Redemption (9 page)

Sean slapped his clipboard. “Her damn carvings. They’ve been photographed a thousand times. Tell me what she hopes to accomplish with—”

Adriano suppressed a frisson of fear. Sophie might only have lost track of the time. “I’ll go see if I can find her,” he said and Mia gave him a grateful nod as he started toward the door.

He went first to the black-and-white portal but Sophie wasn’t there and hadn’t been for hours. But this was the last place she’d been seen. He stripped, hid his clothes behind a column and shifted. His sense of smell far sharper in this form, it only took him a moment to find her trail once it left the temple. She’d been alone, heading toward the dining tent and there were no signs that anyone had been following her.

Then, for no apparent reason, halfway there she’d veered off sharply. He touched his nose to the cold stone and swung his head around to follow the direction she’d gone. The Rocas. A snarl rose up in his throat and he swallowed it down. She’d been taking pictures, Sean had said, and this wouldn’t be the first time he’d found Sophie wandering about with a camera.

Still, the hair on the back of his neck bristled. He couldn’t see or hear anything except for the racket Sean and his crew were making in the storage shed. He couldn’t smell anything except for Sophie’s fading trail. He knew that he was being watched and still he had to go after her.

Warily, he trailed her to the plaza, knowing that she would not have come this way so late at night without being lured. He left her trail, slipping through the shadows. Her scent was at least an hour old. Adriano knew full well how little time it took to slice open a vein. How quickly the blood would spill. If anything happened to Sophie, he would hunt the bastard who caused her pain to the ends of the earth.

And she would still be dead.

He shoved the thought aside. If the mutant had taken her, he’d done it for a reason. A trap or a bargaining chip. He’d have no cause to harm Sophie unless she refused to comply with her captor’s demands. And that shouldn’t be an issue. Why would she try to protect him?

He ran faster and slipped into the mouth of the dark tunnel, pausing momentarily to get his bearings. The main galleries of the temple had been largely explored but these, thought to be simple canals, were far more extensive than the humans had yet to discover. The secret passages were disguised as vents, some of them only passable in jaguar form. The shifter might have dragged Sophie through those tunnels but at first, at least, she’d come willingly. What the hell had she been thinking?

His feet padded swiftly over the rough stone, his senses alert for any sound or scent. Even though the mutant had passed this way recently, Adriano could sense no sign of his presence now. But Sophie’s scent grew stronger with every step. The image of her broken body came to his mind. According to Sean, she’d been missing for nearly two hours now.

His head came up sharply when he reached the first vent. Here, he could smell the mutant. Definitely the same shifter who’d watched them from his perch above the site. A Yaguara, he’d lain in wait for Sophie.

Adriano’s lips pulled back from his fangs in a silent snarl. He ran deeper into the tunnel pausing when he smelled blood. Sophie’s blood. Only a bare trace of it on the wall, but it didn’t matter. The mutant had
hurt
her and, even if she’d only scraped her knee, Adriano would see that he paid.

Sophie screamed and his heart stopped for a second before thundering fast and hard in his chest. He raced down the black tunnels before the sound faded. Part of him thought that sound would never fade away, that he’d always carry the echo of it in the darkest recesses of his heart.

The Yaguara were not a kind or forgiving people, accustomed to settling their disputes in blood. He’d seen death, he’d escaped it and he’d caused it. But he wasn’t willing to accept those same risks for Sophie. He couldn’t.

No time to consider the fear choking his throat or the rage pounding through his veins. She shouldn’t be this important to him, and he’d need to control his instincts if he wanted to save her. When he reached the temple seal, broken and pushed aside, he didn’t even hesitate. His front claws gripped the edge, the muscles in his legs bunched hard as he propelled himself through the hole and onto the man holding Sophie, fangs and hooked claws digging deep to drive the mutant to the ground.

Sophie crumpled to the ground but he couldn’t check on her, couldn’t carry her to safety until he removed the threat. His attention remained fixed on the mutant who’d rolled to his feet, already shifting. It wasn’t courtesy that made him hold his attack during the transformation. It was dangerous for two shifters to get too close during the change. During those moments between forms, cells were unstable and could bond to the other shifter. He’d met someone once who’d survived a proximal transformation. The other shifter involved died but the survivor still carried pieces of the man inside his own body.

