Chapter Ten #3
“So, not the guy in the black cloak who checks his scythe through baggage when he flies to and from his next victim?”
She grinned. “No, not him.”
Transformation, huh? Like a physical change or mental?
“What are the character traits that come with kimi by my side?”
“My mom had the same spirit companion, and if memory serves me, those with kimi tend to be lucky.”
“Good. I need all the luck I can get to keep from getting chewed up by this place.”
“They’re also caring and kind. Typically happy people.”
He smiled extra wide, showing her his profile in a statuesque pose.
“What do you think? Do I make a presentable calendar model for hanging with the Death dude? Maybe we could have our picture taken running hand-in-hand through a field of poppies. He can keep the scythe. I only need one of his hands.”
She chuckled and reached up, turning his chin back to her. “Patience is in the mix, too, smartass. Along with determination and strength.”
That tracked, since patience was what he worked on every damned day in this godforsaken jungle. And he was determined to stay and help until the end, whenever that might be.
“Strength? Aw shucks, now you’re just flirting with me, boss lady. Want me to flex my muscles for you?”
“Always, Tarzan,” she said, running her hand over his biceps. “There were two more traits that Mom always credited to her spirit companion—keeping calm in a storm and dealing with whatever was thrown at her.”
“Damn, I sound downright gifted.” He raised an eyebrow. “Turns out having good ol’ Death hanging out with me isn’t so bad after all.”
Yet another bonus for being a good demon.
“Mom always claimed she was good at her job because of her spirit companion. Kimi favors those who dig the past.”
He grinned at her wit. “Like archaeologists.”
“And other types of historians.”
Quint wouldn’t exactly call himself a historian, but he did enjoy learning about history. He tried to mix it into his writing whenever he could.
Her brow pinched. “But why would Daisy have called you kimi? How would she know your nahual?”
“Maybe she’s into astrology—the Maya kind.”
“She’d have to know your date of birth, including the year. Did you ever tell her that?”
He shook his head. Not that he could remember.
“Let’s think outside the box,” he said. “If Daisy has channeled your mom, and your mom shares kimi as a spirit companion with me, maybe your mom felt that connection at the last dig when she appeared to me, and then she planted that kimi seed in Daisy’s memory.”
Both of Angélica’s brows lifted. “That’s a pretty big reach. It assumes that not only are Maya spirit animals real, but that my mom’s ghost can file information in Daisy’s subconscious for later use.”
“Considering what happened at the last dig, I’m keeping my mind open to all possibilities.” He shrugged. “Maybe your mom’s companion spirit and mine are pals.” He smiled down at her. “If she were still around, we could’ve had killer jackets made with a badass skeleton riding a unicorn on the back.”
She guffawed. “Why a unicorn?”
“Unicorns are lucky, same as those of us with kimi as a spirit companion. Don’t be jealous you only have a dog.”
“Hey.” She grabbed him by the shirt front, tugging him closer. “My dog would eat your skeleton’s bones for a snack.”
“Those sound like fightin’ words, little lady.”
He ran his finger along her jawline and then lifted her chin, turning her face to one side and the other.
Her nose and forehead were lightly coated with dust. A streak of sweat-soaked dirt trailed from her temple down her cheek.
A small scratch marred her chin. She’d been playing hard in the jungle today, trying to make temples out of the molehills covered in thorny bushes and sharp-edged palm fronds.
“Be careful,” she whispered. “I’m pretty scrappy.”
He chuckled. “You’re pretty dirty, too.”
She gave him a crooked smile. “I told you we had an incident.”
“I meant you’re pretty and you’re dirty.”
Her smile evened out. “You like me dirty, heartbreaker.”
He leaned closer, caught up in her flirty gaze. If he were able to look into her beautiful green eyes first thing every morning for the rest of his life, he’d be the luckiest son of a bitch with whom kimi had ever hobnobbed.
“No, I love you dirty, sweetheart.”
“And don’t forget hot, too,” she said, scratching her nails down the front of his shirt.
