Visions of Skyfire

Chapter 54

The damp heat slapped at her as Teresa stepped out of the van. It felt as though she was wrapped in a wet electric blanket. Smothering. Stifling. Chico took wing the moment they were free and she heard his vibrant whistle over the wind that sighed through the dense grove of trees. She hoped he kept going. Hoped he remained free rather than coming back to her.

Teresa took a breath and filled her lungs with the mingled scents of plant and animal life. Just beneath it all, there was a thick undercoating of decay. She had never liked the rain forest, preferring instead the clean sweep of the desert, with its wide-open vistas and sharp, dusty air. The jungle made her feel claustrophobic. Everything was too close. Every tree and bush seemed to be leaning over toward her, cutting off her view of the sky.

She threw a look at Miguel and his men as Rune, held at gunpoint, climbed out of the van to join her.

Miguel’s henchmen didn’t look too happy about being there. And she knew why.

Even this far from the Palenque site, she felt the threads of magic spilling through the air. This place was sacred. The ground hummed with ancient power and the jungle itself was its living guardian.

“Come on!” Miguel waved his gun to get them moving. “I don’t have all day to stand around in this disgusting heat. Move it.”

She threw a look at Rune and read the rage burning in his eyes. Teresa understood what it was costing this fierce warrior to be a prisoner to a man so completely beneath him. Her own temper was boiling, demanding to be released, so she could only imagine the depths of her Eternal’s wrath. She reached for his hand and with their fingers entwined, they set off down a narrow path, overgrown with so much plant life it was nearly invisible to the eye. One of Miguel’s men walked ahead of them with a machete and the constant slap of the blade against the growth became a steady accompaniment to their footsteps.

The jungle closed in around her, making it hard to breathe. Sweat dripped along her spine. The dark mutterings of the men were hardly more than a buzzing distraction.

It rained, a misty soak that drenched their clothes and left them steaming as the sun came out from behind the clouds again. Water dripped from the canopy of trees that stretched high overhead. It was a miserable trek, but through it all, her fury spurred Teresa forward. She would never forget what her beloved abuela had sacrificed to give them this chance.

The path led to a clearing and when they stepped into the vast space, Teresa let out a sigh of wonder.

Palenque.

Normally, there was a crowd of tourists wandering the area. How Miguel had managed to keep them all out was a mystery, but one she didn’t need to unravel.

“I don’t like this,” one of the men complained in an undertone.

“Me neither. Place gives me the creeps.”

“Shut up,” Miguel told them.

Teresa wasn’t listening to any of them. Instead, she concentrated on the huge structure in front of her. Her gaze moved over the massive stone palace, covered in dark-green snaking vines and grass crawling up from the well-tended grounds. Smaller structures were staggered around the clearing, with stone steps set into their facades. Everywhere, the jungle pushed forward.

But no matter how hard nature tried to reclaim it, the building remained. Magical energies pulsed from within the structure, the very air resonating with power that fueled the dampened magic inside Teresa. She felt the ancient force of unbridled energies soaking into her skin, feeding what gifts she had with immeasurable abandon. “Amazing,” she whispered.

“It is,” Rune agreed.

“Yes, yes,” Miguel snapped. “It’s amazing. Wonder how they built it. Where did the Mayans do their sacrifices? Jesus, you two sound like the tourists our men chased out of here. I don’t give a good damn about the stinking temple. All I want is what’s inside and you’re going to get it for me.”

Rune glared at the much smaller man. “You should learn when to keep your mouth shut, human.”

Miguel’s fist tightened on his pistol. “You should remember that even if I can’t kill you with a gun, I can kill her.”

“Do it and die.”

“Tough talk from a guy with a white-gold chain around his neck.”

“Rune,” Teresa said softly, “let’s just do this and be done.”

“Good plan, Teresa.” Miguel motioned with his gun hand, steering them toward a much smaller building that sat at the crest of a low hill.

It could have been an English country cottage from the lines of it. Until you looked closer and saw the jagged stones making up its skeleton and the sharply pitched roof. Blank doorways and windows stared out emptily at what had once been an arena filled with worshippers.

Teresa stared up at the small temple. “Temple of the Moon,” she whispered.

Miguel laughed from behind her. “Actually Temple of the Dead Moon. Or Temple of the Skull. Kinda looks like a skull, too.”

She threw him a glare, then dismissed him as she shifted her gaze to Rune. He was watching her as if they were alone in the clearing. The men holding them at gunpoint might as well have been on Jupiter for all the notice he gave them.

“Do you feel it?” he whispered.

“I do.” It only surprised her that the others couldn’t feel the energy pulsing off the moon temple in this amazing place. But their ignorance would help her and Rune.

“Let’s go,” Miguel ordered, waving them up the side of the grassy knoll toward the temple.

Guns still aimed at them, Teresa went first, with Rune hot on her heels, a living barrier between her and the dangerous men behind them. She slipped, caught her footing and kept on. There was something ahead. Magic. Energy. Power. And it sang to her. Her body, chilled as it was from the white gold, reacted, her cells awakening with every step that brought her closer to the source of that energy.

Heart racing, she smiled to herself and kept climbing, eager now to reach the top. To enter that long-abandoned temple that was somehow reaching out to her.

At the peak, the ribbons of power were stronger, wrapping themselves around Teresa and Rune as they stopped just outside the gaping doorway. She tried to see into the inky shadows within, but with the hot sun behind her, she simply couldn’t.

“Okay,” Miguel said, “here’s the deal. Just in case that old bitch was trying to set me up somehow …”

Teresa took one instinctive step toward him, but Miguel just held his gun steadily pointed at her. “You two are going in there first,” he said. “And don’t get any ideas. I can cover you through the doorway.”

Rune grabbed hold of Teresa’s upper arm and held her back when she would have charged Miguel, gun or no gun. Logically, she knew he was right. Emotionally, she wanted to rip that arrogant expression off Miguel’s face.

“Get movin’,” he said, waving his gun again.

Furious, feeling more trapped than ever, Teresa turned and walked toward the temple. She hadn’t taken more than two steps, though, when Rune moved in front of her to go first. “Stay behind me,” he said quietly.

Again, he was risking himself to save her. Again, Teresa felt a wellspring of love rise up inside her. It nearly drowned the grief for her grandmother and the fear and rage inspired by Miguel. Rune was, in every way she could think of, her mate. Without him, she was incomplete. With him, she could withstand anything.

Over the cries of the animals that lived in the rain forest, Teresa heard Chico shrieking and whistling and she wished he would fly away to safety.

Then she followed Rune into the temple. Deep shadows made the temperature much cooler and the relief from the sun was instantaneous. The stone walls were empty, only vestiges of what they had once been, the grass and vines encroaching even here, beyond the reach of sunlight.

The others followed, just a few steps behind them—and were stopped dead at the open doorway.

“What the f*ck?”