The Prophecy (Daughters of the People Series Book 1) (22 page)

Amelia bubbled
enthusiastically about her time in Tellowee all the way from Maya’s house to
the airport, right up until she kissed James goodbye and boarded her plane. Any
other time, he would’ve loved listening to her, but after two nights of little
sleep and an early morning drive through rush hour traffic, his mind was
muddled and his nerves were frayed.

The lack of
sleep was his fault, and time well spent. Maybe there’d even be a repeat in the
near future. Surely Dierdre had sleepovers.

Or did teenagers
still do that?

Traffic was
heavy on the drive back up. Was it ever not in the Atlanta area?

He tuned his
radio to a local blues station and let his mind drift, to Amelia and her
new-found friendship with Dierdre, to Maya and his deepening feelings (Did she
feel the same?), to work and the translation he’d finished early the day before
after an epiphany brought on by the intimate company of a good woman.

Hmm. Maybe he’d
have to try that again the next time he was stuck. Him and Maya in bed for a
weekend, skin on skin, breaths mingling, bodies joined so intimately, he
couldn’t tell where he ended and she began. He grinned and tapped his fingers
against the steering wheel in time to Steve Ray Vaughn. Well, it was worth a
try, anyway.

When he was ten
minutes out, he called Maya with a heads up on his arrival time. Not long
after, he eased into his parking spot outside his apartment, then ambled to her
office, whistling tunelessly. Her door was open, so he went in, closing it
softly behind himself.

She was seated
at her desk, seemingly immersed in a report. Her hair was twisted into some
sort of knot at her nape. Stray curls had escaped, framing her face, softening
the strong lines of her cheekbones. She hardly ever wore make-up, not that he
cared. With or without it, she was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever
met.

Maybe that
didn’t have anything to do with make-up or clothing or the radiant glow of good
health she exuded, but with the woman he’d come to know over the past few
months. Under her reserve, he’d discovered a warm, wickedly humorous woman with
a deep love of family. Her work wasn’t just a job. It really mattered to her,
and he admired that about her. No, he admired all of her, every single aspect,
the lover he’d come to know, her steady relationship with her daughter, the
woman who’d brought down a skilled fighter calmly and with a deliberation few
could match. If he wasn’t careful, that admiration would morph into something
deeper, something stronger, maybe something lasting and true.

He stepped
around her desk and kissed her cheek. “Hey, gorgeous.”

She put the
report down, stood, and edged away from him.

He closed the
distance between them, slid his hands around her waist. “What’s wrong? Morning
after jitters?”

“Hardly.” She
placed a chaste kiss on his cheek. “How was the trip?”

“Driving through
Atlanta is like racing the Indy 500 on a bicycle with flat tires.”

She smiled,
relaxed, fiddled with his collar. “It’s not that bad.”

“Mm-hmm. Keep
telling yourself that.”

He bent to kiss
her, and she turned her head slightly away. A shaft of worry speared into him. “Are
you sure everything’s ok? No second thoughts?”

“Everything’s
fine.” Her gaze drifted over his left shoulder and pinned itself there.
“Really.”

He eased back
and studied her. This didn’t feel right, but other than pushing her, and he was
pretty sure that would piss her off, what could he do? “Ready to meet the
director?”

“Sure.”

They walked
together to Director Upton’s office, a foot of space between them. Over the weekend,
they’d gone hand in hand everywhere. Now, she seemed reluctant to touch him.

He shoved his
free hand into the pocket of his slacks, tightened his grip on his briefcase,
and forced himself to follow her lead. Maybe if she weren’t so cold, the
distance wouldn’t bother him. They were at work, and if there was any place for
circumspection, it was there, but this… This wasn’t like Maya at all, and
hadn’t been the entire time he’d known her. Even that first day, she’d been
warm, open, receptive. The woman beside him had hardened herself, shutting him
out as surely as if she’d shut a door in his face. What was going on?

He opened the
door for her and followed her through. After the meeting, he’d get to the
bottom of her sudden about-face. He had other things he wanted to talk over
with her, but they’d start with the distance she’d deliberately put between
them.

Director Upton
was ready to see them when they arrived. She met them at the door to her office
and directed them to the sitting area on one side, waving them onto the settee.
“I have good news. Dani called. She’s located all of the missing artifacts and
is putting together teams to retrieve them.”

“Er,” James
interrupted. “By retrieve you mean…?”

Rebecca’s gaze
remained steady. “Some things you may not wish to know, Dr. Terhune.”

“Ah. The police
won’t be involved?”

Maya crossed her
legs and folded her hands together in her lap. “Law enforcement agencies tend
to be inefficient when dealing with stolen artifacts.”

He’d had
first-hand experience with that, but shouldn’t they at least be consulted?

“In this case,
there’s a real danger that the artifacts might be sold or removed to a place
where we can’t track them,” Rebecca added. “Specifically, they may have fallen
into the hands of our, ah, rival.”

James’ eyebrows
shot up. “The IECS has a rival?”

Maya’s lovely
mouth turned down at one corner. “So to speak. This rival hasn’t been active in
a while. Has something changed?”

Rebecca
hesitated. She and Maya shared a look James couldn’t interpret, but worry grew
in the pit of his stomach. He’d only known Maya a short time, true, but he’d
never known her to show fear, not until that moment. If anybody had asked,
he’d’ve said she wasn’t capable of fear.

A cold chill
shivered down his spine. What kind of rival generated fear in the fearless?