He could hear Sophie’s heartbeat racing and the labored sound of her breathing. Still alive. He couldn’t allow himself to be distracted by the possibility of injury so he stood his ground, kept her behind him. As soon as the mutant shifted, Adriano lunged forward arching high, angling for his momentarily exposed neck.

A trap, Adriano realized too late. In his experience, most mutants were street brawlers, largely untrained. So when Adriano saw the bare neck, he’d gone in, jaw open. He should have known better. Of course, to be fair, even though they’d worked together as mercenaries, he’d never actually seen this man fight. Carlos. His name was Carlos and in Columbia, he’d taken cover as soon as things turned ugly. They’d lost three men because Carlos hadn’t stood his ground when they needed him. Cornered, he was vicious.

The mutant hooked his claws into Adriano’s shoulders and rolled using the momentum from the attack to throw Adriano to the side. His skull cracked against stone but he ignored the sting and crouched down for another leap.

The mutant was large, heavily muscled with a long scar along his flank. Only the deepest cuts could mark a shifter. Facial cuts or the ones that sliced to bone. Shallow abrasions usually healed with the change. He’d been in more than his fair share of fights. But then, the life of a mutant was a hard one.

Carlos paced to his left, shoulder blades moving beneath fur gilded by the light from the lantern. He was black and would have been easy to lose in the shadows if not for the glitter of yellow eyes. Even seeing the smooth muscles in his legs bunch, Adriano barely avoided the sudden vicious strike. Carlos darted for his flank, fangs bared but changed direction at the last moment snapping up toward his throat. Adriano angled himself down then pushed into him hard, moving him back, away from Sophie and throwing him off balance.

Dust stirred as they coiled and rolled. Each maneuvering for the advantage, positioning to strike for the other’s throat. Each granting tiny openings to draw the other in and then savagely driving forward to attack. Carlos slashed at him with his claws but Adriano didn’t fall for the feint, allowing the shallow wound on his shoulder in order to keep the crushing jaw from his neck. Blood sprayed from the cut when the mutant’s hooked claws ripped loose from his flank. Sophie cried out and instinctively, he looked in her direction.

Mistake. Before he could swing his head back around, teeth gripped the base of his skull with intense pressure. Dead. He couldn’t die and leave Sophie unprotected. He surged violently to the left but Carlos held on, those great jaws closing like a vice.

And then suddenly, the heavy body pressing him to the dirt jerked and Carlos yelped, his hold slipping just enough for Adriano to break free. He rolled to regain his feet and lunged as the mutant turned on Sophie, who now stood beside the pool of water. Her face smudged with dirt, she was visibly trembling but had another rock in her hand. As they both watched, stunned to stillness, she cocked her arm and hurled it at the mutant’s head. She had good aim but this time, the jaguar saw it coming and ducked the stone. Sophie, mouth set and eyes narrowed, turned and reached for another rock.

The jaguar snapped at her in warning and while he was distracted, Adriano drove forward, taking the bastard down and sinking his fangs in deep. Feeling the pulse of blood against his tongue, he caught the jugular and snapped it with a vicious twist.

He watched Sophie as the hot flood spurted in his mouth and slid down his chin. He watched as her relief changed to horror and then to a new sort of wariness. She still held on to the rock so tightly he was surprised blood didn’t drip from her hand.

When it was done, he released the limp body and walked slowly toward her until her hand rose, trembling. She was terrified.
He
scared her.

Setting that aside for the moment, he swung his head to look at the hole in the ceiling. He would be able to make the jump but couldn’t leave Sophie here alone, not when this one’s friends might arrive at any moment. She’d seen the mutant’s transformation. Could he trust her to keep silent? He was running out of options and there was only one way to find out.

He shifted, dropping his head and pressing his fist to the floor until the tremors subsided, trying to ignore Sophie’s sudden indrawn breath and her shaky exhalation.

