Skykeepers n-3 Read online

  Skykeepers

  ( Nightkeepers - 3 )

  Jessica Andersen

  In this sexy series based around the Mayan doomsday prophecy, a group of magic- wielding warrior heroes called the Nightkeepers are ready to fight the demon creatures of the underworld to prevent annihilation...

  When prominent Mayanist Ambrose Ledbetter goes missing, his daughter Sasha tracks his remains down to an ancient temple. Before she can recover from the shock, she is kidnapped. Slick and charming recruit Michael Stone rescues Sasha from her imprisonment and feels an instant attraction. But he doesn't dare get involved, with the threat of his dark side growing stronger and the powers of sorcery on the rise. Both Michael and Sasha will discover a new passion together and one they have to admit to in order to change their worlds...

  Skykeepers

  Nightkeepers 3

  by

  Jessica Andersen

  This book is dedicated to those who protect us.

  Without you, the world would be a much more dangerous place.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The Nightkeepers’ world is well hidden within our own; bringing it to light isn’t always an easy process. My heart-felt thanks go to Deidre Knight, Kara Cesare, Claire Zion, Kara Welsh, and Kerry Donovan for helping me take these books from a dream to a reality; to J. R. Ward for critiques and help each step of the way; to Suz Brockmann for being a mentor and an inspiration; to my many e-

  friends on the Skywatch message board for always being there for a laugh or cyberhug; to Sally Hinkle Russell for keeping me sane; and to Brian Hogan for too many things to name in this small space.

  For a full list of references and recommended reading on the ancient Maya and the 2012 doomsday prophecy, and to explore the Nightkeepers’ online community, please visit www.JessicaAndersen.com.

  GLOSSARY

  Like much of the Nightkeepers’ culture, their spell words come from the people they have lived with throughout their history. Or if we want to chicken-and-egg things, it’s more likely that the other cultures took the words from the Nightkeepers and incorporated them into their developing languages.

  As such, some of the words have slightly different meanings and/or spellings in the Nightkeepers’ language compared to those of ancient Egypt, the Mayan Empire, and elsewhere.

  Entities (people, gods, demons, and other creatures) Aztec—A complex and warlike Mesoamerican culture that arose as the Mayan Empire lost momentum.The Aztec held sway over much of northern Mesoamerica when the conquistadors arrived in the so-called New World.

  Banol Kax —The lords of the underworld, Xibalba. Driven from the earth and locked behind the barrier after the last Great Conjunction in 24,000 B.C. by the many-times-great-ancestors of the modern Nightkeepers, the Banol Kax seek to pierce the barrier and wrest control of the earth from mankind. Their greatest opportunity will come when the barrier falls on December 21, 2012. boluntiku —The underworld minions of the Banol Kax, the boluntiku are lava creatures that draw their energy from the molten mantle of the earth. The creatures are killing machines that can sense magic and royalty; they travel in an insubstantial vapor form and turn solid in the moment they attack. ch’ulel— A rare and powerful Nightkeeper mage who can manipulate the life force of all living things.

  First Father—The only adult survivor of the Nightkeepers’ exodus from Egypt in 1351 B.C. He bound the slaves into winikin, led the Nightkeepers and winikin to Mesoamerica, and codified their beliefs into the writs and the thirteen prophecies in order to guide his descendants over the millennia until the end-time. makol ( ajaw-makol )—The earthly minions of the Banol Kax, these are demon souls capable of reaching through the barrier to possess an evil-natured human host. An ajaw-makol is an extremely powerful makol drawn straight from the lowest level of Xibalba, where the truly damned dwell.

  Mictlan—A Nightkeeper capable of wielding the oldest form of magic, with lethal results. (Also see Mictlan under Places.) nahwal —Humanoid spirit entities that exist in the barrier and hold within them all of the accumulated wisdom of each Nightkeeper bloodline. They can be asked for information, but cannot be trusted.

  Nightkeeper—A member of an ancient race sworn to protect mankind from annihilation in the years leading up to December 21, 2012, when the barrier separating the earth and the underworld will fall and the Banol Kax will seek to precipitate the apocalypse.

