by Lisa Kessler
“Marguerite?” The God of the South’s voice sounded weak. “Kane thought you were—”
“Is Kane here?”
The Guardian could feel Colin radiating pain from the center of the room and moved closer.
“No. He and Issa are searching for Ch’en.” He paused. “We need her to cage the Demon. Her sacrifice.”
“Did the Demon do this to you?” Marguerite’s voice carried a cold edge.
The Guardian followed the sound of her voice and stepped to her side. She took his hand, holding it tight.
“Kane was in trouble.” Colin coughed and growled in pain. “He and the Demon were battling as humans, then as jaguars. Kane was insane with rage and losing the battle. I flew in and took her eye. I could not kill her, but I knew I could blind her. If she could not see, Kane could escape, aye? But when I dove for her other one, she caught me in her paws, and I have no memory after that moment.”
“You saved Kane from the Demon…and himself.” Marguerite’s voice trembled. “Thank you, Colin. I owe you more than I can ever repay.”
“He would do no less for me.”
She lightly laid her hand on his skin. “Why have you not healed yet?”
He took a deep breath. “I may never heal. Not completely. Not this time.”
“You need blood.” The Guardian stepped forward, thrusting his wrist toward the sound of Colin’s voice. “I offer mine. Drink.”
Colin took his wrist, but before his teeth broke through the flesh, he paused. “She took your eyes.”
“Yes.” The Guardian stood still, an ageless centurion, but deep inside he felt an unfamiliar current of emotion.
“Camalotz can see once more?”
The Guardian nodded slowly in reply. Colin sighed and sank his sharp teeth into the Guardian’s wrist, drinking deeply of the proffered blood. Through their blood connection, Colin shared his frustration that he sacrificed his arm in vain.
The Demon was whole again. Something he would never be.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Issa stared at the woman they called Kate—Ch’en. He’d never dreamed he would look into her beautiful eyes again. The lower corner of her right iris shone in the moonlight. Bright. Until this moment, he hadn’t truly allowed himself to believe that she lived again, that her soul was once more immortal and a part of this world.
He couldn’t contemplate sacrificing her again. Taking her heart, and her immortal life, had nearly driven him to madness the last time. Would he be able to survive that twice?
He felt Kane approach the clearing behind him, but he paid him no attention. His gaze remained riveted on the Goddess of the Moon. He couldn’t take his eyes from her face. Her hair was shorter now, her skin slightly fairer, but her dark, fathomless eyes still bore the light crescent of the moon. His chest tightened with emotions that plagued him ever since he’d first laid eyes on this woman millennia before this one.
Bloody tears stained her cheeks as she cradled a wounded man, stroking his hair back with a tenderness that made Issa ache inside. She looked fiercely determined to protect the man in her arms, her gaze burning with infinite love.
Why had she never looked upon him with such depth of emotion?
With a heavy sigh, Issa buried his true feelings, amazed how quickly the ability returned to him. The closer he got to Ch’en, the more her scent consumed him. He wished he could retreat back into the shadows. He couldn’t face the torment again. But turning his back on his duty to this world was impossible. He was still a god, damned to walk through eternity with the heart of a man.
“Ch’en, you must return to the pyramid.” He kept his deep voice even and void of emotion. “Only you can stop the Demon.”
“My name is Kate, not Ch’en.” She glanced up at him, and his foolish heart softened. “I’m not going anywhere without Calisto.”
Issa’s dark gaze wandered over each of the faces now staring at him. He wondered about the identity of the young Night Walker standing in front of the tent. The brown-haired man with piercing green eyes shielded a human woman just behind him. Issa could see their hands clasped together, unified, and felt the vice around his heart tighten.
Unable to look at Ch’en, he dropped his gaze to the pale Night Walker in her arms. He knelt down to inspect the man’s wounds, careful to avoid her eyes. “He is gravely wounded.”
“Please help him.” She reached out to take Issa’s hand. Her touch sent scorching heat shooting through his ancient veins. “I know you can help him. Mulac didn’t tell him we were breaking a Night Walker law. You can punish me later, just save him.”
