A/N: A Mayan Temple...and what, we wonder was Damien and his colleagues doing there, you might ask? Read on!!!  Please read before this section on, Dante's story ' Stripped Bare'  to get a better understanding of what is happening in Damien's story from this point on, thank you...

Damien POV

As we sat here in the shadows listening to some mysterious shaman utter strange words...words of an ancient language, flickering torches illuminated the gloom, revealing a huge altar, and a menacing figure of a Mayan God that stood at least 100 feet tall, loomed above, looking down upon it.

Upon that altar, was my beloved Dante, naked and chained like an animal, his eyes darting around, taking in every inch of the area as he could. He spied the princess out of the corner of his eye, glinting at him lasciviously. The woman was clearly mad, as she had commandeered this ancient temple in order to make her wish come true.

I thought of all the events that had culminated to this point. Detective Dante Andreas, a new addition to The Organization which my father now headed, was a mysterious anomaly, possessing great powers, beyond this world.

He had been recruited, or hired for an evening's entertainment, by a royal couple, of which the male had been stricken with cancer and little time to live. This prince had given Dante a strange request, to be carried out during a private party at their residence. He wanted his wife to be impregnated with Dante's seed, in order to produce an off-spring, an heir so that the man could fulfill his legacy.

Dante heeded the request, at the behest of his commander and chief, since this prince named Alejandro, had supposedly an illegal history of drugs, human trafficking and other dubious deeds, but none of these leads could be traced, due to a policy which allowed the man to circulate freely.

Dante was travelling with the two royals, a personal bodyguard named Walid, and an entire entourage of bodyguards and servants, all over Europe, with the first destination being Santorini, Greece.

Dante had told me of the strange circumstances preceding each location, where he would be subjected to some sort of religious anointing from a band of gypsies, without much explanation. Dante's suspicions grew, and research had been conducted regarding the issues surrounding the disappearances of several young men in the past few years, who had mysteriously disappeared off the face of the earth for no reason.

The men had much in common with Dante. They roughly were all the same age. They were all good-looking, since Elena preferred them so. They had all been under the employ of these two royals.

More and more, Dante began to uncover a sinister plot which would eventually culminate in his demise, and that his very soul was to leave his physical body, allowing for the prince to 'take over', which had brought us here... to Chichen - Itza, Yucatan and to an ancient Mayan temple.

The latest destination, in Can Sera, Mallorca was where I finally got to work with Dante, both in the capacity as agents in the field. We both became more than just friends, and a relationship began to bloom between us, which I never thought could be possible.

We both attended a party at one of the many residences the prince and his wife owned, where the prince was clearly not himself. Now wheelchair- bound, he hardly moved or spoke which we both found strange, and that Elena was doing all the talking for him.

Later, that fateful evening when the prince was pronounced dead, I overheard the medics state that the prince was long dead and calculated the time it took for Teresa, Dante's former college friend to arrive upon the scene.

Much to our surprise, she was quick on her feet, as if she'd been doing it for years, as she battled us both. We later discovered Teresa's true identity, and she wanted the prince to suffer greatly in a revenge killing for her mother's misfortune as a former employee.

Something must have happened to the prince to cause his body to shrivel to such a state. It may have been a drug, hastily administered to hasten his impending death, long before the girl had taken the initiative to come up and strangle the man who had given her family enough pain and suffering to last a lifetime. At last, she would be rid of the man who had given her mother hell.

I took it upon myself to speak with the authorities and the embassy in Mallorca, allowing us full access to the medical records of the prince as well as a posthumous examination of his body.

There was evidence since his last check-up when they entered the tiny country, that he was still hopeful for a fighting chance to win over his cancer. Although his cancer was aggressively attacking his body, he had been taking a concoction of herbal medications, which I suspected was the shaman's doing, in order to subdue it temporarily.

Upon further examination, he had been given an unknown substance, one that would cause the flesh to deteriorate rapidly, ridding the body of all nutrients to sustain it under the right conditions. There were traces of the substance which we had managed to collect for further analysis.

This potent substance had its' origins from a plant which can only be found in the Amazon, and had to be taken in small doses. Large doses would cause muscle atrophy, and healthy organs to shut down.

Our doctors were correct in their calculation of how quick the substance could, if given in such a lethal dose would render a person dead...within minutes. I then understood why the princess tried so desperately to block my view while we were up on that dais. The man was already dead...

But then, who held his hand to give that faint wave at her? Someone who had obviously administered the poison was in the room at the time. Someone who had been ordered to take the prince's life immediately. Someone who had access to the prince and the princess, and had done her bidding.

Teresa thought she had done the deed, but apparently not since the prince was already dead before then. So, in turned out that all her efforts had been wasted. Teresa was devastated when she found out, but felt no remorse for her actions since it was to avenge her mother.

Dante had asked me whether it was possible for Teresa to go into some form of rehabilitation and I had consulted my father on the subject. He agreed that Teresa could be given a second chance since she could make a good agent, if she was willing to conform to the program.

Well, this was certainly an interesting turn of events, and it was no coincidence that, as we were there to comfort the woman, the medics were suddenly shooed away by a mysterious man who appeared by her side.

This man, upon later conversations with my beloved Dante, bore a similar resemblance to the one who had tried to conduct that horrifying ceremony of soul transference between bodies of which Dante was the intended new host to house the prince's soul.

The man was a shaman, plain and simple, and one thing more caught my eye. There was an urn on the mantlepiece which both the princess and the shaman zealously watched over. Could it be possible that this ornate vessel contained the soul of the prince, ready for transfer at any given moment?

