“I know I told you not to move.” Santos said, hands on his naked hips.
“I should go.” Ria didn’t look at him.
“What the hell for?” Santos retorted. “You’re my mate, not some fuck and run.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?”
His lips parted, snapped back shut. His chest heaved on a deep breath. “I’d like to talk with you more. Learn more about you.”
She stared at him through narrowed eyes. “Like what?”
Strong shoulders lifted in a shrug. “Like how much blood you need.”
Nothing like getting to the crux of the matter. Couldn’t he have wanted to know her favorite color or food instead? “Don’t you think that an odd topic of conversation while we’re naked?”
A wicked smile paired with dark eyes that caressed her body from head to toe. “No topic is odd when we’re naked.”
Her thighs clenched at the lazy, seductive tone. She absolutely hated her body’s reaction to him. Hated it. And yet, she didn’t. Because if she hated it so much, she would have been out the door a long time ago.
Defeated by her own physical wants.
“It depends on what I’m doing or if I’m under a lot of stress. About a pint a week. Too much and I’ll go into bloodlust. Like being drunk, only worse.”
“You’ll only take my blood from now on.” A warning that made her spine stiffen.
Shoving her arms into her shirt, she rose to her feet, not so defeated anymore. “Demands do not make me compliant, Santos. They only piss me off.”
He let out a sound of frustration. “I have a powerful thirst for you, kitten, and sometimes my need gets ahead of my mouth.”
She stepped into her pants. “Then maybe you should apply some duct tape over it. I’ve found a good roll of duct tape solves many a problem.”
“Ria.” His soft rasp drew her gaze. He stood, in all his naked glory, hands digging into his flesh, eyes closed as if in agony, and she had the strangest feeling she could seriously hurt this man, do irrevocable damage to him by simply walking out the door.
It would be a rejection on the deepest of levels. A soul crushing pain that would never end, a shredded pride that never healed. She knew that kind of scarring, and would never wish its kin on anyone, much less this powerful male standing before her, obviously struggling with pride, anger and the possessiveness that ruled all alpha shifters.
“Stay.” There was something in that single word she’d never heard before, and in his eyes she saw a bleak shadow pass through. “Please.”
It was a stab to the heart. Fingers tightening on her shoes, she had a moment of acute clarity. This decision would alter her life forever. If she left, she might very well break them both, but if she stayed, if she took that leap of trust, she just might find her way home.
Home.
The idea was no longer a fantasy, but a very real possibility. And it would all begin with her.
A long pause. A swipe of her tongue over dry lips. Her chest constricted, then loosened. “All right.”
Chapter Twenty
The next morning everyone gathered in the dining room. After a chaotic discussion, it was decided that Rome, Gwen and Lance – due to his sprained wrist and now itching arm as his burn healed – would remain at the tunnel entrance while Santos, James, Ria and Porter would venture inside.
Loaded down with ropes, hooks, gloves, flashlights, medical kit, towels, water, gas masks, two shotguns, wielded by James and Porter, and anything else the rangers insisted they needed, along with a cooler of snacks and enough water to douse a small forest fire, the group of seven drove out to the reserve gate and hiked the rest of the way in.
After James checked everyone’s pack one last time – obsessive-compulsive much? – and the group chugged down more water, though Ria stayed with her chai tea thank you Annie, the foursome finally set off.
The tunnel was solid rock all the way around and as the group traversed farther in, stones of varying size started to appear on the ground, scattered as if tossed carelessly about. Picking one up, Ria examined the green, blue and white colors that reflected back from her flashlight.
“Now I know where the stones for the steps came from.” She flipped the smooth rock over in her hands as they walked. “Wonder why they didn’t use the same for the walls.”
“Not enough of them?” Porter suggested at her back.
“Watch your heads.” Santos ordered from the front line.
