Out of the Shadows: Shadow Warriors, Book 1 (3 page)

His gaze speared her in place. “You bear the mark of a warrior.”

The glowing mark of a hummingbird on the woman kept him transfixed. He needed to know more about her. In all his years, he had never stumbled upon a human who bore a warrior’s mark and had the power to call on the elements. She wielded water as masterfully as he wielded his weapon.

“You have power, elemental power that I have never seen in a human. Just who are you?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Her voice came out low and musical, and he found it arousing.

“You have power over the element of water and you bear a
huitzilin
, the hummingbird mark. You are no ordinary woman.”

She laughed at that, a melodic sound tinged with sadness. “Believe me, I am quite ordinary. From sunup to sundown I run this ranch. I rarely get into town and the last man I dated was someone I deeply regret.” She went to move, tugging at her hands still trapped within his one.

Tomás kept his grip firm. She had shown no fear or surprise at his appearance nor had she backed down from fighting an evil spirit. She was a puzzle he badly wanted to solve. He also didn’t like hearing about other men. A primitive sense of possessiveness swept over him.

“Tell me your name.” His words came out clipped, harsher than he intended. Thoughts of other men sniffing around her made his muscles tense and put his wolf on alert. He forced himself to relax slowly.

She narrowed her eyes and thrust her jaw out mulishly. “I told you already. Carolina.”

“Carolina.” Her name rolled off his tongue.

“And you are?”

“Tomás.”

She gave him a wry smile. “Somehow I doubt that is your first name, shadow warrior.”

Tomás felt the beast in him rise up in defense. It growled for caution. He paid no heed to the animal’s instinct. He was intrigued.

“How do you know of shadow warriors?” He pushed closer, almost on top of her, the wolf peering out through his eyes.

The woman didn’t back down. She showed strength.

“My mother was from the Tohono O’odham tribe—the people of the desert. She shared many stories about your kind from legends passed down from one generation to the next. Immortal warriors for the sun god,
Huitzilopochtli
, sent to earth to destroy the celestial demons,
tzizimime
.”

Tomás nodded. It explained why she had not turned and fled like most humans would have when he transformed from a wolf to a man. The heat of her mark drew him closer, the sensation searing his fingertips. The wolf knew only of survival, but this close to Carolina, the man in him knew of another instinct, a deeper hunger. He wanted to taste her lips and drink in her sweet power, which he could feel washing over him, calming the beast inside. In the five hundred years since giving his soul to
Huitzilopochtli
, he had never desired to get close to another human as he did with Carolina. He should be chasing a demon, not chasing a woman.

But she wasn’t just any woman. More than ever, he felt he had found his spirit mate.

The wolf pushed at his insides, reminding him that the beast was never far away and that he was never as free as he wished. “You seem to know much about me. But you have yet to tell me who you are.”

There was curiosity in his voice, and respect. His fingers lightly brushed her tattoo and she shivered in response. Her entire body reacted to this man. She didn’t understand any of it and she didn’t like being off balance. She needed time and distance to think.

“I need to tend to my goat.” She nodded towards the goat shaking in the corner.

She scrambled to her feet. This time he let her. She grabbed a lead and attached it to Pepe’s collar, using it to tug the goat out of the barn and into the corral with the others. Its pitiful bleating tore at her heart, reminding her of all she still had to lose if she let herself get distracted.

Tomás emerged from the barn doorway, the bloody corpse of Tito in his arms. She sucked in a breath to contain the pain ripping through her chest. How many of those she loved would she have to lose in this fight?

She shook the thought loose, feeling guilt for even thinking such a thing. Her role as guardian required sacrifice. There was no other way.

As Tomás approached Carolina, she turned on her boot heels and silently headed for a patch of land dominated by a huge juniper tree. Tall and strong, the tree had overseen the birth and death of generations of her people. It had managed to survive despite the scarcity of water, but each day the river dried up and the earth cried out in thirst, and Carolina knew their days were numbered.

