Burning Water: A Diana Tregarde Investigation

Burning Water: A Diana Tregarde Investigation

In Mercedes Lackey's Burning Water , a sexy witch who writes romances and a police detective who sees more than mortal man team up to battle an ancient Aztec god! Dallas Police Detective Mark Valdez isn't just any cop, he's a psychic who knows that the cattle mutilations and torture murders he's been investigating are somehow tied together. He also knows that his meager psychic abilities aren't enough to identify the killers, much less stop them. Luckily, Mark has an ace up his sleeve: an attractive young romance novelist who happens to be a practicing witch. And not just any witch, either--Diana Tregarde is a Guardian, charged with protecting the Earth and all its creatures. Using modern science and ancient magics, Diana and Mark discover that they are tailing no ordinary serial killer but the awakened avatar of an Aztec god. Tezcatlipoca and his four beautiful handmaidens are preparing for a great sacrifice that will transform North America into a new Aztec realm. Diana isn't sure her powers are strong enough to take on those of a risen Aztec god, but she has no choice. As a Guardian, she is sworn to protect mankind, even at the cost of her own life. Luckily, she does not stand alone. Mark Valdez is more than just a cop. And Tezcatlipoca is not the only Aztec god walking in the world. “Fresh and original.” ―Marion Zimmer Bradley on Children of the Night Mercedes Lackey is the author of the bestselling Valdemar series, the Obsidian Trilogy ( The Outstretched Shadow , To Light a Candle , and When Darkness Falls ), the Enduring Flame trilogy ( The Phoenix Unchained , The Phoenix Engendered , and The Phoenix Transformed ), The Diana Tregarde Chronicles, and Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms. She has written many other books, including Trio of Sorcery , Phoenix and Ashes , Sacred Ground , The Firebird , The Fairy Godmother , and Alta . Lackey is the co-author, with Andre Norton, of the Halfblood Chronicles, including Elvenborn . Mercedes Lackey was born in Chicago and graduated from Purdue University. She has worked as an artist’s model, a computer programmer, and for American Airlines, and has written lyrics and recorded more than fifty songs. She lives in Oklahoma. Burning Water By Lackey, Mercedes Tor Books Copyright © 2005 Lackey, Mercedes All right reserved. ISBN: 0765313170 Chapter One Lupe sobbed harshly, her voice muffled, as if smothered by the darkness all about her. She clawed at the rubble that hemmed her in; her finger-ends were surely raw and bloody, but she couldn’t see them, and she was too hysterical to feel much pain. All she felt was panic, the panic of a trapped animal---for she was trapped helplessly beneath tons of rubble, rubble that, less than an hour ago, had been the twenty-story hotel in downtown Mexico City where Lupe worked as a maid. Today was September 19, 1985. Mexico City had just experienced one of the worst earthquakes in its history. Ironically enough, it was also Lupe’s birthday. Less than an hour ago she’d been happy. It had not much mattered that she’d had to work on her birthday; she had known that she was lucky to have this job at all. Less than an hour ago, she had descended the stairs to the cellar storeroom singing. It would only have been a few more hours, and then she’d have been off, free for the evening. There was going to be a party, cake---and handsome Joachim, who worked as a bellman, had promised to come. She had a new dress, red and soft, like rose petals, and Joachim liked red. One of the tourists had already given her a tip for bringing extra towels. And there had been a full, unopened bottle of wine left behind after the party in room 1242. She’d hidden it in her locker, for her party. It was going to be a good day, with a better evening to come. The ashtrays she’d come seeking were kept in boxes next to the stairs; cheap little metal things that the tourists were always taking. Somebody had overfilled the particular box she reached for and several of them had fallen out and rolled under the staircase. She’d had to wedge herself under the staircase to reach them. She hadn’t minded; the cellar was well lit, and she was small enough to fit beneath the staircase easily. That was what had saved her. For with no warning, the floor began to buck and tremble like a wild horse; the lights sparked and went out. She screamed, or thought she did---she couldn’t hear her own voice in the shrieking of tortured metal and concrete. She’d been flung backward and against the wall, and hit her head, seen multicolored flashes of light, then nothing. When next she could think, she was hemmed in on all sides by concrete and debris; trapped in the dark---a darkness so absolute that there was nothing she could compare it to. The reinforced staircase had protected her; kept her from dying beneath the crumbling hotel. She knew at once what had happened; Mexico City had suffered earthquakes before. But she had never been caught