And the wind god's words, when he spoke, were draped in humor. "I'd love to hang around and watch you crazy kids seal the deal, but I'm afraid it's time for me to take my leave."
Chapter 46
So Tezzie's not our only audience, Ixchel realized as she caught the sound of a cleared throat at the edge of the trees.
Both the vet and her companion whirled around, discovering the source of the noise at the same moment. But their reactions to the newcomer were entirely different. Finn—who had never met any of her siblings in person—seemed to be preparing to don his jaguar fur and claws, while Ixchel smiled faintly in welcome. The uninvited but not entirely unwelcome intruder was Antonio.
"Just you, Tony?" Ixchel asked, narrowing her eyes as she wondered how long her second oldest brother had been watching. Surely he couldn't have followed all the way from the gas station? No, Antonio wouldn't look so calm and collected if he'd been privy to humans turning into jaguars and jaguars turning into humans with wild abandon. Nor would he appear so serene if he'd watched his kid sister dive into the deep waters of the cenote.
Antonio might, however, hesitate to let a serial killer loose on the world. Luckily, Tezzie was already taking command of his new body and would, hopefully, be ready to flee shortly. Despite injuries that would have laid out a human for days or weeks, the god seemed to be healing before their very eyes, the gash in his head no longer leaking blood and a spring coming into his step. In a pinch, Ixchel suspected she could distract Antonio long enough to allow the deity to bolt.
But it appeared evasions might not be necessary. "Is that what you want, Ixxie?" Antonio asked quietly. "To let Mirabelle go?" Her brother's hand was tucked under his shirt, likely atop one of the pistols that she'd caught Fernando passing out that morning, and his shoulders were tense. But her brother had yet to put the weapon to use, for which the vet was profoundly grateful.
Just what I don't need today—to be responsible for stitching up more gunshot wounds. Ixchel found herself subtly shifting her stance so her body shielded the larger form of the newly-turned god. Talking Tezzie out of this predicament was still her first priority, but in a pinch she was willing to act as a human shield. Antonio would never risk pointing a gun anywhere near his sister, and one wound was plenty for the god to heal up as he grew into his new body.
Not that Tezzie obeyed her unspoken request to look small and insignificant. "Ixxie, huh?" the god said with a chortle that made even Finn's lips turns up in response. Despite the fact that Ixchel had hoped the troublesome god would allow himself to fade into the woodwork, she had to admit that his joyful laughter helped make their harrowing journey to reach this point worthwhile.
Well, Ixchel thought, tucking her hand in amidst Finn's larger fingers, Tezzie's joy isn't the only thing that's made this journey worthwhile.
"I really can't explain why right now, Antonio," Ixchel said slowly, trying to think of an explanation her brother would understand and drawing a complete blank. "But I'd really prefer it if you let go of the gun and allowed Te..I mean, Mirabelle...to walk out of here unharmed. He's had a change of heart and is a different man than he was when he fell into the cenote. Surely that's something you can understand?"
"He's had a change of heart that negates the fact he's a serial killer?" Antonio sounded dubious, but her brother still allowed Ixchel to stare him down, slowly removing his hand from the butt of the pistol.
The vet's throat tightened, knowing that she and her brother were both remembering other nights when their younger selves had bantered over similar decisions. At that time, Antonio always brushed off Ixchel's requests...and the little sister had responded by forcing a prison sentence that ended up getting their middle brother killed.
A decade later, each sibling had a reason to resent the other. And yet both entered their current disagreement with a willingness to listen to reason...even when explanations couldn't really be made. It was a testament to how much Antonio had changed that he didn't simply overpower Ixchel's objections in order to do what he thought was best for his little sister. That fact, alone, gave Ixchel hope that her family unit might someday grow back together despite the rift she and Antonio had created between them nine years before.
But, for now, Tezzie was the vet's top priority. So she was relieved the moment she saw resignation flicker across her brother's face despite her lack of explanation. Then Antonio's features opened up into a rare smile so much like Fernando's that it made Ixchel's breath catch. She'd almost forgotten how much she'd loved her second oldest brother before he turned to a life of crime.