He leaned down and kissed her. “I’m melting into fantasy land here,” he said when he pulled back. “But I’ll be honest, I’m not sure which is sexier right now—you naked as a jaybird in the shower, or just the thought of me standing under a spray of cold water without a bug in sight.”
“Me.” She went up on her toes and brushed her lips over his, leaving a trail of heat behind. “Naked.”
He wanted more of her teasing and he wanted it all over. Sweat trickled down his back. “Tell me, in this shower scene, are you holding an ice-cold drink in your hand?”
Her laugh was breathy. “Of course. Don’t I always bring cold drinks to our shower parties?”
“No, but that should be a mandatory rule from now on. We’ll clear the shampoo shelf to make room for drinks.”
“I like the way you think, Tarzan, especially when our loincloths are laying on the bathroom floor.” She wiggled her eyebrows at him. “A woman is only as old as the man she feels.”
He blinked and then laughed. “Did you just hit on me with a Groucho Marx line?”
“A slightly boggled one. Mom used to say that to Dad when they were joking around. It always made me giggle.”
The more Quint learned about Marianne, the more he understood the shadows behind Juan’s eyes when he talked about her. Although lately, Daisy had added a hop to his giddy-up.
“Now where were we?” Angélica asked, taking a step back from him.
They were in the jungle sweating their asses off while the bugs fed on them, he thought, but he swallowed his cranky reply while picking a leaf from her hair. “You were about to tell me what happened on the other side of the wall that ended with you looking like you’d been flea-dipped in dirt.”
“Dr. Fernel tripped while staring down at his tablet as he walked.”
“Tripped over what? A tree root?”
“Esteban’s feet.”
Quint grinned. Usually Esteban was the one who tripped over those. “Where do you fit into this slapstick routine?”
“I was bending down, brushing the dirt off a stone I thought might be part of a stela—but wasn’t.
Dr. Fernel fell into me, slamming into me broadside, and sent us tumbling down a small hill ass over teakettle.
We landed tangled in the brush, which was mostly yucca plants and palm fronds, but there were some thorns mixed in.
” She pointed at the scratch on her chin.
“Thankfully, nothing broke. Not even Dr. Fernel’s tablet, which is good because the bumbler was far more concerned with his technology than either of our bones. ”
Quint scowled slightly about Fernel’s obtuseness. “Well, I for one am glad your bones appear fine and dandy, but you should probably get naked later in our tent and let me do a thorough hands-on inspection to be sure.”
She giggled. “You’re such a smooth operator, Parker.”
“Are my seduction attempts working?”
“Oh, absolutely. I’m all aquiver on the inside.”
“Have I told you it’s very sexy when you say things like ‘all aquiver’ and ‘you’re right, Parker’?”
She laughed again. The sparkle in her eyes warmed away his worries about her hiding the truth behind this trip from him.
Maybe he should tell her that he knew why they’d ended up here instead of on vacation together.
Let her off the hook. Make sure she understood that he wanted to be wherever she was, even in a humid, vermin-infested jungle.
Maybe they could take a walk later tonight after supper, just the two of them, and hash it all out.
For now, he bit his tongue. “Fernel needs to be more careful. He’s too obsessed with his LIDAR map.”
Her smile faded. “I can’t say I’m much different on the obsession level when it comes to this place.”
“But yours is only because you’re awfully hard-headed.”
She playfully whacked him on the shoulder.
“Fernel,” Quint continued, “is next-level mania.”
“I don’t know. I think he just wants to prove that his software works and his technology is useful.”
Quint shook his head. “It’s more than that. Last night when I was on my way to supper after my shower, which sadly involved no hot naked archaeologists or cold drinks, I overheard him talking to himself in his tent.”
Her gaze narrowed. “How did you overhear him above the cacophony of monkeys howling and insects chirping?”
“Okay, so maybe I paused while passing his tent.”
She crossed her arms.
“And then I possibly tiptoed closer and eavesdropped. But he was the one talking to himself, and I honestly thought you might be in there.”
That was the truth. Plus, Quint had wanted to ask if Fernel would send him some of the images for the site later on to use in his piece for INAH.
“So, you were eavesdropping on me?” She pointed at herself.
“Of course. You’re the star of my article.”
