Free Shadow Visions: Shadow Warriors, Book 2 by Gabriella Hewitt Page A

wickedly, his eyes glowing. “You are the ancestor of the wind god.”
    “No. Sorry, but I’m not.” She paused. “Abuelo would have told me.” Or had he tried and she simply hadn’t listened?
    Her eyes came to rest on a picture of herself. She stood, beaming with pride next to the captain, holding an award for protecting the streets of San Diego. In the background her abuelo remained off to the side.
    She wanted to cry. Never before had she felt so ashamed. All her life she had shunned who she was, angry at the gods for letting her family die. She’d been so determined to grow up and finish what her father had started. Putting Galante in jail had given her purpose. Her abuelo had tried to remind her that she was more and should embrace her heritage. Instead, she had pushed aside the past and continuously chased the future—one that she now realized would leave her without her abuelo or a place to belong.
    She felt Manuel’s hand on her shoulder. “It is imperative we find your abuelo.”

Chapter Six
    Ixa stood, forcing Manuel’s hand off her shoulder and back onto his lap. She moved a few feet away, her body rigid and her hands fisted at her sides, as if she were trying to hold herself together. His heart gave a curious wrench at the sight. She appeared forlorn and fragile. Words Manuel would never associate with the woman who had blown into his existence only that morning.
    His eagle cried out, wanting the freedom of the open skies. Manuel pushed his animal spirit down. For so long, he had flown over humans in pursuit of the next demon, uncaring of their emotions. Ixa had changed all that. In a short span of time, she had become his everything, the primary reason to push on and believe that he could regain his humanity. Seeing her this way brought up every protective feeling he ever had.
    He rose to his feet and approached her carefully. A light wind flowed around the room, causing the curtains to sway slightly. So much power in that small body, and she was afraid of it. He could help her learn to control it if she would let him.
    “Ixa, if I am correct and you and your abuelo are direct descendants of Ehecatl, then there is much more at stake than any of us conceived.”
    She turned toward him. Her lower lip trembled. “I don’t know where my abuelo is or how he is doing. What if Galante finds him before I do? He’s all I have. I don’t want to lose him.” Tears spilled from her eyes like raindrops.
    He reached out and gathered her to him, relishing the way her body molded perfectly to his. Her silky hair brushed his chin. He wanted badly to unbraid that luxurious mane and bury his fingers in it, but he contented himself with keeping his hands clasped behind her back and simply holding her.
    “Your abuelo left you a message so that you would not worry. Everything will be all right.”
    “How do you know that? My father said the same thing the night he died. But it wasn’t all right. My father was a strong man, a cop who wanted to make the world better, but thugs like Galante don’t care. They hurt people just because they can. He broke into my house when I was a child. I watched him shoot my father and burn my mother and sister. I can still hear their screams.” Ixa took in a ragged breath and pressed her cheek against his chest.
    “We will find your abuelo. Galante is not going to win this time. But I need you to listen to me. You will not be the only one to suffer if we don’t stop Galante.” When he was certain he had her attention, he explained. “Every shadow warrior is born with an animal spirit. Mine is the eagle you have seen. With each demon kill, pieces of our humanity slip away. Eventually, our humanity is all gone and we are forever condemned to remain in our animal form. Our only hope is to find our spirit mate, someone marked by the gods with the huitzil, a hummingbird. It is a sign that she is a guardian destined to fight on the side of good, on the side of my lord sun god,