Maybe she would faint. It would be easier to explain all this if he could pass it off as oxygen deprivation and simple hallucination. But not his Sophie. He heard her take a cautious step toward him before stopping when he looked up into her pale, drawn face.

“Adriano?”

He tried a smile that fell flat against her numb shock. Straightening slowly, he held out his hand to her, palm extended. Her gaze drifted over his nude body. He thought for a moment she might be distracted but then she shook her head and pointed at the dead jaguar. The mutant remained in the form he’d died in and that at least was a mercy for Sophie’s sake. “Explain this to me. You…he…. What the hell just happened?” Her voice was sharp and edging toward hysteria.

He kept his own pitched low. “Calm down. You know I won’t hurt you. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

She wrapped her arms around her torso and held on tight. She backed away from him. There was a cut on her cheek and a trail of dried blood running down her jaw and neck. He took a step toward her but stopped when she jumped. “Did he hurt you?”

“He…he…” She touched her chest and Adriano moved a step nearer, wanting to take her in his arms. He knew what the man had done, or attempted, he could smell it on her. If he’d come just a few minutes later…But he wouldn’t think about that. He couldn’t now, not when he needed to remain calm.

Sophie shook her head. “I’m okay. I don’t know…maybe he slipped me some drugs because…No.” She shook her head again, more firmly this time. “I know what I saw. I am not crazy.”

The uncertainty, the plea in her voice broke his heart.

“Maybe,” he agreed cautiously. “Why don’t you tell me exactly what you think you saw? Maybe you should sit down. You’re looking a little unsteady.”

He might still be able to salvage this. He’d have to make Sophie doubt her sanity but if she believed that she’d been drugged or injured, it might work.

“I don’t need to sit down,” she snapped, shaking off his hand. “You changed from a jaguar. I saw it with my own eyes. And it makes sense, the things that man was saying. The whole damn site…God, we’ve had it all wrong.”

“Sophie,” he said sharply. She couldn’t fall apart on him, not now. He still had work to do.

She dropped her face into one hand and he couldn’t see her expression. He could scent her reaction though. Confusion, disbelief, a touch of wonder. Beneath it all, growing stronger with every beat of her heart, anger. Anger he could work with. After all, he was angry too—at the mutant, at himself and, if he was honest, at Sophie. He’d killed for her and she was looking at him like he was maggot-ridden meat.

Why had she followed the mutant into these tunnels in the first place? How many times had he warned her against coming here? She had to accept this so they could move on. He appreciated her shock but he needed to recover what he could before dawn, attempt to reseal the temple and be on his way before the humans found them. And before the watchers he’d sensed on his way in came to investigate their lost man.

“I can’t talk to you with your hand over your face.” Was she…He tried not to smile. Yes, she was actually rubbing her eyes.

She dropped her hand to glare at him. “You’re naked.”

“I am. Don’t be juvenile. You already fucked me and I don’t mind if you look.” Her gaze skimmed his body and suddenly he recognized a new scent on her. He smiled. “Or touch, if you really don’t trust your eyes.”

“You were a jaguar.”

“A Yaguara,” he agreed. “Shape-shifter. Just like that one was.”

She glanced at the body and flinched, backing away from him again.

“Sophie,” he said carefully, “please don’t run. There’s nowhere for you to go to and if you run, it will trigger my instinct to chase. I can’t suppress it. I’ll have no choice and I don’t want to scare you or hurt you, even accidentally.”

She stopped moving but the expression on her face hit him hard. Repulsion. Horror. Fear. As if he was some kind of a monster. But then she swallowed hard and seemed to gather herself, regaining some of her equilibrium. “Why did he do this? Tell me what this is really all about.”

“Look around you, Sophie.”

He wanted to see that look of wonder on her face. Just one more time. She stared at him, searching his face and he held her gaze, willing her to meet his challenge. Something shifted in her expression and her lips parted to speak. Then a small rock clattered to the floor, bouncing to land between them.

Sophie looked up, repressing a shudder. Another shape-shifter like Adriano? She wished she had her rock back. Or a gun. Would she need silver bullets to bring one of these monsters down? Her stomach clenched. All along, she should have been more worried about the monster in her bed than the ones hiding beneath it.

