Redemption (2 page)

She shrugged. “I hate bats.”

“If not for your sake, then do it for mine. As much as I enjoy hunting you down, I do have other responsibilities.”

It was cute in a way, this machismo bullshit. She knew full well that he wouldn’t give a flying leap if it were Sean or Ethan working late. But she wouldn’t press it because while she thought his concern was misguided, it did seem to be genuine. But still…“Look, Adriano. I need access to the Lanzón and the only time I can get that without tour groups and work crews filing through every half hour is if I wait until the site’s closed. It’s my thesis and if I don’t get it done…”

“Then Sean wins?”

She grimaced. How did Adriano find out about that? Quiet, watchful and smart. He knew more about each of them than any of them knew about him. “Sean doesn’t need that fellowship. I do.”

Adriano looked at her for a long moment. “I’ll go with you then. After I tuck the others into their cots, I’ll—”

“No,” she said, maybe a bit too quickly judging by the way his eyes narrowed. She wouldn’t get any work done with him looking over her shoulder. “Thank you, no. I appreciate your concern but I’m not your responsibility.”

Which was a mistake because, in actuality, she was. They all were. His primary responsibility was to keep the site secure from looters and gawkers. He’d wanted to shut down the tours and the museum temporarily but the government insisted on keeping them open. Tourism had peaked now that the airports had reopened and the roads were clear. And the people here needed money to rebuild.

Adriano had been placed in charge of the site sometime after the earthquake to oversee the cleanup but no one knew where he’d come from. He wasn’t connected to the museum or the university so far as she could tell. Sean thought he was a low-level bureaucrat. Mia thought he was military. Times like this, Sophie could believe that. Something in the way his team acted around him, in the way he held himself. Something in the way he was looking at her right now, all stern and confident and sexy. She reminded herself again that Adriano’s team was understaffed and he was only doing his job.

He put his hand on the small of her back, guided her through the door and released her to rejoin the herd. “Don’t leave without me.”

He was gone before she could come up with a good enough argument. She wanted to finish her work in peace without the distraction of his laughing eyes and lean hard body. But she couldn’t tell him
that
. She grabbed a sandwich and some bottled water and sat down next to Mia, who scooted a little closer to Sean to make room.

Mia nudged her arm. “Nice.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Adriano was so tall he had to duck his head in order to leave the tent. She had a good foot of clearance herself.

“He looks all dark and dangerous but he’s got the manners of a Catholic priest.” Mia tossed a half-eaten carrot stick back onto her plate. “I gave him a shot myself but he wouldn’t bite. He’s a little stiff for my taste, even with that body and that face. Prudish almost.”

“I don’t think he’s a prude,” Sophie said and could have bit her own tongue for trying to defend him when Mia smirked.

“I’m not after Adriano.” She tried again more firmly.

Mia ignored that and gave her a critical once-over. “I could lend you some clothes. I still can’t tell if you’re wearing the same things over and over again or if you really just like the color of dirt. I lost my sense of smell weeks ago.”

They’d been having this argument off and on for the last two months. Sophie rolled her eyes but fell into it, happy to get off the subject of men she didn’t have a chance with in a million years. “We’re doing fieldwork in the middle of a disaster zone.”

Mia shook her head. “We pulled a corpse out of the ground today with nicer rags clinging to her mummified flesh.”

Sophie knocked into Mia’s shoulder. “Why should I care what I’m wearing? Nobody else does but you. And anyway, who flies thousands of miles from home to a camp with limited bathroom facilities, bird-sized insects and mummified corpses poking out of the ground then starts looking for sex? I’m here to do a job.” She lifted her bottle of water and unscrewed the cap. “You should try it sometime, you know…work.”

“You can’t work all the time, Soph. I’ve seen the two of you eying each other, and you said you weren’t looking for anything permanent. So why not Adriano?”

“What about Adriano?” Ethan asked, sitting down across from them after going back for seconds.

“Sophie wants to fuck him,” Mia put in helpfully, drawing Sean’s head around from where he’d been chatting up one of the undergrads.

Ethan grinned. “I like Adriano.”

While Sophie tried to figure out what Ethan meant by that, Sean leaned over and put his two cents in. “You shouldn’t be messing around with the hired crew.”