Issa frowned. She made no sense. He met her gaze, and his voice caught in his throat. Being so close to her, seeing her dark eyes pleading with him, her soft fingers brushing over his skin while the sound of her voice filled his heart with a long-forgotten melody. It was more than he could bear.
“He will need blood, but he will recover.” Keeping his attention on the injured Night Walker, he added, “I came here for you. I do not know this law of which Mulac spoke.”
“The law to make only one Night Walker.” She stroked her mate’s wet hair. “Calisto made Lukas by accident. Mulac never told him how to make a Night Walker. He didn’t know.”
Issa felt her staring at him again, but he couldn’t bring himself to meet her gaze. Instead, he glanced over at the young Night Walker with piercing green eyes and pale skin. None of these young Night Walkers were Mayan. He’d never thought to make another.
Not that it mattered, but right now he welcomed the distraction from Ch’en’s dark eyes.
“Please, you have to believe me,” she pleaded. “Mulac didn’t tell him about any ancient laws. Don’t punish Calisto for this.”
Issa frowned. Rising to his feet, he looked over at Kane, standing at a distance. “Do you know of any ancient law to make only one?”
Kane shook his head, his brow furrowed. “No. And if Mulac has already spoken to Ch’en…”
Issa nodded. “We have been deceived. He knew where to find her. He told them to run.”
Issa watched Kane get down on one knee beside Ch’en. He grasped her chin, demanding her full attention. Issa clenched his jaw, biting back the urge to rip his brother’s hand away from her.
“You say you are not Ch’en, the Goddess of the Moon,” Kane growled. “You tell me you are Kate, yet you know the name of our immortal brother, Mulac.”
Her eyes darted up to meet Issa’s before staring at Kane again. “He’s Calisto’s maker. He came to see us in San Diego. He told us Calisto broke the ancient law and that his brothers would be looking for me. He told us to stay away, but I’ve been having dreams of a pyramid and of brutal death. When Lukas told me about a Demon, I had to come.”
Kane let her chin slip free from his hand, his gaze meeting Issa’s. “She still has the gift. She dreams.”
Kane straightened. Pulling his golden mane back from his forehead, he spun around to face his brother. “I will find Mulac. I want answers.”
Issa glanced down at the wounded man. “He will slow us down.”
“We only need Ch’en.” Kane walked toward the trees. “We do not have time to deal with the rest of them right now.”
Issa leaned down to haul Ch’en to her feet, away from the injured Night Walker. She struggled, wrenching herself free from his grasp twice before he finally succeeded in dragging her away. The sound of her impassioned wails tore what was left of his broken heart to pieces.
Unable to bear the sound any longer, he jerked her close and spun her around to face him. He shouldn’t have been surprised by the emotions she stirred inside him, but suddenly finding her so close, seeing her eyes boring into his, left him speechless. Her eyes peered directly into his tormented soul. He wasn’t prepared for this confrontation, or the weight of the meaning behind it.
His Ch’en.
And she would die again by his hand.
“I know you.” Her voice wavered as more crimson tears spilled down her che
eks.
Issa loosened his grip on her upper arms, tightening his hold on his aching heart. “You did once. Long ago.”
A tiny wrinkle appeared on her forehead, and for a moment he had to fight to keep from embracing her. Over the millennia, he’d lived in self-imposed exile, burying fond memories of her smile, hiding from them, unable to face the pain of knowing she was gone.
Knowing he killed her.
And now the dam he’d built to block the memories and separate himself from the past crumbled. Seeing her, touching her, brought back every minute detail that he had ever loved about this woman.
He wanted her to remember him, but with that remembrance would also come the realization of his betrayal. His lie.
There had been no other way. He followed through on a difficult choice to save many by sacrificing one. It was a bitter cruelty of fate that he loved her with all his soul. Ch’en had offered her life willingly to stop the Demon, but in spite of her trust, he lied to her. She never knew he and his brothers had no intention of allowing her spirit to be born again, that they would keep her heart separated from her body.
