The Bloodgate Warrior (18 page)

I picked up one of those torn feathers and cradled it against my cheek. It smelled like Técun: fresh, green jungle and sweet passion fruit. Even his blood smelled good, rich and warm, ripe with his magic and his love.

My heart gave a frantic leap and my eyes flew open.
His blood.

If the wrong spear hadn’t been able to kill Alvarado because it didn’t bear Técun’s blood…

I gripped the knife so hard my fingers ached. The blade was still dark with the blood Técun had sacrificed at the beginning of our ritual on the pyramid.

Peeking over the edge of the crater, I strained to see the bottom. The world tilted crazily, my head spun and my stomach felt like I’d swallowed my weight in lead. How far down was the water? Ten feet? Twenty? How deep was it?

The thought of water closing over my head again made my teeth chatter.

Técun’s down there. He’s down there
dying
.

I closed my eyes and jumped.

Chapter Fourteen

Howling at the top of my lungs, I fell endlessly, dreading the cold wet darkness. I knew I should take a deep breath and hold it before I hit the surface, but I couldn’t stop screaming. Nothing but Técun—and Natalie—could have gotten me down into that water.

I sank like a stone through bone-chilling water. I gasped, taking in more water. The quetzal surged under my skin, dragging me toward what I hoped was Técun. Trusting its sense of direction, I pushed my body with it, fighting toward the surface.

My head broke through the water and I coughed, breathing in fresh air. Water splashed, waves sloshing up the sides of the cenote. I crashed into the side, bumping my head on a rock. It was so dark. Had the last of his magical light already died? Had he died?

I refused to consider it. “Técun!”

Alvarado let out a shrill scream of victory that tore down my spine like a sheet of ice. “She’s mine, warrior! With her blood, I shall break the curse and wreak my vengeance on this world!”

Something tangled in my hair and dragged me down into the water. Thrashing wildly, I fought back toward the surface, likely pulling out a handful or two of hair, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t think, not with water closing over my head again. God, if it was one of those nasty snake things sprouting from Alvarado…

The quetzal let out a screech inside my head, breaking my panic. I had to get close to Alvarado if I was going to save Técun, even if that meant letting him drag me deeper. I tightened my grip on the knife, trying to keep it up out of the water. The last thing I needed to do was wash off Técun’s blood.
All I need is a drop or two.

Instead of fighting, I went limp. Close, I had to be close. My head broke the surface and I gasped for breath, but the stench of a rotting corpse filled my lungs instead of fresh air.

A sharp sensation against my temple made me flinch. With a sickening sweet croon, Alvarado drew me closer in a parody of a lover’s embrace. I couldn’t move my arms and my mind shuddered to the point of fracture at the thought of those tentacles. He held me so tightly each breath hurt. Moonlight glinted on his skull-white face and unfortunately, now I was close enough to see what he wore around his neck. Severed hands were strung together into a gruesome necklace, some of them distressingly tiny.

His tongue flicked out and that sharp pain stung my forehead again.

He was licking my blood.

My stomach heaved. The curse. If my blood freed him…
I have to distract him.

“Do you know who cursed you? Who sent you to Xibalba?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Yet I heard the interest in his voice. He’d had over five hundred years to hate whoever had dared crack open the Mayan hell and throw him inside. “It was someone close to you. Someone you might even have loved.”

“Not my dear Luisa. She’s the only woman I ever loved.” Even as a monstrous walking corpse, he still loved the Tlaxcalan princess. “She had the power to curse me, but she wouldn’t do it. I saw it in her eyes when Técun died and the mighty K’iche’ fell. She never forgave herself, but I only loved her more.”

“No, not Luisa,” I agreed as casually as possible. One of those shadowy things clamped tighter around my neck and rib cage. I let the gasping struggle for breath rattle my chest without saying anything else until he grudgingly loosened his grip on me. “She died before you did. There’s no way she could have sent you to Xibalba.”

He clicked his teeth together in a horrible clack that made my skin try to shudder off my skeleton. “They all hated me but none dared attempt such a curse. They were too afraid of my power.”

Trying to come to my aid, Técun thrashed in the water nearby, but his struggles sounded weaker. I raised my voice so he’d hear my determination. “Leonor wasn’t afraid.”

