Chapter Two

Issa stood at the top of the pyramid at Chichen Itza. The thick humid air of the Yucatan jungle still carried the scent of the tourists’ blood, although the area below was now empty. The desolate ruins of his city welcomed him with open arms.

After banishing the Night Demon from this world, he’d planned to cross the ocean and retreat back to Egypt. He’d lived in that desert for centuries.

But it was never home.

Humans had a saying that home is where your heart is.

Issa had no heart left. Only his loyalty to his immortal brothers and his responsibility to the mortal world kept him going. Their final battle against Camalotz, the Night Demon, required Issa to sacrifice his own brother. He’d also found his only love Ch’en reborn and once again with no love in her heart for him.

Alone in the Yucatan jungle, Issa remained wounded. Emotional scars that his Night Walker blood seemed incapable of healing.

He stared up at the stars, and screamed to the heavens, a guttural cry of rage and bitterness. His voice echoed, piercing the night and roaring across the jungle. A single, unchanging voice trapped in a wilderness of life that continued around him, without him.

The air sizzled with energy, and Issa’s form shifted. His spirit animal came forth, taking shape until a large, jet black jaguar paced the top of the pyramid. The cat lifted its muzzle, scenting the air. He would feed well tonight, but no amount of blood could fill the growing void within Issa’s soul.

…

Zafrina rested both palms against Gretchen’s abdomen, opening her mind to the immortal child inside her womb. Her ancient Mayan fertility magic had enabled Mulac’s heir to be reborn to this human woman, but her magic stopped at conception. Now she waited to see how long Gretchen’s mortal body could incubate an immortal Night Walker.

If the child didn’t survive, it would mean the end of their entire race. Without Mulac to uphold the North, their world lost its balance, and their immortality would bleed away.

“Is he healthy?” Gretchen closed her eyes, lying on the sofa.

“He seems to be.”

Only four more weeks until the risk of a miscarriage dropped.

Of course, no one knew if Gretchen’s pregnancy would progress according to a normal mortal gestation. She wasn’t carrying a human child in her womb, and her abdomen already expanded. Soon it would be difficult to hide the pregnancy from prying eyes like those of the Fraternidad del Fuego Santo. The monks kept their distance for now, but they made their presence known during the daylight, leaving behind their threats and righteous admonitions.

Their premonitions of an immortal baby, an Antichrist, fueled the fanatical fire, and they strove to end the threat before the child drew his first breath.

For now, the monks’ prophecies remained unfounded, but soon, they wouldn’t be able to hide Gretchen’s condition. The Fraternidad would know which female carried the child, and she would be in even more danger.

Zafrina buried her concerns and smiled while Gretchen sat up. “The child is well.”

“Do you think he’ll understand he’s a reborn Mayan God?” Gretchen met her eyes, refraining from speaking his name. “Will he know who he was?”

Zafrina rubbed her thigh. “Long ago, our people had a prophecy of an immortal birth. The story, painted on bark cloth, is lost to us now, but I remember the tale. The child would unite and lead our people. He would be the first Night Walker born from a mortal womb with immortal blood. I believe the child will be a fresh start. Mulac’s memories will not be reborn, only his body, his blood.”

Gretchen’s hand rested protectively over her unborn child. Zafrina judged she would make a fierce mother. If she survived the pregnancy.

“Have you eaten?”

Gretchen shook her head. “I’m not hungry.”

Zafrina went to the kitchen and sliced up a banana with a few saltine crackers. After bringing Gretchen the plate, she sat beside her, burying her worry. “Your body needs feeding. Eat.”

Gretchen still required nutrients that her unborn child couldn’t tolerate. Already the sunlight blistered the woman’s pale skin, yet her body still ached for the warmth of the sun’s rays. Again, it was her unborn child who couldn’t bear the daylight.

How long could they coexist?

Zafrina wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer to that question. The Night Walker race now depended on this mortal woman for their existence. If the child she carried was immortal, it should survive a premature birth.

Maybe. Sadly, without the prophecy in hand, that was a question no one could answer with any certainty.

…

A muscle in his cheek jumped with frustration as he paced the length of his spacious suite at the top of the historic U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego. Normally he found a sarcastic glimmer of humor in referring to such a new structure as “historic,” but at the moment, nothing lightened his foul mood.

Nothing.

He had torn the mortal man apart piece by piece. What was his name? Oh yes, Richard. How could he forget?

Dick.

Now that brought a thin smirk to his ageless face.

How apropos that he stood on the brink of ruling this world for eternity, only to find a Dick blocking his path to power.

Apep glared at the flower vase, allowing the chaos to gather in his eyes. Across the room, the focused chaos he unleashed agitated the water at a molecular level, heat rising until the water boiled and the porcelain suddenly shattered.

His rage grew with each passing day, making the chaos harder to maintain. But he would manage. He had not spent the last millennia stuck in the world of man for nothing. This was his chance to change his destiny, and he would grab the brass ring with both hands.

He stood at the window overlooking the gas lamp quarter of San Diego, his arms crossed tightly over his broad chest. The woman carrying the immortal child was here.

Somewhere.

His serpents found her on a beach. But which beach? There were many in San Diego. Sending his enchanted tattoos through the shadows, independent of his body, sapped his magic, leaving him weak and vulnerable. A heavy trade-off for the valuable information they gathered.

But this information had the potential to offer him the world. Well worth it.

An immortal baby was to be born, a God among the Night Walkers. The key to their survival.

And he would steal it.

Already, Apep sensed the unborn child’s power growing. Each night when the baby awakened inside of his mother’s womb, Apep reached out mentally to the child, nurturing the fetus with a hunger for power, and a trust for a tall, black-haired man with pale white skin and stormy, dark eyes. His true father, or so he led the young mind to believe. The child already yearned for freedom, for blood.

Which led him right back to the Dick dilemma.

He needed the Mayan codex with the prophecy of the immortal child. The same one this Richard person searched for. The one he hoped the bookstore woman had found. But Muriah La Deaux escaped him.

He growled and stalked toward the door. He’d waited this long, he wouldn’t allow impatience to cause him to lose this opportunity. He would have the codex, and with it, the truth behind the immortal birth.

The birth of a God.

It was imperative that he recognize the signs of the coming delivery. He needed to be there before the Night Walkers could protect the child, but to rip the babe from the mortal woman’s womb too early might mean the death of the fetus and all the Night Walkers, which wouldn’t aid his plans.

He had no idea if the infant’s immortality began in the womb or with its first breath. It was a gamble he was not prepared to make. He would have only one chance.

There could be no mistakes.

He needed this child alive.