  Order of Xibalba—Formed by renegade Nightkeepers, the order courted the powers of the underworld and was wiped out by the conquistadors . . . or so the Nightkeepers believed until the Xibalbans reappeared in modern day with a clear doomsday agenda of their own. pilli —The nobility of Aztec society. Among the Xibalbans, it refers to the most powerful members of the red-robed, magic-wielding warrior caste. winikin —The winikin function as the servants, protectors, and counselors of the magi, and have been instrumental in keeping the bloodlines alive through the centuries.

  Places Mictlan—The lowest layer of Xibalba, where the most egregious sinners (traitors and murderers) reside, forming the souls of the ajaw-makol.

  Paxil Mountain—The ancient stories say that the sacred foods of the Maya, maize and cacao (from which chocolate is made), were trapped within this legendary mountain until released by the gods.

  Skywatch—The Nightkeepers’ training compound is located in the Chaco Canyon region of New Mexico.

  Survivor2012 compound—Located in an unpopular offshoot of the Florida Everglades and built on —and into—a massive landfill, this labyrinthine complex was home to the Survivor2012 doomsday cult. Since the death of cult leader Vincente Rincon and the disbanding of Survivor2012, the compound has sat empty. In theory.

  Xibalba—The nine-layer underworld of the Mayan and Nightkeeper religious systems, home to the Banol Kax, boluntiku, and makol.

  Things (spells, glyphs, prophecies, etc.) barrier—A force field of psi energy that separates the earth, sky, and underworld, and powers the Nightkeepers’ magic. The strength of the barrier fluctuates with the positions of the stars and planets, and weakens as the 12/21/2012 end date approaches. chorote— A sacred drink that combines both maize and chocolate, two of the most important foodstuffs in Mayan—and Nightkeeper—rituals. ch’ul —In Mayan mythology, the life force that runs through all living things. Analogous to the Chinese concept of chi. copan —The sacred incense of the Nightkeepers. This is a variation of the Mayan incense, copal, and is associated with the great ruined city of Copán, located in modern-day Honduras. hunab ku —A pseudoglyph associated with the 2012 end date worn by the Nightkeepers’ king. intersection—Located in the sacred tunnels beneath Chichén Itzá, this was the point where the earth, sky, and underworld came very near one another, where the barrier was weakest, and through which the gods could communicate with the Nightkeepers. With the intersection destroyed, the Nightkeepers are in trouble. jun tan —The “beloved” glyph that signifies a Nightkeeper’s mated status. It cannot be formed by a Nightkeeper who also shares a connection with dark magic. muk —The ancient, ancestral magic that was long ago split into Nightkeeper and Xibalban magic. tzomplanti —A ceremonial pile formed of stacked human skulls, used as a beacon or a warning sign. Although sometimes associated with the Maya, it is Aztec in origin. writs—Written by the First Father, these rules delineate the duties and codes of the Nightkeepers.

  Not all of them translate well into present day.

  What has come before . . .

  At least, that is what some believe the ancient Maya intended to signal when they set their five-

  thousand-year calendar to zero out on that day, at the exact moment the sun, moon, and earth will align at the center of the Milky Way in a cosmic dark spot the Maya believed was the mouth of the underworld, Xibalba.

  Modern scienti
fic support for the 2012 doomsday theory comes from astronomers and physicists, who predict that this Great Conjunction, which occurs only once every twenty-six thousand years, will trigger magnetic reversals, terrible sunspots, and potentially cataclysmic planetary events. This has caused historians and spiritualists alike to credit the ancient Maya with a level of astronomy not seen again through history until modern times. However, their knowledge of the Great Conjunction—and the havoc it will bring—came from a far older people: the Nightkeepers.

  Descended from the only survivors of an incredibly advanced civilization wiped out in 24,000 B.C. during the last Great Conjunction, the Nightkeepers are mortal magic users sworn to pass their skills from generation to generation until the 2012 conjunction, when they will be the only ones capable of defeating the Banol Kax , a group of powerful demons who were bound in Xibalba by the Nightkeepers’ ancestors, and will be released on December 21, 2012. On that day, the demons will break through the barrier separating the earth and underworld. They will destroy mankind and rule the earth . . . unless the Nightkeepers stop them.