Alvarado let out a metallic chuckle like screeching, rusty gears. “Oh, Leonor, of course. She never forgave me for giving her to Pedro when she was barely more than a child. I should have dashed her little head against a rock when I learned that Luisa had promised her entire bloodline to Técun, but it amused me to let Leonor think she’d be able to bring him back to life. Foolish child.”

It was horribly wrong to hear fatherly indulgent love from a monster, but I capitalized on that pride the best way I could. “She’s my great-great-something-grandmother. Which I suppose makes you my grandfather.”

Blinking with surprise as though he’d only now thought of the familial connection, he stared down at me, searching my face as though he’d recognize me in some way. “You managed to bring Técun back through the gate. Luisa was clever to hide him from me.”

“Do I look anything like Luisa? I’m named for her—Cassandra Luisa Guzmán Gonzales.”

He turned me around, lifting me closer, inches away from the rotting corpse that clogged my throat with bile. “Luisa? Is it you? Have you come back to me after all these years?”

I stabbed the knife as hard as I could into his bony chest. “I’m not Luisa, you son of a bitch. Her love won’t save you this time.”

“Little human.” Shaking his head, Alvarado laughed. His eyes gleamed with pride, presumably at the courage he must have assumed I’d inherited from him. “Did you not learn anything from your great warrior? Did you not see how your ancestors failed to stop me with their puny curses? Regular blades cannot hurt me. His spear didn’t stop me, so why would you dare to guess your pitifully small blade would keep me from bathing in your blood? It will be all the sweeter knowing that now I may break both Luisa’s and Leonor’s curses at the same time. I am free, and Técun shall never walk this earth again.”

Green light flickered across the water. My heart pounded with hope, and a surge of adrenaline made the quetzal tattoo expand in my skin. Its wings spread completely across my chest, wicked talons ready to rip him to shreds.

With a shock, I realized the light came from
me
.

I carried Técun’s love and his magic. After our ritual, there was nothing that could keep us apart. Not even this nasty demon. My fear evaporated on a fierce surge of triumph as the shadowed tentacles loosened their hold, flinching from my magic. “Not even a blade covered in Técun Úman’s blood and wielded by Tecubalsi magic?”

Alvarado laughed again but it sounded…oddly wet. He coughed, and dark blood speckled his lips.

“Impossible. You fell into the water. The blade was washed clean.”

“Not clean enough. One drop of Great Feathered Serpent’s blood is enough to send you back to hell where you belong. Especially when my blood—and the blood of my ancestor, Luisa Xicoténcatl Tecubalsi—is mixed with it.”

Alvarado coughed again, expelling a huge glob of tar-black blood.

Técun whispered in my mind.
“Use your blood, Cassie. Bind him to Xibalba with your will and your blood as she did.”

I reached up to the cut on my forehead and smeared my blood across the demon’s ghastly face. “I send you back to Xibalba, Pedro de Alvarado. Never rise again!”

Black blood trickled from his mouth and eyes. His face sagged, skin tearing and melting away to nothing. His eyes blazed red in his skull and his bony fingers closed on my throat. Instinctively, I reared back, throwing myself away from him. Skeletal fingers slid away, crumbling to dust.

Alvarado wailed, floundering in the water, but his actions only made his skeleton disintegrate faster. Waters swirled, creating a whirlpool that sucked his remains downward. It tugged at me, too, forcing me to swim toward the wall. I ran my hands over the rocky surface, reaching up for a hold to pull myself higher out of the water. I had to find Técun. If he was too weak, he might get sucked away to Xibalba too.

His scent enveloped me, his feathers brushing my cheek. I grabbed hold of him, thinking to pull him up out of the water while our magic pumped in me. Instead, he grabbed my arms in his talons and leaped upward. Blood and feathers rained down on me, mixing with my tears, but he fought his way free of the cenote. We tumbled onto the ground, his wings bent and twisted.

I crawled to him. The feathers and scales faded back into his skin as I watched, leaving behind tears and gaping punctures. Looking at his injuries made me sick. So many. I couldn’t imagine how he’d had the strength to pull us out of the cenote.

“You did it,” he gasped, forcing his eyes open. The jade light in his eyes bled back to his normal dark brown. “You jumped into the water. For me.”

