Beautiful Sacrifice

altar.”
    Lina’s eyes narrowed. “Sacrifice?”
    “Oh yeah,” Jase said.
    “Lots,” Hunter said.
    “Human,” Lina said. It wasn’t a question.
    “We’ll know for sure when the tests come back,” Jase said. “But judging from the shape of the body I saw and what I’ve heard since…yeah, human. Past tense.”
    “You believe the altar was used at least once,” she said to Jase.
    “Every time I get a text message, the count goes up.”
    Hunter said something bleak under his breath and changed the subject, wanting to spare Lina the nightmare of that basement.
    “One of the men arrested had tats like a brightly scaled snake winding up his arms. No head in sight,” Hunter added.
    “Is that usual?” Lina asked.
    “Never seen it before,” Hunter said.
    “Me neither,” Jase said. “Snake seemed to be the chief badass in charge. The rest of them had the usual jailhouse-gangbanger tats.”
    “The Maya had a scaled serpent associated with the gods, but not specifically with Kawa’il,” Lina said slowly. “Except, once again, in a very small territory.”
    “Reyes Balam lands?” Hunter asked.
    She nodded, hugging herself as though chilled. With aneffort she forced her mind toward academic knowledge rather than the kind that shadowed Jase’s and Hunter’s eyes. It was one thing to study texts on ancient blood sacrifice. It was horrifying to hear about it happening in her own time and place.
    Hunter gave Jase the sketchbook and pencils. Gently Hunter’s big hands closed over Lina’s arms, rubbing up and down, sharing warmth as though he understood the chill of violence sliding over her skin.
    “Sorry.” She gave him an unsettled smile. “I don’t think of myself as being in an ivory tower, but to sacrifice people without the context of societal and religious approval is just…sick. Seriously sick. No meaning except depravity.”
    “Don’t apologize for your reaction,” Jase said. “Cops exist to keep the criminally sick from the average healthy citizen. So ignore the whack jobs and tell me about Maya and snakes.”
    Lina drew a deep breath. “Normally my sensitivity to cultural nuance is very useful in my studies. This time, not so much.” She took another deep breath. “So, snakes and Maya. Usually the serpent was a generalized sacred symbol connecting the underworld with the overworld. The snake was often drawn as smoke or having wings, perhaps both. Why a modern gangbanger would choose the sacred snake over a more recognized Western symbol—such as skull and bones—is a question for a psychiatrist to answer. I can’t.”
    Carefully Hunter eased his hands away from Lina. The temptation to pull her onto his lap for some serious cuddling was simply too great.
    “I can tell you that the jaguar was the exclusive province of Maya royalty,” she added. “Your altar was modeled after ancient Maya royal practices.”
    Jase’s thick eyebrows rose. “Huh. Snake dude didn’t seem real royal to me.”
    “You’re assuming he was the one using the table,” Hunter said. “I’d bet he was more palace guard than king.”
    “If we get lucky, his snaky fingerprints are all over that altar,” Jase said.
    “Oh, I think Snakeman is more than capable of murdering people just because he can,” Hunter said. “But he didn’t strike me as the religious type, old or new.” He took back the sketchbook and pointed to the second drawing. “What about this?”
    Lina hadn’t been looking forward to that question. The jaguar altar could have come from a relatively large number of sites. But the mask…
    “It depends on your interpretation of the symbols around the mask,” she said.
    “It’s stone,” Hunter said. “Couldn’t tell what kind. Too dark. It could even have been cement. Bigger than life by about twice.”
    “If the artifact is only a tenth as well done as the sketch, I doubt that it’s made of cement,” Lina said.
    “Was that a compliment?” Jase asked, looking at Hunter with a sly smile.
    “Truth,” Lina said to Hunter. “You should be an artist.”
    He looked bemused. “Pay sucks.”
    “If you could take the Yucatan jungle, you’d be real useful on a dig,” she said.
    Jase laughed. “Ma’am, Hunter spends half his time in Mexico, on back roads or worse.”
    She looked at Hunter as though seeing him for the first time. “Really.”
    He tapped the second drawing. “Let’s stay on topic.”
    Visibly, Lina thought over whether to accept the change of subject.