The Spirit Seducer

Chapter 13

Jaguar's smile turned feral. "I appreciate the gift," he purred, his long canines flashing. I couldn't breathe. Those had been in my throat, millimeters from my jugular.

Lust built in his tawny eyes as he lowered his gaze to my scabbed neck.

Layla grunted as the bear hit her. She ducked the snake, which slammed into Jaguar, sending him staggering back. His fingers eased from my throat a little, and I seized the opportunity.

I yanked at his arm holding the tablet, my hands wet with perspiration. My hand slid off.

"Help," I muttered to my spirits. They shot from my necklace, wrapping around Jaguar's face, momentarily blinding him. More shot out to surround Layla.

I wrapped my fingers around the thin clay of the tablet and yanked as hard as I could, hoping the spirits were distracting Jaguar enough to let me pry it free. As it slid from his grasp, I fumbled to grab the sweat-slicked clay. I missed.

No.

I struggled against Jaguar's hand and tried to drop into a crouch. His grip was too tight, and I cried out as his fingers dug deeper into my flesh. My windpipe compressed, I needed to breathe. Now.

"Catch it," Layla screamed.

She dove forward through my spirits, hands extended, but the tablet hit the pine floorboards mere inches from her fingers. It shattered into tiny pieces. For a moment, we were all too stunned to move.

Do not let the tablets touch the ground.

Shards from the most sacred pieces of our past spun across the floor. Tiny scraps were all that was left of my father's legacy... Without the tablet, the probability of ever seeing my mom alive again plummeted to near zero.

Jaguar slammed me back against the wall, growling. His rage built, and the certainty of my death filled his head, scalding across my consciousness.

Layla rolled off the floor with a sob. The snake slithered in, coiling around her. In a moment, it would rear back its huge head and strike.

We were as good as dead anyway. We'd broken the first and most important edict set down by Sotuk at the dawn of the First World.

Jaguar leaned in, a deep growl sliding from his throat against my lips.

Fear overrode my rational side and the energy I'd built in my head exploded in one huge burst. My ears popped and my eyes strained against their sockets.

Jaguar froze. His hand was still around my throat, squeezing off my air supply, but he wasn't moving.

The rest of the house shook and the walls started to crumble. The warriors' bodies stayed stiff, unmoving, as bits of adobe and beam fell on them. A large roof support timber hit me in the shoulder, sending pain lancing down my arm. I struggled but couldn't pull out of Jaguar's grip.

Blood dripped from the gash on my shoulder as Layla staggered to my other side, a large butcher knife in her hand.

"I wish I had time for more carving," she said.

She raised the knife and cut off Jaguar's hand. He didn't move. Not even so much as a flinch. I stumbled back, yanking at his bloodied hand. Layla helped and we managed to wrench his fingers from my neck.

"That's so gross," I gagged.

"You're still alive, and so, unfortunately, is he."

"Do you want to kill him?"

Every hair on my entire body stood on end when I saw the look on Layla's face. She reared back and punched Jaguar as hard as she could in his crotch. Shaking her hand, she said, her voice conversational, "I don't have Zeke's enchanted weapons, but he told me it's all about the aim."