“Yeah. There was a raised shelf of rock to the right of the gap. A pretty good-sized area,” she added hopefully, turning into the current to get her bearings.
Holding Nate’s hand, she led him carefully across the shallow pool, stumbling where the slippery streambed gradually tilted upward to dry land. Blindly, she walked through the absolute darkness with one hand waving in front of her. She didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath until, after a few faltering steps, her knuckles rapped against the rough surface of the cave wall. She exhaled a deep sigh of relief.
Totally spent, Alex dropped to her knees, relieved and surprised to feel dry sand instead of rock. Nate collapsed beside her, and for a moment neither of them spoke. The only sounds were the rush of water and a faint
drip, drip, drip
echoing in the darkness.
“What now?” Alex asked, shivering against Nate. The air in this section of the cavern felt unnaturally warm. Once again she thought she detected the faint scent of pine, but her wet clothing and the aftermath of fear had left her chilled and exhausted, her thoughts scattered and confused.
“We rest, I think.” Nate’s voice was a quiet rumble against her ear. “I’m so tired I can’t think straight.” He shifted his long frame away from the wall and stretched out beside her in the sand.
Alex curled up next to him, ignoring the terror that pressed at her from all sides. At least with the flashlight they’d had a chance. She thought again about dying, but Nate wrapped his strong arms around her and pulled her into the curve of his body and the thought fled. It was impossible to be afraid, she realized, when she was wrapped in Nate’s arms. Giving in to exhaustion, she shut her eyes against the darkness, and with Nate filling her senses, she promptly fell asleep.
The dream was hazy at first, a montage of images drifting through her mind. Colors and sounds blended into harmonious patterns before giving way to identifiable objects.
Alex stood in a huge cavern, much like the grotto where she and Nate had made love. This was much larger, but the light had the same ethereal quality, the same strands shimmering from the ceiling and walls.
She faced a golden dais, a pair of thrones, actually, that seemed to have been carved from the earth. In the dream she knelt, lifting her hands overhead in a gesture of submission.
Two figures sat above her, a man and a woman of extraordinary beauty, dressed in fine robes encrusted with gold and precious jewels. As Alex knelt before them, their story filled her mind and she accepted, gladly, as all her questions were answered.
Nate waited for Alex to break down, to admit the terror and despair she must be feeling. Instead, she snuggled against him, curled into a tight little ball beneath his chin and wrapped her arms around his body as if the two of them were sleeping comfortably in bed.
He wondered where she found her strength. At some point during the last hours, he knew she had come to trust him. The depth of that trust frightened him as much as their desperate situation. He had no idea how to help her. All the optimism in the world wouldn’t get them out of this damned hole in the ground.
He felt her shivering subside. As her body settled into the rhythms of sleep, her breath tickled his cheek with even puffs. Exhaustion wrapped itself around him. He wondered if there was any place on his body that didn’t hurt.
They had reached their limits. At least he had. Alex continued to amaze him. He loved the way she acted so tough, but he’d seen her vulnerability, and he’d watched how she dealt so powerfully with her fear. Childlike in some ways, but one tough lady where it counted.
Whoever had called women the weaker sex had to have been a blooming idiot.
He let his mind wander a little, back to the moment when he thought he might drown. Some
thing
or some
one
had helped them. He was sure of that, as sure as he could be of anything while lying here in the darkness.
Whoever you are, please don’t desert us now.
He didn’t expect an answer to his plea, but he hoped someone was listening. He wondered if they were ever going to get out of the caverns, wondered whether anyone had come to look for them.
Anyone other than an unseen spirit.
Since neither he nor Alex wore a watch, he had absolutely no idea how long they had been in the cave. It had to be at least a couple of days, but he couldn’t be certain. In many ways, it had been a lifetime, so much had changed. He kissed Alex lightly on the temple and felt the sting of tears in his eyes.
Dying wasn’t something he’d thought of before, but suddenly it scared him. He didn’t want to think of losing her, of losing his life now that Alex was in it. She was courageous and funny, and tender and tough and so sexy she made his teeth itch.
She was intoxicating.
