Mayan Blood (16 page)

Jayden handed Renato something that resembled a high-tech toolbox.

“What is that?”

“These are our oxygen masks.” Renato set the box on a weathered table and opened it to reveal a pile of slimy, twisting creatures flailing their slippery bodies toward the sun.

Zanya jumped back, clutching her stomach. “Those are our masks? What are they?”

He removed one from the box. Its wide, flat body covered his entire hand. Renato held it at arm’s length as the worm reached for his face. “These are the first ancestors of the modern-day fluke worm. They have been kept alive in a lab that belongs to a very close friend of mine, who enjoys collecting…unique antiquities. They are very resilient, surviving for thousands of years in the harshest conditions and most inhospitable climates.”

“And what exactly are we going to do with them?”

Renato braced his hand on Hawa’s shoulder. It was clear from her curled lip she wasn’t happy to have the creature near her, but that didn’t stop her from backing away. She nodded.

Zanya watched what seemed like a horror movie as Renato lifted the parasite to her face. The worm elevated the top half of its body, and then launched toward her. It expanded to a thick, flat mask, sticking to Hawa’s nose and mouth. Hawa gasped and choked as the worm latched on.

Zanya screamed and stumbled back. Hawa righted herself just as the parasite attached a set of suction cups to her face. Its flat body rose up and down, and after a moment of concentration, Hawa’s chest pumped in unison, both her and the creature breathing in a rhythmic pattern.

The parasite formed an armored, glossy mask, muscles rippling and contracting over her mouth and nose.

“The parasite does not drink blood.” Renato reached for another worm. “Nor does it eat from flesh. Instead, it needs what we produce; carbon dioxide. Much like a plant, it absorbs gasses and produces oxygen, but at a much faster rate. As it recycles the carbon dioxide we exhale, it filters it and passes oxygen back into our lungs via an organ it extends into the nasal cavity. The parasite was usually found on cattle and livestock, but was soon discovered to have other useful qualities, such as allowing humans to breathe in unstable conditions.”

He really expected her to put that thing on her face. She shook her head. “No. No way am I letting that thing near me.”

Jayden stepped forward. “If you don’t do this, you won’t be able to go with us, and we’ll have to try to get the stone without you.”

“Ellie may not believe us, and she won’t let the stone go without a fight,” Renato said. “We could all die trying.”

Zanya swayed, pushing down the urge to gag.

“I don’t like it either,” Jayden said. “But it’s the only way we can survive the trip.”

Bile rose in her throat. The bitter, acidic liquid coated the back of her tongue.

“Zanya.” Arwan’s smooth voice was like a breath of fresh air. “It’s the only way.”

She swallowed and looked at Arwan. “Will you hold my hand? It’s just that…these things really freak me out.”

Arwan followed her to Renato, who held the parasite away from his own face. Arwan took her hand. “Try not to panic I know it’ll be hard, but try.”

Without warning, it hit Zanya's face. She gasped. Bad idea. Cold and wet, a thick muscle of slithering slime flooded her mouth. The worm spread over Zanya's nose, cutting off her air. She tried to inhale, but found nothing but mucus to fill her lungs. The creature extended a lubricated tube into her nose, to the back of her throat.

Arwan held her hands tight as she struggled to break free. The parasite created an airtight seal. Its body flattened as small suction cups gripped onto her skin.

Her lungs burned and ached for air.

She started to panic.

Trying to shake Arwan’s hands loose from hers, she shouted, her voice muffled under the parasite’s body. Her head spinning, she made one last effort, and pushed every ounce of breath from her lungs. Just before Zanya thought she was going to pass out, the parasite’s body expanded, filling her lungs with a gust of fresh, crisp air.

Her eyes wide with terror, Zanya drew in a deep breath.

“Breathe slowly.” Arwan let go of her hands.

She sucked in several deep breaths before she realized it was actually working.

Renato continued on to the others. Zanya cringed and decided not to watch while the other “masks” were applied.

“When we emerge from the time bend, you can remove the parasites.” Renato said loudly to the group. “I’ll take their transporting tank with us. When you want to remove them, simply hold your breath. They will assume you are dead and will quickly fall away in search for another host.”

Peter helped Renato apply his parasite, and they huddled together in a tight circle. Renato rested his hand firmly on Arwan’s shoulder, and then nodded to Marzena, who stood several yards away on the sand. She closed her eyes. Renato flinched, as did Arwan—a reaction to their minds being invaded.

Arwan’s muscles flexed as he stretched the bend around them until it completely encompassed the group. Heavy matter filled the space, pressing on Zanya's skin and clothes, making it difficult to move. The parasites squirmed, probably equally uncomfortable under the pressure.

Arwan’s face paled. The tendons in his hands were visibly strained to keep the ripples intact.

