Through Ancient Eyes (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Read online

  Jake tucked the delicate blossoms into her hair and ran his hands down the sides of her arms before he gently captured her fingers.

  “Come with me. It’s safe. I promise I’ll take care of you.”

  She was barefoot, but the grass in the clearing was soft and cool from the gathering dew, so she didn’t give it much thought before she allowed him to pull her into the dense underbrush of the surrounding woods.

  “Let me go first to make sure the path is clear of debris,” he said over his shoulder as he took the lead.

  Danielle couldn’t really see the trail he followed, but his footing was steady and they navigated the shrubbery with nothing more than a few scratches. They had only gone a short distance when she picked up the sound of rushing water up ahead.

  Suddenly the thick foliage gave way, and they found themselves on a sharp outcropping of rock. As the trees overhead opened up and allowed the moonlight to enter the clearing, she saw a tiny waterfall as it spilled over a layer of worn stone before it finally settled itself into a languid pool of inky black water at the bottom of the ravine.

  A gentle smattering of delicate blossoms ringed the onyx reservoir below them, and she recognized the flower he had brought to her window earlier.

  “How did you get down there to pick that?” she asked him, looking for any possible means to reach the bottom but not finding any.

  “When something is very important, there is always a way. Do you know these only bloom at night, at the edge of a natural spring?”

  She shook her head in response, suddenly not trusting her voice to answer him. In all her years no one had ever done something so amazing for her, so wonderful as to take her to a place no one else had ever been and show her something most people in the world would never see.

  “What can I do for you, Jake?” she finally responded. “What can I give you, out of my entire life that could ever equal this?”

  “This?” Jake queried, looking in confusion around the open area before facing her again. He gently placed firm fingers underneath her chin and raised her eyes to meet his.

  “Nothing in the world can compare to what you could give me, if you choose it.”

  He lowered his face and set his smooth cheek against hers, running his lips along the edge of her jaw line, allowing them to rest against her skin with tender kisses where they caught.

  Her hands reached up around his shoulders, and her fingers pulled instinctively against the blond hair at the nape of his neck as his kiss deepened over her mouth. She was a small thing next to him as his steady arms wrapped around her waist and pressed her firmly along the length of his straining body.

  He unashamedly pulsed against her abdomen, and she rocked her hips against him in answer to feel the desire he held for her in every way possible. Their clothing was a thin barrier against the heat of passion that raced past the flimsy material, and she found herself guiding his hand up the back of her right thigh.

  “Can we do this? You’ve said so often that it wouldn’t be proper.” Her voice was thick with need as she forced the words from her mouth, straining to remove his clothing even as his fingers pulled at her tunic.

  “I don’t know what’s right or wrong anymore,” he answered her with a ragged breath. “From the very first moment I saw you in the hotel room I wanted you more than anything in the world. The only barrier that has kept me from it was my fear I would lose you. If we come together and you are not the one, I don’t think my heart could continue the search for another.”

  Danielle pulled a small amount away after his confession, and he didn’t try to stop her, though his hold on her was still possessive. His answer left her more confused than she was before he gave it to her, and she was tired of the barriers they both had placed to protect the other for their own reasons.

  “What do you mean, ‘If I’m not the one’? What is this, The Bachelor or something?”

  “It’s a complicated story, one that I’ve tried to protect you from all along. It involves legend and magic…and up until now, I thought it involved faith. But I don’t want to believe in anything if I can’t believe in you.”

  “Are you talking about the Balance? Does this have something to do with completing it?”

  “What do you know about the Balance?” He reached for her face and gazed intently into her eyes. She saw he was emotionally torn, but she also saw a spark of hope, a possibility for understanding that she knew he had barely allowed himself to feel before then.

  “First of all, everyone apparently knows about it…Alvaro, Father Alejo…even Britton Majers.” She shrugged off his scrutinizing stare and took a step back.

  “They know the legend, perhaps, but do they know the truth?”

  “What is the truth?” Danielle snapped, done with the cloak and dagger line of questioning they had employed since their first meeting. “The Balance is a perfect line of good and evil, dark and light, day and night, pretty obvious, if you ask me. Do they know about the pyramids? They are aware of the silver mask, we are certain of that. But do they know about the golden mask that you never found? Do they know you need it to fulfill the legend?”

  As he grabbed her by the shoulders the color in Jake’s face drained, his fingers grasping her so earnestly that she instinctively pulled against his rough hold.

  “How do you know these things?” he whispered. His tone was so quiet that she barely understood his words.

  “How do I know about the masks, or how do I know they symbolically light the braziers along the procession road to guide the avatar of the moon and the avatar of the sun together to complete the Balance so their people may continue?”

  Every sound in the woods seemed to dim at the end of her last statement. The water from the falls drained to a trickle, and the wind stopped stirring the leaves of the trees around them as if nature itself was dazzled by her revelation.

  She reached out to touch Jake, so thankful she didn’t have to keep any more secrets and dreams from him. When he didn’t respond to her gesture, her heart stopped in a moment of panic.

