Air Force officer Marisol Vasquez was chosen for a dangerous time-travel mission for her ability to see through the eyes of animals. Sent back nearly six hundred years to the Incan empire, sheâs committed to finding the precious alien artifact sheâs been assigned to recover.
But Marisolâs mission hits a snag when sheâs given as a gift to the emperorâs shaman, a mysteriously sexy man who is determined to seduce her. Suddenly Marisolâs devotion to her task faces an entirely unexpected threat: the hazard of fierce, all-consuming lustâ¦.
Fifty thousand years ago, after discovering that human females carried a nascent genetic potential that might one day develop into the ability to star navigate, The Pleiadian Council planted a dozen pieces of a bronze disk across the Earth, hidden in darkness until mankind advanced enough to travel through time and find them.
And then, out of the ashes of the mystery-shrouded Roswell Alien crash in 1947 arose a secret research project called Anasazi. Its improbable goal: learn to use the recovered alien technology for the purposes of time travel. General Beverly Ashton was the last to command this project before a dozen time travelers were inexplicably lost and the project disbanded.
However, the recent discovery of an ancient journal, known as the Ad Astra, has given Professor Athena Carswell the information she needs to begin sending modern time travelers back through human history in search of the twelve pieces of the Pleiadian medallion which, when fully reassembled, will send a signal to the Council indicating mankind is ready to be introduced to the rest of the galactic community.
Project Anasazi has secretly been reactivated, and General Ashton, now retired, and Professor Carswell are continuing the projectâs work. They are carefully recruiting and training a team of military men and women to make the dangerous time jumps.
But threats loom on the horizon, both from humans who would see the project endedâor worse, steal its work and use it for nefarious endsâand from the Centauri Federation, which will do anything to stop humans from learning how to navigate the starsâ¦.
Marisol Vasquez fell into a grassy field feetfirst. Though sheâd done everything sheâd trained for in the Air Force Pararescue unit sheâd been recruited from, the landing knocked the wind out of her.
She lay for a moment, rocks pressing into her sides, the colorful, woolen native dress sheâd been given to wear hiked up around her thighs.
With her pulse pounding in her ears, she felt for the bracelet that was her only link to the twenty-first century, her only way back to her world, her time, her life. Not until her fingers wrapped around the cool metal did she breathe a sigh and push to a sitting position to take in her new surroundings.
The field was a small plateau nestled in the Peruvian Andes near the Urubamba Valley of what she knew to be South America. Below her stretched the center of the ancient Incan Empire, the divine city of Cusco, founded and expanded by the great Incan ruler Pachacuti.
Marisol stood up, her gaze taking in the view of the sprawling city below. Spread out before her, bigger than sheâd ever imagined, was the reason for her journey across time and distance. She found Cuscoâs sheer size and density to be much more intimidating than sheâd originally anticipated. For the first time since Marisol had agreed to this extraordinary mission, she wondered if she was in over her head.
Sheâd traveled from Arizona to Peru and over five hundred and sixty years back through time in the blink of an eye. Marisol was a highly trained Air Force Combat Rescue Officer with a special ability to communicate with animals and âseeâ through their eyes.
âNow all I have to do is walk right into the city, locate Pachacutiâs palace and find what I came here for. Easy, right?â
âDepends on what you are looking for,â a voice said behind her.
Marisol spun toward the voice, crouching in a fighting position. Sure of only one thingâthe language translator implanted behind her ear was working.
A man lounged across the lush green grass, a woven cloth spread with a variety of fruits, cheese and bread arranged before him. What struck Marisol wasnât that he was a man but that he wasnât what sheâd expected to see in Pachacutiâs Incan Empire.
He wore sandals and a short wool skirt that exposed amazingly thick thighs. His top half was bare but for two large gold bands around his upper arms. He had a bright red cape slung across shoulders so broad they could have easily filled any modern doorway.
Marisol gulped at the breath catching in her throat.
It wasnât his clothing or his jewelry that took her aback. The long, white-blond hair hanging past his shoulders and his ice-blue eyes captivated her. Where had this Norse god sprung from? The Spaniards werenât due to arrive for several more years and even they werenât as pale as this man who was a freak among the dark Incas.