Dark Possession (23 page)

Did she mean the mage? Or the feral thing unfurling inside of her? She didn’t know. Her hands and feet hurt, bones cracking and jaw popping. Her injured leg felt on fire. Prickles swarmed up and over her body, thousands of tiny pinpricks itching and stinging. The forest around her wavered, lost the brilliant colors, but her sense of smell increased acutely. She could smell fear pouring off the mage. He kept Jasmine firmly in front of him as if her slender body could protect him from MaryAnn.

Jasmine struggled wildly. The mage’s fingers bit hard into her throat, choking her. “Stop it, Solange,” he hissed. “You will cooperate.” He spoke in a singsong voice, weaving a holding spell to keep her from fighting him.

MaryAnn felt his words like a buzzing pressure in her head. “Knock it off,” she snapped.
Stop it now!
She was so furious she shoved her palms outward toward him, instinctively wanting to push the intense force right back at him. If he was attacking them with his mind, there was little she could do about it. She didn’t know about mages and their abilities, but it made her angry that he choked Jasmine with so little care for her life.

The mage stumbled back, dragging Jasmine with him, coughing repeatedly as if something had lodged in his throat. Maybe they would get lucky and his stupid spell would backfire and leave a lump in his windpipe, making it difficult to breathe.

The mage grasped his throat in horror as if he could read her mind. And why would he think she could do anything to him? She had her canister of pepper spray, but it was nearly empty. She doubted if the second one held much more. But if he didn’t take his other hand off Jasmine’s throat, she knew she would tear him limb from limb.
There would be nothing left of his body for the vultures.
She glanced overhead and they were there, floating in lazy circles, just waiting.

The mage’s gaze followed hers; he spotted the gathering birds and paled visibly.

“They know you’re a dead man.” She was shaking, not with fear, but with something else, adrenaline pouring into her body, the itching everywhere, her scalp tingling, her toenails hitting the ends of her shoes so that they felt far too tight.

Her vision blurred until she was seeing him through a haze of yellow. She fixed her gaze on him, wanting him to realize she was willing to fight to the death for Jasmine. “Let her go now.”

She felt it then, the gathering storm inside of her, fighting for release. The wind shrieked and lightning flashed. Thunder rolled and the trees shuddered under the gathering force. The air felt heavy with crackling energy. Tiny sparks snapped and crackled, orange and yellow flames sizzling in the air all around them.

“Her eyes,” the mage choked out. “Look at her eyes.”

Jasmine slammed her elbow into the mage’s stomach, calling on her cat, a rarity for her, but the animal answered her, lending enormous strength. The air rushed out of her attacker’s lungs. She leapt away, running toward MaryAnn, tears streaming down her face and blurring her vision. MaryAnn caught her wrist and thrust her behind her, steeling herself to meet an attack.

The mage retreated two steps and lifted his hands. Before he could weave a spell, a thick branch toppled from above them and dropped like a stone, driving the man into the soft soil. Jasmine screamed and buried her face against MaryAnn’s shoulder. MaryAnn wrapped her arms around the girl and held her tightly.

“We can’t leave Solange to fight the jaguar alone,” she whispered. “I have to go back and help her.”

Jasmine nodded her agreement, straightening up and stepping away from MaryAnn. She glanced at the huge tree limb that had fallen. The leaves hid most of the fallen man from her sight. “Do you think he’s really dead?”

“I don’t much care right now,” MaryAnn said, shocked that it was true. She caught Jasmine’s hand and began to run back toward the house, trying to think how she could keep Jasmine safe with the two jaguar-men waiting inside. She was fairly certain the cat who had attacked Sergio had been Luiz, but if she was wrong, Solange was fighting alone for her life.

They ran through the trees back along the path leading to the house. As they sprinted, leaping over the fallen boughs and tangled roots, monkeys began to scream in warning. Jasmine skidded to a halt and whipped her head from one side to another, searching the canopy above of them. Hundreds of monkeys threw leaves and twigs and jumped in agitation, baring teeth toward a group of trees close to the house.

“There’s another one,” Jasmine whispered.

“Of course there is, because it would just be too easy to have three of them after us.” MaryAnn took a deep breath. “It’s stalking us, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Jasmine said. “There in the tree, I can see part of the fur. They want me alive, so maybe if we split up they’ll come after me.”