A visual slipped into his mind, a beautiful memory of Alex, faintly illuminated in the shallow waters of the grotto, hair dark as night flowing over her slender frame. The exquisite image brought on an immediate and very physical reaction. He clenched his jaw painfully as the familiar ache in his groin reminded him again how very much he had to lose.
Alex mumbled something unintelligible in her sleep. Nate placed his palm against her cheek to calm her dreams and kissed her lightly on the temple. He squeezed his eyes shut, holding the tears inside. The frustration of their situation was making him crazy. He loved her and he didn’t know what to do. There was no light in this place, and it hurt to think he might die without ever seeing her face again.
Chapter 12
Alex stirred restlessly in sleep, pressing her hips into the hollow of Nate’s belly and pulling his arms more tightly around her chest. Her unconscious motions brought him fully awake and he nuzzled his lips against her hair, enjoying the feel of her body fitted so perfectly to his.
The darkness in the cavern was absolute, the silence punctuated by the ceaseless murmur of the stream flowing over polished stone and an echoing plink as water dripped from ceiling to floor.
He lay there, silently counting the drips, wondering how many eons it would take before the mineral-laden water joined stalactite and stalagmite to form an unbroken column of flowing stone. And if he and Alex died here, would anyone ever find their bodies in this hidden cavern? Or would the two of them eventually become like the graceful mineral formations, a part of the earth?
A sense of despair wound itself tightly through his gut then settled in a dull ache that even Alex’s touch couldn’t cure. He’d never once thought it would come to this, that he and Alex would be permanently entombed, but the destruction of the flashlight had definitely weighed the odds of survival against them.
When she woke up, they would have to talk about going on in the dark. They had to try to find a way out, no matter how hopeless it appeared. He wasn’t a quitter, but he had to admit the chances of them actually finding a way out of here were practically nonexistent. It had been dangerous enough with the flashlight; he hated to think of wandering through these caves in total darkness.
Poor Alex. Nate smiled grimly to himself. She had such a phobia about the dark. Only Alex would think to keep her eyes shut after the flashlight broke, explaining to Nate, “I know it’s dark, but if my eyes are shut, it’s my dark.” It made him realize how fragile she was at this point and how afraid she was of losing what little control she had left.
They had to do something. But what? There weren’t any simple answers, and his thoughts seemed to travel in circles as convoluted as the twisted passageways within the mountain.
Wandering blindly through unmapped caverns and tunnels was probably not the smartest thing to do, but any action had to be better than waiting here for a slow death.
Miracles did happen, but Nate figured they happened best when helped along. There had to be a way. The air definitely smelled fresher here, and the familiar scent of pine and cedar periodically teased his nostrils. It would be such horrible irony to starve to death near an exit because they were too afraid to take a chance.
But what if the scent of pine was only an illusion, or worse yet, was drifting through a crack in the rocks too narrow for escape? It was obvious from the maze of tunnels they’d encountered that the entire plateau was honeycombed. Openings to the outside might be nothing more than narrow vents or fissures in the rock.
He had to admit, he’d had his share of miracles lately. Finding Alex, loving her, knowing she loved him in return. That qualified, didn’t it? Nate wondered if he’d used up his allotment, or if he had any right to hope for more.
“Are you awake?” Alex whispered, drawing him away from his grim thoughts.
“Yeah, I’m awake. Are you feeling any better?” he asked, turning her in his arms and tucking her against his side. He felt her hands slide across his chest, and he pressed his face against the gentle touch of her fingers as they traveled along his bristly cheek. Even now, when death was uppermost in his mind, her caress was an electric current that charged through his body.
“I had the oddest dream,” she said. Her lips moved against the sensitive skin beneath his jaw.
“Tell me about it. You dreamed about me, right?” he teased.
Her soft laughter lightened his mood. A little.
“It was all about the spirits in the cavern,” she said. “They talked to me in the dream. Really talked! I think they’re real, Nate.”
She sounded so filled with awe, so certain, Nate felt a chill run along his spine. He waited, sensing Alex’s need to organize her thoughts.
Her voice, when she began to speak, took on a deeper timbre, and the words reminded Nate of an ancient chant. Once again he sensed a presence in the cavern, something filling the darkness around them. Sensed it, and yet concentrated on Alex, ignoring the sense of
other
, even as she caught him in a web that couldn’t possibly be entirely of her own making.
