Wednesday, September 3rd – 8:48 pm
The doorknob turned easily in her hand. Taking in a deep breath and trying to ignore the wild beat of her heart, Avery eased the door open to Luys’ condo and paused. She’d tried calling a couple of more times on her way to the condo complex. Luys hadn’t answered. Neither had Cristina. Once she’d driven up into the parking lot, she’d immediately gone over to Stephen’s and Cristina’s place but hadn’t gotten an answer. She’d found the door locked and all the blinds closed. Calling out for both hadn’t gotten her anything but silence.
Something was definitely wrong. Cristina would have answered if she’d been able to. Same with Luys. With both Luys and Cristina missing, her thoughts veered to Stephen. Could he have hurt them both? Luys was the larger of the two men, but Stephen could have caught him unawares and disabled him. But there had been no signs of a struggle around Cristina’s condo.
The only thing she could think of was that Luys had found Cristina and hidden her over at his house.
Avery stood to the side of the doorway to Luys’ condo as lights from the sidewalk speared a path across the living area and toward a figure slumped in a cushioned chair. There was enough light to distinguish the man’s thick brown hair, firm jaw, and high cheekbones.
“Luys?”
He didn’t lift his head or move from his position in the chair.
Opening the door wider and peeling back more shadows, she edged deeper into the room. Movement in the corner of the living room made her turn. She tensed. Someone else was in the room. A flash of metal, a loud cough. A bullet slammed into her shoulder. She grunted and jerked backward at its force. She hit the side of the doorway with her arm and twisted around and out of the condo before the person had shot off another bullet and hit her again.
Gasping against the pain, she lurched away and down the sidewalk before glancing down. She touched her shoulder, lifted her hand, and came away with blood on her fingers. A dark stain appeared against the navy blue of her t-shirt. She inhaled sharply. A shiver of shock rushed through her. Oh, God. She’d always wondered what a bullet felt like, and now she knew. It felt like hell. The pain was excruciating. Taking in deep, steady breaths, she tried to focus on what to do next. Luys needed help. He could be dead already.
Panic bubbled through her insides, and she ruthlessly pushed it back. Now wasn’t the time to let emotions control her. She needed to think, to act, to help Luys however she could.
She glanced up as someone rounded the corner of Luys’ condo.
“Cristina. Thank God! We were so worried about you.”
Cristina smiled and waved her hands at the length of her body. “I’m good. Sorry. I panicked.”
Avery struggled for words. She didn’t know how much blood she was losing. “Someone just shot me.”
“Oh, no!” Cristina hurried over, brows shooting up and eyes widening. “What happened?”
“Something’s wrong with Luys. He’s inside with someone else, but I didn’t have time to see who it was.”
Cristina moved closer, glancing briefly at Avery’s wound before grabbing her hand and urging her back to Luys’ condo. “We need to help him.”
But Avery remained rooted to the sidewalk. There was no way she was going back in there until she had some type of plan. Tears blurred her vision. She tried not to think that she might already be too late for Luys. Then she noticed Cristina’s neck. “You’ve got new bruises.”
“Yes, well. Those don’t matter right now.”
“I’ve got to call the police.” With her good arm, she reached behind her for her phone in her back pocket, but Cristina caught her arm in midair. She frowned and looked down at Cristina’s hand around her wrist. She tried to pull away, but the woman was much stronger. “What are you doing?”
“We’re going inside.”
“Are you crazy? Someone just shot at me!”
She pried at Cristina’s fingers, which tightened until she thought her wrist might snap from the pressure. Then she noticed the coldness in Cristina’s eyes, the rigid thrust of her jaw as she pivoted around Avery and dragged her toward the front door. Avery bucked, twisted back and forth, tugged harder, tried every maneuver, but she couldn’t break the woman’s hold. The power behind Cristina’s grip was crazy.
Then Avery realized maybe Cristina wasn’t who she appeared. Maybe her friend really wasn’t a friend but someone like Mayor. Someone who had been turned like Avery. Someone who had motives Avery could only guess at. She couldn’t think of the woman’s betrayal. Not when her life depended on survival.
Cristina shoved her toward the open door. The force propelled Avery over the threshold, where she landed on her knees in the entranceway.
She struggled to her feet and glanced over at Luys. He remained motionless, his chin against his chest as if in defeat or something even worse. Please, God, don’t let him be dead. She eyed the medallion. She didn’t know how quickly it took hold, but Stephen didn’t seem worried, and neither did Cristina as she stepped into the condo and slammed the door behind her.
Deciding not to wait to find out what they planned to do to either of them, she rushed over to Luys. A muscle pulsed by his jaw, and he blinked. The emotions in his eyes hit her in the gut. Despair and desperation. Biting back a cry, she clung to him, shielding her hands with her body. He had mentioned the mercury was hidden beneath the stone. If she could just get a hold of it for a minute, then get rid of it. She fumbled for the clasp. A smooth cylinder dropped in her hands as she snapped the locket closed.
Someone grabbed her from behind and flung her across the room. The mercury slipped from her grasp as she tumbled backward. Her hip hit the wall, and for several minutes she lay there, stunned, trying to regain her breathing.
“Touch him again, and I’ll kill you now!”
On her side, Avery cringed against the wall. Cristina stood over her, face blotted in shades of red, veins lifted against the skin of her neck.
Avery avoided her gaze. Beneath lowered lashes, she swept a glance across the floor and spied the mercury she’d dropped by Stephen and under the end table by the sofa. She prayed it was far enough away for it not to affect her and Luys, but it would work its power on Stephen? His foot was less than a foot away from the metal.
