“A Christmas tree!” I ran to the door.
Matt looked very pleased with himself. “I thought you might appreciate that.”
“I love it! Thank you!” I kissed him and gave him a huge squeeze. “Gracias,” I said to Cesar.
“Nada,” he said, as he carefully carried the tree to the large living area.
“Let’s put it on the other side of the fireplace from the Nativity,” Richard suggested. “I hope you guys bought a stand.”
They had, and half an hour later the tree was ready to be decorated and there was a fire in the fireplace.
“I’m just going to give Grandma a call before we start,” I whispered to Matt. I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck. Looking deep into his warm brown eyes, I searched for the Wolf. “Thank you for this.” I kissed him, and he pulled me closer, sliding his hands up under my hair.
“Hey, I don’t see any mistletoe,” Lyssa said as she rifled through the decorations. “But I’m sure there’s a Motel 6 around here somewhere.”
Playfully sticking my tongue out at her, I turned to go. “Be right back.”
Once inside our room, I sat down on the bed and exhaled. Knowing that Dad would be at mass with his sister and her family, I decided to leave his call until Christmas Day. Instead, I dialed the international code and then Grandma’s number.
“Oh, ts’unu’un, I’m so glad you called,” she said when she answered.
“Feliz Noche Buena, Grandma.”
“Feliz Noche Buena, hija. It’s wonderful to hear you speak Spanish, baby.”
“It kind of still weirds me out a little, but I like it.”
We both laughed. Suddenly, I felt so homesick my insides ached.
“How are you, baby?”
“I’m okay, I guess. Grandma, you’ll never believe it. My burns healed!”
“They’re gone? That’s wonderful, ts’unu’un. When did this happen?”
“Some time yesterday.” I thought back and suddenly remembered how my skin had felt uncomfortable while I was standing by the pyre. “I think it might have been last night.” I tried to continue, but there was a sob rising in my throat. I forced it back down.
“Don’t be frightened, hummingbird.”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. It was one thing to tell her that I was having the nightmare. But how was I supposed to tell her that I was dreaming about strange men?
“Maya, what is it?
“It’s just…well, I’ve been having this nightmare.” Then I told her all about my recurring dream about the Mayan village. “The thing is, I’m scared that it’s not really a dream. I mean, what if I’m seeing the future?”
“Even if you are, could you have done any more than you did?”
“N—no,” I said, grabbing a tissue from the bed stand and wiping my nose.
“Then no matter what happens now,” she said, “you did what you could. No one could have asked more from you. It was a miracle that you survived.”
When I heard a few sniffles coming from the other side of our long-distance conversation, I froze. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d heard Grandma cry.
"Grandma? Are you okay?”
“I’m okay, ts’unu’un. I just miss you. You’re so far away, and it’s Christmas Eve.”
“I’ll be home soon,” I told her.
“I know you will. Now try to put your worries aside and celebrate with your friends, all right?”
“I promise. I love you, Grandma.”
“I love you too, baby.”
I hung up my cell and went into the bathroom to wash my face. I was just coming around the corner back into the living area when I stopped short. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Cesar was standing on one side of the Christmas tree and Lyssa on the other, and they were laughing about something, and then…Wait a minute, did she just blush? What the hell?
“Hey guys,” I said as I walked into the room. “Need any help?”
“I think they’ve got it covered,” a young shifter named Ryan snickered. Matt gave him a punch in the gut.
“We’re almost finished,” Cesar said as he handed the tree topper to Lyssa.
“Want me to grab you a chair, Lyss?” Matt asked.
“I think we can do it,” Cesar answered. And in one swooping motion, he picked up my BFF’s little bod and held her steady while she set the tree topper on, wiggled it a couple of times, and got it straight.
My eyes bugged clear out of my head as I turned to look at Damian. All he did was shrug his shoulders.
“What the hell is she thinking?” I whispered to him.
“You’re asking me?”
Oh, for the love of—“Hello! You can read her mind!”
“Not when she has her wall up,” he said. “I can only read her thoughts when she lets me.” He laughed. “Besides, it’s not like I want to know. Ew, just, no.”
And then it hit me. This was what Cesar had been trying to tell me last night in the garden. He wasn’t confused about me. He was confused about Lyssa because she wasn’t a shifter! Holy crap!
I turned to Matt. “Have Adriana and Richard seen this?” I whispered.
“They’re in the kitchen with Alma.”
I went right into the kitchen and found Richard and Adriana feeding each other grapes. WTF? (Seriously, I thought the Twilight Zone marathon was on New Year’s Eve, not Christmas Eve.) When they finally left, I decided to stay behind with Alma. She was ready for another round of food to be worked on, and I figured it was safer. I grabbed a can of Diet Coke from the fridge and looked through Alma’s recipes so I could start the rompope. (It’s kind of like Mexican-style eggnog.)
Then Adriana flew back into the kitchen. “Maya, can I talk to you for a sec?”
That was fast. “Sure.” I followed her down the hallway and into the room she shared with Richard.
She shut the door behind us. “Is it me, or has Cesar—”
“Been mated to Lyssa?”