It seemed like forever in the bend. A long, stretched moment of purgatory, not in the past, present or future. They were nowhere and everywhere at the same time.

Finally, the ripples began to fade. Zanya sighed with relief as the pressure lifted from her chest, and the bend vanished.

Arwan swayed, then stumbled in the sand, sweat trickling down his forehead.

Zanya caught him around the torso.

He nodded and lifted his hand, still unable to speak with the parasite attached to him.

It was like his life energy had been drained.

Zanya examined the beach where they stood when the bend began. There were differences in the scenery. The large palm near the house was now a tiny sapling that stood only four or five feet tall, and the house seemed slightly newer.

Renato swiped his hand across his throat in a cutting motion. In a spell of silence void of movement, Peter’s parasite was the first to fall away. He gasped and gagged when the worm extracted its tube from his nose. The process wasn’t pretty, but it was necessary. Everyone else followed suit.

Renato retrieved the parasites and placed them safely in the transport case. They advanced toward the house on high alert. Jayden drew an arrow and readied it in his bow.

Peter crouched beside Renato. “Should we knock?”

Renato shook his head and signaled to the veranda.

Arwan crept toward the patio and silently hopped over the guardrail. Peering into the French doors, he signaled it was all clear.

The rest of the group followed over the rail, some more gracefully than others.

Renato set down the transport tank and grabbed the door handles. “All of you stay here. I have to talk to Ellie alone. I don’t want to frighten her in her condition.”

Her condition? Zanya’s breath stalled and she backed away from the doors, one slow, stunned footstep at a time.

Peter hurried beside her. “Zanya.” He tugged on her arm.

She stared into the kitchen with wide eyes. “Peter, this is too weird. I’m going to finally meet my mother, but she won’t have any idea who I am. She’s never seen me before, and she’s still…” The word caught in her throat. It bounced around her mind, wreaking havoc on her sanity before it finally drifted through her lips. “…pregnant.”

“It’s going to be fine. Just stay calm. We’ll get the stone, go home, and this’ll all be over with.”

Footsteps came from the side of the house. Arwan reached over his shoulder and unclasped his glaive from its holster. Jayden took aim and drew back his arrow.

“What are you doing here?” a woman’s voice said from behind them.

Everyone turned.

Jayden loosened the tension on his bow.

Zanya gazed upon her mother, who hadn’t changed a bit from the photo that sat beside her bed.

“Answer my question. Who are you, and what do you want?”

Hawa nudged Zanya, urging her to step forward. But she couldn’t. Her feet were rooted to the ground and coherent words were trapped in a mental haze. She could do little more than stare, star-struck at the most stunning woman she’d ever seen.

Wind churned and circled around Eleuia. Like a vicious thunderstorm had been conjured from thin air, electricity sparked over her mother’s skin. “Then you have come to die.”

Chapter Seventeen

Eleuia stood tall, her delicate hand raised with a bright light churning in her palm.

“She thinks we’re here to steal the stone.” Peter shielded his eyes against the roar of the wind. “You have to do something!”

Zanya's hair whipped at her cheeks, blown in the sandstorm whirling around them. She squinted and also shielded her eyes with her hands, rising to her feet against the force of the cyclone. “Mom…”

Eleuia’s gaze fixed on her. Her lips parted and the wind slowed until the electricity pulsing in her fingers vanished. She rested her hand gently over her swollen belly.

Zanya stared her mother’s face. It may as well have been a mirror. She had the same gray eyes, same long, dark hair.

“It can’t be,” Eleuia whispered.

Peter stood up and stepped forward. “Renato’s with us. He went searching for you in the house.”

Eleuia scanned the other faces in the group, settling on Hawa. She waved them forward. “Quickly, come inside.” They filed in and spread through the familiar kitchen. The granite countertops glistened the same way they did almost twenty years in the future. “How is this possible? Is it true?” She remained focused on Zanya.

Her hands shaking, Zanya laced her fingers together to calm them long enough to draw in a deep breath. She recalled a lifetime of wishes, tears, and all the things she wanted to say. She hoped to be graceful and eloquent, but all she could manage was a simple, forced reply. “Yes, it’s true.”

Her mother stood as still as her photo. Zanya seized the opportunity to memorize the curves of her lips and the warmth of her eyes. She was even more stunning than in her picture, with a soft illumination surrounding her skin.

They gazed at each other for another fleeting moment. Eleuia’s bottom lip trembled. “You’re so beautiful.” She threw her arms around Zanya.

A hard bump pressed against Zanya's stomach. She jumped back from her mother’s belly. Inside that bump was…her.

Renato skidded into the kitchen. When Eleuia spun around, he wasted no time in scooping her into his arms and spinning her in a circle.