“You can forget that,” MaryAnn said. “We got lucky with the mage, we might get lucky again, but whatever we do, we’re
not
splitting up.”

Jasmine’s eyes widened. “Is that what you call luck? I thought your aim was excellent.”

“I didn’t do that. The lightning both hit it and sheered it off, or the wind took it down. Either way, it helped us and that’s all that matters.”

The air suddenly charged with electricity, their hair crackling. Clouds boiled dark, edged with flashing light. MaryAnn caught Jasmine and threw her to the ground, covering her body as best she could with her own. The sound of lightning striking the tree was loud, the trunk splitting, the jaguar howling. The roar ended abruptly with the smell of burnt flesh and fur.

Jasmine shivered continually. MaryAnn held her tighter. “That’s Manolito,” she whispered, trying to assure the girl.

“I knew it had to be a Carpathian,” Jasmine admitted. “I thought it might be Riordan and Juliette.”

“It’s a good thing. We have help. Solange is in trouble, Jasmine, and we have to get her out of there. He’ll help us.”

Jasmine swallowed visibly and sat up slowly, blinking as the tall Carpathian male came striding toward them. The cloud cover helped and the last of the sun was sinking, allowing him to move with more freedom. He looked like a warrior of old moving fast through the smoke and ruin of a battlefield. His face was chiseled and set. His hair was long and flowing behind him. Muscles rippled beneath warm gold skin, and his ice-cold eyes were bleak and dark, holding too many secrets.

The gaze swept right past Jasmine to find MaryAnn. Warmth pushed the chilling ice aside, and his eyes went hot as MaryAnn rolled over and sat, blinking up at him. He didn’t miss a stride, moving fast, leaning down to scoop her up, even as he caught Jasmine’s arm and pulled her off the ground as well. His fingers on Jasmine’s skin were impersonal, and he never even looked at her, other than a quick cursory glance to make certain she was all right. His gaze registered the finger marks at her throat, but then jumped to do a thorough inspection of MaryAnn.

The pads of his fingers brushed over her skin, absorbing the feel and texture of her. He could breathe again, knowing she was alive. A storm of fury gathered in his eyes as he took in the gaping wounds on her leg.

“MaryAnn.” He said her name. Breathed it. A mere thread of sound, but he made it poetry, as if she was his entire world.

She tried not to react. He was just so intense it was difficult not to respond to his complete focus. She swallowed the searing pain in her leg and attempted a smile. “Thanks for getting here so fast. Solange is inside fighting off a couple more of them. I think Luiz is here as well, trying to help.”

He bent to examine the rakes on her legs.

MaryAnn caught his arm and tugged. “You have to go help her.”

“I cannot leave you like this.”

“I’m coming with you, so it’s all right.” MaryAnn wasn’t going to argue, not when he set his jaw in that stubborn line. She pushed past him and began an awkward jog toward the house, certain he would follow her.

Manolito scooped her up and ran, cradling her to his chest as he covered the distance with blurring speed. He set her aside at the last moment, shifting to vapor and sliding beneath the door, leaving MaryAnn on the other side.

Blood and fur were everywhere, furniture turned over, glass smashed, chairs reduced to splintered sticks. A female jaguar lay on her side, her coat dark with blood and saliva. Her sides heaved as she tried to drag in air, and with every movement, blood gushed into the air. She valiantly tried to go to the aid of the male fighting two others. He was in a corner, shredded with claw marks and covered in puncture wounds, but he was too fast to knock off his feet, and one of the other males was nearly blind from his weeping, burning eyes.

As Manolito entered, Sergio lunged forward and grasped Luiz by the throat, closing strong jaws and ripping. The other male leapt for Luiz’s back, but before he could land, the hunter seized him around the neck, surprising the shifter as he was jerked away. Manolito wrenched hard, his features set in harsh, merciless lines, his eyes without emotion. There was an audible crack and the jaguar-man sagged to the floor, tongue out of his mouth, breath ceasing instantaneously.

Manolito raised his head and looked at Sergio, death swirling in the dark depths of his gaze. Sergio dropped Luiz and leapt, crashing through the door and racing to the safety of the rain forest.