“So I’m not losing my mind.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”
Just then the door opened and Richard walked in. By the look on his face, he already knew what we were talking about.
“How is that possible?” Adriana asked. “Shifters only mate with other shifters, everyone knows that.”
Richard looked thoughtful. “But when you consider why shifters only mate with one another, then maybe it’s not so impossible.”
“K’ul,” I said.
“Exactly. We know that the twins have more k’ul than humans do. In fact, they may have even more than most shifters do. It’s hard to say, and we may never know. But I think it’s very possible that Cesar has become mated to Lyssa.”
“You know,” I said, “I went for a walk to the garden late last night, and Cesar was there. He asked me what it felt like to be mated. I thought he was talking about Matt and me. But he must have been talking about Lyssa.”
“It must have happened after the twins were marked,” Adriana added.
Richard nodded. “I think that makes sense. Their powers expanded then. They must have more energy now than they did before.”
Adriana sighed. “So now the question is will Lyssa become mated to him? If she doesn’t, we could have a big problem on our hands.”
“Maybe not,” I said. “Even if Lyssa feels human love for Cesar, that would be enough, wouldn’t it? I mean, they could still be together, right?”
“I suppose so. I’ve never heard of it, but that’s nothing new around here.”
The three of us looked from one to another, then we all cracked up. I don’t know if it was nervous laughter or just the craziness of the situation, but I laughed till I couldn’t catch my breath.
Finally, Richard took a deep breath of his own and turned to open the door. “I need to bring in some more wood,” he said. I could hear him still chuckling as he walked down the hall.
As I headed back to the kitchen to finish the rompope, I stopped short and took a
nother deep breath. Everything smelled amazing—the holiday food in the kitchen, the fresh new Christmas tree, the fire crackling in the fireplace, the copal incense. I drank it all in and let my hungry spirit feed from it. For the first time in weeks, I felt…peaceful.
After a delicious dinner, we all sat around the fire. Matt was on the couch and I sat on the floor between his feet, leaning against his knees. As we drank our rompope, we all told stories about the first time we phased. Some of them were hilarious, while others were heartbreaking. I hadn’t thought much about it since I’d told Dad, but I was really lucky to have a family who accepted me for who I was. Many shifters weren’t as fortunate.
As the evening wore on, I couldn’t seem to stop myself from yawning. “Hey, is this rompope spiked?” I asked.
“Not yours,” Richard said.
“What time is it?” Matt asked.
“Almost three-thirty,” Damian answered.
Selene stood up and stretched. “Well, that’s it for me,” she said with a yawn. “Merry Christmas, all.”
From there, the party started to break up a little at a time until there was just our main crew left.
“Me acompañas hasta el banco?” Cesar tucked his hair behind one ear. He looked nervous.
Matt grinned. “Dude, we all speak Spanish.”
Cesar flushed, then he took Lyssa’s hand and headed out the kitchen door.
I sighed. “Looks like I’ve lost my bench.”
“You should be sleeping anyway, babe,” Matt said as he gave my hair a playful tug.
“It’s not insomnia, is it,” Damian said knowingly. “Are you still having those nightmares?”
“Hey, how did you know?”
“Insomniacs are tired, but they want to sleep,” he said. “They’re desperate for it. You’ve been avoiding it.”
“Yeah, I guess I have.” Damian was incredibly smart, so it didn’t surprise me that he had figured it out. It wouldn’t be long before everyone else did too. It was time to come clean. “I’m having this really horrible nightmare.”
“The Mayan village?” he asked.
I started to nod and then shot him a look. “Wait—how do you know?”
“I’m sorry. I overheard you and Matt talking about it. It wasn’t on purpose. Is it every night?”
Matt nodded. “And not just at night,” he said. “It’s any time she falls asleep.”
I had to change the subject. “Hey, what do you guys think of Lyssa and Cesar?” I asked.
“Don’t dodge,” Matt said.
“What? What else is there to say? They have to go away sometime. Right?”
“Unless they’re visions and not dreams at all. In which case, you could probably be taught how to control them like you do with the rest of your visions,” Damian suggested. “I think you should probably talk to Adriana and Selena about it.”
I hadn’t thought of that. “Yeah, okay. I guess you’re right.” Well, that’s what I got for keeping secrets. “So,” I tried again, “what is going on with Lyssa and Cesar?”
“Honestly, today is the first time I’ve noticed it,” Damian said. “But I’ll see what I can find out.”
Matt pulled me to my feet. “Let’s let Damian rescue his twin,” he said. “And you have a date with your pillow.”
“All right, all right.” I held my hands up in mock surrender. Sheesh!
CHAPTER THREE
The wind whipped through my hair as I made my way up the path to the village. Everything seemed to move more quickly each time I had the dream. Or maybe it just seemed like it did. Before I knew it, I was already in the village. The air was heavy with smoke. I rounded the corner and moved aside as the children ran past me, then looked up to see that there was a man approaching me. I froze instantly, both awed by his shocking beauty and panicked by fear. He was not of this world. I knew it the moment I saw him. He was dressed all in black, his shirt, his pants, even his belt and shoes. He stood out oddly against the sea of dirty white cotton around him. I felt mesmerized as he approached, as if I were under some kind of spell, and then something seemed to scratch at my brain and I remembered that he wasn’t in this dream.