“Long before recorded history, the Mayan people decided to leave the cold lands in the north and travel south to the burning hills. They took their gods and goddesses, including Ixchel, goddess of the moon and fertility; Itzamna, her husband, the one who gave the Mayans their culture; Chac, the god of storms; and Zipacna, creator of mountains.
“They stopped here for a while, resting in a grotto deep within the mountain, a magical place much larger than the small grotto we found.
“While the people and their gods stayed here, beneath the surface of the unfamiliar land above, they were guests of Zipacna, as this was his mountain. Ixchel had thirteen sons, but her favorite child was her youngest and only daughter. The girl and Chac’s son were children who grew to young adulthood on the long journey south. They fell in love during the time they spent in the grotto, and went to their parents to ask permission to marry.
“Such permission was not given lightly among gods, but Ixchel and Itzamna agreed with Chac that the marriage would be a good one, and gave their blessing.
“They did not count on the anger of Zipacna, a god of great sexual appetites who lusted after the young girl and wanted the daughter of Ixchel for himself. The young lovers, fearing for their lives and even more in fear of separation, fled deeper into the mountain, so far from all the known caverns that even Zipacna could not find them.
“In anger, Zipacna cursed his mountain and cursed the daughter of Ixchel and the son of Chac. He carved his curse into the stone face of the mountain. Once the carvings were in place, the young lovers would be trapped here forever, their names forgotten by their people, their tragic story not even recalled in legend.
“Zipacna was all powerful here, and he made everyone else leave, the people and the gods. Ixchel was able to hide only a few bowls of food for her daughter and new son-in-law before Zipacna completed his curse. Only Ixchel’s sons are remembered in legend. Her daughter was forgotten, as was the son of Chac. But the curse became a blessing for the young lovers. To live forever with their one true love.”
Alex took a deep breath, and Nate felt her lips against the line of his jaw. “Those pots the drug smugglers took? They were the bowls Ixchel left for her daughter. The daughter of Ixchel says she wants them back, because they are all she has left of her mother.”
She kissed him again, deeper this time. In a very clear voice that was all Alex, she said, “Nate, it wasn’t a dream.”
He felt her fingers caress his cheek, heard the soft whisper as Alex said with a sense of wonder in her voice, “I think she really talked to me.”
“Do you remember anything else? Did she tell you her name?” He stroked her hair back from her face. It would be so easy to deny everything Alex had said. It was too outlandish, too impossible. But there was no denying the fact that something inhabited these tunnels and caverns. The sense of an otherworldly presence was strong.
“Yeah. It was almost funny, really. The son of Chac spoke up and said that Zipacna had actually given them what they wanted, immortality together. They have no desire to leave this place. They just want to be left alone.” Alex shook her head. “She didn’t tell me her name and neither did he. They want to remain forgotten.”
“Are they angry with us?” Nate asked, choosing to accept all of Alex’s story without reservation. What was the point of arguing about whether it was true or not? Besides, it helped explain the unexplainable.
He knew that hadn’t been him alone breaking free of the crevice, and Alex was one tough lady, but she wasn’t that strong.
“I don’t think so. In fact, they acted as if we weren’t going to be here much longer. I don’t know if that meant we were gonna get out okay or just die here. I didn’t have the feeling I could ask questions. It was kind of a one-sided conversation.” She sighed, and Nate kissed her temple.
“Dreams are like that,” he said, letting his mind wander between the possibility of help from the cave gods or death in the darkness with Alex. Smiling, with his lips pressed to Alex’s temple, he added, “So, I imagine, are conversations with gods and goddesses.”
“What about your project? Assuming we get out, what do you intend to say? Will you tell the world about them?”
He thought about that, about how important it had been to him to prove his theories, to publish his discoveries. And then he realized how very much his priorities had changed.
“I will probably publish something about the petroglyphs, but the rest of the story?” He shook his head. “Even if I could prove their existence—which I highly doubt—it would be wrong to tell anyone about them. They deserve their privacy, their chance to love one another for eternity without risk of discovery.”
“Good.”
That single word made him smile. Something they actually agreed on. He thought of teasing her about it but realized this wasn’t the time or place. Not now, when they faced so many obstacles. Publishing anything might not be an option at all for him. Not ever again.
