since her “death” she had been given the gift of psychic sight. Alaria had said it was a reward from spirit.

  Ana saw her powerful female jaguar, Sage, sitting to her left. “Although, in times of danger, she will come over me automatically without my asking.”

  “That’s right. But for today’s lesson, there are no threats, and you want to command her to fit over your human form.”

  Nodding, Ana closed her eyes and sent a telepathic signal to Sage, asking her to fit over her. This time, she felt her move and lift into the air. Because her spirit guide was in the fourth dimension, she was unhampered by third-dimensional laws of physics or gravity. It was very easy for her to float up above her head.

  “Very good,” Alaria declared. “Now what?”

  “Keep my knees slightly bent to allow the energy of Mother Earth to come up through my feet, into my legs, to connect with my jaguar spirit coming down over me. This will happen simultaneously,” Ana said, feeling Sage beginning to ease like a heavy, warm blanket over her head and across her shoulders. “This tethers her spirit over my human form and keeps Sage in place for my protection.”

  “Correct. Mother Earth knows that you are her daughter, and she will protect you. And what color comes from the earth and flows up into your legs?”

  “It’s a beautiful apple-green color,” Ana whispered. She felt the cool green energy coming up through her feet with a tingling sensation. In the center of her brow—her movie screen, as she called it—Ana saw and felt the green energy swiftly gliding upward. And then the dark shape of Sage moved over her. The warmth of the jaguar and the cool green from Mother Earth mixed in her solar plexus, or stomach region. The dizziness began, but now Ana was prepared for it. By bending her knees, she was able to maintain her balance during the momentary chaos of the two energies integrating.

  “Very good,” Alaria declared, watching the morphing process unfold.

  Ana felt joyous as Sage fully enclosed her. A locking sensation occurred, as if she had slipped on a pair of shoes. The spirit guide was fully in place around her, and she was in jaguar form.

  “Open your eyes,” Alaria instructed.

  Opening them, Ana saw that she was a jaguar. She was standing on four legs, and seeing thro
ugh Sage’s eyes. Everything looked different.

  Now you can talk telepathically to me, Alaria instructed Ana.

  Ana emitted a low growl, meant to be a laugh, as she tried to switch from speaking aloud to thinking. She felt the primal brain of Sage, as well as her human one, as if two entities lived in the same body. Separate yet intermixed. The experience was interesting and strange, but not uncomfortable.

  Okay, I’m now trying to speak to you, Grandmother. Do you hear me? Ana was trying so hard she could feel pressure in her head from the effort. She looked at Alaria, who beamed with pleasure. The elder clapped her hands.

  Indeed I can, my child. Very good! Learning to telepath will take time, but practice often, and soon it will become as easy as breathing. All right, that’s enough training for today. Shape-shift back into your human form. And then we’ll go have breakfast with Mace. You’ve done well.

  “It is time to speak with you at length,” Alaria said to Ana after breakfast. They sat at the small wooden table that served as a dining area in Ana and Mace’s hut. Cool morning air drifted through the opened windows. The sun hadn’t yet risen above the trees to herald the new day.

  “I’m glad, Grandmother. I’ve got so many questions.” Ana had just finished her breakfast of papaya, guava juice, toast and eggs, which Mace had made for them. Ana sneaked a glance at him as he sat opposite her. In her eyes, he’d changed remarkably in the last three days. Everyone at the Village of the Clouds performed some kind of volunteer work, be it physical labor, or reading to and teaching the children. Mace had gone out daily to work in the corn and squash fields, an activity that seemed to lift the sadness Ana always felt around him. In the hut, they each had a bedroom, and slept on a pallet unrolled across a handwoven rug on the earthen floor. Ana had been sleeping dreamlessly, regaining her strength. But she didn’t know what he was going through.

  Mace poured Alaria a second glass of guava juice.

  “Thank you, my son.”

  “You’re welcome, Grandmother.”

  He started to push away from the table and leave them to talk in privacy, but Alaria held out her hand. “Stay, Mace. What I have to say is for both of you.”

  Surprised by the request, he hesitated, halfway out of his chair. He glanced at Ana, whose hair was plaited in two thick braids today, emphasizing her ephemeral beauty and those lovely eyes of hers. “Is that okay with you?” he asked.

  Nodding, Ana wiped her mouth with her napkin. “Of course.” She smiled at Alaria, who drank the pink guava juice with relish. Today, the head elder was dressed in farming clothes, just as Mace was. Ana did not know how old the leader of the village was, but she had surprising spryness and the energy of a twenty-year-old. That was amazing. Every day, Alaria spent time out in the fields alongside her husband, Adaire, working just like everyone else.

  “Ana, it is time you know the rest of your life story,” Alaria told her, setting the glass down on the wooden table. “Your mother, Mary Magdalena Sanchez, was a Warrior for the Light. She was one of us.” Alaria lifted her hand and gestured toward the village. “And like every warrior, she had an innate gift, a skill that had been genetically passed down through her family to her.

  “For example, a person might lay their hands on another individual or animal and heal them. Others become invisible at will, and no one can see them. There are others who can hold an object and tell you its entire history, such as who made it, who owned it, who touched it. That is called psychometry. Mind reading is another skill. As impossible as this may seem, there are warriors who can teleport themselves from one place to another, even from one country to another, without the aid of an airplane.” Alaria smiled.

  “Those are incredible gifts, Grandmother. What did my mother do?”

  “Your mother had another skill. She was a shape-shifter.”