“Renato.” She giggled. “Please, put me down, brother.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Ellie.” He carefully lowered her back to the hardwood floor. “I’ve missed you.” He kissed her cheek. “So, you’ve seen her then?” He looked at Zanya.

She nodded. “I did.”

Suddenly it occurred to Zanya that Hawa was there too. Zanya grabbed her cousin’s arm and guided her forward. “This is your niece, Hawa.”

Hawa stood like a deer in headlights.

Eleuia’s posture was tall, her chin tilted up as if she were royalty. “I recognized you the moment I saw you on the veranda. I also remember the day you were born. Your mother was never happier than on that day. She was a fine woman, and would have been extremely proud of you.” She touched Hawa’s chin lightly. “You’re lovely, like her.”

Hawa simply nodded, and then stepped back.

“And who are the rest of these children?”

Renato began the introductions. “This is Peter, our healer.” Peter nodded and smiled.

“Jayden, our seeker.” Jayden gave a nod.

“And this is Arwan. He is our timebender.”

Zanya shifted beside him and smiled softly.

Eleuia’s gaze darted from her to Arwan a few times. “I see.”

“Then, of course, Hawa,” Renato continued, “and Marzena would have loved to come—”

Eleuia’s eyes lit up. “Marzena still lives in the house?”

“Yes. She linked my memory with Arwan’s, allowing us to come here.”

“I would have loved to see her again. I miss her terribly.”

“I will be sure to send your good wishes.” He rested his hand on the small of her back. “But now, we need to talk.”

They relocated to the familiar study. Zanya sat across from her mother beside the fireplace. Their happy reunion moment was short-lived, with more important matters to discuss. Primarily, the stone.

“If you are here, then this must mean I failed.” Eleuia propped a pillow behind her lower back when she sat in a leather armchair, the light from the fire flickering over her face.

Renato gave a reluctant nod.

She sighed, stroking her belly. “Tell me. What has he done with the stone?”

“Nothing yet.” Renato reached for his pipe, but found nothing in the inner pocket of his jacket. Zanya had never seen him so nervous. He smoothed down the lapel of his coat, more times than necessary. “We came from seventeen years in the future.”

“Even with a timebender, how is that possible?”

“It seems he’s more efficient than we anticipated. It took him only seventeen minutes to travel here.”

She paused, the creases around her eyes deepening.

If they told her how they were in the bend for so long without dying, it would probably make her throw up, being pregnant and all. “Don’t ask,” Zanya said. “Really, you don’t want to know.”

Renato leaned forward. “Sarian has not been able to break the obedience spell, but he may be getting close. His magic is stronger than it was in your time.”

“But if my daughter is alive, you have a guardian. Has she not been protecting the stone?” Her gaze darted between her and Renato. “What aren’t you telling me, brother?”

“Wait.” Zanya leaned forward in her chair. All those years. All this time. Was it possible? “You don’t know?”

Eleuia’s eyes narrowed. “Know what?”

Renato looked at Zanya. “Perhaps you should be the one to tell her.”

“I, uh…I was raised in an orphanage.”

Eleuia’s lips parted as she shielded her belly. “Where was your father?”

Zanya shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never met him.”

Her horrified expression suddenly turned fierce. She peered at her brother. “He put her in an orphanage? An orphanage!”

Her entire life she thought her mom had abandoned her. Some days Zanya was so angry with her mom for leaving, she’d hoped to see her just once; just once, to tell her how being such a coward ruined her life. Now it all just seemed to vanish into thin air.

“He must have known what he was doing,” Renato said. “He was not Riyata. He knew he could not protect Zanya if Sarian found him. As hard as it is to understand, he did the right thing.”

“But…if she has not been with the stone, she has never bonded with it.”

“That is why we are here.”

Eleuia pushed out of her chair and held out her hand to Zanya. “Come. If this is what the future holds for our people, you must bond with the stone immediately.”

Zanya stood and took her mother’s hand, following her through the familiar halls, up the spiral staircase, and into her bedroom.

Eleuia approached her bed, reached behind her pillow, and pulled out a velvet bag. A light glowed from inside. She slipped out a brilliant, oval-shaped stone and caressed it, smiling tenderly.

The light in Zanya's chest flickered on. Zanya leaned forward, the orb in her chest churning with life. The stone’s beauty nearly stole her breath away.

“This is the stone of Muuk’Ich. It is enchanted, powerful, and very much alive.” She held it out. “This is what I gave my life to protect.”

Zanya extended her fingers to the stone, but hesitated. “Can I touch it?”

Eleuia’s slowly shook her head and pulled it back to her chest, stroking its smooth surface.

Zanya dropped her hand to her side. “What’s wrong?”

“It doesn’t recognize you, but that’s probably because you’re not technically born yet.” She smiled softly and gazed down at her belly.