An outcropping jutted from the ceiling, not low enough for anyone to duck, but it made Ria understand James’s demand of the ugly helmet she wore on her head. Not that Santos or Porter wore one. Both had sneered at the yellow, lighted hats and turned away in disgust. At least Santos carried a flashlight, not that he needed it, not with those cat eyes of his. The walkie-talkie on his belt sputtered to life. “What?”
“Just checking in.” Rome’s voice came through, sprinkled with static.
“We’re fine Suzy. Don’t get your panties in a knot.”
“Don’t give a shit about you. Just making sure Ria and James are good.”
“What part of ‘fine’ do you not understand?” Santos handed the walkie-talkie to James who followed directly behind him and in front of Ria. “Deal with him.”
“It’s quite embarrassing,” Porter muttered dryly, “how Santos dotes on us.”
Ria clamped her lips tight to keep from smiling.
Limestone was prevalent, and as they walked, the size of the tunnel expanded and contracted, but never short enough that anyone had to stoop.
“There’s plenty of air.” James commented after several minutes. “That’s a good thing.”
Ria heard Porter inhale. “It doesn’t smell stale so there must be another opening somewhere.”
“Do you see anything, Santos?” Ria called out.
“Rock.”
She rolled her eyes. The man was taking his point position a little too seriously. “Thanks. That’s helpful.”
James and Porter chuckled and they continued on in silence, dodging the occasional rock pile.
“Is it my imagination or are we going up?” Ria mused out loud.
“We’re definitely going up. We’ve also turned southeast.” James responded, checking his compass.
“How far do you think we’ve gone?” She asked.
“About a mile.” Santos answered. “And it looks like we’ve reached a stopping point.”
As he spoke, the tunnel poured out into a large cavity.
“Oh, wow,” Ria breathed as the group entered the cavern. Beams of light swung in every direction, revealing rough rock walls in alternating shades of black, brown and white. Stalactites protruded from the ceiling, their sisters rising from the ground in slender points. It wasn’t a huge cave, maybe a thousand square feet with the ceiling rising four feet overhead, but it was magnificent, and very empty of anything resembling a pirate’s treasure.
It was also quite chilly. She considered taking out the jacket from her pack when she saw James stumble. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good. I guess I need to quit ogling the walls and point my light where my feet are.”
Porter flashed his light in front of Jason’s feet. “Ground’s uneven.”
James flashed his light in Porter’s smirking face. “Smartass.”
“Just trying to help.”
As the two bickered good-naturally, Ria sidled up to the closest wall, trailing her fingers over the bone-dry, rough stone. It only took a minute to flash her light over the perimeter. “I don’t see another exit.”
“Me either.” Santos moved to her side. “But the air is tinged with a hint of seawater, and like Porter said, it’s not stale. There’s got to be a crevice or fracture in the wall somewhere.” He brushed a finger down her nose. “Watch your step.”
He stalked off and took the walkie-talkie back from James, flicking it on. “We found a cave.” As he described it to Rome, Ria’s eyes caught on a sparkling vein in the wall and
she went to investigate.
Quartz? She rubbed at the colorless spot.
“Say again?” Santos asked, static filling the air. The sharp question brought Ria’s head around and she focused her light just off to his side so she wouldn’t blind him. “Is something wrong?”
Rome’s voice broke through the bad connection. “Gwen’s not...well. Dizzy.”
“Maybe she’s pregnant.” Porter quipped from across the cave.
“Uh,” James cut in. “I don’t think so. I’m not feeling so good either.” With that the man started to waver and would have fallen if Porter hadn’t loped to his side in a heartbeat. Setting him to the hard ground, Porter glanced over at Santos. “What the hell?”
“Lance seems to be okay, ...not right.” Rome’s voice came through slurred.
With creased lines of concern marring his face, Santos surveyed the cave, drawing in lungfuls of air. “It can’t be the air. Ria?”
She turned in a slow circle, scanning the walls, the ceiling, the ground. “I’m fine. No dizziness, no nausea. If it originated in here, we would have felt the affects first, not Gwen or Rome. Besides, he said Lance was okay.”