“Please, help him.” The sound of Ch’en’s melodic voice brought him back from his private pain. Issa’s dark eyes moved over the unconscious man and back to meet her gaze. He started to reply when she interrupted.
“I’ll do whatever you ask. Please.”
He stared at her for a moment. He could see her love for the fallen Night Walker plainly, and it sent a stark, searing pain through his heart to his wounded soul. His jaw tightened, forcing the emotions back.
“You will do as we ask. There is no other way to save this world from the Demon.”
For a moment, recognition flickered in the depths of her eyes. “You were my friend.”
Panic coursed through Issa’s veins. Please do not let her remember. I could not bear to see hatred for me in her eyes.
He let her go and knelt beside the fallen man, inspecting his wounds. He knew nothing of this Night Walker, and to offer his powerful ancient blood without knowing the other man’s intentions would be careless at best.
Ch’en moved back to the man’s head, stroking his hair. As if hearing Issa’s hesitation, she added quietly, “Calisto is a good man.”
Calisto. Issa sighed inwardly, now having a name for the man who had the devotion of the only woman Issa had ever loved. Unable to deny her, Issa tore an opening into his wrist. Wincing, he held the wound to Calisto’s lips. “Drink and heal.”
For a long, tense moment, the Night Walker did not move. Issa heard Ch’en’s quiet sobs, but his eyes remained focused on Calisto’s lips, searching for the slightest sign of life. And finally it came.
The wounded man’s parched lips gradually closed over Issa’s wrist, until he pulled at Issa’s veins, hungry for salvation. Issa allowed him to drink until he himself grew weak. Withdrawing his wrist, Issa stumbled back.
“Enough,” he gasped, fighting to stay on his feet. “We must get Ch’en back to the pyramid before sunrise.”
“Kate,” she corrected, looking up into Issa’s dark eyes. “My name is Kate.”
…
Gretchen watched the scene playing out before her eyes, struggling to wrap her analytical, scientific mind around it all. It couldn’t possibly be true, and yet…
She gave Lukas’s hand a gentle squeeze and felt him return it.
This was real. The people around her were immortal, not really “people” at all. The dark man with black hair was one of the immortal brothers Zafrina had told her about. He had to be. And the blond man had mentioned Mulac. Zafrina’s Mulac.
The dark one called Issa pulled his arm free from Calisto’s grasp. Calisto—the one who made Lukas immortal. The picture gradually came into focus.
“I have to help them.” Lukas released her hand. “Stay right here.”
He and Kate moved Calisto onto the cot inside the tent. He wasn’t bleeding any longer, but he was barely conscious, and his sternum was still stark, the bones exposed. Gretchen had never wounded another person in her life, and although she knew it had been in self-defense, the guilt weighed her down like a boulder around her neck.
“He will need more blood in the coming nights, but he will survive.” Issa stepped closer, inspecting Calisto’s burns, then looked at Kate with a somber gaze. “I did as you asked. Now you must come with me.”
A crimson tear slipped down Kate’s cheek as she bent to kiss Calisto’s lips. With a shaky hand, Calisto reached up and gave her a weak embrace.
“I love you,” Kate whispered.
“Do not go with them.” Calisto opened his eyes, and the pain Gretchen saw in his gaze brought a wave of tears to her eyes. This was her fault. “Please, Kate. Leave me and run far from this place.”
Issa stepped forward. “If there was another way to silence the Demon, I would be the first to seek it out. But there is not.” The man reached out to take her hand. “Ch’en, we must go.”
“Wait!” Gretchen watched all eyes turn in her direction, and for a split second her mind went blank. She had something very important to say, crucial information to share. She let out a frustrated sigh. Keeping the lullaby singing in her head got tougher with all the shock in her system.
Lukas took a step toward her. “What is it?”
Gretchen looked at him and took a deep breath, calming herself, then looked over at Issa. “I know something about the Demon that you might not. I need to speak to the immortal brothers, Gods of the North, South, East, and West.”