She gestured to a spot far enough from the tree that it would not catch fire. Tomás laid his burden down. “I just realized I don’t even have kindling or a light. What was I thinking?” She hiccupped and blindly stared out across the dark desert horizon—anything to avoid looking down at the pet she’d raised from a baby.

“Your pain disturbs me. I do not like it.” As he frowned at her, his body bowed over and reshaped. Under the light of the full moon, Carolina watched in awe, unable to tear her eyes from the ripple of muscles, the incredible transformation taking place in front of her. One minute he was a man and the next he was a large gray wolf.

The wolf stared at her with such directness she felt a shiver rise from her toes and climb all the way up her spine. She backed up, allowing the beautiful beast room. Something in the wolf’s gaze reminded her that at heart it was a predator.

The wolf used its huge paws to dig a pit large enough to lay Tito to rest. Carolina watched, captivated by the animal’s power.

“Thank you.” Overcoming her unease, Carolina reached out her hand to touch the wolf. It laid its ears back and shied away. She dropped her hand to her side.

Carolina made a quick trip to the barn to grab a pair of work gloves she kept by the door and some matches. With her hands protected from the demon’s poison, she put her energy into rolling Tito into the grave. She gathered brush and bits of kindling to throw on top. The wolf aided her by clasping twigs and branches in its teeth and releasing them over the pit. She peeled off the gloves and tossed them in as well. Her fingers trembled as she lit a match and threw it on the wood. She chanted the words of an ancient Aztec prayer, determined to send the soul of her animal companion to a better place. When finished, she bowed her head and fought off the tears. Bathed by the light of the moon, the two of them waited for Tito’s body to be consumed by the flames. On her knees, she continued to pray to her goddess, asking for strength and wisdom in the fight ahead. Vaguely, she became aware of the wolf tossing dirt back into the hole once the fire had died out.

She raised her head and observed the transformation from beast to man. She realized he was again completely nude and she couldn’t take her eyes off him. She had never seen a man naked before. Even with the four jagged claw marks marring his stomach, he had the kind of body artists immortalized in paint and clay. Embarrassment crept up into her cheeks.

His gaze rested on her thoughtfully before he clothed himself in black jeans, leaving his chest bare, his entire demeanor speaking loudly of his ease with nudity. She was both relieved and disappointed. Disturbed by her thoughts, she made to get up. Tomás held his hand out to her. She tentatively laid her palm on his and let him help her to her feet.

She’d been prepared for the tingle she’d felt before, not the surge of electricity that shot through her system. His eyes went from amber to golden and she thought she caught the sound of a growl in his throat.

She tried to pull her hand from his, but he wouldn’t let go. Instead he tugged her closer until she was scant inches from his chest. His hand slipped behind her neck to cup her nape.

“You are an unusual
cihuatl
.”

Carolina shook her head, which was difficult given her position. “You persist in saying that, but it is not true. I am a plain, simple woman.”

“There is nothing simple about you. I am determined to learn everything about you.”

“But you can’t—” Carolina cried, only to be cut off by Tomás’s mouth coming down on hers.

Sparks shot through his bloodstream, igniting a fire that could easily blaze out of control. He hadn’t kissed a woman in five centuries. Carnal thoughts had disappeared once he’d joined the ranks of the shadow warriors. Amazingly, those thoughts were now back with a vengeance.

Carolina melted into him.

She wound her arms around his neck. Her lips softened and opened, allowing him to slip inside. She tasted of innocence, determination and strength.

The air around them swirled with energy. The atmosphere crackled with it. Power seemed to move over and around them, weaving a spell they could not escape. Memories of his family, his childhood and his battles as an Aztec warrior flooded his mind in rapid succession, triggering an emotional tidal wave that threatened to engulf them both.

His wolf lunged to the surface, the move aggressive, instinctual and entirely territorial.

The unexpected action broke the spell. Tomás tore his lips away and stepped back from Carolina.

His wolf sought domination. Tomás struggled to keep his beast down.

For a moment the two battled. Tomás clung to the images of his humanity, allowing them to replay in his mind, to provide him with the grounding he needed. His wolf distrusted the changes it sensed happening. It wanted to chase the demon. It wanted to be in control. Tomás threw the power of his will against his beast and demanded obedience.

