Through Ancient Eyes (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Page 15

  “I’ll bet you throw a mean baseball, too. But seriously, the chief leader of the tribe, Varha is his name, told me that my bride will be one of the chosen…one of the Cloud People. I rather got the impression from all of my research that they all have been dead for quite a few years, so I’m planning on buying a lot of moisturizer.”

  “So, how did you end up with a kid in all of this?” She gestured up the path where the boy had outdistanced them. “Or don’t I want to know?”

  Jake threw back his head and laughed, and the sound of it was rich and full of new energy.

  “Alvaro is the Chief’s son. He took so well to the outsiders who made it to the village and showed such a great aptitude for their languages that after the villagers rescued me they asked me to take him into the city where he could learn the ways of the people there. They felt he would be better equipped to take over when the old Chief passed on if he had a better understanding of the outside world.”

  “Wow. So, you dropped him off at the nearest church and went about your business? Way to show your gratitude to the natives who saved your life.”

  Her sarcastic remark instantly dispelled his jovial manner, and he turned to her with a serious look on his face. “That village in the foothills of the mountains, with the church that I took him to, well, he had never seen anything like it in his entire life. Even that small place was almost more than he could emotionally conceive of at first. He was safe there with Father Alejo, who I trust implicitly, while he learned the world was a much bigger place than he had ever imagined in his wildest dreams. One day I will take him with me to the States, but only when I think he is ready.”

  “I’m sorry.” She took his hand and squeezed his fingers compassionately. “And I know you are good to him. He looks at you with adoration every time you say a word. So, he’s the Chief’s son. Is that how he learned to call the Shadow Warriors that night at the first camp? It’s probably a course offered in primitive tribe school or something. ”

  Jake nodded and stopped walking, though he didn’t let go of her hand as he looked carefully around the clearing they found themselves in.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you about that, when Alvaro wasn’t nearby to hear. Are you sure everything happened the way he described it? I’ve been studying these people for many years and as far as I know, the existence of the Shadow Warriors is a legend, and an old one at that. It’s a pretty serious claim to even tell another person you have seen one, let alone say you called them to aid you in your darkest hour.”

  “Well, I was in the tent for almost all of it…I never saw anything Alvaro did, but I did see people at the campfire when it was over, I know I did.”

  She stumbled over her words a little, suddenly realizing she had been wearing the mask before she left the tent and there was no doubt in her mind she was having hallucinations or visions during that time. She also wasn’t willing to dismiss the fact that she could be completely crazy at that point, and it was the main reason she had not been telling Jake everything she had experienced along the way.

  A sharp look passed across his face when she hesitated, and she felt the fingers of his hand tighten their grasp on her.

  “Is there something you aren’t telling me, Danielle? Did something else happen that you don’t want to talk about?’

  At first she thought he was angry at her, but then she understood he was almost beside himself with helpless frustration at what she might have been subjected to at the hands of the doctor.

  Though she really couldn’t explain it, she felt a lot more comfortable telling him about her ruse with the country physician than her otherworldly visits where she took tea with ethereal spirits in the mist like something out of a B movie. She could manage most anything tangible life cast her way, but she wasn’t sure if she could handle being stark raving mad.

  Danielle had to look at the other side of the coin, too, and she had to admit she could be willing to divulge a few of her off-world experiences to see if he might be getting on the crazy train with her.

  “Has anything unusual happened to you, lately? Or ever?”

  Probably every day in his line of work, she mentally added. That was a ridiculous question.

  “We’ve only just met, my dear. What is your definition of unusual?” He raised a smart eyebrow. “Talking cows? Alien abductions? Watching a particularly intense episode of Jerry Springer?”

  He had a point, though it was hard for her to feel like they really didn’t know each other very well at all. Danielle had only lived in his house for a few days, and then spent a few precious ones at his side, but she felt like they belonged together in ways she certainly wouldn’t be able to define if pressed to.

  “Come on!” A voice squealed from the nearby brush, and Alvaro ran into their line of sight, gesturing wildly before darting behind a rock.

  “Ah, he’s on the road to the village.” Jake grinned, catching some of the younger boy’s excitement. “See? I told you we were very nearly there.”

  “Sure, if you say something enough times, it’s bound to happen sooner or later,” Danielle mumbled under her breath, suppressing the urge to smile. At least the appearance of the boy got her out of the uncomfortable conversation, though the road hadn’t actually appeared for her to see. In fact, the glorified goat path they set foot on was barely distinguishable from the rest of the rocky terrain.

  Jake set a brisk pace, one Danielle was hard pressed to match, and she wasn’t even suffering the effects of a mysterious jungle fever. Even though she assumed they were probably safe this close to the village, she still didn’t like the way Alvaro was so far out of their protective range.

  “Are you sure it’s okay for him to wander that much ahead? There are still bad guys after us, and even though he’s a resourceful kid, I don’t think he can dodge bullets or leap giant bungalows in a single bound. I don’t like the idea.”