Zanya cringed. Imagining herself, like that, in her mother’s womb. It made every muscle in her body rigid. She tried to brush it off, even if it went against her better nature. They had bigger problems at the moment. “So…what do we do?”

Eleuia lifted the stone to her lips and whispered in another language—the same language Renato spoke on the phone. The stone reacted with colors of blue and white, churning with bright light.

Zanya’s light in her chest matched the stone’s vibrancy.

Eleuia extended it. “Here.”

Slowly, she reached out with cupped hands. Eleuia entrusted her with the stone. It was heavier than it was in her dreams, and it was cold as ice.

The light inside of it vanished.

Zanya lifted it to eye level and peered through its translucent walls. “What happened—” Searing pain shot through her palm and up her wrist. She screamed and dropped the stone to the bed, then held out her shaking hands, now covered in burns. “What the hell—”

“Shh.” Her mother cradled Zanya’s hands in hers, looking her in the eyes. “Listen to me.” Zanya froze. “I know I haven’t been there to teach you about your skills, but you have a natural ability.”

Zanya swallowed against the pain. “How do you know?”

“Without the stone you’ve managed to conjure your own light. That’s only possible if you have a tremendous amount of inner power. But you have to believe in yourself.”

Zanya nodded, the raw skin now rising with blisters. She wanted to fist her hands but the pain was too intense. She blinked and flinched at her mother’s touch.

“Heal.” Eleuia let go of Zanya’s hands. “Come now. You can do it.”

Zanya stared down at the fluid-filled bubbles. “I’ve never done it before.”

“Concentrate. Clear your mind.”

Zanya snorted. “I tried the three-step program before. It didn’t work very well.”

“Transformation?” Zanya nodded, prompting a soft laugh from her mother. “The first time I tried to transform, I attempted to change into your uncle. I thought it would be hilarious.”

“It wasn’t, I’m gathering?”

“For him it was. I panicked and couldn’t calm down enough to change back.”

Zanya smiled through the pain. “So how did you?”

“Practice. Now clear your mind and imagine the burns healing. Believe they are, and they will.”

Zanya closed her eyes and did as her mother instructed. With several deep breaths, she focused on the raw skin, and imagined the burns slowly fading away. The pain subsided. When Zanya blinked open her eyes, the skin on her palms was flawless. She smiled. “I did it.”

“That you did.” Eleuia’s chin was raised and chest pushed out.

Zanya glanced at the stone. “What about the stone? I’m not trying that twice.”

Her mother rested her hands over her swollen belly. “This has never been done before.”

“So…” Her gut wrenched over the possibility of failure.

“I don’t know.” Eleuia met her gaze. “I really don’t know.”

Eleuia slipped the stone back in to its pouch. “Here.” She extended it.

Zanya shifted back. “Do you think it’s safe?”

“In the pouch it can’t hurt you. Maybe holding onto it will make the stone feel more comfortable.”

Zanya arched an eyebrow. “Make the stone…feel?”

“The stone is not simply a rock. It is a miracle. A one of a kind gesture bestowed upon all Riyata by the heavens. Once you bond with the stone and become its guardian, it will be your soul mate. It will feel your pain, and you will feel its pain. When you are sorrowful, it will show compassion. When you are joyful, it will celebrate your happiness. It becomes a part of you, since you are, in fact, a part of it.”

Zanya crossed her arms and stretched her sleeves over her hands. “That sounds…invasive.”

“It is at times. The stone’s whispers become a part of you.”

“It talks?”

“It communicates through emotion. When it’s scared, you’ll feel it. When it’s unsure, you will be, too.” Zanya examined the velvet pouch in her mother’s grasp. “In order to bond with the stone, you must first accept your responsibility toward it. Once you do that, there is only one way out.” Eleuia shifted toward her with an intense gaze. “This is very important. Possibly the most important thing I can teach you.

“The only way for you to surrender your position as the guardian is to pass it to an heir. A blood heir. Do you understand what I’m saying?” Zanya nodded. “It is that, or death. Those are the only two options. Is this what you want?”

Among all this chaos, Zanya had never asked herself what she wanted. What would this mean for her? Immortality. An unimaginable responsibility. How would the rest of her long life play out? Would she be lonely? Always looking over her shoulder? Was that really the kind of life she wanted to live?

Her mother sat in front of her, radiant and strong. She had been the guardian for centuries, protecting the stone at all costs.

Eleuia sighed and shifted off of the bed. “I’ll be right back.” She glanced to the bathroom door. “I guess I should thank you ahead of time for using my bladder as a trampoline.”

Zanya’s eyes widened. “Sorry?”

Eleuia giggled. “I’ll just be a minute.” When she vanished into the bathroom, Zanya relaxed against the headboard. Seeing her mother pregnant would never be normal. Granted, seeing her mother at all wasn’t normal, either.