Mated to the Jaguars - Paranormal M/F/M Menage (9 page)
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Michelle bolted out from under Votan’s human hand the moment she awoke.
She sprinted into the bathroom, took her human form, and jumped into the shower.
For a few moments she adjusted the handle until the water near scalding water doused her.
She scooped handfuls against her crotch.
Votan stepped in through the open bathroom door.
She hadn’t pulled the shower curtain closed.
There was anguish in her face, but also in Votan’s.
She looked at him with tears mingling into the water droplets on her face.
Did he know?
The large man drew nearer.
“Ixchel.”
“He touched me.”
His anguish broke into an expression of confusion.
“Maximon hurt you?”
Michelle tried to answer, but her throat became choked with virulent emotion.
She turned off the water.
“Not Maximon,” she said through hiccupping sobs.
“Caquix.”
“Caquix!”
His yellow eyes grew wide as saucers.
She pulled a hand towel from the nearby rack to wipe her face.
“I never got to the spirit world.
He—he pulled me into some desert world.”
Now Votan’s eyes narrowed.
“The underworld.”
“I was tied up.
He was trying to get me to leave both you and Maximon and become his mate instead.
I said no.
Then he ripped off my top.
He shoved his hand in my underwear and started rubbing me and…”
She trailed off for a fresh bout of sobs.
Votan smashed his fist into the wall, crumbling the fine white tiles.
He gave a bellowing snarl.
“He will die!
I’ll rip his fingers out of the joints one by one!”
Michelle wrapped herself in a large towel and emerged from the tub.
“Hold me.”
Votan looked at her through an almost palpable haze of red fury.
His face contorted in anguish once more.
He drew her into his powerful arms.
“My love—I’m so sorry.”
She let herself sob quietly against him.
The shower and now the comfort was drawing her out of the pit of shame Caquix had plunged her into.
“He’s grown bold.
He’s condemned to his hell-world.
He can’t do anything outside of it, so he has to pull you in to hurt you.
I’ll go there.
Hunt him down—and make him suffer.”
A stitch formed between her brows.
“He’s not trapped down there.
He was in the mortal world too.”
Several moments of harrowing silence followed.
Michelle’s heart began to race.
Votan pulled away from her slowly.
He held her back with large hands on both her shoulders.
His angry face had turned stony.
“What?”
The solitary word dropped like a fifty ton boulder.
“He was…I mean, I saw him in his human form in the mortal world.
Before I found Maximon I was sitting at a café outside his work.
Caquix showed up.
He talked to me.
He was trying to convince me to go with him to his condo.”
Votan’s lower lip began to tremble.
She could hear his slow breaths.
“When I refused he tried to drag me with him, but Maximon showed up and chased him away.”
“How do you know it was him?”
She pursed her lips.
“Well…I felt him.
And he transformed into a big black bird.”
Votan turned from her.
“Damn.”
He walked out of the bathroom.
Michelle saw a stagger in his step.
She dressed and then followed.
Votan sat hunched over on the foot of the bed.
His forehead rested in his hands.
“This is why you did it,” he said without looking up.
“This is why you spirit bonded to both of us.
You sought to bring both of us together.
It was no game.
You foresaw this.”
He shook his head.
“I should have realized.
I thought so little of you—but you had a reason for what you did.”
She stood a moment, taking stock.
It should have struck her before that Caquix’s presence in the mortal world was something catastrophic.
Dread from his presence scratched at the back of her mind since the incident at the café.
No…before that.
Hadn’t she always known something big was coming?
Isn’t that why she searched so desperately for her purpose in the texts of the B’alam?
Votan’s reaction horrified her—but it didn’t surprise her.
“What does it mean, Votan?” she said softly.
“No.”
His large shoulders rose and fell with a sigh, then he sat up.
“We can’t talk.
His demons are always watching.”
He dragged himself to his feet curled the edge of his lip in revulsion.
“We have to go to Maximon.”
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Votan led the way to Max’s front door, despite Michelle protesting that she should be the first one to see him.
He stood glaring at Max in the doorway for several moments.
Michelle couldn’t see past him to gauge Max’s expression.
Eventually Max stepped away.
“Come in,” he said.
She came around Votan so she could see her other beloved.
Max smiled grimly at her.
She returned this, despite feeling stricken.
She belonged to both of them, but right now it felt as though Votan had sole rights to her.