  Ancient prophecy says that there should be hundreds of Nightkeepers at the end of the age. But in the final four years before the zero date, when the demons begin their assault on the barrier, the Nightkeepers number less than a dozen scattered and untrained magi. Their last king, Striking-Jaguar, reunites the surviving Nightkeepers in time to block the Banol Kax from attacking the earth. In the process, however, he claims a god-bound human woman as his mate rather than sacrificing her. His love for Detective Leah Ann Daniels defies an ancient prophecy and triggers the next stage in the countdown to the end-time.

  This stage is ruled by the demon prophecies, which are supposed to guide the Nightkeepers in battle as the end-time approaches. The magi race to recover the Mayan antiquities that bear the seven demon prophecies, but they are not the only ones hunting for the missing artifacts. The Order of Xibalba, thought to have perished during the conquistadors’ bloodbath, has risen again, led by the redheaded mage Iago. During the spring solstice, Iago invokes all seven of the demon spells at once and uses the power to open a hellmouth connecting the earth and underworld, while sealing the skyroad and separating the Nightkeepers from their gods. Only the power of the love match between Godkeeper Alexis Gray and her destined mate, Nate Blackhawk, allows the Nightkeepers to defeat Iago and prevent the Banol Kax from coming to earth . . . for the moment.

  In the aftermath of the battle, the Nightkeepers’ powers falter without a connection to the gods, while Iago and his followers draw strength from the hellmouth. The Nightkeepers’ best hope is finding the lost library of their ancestors, which they believe holds the key to exponentially increasing their fighting magic. The problem? Sasha Ledbetter, the one woman who might be able to lead them to the library her father hid many years ago, is Iago’s prisoner. . . .

  PART I

  LEONID METEOR SHOWER

  This fiery display of shooting stars seems to emanate from the constellation of Leo, which the modern Nightkeepers associate with their revered jaguar kings.

  It is thought to symbolize a time of great change.

  CHAPTER ONE

  One year ago Somewhere in the Yucatán

  Sasha Ledbetter paused, bracing her hands on her knees as she sucked in moist air, trying to catch the breath she’d lost somewhere around the time she’d ditched the dinged-up Jeep to hike the rest of the way to the ruin. “Shit.” She wheezed. “I forgot how much I hate rain forests.”

  They were fine in theory, she supposed as she straightened and readjusted the heavy pack on her shoulders, then used her machete to nudge a thorny vine out of her way. On TV, from the safety of her apartment in Boston, she’d paused occasionally on Travel Channel specials about the low country, though she’d still take the Food Network any day. And she’d babied the half dozen tropical plants she’d grown in brightly colored pots, enjoying them for their sweet scents and lush flowers. But that didn’t mean she’d had any desire to return to her childhood haunts. Especially when those haunts came with bloodsucking bugs like the one that kept whining in her left ear no matter how many times she slapped at it. “Get the hint, will you?” She waved at the thing again; it buzzed reproachfully.

  “God. I forgot about the bugs, too.”

  She didn’t get a response to her complaints, but then again, she was talking to herself.

  Traveling alone in the rain forest might not be the smartest strategy for a brunette twentysomething with elfin features and a dented chin—i.e., someone who might be close to six feet tall and fairly muscular, but couldn’t look threatening no matter how hard she tried. But she’d spent a chunk of her childhood bushwhacking south of the border and knew how to take care of herself in the hostile, if verdant, environment.

  Then again, so had her father, Ambrose Ledbetter, and he’d disappeared into this same rain forest more than five months ago.

  Ambrose was missing, presumed dead, according to both the nearest consulate and the university where he’d held court as one of the world’s foremost Maya nists. Granted, it wasn’t unusual for Ambrose to lose track of a week or two when he was in the field, but five months was too much. He wouldn’t have stayed out in the field that long, even if he was hot on the trail of his own personal obsession, a mythical group of warrior-priests called the Nightkeepers, who were supposed to protect mankind from ancient demons in the last few years before the end of the Mayan calendar on December 21, 2012.

