Picture it, people worshiping your every breath, because you fit some ancient story. That's the way it was with Ixchel. She was born to the king of the Mayan's of Cuzamil, a small island off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. They had their own myths they adhered to, much like the Aztecs.
There were legends that were the same, Gods of the same things but by different names. Some things, the darker things had a name recognized by many. One such being? The Culebra.
The Culebra was what modern society considers a vampire. The only thing is they weren't exactly Bram Stoker's version. To the Maya they were servants to the serpent God, Kulkulkan. They possessed the ability to walk among the people to do the God's work. Spreading his gift of "vision".
What does these ancient demons have to do with Ixchel? Chel's original name was Chaka Chel, "Big Rainbow." Her hair was so blonde it reflected the light in an array of colors. She was born to the king, emperor, what have you, and his first wife in the third month of Zip.
To you, dear reader, it would be March on the sixth day of the month's cycle in the year 1492. Chel, seemed to embody the light and grace of the moon, and because of her birthday, her people, the priests, all believed Chaka Chel to be the human incarnation of Ixchel their moon goddess.
The Goddess was pictured throughout their history as a woman knelt by the water with a basin flowing freely, a face half animal, half human, a snake wove through the braid of her hair, and resting atop her head. The effigies built in her honor at the original temple in Cuzamil was carved to reflect the same glyph.
The serpent represented Ixchel, same as Kulkulkan and the Culebra, and so when Gabor, one of the Nine Lords and ruler over the Yucatán Peninsula territory, pitied the trapped princess he came adorned in feathers, and ink that marked him as a Serpent Priest. Gabor convinced the priests and people to allow the man to go pray to the entrapped woman. Promising to bestow her with a gift fit of a Goddess.
That night, Gabor bestowed the woman with a serpent, breathing into her a new lease on eternal life. The man promised her the gift would give her the power to free herself. Alas, she became a prisoner of her own devices. Realizing her new state, the priests of her temple began bringing her sacrifices in groups instead of singles. Her new abilities being considered her ascending to her true form.
Guilt consumed the poor woman, and she struggled with the humanity within her that never fully waned. As a result, she spent the next several years doing deeds that forever changed the Mythos of Ixchel.
She began helping people, using her growing knowledge from souls consumed to come up with medicines and ointments to help her people. Because of her efforts, the Medicine Wheel (colored Red, White, Black and Yellow and symbolizing the four segments of the universe converging), was formed.
Medicine men and women came to her for help. Sacrifices were brought when couples wished to bear healthy children, grow plentiful crops, and when the inquisition began, they pleaded for her to rid them of the scourge that plagued them with foreign illnesses that not even she possessed a knowledge of.
Chel, fled to the Isla Mujeres (Bay of Women), as her home crumbled around her where a new temple was built in her honor. Here she added fertility and love to her list of talents, as she focused on helping the women of the islands. Bringing life and new beginnings to the people here.
She protected this new population fiercely for centuries. Little did she know she was only cultivating women for Amancio Malvado brother of Gabor. In the late 20th century, Chel immersed herself in with her people, getting herself abducted with a group of women that was escorted to the mainland in a canoe.
Frightened for the women cowering around her and praying silently, Ixchel began promising the women in their native language that they would be safe. She'd see to it that when they reached land, they'd be safe.
And so she did, unfortunately for her though, one man on shore was someone who had been on her main island during the inquisition. Carlos Madrigal. A man who'd been obsessed with gold, and pillaged and feasted like an animal with his fellow men at the base of her temple.
It was a shock to both parties, but in fear of Ixchel's appearance he gifted her to a man with hair that was more void of color than her own. Referring to her to the man as his very own Santanico. This man built a museum like temple around her. A new prison where her image hung on every wall in pictures like mirrors.
The mere sight sickened her, and as time passed, she grew more and more frustrated. Being weakened on purpose. She was meant for freedom, and so much more than being a glorified lure. She was a Goddess in her own right, and women depended on her. Who would heal them now if she could not make it back? Small debts paid to relieve the weight of the chains that guilt had strapped across the hole where her own soul had once been whole before it was splintered to make room for her "gift".
Chel was stuck until sometime in the 21st century when she found the strength to overcome the venom that weakened her. She set her portraits ablaze while her "Master" was occupied with her male counterpart in another room for a photo shoot to pull in fresh female candidates.
With the flames growing she made her escape into the streets, using her added strength to propel her forward at greater paces than humanly possible. She glanced over her shoulder repeatedly looking for the man to follow her, but he was not there, so she ran to the first place she could find. A hotel outside of Acuna with a vacancy.
She used this Culebra friendly business to hunt in attempts to regain her strength. Wondering if going back to the Isla Mujeres was even worth it anymore, so many women needed protected...
Focusing her hunting on predators, real criminals, she began humming her siren call. A special gift, that as far as she could tell over the last century, that was all her own. She could lure her prey to her with the lulling song, and this particular time, as she finished off a sexual predator under the canopy of the hotel, she was met with the cold bite of a gun barrel and the accompanying sound of it being cocked.
"Can I help you?" She sighed in annoyance.