“I am the God of the West.” Issa’s dark eyes narrowed slightly. “You are human. How could you know anything about the Demon?”
Gretchen ignored his question, almost afraid to answer. She didn’t think she was in danger from him, and as long as she had the knowledge, they would need her…alive. She kept her father’s lullaby running through her mind, shielding her thoughts.
“I also know if you go with them, Kate, they’re going to sacrifice you, and it has nothing to do with making too many Night Walkers.”
The silence that filled the tent was thick, almost palpable, until Issa finally broke the quiet. “I do not know how you know these things, but it is best you leave this place and forget all you have seen. I doubt my brothers would be so forgiving.”
Lukas put himself between the older Night Walker and Gretchen, his voice low and menacing. “Don’t threaten her.”
The dark one’s white teeth flashed. “You overstep your bounds, Young One.”
Gretchen stepped aside, anxious to end the immortal pissing contest. “You said if there was another way, you’d take it.”
“If,” Issa replied. “But the world has no time for indecision. We must act.”
“Then take us with you.” Gretchen took a step forward, boosting up the internal hum of the lullaby in her mind. For a brief moment, she realized she was the only one standing in the tent who couldn’t read minds—the only mortal, too—but her intellect took over, blocking any self-doubt or fear. She didn’t have time to be afraid. For the first time in her life, her passion, her science, could make a real difference beyond simply adding to the history books.
And it might give her a chance to get Lukas out of this mess.
She glanced up at him, doing her best not to imagine kissing his lips, feeling his arms tighten around her. Her heart fluttered for a moment before Zafrina’s warning popped into her mind.
Camalotz would kill us all.
Strengthening her resolve, Gretchen shifted her attention back to Issa. “I’m a scientist. I’ve deciphered many of the stone glyphs in this area. I can help you.”
Issa shook his head. His black hair glistened in the lantern light as a hint of a smile found his lips. “My hands carved many of those stones. Nothing you have found will help us.”
Gretchen tipped her chin up, refusing to back down. “What I learned from Zafrina on Cozumel might.”
Issa raised a brow. “Who is Zafrina?”
Gretchen frowned slight
ly. “I thought you knew her. She’s a Night Walker, too. A fertility priestess on Cozumel Island.” Still seeing no reaction, she added quietly. “Mulac was her maker.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
The Guardian rose to his feet, putting himself between the entryway and the stone table where Marguerite tended to Colin. He recognized Issa’s scent, but the rest were strangers. His muscles contracted, ready to defend the wounded God.
Marguerite’s hand gripped his. “You should wait behind me,” he said quietly, his blind stare never leaving the corridor, as if he could see whoever might enter.
“I am your eyes, remember?” She gave his cold hand a gentle squeeze.
The Guardian offered the fallen God of the South far more of his blood than he should have. Hunger gnawed at him, but he remained at attention, masking any sign of weakness. “I have other senses. Go help Colin.”
“You are blind.” Although she kept her voice low, her tone was strong and insistent. This female carried fire inside her petite frame. “You need me, and I would never abandon a friend.”
His head slowly turned toward her, as if he could see her looking up at him. “I am the Guardian. I have no friends. I do not understand the meaning of the word.”
He started to turn toward the door again when she gave his hand a tug, forcing him to give her his attention again. “You know the meaning better than most. You saved me without regard to your own welfare. Only the best of friends would be so bold.” His mouth opened, but she wouldn’t allow him to interrupt. “We do not have time to argue. You have a friend now. Like it or not.”
For a brief moment, a hint of a smile crossed over the Guardian’s features as he raised his head once more toward the entry into the main room of the pyramid. Behind him, he heard Colin’s infectious laughter, and although it was weak, the sound filled the room with hope.
…
Lukas helped Kate hold his maker upright as they made their way through the dense rainforest, following Issa through the darkness. But it wasn’t Issa he watched. He couldn’t take his eyes off of Gretchen. Had she always been this beautiful? He’d spent months holding her at arm’s length, keeping her out of his heart, but now the gate was open.
