His Darkest Salvation (Jaguar Warriors 3)

dark surface, invading every nook and cranny and spreading the energy of Nanauatl over the sacred etchings.

The etchings of eagle knights.

Jaden balanced on the balls of her feet, not really believing what she was seeing, and she’d seen some weird-ass shit in the last few months.

But the shifting shadows and light began to hum, to vibrate, and she opened her mouth in astonishment as the eagle knights that had been encased in rock began to move and take form.

“Motherfu . . .” she whispered, ignoring the soft laughter that fell from the sun god’s lips as he interrupted her train of thought.

“There is no way one jaguar warrior can stand against my eagle knights.”

“But I thought . . .”

Nanauatl interrupted her once more, and she glared at him as he returned her look with a ghostly smile of his own. “In the human realm, my warriors are at full strength when the kiss of the sun touches their flesh.” His eyes glowed a feral red. “But these knights are unlike any you will ever meet.”

The heat of his words flickered across her skin like a physical blow. Which she supposed it was; he was, after all, literally breathing fire.

Jaden squared her shoulders, and though she hoped she appeared fierce, she had her doubts that even she was that good of an actress. In front of her, standing in a loosely connected semicircle, were seven full-fledged eagle knights.

They were tall, even the lone woman included in the bunch, and on a good day, with her fancy Jimmy Choos for added height, Jaden might come up to their chins.

Panic nipped at her gut, and she ignored the nausea that was having one hell of a party deep within. She needed to think, or quite simply, she’d most likely not see another sunrise.

“Well, shit, this hardly seems fair does it?”

Nanauatl arched an eyebrow, the tilt of his chin and line of his jaw aristocratic and condescending.

“You don’t care that the human realm is about to go the way of Armageddon?” she continued as she moved to the right. “Does their fate not matter?”

“I only care about guarding that which is mine.” His tone was cold, dead.

She reached down quickly, grabbed a large rock that lay at her feet, and whipped it at the female knight. The stone landed with a thud against the far wall. It had passed through her body, and Jaden glared at the bitch as the eagle knight laughed, the sound cutting through air like shattered glass.

The eagle knights were not wholly corporeal, the same as Nanauatl, and she studied them closely, looking for some sort of weakness.

But how could you fight something that had no essence? Nothing to inflict pain upon? No freaking head to cut off?

Her jaw ached from tension, and she struggled to relax. She knew they had no such problem. They would kick her butt around like a sorry-ass soccer ball.

Nanauatl’s mouth turned up into a smile. He wasn’t fooled by her bravado. Christ, her fear hung in the air like bad perfume.

Most of the knights stared at her in silence, their faces devoid of emotion other than the glimmer of light that shone from their eyes. But a few, including the woman, smiled at her wickedly.

It was a smile of anticipation.

Jaden clutched the charmed dagger at her side.

This was like a bad scene from Star Wars. Where the hell was her Obi Wan Kenobi? She was fighting the freaking Phantom Menace.

“Don’t you care?” she tried once more. “About what is seeping into the human realm? About stopping the evil before it has a chance to take root and grow?”

Nanauatl leveled his gaze upon her, and Jaden felt the full force of his power. She winced, her eyes protesting, as the light that shone from within him nearly blinded her.

“I will feed upon the flesh of the jaguar.” He looked to his knights and smiled. “That is all.”

They moved forward, and, instinctively, Jaden stepped back, her heart lurching as the back of her legs connected with another low-slung stone bench. She had nowhere and no room in which to run.

Her eyes methodically searched once more, but she knew it was no use. She blew out a breath and cracked her neck as she rotated her head and rolled her shoulders.