Alex was quiet for a long time. He felt her sigh, heard the soft exhalation.
“Nate?”
“Hmmm?”
“Do you have any regrets?”
So many, he thought. So damned many. “Only that I didn’t meet you sooner. I love you so much. It’s as if I wasted all that time before I knew you.”
Alex leaned over and kissed him gently on the corner of his mouth. Her tears were hot against his cheek.
“I feel the same way. Like my life is just getting started, and now all of a sudden I don’t get a chance to finish anything.” She snuggled back against his chest.
The silence stretched between them for a few moments before Alex spoke again, her voice small and trembling. “I’m sorry my father didn’t love me.”
“Oh, hon, how can you say that? Fathers always love their daughters. I think it’s in the rules somewhere. They sign a contract or something.” Nate kept his voice light and playful, but inside his anger with her father seethed.
“He never said he loved me. He ignored me when I was little, and stole my work when I was grown.” Her voice quavered, and Nate’s heart ached with her grief. He heard the catch in her breathing, the quiet sniff that told him she was trying to control her emotions and failing miserably.
The silence stretched into long minutes, broken only by their breathing and the cave sounds of water swirling and dripping in the darkness.
“How long do you think it’ll take?”
Nate didn’t need to ask what she meant. The same question was soundly lodged in his own mind.
“God, I don’t know,” he whispered, awash in helplessness and guilt, overcome by despair.
Dear God,
he silently prayed.
It isn’t fair, not to her. She’s not even supposed to be on this project.
He pulled her close, offering what comfort he could with his embrace. If only he could take her out of the darkness. Their bodies met, and Nate was aware of another response, a need for Alex that burned as intensely as his desire to save her. A need to affirm life? As clichéd as it sounded, he didn’t know. And, at this point, didn’t care.
“I love you, Alex,” he groaned, turning to her, covering her body with his. “I love you, and God willing, we will get out of here.”
She whispered against his lips. “I believe you, Nate.” He tasted her words, felt them against his mouth as he stroked her lips with the tip of his tongue. Stroked, and then entered. Tasting her. Connecting on so many levels.
Her body was warm. Warm and so alive. Nate’s hands found the buttons at the top of her flannel shirt, his fingers trembling with need for Alex. For the life she represented, the purpose that would drive him to get her out of this place. Her hands covered his, helping him with each button, then reaching for his shirt.
He pushed the damp flannel away from her shoulders and slipped his fingers beneath her T-shirt. The fabric was soft and still damp, but warm from her body heat. It slid upward along her smooth torso like finest silk.
She touched him beneath his shirt, fingers fluttering along his ribs, bunching the wet fabric up under his arms. He pulled away, just long enough to strip his shirt off and help Alex as she struggled out of hers.
Before, when they made love in the grotto, there had been an enchanted light bathing the lines and angles of her body. Here, the darkness was complete. Like a blind man, Nate learned her shape by touch. The soft curve of her breast, then the line of her ribs that led his fingers to the deep concave of her belly.
His progress was halted for a moment by the rough edge of her denim jeans. Nate sat up and turned to pull Alex’s wet boots off her feet before peeling her damp jeans along her legs. He bent to trail hot kisses along her flank.
She reached for him when he pulled away to remove his own clothing. Her fingertips fluttered against his chest, searching for him in the darkness. He expected to see the sparks he felt from her touch, so powerful was the sensation of electric shock at each fleeting contact.
He was actually disappointed they weren’t visible.
After unlacing his hiking boots, dragging them off so he could shove his jeans down his legs and get out of the wet clothing—and closer to Alex—Nate carefully drew her into his arms. Holding her close, he stretched out beside her in the sand, trapped both her hands in one of his, and held them over her head to still their frantic motion.
Slowly, carefully, he rubbed his bristly cheek against the top of her head, and then bent to kiss her temple, the bridge of her nose, both of her eyes.
He smiled against her eyelids when he realized they were tightly closed. Alex still controlled the darkness.
Their movements had scooped out a sandy nest, and Nate brushed the coarse grains away from Alex’s breasts, then pulled one beaded nipple into his mouth. She moaned as he suckled, and her hands slipped free of his light entrapment to grab his shoulders and pull him even tighter against her.