Dark Peril (21 page)

Absolutely,
she agreed, safe in the large cat’s form.
But it doesn’t make anything I say less reasonable. You plan to go into the camp of the enemy, hear their plans, relay them to Zacarias and go out fighting. Isn’t that the same thing?

He was silent for a moment, and deep inside the jaguar’s body, Solange smirked. She felt just fine now. He had kept her off balance with his absolute masculinity and his blatant sexuality, but now she was back on her game. Equals.

It is not the same thing. I did not know you were in this world when I ingested the vampire blood. You, however, know I exist.

That brought her up short.
Are you planning to die because of the vampire blood? Is that why you aren’t going to try to leave the camp without them suspecting you of spying?
She hadn’t considered that. She should have. Of course he would think the blood would eventually turn him into the very thing he was fighting against.

No healer will be able to remove all the parasites from my body. There was a young woman who lived with them for years, but they were not mutated into this form as they are now. They are strong and multiply fast.

She couldn’t hear regret in his voice, and that was one of the things she admired most about him. He didn’t waste time on regret. He’d stepped onto a path and intended to see it through in spite of the circumstances that had changed everything.

She took a breath and revealed the truth, safe inside the body of her cat. Her most terrible and wonderful secret. The secret she knew would bring every vampire down upon her, as well as every member of the Carpathian race.

My blood kills the parasites.

She gave him the truth as a gift. Only Dominic would realize the enormity of the cost that admission was to her. She had never trusted anyone, not even Juliette, with that accidental knowledge she’d discovered. Her blood resisted the vampire’s lure, their hypnotic suggestions. She knew there was something about it that drew mages as well. It wasn’t about being a pureblood jaguar; it was her royal lineage, the lineage her father had managed to destroy. She knew if anyone found out about her, they would lock her in a laboratory and she’d never get out.

Brodrick hadn’t yet realized the significance of what the mages, vampires and even the humans were looking for. He was very single-minded in his quest to destroy all those of his species who couldn’t shift, who he deemed impure.

How could you know this?

Even within the jaguar’s body her heart pounded in alarm. There was no difference in his voice, but something . . .

I gather information all the time. I sit in the trees outside the laboratory and I listen to the guards, to the jaguar-men, the mages, even to the vampires. They are never aware of my presence. I noticed they rarely were aware of Brodrick until he showed himself, yet the vampires and most mages always seemed to know when the other jaguar-men were close. So something had to be different about Brodrick and me.

Dominic stirred in her mind, flooding her with warmth as he often did in their exchanges when she found it difficult to tell him something. A small nudge of encouragement. But this—this was monumental and she knew it.

A few weeks ago, I broke into their laboratory. I heard Annabelle had been taken and they often bring prisoners there now. They have tight security and few prisoners ever manage to escape. I needed to know the layout of the building. And I wanted to take a look at the computers.

She’d had to go alone. Juliette was helping her less and less, and only if Riordan was with them. Too many women were slipping through the cracks. She couldn’t blame Riordan. He and his brothers had so much territory to protect that he couldn’t be in all places at one time, any more than she could be.

She had gone without telling Juliette or Jasmine. More and more she went off for long periods, avoiding the De La Cruz ranches and their many homes scattered throughout the countries bordering the rain forest. She’d had to learn to rely solely on herself. She had become very good at secreting herself right under the noses of the humans and even jaguar-men. The mages and vampires had terrified her until she realized they couldn’t sense her presence.

I managed to get into the laboratory through a window they had barred, but the bars weren’t welded very well. I was able to pry them loose and then make it look as if they were intact. I checked their security cameras and found the rooms where they held prisoners. The computers were difficult—I don’t really know a lot about them—but I found a spot in the room where I could hide. I stayed for hours.

Dominic remained silent, but inside he could feel the beast rising, a Carpathian male viewing his mate in extreme danger. She didn’t tell him how she had made herself as small as possible and stayed absolutely still, her muscles cramping until she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to walk again, but he caught the images and the very real fear of getting caught pouring off her. Shifting, she had no clothes, a lone woman naked in the very heart of the enemy camp.

Her courage terrified him and yet his pride and respect for her grew even more. She had nerves of steel, yet when she came to him, she was open and vulnerable. He hadn’t expected to love her. Respect, admire, protect and care for, yes; even lust after. But to see that image of her, nearly bent in half, huddled, yet forcing herself to gather needed information to help the women of her species, brought an overwhelming emotion that burst through him like a volcano. He couldn’t hold her while she told him, but he could surround her with warmth and he did, enveloping her in his love.

I heard the techs talking back and forth. At first I didn’t really understand, but eventually I realized they were researching genetics, searching for psychic women. Jaguars have psychic abilities, so I knew that was how they were finding the ones in other countries and targeting them for kidnapping. Some went on a hit list and others were put on a list to bring back to the laboratory.

That made sense. Dominic had to get his hands on those lists. He would be walking into the laboratory and extracting the lists before destroying those computers.

A mage came in while I was there and he wanted them to pull up the jaguar lineages. He said his master needed a particular bloodline. He wasn’t making sense. When they asked him what he was looking for, he muttered something about a sacred book and blood. I got chills down my spine, something that happens when I’ve stumbled across something important.

Of course. Jaguars were psychic. She had radar. Dominic knew about the book, stolen from Xavier, the mage who had first started the war with the Carpathian people. He had been the one to kidnap, use and eventually kill Dominic’s sister. The book was now safely in the hands of the prince. Dominic had heard the book couldn’t be opened, but needed to be destroyed. No one knew how. This news was unexpected, and like Solange, he felt instantly that it was important.