They all stopped and stared at him, even Mia who was technically his girlfriend despite their very open relationship. Sean, who chased after anything with breasts, was apparently the only one who didn’t see the hypocrisy. Wondering for the umpteenth time why Mia continued to put up with him, Sophie tried to control her animosity.

Sean was her main rival for the Swanson Fellowship and she could never be sure if that was the reason he rubbed her the wrong way. That fellowship meant a lot to her. If she won then she wouldn’t be stuck in a classroom teaching undergrads until she lost the will to live. She’d be able to do what she loved—stay out in the field and continue her research for at least the next two years, maybe longer. Sean was smart and in charge of their team. He was handsome and well-liked but he’d always reminded Sophie of a politician. Even out here in the middle of nowhere, his shirt was tucked neatly into his trousers. His hair was gelled and carefully tousled. His blue eyes were earnest as they met hers. She had to give it to him, he actually did look concerned. “I mean it, Sophie. If you’re not going to consider your health, then at least consider your career.”

Her health? She pulled back and opened her mouth, closed it and then tried again. “First, it’s none of your business and second, it’s not something you have to worry about. I don’t want to fuck Adriano.”

Okaaay.
She’d said that a little too loudly. Heads swiveled around and there was an awkward moment of silence before the conversation around them gradually picked up again. Sean frowned at her and it took all of Sophie’s willpower not to snap at him that he’d started it. Something about him brought out the worst in her. Ethan winked and grabbed the apple off her tray while Mia laughed her low, throaty laugh. Sophie tried to ignore them all. There was a reason she sometimes skipped meals.

“Methinks she doth…”

“Can it, Mia,” she muttered under her breath and took a bite of her sandwich, chewing quickly and chasing it down with water because it tasted like crap.

Ethan cleared his throat and, when Sophie raised her brows questioningly, said, “I was wondering if you’d had a chance to think about my theory. It might be just another cactus but I was thinking about what you said, you know, about thinking beyond glyphs. If you could just take another look…” She didn’t realize she’d been shaking her head until his lips twisted. “C’mon, Sophie. Just give it a chance.”

She liked Ethan, liked his kooky theories about Mayan prophecies and ancient alien visitation. He focused specifically on the religious aspects of the Chavín culture, and he thought he’d found a recipe of sorts for the ritual mix of hallucinogenic drugs the priests had used in their ceremonies. He hoped she’d be able to identify a plant from a cracked carving. She hated to be the one to have to tell him he was nuts. “The stone was damaged in the landslide. But even the part that’s still intact…”

“Sophie. I just need you to try and read it.”

“There’s nothing to read, Ethan,” Sean said, exasperated. “Sometimes a picture of a bird is just a picture of a bird. It’s art. If she could actually
read
it and prove that there’s a code there she wouldn’t be here now.”

Ethan gave her a sympathetic look and Sophie shook her head. No point in getting into it here and now. Not again. She knew it was a fringe theory but it wasn’t crazy. Some people like her thought the carvings the Chavín had left behind were ritualistic and symbolic, purposefully difficult to interpret so that they could be read only by the priests. Some people like Sean thought there was nothing more to them than decoration. Her theory and the subject of her thesis was that the carvings represented a highly visual, representational and interconnected form of written record. She believed the entire history of the Chavín was encoded in their art and that she was getting very close to breaking that code, or at least a portion of it.

She didn’t plan to reveal that to Sean though. He was the one waiting for a break that would get his name recognized in the right circles and get him the publishing credit that would buy him tenure at a big school. Sophie liked fieldwork. She felt alive for the first time in years and she didn’t want to go home. She hadn’t realized until she left how pale and suffocating her life had become. There was nothing there for her anymore.

She spared Sean a brief quelling glare and reached across the table to squeeze Ethan’s hand. “There’s too much missing. I’m not a botanist but I don’t think it’s what you’re looking for anyway. Even if it was, it’s not something to mess around with. You get it wrong, it could kill you.”

“You get it
right,
it could kill you,” Mia said in a rare sympathetic tone. “It’s not like there’s an ER we could run you to if you OD.”

Ethan pulled his hand away, blue eyes widening. “Wait a minute. You think I would try it on myself?”