I wanted to say something. I wanted to protest, but by then he was right in front of me. He looked down at me, and that’s when I realized it was him. He was watching me curiously with his turquoise eyes. Eyes like the sea. I shook my head and forced myself to snap out of it. I mean, who was this guy? And why was he in my dream? He didn’t just get to do that.
“Um, this is a recurring dream,” I said. “I don’t think you’re supposed to be here.” I hoped I sounded more sure of myself than I felt.
“It’s good to hear your voice again.”
Again? What is it with guys and that word? “Who are you?” I asked. “What are you doing in my dream?” He was so tall I actually had to tilt my head back a little to look at him. At five-eight, that’s not something I’m used to. His hair was so dark it looked almost black. But it was his eyes I couldn’t stop looking at. I drank them in. Why were they so familiar?
“Walk with me.” He smiled a little and began to move toward the outskirts of the village.
Of course I followed him, because that’s what people do with total strangers. As we left the village, a sprawling field of wheat stretched out in all directions. We were clearly no longer in the mountains.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“It’s your dream.”
“Okay, let’s get back to, who are you?”
“My name is Akil.”
Akil? Nope. Nothing. “How is it that you know my name?” I asked him.
“Maya has been your name for a thousand years. You’d think I’d remember it.”
I stopped cold. “How long? What do you mean? Who the hell are you?” I demanded, stepping away from him.
“I am who I’ve always been,” he said. “I can see that you don’t remember.” A sudden look of sadness flashed in his eyes, but it was so fleeting, I wasn’t sure what I’d seen.
“Remember what?” I asked. But I already knew the answer. The part of me that seemed missing, all of my strange powers…This being, who was clearly not human, held the answers. But who was he? Was he dangerous? I gulped.
We started walking again, and as we did, our surroundings changed. I looked around and realized that we were on a city street. The languages, the faces, the smells were all foreign. The road we walked on was made of stone and was cool under my bare feet. We were surrounded on all sides by Islamic architecture. We were in Morocco? Really? But how would I know that? I’d never left the United States until we all came to Mexico.
But as I looked around, I even recognized that we were on the outskirts of the Djemaa el Fna, the very heart of the city of Marrakech. I started toward it, and Akil adjusted his steps, continuing to walk along beside me.
“I don’t understand,” I said. “I’ve never been to Morocco or even seen pictures of all this. How is it possible that I know I like it?”
“There’s a very simple answer.”
“Wait…are you saying that I have been here?”
“This isn’t the first time you’ve come to Morocco or to Marrakech. You’ve been here many times.”
WTF? How could that be? But the minute I set eyes on the main square, I knew it was true. I knew that I had been there. I had sat here for hours, watching acrobats and jugglers. It wasn’t a memory, really. It was more just a feeling. Like déjà vu.
We stopped to watch a tourist get a henna tattoo. “This is so amazing,” I said.
“I suppose, if you like snake charmers and that sort of thing.”
We walked quietly. All the activity I could see was strangely calming, considering my insides were turning to scrambled mush. We walked out of the marketplace and turned down a narrow street. It wasn’t until we passed back into the sunlight that I saw them. Huge shadows that looked like wings stretching high above Akil’s head. I started to shake uncontrollably, my mind not able to make sense of what
I was seeing. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out.
“Maya!” Akil took hold of my wrists and pulled me toward him. “Look at me. They’re my wings. Just my wings. I’m not going to hurt you.”
Just wings? My shaking slowed to a tremble as I looked from his eyes to the shadowy wings and back again. I looked at his face, at his forehead furrowed in doubt, and I realized that he wasn’t going to hurt me. At least not then, anyway.
“Wh—why are they only shadows?”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you couldn’t see them. I should have realized it when I saw that you no longer had yours.”
“Mine? I had…wings?”
“Yes.”
“Where are they?” I asked. For the gazillionth time in my life, I wished I could cock an eyebrow like Lyssa. Sigh.
“If you only see a shadow of mine,” he was saying, “then you’ve been in this world for too long.”
I looked around. “What is everyone else seeing?”
“The innocents see nothing. My wings are glamoured. They are invisible to them.”
Then it hit me. Holy crap! A ton of bricks wouldn’t even cover it. His wings were like Balam. I had been able to see him only as shadow. And if Balam was from the Otherworld, then—
“You’re from the Otherworld! Why are you here?”
“I came for you. After a thousand years of waiting, I sensed you for the first time just four of your days ago. I had lost all hope.”
My thoughts swam wildly through my head as I tried to work out the meaning of what he was telling me. Four days ago, I was at Chichen Itza, summoning up enough k’ul to somehow put me back on this guy’s radar. Not that I was going to tell him that.
“So…you’re saying that I’m from the Otherworld, too?”
“Yes. You are what I am.”
“Which is?”
“A god.”
***
I couldn’t breathe. I sat up in bed and discovered I was sticky with sweat. It was daylight, and Matt was still sound asleep next to me. That is, until my panic attack woke him up.
Jaguar Moon (Jaguar Sun Series Book 2) Page 2