The man who crouched at the edge of the pit appeared human but she knew better than to assume that kind of thing now. His face and body were entirely in shadow but she could feel him watching. When his gaze turned on her, his eyes flashed yellow.

“You killed my cat,” he remarked almost casually. His voice, or rather his accent, shocked her. American, with a drawl that suggested a southern state.

“Your man attempted to rape my mate,” Adriano growled, stepping forward and pushing her behind him.

Sophie felt those eyes rest on her again and this time she couldn’t stop the shiver that chased down her spine. “Mate, is she?” He sounded amused. “My apologies for that. I was beginning to suspect the cat had overpromised on what he could deliver but I didn’t think he’d go this far to cover his ass.”

“What exactly did he promise you?” Adriano demanded coldly.

“You know what we want. There’s only one thing down there worth fighting for.” His low rumble of laughter raised goose bumps on her arms. “Although your count might differ. Tell me, jaguar, which one are you willing to give up?”

“She’s not involved in this.”

“She is now.” The man nodded toward the corpse. “That one said he could find the stone but this is as far as he got us. Piece of shit that he was, we don’t have a replacement for him. Now, I might not know how to break your little code but I know it’s down there somewhere. You fetch it for us and we’ll let the both of you out unharmed.”

“Why don’t you come down here and I’ll show you, you fucking coward?”

The man gave a sharp-edged grin. “You’re outnumbered. Even if you managed to kill me, you wouldn’t get far before my team took you down.”

“If I refuse?”

He signaled to someone Sophie couldn’t see and there was the loud grating sound as the large cracked stone was pushed over the opening. “Then this will make a fine crypt for you both. We’ll be back by dawn which gives you eight hours. This isn’t worth dying over. Fetch the stone and I’m willing to offer you a cut of the profit and a place on my team. A position’s recently opened up.” He stood, brushing the dirt from his hands. “Of course, you can sit here until morning if you want. The equipment I need will be here by then. We’ll kill you and find the stone without your help. Maybe we’ll even let your girl live. At least for a while.”

“Fuck you,” Adriano snarled.

Whatever the man might have said was cut off by the stone slamming into place, closing out the world and sealing them inside. Sophie stared at the solid piece of granite that no one should have been able to move without the help of heavy machinery and then turned toward Adriano for answers. He still glowered at the heavy rock. She cleared her throat, drawing his attention. “You need to talk to me, Adriano. What exactly is going on here?”

He ignored her question. “I’ll look for another way out. The stone is cracked. It’s possible I might be able to move it enough to slip out.”

The sealed opening was twenty feet up a sheer rock face and that stone had to weigh hundreds of pounds.

“We both know that’s not happening.”

He turned away. Light shifted over his skin, highlighting planes of muscle and bone that she wanted to explore with her hands and tongue. He was beautiful. Tall, muscular thighs, broad shoulders, tight ass, flat ridged stomach. And not human.

The hell of it was that she still wanted him. She could turn away from him, but still felt the pull of that attraction. With a muttered curse, she looked around the cavern and finally realized what she was seeing.

She walked toward the nearest column and ran trembling fingers over the intricate carving that reminded her of the Raimondi Stela. Gold flaked beneath her fingertips.
This.
This was the true temple where only the priests were allowed. The jaguar men. She glanced at Adriano, muscles shifting in his back and buttocks as he leaped a good four feet off the ground to test a handhold. It crumbled. He kicked off the wall as he fell and landed lightly on his feet. His powerful body was amazingly nimble with reflexes that were cat quick. He’d killed a man to protect her.

She turned to the next stone. This one depicted a sacrifice. The anthropomorphized jaguar figure, jaws gaping open, held a heart in his hand above his head. She jumped when Adriano touched her shoulder.

“These are amazing,” she whispered, turning to face him and taking a step back. His hand dropped to his side and fisted there. He was very tactile, she’d noticed, always making excuses to touch her—her hair, her cheek, that spot low on her back that always sent shivers right up her spine. She could tell he didn’t like the distance she put between them but that was just too fucking bad.