Still, Antonio seemed to feel the need to at least pretend fierceness. "I can't believe I'm doing this, but go on, get out of here!" he growled, jerking his head from Tezzie to the parking lot. And the god took full advantage of his reprieve.
"I'll be in touch," Tezzie promised. Then, with a jaunty wave, the Olmec god of change through conflict walked over to Mirabelle's car and drove out of their lives.
Epilogue
What was I thinking to stay away for so long?
Finn could smell Tezzie's recent presence as he skulked through the bushes that lined the veterinary practice's perimeter. With a month to make good on the crush he harbored, their favorite god evidently hadn't dredged up any compunction against moving into Finn's territory while the latter was off finding himself in Costa Rica. No, Finn didn't doubt Tezzie's actions one bit...just like he hadn't doubted Ixchel's fidelity until he returned and smelled the other male were-jaguar's scent so strong around her office and home. But now Finn had to wonder—how could he expect Ixchel to wait for his return when nothing had been settled between the two of them when he left?
At the time, the delay had seemed worthwhile. Ixchel professed to understand Finn's need to track down his family one last time; in fact, she was the one who suggested that the shifter make the trip in the first place. And Finn had been only too glad to agree since his mate's abrupt transformation from two to four feet forced him to wonder whether his sister was the flip side of the coin—a human consciousness trapped inside an animal's body.
Meanwhile, the shifter had gained closure from his recent experience, if nothing else. He'd started off with a visit to Ixxie, who had lent him Ixchel's cat necklace, promising that the newly blessed charm would give any female relatives the option to shift into human form if they so desired. With necklace in hand, Finn had then traveled to the cloud forests that lined a familiar mountain's peak, where he soon tracked down his sister, although his mother was nowhere to be found.
This time, Finn was more secure in his ability to shift quickly. So he'd gotten much closer to his twin in both human and jaguar form, building up as much of a rapport as he was capable of in a short period of time. Finally, the shifter had transformed back and forth several times right in front of his sister's nose. See, he was trying to tell her without words, you can be a human if you want to.
She'd spat and hissed at first, of course, but had finally tilted her head to the side consideringly. Did the jaguaress actually understand the opportunity he was presenting? Finn wasn't sure, but he'd been separated from his mate for so long at that point that his heart was pulling him away and he knew there was no more time to spend in Costa Rica.
Whenever he'd visited with his sister in human form over the last month, Finn had spoken softly to soothe them both. But, as his twin became more relaxed in his presence and he became more accustomed to sitting in human skin beside a gigantic cat, the shifter found himself expanding his repertoire from "There, there, it's okay" to a recitation of everything that had happened since he'd left his twin's side a decade before.
In the process, he'd also given her a name—Maya. Tez's jibe about Finn's self-appropriated moniker still stung weeks later, so the shifter wanted to be sure that his twin, at least, was blessed with a name provided by someone who truly cared.
Not that it appeared she'd need the handle since the jaguar remained resolutely in feline form even after she finally allowed h
er brother to drape Ixchel's charm across her spotted back.
"This necklace gives you the option to be like me," Finn had explained one last time, knowing that he barely had enough hours to return the trinket to Ixchel's favorite goddess before catching his flight back to the States. But this final attempt to help Maya transform couldn't be rushed.
"I've missed you, Maya," he continued. "The world is big and scary and strange, but there are benefits to walking through it on two feet. If you join me, I'll do my best to make sure you don't fall into any of the traps I've stumbled into. And I know Ixchel's family will take you in the same way they did me."
Strangely, even this last sentence was true. Fernando had been furious when he arrived at the cenote only to find Mirabelle gone and both Antonio and Ixchel adamant that their oldest brother not use his CIA connections to track the killer down. In fact, Nando had nearly decked Finn when he saw Ixchel's pale cheeks and sodden clothes. But the shifter had merely stood his ground and decided to take his lumps. After letting Ixchel stray into harm's way, Finn knew he deserved whatever his mate's older brother wanted to dish out.