Jasmine barely managed to get out of his way as he sprang past. She stood in the doorway, one arm around MaryAnn’s waist to help support her as they entered. She gave a little cry when she saw Solange and raced to her side, dropping down on one knee to clamp her hand hard over the gushing blood. “Do something. She’s going to die.”

Manolito took two steps toward the door to follow Sergio, but Jasmine’s cry stopped him. He turned back. The scent of blood was everywhere, triggering not only the inevitable hunger, but aggression as well.

“MaryAnn, sit down before you fall down. I will aid you in a moment. Let me look at the wounds and see what I can do.”

“Where’s Juliette?” Jasmine asked. “I thought she would come.”

“I do not know, but they will come,” Manolito said. He knelt beside the jaguar and ran his hands over the shuddering cat.

Solange bared her teeth and turned her head. The effort cost her remaining strength, and blood geysered from the wound in her throat.

“Can you do anything?” Jasmine asked anxiously.

“I would have to seal her wounds and give her my blood. She resists even my touch, let alone the offer of my blood.” Manolito shook his head. “I am sorry, little sister, there is nothing I can do for her.”

“Solange!” Jasmine stretched out on the floor beside the cat. “Please. Don’t leave me alone. Let him help you.”

Manolito sighed. “She feels she has nothing to live for, that her day in the rain forest is over. She cannot adjust to life elsewhere, and she wants no part of Carpathian blood.”

The room grew cold and the walls pulsed as power flowed in. MaryAnn sank to the floor beside Luiz, trying to stem the flow of blood with her hands. It was everywhere, and the jaguar lay as if already dead.

Manolito. Hear me now.

She heard the voice distinctly. It was hard-edged, as if teeth were bared and snapping together. It was a clear command with no room for argument.
Heal her and give her blood. Riordan’s lifemate is distressed. There can be no other choice.

There was the impression of danger, of a force and intelligence she had not encountered, nor did she wish to. She found herself holding her breath, watching Manolito. He seemed unfazed by the strength of power and merely shrugged his shoulders casually.

“Zacarias has given an order and it will be done.” He struck hard and swift, his mind plunging into Solange’s before she could form a strong enough shield to stop him.

Who is he?
MaryAnn thought the question more than she sent it to Manolito, but to her surprise, she actually connected with him.

Now you speak to me in the way of lifemates. There is no need to stroke his fur. He is dying.
There was a definite reprimand in his voice.

MaryAnn heard the death rattle herself in the cat’s throat. “Well he isn’t going to die. You’re going to save him.”

There was absolute conviction in her voice. And trust. When he spared her a quick glance, her eyes were shining with an emotion that made his heart melt. He couldn’t recall anyone ever looking at him that way, not once in all the long centuries of his existence. He wanted to make her proud of him. He wanted to hold on to that look for eternity.

“Keep him alive, then,” he said. “Will him to live. You seem to be able to get people to do almost anything.”

MaryAnn flicked a small, determined smile his way. Her leg was hurting so bad she thought fainting might be a good idea, but when she looked at the carnage around her, she decided her wounds were very small in comparison. Manolito had to heal Solange and then Luiz and then her leg. He had just risen, and the one thing she knew about Carpathians was they woke hungry, and when they used energy to heal, they needed blood. “I’m good. You do what you have to do.”

Manolito turned his attention to Solange. She fought him, in her mind, trying to throw him out, but she was far too weak. He held her to earth, refusing to allow her spirit to slip away as he shed his physical body and slipped into hers. He was an ancient and powerful, but if she hadn’t been so severely injured, he might have had to resort to a more dangerous and violent method of keeping her mind imprisoned within his. She had a will of iron and she fought hard to keep him away from her.

At first he thought it was her distrust of men, but as he merged his mind firmly within hers, he saw the fear was of Juliette and Jasmine realizing she was a killer—beyond saving, beyond hoping. There was no other way of life left for her. She didn’t know if she could stop. Somewhere, she’d crossed a line and there was no going back.

And then he felt it, a soft warmth flowing gently into Solange’s mind. He recognized MaryAnn’s touch instantly, so light as almost not to be there, but steady and calming, a feeling of tranquillity and hope, bathing Solange in her warmth and absolute belief that life was good and filled with beauty and adventure and love.