Junglecat Honeymoon: Manhattan Ten, Book 3.5 (3 page)

Between the darkness and the humidity, it was like a cocoon, but not the kind that meant safety. More like I’d been wrapped in spider webs and was waiting to be devoured.

A twig snapped.

I whirled, but the brush was too thick to see anything.

A laugh sounded from the underbrush and my hands moved to draw out a spear before I remembered. I should’ve made a weapon earlier.

“We can see you,” a female voice called from the treetops.

I adjusted my posture, ready to defend attacks from above and below as I scanned the nearby branches.

“Can you see us?” A second voice sounded near where the laugh had rung out.

At least two enemies.

Taunting prey was the worst behavior. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.

I straightened from my crouch. “If you’re here to fight me, I’m not impressed.”

“Not impressed?” The one who’d giggled stepped from behind a tree. She wore a dress of skins, and feathers dangled from her hair. Her orange eyes glowed and a black blade flashed in her hand. “What should we do about that, sister?”

The second woman swung from a tree, landing crouched on the balls of her feet, holding an obsidian-tipped spear. “Shall we impress her?”

I backed toward the tree line so they couldn’t pin me between them. My fingers flexed again, but I was on my own. I had to trust in my battle skills. At least the two of them seemed to be alone. “What is the purpose of this? All of this?”

The one with the spear flashed teeth, but not in a smile. “You’re an enemy warrior on our territory. We haven’t had a chance like this in centuries.”

“Like what?” I was going to lunge at one of them in a moment, but I wasn’t sure whether it would be to kill them or shake some sense into them. I couldn’t begin to understand their tribe.

“To capture a conquest and advance our status.” The sister pulled a second blade from behind her belt. “Everyone’s been stuck at the same rank for decades.”

I gritted my teeth. Both of them needed a thorough shaking. “This is for
status
?”

“For us.” The spear holder advanced. “The men might try to take you as a wife. You’re fair game until Poya says not.”

“I’m already married!” I wanted to tear out my hair or theirs. “We joined our hands in ice. What more declaration do you need?”

The sisters exchanged a look. “Ice doesn’t bind, according to
our
customs.”

Their hair
. I definitely wanted to tear out their hair. “What does?”

“Blood.”

“That can be arranged.” Fury crept from my toes, climbing through my veins until my vision hazed with the intense focus that told me how close to the edge I was. “Will yours suffice?”

Both sisters grinned.

The spear holder lunged first.

I dodged the wicked tip, trying to grab the weapon away, but the second sister was already on me with her blades. With no weapon to counter, I could only evade and retreat.

Skipping back, my ankle turned on a root. I let loose a flowing stream of ancient curses.

Screw this jungle.

I couldn’t hold back anymore. They’d brought me here, and I’d done what I could so that none of Panther’s people got hurt.

Now I had no choice.

I stopped trying to quiet the huntress, letting my barriers fall.

We weren’t separate—I was always the huntress—but this was the side of myself that played deadly. The part of me that didn’t care about rules, consequences or who got hurt.

At my most elemental, only three things mattered.

The chase. The hunt. The kill.

The one with the daggers froze. “What are you…”

Ice. No ice.

Didn’t matter.

I sprang, tackling her by the knees. One of the daggers clattered into the brush as her back thudded into the ground.

The spear woman was on me. I rolled away, coming up with the dagger.

Her eyes widened and the spear point drooped.

I licked my lips at the sight of the pulse moving in her neck. Delicious fear. “A real huntress doesn’t toy with her prey.”

Her orange eyes narrowed. “I was hunting before your grandmother was born.”

A laugh sprang from my lips. She backed away at the sound. Maybe it was more like a growl. But older than
my
grandmother? My people were born when the world was. “You have no idea who I am.”

While the spear holder stared, the one with the blade lunged wildly. I ducked inside her guard, slamming the hilt of my own dagger under her ribs. She spluttered her way to the ground and I was up two knives.

My final opponent backed into a tree.

Perfect.