And then, in some human turnaround Finn didn't yet fully understand, Fernando had changed his mind in an instant. Glancing back and forth between the shifter and his sister, Nando had ended up shaking his head fondly, and when he punched Finn it was merely a brotherly tap on the shoulder. "Look me up if you need any help with my sister," he'd said at last. "She's a hellcat." And it was almost as if the other male was passing the mantle of protection from his own shoulders into Finn's keeping.
Now, the shifter shook his head and gently stroked the soft fur between his sister's ears. Fate was a strange beast. When Finn had embarked on this expedition, he had done so out of a yearning for family. And he'd found a clan to be part of...but not in the place where Finn had thought family would be located.
Maya still wasn't entirely comfortable with a human touch, and she shook off his hand before Finn was ready to let her go. But he'd done his best. His twin had been offered the goddess's choice, which Finn had explained as best he could using both actions and words. And it seemed that Maya had chosen to stay here in the cloud forest where they'd both grown up.
It was a bittersweet parting when he walked down the damp trail and left his sister behind for the last time. As he went, Finn found himself glad that he wasn't a real human, since he might have then felt compelled to hold back the tears that streamed down his cheeks. The shifter glanced over his shoulder only once, catching a final glimpse of Maya's tail tip disappearing into the forest. Cat-like, his sister had already chosen to forget their shared past and move on into her future.
Luckily, Finn was more than half jaguar himself. So by the time his plane took to the air, he was looking forward to holding Ixchel in his arms once again. Yes, he may have lost the dream that Tezzie had planted of sharing this half-human existence with his twin sister. But Finn had gained much more in the process—notably, a mate who was patiently waiting and ready to slip Finn into the life and family she'd created for herself.
***
Only now, Finn wasn't so sure that was the case. Tezzie could be charming when he wanted to be, and Finn had been gone for a rather long time. Would Ixchel even want a semi-socialized shifter back under her roof?
It was evening again, just like the first time the two had met, and Finn found himself wavering on the vet's doorstep until the last car drove out of the practice's lot. And despite being worried about his reception, the shifter couldn't resist sneaking up behind his mate and greeting her with one hand boldly thrust across her eyes. "Guess who."
"Finn?" Ixchel spun in his arms and the were-jaguar almost thought he heard his mate purr as her sparkling eyes took in his face. "Finn!" she repeated, flinging her arms around his neck and locking her lips with his own. Well, his mate's enthusiasm—and the lack of flavor of another male on her mouth—answered that question. For the first time in a month, the shifter felt his muscles unclench and his jaw relax.
"You're back," Ixchel said after a long moment lost in each other's bodies. Then, less certainly: "For good?"
"Is that an invitation?" Finn asked. He hated to admit it, but Tezzie had been right. He didn't know the first thing about where to put his feet in this human mating dance. If he wasn't careful, they always seemed to end up in his mouth....
But Ixchel made it seem easy when she grabbed his hand and pulled him around to the back of the practice and up the stairs to her apartment. His mate fed them both a quickly-constructed meal of tuna salad and broccoli while Finn poured out all the events of the last four weeks into her studious ears.
They'd talked on the phone occasionally, of course, but the walk to a spot where he could get cell reception had taken hours that Finn didn't often want to waste. And it had also been hard to know what to say with Ixchel so distant and with their future so tenuous, especially without being able to sense his mate's mood through subtle shifts in her posture. Plus, both were-jaguars were in limbo, not sure where they stood while Maya's fate had yet to be decided. So they had hesitated to talk about their prospects.
But now Finn had no responsibilities left except bringing that smile back onto his mate's face. So as he told Ixchel about his adventures, he stuck to the stories guaranteed to make her laugh. Like the time Maya had made Finn scream like a little girl in front of a busload of tourists when his twin had stuck her cold, wet nose abruptly against the bare skin between his shirt and pants. He hadn't even known his sister had followed so far into the human-inhabited zone, and, at the time, Finn had been both terrified and angry. Now, though, he was glad of an experience that brought color to Ixchel's cheeks and joy to her guarded eyes.