Sophie glanced at Mia for help but Mia only sighed and started poking at the food left on her plate. Someone had seen Ethan grinding herbs in an old-fashioned pestle. Everyone knew what he was up to. In a small camp that kind of info spread easily.

She met his incredulous gaze. “Just be careful,” she told him and turned back to her meal.

Ethan and Sean started bickering again but Sophie let her attention wander. Winning the fellowship would allow her to continue her field research. She knew she was getting close. All she needed was a little more time. She could see the pattern, but proving the connection was just beyond her reach. A few more pieces, maybe those new carvings exposed in the tunnel collapse, maybe something churned up by the landslide. Just one little chunk of rock could be the key to unlocking it all.

Adriano dropped Sophie off with her friends and managed to choke down enough food not to make anyone suspicious. Then he slipped away from the camp and climbed to the higher elevations to run. Earlier than he would have liked, but he needed to run and he needed to be back when Sophie was ready to return to her work. If he planned to spend half his night watching her frown over the ruins and keep his hands to himself, then he needed the physical release a good hard run in his jaguar form would give him.

He planned to give her at least an hour to finish her work before he put his hands on her. Time to try a new tactic. Clearly, staring at her and willing her to welcome him to her bed was not working. He wasn’t cocky…okay, maybe he was. But she’d almost burned his skin with her stare this afternoon.

He’d wanted to take her then. Drop the ladder and shove her up against the wall, rip the ugly clothes from her body and sink into that sweet flesh. He wondered if she would have let him. Probably not in the open like that. They’d been very alone and he would have heard anyone coming in time, but she couldn’t know that. And Sophie…well, she deserved something gentler than a quick fuck against a hard wall. She deserved a tender lover and a night sky like this one.

And so he’d left the lowland valley where the site was situated to climb higher into the mountains. If the jungle had been close enough, he would have retreated there but it was too far. He hated that. Out of his element here, he wanted to be home not skulking through the shadows, hiding what he was from the humans.

Home. Now that was hardly likely, was it? Not yet anyway. Going home now would be a death sentence for him. He wanted to go back though. He missed the friends and family he’d left behind. He missed having someone care if he lived or died, missed having a purpose and being part of something bigger than himself. His people, the Yaguara, were a secluded tribe of jaguar shape-shifters living in the Amazon jungle. Until recently, they’d maintained a strict isolationist policy, traveling within the human world but never attempting to integrate, barely interacting with other shape-shifter communities. When the new king claimed power five years ago, he changed all that. Gabriel Alvarez, a half-human outcast, won the crown by pounding every pure-blooded contender into the dirt, then killing the corrupt heads of the Silveira family who’d led the old regime. The Silveiras didn’t go down without a fight and Adriano had stupidly gotten caught in the middle of the bloodbath. A child died when his men were ordered to attack an enemy headquarters, and he’d been exiled.

Even now, years later, the Yaguara were still fighting a civil war. When Gabriel took control of the city, most of the old Silveira supporters—those who lost power by the change in leadership, those who couldn’t accept a mutant king—fled and settled in an abandoned city to the north. Adriano had considered joining them. His skill as a warrior would be welcome there, he’d be among his own kind and he wouldn’t have to hide what he was. But he couldn’t do it. Lingering loyalty or a pathetic sense of idealism, something always kept him from going down that path. His family—his brother Nic, his aunt, uncle and cousins—had all stayed behind with the new king. So he was here, pouring all of his energy and resources into searching for a legendary stone that might not even exist.

He
believed the stone was here, buried beneath the ruins, and had wagered everything on that belief. If he was right and there was any truth to the old stories Grandfather used to tell them over the campfire, then Adriano would soon have in his possession an artifact dangerous enough to trade for a pardon, valuable enough to redeem even him.

A deer startled from the brush just a few feet away, triggering an undeniable instinct to give chase. Adrenaline flooded his system, sharpening his senses to the pain point of pleasure, tightening his muscles and flying like lightning down his nerves. He ran, everything narrowing to the chase. The panicked animal scurried through a shallow ravine and Adriano crossed the distance in a single fluid leap, hooking his claws into warm flesh at the same time his jaws closed, driving his fangs through its skull with a satisfying crunch. He settled on the rock and enjoyed his dinner. Fresh meat, a far cry from the chemical soaked rotting flesh the humans served up.

