Dark Possession (15 page)

“Hold still! Don’t fight.” The command was sharp, the voice unfamiliar.

MaryAnn clutched the pepper spray and forced her body to quit fighting. A hand with a wicked-looking knife came into view. Pain speared through her, as teeth sawed for a better purchase on her ankle. Anacondas didn’t chew, but they held their prey while their muscular bodies crushed, and this one wasn’t giving up so easily.

She saw the hand slash in and out of sight. The snake slumped to the ground and MaryAnn scrambled out of the water, knocking her heel sideways so that it wobbled under her as she ran away from the snake. She caught a tree trunk, hugging hard, breathing deep to try to calm the panic.

“What are you doing here? Are you lost?”

She turned around to find a man calmly pulling a pair of jeans from a small pack around his neck. He was totally naked. His body was strong, muscular, with scars here and there. She bit down hard on her lip, the urge to either laugh or cry very strong.

“You could say that.” As men went, he was built. He had a strong face, and even though he’d tugged up his jeans, she could see he was well endowed. “Do you just walk around the rain forest naked?”

“Sometimes,” he admitted, his serious eyes studying her and the can of pepper spray she had in her fist. “I suggest you stay out of the rivers and channels. Anacondas and jaguars and other predators patrol through here.”

“Thanks for the tip. I hadn’t noticed or anything. Those snakes aren’t poisonous, are they? Because it bit me.”

“No, the danger is infection. Let me take a look.”

MaryAnn inhaled sharply, everything in her rebelling at the idea of the man touching her. Shaking her head, she stepped back. “Thanks, but no. I’ve got some antibiotic cream I can use.”

He studied her face for a long time, as wary as she was. “This island is private property. Who brought you here?”

“I’m staying with the De La Cruz family. Manolito is around somewhere.” She didn’t want him to think she was alone.

His eyebrow shot up. “It doesn’t make sense that he left you, even for a minute.”

The worry in his voice gave her a small sense of assurance. “Do you know Manolito?”

“I met him earlier this evening. Dawn is approaching, and many animals hunt along the riverways at dawn. Let me take you back to the house, and Manolito will follow when he is able.”

MaryAnn searched the shadows for Manolito. She couldn’t touch his mind or feel him at all, let alone see him.
Where are you? I don’t want to leave you.
She reached out but found only a black void.

If her rescuer ran around naked in the rain forest and he’d met Manolito earlier, there was a good chance he was a jaguar-man. Juliette’s younger sister had been captured and brutally attacked by the men of the jaguar species. MaryAnn took a firmer grip on the canister of pepper spray. She’d never find her way out of the rain forest, and she was terrified of being left alone, but she couldn’t leave Manolito, especially since she knew something was happening to him, and she was afraid to trust this man.

“I’m Luiz,” he said simply, obviously reading her unease. “Manolito did me a great service today. I simply return the favor.”

“I don’t want him to come back and find me gone. He’d worry.” She didn’t want the only person there—human or not—to leave her alone. She couldn’t look at the body of the snake. She hadn’t wished it harm, but she didn’t want to die here either. Getting consumed by an anaconda was on her list of least favorite ways to go.

“Carpathian males worry about very little,” Luiz said. “Come with me. You cannot stay alone. If you wish, you can carry the knife.”

MaryAnn sighed. Carrying the knife meant getting close enough for him to hand it to her. It also meant that she might really stab him with it if he made a wrong move, and she was definitely opposed to that idea. “You keep it.” She had the pepper spray and that she wasn’t afraid to use.

He smiled at her. “You are a very brave woman.”

She managed a short laugh. “I’m shaking in my very favorite pair of boots. I don’t think brave is the word I’d use. Stupid. I’d be safe at home in Seattle if I just hadn’t been the save-the-world kind of idiot I tend to be.”

He started down an almost nonexistent path. She could see it had been used by an animal. Taking a deep breath, she followed, sending up a silent prayer that Manolito would find her soon. Maybe if she got to Riordan and Juliette, they would be able to find Manolito again and help him.

Luiz glanced back at her. “Can you walk with the heel of your shoe broken? I can cut them off for you.”

