Free MayanCraving by A.S. Fenichel Page A

a swig of water.
    “It’s okay,” Robyn said softly. “Who’s he?” she asked.
    “He’s a friend of mine. Asher Dove.”
    “Strange name.”
    Asher said, “it’s nice to finally meet you, Robyn. Nancy has
told me all about you.”
    “How did you know?” Robyn ignored Asher and asked.
    “That you were alive?” Nancy shrugged her one good shoulder.
“I just always knew. I’ve been trying to find you since the beginning.”
    Tears began to roll down Robyn’s face, making tracks in the
dirt on her cheeks. Nancy wiped them away and hugged her sister tightly. “I’m
sorry it took me so long. Everything will be better now.”
    “He’ll come for us,” Robyn said.
    “I know. We’ll be ready for him.”
    “You can’t beat him. He’s too powerful,” Robyn said through
her tears.
    Nancy looked up, catching Asher’s eye in the rear view
mirror when he gazed up to look at them. “We beat him before, we can do it
again,” she said.
    “Damn right we can.” Asher smiled in that crooked way of
his.
    * * * * *
    Dawn had broken by the time Asher finally pulled the school
bus to a stop. He drove off the main road and around a group of hills.
“Hopefully we’ll have a few hours before they come looking for us. I’m going to
go try to obscure the tracks left by the bus. You get some rest. Try to keep
everyone on the bus.”
    Asher returned a half an hour later. All seven girls were
asleep on the bus. Nancy sat on the rocks, surveying the horizon to the south.
Nothing moved, but she knew it wouldn’t be long.
    “Did you get any rest?” he asked.
    “I dozed for a while, but I started to worry and came out
here to keep watch.”
    “How are they doing?” He gestured toward the bus.
    She shrugged. “I guess they’re okay. Two of them can’t be
more than twelve or thirteen, and God only knows what they’ve been through. I
only touched that thing for a minute and it was…”
    “What?” He took his place next to her and pulled her close.
    “I can’t describe it, Ash.”
    “It made you come.” She heard a trace of anger in his voice.
    “ He made me come. Mictlan is somehow inside that
thing, drawing power. He needs the women. I don’t know exactly. He takes and
takes and the sensation is so intense, they must become addicted to it. I don’t
know how else to explain it. I couldn’t make myself let go. Once I touched it,
I only wanted more. It enslaved me in a way that terrified me. I feel as soiled
as if he’d really touched me.”
    She looked up, expecting to see resentment or disgust in his
eyes, but she saw compassion and love. He would die for her. She knew that.
Even before they had become lovers, she knew she could always count on Asher.
This new realization, that she loved him and he might love her, moved her in a
way she’d never expected.
    Leaning forward, she pressed her lips to his. “I’m sorry,
Ash,” she said against his lips.
    “For what?”
    “All this time, I didn’t know or I refused to see what you
were feeling.”
    “It’s okay, Nance. We’re okay now.” He hugged her tighter
and kissed the top of her head.
    “How long?” She wanted to know.
    He didn’t say anything, and just when she thought he
wouldn’t answer, he said, “I’ve been in love with you since the day we met.”
    She pushed away and stared at his face, looking for some
sign of deception. “Why didn’t you ever say something?”
    “And dash your dreams of Ian? I don’t think so. I figured
either you’d get over him or not, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do
about it.” He said it casually, but his tone held grit.
    “What if I’d never gotten over it?”
    He pulled her around on his lap so that she faced him with
her legs wrapped around his back. The sun had nearly crested the horizon and
the sand stretched flat, endless, and empty. He took the gun out of her hand
and placed it carefully on the rock next to them.
    “I would still have you in my life, Nancy. You would still
be my