When he was done, he cast the carcass aside and moved on. He climbed until the air chilled the sweat on his flanks, until the stars glittering in the moonless sky above him seemed closer than the ruins below.

It was beautiful here. Silent. Cold as the man he was becoming. The first year of exile was the hardest. That first year, he’d lived as a jaguar. Easier to ignore the mess of emotions threatening to overwhelm him. Grief for the girl he hadn’t been able to save. Shame because her death happened on his watch, because he’d been too naive to question his orders. Anger because he’d been betrayed twice over—first by the man who’d given the command to destroy the building, sending his men off to unknowingly murder civilians, and second by the new king who’d required a scapegoat.

Eventually, he came out the other side and learned how to survive in the human world. Using his knowledge of the jungle and his people’s history he’d become a thief, stealing artifacts from yet to be discovered sites and selling them on the black market. When his funds were particularly low, he’d sold himself too, as a mercenary. He hated that. Among the Yaguara, he’d been a respected warrior and leader, fighting to protect his people. As a mercenary, he worked for evil men who hired him to do the jobs that were too dirty even for them.

He didn’t like the man he was now. The lines he’d never considered crossing in the beginning were long behind him. Sophie was a line too, he recognized that. But she was also sweet and honest and good, a reminder of why he was risking everything to chase down a legend. He needed something good to hold onto—a home, a family, a purpose—before he lost himself completely.

He settled onto the rock and stretched out to his full length. When he closed his eyes, he could feel his body locked to the mountain, the earth’s slow rotation and the fixed vigil of the stars. He let his pain, fear and hope, along with all of his tangled strategies fall to the side. He let the silence of this sacred place wash over him and, just for a moment, he was at peace. Then, a rodent scurried through the brush below him. A biting fly landed on the tip of his ear and he twitched it loose. The wind ruffled through his fur, night cool and damp. He sighed, heaved himself to his feet and began the descent.

Halfway down, he came across a trail, the scent striking him so suddenly he jerked back and nearly stumbled. Hunching to the ground he made himself very still, inhaling deeply. Strong, but not strong enough for the other shifter to still be nearby. He’d been here, judging by the dissipation, as recently as two hours ago. If Adriano had taken this trail up into the mountains, there would have been spilled blood.

He raised his head and looked around him, crouched over the rock where the scent was strongest and the thin grass matted. He could see the entire site from this vantage point. There was something just off enough in the signature to mark the shifter as a mutant, enough testosterone to indicate a male. A slow simmer of rage built with each inhalation. The shifter had watched them from here, sunning himself on this flat rock overlooking the camp.

It might be nothing. He may simply have scented Adriano’s trail and been curious. It was possible that this mutant might only have heard the news that the new king was working to integrate those of half-human blood into the Yaguara. Born of a Yaguara father and a human mother, Gabriel Alvarez had declared amnesty to other mutants like himself. Adriano had been approached before, warily, by those seeking confirmation.

He couldn’t make himself believe it though. Not here. Not now. The Bloodstone was something of a shifter legend and the damage to the site had been broadcast across the world by industrious reporters. The only reason the Yaguara hadn’t sent in a team to recover it was because of the border skirmish to the north. Stretched as they were, his brother had told him that it would be months before they could spare anyone to chase after a legend, especially when no one knew for sure if the stone truly existed. Adriano wouldn’t have wasted the time himself if Grandfather hadn’t been so certain of its existence.

Until now, he’d thought he was the only one in the game. The Yaguara were miles away in the jungle fighting their war, and very few mutants would know enough about the old stories to suspect a treasure here. He might have been followed. He’d thought his only threat was Sophie, so busy trying to make sense of Chavín art, so close to figuring it out on her own, so recklessly curious in her explorations. Apparently he’d been mistaken.

Adriano swung his muzzle around and padded silently over packed dirt and loose stone. He recognized the scent marking but it took him a moment to place it. A mercenary he’d worked with about a year ago. Carl…Carlos…Adriano couldn’t quite recall the man’s name but remembered the dead look in his eyes. Remembered looking into those flat eyes and thinking that was who he’d be in a few years.