That was sacrilege. He’d saved her from the snake, but he deserved pepper spray for even contemplating cutting the heels off her favorite pair of boots. It wasn’t too late to salvage them. “No, thank you.” She stayed polite, because he had to be a little crazy to think of such a dark deed.

They walked in silence for a few minutes, MaryAnn trying to keep her mind from straying to Manolito. It was difficult. Part of her wanted to rush back to where she had left him and wait until he returned. Part of her was angry with him for deserting her, and another part—the biggest—was terrified for him.

“Why are the tree frogs following us?” Luiz asked.

“Tree frogs?” MaryAnn bit her lip and glanced around, peeking through her eyelashes, hoping the jaguar-man was wrong. “I have no idea.” She took a quick look at the trees. Sure enough, frogs leapt from roots to branches, from trunk to trunk.

“They seem to be following you.”

“Do they?” She tried to sound innocent even as she hissed at the frogs, gesturing with her arms to go back. “You must be mistaken. More likely they’re migrating in the same direction we’re going.” Did frogs migrate? Maybe that was geese. Rain forest creatures were complicated. She glared at the brightly colored amphibians. They continued to hop happily alongside of her.

“You’re gathering quite a crowd.” He sounded amused as he politely held the shrubbery back so she could walk freely along the path. He continually raised his face to sniff the air in every direction.

“Maybe they’re attracted to my perfume.”
What part of “go away” don’t you understand? You’re making me look bad.
She tried a mind-to-mind telepathy, hoping some of Juliette’s and Riordan’s psychic abilities really had rubbed off on her, but the frogs ignored her complaint.

“Can you walk faster?” Luiz asked.

He didn’t look nervous. In fact he appeared quite steady, but she had the feeling he was looking for trouble, scanning the canopy overhead and watching their back trail. The monkeys began to scream and throw leaves and twigs. Luiz held up his hand and signaled for her to remain quiet.

Mosquitoes buzzed by her face, and she calmly pulled out the bug spray and liberally doused the air around her.

Luiz whirled around, his nose twitching. “Don’t do that.”

“The mosquitoes are biting me everywhere.”

“That foul stench hinders my ability to catch scents. I need to know what we’re likely to be facing.”

Okay. That sounded ominous, and quite frankly, she was tired of being scared. There was only so much scared you could do without a friend to egg you on. She sighed and put the bug spray back, resorting to slapping at the insects with one hand and retaining possession of the pepper spray with the other.

She was
so
out of here the moment she could get to a phone. Well, after she made certain Manolito was all right. She was beginning to feel sick with worry, and that just made her madder at him. The mark at the curve of her breast throbbed and burned and ached for him. Tears blurred her vision, and she stumbled on a twisting, snakelike root, nearly falling, throwing out both arms to catch herself before she face-planted in the muck—and it saved her life.

The large jaguar missed and hit the ground just inches from her head. Snarling, it whipped around, raking at her face with claws, but Luiz was there first, already half changing, his face broadening, muzzle lengthening to accommodate teeth. The two cats crashed together, raking and clawing. The rain forest erupted into a frenzy of noise.

Pushed beyond all endurance, MaryAnn jumped up, took two long strides to the marauding cat and let loose with a stream of pepper spray directly into the fully formed jaguar’s eyes and nostrils. She gave it several short bursts, fury shaking her hand, but her aim was perfect.

“Enough already. I’ve had it—absolutely
had
it with this jungle crap. I may be an urban woman, damn it, but I can deal with anything this horrible place throws at me. Get out of here now!” she yelled at the top of her lungs, sending another stream right at the jaguar’s face for good measure. The command blasted through her brain and out into the air even as she shot several short streams.

The jaguar raced away as if she’d bitten it. Luiz fell onto his butt, jeans half-shredded. “What the hell was that?”

“Pepper spray,” she said and sat down beside him, bursting into tears.

7

M
anolito avoided the seeking tentacles as he studied the fibrous bulb. His body was in the rain forest with MaryAnn. He was intelligent; he could reason it out. If he was trapped in the spirit world, as he was certain now he was, then only a spirit could reside in this place. He had no body here, so the attack was merely a distraction. It must have to do with MaryAnn. Not only had her spirit entered, but her warmth and vitality with her. The vampires had sensed hot blood and the light in her soul. He had to lead the attack away from her, just in case she inadvertently stepped back into the shadow world where he was trapped.

