Finn was used to hunting alone. So it irked him to wait and assume Ixchel and her brothers were being successful at channeling Mirabelle toward the planned snare. It annoyed him to be counting on Fernando to rein in his mate's enthusiasm and keep her safe. And it just plain pissed him off to sit twiddling his thumbs while others were exposed to danger on his behalf.
And yet, despite wishing that he'd been able to manage this entire operation without calling in outside help, Finn had a hard time forcing himself to put their plan into motion by throwing his current companion into the pool.
Head still up your butt about your precious mate? Tezzie asked abrasively.
Okay, so, maybe a little peace and quiet within his own brain might actually be nice. Still, Finn stayed his hand and didn't initiate the first phase of the trap—dropping the troublesome figurine into a sinkhole that led straight down into oceanic caves.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Tezzie?" he asked instead. "Ixchel was reading about cenotes in her guidebook, and she says this one is likely to be a couple of hundred feet deep. It would take some doing to drag you back to the surface if Mirabelle doesn't show."
The were-jaguar was currently standing on a rickety wooden platform that extended out over the middle of what appeared at the surface to simply be a medium-sized pool. However, gazing down into the greenish water proved that the cenote walls were steep and that the body of water was far from shallow.
Meanwhile, the historical description that Ixchel had read over the phone that morning was still quite vivid in the shifter's mind. Apparently, Mexicans had once dropped all sorts of offerings down cenotes in an attempt to appease their gods. Offerings up to and including human sacrifices. The ancient people of the Yucatan had believed that these sinkholes were portals to the underworld, and Tezzie confirmed that his followers' supposition had a basis in reality.
Which was a key part of their plan, in fact. Finn was to plunge the were-jaguar figurine into a sinkhole that had been devoted to Ixxie since ancient times, then the goddess would open the portal to the underworld as soon as Tezzie was submerged. Meanwhile, Quetzalcoatl had vowed to use his own energy to suspend his brother god's prison just above the dividing line between human and godly realms. The trap would be baited and set.
Finn's job was simple—to ensure that Mirabelle came in contact with the figurine, allowing Tezzie to swap their corporeal forms. After that, the god in the body of a were-jaguar would swim back up to the surface and enjoy his new skin, while the incarcerated demigod would drop through the portal and away from any possibility of release back into the human sphere.
Of course, that depends on everything going exactly as planned. Having spent the better part of a week tied to the wind god's whims, Finn wasn't entirely sure that either of the two deities playing supporting roles would adhere to their word. After all, sometimes even he thought the world would be better off without Tezcatlipoca in it, so why not let the grumpy god drop through to the underworld where he'd be out of their hair forever?
Okay, so I don't really feel that way. I'd miss the argumentative bastard if he were gone...which is why I'm giving Tezzie the chance to back out now.
"So, what do you think?" Finn asked, trying to get a feel for his companion's emotions. If Tezzie was afraid, then they'd find some other way to trap Mirabelle and to give the god a new body.
But, apparently, the wind god's machismo exceeded Finn's own. Hurry up and throw me in the effing water, the god demanded. Mirabelle's getting strong enough that he might be able to feel my presence if I'm above the surface when he arrives, and I don't want to risk tipping him off.
Whether the deity's words were simply an example of prideful bravery or were actually annoyance that Finn was holding up the works, Tezzie had clearly made his decision. "Well, here goes nothing," the shifter said. And he tossed the ancient Olmec figurine into the pool.
***
The statue fell into the water with a plop and immediately drifted down out of sight. Would I even know if Tezzie was gone for good? Finn wondered, shifting immediately into feline form. Sometimes he could sense the wind god's presence more clearly as a jaguar than as a man, but his mental feelers went unanswered that afternoon. Either Tezcatlipoca had fallen through the portal into the underworld, or Quetzalcoatl was holding his brother god in limbo halfway between the two domains as promised. Either way, Mirabelle would be walking onto the scene shortly, and Finn needed to prepare for his opponent's arrival.
The road wasn't very far away from the wooden platform on which he was standing, so Finn's feline ears caught the rumble of approaching tires as soon as he came out of his shift. He was glad to realize that he felt calmer now that the game was in play, the shifter's predatory nature taking over as he leapt straight up and settled into the shadows atop a rock ledge twenty feet above the pool. As a jaguar, Finn was used to launching himself onto prey from above, and he was counting on the element of surprise to give him that critical edge over his opponent today.
But Finn was the one shocked into immobility when two new visitors to the cenote came into view. Because, of course Fernando had failed in his task and Ixchel appeared first, traveling away from her car at a loping sprint. She was trying to escape from a demigod powerful enough that even Tezcatlipoca was sufficiently afraid to enlist the help of two friendly deities.
But the vet wasn't running in human form.
Which wasn't entirely a surprise. Finn had known as soon as he saw the woman's naked body in Tezcatlipoca's mirror that Ixchel had discovered a way to transform into a jaguar. Not my sister but my mate. The words had hummed through his mind even as the wind god did his best to reel Finn in with his subterfuge.
And Finn had also harbored a sneaking suspicion that Ixchel would be able to outwit her brothers and lead Mirabelle directly to the showdown site on her own. His mate wasn't the type who let herself be left out of events, and she also probably didn't trust her brothers to be privy to her tremendous new secret.
A secret that Finn had stopped her from revealing over the phone, but which he dared hope his mate had wanted to share with her fellow shifter.
So, no, Finn shouldn't have been surprised to see the lithe female jaguar bound toward the cenote, sunlight gleaming across her midnight fur. And he wasn't surprised. Instead, the male were-jaguar was astounded by his mate's beauty, by the realization that the pull he'd felt toward the woman from day one was magnified one hundred percent when he saw her running in his direction on four paws.
So he stared too long...and almost allowed Mirabelle to take down his prey.