He snorted. "Bullet or arrow ... really, would it make a difference to you if you had to have someone dig it out of your ass?"
The man had a point, but she wasn't about to concede it.
"You better lay off her, Sasha," the other blond said. "Or she's liable to shoot you on purpose."
As if in response to his words, an echoing gun blast sounded behind her.
Gasping, she jerked around, praying it wasn't Ren who'd been hit.
More gunshots sounded in rapid succession.
Kateri started for them, but Cabeza pulled her to a stop. "Don't. It's just pest control driving out the rodents."
"How do you mean?"
Another blast. This one a lot closer.
In spite of what Cabeza said, she nocked another arrow and prepared to send it between the eyes of whoever was shooting that gun.
The brush in front of her rustled.
She aimed for it.
Out of nowhere, Ren, still in crow form, flew at her bow, knocking her sight off.
"What are you doing?" she asked him.
"Friendly fire. Don't kill him." Those words had barely registered when the source of the noise entered their clearing. For a full minute, she couldn't move as she stared into the face of the last man she'd ever expected to meet.
Buffalo.
Tall, dark, and swathed in black from head to toe, he was identical to her visions except for his short hair, Stetson hat, snakeskin shit-kickers, and long black duster.
Flipping his Henry rifle over his shoulder, he inclined his head to the men with her. "Thank you, boys, for the assist. Mighty kind of y'all to scratch yourselves while we were fighting for your lives." And that thick Mississippi drawl had to be the most shocking thing of all.
Sasha held his hands up in surrender. "Hey, I was protecting the woman. She's the priority. Right?"
"I thought Cabeza was going with you to fight. I didn't know he'd pull back to the woman's position."
Cabeza glared at the guy in the ponytail. "Are you calling me a coward, Urian?"
Urian made a rude noise. "Do I look like Acheron? No, I don't. And for the record, I don't do vague. If I want to call you a coward, I will bock at you in no uncertain terms. Chicken shit."
Ren landed on the ground between her and Buffalo before he turned back into a fully clothed man.
While Ren shook his change off, Buffalo tipped his hat to her. "Nice meeting you, ma'am. Or rather, Doctor. I know a lot of you college intellectuals get a bit riled when you don't get called that."
She lowered her bow. "Call me Kateri."
Ren cast a strange glance at her that she didn't quite understand before he gestured to Buffalo. "Kateri, meet Sundown."
"Sundown?" she asked in her head.
Ren answered in kind by returning her thoughts. "He was reincarnated several times. His last incarnation was as a man named William Jessup Brady. Jess for short to most people. He, too, is Cherokee, and his mother named him Manee Ya Doy Ay." Which meant "sundown" in Cherokee. The quiet time between night and day when there's perfect balance between light and dark. Though that name certainly didn't fit with the exceptionally loud shotgun rounds he seemed to enjoy letting loose.
But who was she to judge?
Ren went on to the others. "You know Cabeza from your earlier attack. The blond with long hair and fangs is Urian, and the other is Sasha."
"Hi," she said, offering them a smile.
Moving to stand beside her, Ren folded his arms over his chest. "Just so you know, the reason Sasha lacks fangs as a human is that he's a lycanthrope."
Fascinating, and that knowledge made her realize something. The sun was shining....
She glanced up at the sun meaningfully. "Shouldn't you, Urian and Cabeza be bursting into flames or something?"
Cabeza looked up at the sky. "That's not the real sun."
Which brought up one interesting question. "Okay ... so where are we?"
He slid his gaze to Ren. "Xibalba." Could he have made that sound any more sanitizer?
Ren cursed as she gasped, then looked around the area with new sight. This was the Mayan hell?
Great. Leave it to her to get sucked into some prehistoric underworld. How many people could say that?
Sundown laughed at their reactions. "See now," he said to Kateri. "I had to have all that explained to me. I'm impressed you know the answer without asking. But then, that's why you got them letters after your name."
Ren ran his thumb down the side of his mouth. "They haven't really bothered us. Should I be concerned by that?"
"Well, there are nine levels here," Cabeza said. "This is level one. Mostly made up of phantoms and ghosts, and lower-class demons, it's not so bad. But there are twelve Lords of Xibalba. They're the ones we don't want to run into. Especially not Ixtab."
"Ixtab?" Sundown asked.
"A suicide goddess," Urian answered.
Cabeza looked impressed. "You know our pantheon?"
Urian glanced around their small group with a wry grin. "As the oldest one here ... yeah. I've been to a lot of places over the centuries, hunting food. Mayans were always one of my favorite menu choices."
"Why?" Sasha asked with a puzzled frown.