He moved slowly away from her. The shadowy figures who called to him to join them, who threw accusations at him and wanted to sit in judgment of him, didn’t seem to be able to look past the veil into the world of the living. Perhaps if he could get far enough away that they couldn’t sense her, she might be safe. He could lay a false trail and get back to her and escort her to safety before dawn. He shouldn’t have been able to feel sensation, but the farther from MaryAnn he traveled, the more he felt cold.

“Join us. Share her. She has already condemned you to a half life.” The voice shimmered in the air, soft and persuasive, becoming louder as he moved farther away from MaryAnn. “You have always belonged with us, not with sheep, following the speaker of lies.”

Maxim Malinov, dead from the battle in the Carpathian Mountains, slain by the prince himself, stepped out of the shadows and approached Manolito. “Why would you give your life for the prince when he cares nothing for you or yours? He knows you are in the meadow of mists, yet is he watching after your lifemate? Is he protecting your body while you wander in this world? He is selfish and thinks only of himself, not of his people.”

Manolito drew in his breath. It had been long since he’d seen his boyhood friend. He looked young and strong, handsome as always, with intelligence shining in his eyes. As young men growing up, they had enjoyed debates and discussions throughout the nights, talking about the issues they felt best for their people. Following Mikhail, the current reigning prince, hadn’t been anyone’s idea of what was best.

“We were wrong, Maxim. Mikhail has led our people from the brink of extinction. The Carpathians are beginning to grow powerful again, but more importantly, we have become a society filled with hope instead of despair.”

Another plant erupted from beneath the surface, the long vines reaching like arms toward him. He leapt into the nearest tree, more out of reflex than need. He might feel the piercing cold as ice shards began to rain down, but the stinging wounds as the icicles stabbed through him were no more real than the plant. He gave himself a moment to force his mind to accept it was all illusion. The plant slid back beneath the soil, but the stabbing ice continued to fall.

When he leapt back down, Maxim shook his head. “In the old days you would not have settled for looking at so small a piece of the real picture. We hide from the people who should serve us. We hide in fear, when it is they who should tremble before us.”

“And why should they tremble, Maxim?”

“They are nothing but cattle.”

“That is why you do not lead and I would not follow if you did. They are people with hopes and dreams. Good, hardworking people who fight every day to do the best they can for their families. They are no different than we are.”

Maxim gave a snort of derision. “You have become brainwashed. You have taken a human for a lifemate and she has already corrupted your ability to see sense. We are noble, the better race, the one deserving of this earth. We could rule, Manolito. Our plan is in place. Eventually we will take over and humans will bow before us.” His smile was wholly evil, the red flames in his eyes leaping with maniacal fervor.

Manolito shook his head. “I do not want them bowing before us. Like all species, many of them have mixed from ancient ancestors. Most likely, Carpathians, mages, jaguar-men and even the werewolf have integrated into the human society.”

The red flames leapt and the vampire hissed out his disbelief. “The jaguar-men have tainted their bloodline, it is true. They threw away their heritage and their greatness because they refused to take care of their women and children. They deserve to be wiped from the earth.
You
were the one who said it. You and Zacarias.”

Manolito held himself still as another large piece of ice stabbed through his shoulder. The sensation was fiery, sickening, but it disappeared when he refused to give it credence. “I was young and stupid, Maxim. And I was wrong. We all were.”

“No, we were right.”

“The jaguar-men made mistakes, and those mistakes cost them, but they are not Carpathian and their needs were different from ours. You chose not to wait for your lifemate, Maxim. In doing so, you have given up every chance of having a wife and children and helping to create a lasting society. You saw the power of the prince’s bloodline. He is the vessel for all of our people.”

“His power is false, a sham. Look at the scar on your throat, Manolito. How many times are you willing to die for him? You have taken the knife twice for him and once for his brother’s lifemate. You are here, in this world of shadows, to be judged for your ‘dark’ deeds. What dark deeds? You lived with honor and you served your people, yet you are here.” The voice became hauntingly beautiful, filled with truth and mesmerizing zeal. “All the ancient races are myths now, forgotten by the world. The jaguar race, once powerful, is found only in books. They clothe themselves with shame. They brutalize their women. Would you have that happen to our species?”