I threw a blade from each hand. They
thunked
into bark on either side of her scalp, slicing some hair and pinning the rest to the tree. “Be a good girl and give me your spear.”

“I yield.” She would’ve sagged, but she couldn’t move. The feathers in her hair trembled as she did.

I snatched the spear from her grasp. The adrenaline that spiked through my blood heightened my senses, and I scented more of the panther people in the trees. “Tell your friends I won’t be so kind to the next ones that challenge me.” While I gazed at the hammering pulse in her neck, my instincts screamed to end her life and take this enemy off the field.

The kill—that spray of hot blood—was exactly what I wanted, and the more I was attacked, the more I’d crave it. My last remaining shred of reason forced me to take a step back from her, away from the enticing scent of fear. “Tell the others to stay away.”

“They’ll try.” Her eyes flicked to the ground. “We have to try.”

“I suppose I understand.” Few thrills compared to that of a worthy opponent. She was lucky Balam was in my life. My desire to find him overshadowed the compulsion to watch the life leave her eyes. “Show me to my husband now.”

“West.” She pointed through the trees. “At the ruined temple.”

I sprinted for the jungle, leaping over the sister who’d just remembered how to breathe. A small part of me hoped they’d warn the others, but most of me wanted to tear their flesh.

Status.

I almost spat. How ridiculous.

The hunt was a dance of life and death. A test between self and nature, where the winner took the privilege of survival.

How could anyone reduce that to a silly play for rank?

Let them come.

If rank could be won so easily, I’d be their ruler by sunrise.

Panthers stalked me through the night as I barreled toward the temple. They came alone or in pairs, never a group larger group than three.

Men and women. Teenagers eager to prove themselves and seasoned warriors.

All bent on capturing me.

I won each battle. They would never defeat me as long as taking a prisoner was the goal.

But they weren’t gentle, and neither was I.

Blood slicked the tip of my spear. I’d inflicted more slashes than I’d earned, but I’d managed to stop short of killing, no matter how these idiots seemed to invite death.

Quan’s scent grew in my nostrils as the sky turned pink. Finally, I picked up a hint of Balam.

So close.

Ruins emerged between the trees. A crumbled wall here, a weed-choked foundation there. A perimeter wall taller than me remained standing, though more trees held it up than mortar, and fallen rocks tangled in the roots.

Everything was on the way down.

I slunk through an archway, into what must’ve been a sprawling plaza in centuries past. Now trees crowded between the walls, and the tops of buildings fought a losing battle against the growing canopy.

Space remained around the tallest structure. The stepped temple held its ground against the trees.

The panthers waited. Perhaps fifty of them stood or sat among the ruins. I hadn’t expected so many, given the ones I’d left behind.

They came to attention as I stepped into view, revealing their elaborate robes and beaded headdresses. Focused as I was on Balam’s scent, I didn’t care much for the onlookers, but even I noted the cultural mishmash. The jaguar element was the only common theme. Their colors and patterns and tattoos probably represented several thousand years of Mesoamerican cultures.

Poya stood two levels up on the ruined temple, watching over it all. She dripped gold and beaded bangles and wore a headdress made of animal teeth.

Quan stood on the level below, bare-chested, wearing an elaborate headdress of feathers and beads that added a foot to his already impressive height. His eyes glowed orange through the carved jaguar faceplate.

I scented Balam, but I couldn’t see him. I was done with all of them. “Where is he?”

“Inside.” Poya waved to the torch-lit arch behind her.

That was all I needed to know. I started for the steps, but the assembled tribesmen drew out their weapons.

“I will see my husband.” I pointed my spear at Poya. “Or should I defeat all of these so-called warriors as well?”

The crowd grumbled, but let them. I didn’t need to prove myself, but I certainly had.

“Only one warrior,” Poya said.

I hoped it was her.

Instead, Quan took a step forward.

“And if I kill your son?” She truly thought this was a game, and she played with her loved ones’ lives.

“Fight to capture.” Poya folded her arms, making her beads and feathers rattle. “The loser may claim the winner.”