“James did.”
They both looked over to where Porter was checking the ranger out. “His pulse is strong, his breathing steady. It’s like he just fainted.” Porter went to rise to his feet, tottered, and fell back on his butt. “Oh, shit.”
Santos and Ria raced over. “What? Tell me how you’re feeling.” Ria demanded.
“Like I’m drunk.” Hands on the sides of his head, Porter lifted unfocused eyes. “Room’s spinning. Legs and arms feel tingling. Weak. Just need to lay down a bit.”
“Get out of here, kitten.” A rough order. “I’ll get Porter and come back for James.”
No way in hell was she bailing on him. “No. I’m not leaving you.”
“I can’t carry you both.”
“And I told you I’m fine.” Her heart stuttered when he took several steps back and shook his head like a wet dog. One hand went to his brow. “Santos?”
Stopping his sideways tumble with one outstretched hand on the rocky wall, he eased his body down. Ria bounded over Porter’s outstretched legs. “Oh, God. Santos. Come on. Get up.”
“Drug.”
The single word was so thick she could barely understand. She ripped off her helmet and, putting her hands on his cheeks, tilted his face up. “What? A drug?”
He didn’t answer, only stared blindly through dull eyes, terrifying her. “Dammit, Santos. What do you mean drug?”
His lashes fell and her heart shattered. “Santos?” She shook him violently. “Santos?”
“Not dead. Drugged. Feel exhausted. Can’t keep my eyes open.” His body went limp, his head on her breast. “Get Dad.”
Panic set in and she had to shove her way past it to think. Pressing his head to her shoulder, she rocked, indecisive. She didn’t want to leave him, but even with her enhanced strength, she couldn’t carry him out. Not in her arms or over her shoulder. He was simply too big. As were Porter and James.
She fumbled for her phone, praying for reception, yet unsurprised to see she had no signal. With no choice, she made Santos as comfortable as possible on the cave floor by wadding her jacket under his head. Sobs wanted to rise in the back of her throat as she lay her lips to his. “I’ll be right back, baby.” She ran her hand over his hair several times before forcing herself to stand and abandon the man who’d insinuated himself not only in her head, but into her heart.
Flashlight in one hand, her phone in the other, she careened headlong down the tunnel, intending to contact the b&b the second she cleared the rocks. Between the pounding of her heart and the echo of her footsteps, she almost missed the sound of others coming her way.
Hope soared. “Rome?” Shoving her phone in her pocket, she adjusted her light up, freezing in her steps when the beam landed on three men she’d never seen before in her life. Each one held a flashlight as well and she was momentarily blinded by the searing intensity when they all converged on her face. “Who the hell are you?”
Thankfully they lowered their lights and a blonde with ice blue eyes curled his lips in a nasty grin. “The one who will be taking the treasure. Now,” before her brain could process his words, he lifted his hand, and a gun, in her direction. “Turn around please.”
Saying she had a bad feeling was an understatement. “How did you get in here?”
“Inside help.”
Ria blinked. “What’s that supposed to mean?” She couldn’t let these men get to the cave. Not when Santos lie helpless. And the blonde? He wasn’t human. She knew that without a doubt. He didn’t have that aura of earthy power that she felt around the Felix males so he wasn’t a shifter. He did, however, carry a cool energy that she was very familiar with.
She’d lived with it for years. This man was a vampire.
“Exactly what I said. Everyone must have been extremely thirsty after their hike. Except you it seems.”
Her face puckered in confusion until she recalled how everyone had been guzzling down bottles of water, except Ria. She’d finished off Annie’s special chai tea.
She goggled. “You drugged the water bottles?”
The blonde looked offended. “Personally? No. Instructed. Definitely. Now. Turn. A. Round.”
