Dark Possession (16 page)

“If you really believe what you’re saying, Maxim, then you would have chosen another path. Why turn vampire? Why make kills for power? Why not gather your army and march against Mikhail right out in the open?”

“That was not the plan.”

“Becoming the undead was never part of the plan either. Our families lived with honor, Maxim. We hunted the vampire, not embraced him.”

Maxim ignored him. “My brothers and I studied how to take over. If we approach the prince directly, we would be defeated. You know the majority of Carpathians believe in the old ways. They are cattle.”

Manolito curled his lip. “Humans and jaguar are cattle to you. Now Carpathians. You certainly have risen high in your own opinion, Maxim. You have contradicted yourself repeatedly.”

Maxim folded his arms. “You seek to anger me, Manolito, but you cannot. You were once a great Carpathian, from a powerful family, but you have given your loyalty to the wrong person. You should have joined us. You still can join us. You are already lost to the next world.”

For the first time Manolito’s pulse jumped in response to the vampire’s twisted logic. Vampires were deceivers, but they often wove truth in. What had he done to his lifemate? Why couldn’t he remember his crime? MaryAnn didn’t seem to be angry with him. In fact she had protected him, or at least tried to.

The thought of his lifemate warmed him, driving out the ice shards that had pierced his body and frozen his blood. He blinked and looked down at his hands. They had been almost transparent, but now were gathering a deeper shade as if his body was regaining substance and form.

“I see there is danger here after all,” he said. “Maxim, you were always clever, but you have never believed in lifemates or the concept of them. You were wrong then, and more so now. I am not lost as long as I have my lifemate.”

“And what do you think your lifemate is doing now, while you dwell in the shadow world? Do you think she lives without a man’s touch? She craves the jaguar-man and she will lie with him.”

Manolito felt the knots twist in his belly. He hadn’t known jealousy was such a dark and ugly thing until he had found his lifemate. “She will not betray me. She holds the other half of my soul. You cannot pull me wholly into this world, because she will always anchor me in the other one.”

This time Maxim did snarl, his eyes glowing fiercely, his teeth sharp spikes as he hissed his annoyance. “She does indeed hold the other half of your soul. We have only to acquire it and you belong to us. You are a traitor, Manolito, to our family, to our cause. The plan was your idea, yours and Zacarias’s, but at the first test you failed us.”

“We all agreed it was silly, boyish talk, taking over and ruling the world. Your brothers, my brothers, we said many foolish things that have taken shape and grown into a path of destruction for too many species. There are lifemates waiting for us among the humans, Maxim. Think beyond your hatred and know that humans are the salvation of our people.”

“Mixed blood,” Maxim sneered. “That’s your salvation?”

Manolito sighed his regret. He remembered Maxim as a friend—more than a friend—a beloved brother, and now lost beyond saving. “I have my emotions, Maxim, honor and a future. You have death and disgrace and nothing to sustain you in the afterlife. Any mistakes I have made I will answer for willingly, but I will not help you bring down our prince. Aside from my own honor, I would never dishonor my lifemate by making us traitors to our people.”

“We will kill her. Your precious lifemate. Not only will we see her dead, but it will be brutal. She’ll suffer a long time before we give her death.
That
is the wrong you have done your lifemate. You have already betrayed her by trading her life for that of your prince.”

Fear nearly blindsided him. Terror of what a monster could do to MaryAnn. She was light and compassion, and she would never understand what something as evil and hideous as Maxim could do to her. His breath left his lungs in a long rush of apprehension, of panic. He had never known panic before, but it nearly consumed him with the thought of MaryAnn in the hands of his enemies.

Had he fallen into a trap after all? Had Maxim led him away from MaryAnn so one of his brothers could kill her? She was alone in the rain forest. How much time had passed? Was time the same in the realm of shadows? Was it possible for someone to pierce the veil and help plot murder, or was Maxim deliberately goading him into fear? Fear led to mistakes. And mistakes led to death. He simply would not accept the death of his lifemate.

Manolito kept his features expressionless, his gaze filled with contempt. “You do your worst, Maxim, but you will not prevail. Evil will not drive good from this earth, not while one hunter still lives.” He dissolved into mist and streamed through the tortured, twisted trees.