“Fine,” I said through gritted teeth. The idea of “capture” was so vulgar that my stomach roiled, but so be it. Quan would be the toughest opponent of them all, and I wouldn’t let him stand in the way of my life with Panther, whatever that meant for his family. “I warned you.”

“You understand that Tequani can claim you?” Poya’s eyes narrowed.

“He won’t have the chance.” I leveled my spear.

“So confident?” Quan removed his headdress, setting it on a pile of crumbled stone. “What if I capture you?”

Exactly my advantage
. “My people only fight to kill.”

He tensed. “This is a trial. No more.”

“You don’t understand.” None of them did. Our people were so similar and yet so startlingly different. “I don’t have a halfway setting, Tequani.”

“A bluff,” Poya said from her perch.

Quan stared into my eyes, and finally nodded. “I understand. I want to test myself against you.”

I hoped Balam would forgive me if I killed his brother. “Very well.” I’d given reason a chance, and that was that. The shape of his body—broad shoulders, muscled arms, tight abdominals—and the way he held his spear, burned away my remaining control.

This
would be a fight.

Quan strode toward me with only his spear. We faced each other warily. Would he make the first move, or should I?

I wanted to see what he could do.

In a blink, his spear flicked out. I knocked it aside with my own, but my estimation of him rose.
Fast.

If I didn’t give my all, this was a fight I wouldn’t win.

I smiled. For a breath, Quan’s concentration faltered.

I stabbed out; he reacted, but too slowly. Instead of piercing his chest, the spear tip deflected across his arm, drawing a red line along his outer bicep.

Something between awe and horror lit his eyes, but he had asked for this.

Attack
.

I fell on him, my mind blanking to a series of motions. Dodge and lunge. Kick and spear. He swept my feet from under me, but I rolled away before he could take advantage.

I landed a slice across his other arm, but he got his spear under mine and yanked it from my grasp.

It sailed into the grass.

Tricky.

Quan pressed the advantage, but losing the weapon only made me faster. I danced away from him. When he lunged, I drew the spear between my arm and body, using my hip to snap the wooden pole.

Now we were even.

Quan’s eyes flickered, as he thought moves and moves ahead. That was why I’d beat him. I didn’t think.

I threw myself at him, bearing us both to the ground. He flipped me over, almost pinning me under his body weight, but I twisted my legs, turning us again. We rolled across the ground, neither gaining advantage.

I have to end this.

There.

The broken spear.

I grabbed it mid-motion. As we rolled again, I brought the obsidian tip to Quan’s jugular.

“Yield.” He met my gaze. “I yield.”

All I could do was stare at his pulse. That delicious, throbbing pulse.

Moving. His heart beating.

It would be so easy…

A drop of blood glided down the spear tip.

“
Ivory!”

That voice stole my attention. It always would.

Panther sprinted from the temple. I dropped the spear and he only had to cover half the distance between us.

I was already on my way to him.

We crashed together, arms twining each other’s bodies. His heart raced and perspiration slicked his dark skin.

“I am so sorry,” he whispered against my neck.

I relaxed into his warmth, letting his presence seep all the way to my soul. “You’re here now.” The adrenaline pumping through my body began to subside as I drank him in.

Panther pressed me so close I could hardly breathe, but I wouldn’t dare ask him to pull back. He pressed his forehead to mine. “What exactly did they do to you?”

“Took away my ice and forced me into a panther gauntlet.” It seemed not to matter now that he was here. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. All I got were the knock-out drugs.” His hands ran over me. “God, you’re warm. Are you sure you’re okay? You’re bleeding. Why are you bleeding?”

“Shh.” I pressed into him, hiding my wounds. “Apparently I’m an easy target when I don’t have my powers.”

Pan snorted. “I can guess how that went.”

“They tried.”
Not very successfully
.

He kissed me in a lingering press of lips, but pulled away too soon. “Let me handle some business here?”

“Please.”

He kissed my forehead and turned to his brother, muscles cording as his fists bunched. “I’m going to fucking kill you, Quan.”

“Can you?” Quan cracked his knuckles as a smile spread across his face. “Or would you rather fight me for her?”