Cristina turned back to Stephen, who held a gun in one hand. “Do I always have to clean up your mess?” Cristina bit out. “What were you thinking, having her run off like that?”
Stephen’s face grew slack-jawed. “Are you serious? What was I supposed to do? You wanted me to wait here until Mayor showed up.”
All this time, Avery had thought Stephen had been in control of their relationship, but it looked like Cristina was the one with the power, which didn’t explain the bruising, the possible beatings.
“Mayor?” Avery asked. “I don’t understand. Why? Why her? Why try to kill Luys and me? And what does she have to do with you?”
Cristina closed her eyes as if the questions pained her. “You got in the middle. I’m sorry for that.”
From the hard edge to Cristina’s eyes, Avery didn’t think Cristina was sorry in the least.
“Are you like Mayor?”
Her gaze turned furious. “Don’t ever think it, never mind say it! I may have become nagual, but I am nothing like her!” Her hands fisted at her sides. “She has hurt me like no other.”
“How?” Avery asked.
“She killed my babies! If not for her, Madelena and Juan would still be alive!”
“I never knew you had children.”
“Why would you? I have trouble even now thinking of the loss, the pain, even though it’s been centuries. The Aztecs believe there is no death, that it is just a cycle, and a person moves on to Mictlan. They lie! My children are forever gone! They were killed because of her. She put her own needs above everyone else. She convinced the priests that her child was feeble and unworthy. They chose my two children instead. Their death and tears were offered to Tlaloc, so he could release the rain and stop the drought.”
“But didn’t Mayor’s daughter also die?”
“Don’t question me!” She pounded her fist into the wall. Flecks of plaster and paint landed on Avery. “I deserve my revenge. I’ve lived and breathed for it for as long as I can remember. If it wasn’t for her, they would have looked somewhere else. They took twelve children that year for Tlaloc, but they didn’t touch her child!”
While avoiding looking anywhere in Luys’ direction, Avery searched for a way to keep Cristina from killing either of them. She needed more time to heal. There was also Luys. She’d removed the mercury from around his neck, but did it matter? No, Avery needed to think positive and pray the metal had kept him a prisoner and hadn’t killed him. But how long did it take for it to stop working? Minutes she could stall, but hours? She couldn’t keep Cristina engaged that long.
“And Ben? Was he the father?”
Cristina closed her eyes again as if in pain. “Ben was someone I could trust, someone who believed in me and I in him. He became nagual, like me, centuries before. He hated Mayor, sometimes more than me, because he knew how she ruined my life and killed my children. He helped me again and again in my quest to find Mayor. When we discovered her brother here in Scottsdale, we moved in and waited for Mayor to show up. With Ben nearby, he strengthened my desire to seek vengeance and made me feel powerful. We are friends, lovers, family.”
“But Stephen? I thought you were married?”
“We are. His family’s money keeps us comfortable. He does things to me few men will do; he gives me the pain I crave to ease the guilt, even if it’s a moment. And if he proves himself, I will ensure he becomes like Ben and me.” Cristina swooped closer until her shoe bumped into Avery’s knee and her face was a foot above Avery. “You should never have killed Ben.”
Her swallow caught mid-throat.
“You had no right!” Cristina snarled.
“He was going to kill me!”
“And you killed him instead!” she spat out.
Avery tensed, ready to duck and pivot, knowing she was no match for Cristina. Only when she knew she had no other option would she vanish from the room. She’d been lucky her timing had been perfect when she reappeared behind Ben and used the knife against him, but if she tried teleporting again, her odds showing up at the ideal place and time were negotiable. There were too many people involved.
A blast of wind and clouds barreled into the room. A shadow appeared within the thick haze, and Mayor materialized in the center of the room, mist evaporating in her wake.
“Get her! Stephen, use the mercury. Use it on her!”
Stephen dropped the gun on the sofa and picked up something on the cushion to his right. A glass vial with silver liquid inside. Mercury. It glittered in the artificial light as it moved within the vial, harmless to Stephen and deadly to everyone else in the room.
As he rose from the sofa and opened its top, Avery scrambled to her feet. Her back to Stephen, Mayor stood between him and Cristina, but she turned as if in slow motion toward him. He raised his hand to fling the contents at Mayor.
Avery reacted, flinging herself toward Mayor, ramming her shoulder and entire weight into the other woman’s body. She connected, muscle against muscle, and propelled them to the side and away from the liquid’s trajectory.
On the ground, out of breath, Avery glanced down at her hands, her arms, her legs but saw nothing had struck her. Then she looked to Mayor, who lay on the floor facing her. Eyes swirling with rage, the other woman stared back at her, and she knew any second Mayor was going to do something involving her body parts.
Oh, God. Avery was dead. It wouldn’t matter from whom. Mayor, Stephen, or Cristina. Three to one—terrible odds.
A scream erupted into the room. She swiveled her head around as chaos erupted. Cristina wreathed and convulsed on the floor. Mayor sprang to her feet and launched herself toward Stephen. He crawled across the sofa to get away from her, but she kept coming. As he tripped over the sofa’s arm and onto the floor, Mayor jumped after him. Avery scrambled backward on her butt, afraid of getting in the path of Mayor and Stephen.
With one hand, Mayor grabbed him by the back of his shirt. Material tore. She used her other hand to grab him by the shoulder. She flung him across the room. He hit the wall and slid to the ground, leaving a trail of blood on the paint in his wake.
Then Mayor swiveled on her heel and faced Avery.
This was it.
Still on the floor, Avery closed her eyes and focused on her condo. Now. She needed to vanish.
She opened her eyes.
Mayor was closing the distance between them.