“What just happened?” Carolina’s voice held concern and a slight hint of fear. His wolf backed down but remained vigilant. Tomás tasted his humanity on his lips—a bittersweet recollection of hardship, battles and occasional glory. His eyes rested on the woman whose kiss had released a storm of memories buried under five hundred years of demon kills.

He had held on all these centuries for her.

Chapter Four

“Who are you?” He sounded abrupt, his gaze fierce upon her.

She held her ground. She wouldn’t let him see how shaken she was. Briefly, before he’d broken the link, she’d felt it—a spiritual bond of some sort. She would have liked to explore it more if she also hadn’t feared where it might lead. She had let Billy get too close, allowed herself to trust him, to believe there could be a future for the two of them, and all along he’d been using her. She’d forgotten her most sacred duty and her entire family had paid the ultimate price. Never again would she let another man into her heart. Never again would she forget that, first and foremost, she was a guardian.

Except Tomás wasn’t like any other man she had ever met. He was a shadow warrior and she needed to exercise double caution where he was concerned.

“I told you. I’m a woman, running this ranch on my own
.”
She raised her hand and gestured to the acreage surrounding them. “And I need to get back to defending my land.”

“That still does not explain the power you wield.”

“I do not owe you any answers or explanations. Your task is done here. Thank you for your assistance, but it’s time for you to leave.” She turned, intending to walk away, but his hands snaked out, hauling her once more against him, heedless of his wounds.

“Be careful,” she admonished. “You will hurt yourself.” She pointed to the gash across his midsection, guiltily realizing she hadn’t given it a thought when she’d been wrapped up in their kiss. “You need to go clean that up or it will become infected.”

Tomás shrugged. “I have been wounded many times. It will heal. And I do not get infections. That is a human malady. Enough of this nonsense.”

He pressed his nose against the side of her neck and inhaled her scent. Her body grew warmer and heat rose in her cheeks. His chin pressed against her shoulder and the stubble on his jaw scraped along her neck. He nuzzled his face into her hair, nudging her braid aside.

“Tell me, Carolina. What have you done to me?” His breath blew across her exposed skin where the demon had torn her shirt.

His teeth nipped her shoulder. Her tattoo tingled whenever his mouth brushed over the spot. A moan escaped her. Under his touch her tattoo came alive, as if it would fly right off her skin.

She was drowning and not even fighting it. Why were her defenses so easily lowered around this man? She gently put her hands on his shoulders, intending to push him away. She had to stop the madness, but the feel of his bare skin under her hands made rational thought impossible.

She’d never melted over a man, not even Billy. It had taken her months to get up the courage to even talk to Billy. Yet around Tomás she found herself unable to resist the urge to touch him.

One hand held her wrist firm in its grip while the other crept up along her rib cage and over her breast. His hand splayed over her breast, his thumb rubbing lightly over her nipple. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. Heat raced along nerve endings, liquid fire that simply needed a tiny spark to set her aflame. His hand left her waist to cup the back of her neck, tilting her head so that she stared directly into eyes that appeared to flash amber, then golden, into a gaze that pulled her into a swirling vortex.

Her spirit, the very essence of her being, rose up, seeking, searching.

At the same time, her tattoo beat against her skin, straining to take flight.

A cry escaped her lips. “What’s happening to me?”

Tomás tightened his grip. “Your spirit calls to mine, Carolina.”

“Tomás,” she groaned, “this is wrong. We have no future. You are a shadow warrior and anything between us would be too complicated
.
”

“Our spirits recognize one another. You are my spirit mate.” He stifled further protest by bringing his lips down on hers. It wasn’t a gentle kiss. It was meant to brand, to mark her in some way as belonging to him. She should push him away, but her hands had minds of their own, smoothing over his muscles, glorying in their feel.

Tomás kissed her jawline as his hands stroked down her shoulders, her arms and her waist. Her tattoo hummed and throbbed. Everywhere he touched, heat licked its way up along her skin.