It was all she could do not to race into Max’s arms for a kiss.
He offered them seats at the breakfast bar in his kitchen.
Michelle perched on the stool; Votan did not.
“You want something to drink?”
“No, thank you,” Michelle said.
Votan didn’t answer.
He was still glaring at their host.
Max eyed him before turning to pour himself some orange juice.
“Look, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around this situation.
I’ll be honest—“
“Shh.”
Max darted him an angry look.
Votan remained somber.
“We can’t talk yet.
I need twelve sheets of paper and something to write with.”
Michelle swallowed.
Max was looking at her for an explanation.
She merely pursed her lips.
“Okay.”
He set down his drink.
“I’ll get those, uh…”
He stepped out of the kitchen.
“Papers and whatever.”
Max and Michelle watched as Votan stacked the twelve white sheets of printer paper and uncorked a marker.
On the first sheet he drew their symbol, the symbol for the jaguar, in blocky Mayan style.
Next he drew a stylized bird, then a monkey, then a woman.
He continued drawing runes Michelle recognized from the books of the B’alam until he finished with a man on the last sheet.
Votan arranged them in a circle around the couch and armchair in the living room.
When he placed the final sheet a golden ring of light appeared, uniting each drawing, then rising upwards in a flash.
Max stepped into the ring of papers without pausing.
Michelle took longer to move.
Magic was still amazing to her.
She entered the ring, careful not to disturb the papers.
When she perched on the couch, Max sat next to her before Votan could claim the spot.
Her larger mate lowered onto the armchair before them.
She could see Max was annoyed.
He cleared his throat before speaking in an even tone.
“All right.
Are we good now?”
“Yes,” Votan said.
“Look, it was as I was saying.
I don’t like this situation any more than you do, but today I realized the thought of you being with Michelle wasn’t devastating to me.
I don’t know why that is, but I accept it.
I want to make this thing work for Michelle’s sake.”
She took his hand.
His yellow eyes lingered on hers or a moment of sweetness before once again facing the stony glare of Votan.
“That’s not what we need to talk about.”
The words were measured, as though he teetered on the brink of rage.
Max’s brow rose.
“Caquix is in the mortal world.”
She saw the color slowly drain from Max’s face.
Harrowing realization was settling over him the same way it had her.
Things were becoming clearer, but far darker than they’d realized.
“Yes.
He…was in the square in front of my building.”
“And he was in the underworld, just now, dragging Ixchel there with him, and putting his hands on her body.”
Max looked at her with parted lips.
“What?
What did he do to you?”
Shame bubbled up again, but not as severe as before.
She dredged up some mettle.
“The creep rubbed his hand between my legs—stripped me…”
“He what?”
Maximon’s voice rose to a shout at once.
“I’ll kill him!”
Michelle hugged her arms around herself.
Max’s warm arm came around her shoulders.
He pulled her against his side, bridging the small gap she’d left for Votan’s sake.
“I’m sorry, Michelle.”
“I’ll be fine.
I just…I never want to be at his mercy again.
He had me tied up.”
“If he does this again take your jaguar form at once,” Votan said.
“It will restore your magic.
You can escape his realm.”
She nodded.
“You said he was in the mortal world as though that was something unusual,” Max said.
“Of course it is.”
Venom came with every word he uttered.
“Caquix has been trapped in the underworld for over 2,500 years.
He was sealed there by the twin brothers Huna and Balan.”
“I remember reading that,” Michelle said.
“It was prophesized that in 2012 the seal to the underworld would grow weak for a short period.
He must have broke through.
This means he’s been free in the mortal world for years.”
Max felt his chin.
“I’m familiar with the story about the twin heroes.
What I’m unclear on is why he had to be sealed in the first place.”
Votan stared at him a moment.
Then his eyes moved to Michelle.
She sensed an equal level of disdain cast toward her.
“Why have neither of you embraced your god essences?”
“Why would we?” Max said.
Votan spoke through his clenched teeth.
“Because there’s a reason for the B’alam to be in the mortal world.
We have a purpose.
You find that purpose out by accepting your godhood.”
Max tipped up his nose.
“Well, I haven’t, and I have no intention of doing so.
Why don’t you enlighten me.
What’s our purpose?”
Michelle sat up straighter.
She felt riveted.
Votan enunciated slowly.