  “The village is just over the ridge and into the next valley. We’ve outpaced anyone who might have been following us, Danielle, and no one knows exactly where the tribe lives except for me. It’s not even on any map, because the village elders lead all the missionaries out of town in blindfolds.”

  “That’s comforting,” she said sarcastically, the uneasy feeling still in the pit of her stomach.

  “Well, I say it’s not on any map, though that isn’t entirely true,” Jake laughed a little to himself.

  “I, myself, recorded the location of the village, as well as that of the ruins where I found the silver mask.”

  “You did?” Danielle found she was no longer able to walk up the road as a cold feeling of foreboding rushed through her veins and froze her limbs in place. There it was—the small amount of information that had been eluding her ever since they hit the trail.

  “Don’t concern yourself over it.” Her reaction seemed to truly alarm him as he turned to her stationary position in an effort to explain.

  “I hid the map well, in the spine of an old geography book and shelved it away in anonymity at my farmhouse. It’s your house now, though, I guess; in either case, it’s far away from Britton Majers and his dangerous designs.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  As clearly as she could see the afternoon sun cresting the ridge on the horizon, her mind framed a perfect picture of her carry on bag with the heavy book inside, tucked neatly next to the sink in the bathroom. Danielle had left the premises of the hotel so quickly that she had completely forgotten the map which she’d never had time to study.

  Her legs suddenly gave way beneath her, and she sat down hard on the ground, stricken with horror at the thought of the clue she had left behind for Britton Majers to discover. There was no question in her mind he could have overlooked it. She was sure he would have gone through all her belongings with a fine toothed comb.

  “Danielle? What happened, did you twist your ankle on the road?”

  Jake stood over her prone figure as she pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them for comfor
t.

  “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  “Do you feel like you have a fever? The village is near and I can get you there quickly, if you think you can make it just a little further.”

  His cool hands were on her forehead in an instant, and she closed her eyes in an effort to calm all the emotions that were raging through her mind so she could tell him the truth.

  “I saw that map, inside the spine of the geography book.”

  “The hand-drawn etching that had the two temples on it? Are you sure?” He gently held her face in his hands and searched her eyes for the answer before she could respond.

  “Jake Wilde 10th Grade, Mr. Carson’s Class,” she finally whispered, thinking back to how much it had meant to her to have something of his on the journey she was taking. “I brought it with me. Oh Jake, I didn’t mean to give us away! I pulled the book out of the library so I could read about Peru. I had no idea there was anything inside until it fell out in the car, and we were already on the way to the hotel in Lima then.”

  “Did Majers see it?” Jake stood and began to pace a short distance in front of her. Danielle shivered whenever his tense form blocked the sunlight and his shadow fell across her upturned face.

  “No, he wasn’t there when it happened, but I folded it between the pages where anyone could find it if they flipped it open. I was going to spend more time looking at it, but then someone broke into my room that night, and my plans changed dramatically.”

  “Your door was open,” he said with a distracted tone.

  “I had no idea what was going on at the time. It was right there, in the canvas bag next to the mask. I didn’t realize the significance of it, and we were out the door before I even gave it a second thought. Oh my God, I am so sorry.”

  Jake stopped pacing when she finished, and his eyes suddenly filled with compassion. He came back to her sitting figure and placed his hands on her shoulders.

  “This isn’t your fault, Danielle.” He drew her to her feet with gentle strength. “None of this is. You were inadvertently pulled into a wicked game of power between two egotistical bastards and left to find your own way through the course. Britton let you flounder because he wanted you to be uninformed so he could better use you. I, on the other hand, allowed you to follow blindly because I thought I couldn’t trust you.”

  “Does that mean you trust me now?”

  She was more than willing to not hold a grudge if it meant he was finally opening up to her. Danielle saw his unguarded stare as he watched her reaction, and she realized he looked at her for the first time with all of his heart. If she had thought his eyes were beautiful before, they now held the color of a thousand emotions and desires, virtually sparking like the sunlight. The warm, golden rays overhead fell across his skin and for the slightest moment, it appeared as if his face were cast in molten gold.

  Danielle gasped in reaction to the weird effect, suddenly disoriented as reality collided with her unbidden fantasies. Her experiences behind the mask were so vivid and real she fully expected them to take over at times, and this was definitely one of those times.

  “Your skin is so pale,” Jake whispered with a mixture of wonder and concern as he gently touched her cheek with his fingertips. “Like the moonlight. Your face is silver moonlight.”

  Her lips were drawn to his mouth as he spoke those last words, and when they touched it felt like an explosion of fire and ice at the exact same time. She could not tell if her skin was burning or freezing, but the intensity of their kiss aroused a primal desire deep within her soul. Danielle couldn’t explain it, and truly would not have cared to if she might, because the only thing she felt was the absolute need to be with him. Her heart pounded like her life depended on it, like the whole world depended on their union, and he returned her fervor with uncharacteristic abandon.

  The shrill scream echoed up the trail and struck a chord of disharmony between them as they both recognized the sound of Alvaro’s voice.

  Danielle broke free of his grasp, her thoughts leaving her cloudy and unsure of their situation. Jake seemed dazed and confused as well, until the wail of despair drifted across their path the second time.