  What if he thought she was crazy? What if she really was?

  Before she could get a feel for his reaction, the sharp sound of a gunshot rang out and echoed through the woods. A short burst from a semi-automatic rifle followed the initial disturbance, but nothing was so heart-wrenching as the endless amount of silence that came after.

  “I didn’t think he’d come here, that he’d think the village was significant at all,” Jake stated flatly, his tone laced with disbelief.

  “Could it be rogue guerrillas, or freedom fighters?” Danielle asked, though mostly from desperation because she knew in her heart what kind of person would do such a thing to a tribe of innocent and peaceful people.

  “Unless they’re recruiting devious Antiquity Directors from American universities, it’s highly unlikely. But, given the methods he’s used in the past, I wouldn’t put anything past Britton Majers.”

  She knew he was right, but even as the unwanted feeling of dread swept through her body, she braced herself for the words that were coming next.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “I am not going to stay behind on this rock while you risk your neck.” Danielle crossed her arms after his instructions, frowning under his stern gaze, but she could see right away that he wasn’t going to give at all.

  “Be realistic,” he said quietly, but his voice was firm. “You are in your pajamas, with bare feet. I believe you have the best of intentions, but I need to get near the village as quickly as possible without being detected, which means moving through the underbrush. Unless your skills with traversing the forest have dramatically improved since this morning, you’re only to going to call attention to us.”

  She wanted to be as strong as possible in their situation, but was forced to admit to herself that he was completely right. The truth was she felt responsible for what was happening to the tribe because she was the one who’d left the map behind. She couldn’t afford to let a misplaced
sense of guilt guide her actions right now, especially when so many people were in danger.

  “You’ll come right back here as soon as you discover something?”

  “With any luck, they won’t tell Majers anything. For all he knows, we never came to the village. It wouldn’t take long to search for a sign of us, but he’ll be anxious to get to the ruins at the same time. Just wait here, and when I see what the situation is, I’ll come back for you and we’ll work out a plan together. Just promise me you won’t do anything to put yourself in danger while I’m gone.”

  “There are a lot of things I still want to do to you, Jake Wilde, and not all of them are bad, either. I’ll keep up my end of the bargain, if you tend to yours and come back to me in one piece.”

  “Never has one man been given so much incentive,” he whispered as his right hand captured the fragile strand of blossoms he had tucked so gently behind her ear.

  “I promise I’ll bring these back to you, but let me carry them now. I know it seems strange, but just having them near reminds me of your touch.”

  She nodded and blinked back tears at his tender words. She’d be damned if the last thing he saw before he left for the dangerous village was a crying woman.

  “I’ll see you soon. Now hurry, Jake. I’ll go over some ideas when you’re gone and we can work them out together when you return.”

  He answered her brave words with his own nod, and she could see how important her strength was to him. She doubted he would cease to worry over her, alone at the waterfall like she was, but if he thought she wasn’t afraid he would be able to focus more completely on the job at hand.

  Danielle was impressed as he slipped into the shadowy edge of the tree line with complete silence. Though she studied the spot where the foliage engulfed his retreating form, there was no sign he had passed through. Having grown up in the city, she wasn’t familiar with the knowledgeable ways of a woods guide, but she thought that even an experienced tracker wouldn’t be able to discern his passing because no leaves were bent or twigs snapped at the edge.

  Now that he was gone and she was completely alone, the enormous reality of their situation set in. She wasn’t just lost in Central Park, she was in the middle of a third world country, and she had never even been a Blue Bird or a Campfire Girl! She had about as much of a chance at survival as a goldfish did at the county fair, and it would be ridiculous for her not to face the facts.

  Still, she was determined to try whatever was necessary to get through this. She was a damn smart girl and she knew it. If she can get through the day after Thanksgiving sale at Macy’s without being run down by a hundred old lady’s with their cane’s propped up like lances on their shopping carts, she could make it through almost anything.

  “If only I had an old bicycle frame, a stick of chewing gum and a ball point pen,” she said conjuring an image of MacGyver to lift her spirits. Though things looked pretty gloomy from where she was standing, she refused to give in to panic and fear.

  A cool breeze lifted the hem of her thin nightgown, and she shivered in spite of herself. She knew her body was exhausted. It was well into the night, but the adrenaline pumping through her veins canceled out any evidence of slowed reactions she might have felt at that hour.

  The stone underneath her bare feet was smooth and cold, but the edge was chipped and cracked from a recent break as the elements wore pieces of it off over time. Danielle walked to the side and saw a sliver shaped like an arrowhead, very long and wicked looking. She decided it could come in handy and she knelt down to work it loose.

  The hard rock bit into her knees, and she slipped them to the side, resting her weight on her right hip as she pulled the sharp, jutting piece from side to side.

  This close to the edge, a light spray drifted on the breeze from the falls, and it covered her skin like sparkling diamond dust. At any other time the scene might have been enchanting, but at the moment the late night air was cold, and the water only served to heighten her sense of exposure.