Once out of Maxim’s sight, he blasted through the air, racing back to the place where he’d left MaryAnn. He could feel blood pounding in his temples and thundering in his ears as he shifted shape almost before he hit the ground. She was gone. Time stopped. His heart stuttered. The beast within roared and clawed for release. Teeth lengthened and sharpened in his mouth and razor-sharp talons tipped his nails.

She betrays you with the cat-man.
Voices filled his head. Anger and jealousy pushed aside reason.

Manolito lifted his head and scented the air. His woman had been there and she hadn’t been alone. He knew that scent. He had taken the jaguar’s blood.

She lies beneath him, moaning and writhing and calling his name. His name. Not yours. He has stolen her from you and she thinks only of his touch.

A snarl shaped his mouth in cruel lines and his eyes glittered with menace. He studied the tracks, saw the dead snake and the pattern of footprints. Luiz had approached her in jaguar form, but had shifted to his human form. That meant he had stood without clothes in front of MaryAnn. Fury nearly blinded him. He should have killed the treacherous devil while he had the chance. Jaguar-men were notorious for their escapades with women.

Luiz had crooked his little finger and she had followed, like a mesmerized puppet. Both male and female jaguars were very sexual beings. MaryAnn claimed she wasn’t jaguar, but if even a small amount of their blood ran in her veins, would Luiz’s presence set her off? She might go into her cycle, and then she would need a man to attend her.

She has gone off with him, needing him to give her a child. He will spill his seed in her. Fill her. Take her over and over until he is certain she is with child.

He let loose a roar of anger at the thought. The idea of another man touching her soft skin set the beast raging. No one touched his woman and lived. No one lured her away from him. Luiz was either after MaryAnn for personal reasons, or he had been sent by the vampire to kill her. Either way, the jaguar-man was dead.

Kill him. Kill her.

Manolito shook his head. Even if MaryAnn had betrayed him with another, he could never harm her.

He moved fast, rushing through the rain forest, avoiding hitting the trees by scant inches. If Luiz dared to lay a hand on her, harm one hair on her head, he would tear the man limb from limb. He spotted them, MaryAnn on the ground, tears running down her face, Luiz standing over her. She looked disheveled and angry and afraid, so much so that he ached inside, his heart contracting when he saw her distress. He put on a rush of speed, his body a blur, bursting out of the shrubbery just as Luiz turned.

Manolito hit the jaguar-man hard, driving him backward, then picked him up, slamming him so hard to the ground it drove an indentation in the soft soil. Somewhere in the distance, he heard MaryAnn scream. He pounded Luiz’s face, giving him no time to shift into the form of a cat. His arm reared back, and he drove his fist toward the chest wall to penetrate and rip out the black heart of a monster.

“Stop.” MaryAnn screamed the command. Then again, with a silent shocking fury that sent Manolito flying backward through the air.
I said stop!

He found himself sprawled on the ground, ears ringing, from the force of the psychic command. She’d thrown him back, away from the jaguar-man, who lay motionless in the muck. The telepathic punch was harder than any physical one he’d ever received. He blinked up at her, anger at her mixing with awe.

“Are you crazy?” MaryAnn demanded, standing over him, hands on her hips, face furious, eyes glittering dangerously at him.

He wanted her. That was all he could think in that split second. He wanted all that passion and fury under him, fighting him, submitting to him. She was amazing, with her lush curves and incredible face. She usually looked so calm on the outside, presented such an elegant picture, but underneath she was all fury and claws, as wild as their surroundings.

He got up slowly, his eyes steady on her, unblinking and focused. Saying nothing, he stalked toward her across the uneven ground. She had the good sense to back up a couple of steps, wariness and defiance mixing with the fury. He walked right up to her, forcing her to look up at him through her long lashes. One hand fisted in the thick mane of hair, tilting her head further, while the other caught her around the hips and drove her forward into him, crushing her breasts against his broad chest.

She opened her mouth to protest and he took possession. The kiss was rough, the edge of his fear and anger still riding him hard. His tongue drove deep, sliding into her mouth and taking her over, using her own passionate nature against her. She had done what no man had ever done, knocked him on his butt with a thought.
A thought.