“Of course I did.” I brushed his hair out of his face, my eyes overflowing. “What can I do to help you?”

“Alvarado…”

“He’s gone. He went through the gate, hopefully to Xibalba.”

Técun let out a long sighing breath. “Good. Your blood should lock the curse upon him.”

But he didn’t say how I could help him. I was afraid he’d have to go through the waters back to his own pyramid.

Fierce determination burned inside me. I leaned down so I could glare into his eyes. “If you’re thinking about going home to your world, then you’re taking me with you.”

He laughed softly and reached up to cup my cheek in his. “Time is all I need,
noyollotl
, and perhaps a taste of your magical blood if you don’t mind sharing with me again.”

I still had a death grip on the knife I’d used to defeat Alvarado, but the thought of using it on myself after I’d stabbed that filthy thing made my stomach lurch.

“There’s no need for a blade.” Técun gave me a slow, delicious smile that curled my toes. With a purring rumble, he drew me down toward him, rising up to bury his face against my throat. His lips and tongue caressed my skin, and my body ignited.

I remembered every caress, every whispered endearment, the powerful glide of muscle against me, the pleasure he’d already lavished upon me. My blood thundered in my ears, more than eager to heal him and return him to full strength.

“Take all you want.” He gripped my throat in his teeth, not drawing blood yet but promising. Teasing. So I couldn’t help but tease him back. “But don’t even think about giving me another tattoo that’s going to move around.”

In my mind, I heard him laugh even as his teeth sank into my skin.
“I thought to give you a serpent on your backside this time.”

Chapter Fifteen

Reverently, José brought us the bloodstained bundle from one of the packs the Rojases carried from Lake Atitlán. As Técun unfolded the sheet, the organ inside thumped harder, faster, whether with hope or fear I didn’t know. Could Natalie feel us close, trying to save her? Or was she completely gone, lost in the watery hell with demons and other evil creatures? The thought made me want to pull out my hair and wail in misery.

“If you can’t heal her, can you at least make sure she’s at peace? Not trapped with demons?”

He smiled, taking away some of my fear. “Have a little faith in your warrior,
noyollotl
. Since my hands are occupied, use my blade to make a small sacrifice. I need to see what manner of traps Alvarado may have left for us.”

Since he didn’t wear an obvious knife sheath, I had to do a little exploration. If I wasn’t so worried about Natalie, I would have enjoyed patting him down for weapons. I found a long blade strapped to his thigh beneath the jaguar pelt. Trying to keep my worry at bay, I joked, “This skirt is pretty hot, but I’m surprised you guys wore these things to war. How’d you stash your weapons?”

“You may be surprised at how many knives I carry,
noyollotl
,” he murmured in that low rumble that made my bones melt. “Do you care to make a wager?”

Unsheathing the knife, I stepped back and scanned him from head to toe. He wore soft leather boots up to his knees, the short cloth about his hips, and nothing else. If he had another knife strapped on his other thigh and one in each boot… “Four?”

He flashed a cocky grin. “Then it’s a very good thing you didn’t wager something you’d care to lose.”

To keep from thinking too much about what I was doing with his knife, I demanded, “How many, then? Five?” Ow. I’d never get used to cutting myself. My thumb burned, blood welling in a short cut. “Is that enough?”

“Higher. Now walk a circle about her body, no closer than we are now, and allow a few drops of blood to drip on the ground. It won’t take much.”

I did as he said, unable to stop the anxious glances at Natalie’s body. She still didn’t move, not a muscle.
Dead, she’s dead, no matter what we do.
Trying to avoid tears, I turned back to teasing Técun. “Six?”

“Higher.” His voice lowered to a deep bass vibration that made me shiver. Now that we’d performed so much magic together, I could feel the pulse in the air. Even with my eyes closed, I could have pointed to every single drop of my blood on the ground. Power wafted from each drop, the scent of green jungle, rich fruit and musk.

My musk.

I don’t think I’d ever be able to feel his magic without remembering the pleasure he’d given me on the altar.

“Now offer my blood,
noyollotl
. We’ll need both to break the traps he set upon her body.”

Moving back to stand before him, I hesitated. The thought of actually cutting him, hurting him, made me ill.