'Oh, I'm sorry, am I interrupting your meal?' The judgmental voice was joined with a firmer press of the gun to the back of her neck causing her to lift her hands dropping the body as her light brown irises rolled with a quick bite of her bottom lip and a bow forward of her head.
"Yeah, actually, ya were, menso. You got a set to interrupt something like this."
'Screwed on tight, hot stuff. Now turn around here.' He huffed while taking a step back to give her room to do so. 'And no funny business. I'm packing more than led.'
"Oh, yeah?" Her brow lifted as she pivoted around on the heel of her tennis shoes to face the man licking her lips clean before the deadpan expression settled in. "We talking a woody? Because that can go two ways, Mister."
'Funny.' He flexed his brows before his free hand pulled out a sharpened stake with a quick flourish. 'This clear it up for ya, Snake Bitch?'
"I prefer Ixchel." She answered dryly lowering her hands to her side before leaning herself back onto the cement pillar. "Do you prefer dumb ass, or do you have a name?"
'Why should I tell you? So you can call me by name before turning me into dessert for that poor sap?' He said waving the stake at the man crumpled to the ground, gun remaining on her.
"This man, you're lumping yourself in with, wanted to sell me for my body. Am I really so bad for ridding the world of a man like that, that you'd kill me right here? No one will mourn this man. He was more of a monster than I. Trust me."
'Well, I'd ask him but he's a bit busy being a stiff.'
The muscular man with the flame tattoo running up his right arm and over part of his neck, moved the hand with the stake to rub the base of his chin.
"You could just stake me and be done with it, but you haven't yet." She shrugged, but before her shoulders could lower, she was pinned to pillar the stake pressing against her sternum. A weak laugh parted her lips as she laid her head back against the concrete.
Chel allowed her eyes to close and the grin to dance across her lips. "Go ahead and do it. I'm not afraid to die, but you're going to have to do better than that stick."
'I'll take my chances, Ishmel.'
'Whatever. You'll be dead soon.'
'Seth!' A female voice rang out, and Chel blinked tipping her head to look over the man's shoulder as he bowed his own head in annoyance.
'Dammit, Kate! I said to stay in th-'
'Hotel room, I know. But you were taking too long. What the hell are you doing?!'
"He's trying to kill me for killing a sexual predator, you're welcome. But he's doing a piss-poor job of it."
'Can it!' He growled up at her shoving the stake enough to draw a bit of blood, and all Ixchel could do was laugh with a grin as the small girl came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.
While they did their exchange, or argument rather, a few dim bells were ringing in her head from the man whose soul she'd just consumed, and so she closed her eyes to focus on the imagery flashing around in her mind's eye until she landed on a TV report about two brothers robbing a bank in Abeline. Richie and... "Seth Gecko."
Her revelation had him dropping his stake hesitantly and staggering back a step positioning himself between her and the girl. 'I don't recall either of us saying my last name, Sweetheart.'
"Richie and Seth Gecko, Abeline bank robbers, only she don't look like the other brother. She's missing a few key bits."
'Yeah, well, Richie's not a part of the show anymore. Sorry, to disappoint you before you die.'
"Whose disappointed? I only know you because the 'stiff' as you called him seen you on the news."
'Meal times over, why don't you just leave us alone and get out of here before I change my mind?' He sighed lowering his gun.
'Kate!' He cautioned abruptly, and the girl folded her arms huffing up behind the man.
'Excuse you?' He lifted his brow turning to face her as she began walking away.
"I said, 'Goddamn prick.' Menso." She sneered at him.
'That anyway to talk to the guy who just spared your whatever you have?'
"Life, dumb ass, and I don't know do you always swat her like a fly with your words? Is that anyway to talk to a young woman?"
'Great, a culebra with a moral compass.' He groaned putting the gun away. 'Kate get back to the room. /Now/. And don't open the door for anyone.'
'Oh so you trust me to go to the Mercado and scope out the heist alone, but I can't be here talking to her with you?'
"Heist at the market? La Matrona?"
'The hairstylist?' Kate asked eagerly.
"She's the only one I know with a safe worth busting into. She has the profits that gets skimmed off half the market in that thing. Ten K easy..."
'Oh great, listen, I hate to interrupt this little girl chat going on, but I think we should leave the heists to the professional. Yeah? I don't need your kind, Shelly, and I have enough of a risk with little miss novice over here.'
"I could help for a price." She shrugged her shoulders while folding her arms at her chest.
'You want money? Listen, whatever's in that safe needs to get me and little miss sunshine back across the border into Texas. We can't spare you a cut, and again, I don't want /your/ kind near me.'
"Rude given I could have killed you ninety-six times by now, and I haven't even attempted it once. I'm offering my help, and all I want is out of this hotel. I've been here since I escaped, Gecko, and I'd like a change of scenery, a chance to help more people, because despite what you may think, that's what I /do/, and have always done. Now, you can let doe eyed and hopeless help you, or you can let me. I give an advantage. You can take it or leave it. I'll be in room 213."
With that she gave a shrug and was making her way back to her room before sunrise could come.
'Shut it.' Seth cut Kate off before pinching the bridge of his nose.