That very same vessel now sat, at the foot of the Mayan God who glared angrily down upon us all, as the shaman waved his scepter over it. Now I am not a firm believer in any kind of magic, but from what I have witnessed since being with Dante has left me speechless.

The princess still had the sole intention of doing this transference and that she believed that this shaman was capable of doing it. Now whether the vessel really did contain the prince's soul, I do not know. My concern was more for my beloved, whose eyes now turned into the blackness of night.

The weather had suddenly taken a turn for the worse, as great winds began to buffet the area, and rain pelted down upon us, as we descended deep into the cavernous mouth of the temple. The drum beats became faster, heavier as the shaman's voice increased a few decibels in an effort to drown the howling winds.

A month back, while we were still in Mallorca, I kept testing Dante's abilities each day when we were together. I discovered the boundless energy within him as I began to understand the root cause of all his anger and hatred, and together we managed to bring it down a peg or two, with meditations and yoga practice.

He soon mastered his emotions successfully to a great extent, that he could channel the energy to other things instead, including sex. There was many a night I saw stars during our time together, and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever experienced.

We had operatives in Mallorca, tracking the royals with the help of Mason and Fahey, my two indispensable colleagues who engaged the royals' men a few times. Such engagements were imperative as to finding the whereabouts of their operations base for trafficking. I was determined to crack this case and get Dante away from harm although I knew now the damage he could be quite capable of.

Dante's psychic abilities were unparalleled, as he had foreseen these events, which gave us ample time to prepare. The princess had no inkling as to our presence, and no prior knowledge of who I really was. As far as she was concerned, I was Dante's new toy boy and almost would be hers at some point.

She had gained our trust, and we were privy to certain information about her failing love life, and her hopes for a child. We eased her pain somewhat, forcing her to go out and have some fun, while trying to get her to open up some more.

It was then that she had introduced us to some friends who ran her modeling agency, which was perfect, since this was the gateway to their human trafficking operation. Of course, we took up the invitation to get involved with the agency as models which was the perfect ruse to get the insider look at her operations.

She then announced that we were off to New Mexico, since she had a branch there and there was a fashion show which she thought we were both perfect for. I jumped at the chance although Dante was skeptical, knowing full well that this would be the perfect cover for us. Walid became bodyguard to us both now, since we had become part of the princess' entourage of models.

She was getting desperate for things to go her way, as we found ourselves prancing on a catwalk, wearing nothing but swimwear in Cancun. The after party was wild and sensual, as she engaged her models into more than just a bit of fun, which again gave us the opportunity to go poking around her private offices.

I took photos of everything, including sensitive documents, sending them back to my father, Bry and Zack for following up on. The mission was on track and what I had hoped to be smooth-sailing suddenly became dashed, when she burst into our bedroom later, demanding that Dante be with her that night.

He succumbed to her demands, not wanting her to be suspicious of us both. What was even more astonishing was the fact that I too was eventually summoned to her bedside and into her bed. Luckily it was dark enough so she couldn't see me properly, and she was quite drunk at the time.

That woman was insatiable!!! Her appetite for sex was bordering on ludicrous. I was so glad to be out of there when she had passed out between us both. We crept out of her room quietly as I so desperately needed a shower to wash off her scent on me.

Dante chuckled at the disgust I felt just being with that woman. I was happy that it was over. As we hopped into the shower together, I lathered my lover with some soap and we found ourselves making heated love in the cubicle, growling out our release. As we wiped each other down and tucked ourselves into bed, I held Dante close to me sensing that warmth surrounding us both in a shroud of peace.

The next day, we went out for breakfast out of the watchful gaze of the princess' men, as Walid accompanied us to the nearest café. Dante stressed the issue of his visions which were more intense this time, and I knew we were coming close to catching the princess in the act, as long as Dante felt comfortable.

I was not keen on having him be the bait but the princess had long set her sights on Dante to be the host to the prince's soul forever. We began discussing the next movements of our time with her here and where it would hopefully lead us.

The next thing I know, Dante had been summoned to her bed chamber the next evening, only to be bound hand and foot and taken out of her compound to an undisclosed location which turned out to be the temple.

So here we were, with the rains pelting down all around us as we waited for the perfect moment when Dante would give the signal. As the torrential rain poured down in buckets, I heard a loud roar, as the chains that held him down snapped in two.

That was the signal, as the shaman was suddenly seized up and tossed like a ragdoll against the temple wall. The shaman got up, grasping the edge of the altar as he made his way across to the urn. Holding it aloft, he yelled out the last stanza of the incantation, as he spilled out the contents of the urn.

Whatever was inside it, began to glow and take shape and sure enough I could barely make out the prince in spirit form. Dante was having none of it. He extended his hand, gripping the spirit of the prince by the neck, encasing it in a ball of energy which began to shrink, entrapping the soul of the prince so it had nowhere to go.

He thrust back the spirit into the urn from where it came, and sealed it. He then hurled the thing out of the temple, far, far away until it fell into the river to be lost forever.

The men crouched down in terror, as statues began to lift and float above them as the princess screamed out of fright, after witnessing the shaman fall down to his knees trembling before the Mayan God. The man must have thought that he had angered the god and defiled the sanctity of the temple, and now they were being punished severely.

The foundations began to rock as the temple shifted. The men grabbed the princess in an effort to escape but a huge stone rumbled forwards, blocking their way. Dante now stood atop the altar, looking down upon them, light emanating from both his hands. The princess and her men were now engulfed in a ring of blue fire, preventing them from escaping.

"What in heaven's name are you?" She screamed at him, her eyes blinded by the light.

"I am your worst nightmare!" He cried out, as the temple began to rumble...