That man was a scavenger pure and simple, no home, no loyalty, no scruples. Exactly the type you’d expect to find sniffing around the damage looking for easy pickings—a rival invading
his
territory. He’d put in too much work here to let anyone steal the prize out from under him.

By the time Adriano reached the main site, he knew exactly where the shifter was headed. His anger grew with each step even as the last of the scent trail dissipated. Carlos, or whatever the fuck his name was, had waited patiently until he was gone to scope out the site.

He stepped softly, padding over the stone flagstones of the plaza, senses extended, heart pumping in anticipation of a fight. When he passed the entrance to the Lanzón gallery, he heard the rustle of clothing coming from inside and his gut tightened. Not his prey. Not this time. Fragile, sweet, human. Sophie. He almost changed course, but the trail angled away from her and he followed it instead, even though he already knew what he’d find.

Adriano’s claws dug into the soil, his flank a hairsbreadth away from the stone wall. Unlike his home in the jungle, there was very little cover here aside from the man-made structures. The trail led toward the Rocas, the network of tunnels located beneath the temple which the humans had decided were for drainage. They had been used as such. During high festivals, the priests would flood the canals with water making the temple above echo with the sounds of snarling jaguars. Running beneath the Plaza Mayor and the Castillo, they also provided an access point to the lower levels which the humans had yet to discover.

He passed through the tunnels knowing that his prey was already gone. The flat empty silence at the mouth of the tunnel told him that even before he slipped into the darkness to verify it. He checked to see that the stone concealing the access tunnel was undisturbed. A large solid slab of granite, too heavy for a single shifter to move. He knew because he’d been trying to manage it the last several nights. The Yaguara were stronger than their human counterparts and by his estimate, it would take three grown warriors to move even the smallest of the broken pieces. It had taken Adriano weeks to make as much progress as he had, clearing stone from the collapsed parts of the tunnel and shoring up the area above the seal so that the unstable ruin above did not cover it again, all the while hiding his activities from the humans. The tunnels were too narrow to bring in machinery and as of yet, the humans were unaware that there might be anything beneath the rock. For a long time, Adriano stared at the disturbed dirt beside the stone. A large male jaguar’s print. One mutant shifter he could handle. Even if he somehow got into the temple, a mutant wouldn’t be able to read the carvings to navigate the tunnel system. Adriano scattered the print and padded back outside to see if he could pick up the trail again.

Circling the ruins, he found the shifter’s scent leading away from the site, toward the river. Finally accepting that his prey was too far gone for him to follow, Adriano shifted and dressed in the clothing he’d stashed inside a vent. Then, with the blood still rushing hard in his veins and his muscles tense with frustration, he went off to find Sophie.

He watched her for a moment, waiting for his heart rate to slow and enjoying the intense, serious expression on her face. You would think she was deciphering the secrets of the universe instead of looking at a simple recipe for an herbal tea. This was the information Ethan was looking for, the ritual mix of drugs. Ethan thought it was a hallucinogen the priests had used to make themselves think they’d transformed into jaguars. It was actually a mild sedative that would prevent mixed-blood children from transforming in utero, triggering a spontaneous abortion in their human mother. Survival rates for both infant and mother were abysmally low or had been before Gabriel’s campaign. Gabriel made sure that his shelters were fully stocked with the drug. Ethan would likely be disappointed by that information. Poor Sophie would be disappointed too if she knew the truth. Or maybe not.

He straightened and kicked at a loose stone, drawing her attention and a guilty flush to her cheeks as she stood to face him. She slapped at a mosquito and left a streak of blood on her forearm.

His gaze lingered on that dark smear until he pulled his eyes up to her face. “You shouldn’t be out here alone. I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t come.”

She lifted her pointed little chin defiantly. “I couldn’t find you. I tried.”

“It’s very late.” He gave her a slight smile and stepped forward into the circle of light cast by her lantern. He could tell she wanted to step back, some buried instinct recognizing that she was being stalked. But she stood her ground, facing down the predator even as her heart rate picked up. Smart girl.

“I couldn’t sleep.” She slapped the side of her neck. “These bugs are driving me insane. You don’t happen to have any spray on you?”

He shook his head. “They never bite me. Must only go for more tender flesh.”