How close did the mage get to you?
He shouldn’t ask. He was already shaking inside. He wanted to be the man to protect her from everything, any harm, any pain, especially the torment of her past, but he could only lie helplessly as if dead while she told him what she had done. He couldn’t even hold her close to him, shelter her in his arms.

Dominic couldn’t imagine what it was like for her, knowing one of power had walked into the room and she’d had no weapons, no defense, if they found her. They would chain her up in one of their cells and the jaguar-men would have her whenever they wanted.

You must have been terrified of being caught.
And if she hadn’t been, he was terrified for her.

Fear has an odor. I told myself I am invisible. In the rain forest, I often tell myself that when a jaguar male gets too close. Sometimes I believe that I am. The mage was so close to me that I could have reached out and touched him. Controlling my breathing was actually the most difficult task. He was angry that he couldn’t find what he was looking for. He wanted someone from Brodrick’s line, but Brodrick’s blood was tainted somehow for their purpose. His depravities, the mage said. But they found no one else.

Because you’re dead.
Dominic realized it was the truth. Brodrick had killed his useless female child. Sabine and Audrey had carried the same royal blood, the last of their lineage. Both had mated with humans and their children had diluted that pure strain.

Your mother had never become pregnant again, in all the years of captivity. Surely Brodrick tried with her.

Aunt Audrey, too. He captured her a couple of years later. They held her about two years before we found her and she was pregnant. She and the baby both died in childbirth. I think, for a jaguar, the stress of captivity was too much for them. He beat them regularly, and viciously. I think he hates women.

Dominic turned the information over and over in his mind.
So Brodrick has believed you to be dead all these years, so you were never entered into their database. The mages, the vampires, even the jaguars never knew your true identity.

He knows now. I’ve set things in motion. Brodrick will come after me now.

His instinctive reaction was one of violent protest, but he remained quiet, willing her to talk about the properties of her blood.

I got to thinking about how the vampires and the mages couldn’t sense me. What was different about me and Brodrick? I’m a woman, he’s a man; we’re both jaguar, but different sexes. But then it occurred to me that everything with both the vampires and the mages comes down to blood—at least,
she qualified,
the mages who follow Xavier.

He is dead. The news reached me a week ago.

Xavier? So that’s what shook everyone up. I knew something big had happened. There was a frenzy of activity around here.

How did you find out about the parasites?
he prompted, almost afraid to ask. Because she’d done something very, very dangerous.

He had known she was an amazing woman from the first time he’d begun to talk to her in his dreams, but then, like now, when she was in jaguar form, he didn’t actually hear her voice. He should have known she was his lifemate because he had begun to feel emotion, a slow emerging rather than the usual burst. He hadn’t recognized what was happening because it was so out of the realm of possibility.

He had thought the woman he’d conjured up to talk to had been a fearless warrior because only another warrior could understand him. Now he knew she was real. She did feel fear—she simply dealt with it because she had no other choice if she wanted to succeed. Just like she was dealing with her fear of giving herself wholly to him. He knew she was probably more terrified of him than she was a vampire.

I fought a couple of vampires with Riordan when they came up on us unexpectedly. He said they were lesser, or newer vampires and were not yet in full control of their powers. He had been working with all of us on how to kill one, so while he was occupied . . .

He told you to stay back.
No De La Cruz would ever want a female member of his family in danger. Even the youngest would be influenced by their brother, the most dominant male Dominic had ever known.

Solange gave the mental equivalent of a shrug.
He may have said something like that. Who listens when they are throwing out orders all the time? He is not my lifemate.

No, Dominic was her lifemate, and he had to bind her to him in such a way that she would choose to follow his dictates. It had to be her choice. Solange would fight a cage. She needed the freedom of being who she truly was, and they had to find a balance between his instincts and hers. It took a moment for him to realize he was thinking in terms of remaining alive.

He went very still. He believed her; her blood was valuable to his entire species and she could stop the spreading infestation of the parasites already running rampant in his body. He had a chance to live—with her. For one moment, despite the time of day, his heart fluttered, the sound loud in the chamber. He felt her startle. The cat stirred and lifted its head, looking around warily.

What is it?

He heard the courage in her voice. The determination to protect him. She would risk her life for him. But when she fully realized that neither of them was going to die, she would fear his hold on her. It was a tenuous thread that could be broken so easily. She didn’t give herself easily, and it was one of the things he most admired about her.

All is well. No vampire would be out this time of day, and I do not feel a jaguar near. Tell me about the parasites. Show me.
He needed to see the battle, see how she had handled her first solo fight with a vampire.

He felt her hesitation and knew she was afraid of his disapproval. He felt some satisfaction in that. Clearly, Solange didn’t care what anyone else thought—except him.

I am not critiquing you,
kessake
. It is essential for me to understand how you think in battle.

Honesty was crucial in his every encounter with his lifemate. If they were to have a future, she needed to know him just as well as he knew her, and for the first time, he believed they might really have a future.

Two vampires attacked Riordan. He’s fast. Really fast. I watched how they tried to ensnare him with a hypnotic pattern, Juliette had to look away, but it didn’t seem to affect Riordan, or me for that matter. He whirled around and went after the largest and most aggressive. The vampire maneuvered Riordan so that his back was to the second vampire.

He could see the entire battle in her mind. She had an eye for details. He could see the river shining through the trees, even hear the flow of it. There was no rain, but fog hung heavy through the trees. Riordan fought fiercely, circling around the larger vampire, flowing like the De La Cruz brothers seemed to do when in battle. His long hair cascaded down past his shoulders and his eyes were fierce pinpoints of steel.