Need burned deep and hot in him. Lust rose sharp, consuming him with the desire to dominate her, to bring her so much pleasure she would never think to leave him, never think to deny him anything. He bit gently at her lower lip, caught it between his teeth and tugged, licked at her pulse and kissed his way down her neck and over to her throat. She breathed in, a harsh sound of need that sent his body into a hard, knotted ache. The rush of hot blood filled him, and he closed his eyes to better absorb the feel and texture of her. Soft and pliable, moving against him like so much silk. Filling every empty place in his heart and soul. He kissed her again, the miracle called woman.

Heat and his scent surrounded her. His erection pressed hot and thick against her stomach. His lips were firm and warm, his kiss rough and arousing. She’d always pictured sex with the man of her dreams as being gentle and slow, but heated passion flared hot and bright inside of her, arousal building into something frightening. Her heart hammered loud and hard, storming against his chest. Her muscles contracted and clenched. Her body turned to liquid, fiery heat.

She ached for him. The need so strong she slid her hand under his shirt to touch his bare skin, to feel his heart beat. Her heart picked up the rhythm of his. Blood pounded and tiny flames licked over her skin.

He pulled away, black eyes glittering down at her. “Do not interfere again.”

She blinked up at him, shocked at how easily he controlled her. “Damn you for that.” She wiped at her mouth, trying to remove the desperate aching need, the brand he’d put on her, but the taste and feel of him remained. She stepped back, slapped at his hand when she stumbled and he steadied her. “You owe that man an apology. A huge apology. He saved my life twice and sure doesn’t deserve to get beat to a bloody pulp because he was escorting me back to the house.”

It amazed her that she could talk. Her body burned from the inside out. She stole a look at him. His eyes were heavy-lidded, dark with hunger and arousal. He looked every inch the predator. Dangerous and hungry—starved for the taste and feel of her.

“Do I?” His gaze flicked to where Luiz was beginning to sit up. “He knew you belonged to me.”

“I
don’t
belong to anyone but me. And he saved my life. You weren’t here to play hero.” She was appalled at the accusation in her voice.

His gaze softened. “You were afraid without me.”

She was afraid for him, and that made it worse. She swallowed hard and spread her hands out. “Look. I’m used to a semblance of control in my life. I don’t know what I’m doing here. I don’t know what’s happening. I’m feeling things I’ve never felt before.”

She was dependent when she’d never been. She needed time to think, to just be quiet, yet she couldn’t bear the idea of being away from him. And that was more frightening than anything else, because she wasn’t a woman to give up her independence.

Manolito stopped the words burning to be said. She did belong to him—as he belonged to her. But the confusion and weariness on her face turned his heart to mush. She stood there, looking soft and kissable and thinking she was tough, and all he wanted to do was hold and comfort her.

Instead, he stalked across the ground and reached down to yank Luiz to his feet. The man swayed unsteadily and managed a half grin.

“You pack a punch.”

“You are lucky I did not kill you.”

Luiz nodded. “Yeah, I got that.” He looked past Manolito to MaryAnn. “Are you all right?”

A soft warning rumbled in Manolito’s throat. “It is not necessary for you to inquire after her state of being when I am here.”

“I think it is,” Luiz said.

“That’s because he has
manners
,” MaryAnn snapped. “Thank you so much for your help, Luiz. Especially for saving my life.” She turned and walked away. The cave man could keep up or not, but she was close enough to the house that she recognized the Jeep trail. She could just follow that.

Manolito shrugged when Luiz’s eyebrow shot up. “She’s very good at reprimanding me.” For a moment, amusement flickered in his eyes.

“I have a feeling she’ll need to be,” Luiz said, rubbing his jaw. “She’s amazing.”

Manolito’s face darkened, the brief flash of humor fading away. “You do not need to find her amazing. And keep your clothes on, jaguar.”

Luiz’s grin widened. “Women can’t help but be impressed.”

“I doubt it feels good to have one’s heart ripped out of one’s chest, but if you like I can arrange for you to find out.”