The inmate’s smile turned into a reptilian leer. “Careful you don’t get in my way.” He sliced his shovel down, just missing the toe of Gabriel’s running shoe. “We both know what happened to Lawson.”
Gabriel snorted, pretending unconcern. “I’m not to your taste.”
Means gave a quick shake of his head, and a tic pulsed beside his eye. “I can make exceptions.”
Repulsed by his weird, quirky jerks and the memory of Lawson’s demise, Gabriel murmured, “Sounds like fair warning. But maybe I don’t want it. Maybe I just want to see what you’re going to do with it.”
“You’re here. Now. It’s no coincidence. If you’re not from the shadows, we’re not fighting on the same side.”
“Maybe I’ve just lost my way and want to go back.”
The Wizard eyed him warily then slowly nodded. “I might be able to help you there.”
“How?”
Means snorted. “Think I’m going to give it away? You’ll have to earn it. And I have to be sure which way you bend. Maybe I’ll need a sacrifice. Something to prove you’re with me.”
“I don’t eat flesh,” Gabriel said, not bothering to hide his disdain.
“Then how are you feeding?”
“Priest. She’s my host.”
“Ahhh…and there I was hoping I’d be the first to take a bite.”
Gabriel glared. “She’s mine.”
“If you want to keep her that way, you know you’ll have to give me something else.”
Gabriel’s shovel bit the dirt again before he said softly, “Another ‘escape’, and they’ll lock us down so tight we won’t be able to get back out here. You want something from this mound. I don’t think you’re willing to blow the chance.”
Means’s upper lip lifted from his teeth. “Blood, then. Not a death. Make it happen. Make it…impressive. I could use another show of strength to bind the men to us.”
Gabriel nodded. “Blood, then. Tonight.” He glanced around at the men scurrying around the site, officers on horses with loaded shotguns, a white-haired archeologist directing the diggers, all prisoners, now that the heavy equipment had been pulled back. Beside the elderly man stood a woman, her dark, striking features marking her as the tribal rep to make sure the ancestors’ remains were treated with respect.
Most of the prisoners worked with shovels and short whisk brooms, clearing one site that appeared to be a garbage pile of splintered bone and crockery. Gabriel and Means dug in another spot below the crest of the hill, closer to the river.
He’d kept his eyes open for artifacts that looked out of place. So far, nothing had been recovered that didn’t fit the primitive culture. Perhaps this was a wild goose chase, and maybe the horde leaders who ruled the shadows had jumped to similarly wrong conclusions after the Spanish-Aztec sword hilt had been found. Maybe the artifact had been a localized phenomenon, specific to Montezuma’s city.
He stuck his shovel into the dirt, gave it a shove with his heel, and stopped at a metallic thud.
The Wizard straightened and turned slowly. His gaze went around them to see if anyone else had heard, and then he bent casually, picking up a rock from the bottom of the pit and tossing it out. “Quickly, before anyone else notices,” he whispered.
Gabriel pulled his shovel free. The Wizard dug with his bare fingers in the loosened dirt. Something glinted as he cleared it.
Before Gabriel could get a close look at it, the wizard stuffed it inside the waist of his coverall, under the elastic of his briefs, and stood. He shot Gabriel a warning glance then crawled out of the pit, heading toward the port-o-potty that had been dropped beside the work site.
Gabriel cursed, knowing there wasn’t a thing he could do for now. If he alerted the staff to the find, it would be whisked out of reach. And he needed to know what it was first and how the demon planned to use it.
He struck his shovel in the soil again. Damn, it was going to be a long day.
* * *
Gillian woke when a heavy hand smoothed over her bottom and squeezed. Not an unpleasant way to start her day.
She rolled to her side and placed her hand atop Billy’s, and then slowly blinked her eyes open. His gaze was sliding down her body, as though reacquainting himself with all the interesting parts. She knew because he paused over her nipples before sliding to her mound. Lifting her thigh, she hooked it over his hip, a clear invitation for him to touch what he’d ogled.
His hand slid from under hers, and fingers prodded her sex. “Always wake up wet?”