"What aren't you telling me?" Finn said at last, realizing later than he should have that, although his mate seemed glad to see him, she was still holding something back. Perhaps Tezzie was an issue after all, even though Ixchel had assured him they'd simply had dinner together a few times as friends. The god was having trouble integrating into the human world, and Finn's favorite vet was never one to let a stray go unaided.
"It's more what you aren't telling me," Ixchel said, her eyebrows pinched together and her voice less cheerful than before. "I love hearing about your exploits, and I hope I can meet Maya someday even though she chose to stay in jaguar form." The vet paused and rubbed her brow as if unsure whether to go on, and Finn did his best to relax his face into the human version of open expectation.
"But..." he prompted.
"But I don't know where the two of us stand. You've never even told me why your backpack was full of spy paraphernalia, and I don't have the foggiest clue what your routine consists of when you're not running around Central America after gods and jaguars." Ixchel smiled then, but it was a pinched, pained expression that made Finn cringe. "I don't know what your regular life is like, and I don't know if it's a life I can be a part of."
Ah, the elephant in the room at last. And perhaps the sticking point for a woman who had lost a brother and two parents to criminal elements, then had devoted all of her energy afterwards to turning herself into a fine, upstanding citizen whom Finn could barely begin to emulate.
But he was willing to try. In fact, the shifter had already made movements in that direction, knowing that a career of antiquities theft wasn't going to mesh with Ixchel's honest nature. Luckily, the were-jaguar had plenty of funds socked away to carry him through until the two of them figured out what they wanted to do with their lives.
Assuming Ixchel was willing to become part of the team he envisioned, that was.
Well, there's only one way to find out.
So Finn opened his mouth and told her everything. "I was an art thief," he began....
And when Finn's story was over, he and Ixchel were both crying. But her hand was still firmly holding his and Finn knew that Tezzie had been true to his word. The god, or fate, or some other element beyond Finn's control had created this astonishing were-jaguaress who was beautiful both inside and
out. And that same responsible party had put this glorious creature right into his lap—quite literally since Ixchel now seemed willing to fuse her body with his own.
When they were able to breathe easily and to speak once again, Finn finished what he'd started. "You once took in a stray cat who had nowhere else to call home," he said tentatively. "And I'm hoping you'll be willing to accept that stray again, even if I'm slightly larger than the house cat you initially envisioned. So what do you say—am I back for good?"
"I think we can work something out," Ixchel promised, stroking his hair just the way he liked it. "And, this time, I won't even threaten to have you neutered."
***
I hope you enjoyed Jaguar at the Portal! If so, I'd be eternally grateful if you'd consider writing a review (even of just a sentence or two) on the retailer of your choice. Your kind words help strangers decide to take a chance on a new author, and they urge me to keep on writing.
Next, why not dive into my completed Wolf Rampant series? Shiftless is free on all retailers and you can download a copy of The Complete Bloodling Serial as a free bonus when you sign up for my email list.
Thank you so much for reading and for spreading the word! You are why I write.
Historical note
Before any historians start throwing rotten eggs at me, I hope you'll accept my apologies for playing fast and loose with the mythology of pre-Columbian Mexico. I'm well aware that Tezcatlipoca was an Aztec god and thus would have been worshiped around 1000 AD, fifteen hundred years after the last Olmecs had perished. On the other hand, the earlier Olmec civilization that thrived from about 1200 BC to 400 BC along the southern Gulf coast of Mexico shared many common features with the later Aztecs, so I don't see why Tezzie couldn't have started with the Olmecs and come along for the ride into Aztec times as well. After all, jaguars were an important cultural feature of both civilizations and Tezcatlipoca was sometimes portrayed with a jaguar as his animal nature. Plus, who wouldn't want to write fiction about a deity who is said to embody change through conflict and whose name is sometimes translated into English as the enemy of both sides?
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