“Possibly,”
Rebecca hedged. “That’s not something we need to worry about for the moment.
Right now, we should all concentrate on translating and interpreting as many of
the artifacts from the Daughter’s grave as we can, and quickly. If you need my
help or the help of anyone else, please use it. These artifacts are our top
priority.”

James stared at
her. “Er, Daughter?”

Maya ignored
him. “Of course, Director.”

“I’ll let you
know when Dani has retrieved the artifacts.”

Not if, but
when. Wasn’t the director placing too much confidence in the effervescent Dani?
She seemed capable, but she was young, maybe too young for the job she’d been
given.

Which he wasn’t
going to think about. The whole thing was illegal from start to finish. He
didn’t have a problem with that. The artifacts had been stolen and should be
returned, but was it really necessary to steal them back?

Rebecca’s reclined
in her chair. “Oh, and Maya? Please bring James up to date, today if possible.”

It wasn’t a
request. He glanced between the two women, noting the cool command of one and
the weary resignation of the other. What the hell was going on?

Maya nodded. “That
was the next item on our agenda, Director.”

“Good. Please
keep me updated on your progress.”

They chatted for
a few minutes more, then left. James pulled Maya aside in the hallway as soon
as they were out of earshot. “What was that about?”

“I have a few
things to show you. It won’t take long.”

She led him to
the IECS museum, housed in the same building as his office. He’d only visited
it once, and that briefly. Between the translations, his burgeoning
relationship with Maya, and his personal project, his time for explorations of
the campus at large had been limited. Now, he admired the displays of ancient
amphorae, weapons, armor, and ephemera, including some documents carefully
enclosed in hermetically sealed cases.

Maya jerked her
chin toward the back. “This way.”

They threaded
through a maze of artifacts, some dating back millennia according to the description
plates James studied as they went past. She stopped in front of a door with
biometric security and pressed her thumb to the pad, then entered a code,
waiting for the lock to click before entering.

A small room
spread out before them, maybe ten feet long on each side. In the middle stood a
glass case containing several fragments of ancient documents in a variety of
media, much like the collection they’d found in the Sandby borg grave. A plaque
was mounted to a stand next to the case.

Maya lifted a
hand toward the case and plaque. “Go ahead.”

James placed
himself squarely between the two objects and bent down, peering intently at the
fragments through the protective glass. “What are these?”

“Pieces of an
origin myth. We call it the Legend of Beginnings. It describes seven sisters
who were cursed with immortality for slaying the men of their tribe.”

“Fascinating.”
He shifted his stance and skimmed over the plaque’s text. “Who were the
sisters?”

“You’d know them
as forerunners of the Amazons.”

“No kidding.” He
straightened abruptly. “Wait. Why have I never heard this before?”

Maya gazed steadily
at him, her face a stony mask. “Because we’ve done everything we could to erase
it from history.”

James gaped at
her. “Why? If you have proof the Amazons were real, it would turn history on
its collective ear.”

“Yes, it could,
but it would also open the path to knowledge, a knowledge of the Daughters who
sprang from the Sisters, who shared the curse of the Sisters, and who live
today with that curse.”

“What are you
saying?”

“The Seven
Sisters were real, James, and so is the curse.”

James ran a hand
over his hair, ruffling it. “So the Sisters, what? Became immortal and had
children who were immortal, too, and these people survived to modern times?”

“Not the
Sisters, no. They all died millennia ago, but yes, their children still live
and many of them are immortal.”

The blood
drained from his head and he swayed. Either Maya was crazy or she was…crazy.
What other explanation could there be?

He’d been
sleeping with a crazy woman who believed immortal Amazons roamed the streets of
America. A short, harsh laugh burst from him. Jesus. “Come on, Maya. You don’t
expect me to believe that.”

Her shoulders
tensed, hunching slightly. “Believe what you want, but it’s true.”

“What proof do
you have?”

“Do you need
proof?”

“Yeah, maybe I
do.”

“The proof is
here. It’s been here all along. Haven’t you noticed the unusual number of
young, athletic women at the IECS?”

Yeah, he had. Tom
had brought up that very thing the first night they’d met. His heart dropped
like a stone in his chest. Then the exhibition, the gymnastics, the graduated
displays of combat. The unusually focused nature of the students, their
physical discipline, and, sweet God above, survival and weapons training.

And the weapons
in Director Upton’s office. Rebecca the Blade, her husband had called her.

Was it true?
Were these women really immortal descendants of the Amazons?

He paced away
and back again, facing Maya and the improbable tale she’d spun head on. “Are
you one, an immortal?”

“I am.”

“And Dierdre?”

“The sins of the
mother, James,” she said softly, and the sadness in her voice echoed through
the room and straight into his heart.

“Dani and Indigo
and…”

“All of them,
yes, though a handful of the Daughters you’ve met are mortal.”

“My God.”

“No, James. It
is to a goddess that we owe our salvation. For every curse, there is a path to
redemption. The Lady Goddess offered the Sisters such a path and their
descendants have the same choice.”

He waited, his
muscles tense, hoping she’d tell him, and praying equally hard that she
wouldn’t.

“All we have to
do is trust a man, submit our will to him.” She laughed, the short sound bitter
and entirely humorless. “Sounds easy, doesn’t it?”

Not so much. Their
time together was beginning to make an awful lot of sense to him, and not just
the lack of trust. “You’ve never trusted me.”

“I’ve never
trusted any man, James,” she said, her voice barely louder than a whisper. “But
I’ve come the closest with you.”

“And if you did
trust me? What then?”

“I’d become
mortal and live my life as a normal human.”

“What about
Dierdre?”

“Each individual
must break her own curse.”

 “So you used me
to try to break the curse.”