“To keep Caquix and his demons out of the mortal world.”
She blinked.
“That’s it.”
Votan gestured with one flippant hand.
“That’s our only purpose.
We are the last of the B’alam—us three, right here.
He is the last of the underworld gods.
Our reason for taking lifetime after lifetime among the mortals is to protect the world from Caquix.”
Max leaned back in his seat and expelled a long breath.
“So.
The end of the world really did happen in 2012.
Caquix came back.”
“It’s the beginning of the end.”
Votan’s eyes narrowed.
“He will take the mortal world as his own.
He’ll use his powers to manipulate governments.
He’ll plunge humanity into ten thousand years of darkness.”
Michelle saw her hand trembling.
“What do you think he’s done so far?”
Votan turned away with a sneer.
“His primary goal is to break the seal to the underworld so the rest of his demons can ascend in mortal guises.
He’ll have armies at his command.”
Max shoved his fingers into his hair.
“Jesus Christ.”
He sat up again with an incredulous expression.
“Why don’t we get these twins to fight him again?”
“There are no more twins.”
The words came out as sharp as daggers.
“Didn’t you hear me?
We are the last of the B’alam gods.
The twins were destroyed in the process of sealing him last time.”
Max collapsed back again.
“Caquix can only be vanquished by two heroes.
Two men of the B’alam, working together as brothers.
That’s the prophesy.”
Max eyed him.
Votan gestured to Michelle.
“This is why Ixchel spirit-bonded to the both of us.
She meant to unite us so that we could defeat Caquix.”
Max looked at her.
Of course he was confused, but so was she.
“How did I—or, how did Ixchel know she was going to need to unite you two in this lifetime?” Michelle said.
He shrugged.
“We’ve always known the end of the world was coming in 2012.
You’ve always had greater insight into the future than us.”
Max pressed his hands against his forehead.
“I can’t handle this.
I’m overwhelmed with my work.
Demons are bombarding all my concerns.
I don’t have a minute to breathe.
I can’t be fighting a war with some bird demon.”
Votan shook his head with a disgusted grin.
“Of course.
You care more about money than saving the mortal world.”
“No.
I don’t.”
The words verged on a growl.
“I’ll do whatever my purpose is.
It’s just the timing couldn’t be worse.”
“Maybe it’s not a coincidence?” Michelle said.
“I don’t know what you, or he, are talking about,” Votan said.
“He cleans up streams of companies he’s investing in,” she said.
“And once he became spirit bonded with me they got flooded with demons.
He wasn’t able to go to me.
He was too busy.”
She moved her gaze between the two of them.
“That’s Caquix, isn’t it?
He didn’t want me to be with either of you.
He tried to stop me in the café, and then he tried to convince me to break up with both of you in the underworld.
He knows you two can destroy him and that I’m the one who can bring you together.”
“That’s debatable,” Max said without looking at her.
“There’s no debate,” Votan said.
“You and I are going to work together long enough to vanquish Caquix, then Ixchel will remove her spirit mark from you and bond only to me.”
Max cocked his head.
“I beg your pardon?
If she can get unbound to of one of us it’s going to be you.”
“Fool!
Ixchel and I are married in the B’alam.”
“Michelle and I are going to be married in the real world.”
“Stop.
It.”
Her toes curled in her shoes.
“I’m with both of you in this lifetime.
Now.
While you’re destroying Caquix.
And afterwards.
Always.
That’s just how it’s going to be.”
“That’s not what we discussed,” Votan said.
“We discussed you showing me how to find out why Ixchel bonded to two mates this time.
We never got a chance.”
She turned away.
“But it’s obvious to me you were just going to have me embrace my godhood, or whatever.
That’s the only way you got all your knowledge.”
He grunted an affirmation.
“I’m not going to do that, and I’m not going to let go of either of you.
You’re a team now.”
Votan scoffed.
“I was willing to try,” Max said, with his glare fused onto Votan.
“He’s acting like a selfish child.”
“She’s my wife!”
“Not in this lifetime.”
She shook her head.
“And this is stupid.
You have to unite as brothers—that’s how you defeat him, isn’t it?
That’s what’s really important.
Am I the only one here worried about saving the world?”
Votan eyed her for several moments of silence.
Max also waited.
It seemed none of them was ready to speak next.
Finally, Votan extended his hand.