“They are amazing,” he agreed.

“What else is down here? This piece alone would be worth thousands.”

“Hundreds of thousands,” he corrected and her gut twisted. Of course, Adriano wasn’t a simple bureaucrat. He was gorgeous, intelligent and driven. There was nothing that he couldn’t do. Like exploit natural disasters and steal priceless artifacts from impoverished countries to sell on the black market.

“Is this what you’re after then? It’ll be kind of hard to move, won’t it? At least, without anyone noticing.”

His lips thinned. “I would take it if it was feasible to do so but, no, this piece is not the reason I came.”

“Why then? Something more valuable. Are there jewels? Were you going to pluck the rubies from the eyes of some poor statue?” The Chavín had been a rich people. At the site, they’d found evidence of jewelry, fine woolen tapestries, gold, silver and copper from the mines. There were likely any number of treasures in this sacred temple.

Adriano looked annoyed. Good. What he planned to do was wrong. And on top of that, he’d sucked her into this mess. His rivals might still kill her, all because he’d gotten bored and horny.

“There’s an obelisk down here, similar to one that once stood in the circular plaza, called the Bloodstone.” His eyes scanned her face, weighing her reaction. “It was created as a wedding gift, intended to seal a treaty between the Chavín, human descendants of the Yaguara, and the Maya. The princess betrothed to the Mayan king was murdered en route to the ceremony—legend says on the stone itself, hence the name. A war broke out and the gift was never sent. Chavín art and Mayan glyphs on the same stone, telling the history of our people.”

Suddenly light-headed, she reached out to touch the pillar. They could read Mayan and if what Adriano said was true, this would be a find as groundbreaking as the Rosetta Stone. “Do you know what this means?”

The corner of his mouth lifted in a slight smile but it never touched his eyes. “Of course I do. It’s the reason I’m here.” He lifted his chin toward the ceiling. “It’s the reason they’re here. Although I don’t know how they found out about it.”

“From you.” His eyes narrowed on her and she pointed to the corpse. “He said he’s worked with you before…” She gave him the opportunity to deny it but he didn’t. After a moment, she continued, “You told him about a treasure when you were drunk. He heard you bribed someone to get this job and he followed you here.”

Adriano closed his eyes and raised his face to the ceiling. “Fuck.”

Yeah, that summed up her day too. She grabbed his wrist and he looked down at her hand for a moment before she released him. “We can’t let them have it.”

“I don’t intend to.”

She didn’t like the strained note in his answer. She held his gaze. “It needs to be studied by trained professionals.”

“Does it now? You being the professional?”

That smirk was starting to seriously piss her off. She could accept that he was a jaguar. Sort of. That he’d been using her to pass the time. What she couldn’t accept was that he planned to sell a priceless artifact for profit. “We need to get cameras down here and—”

“Sophie,” Adriano said gently. “No one can see these. Not now, maybe not ever.”

“This is the find of the century. It’ll change history…” She trailed off when he only stared at her, waiting for her to catch up.

“I can’t let you reveal this.” He stroked a finger down the side of her face and looked as if he’d like to say more but then changed his mind.

She backed away. Stupid. She was trapped in here with him until he found a way out. But he let her go. She crossed her arms over her chest. She had a few bargaining chips left. “And how exactly do you plan to keep me quiet? About this. About you.”

“If we survive?”

She swallowed. “Assuming we survive, yes.”

“You can try to tell people about me if you’d like, although I’d recommend against it.”

She stilled. “You’re threatening me.”

“Not at all.” His face tightened. “I would never threaten you. I would never hurt you. You should at least know that about me by now. You’re free to tell them everything. They just won’t believe you. They’ll think you’ve been experimenting with San Pedro cactus and vilca like Ethan.”

She scowled. “I don’t do drugs.”

“Neither does Ethan.”

“
You
started those rumors,” she said, amazed. “He’s been denying it all along. I can’t believe—”

“I thought it prudent to have an insurance plan in place.” He cocked his head to one side. “Sophie, is it so important to you to have your name as a footnote on a paper very few will ever read?”