  Ana glanced over at Mace. His brows were drawn downward, his focus on Alaria.

  “A shape-shifter,” Ana murmured. That explained why she had the same talent. It made her feel good to know she was so much like her mother.

  “Yes. When you were shot by your father,” Alaria said, “you saw Mace in two different forms. He is of the Light, just as your mother was. His skill involves shape-shifting, too.”

  “I did see Mace change from a jaguar into a man….” Ana searched the woman’s watery blue eyes for confirmation.

  “You were not seeing things, child.” Alaria reached out and patted Mace’s arm. “He has the same genetic skill as your beloved mother did. In fact, Magdalena was born here and began to train with us when she was a very young girl. I taught her the elements of how to shape-shift from human to animal form, and then back again, just as I am teaching you now.”

  “You—you trained my mother?” The words seemed to jam in Ana’s throat. She felt a sudden rush of unexpected emotion as she searched Alaria’s wrinkled face.

  The old woman nodded. “Yes, I did. Magdalena was an apt student. Her mother, Maria, allowed her to stay full-time with us. By the time Magdalena was in her teens, she could easily shape-shift back and forth.”

  “And she knew who she was? A Warrior for the Light?” Ana asked, grasping Alaria’s thin, strong hand for support.

  “Yes. Both her parents were Warriors. Magdalena had a very unique mission, my child. You need to understand that mission, because it involves you. We knew from our spiritual council, here at the Village of the Clouds, that Victor Carancho Guerra was destined to find a Tupay woman and deliberately breed with her in order to create a daughter who would then go on and help him rule the world. That was decreed by one of the legends that had been handed down to us before the Inca Empire was ever created.”

  Alaria took a sip of her juice. “We knew the time was upon us for this part of the legend to catalyze. Your mother volunteered to go undercover as a Tupay woman, marry the master sorcerer and become pregnant by him. The legend says there was only one chance of mating with the Dark Sorcerer, and no other opportunity would be given to fulfill this particular prophecy. We wanted Guerra’s seed to go to the Light, not the Dark. That way, we could neutralize the legend.”

  Ana’s eyes widened. “My mother was—”

  “A spy. A mole, if you will. As do all of us who are of the Light, Magdalena knew the risks. She had such great love, hope and idealism that she could undertake this one-of-a-kind mission. She wanted to be that woman.”

  With her hand pressed against her throat, Ana stared agape at Alaria. “And then I was conceived? Is that right?”

  “Yes, you were. Half Dark. Half Light. Magdalena was planning on raising you right under Guerra’s nose, and, at the right time, turning you against him and his dark ways. She wanted to steal you away from him and bring you here to live and train in the Village of the Clouds. Magdalena knew Guerra would soon recognize you were not Tupay, and would kill both of you. Here, we could have protected both of you from him.”

  Taking a final drink of juice, Alaria set the glass aside and held Ana’s gaze. “Something went awry in our planning, however. Laws of nature intruded. We can each make choices at any time.”

  The elder’s mouth compressed for a moment and she said softly, “And sometimes, choice has terrible consequences.” Alaria reached out and touched the back of Ana’s neck, where her birthmark lay. “To fool Guerra, we had magically changed Magdalena’s Vesica Piscis symbol of the double rings, into the Tupay symbol of the sun.” The old woman shook her head. “What we did not know was that Magdalena’s hormones toward the end of her pregnancy would change the sun symbol back to the real one. She wasn’t aware of the alteration and neither were we. But Guerra saw it. And when he realized she was a spy who had infiltrated his life, he lured Magdalena out to a cliff. He deliberately pushed her off it to kill her—and you.”

  Ana closed her eyes for a moment, realizing how much her mother must have suffered. When she caught her breath, she opened her eyes and settled her gaze on Mace. Tears were glimmering on his cheeks. He was no less moved by Alaria’s story
than she, Ana realized. Feeling the old woman’s fingers tighten around her hand, she looked toward the elder.

  “I remember none of this, Grandmother.”

  “I know, and that’s why you need to hear what happened next. As Magdalena fell, she landed in a huge bush that broke her fall. Some of her ribs cracked, but the ground was only three feet below, and she suffered no more injury. Because it was nearly dark, Guerra could not see her. He only heard Magdalena strike something far below. He assumed she was dead, and left.”

  Eyes widening, Ana said, “I thought she did die! Victor told me she had.”

  Alaria said grimly, “Warriors for the Light are a lot tougher than Guerra gives us credit for. Your mother lay there giving birth to you beneath the protection of that huge bush. And once you were born, she shape-shifted into a jaguar. This would ensure that her injuries, which were not life-threatening, would heal within twenty-four hours. And she knew Guerra would come back to try and find her body the next morning. Even a master sorcerer, when overwhelmed by human emotion, cannot utilize his magical skills. Guerra, under other less daunting circumstances, could have shape-shifted and confirmed Magdalena’s demise or not. But he was too emotionally involved and could not. And Magdalena knew that. So, it bought her time she needed to not only escape Guerra, but keep you safe.”

  The old woman leaned forward. “Magdalena became a jaguar and carried you off in her mouth to go live in the jungle. There was nothing we could do to help because of what we call ‘house rules,’ spiritually speaking. I went immediately to our council to ask for intervention on you and your mother’s behalf, but they refused to grant it. I tried to help, but to no avail. We are all bound by the laws of spirit. Magdalena was on her own.”

  Ana gave the elder a grateful look. “At least you tried…. Couldn’t Victor find my mother by her rainbow aura?”