Ria gulped and turned around, heading back toward the cave as slow as she could. With their faster metabolism and quicker healing abilities, Santos, Porter and Rome may not be out long, depending on how much water they actually drank. If the drug incapacitated rather than killed, all she needed to do was stall and give the cats time to shake off the effects.
“Faster.” She was prodded in the back by the gun. “I don’t have all day.”
She quickened her pace. Slightly. “Why did you have the water drugged?”
“Because I needed a window of opportunity.”
“For what?”
An exasperated sigh. “You’re not real smart, are you? Makes me wonder how you got away from Trenton. I needed everyone out of the way so I could get through security and get to the treasure.”
Her lip curled in a snarl, but as the asshole was at her back, it was lost on him. “You’re the reason I was attacked at the airport?”
“Yes. When I heard you were going alone to the airport, I decided it was the perfect time to ask you some questions.”
“Ask me questions?” Her voice pitched high. “That bastard was going to rape me.”
“Hmm.” A considering sound. “Yes. I can see why Trenton would want to take a little extra time with you. However, his inability to handle one lone female made me reconsider his worth.”
Which meant the blonde had no idea what Ria was. “You killed him.” It wasn’t a question.
“A necessary task.”
While she wasn’t particularly saddened at that, the ease at which the blonde meted out retribution didn’t bode well for Ria and the others. Her gut twisted with regret. She didn’t want to die, not when she’d just been given the gift of belonging. To a man. A home. A family.
Anger blazed in her eyes at that. Someone in that home, in that family had betrayed them all. “Who did it?”
Someone snorted behind her but it was the vamp that said in a condescending tone, “Not smart at all. I did.”
Her hand curled tighter around her flashlight. She was about to hit him with it, the potential for receiving a bullet sooner rather than later be damned. “You said you had inside help to drug the water. Who?” Though she already had a suspicion, she wanted confirmation on the traitor’s identity.
“Sarah, of course. That sweet little piece will do anything I ask. Probably take her own life if I wanted it.” A gruff laugh spiked with a tinge of insanity. “Now that her usefulness is at an end, I just might do that.”
Nice. And she thought her family was psychotic.
Chapter Twenty-one
“Ah. Here we are.”
When she had bolted the cave, she had
left the flashlights where they had fallen. Now, their beams formed streams of light that threw the ground in sharp relief even as deep shadows hugged the walls. The coolness of the cavern invaded to blend with the icy cold dread racing in her veins and she shivered. The blonde remained behind her while the other two men flanked him. Ria slanted her eyes to James, and specifically to his shotgun, before turning and backing away. She had no idea where Porter’s gun was and didn’t have time to look for it.
“Uh-huh. Don’t go far.”
She acted terrified. Not a difficult task. “You’re blocking the only exit. How far can I go?”
He waved the gun in thought. “True. Take care of the shifters.”
Confusion at the command turned to apprehension when the two goons approached Santos and Porter. “What are you doing? And what do you mean shifters?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
Her eyes narrowed as each man took out a simple metal cuff and clicked them around the right leg of both Santos and Porter.
No way.
“I research myths and have rooted out countless legends.” She couldn’t quite keep the urgency out of her voice. “I doubt anything you have to say would surprise me. And do you seriously need to keep that gun pointed at me?”
Ignoring her last question, the blonde said, “The men of this particular family aren’t human. They’re shifters.” The word came out in a disgusted sneer. “Part human, part animal. What you have here are jaguar shifters. Filthy beasts. Deadly, unpredictable creatures. Believe me?”
Ria swallowed. “I admit I’ve heard that term before, and as you’re holding a gun on me, I believe that you believe it.”
The man shook his head as if wondering how he got stuck with her, but he tucked the gun away in his boot. “Happy?”
“No.” Though she felt a little less alarmed. His foot was a long way off from his hand. “Where’d you find the cuffs.”
“We obtained them from a deep, dark place in Alaska. The previous owner won’t be needing them anymore.”
Drawing Deep Page 18