Advancing, she swung out her arm. “A discovery like this will be international news. It will make—”

He smiled cynically and cut her off. “I suppose that’s my answer then.”

That brought her up short. “It’s not about my reputation. It’s about preserving a piece of history. What are you in it for? The money?”

His eyes hardened but he only shrugged. “Why else?”

“Disgusting,” she muttered and started to turn away. He wasn’t the person she thought she knew. He wasn’t anyone she wanted to know.

He took a step closer, muscles shifting beneath his skin, a trace of blood on his jaw. “Let’s be honest here. It’s not the way I earn a living that disgusts you, is it?”

He touched her shoulder and she flinched. His lips thinned. “I thought so.”

He was trying to change the subject. “You’re a scavenger,” she told him. “A vulture.”

“Wrong species, Sophie. And I prefer to call what I do salvage and recovery.” His lip curled into that self-mocking smile she loved.
Used to love,
she corrected mentally.

“I call it stealing.”

He shook his head. “No,
gatinha.
You’re the scavenger here.”

“I would save this place, not pillage it for profit.”

“My people have far more right to it than you do.”

She pressed her lips together. This place belonged to the person who would appreciate it, protect it, preserve it, not the one who planned to sell it to the highest bidder.

“You lied to me, about everything. About why you’re here and what you are.”

A muscle leaped along the clean tight line of his jaw. “And what am I, Sophie? I want to hear you say it.”

“You’re an animal.”

His hand had dropped to his side, closed in a fist but even then, his face taut and a black look in his eyes, she wasn’t afraid of him. Not even when the smile vanished and he drew her against his body before she could even think about running.

“That’s what really gets to you, isn’t it? I’m an animal. You don’t even know what that means, Sophie,” he said, lips burrowing through her hair to press against her neck. He scraped his teeth up her throat and then whispered in her ear. “I could show you though. If you really want to know the truth about me, I’ll show you. No lies between us now.”

He was serious, deadly serious. She’d wanted to hurt him because she felt bruised and vulnerable. She just hadn’t expected to cut so deep. Looking at him, his set expression and fathomless eyes, she thought he was still keeping something terribly important from her. She wouldn’t fall for it again. Wouldn’t trust him.

“Say yes,” he whispered, a catch in his voice. His hand cupped the back of her neck, his thumb stroking from the edge of her jawline to her collarbone. He kissed her temple, her sliced cheek. His fingers locked in her hair and he tipped her head back, taking her mouth in a devouring kiss. And she couldn’t help but respond. It was what she’d wanted from him that first night. Raw, mind-shattering desire. She wanted to feel that and she wanted to know the truth.

Curiosity, her worst flaw. It should be his.

“Say the word, Sophie. I need to hear it.”

Her throat had gone dry and she swallowed hard. “Yes.”

His chest rumbled beneath her fingertips. “What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

“Liar.”

His hands slipped down her body to rest on her hips and he brushed his cheek against her hair. “But we’ve already established that, haven’t we?”

Then, before she knew what he intended, before she could stop him, he reached for the hem of her shirt and jerked it up and over her head. He froze and she took a step back, crossing her arms and trying to cover herself. Too late. She didn’t want to look at his face. Didn’t want to see the expression she knew would be there. Revulsion. Worse, pity.

He made a strange sound, half snarl, half growl and she looked up just as he moved toward her. So fast. She didn’t even have time to decipher the expression on his face.

“Turn around.” His voice was harsh, guttural. “I want you on your knees.”

That shouldn’t have excited her. Every feminist bone in her body stiffened in protest. Except for her knees. Her sad, submissive knees went weak and threatened to buckle. She opened her mouth to tell him that the scars were on her back too, but simply turned around and did as he asked. His hands skimmed over her hips and waist, coming to rest on her shoulders as she fell to her knees. With firm pressure, he pushed her forward so she braced on her hands.

And with no preamble, he was inside her. She was packed full of him, hard and hot and pulsing. Her back arched, protesting the invasion, but he didn’t even give her time to catch her breath. Just grabbed on to her hips with firm hands and fell into a driving rhythm.