  The piece broke away from the cliff with a dull, chalky snap and she had to brace her left palm on the edge of the rock to keep herself from falling forward when it came loose.

  With her triumphant acquisition, the pain was barely noticeable as the jagged edge cut into her tender flesh, and she absentmindedly put her bleeding palm to her lips. She had her weapon, and it looked pretty good right about now. If she could find a long, sturdy branch to whittle down to a point, she’d practically have an arsenal.

  Danielle stood with a groan, fully prepared to complain about all of this later when she was safe and sound with Jake and the rest of the tribe. Maybe all of this busy work was silly, but she felt a lot better and infinitely more useful occupying her time with something that might help as opposed to curling up in a ball at the edge of the path and waiting for whatever might come.

  There were quite a few thick vines at the edge of the clearing, none of which would suit her purpose. They were stringy and very hard to cut through, so she pilfered around in the brush until she found a good selection of sticks and branches that had seen better days.

  She quickly learned that the old weathered and rotting wood wouldn’t do at all, so she took a chance and cut a stout, slender limb from a tree overhead. The bark peeled off easily, exposing green, tender wood underneath and she was able to shape it with her sharpened stone.

  After what seemed like hours worth of work and more than a few cuts on her hands, she had an impressive piercing staff that could impale wild boar or roast marshmallows. Hoping for the latter, she stood with a smile of satisfaction on her face as she twirled the piece of wood in front of her to measure the balance.

  Just as her confidence peaked and she thought she was getting the hang of it, the sound of swishing leaves carried to her secluded spot on the rock from the edge of the clearing.

  Every fiber in her being begged her to call out for Jake, but her mind knew it would be a stupid mistake. Instead, she planted her feet firmly apart on the rock and quickly slipped the dangerous stone inside a small pocket at her hip.

  Each natural sound in the forest suddenly seemed threatening, and the cascade at her back was agonizingly loud as she strained to hear over it and pick out the rustling noise that grew closer and closer.

  Please be Jake…or a wild boar, she prayed silently.

  Her right hand gripped the middle of the staff that she had planted into the ground so painfully she thought she’d have splinters in the morning, if there was a morning.

  The advancing rustle ceased, and she stood frozen, her shoulders drawn painfully tight as she realized with a gasp she had been holding her breath. She forced herself to breathe deeply and relax the death grip she had on the cut piece of wood.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” she scolded herself. For whatever reason, the sound of her own voice gave her some comfort in the clearing, but she took it nonetheless. “If you jumped at every shadow that came along you wouldn’t be ready when you had to be.”

  “It’s much better to be ready all the time, I think,” a sneering, female voice drifted to her from the darkness at the edge of the proper trailhead.

  Danielle spun around, looking for the source of the taunt, realizing at the same time she could talk herself into having as much confidence in the world as she could muster, but none of it would change the reality that she was standing on the precipice of a cliff in her Jammies with nothing but a sharpened stick to defend herself.

  “Why don’t you come here, and we’ll see how ready I am?” she called out with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, fully believing it was better to know her enemy as early as possible.

  “I’ll be happy to.” The smooth, venom filled answer met her challenge.

  Danielle squinted at first when the slender form emerged from the brush, her black clad figure blending unusually well with the darkness. Danielle’s eyes opened wide in disbelief as the girl came directly at her, one semi-automatic weapon held between her arm and her side with eas
e.

  “What are you doing here, Anna? Where is Jake?”

  She immediately regretted mentioning his name to the girl who had obviously been their adversary all along, but it did illicit a response.

  “How funny, Danielle,” she said with a superior tone. “I was just about to ask you the same thing.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Why don’t you lay down your stick and I’ll put down my machine gun,” Anna said with all the sweet sarcasm she could possibly convey.

  “And then what do we do?” Danielle could not help but ask, because the advantage obviously fell to the young girl at the head of the path before they even started. She had not fired at her yet, and as much as Anna didn’t like her, there must have been a good reason.

  “Then maybe I don’t shoot you with my pistol.” She patted her hip, and Danielle noticed the small, blue iron piece strapped to her upper thigh like something out of a spy movie.

  “Honestly, I think the odds are slightly in your favor. So I’ll just toss my fishing pole to the side, but I have to wonder why you haven’t used any of your weapons to take care of me already.”

  Anna’s eyes narrowed when Danielle asked that question, and she could see for herself the white knuckles the girl sported on the clip of the gun she had yet to relinquish.

  “Britton says we need you no matter the cost.”

  “He doesn’t need me! I don’t want anything to do with the man.” Danielle automatically spilled the confession from her lips in a flustered tone. “God, I don’t even like him.”

  “I thought as much.” The dark haired girl flashed a self satisfied grin. “I have worked too hard to be everything he needs for this experiment. There is no way some city woman with no sense can just come on the scene and take it all away, no matter how much Britton says that Fate has her way.”

  Anna leveled the gun at Danielle’s chest. She saw her fingers move over the trigger, and she understood she had just dug her own grave.