  Some people—mostly movie producers and nut jobs, as far as Sasha could tell—believed that the zero date signaled the end of time itself. But Ambrose hadn’t just believed in the end-time; he’d believed that the legends of the Nightkeepers were real. For the most part, he’d kept the psychosis under wraps in his outside life, playing the part of a sane man, and playing it well. At home, though, he’d let it rip. Which was why Sasha had eventually stopped going home. She hadn’t seen or spoken to her father in more than eight years, save for a single brief encounter over the summer. The day after that he’d disappeared into the rain forest.

  Missing, presumed dead. The words banged around inside her head as she wormed her way along the narrow trail she’d found partly from childhood memories, partly from a crude map Ambrose’s grad student had drawn for her. She paused at the circular clearing that she thought was where they used to make camp, but it seemed smaller than she remembered, and there was no sign of a tent.

  Granted, the forest claimed everything after a while, even stone pyramids ten stories high, but she still would’ve expected to find a few pieces of rip-stop or scattered equipment. Something, anyway.

  Her pulse bumped, but not with hope. After so many months with no word, it was hard to believe that he could still be alive. No, the skim of nerves came from thinking that instead of a relatively peaceful end in the place he loved, maybe he’d been attacked by human predators, bandits who’d taken his equipment to use what they could, sell what they couldn’t.The possibility had haunted her ever since she’d learned he was missing—a notification that had been delayed months because he hadn’t listed her anywhere as next of kin.

  “Don’t talk yourself into freaking out,” she said, swiping at another incoming bug.

  And really, there was no reason to panic. Even though she’d gone to culinary school rather than following Ambrose’s charted path for her to become a doctor, she’d taken enough bio classes to know that lack of evidence in favor of one hypothesis didn’t prove the opposite. The absence of tent scraps didn’t necessarily mean he’d been murdered by bandits. Maybe he’d just camped somewhere else.

  Still, she sheathed her machete and popped the snap on the midback holster she wore beneath her sweat-soaked tee, and withdrew the .22 chick gun she’d bought at a pawnshop a few miles from the airport. Just in case.

  Walking as quietly as she could, though she’d lost some of her childhood forestcraft in the years since she’d cut ties with her old life, she eased along the narrow path, which was little mo
re than a groove in the soft rain forest floor. Ignoring the screeches of parrots and monkeys far above in the canopy, she strained to hear other, closer sounds. Nerves fisted in her chest, and the skin at her nape prickled, but again, there was no evidence supporting her fear. There was only the fear itself.

  The lush vegetation thinned out as she crested a low rise that might have once been a fortified wall.

  From that high spot, she caught a glimpse of hewn stone forming a stark grayish white contrast to the surrounding greenery—an entrance leading into the earth. Ambrose’s temple. His obsession.

  Faint anger twisted at the sight—and the memories it brought—but she ignored it as she headed for the temple entrance, reminding herself she was through chasing love, or even affection. Those were things that had to be given freely, or not at all.

  In Ambrose’s case, that would be the latter.

  A slight downhill slope led to the temple entrance, which was a plain, unadorned rectangle of stone: vertical slabs on either side, twice the height of a tall man, topped with a wide, uncarved lintel. The dark, forbidding doorway led into a high mound of green-covered stone that had once been a huge ceremonial pyramid.

  When she reached the entrance, she fished in her pack for the military-grade flashlight that had been another pawnshop find. She’d passed on the night-vision goggles in favor of a decent one-man tent, but thanks to the creepy-crawlies still working their way up and down her spine, she found herself wishing she’d splurged and bought both.

  “Man up. You’re just imagining things,” she muttered, making herself take the first step from soil onto stone. When nothing happened except a ten-degree or so temperature drop, she exhaled a long, slow breath. “See? You can do this.” She might be a decade out of practice, and too ready to believe the prickly heebie-jeebies, but it wasn’t like she had a choice, really. She’d promised long ago never to reveal the temple’s location to anyone else, not even a hint. This had been Ambrose’s spot, the center of his life. And in the end, it had most likely been his death.