One of her eyebrows raised.
“And the center of my universe.”
“You’re laying it on too thick, Prince Charming.”
“The point is, I heard him talking to himself, and I confirmed he was alone when he stepped out to go to supper and zipped his tent closed behind him.”
“Did he see you?”
“What good am I at sneaking around if I’m that easy to catch?”
She shook her head. “Parker, you need to be careful. I don’t want you to get shot again.”
Shot? For eavesdropping? This wasn’t Bronko’s Colombian cartel headquarters.
“You think Fernel is dangerous?” he asked.
“No, but I think you are a bit of a trouble magnet.”
He winked. “That’s how I caught you, boss lady.”
“I caught you, Parker. Not the other way around.”
“You always have to be on top, don’t you?”
She winked back. “You like me on top.”
“God, I do.” He thumbed toward the sacbe. “You want to sneak back to the tent with me and I’ll show you how much.”
“Of course, but I have this silly dig site to run.”
“Just my luck. Where’s my kimi when I need him?”
“Probably off gallivanting on your unicorn.” She turned to stare at the wall, her forehead lining. “So, Dr. Fernel was alone talking to himself in his tent. That’s not really that odd, Parker. I do it all of the time.”
“I know, but it’s cute when you do it. Plus, you don’t tap your fingers together while peering evilly down at a map as you froth at the mouth in your malicious glee.”
She turned back to him, the furrows in her brow nice and deep. “Dr. Fernel was doing that?”
“No, but it makes him sound more sinister and adds some excitement to my tale.”
“Parker!” she growled.
He laughed. “Now you look like your spirit dog pal. We should give the dog a name, don’t you think? Ok-the-dog is not very catchy. I’m thinking about calling my Death buddy ‘Jones.’ It rhymes with bones.”
She sighed. “What was Dr. Fernel saying?”
“I thought you frowned on eavesdropping, boss lady.”
“Parker,” she growled again.
“It wasn’t what he was saying, rather what he was holding.”
She cringed slightly. “If this is going to take a perverted turn, I don’t want to hear it. I have to work with that guy.”
He laughed. “You have to work with me, too, and I’m often thinking perverted thoughts about you.”
“Yeah, but those are mutually shared fantasies.” She wiggled her eyebrows at him again.
“Really? What fantasies are you having about me? We should put our bodies together and compare notes.”
“The naked kind, Parker. What was Dr. Fernel holding?”
“It looked like a rolled-up piece of hide with a white stick poking out of the end.”
“White stick?”
“Sort of reminded me of a bone.”
“A bone? Did you see anything carved on it?” When he shook his head, she asked, “Why didn’t you tell me about this last night?”
“For one thing, it’s creepy and vaguely weapon-like, but not a gun or a knife.
And for another, María made panuchos with her special orange sauce.
I lost the ability to think coherently when I entered the mess tent and caught a whiff of what was for supper.
” He licked his lips, tasting a hint of dirt, which probably came from kissing his dusty girlfriend.
“You could’ve told me when we were back in our tent.”
“Your dad was there.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Plus, I think I fell asleep pretty quickly. I ate too much after a long, hard day. I couldn’t keep my eyes open.”
“That’s true. You were out within a minute or two of settling onto your cot. You didn’t even notice when I kissed you good night.”
He aimed a mock squint her way. “I sure hope you didn’t take liberties with me while I was innocently sleeping.”
“I only touched you where you like it best, but you were too busy dilly-dallying with the Sandman to do more than snore at me.”
“It’s the Sandwoman for me. She’s dusty like you, but not as curvy. More abrasive, too, but in a good way. You’d get along with her.”
She shook her head, that sparkly look in her gaze again. “Parker, what am I going to do with you?”
“Oh, I think you know, sweetheart.”
She took another step closer. “Do me a favor. Keep an eye on Dr. Fernel. If he found that bone here somewhere, he might go back to the location to dig some more, and he has to show me all artifacts found. It’s in his contract.”
“Can do. But what are you going to be doing?”
She looked toward the wall. “Running a dig site. Now, let’s go see if Daisy or Dad have found any more caches on the other side of the wall.”