  His beautiful hazel eyes filled with alarm as Danielle caught her breath. Alvaro was in danger, and they were kissing in the valley of some South American mountain range like a couple of teenagers! What could have possibly come over them?

  Danielle followed Jake closely along the ridge of the crest and though her heart pounded in fear for Alvaro’s safety, she couldn’t help but notice Jake’s long legs and muscular thighs as he began to descend the groove into the valley. She felt like some silly girl with a high school crush as she distractedly stumbled down the path behind him, idly wondering what it would be like to fall against him and wrap her arms around his waist for support.

  Almost exactly as she had imagined, they climbed down into a grove of hardy trees and Jake stopped abruptly, holding out his hand behind in a gesture for her to be cautious. His palm accidentally slid around her hip, and his fingers braced the back of her right thigh as she struggled with her footing, unable to stop her momentum at such short notice.

  Her keen ears caught a wistful sigh as his fingertips brushed along the back of her leg before he released her. Though Danielle still felt the desire to be near him, the strangely compelling and irresistible urge was beginning to fade, and she wondered if it had somehow been a lingering effect from the mask. It remained securely in the case, but her passionate drive back in the clearing felt similar to the spell she seemed to come under whenever it was exposed.

  I could fall into a box of love spells at Hexes R Us, and it wouldn’t make a difference, she thought to herself as he went ahead carefully. Even a blind woman wouldn’t need them to appreciate his appealing attributes.

  It was apparent the village was near as they began to encounter an odd assortment of stonework along the trail. Most of what they saw initially were sections of small, falling down walls, so covered with a strange type of green moss and nearly taken by the jungle. Even in the middle of it all she had to use a careful eye to notice them as man made at all.

  The path became wider as they walked attentively along. They were fully inside the valley now and the thick canopy of trees overhead was a big difference next to the barren, rocky country they had just left behind. It helped to buffer them from the wind and the dry dust. In fact, Danielle found herself a little warm as she stripped off the canvas jacket Father Alejo had given her at the church. Her silken black camisole was the only thing left of her fine suit and it clung to her skin. The last thing she was worried about was her wardrobe, so she hardly noticed as they came to the outskirts of the village.

  They stopped before they left the path and Jake cocked a sharp ear in the direction of the stone huts in the distance. She stood behind, straining to catch any unnatural sounds of danger from the village, but everything she heard sounded unfamiliar.

  Instead of walking onto the scene as she had imagined, Jake reached behind and took her hand, pulling her off the trail and into the thick brush at the edge. He circled the outskirts of the village without ever leaving the camouflage of the foliage. The absence of the native inhabitants was painfully obvious as they viewed empty hut after empty hut along the way.

  They neared the largest stone edifice in the camp, and the swirling smoke from the center of the roof told her it must be the main lodge. It was the only building large enough in the area to hold the entire population, so it was the logical choice. If they weren’t in there, she didn’t want to consider the alternative.

  “Owww!” Alvaro’s voice carried clearly to them from the interior of the main structure and it was everything Danielle could do to keep from breaking out into a run in the direction of the sound.

  Jake led her to the backside of the lodge, and she saw a small hole in the wall that must have served as a window. They stood on either side of it and slowly looked into the building.

  Alvaro was besieged on a
ll sides, but not from any outsiders. Several middle aged women fought amongst themselves for the privilege of hugging him next, while one stood out at the head of the line with singular defiance.

  She was a short woman, with her ebony hair in two braids across her shoulders, but she wore a colorful mantle over her figure that far outshined the other women at the gathering.

  Her finger was wagging a mile a minute, just about as fast as her tongue, and she lashed out at Alvaro up one side and down the other. On occasion, when she must have been forced to draw breath, she sent out a meaty hand to whack him on the backside of his head.

  “Oh please, Mom,” Alvaro said in English and rolled his eyes at the last occurrence, putting his hands solidly on his hips.

  Danielle was forced to cover her mouth before she broke into laughter, but it didn’t matter if she gave away their position at the window because she realized they weren’t alone and probably had not been for quite a while.

  The male villagers had gathered outside to hear the women, too, and they seemed to know Jake well because they motioned for him to follow as they faded from the trees and into the clearing from all points around.

  They clapped him on his back and seemed to be congratulating him as they made their way to the front of the lodge. Danielle was a little unsure about their gestures, but she smiled and nodded whenever one of them cast a daring look her way. She didn’t have to worry a lot about protocol, though, because none of the men made eye contact with her.

  They entered the gathering and were immediately identified as Alvaro flew to the pair of white skinned new comers and hugged Jake solidly around the waist. He instantly turned his attention to Danielle and her scantily clad figure, before blushing profusely.

  Alvaro’s mother keened at the sight of her and whipped off her mantle, draping it over Danielle’s bare shoulders. The other women in the group gasped when the chief’s wife de cloaked and swarmed around the female visitor. They began to propel her, as one great force, through the doorway and into the direction of a set of smaller huts on the other side of the compound.