Dark Possession

by Christine Feehan

Chapter Six

 

  Ghosts and shadows. She so didn't like the sound of that. MaryAnn rubbed her chin on the top of her knees. There was always an answer; she just had to use her brain.

  Manolito leaned in close-close enough to envelope her in his pure male scent, to warm her body and make her feel feminine and protected. She sent him a faint irritated glare. She was trying to think and didn't need her brain shorting out. His smile sent every electrical pulse sizzling and snapping throughout her body.

  "Tell me what wrong I have done you. I would not hurt you for the world. I know I was never unfaithful. Tell me, palafertul, and I will do whatever it takes to make this wrong up to you, not to get out of here myself, but because I would never want to wrong my lifemate in any way. "

  There was enough hurt in his voice, and concern, to turn her heart over. "Manolito, I honestly don't know

  what's going on, but you haven't had a chance to wrong me. I barely know you. I am not Carpathian. I live in Seattle and counsel battered women. That's how I met Destiny. We became friends, and through her, I ended up traveling to the Carpathian Mountains. "

  He frowned. "That cannot be so. You say you are human, yet you can do things only a Carpathian can do. You have much power, MaryAnn. I feel it surging within you even when you talk to me. You are reaching out to soothe me, to make me feel better. "

  She shook her head. "I'm human. My family is human. Everything about me is. I really, honestly just met you today. I saw you. " And thought you were so beautiful it hurt. She closed her eyes and leaned her head against his shoulder. "You scared the hell out of me. Everything about you is frightening, some of it, most of it, in a good way. "

  His kiss was the merest whisper of his lips over her cheekbone, but she felt it lodge right in her heart. "Why would I be frightening to you? You are the other half of my soul. " He looked puzzled.

  She had a mad desire to rub away the frown lines between his brows, but she resisted, curling her fingers together. "You wouldn't understand. " Because she wasn't all that attracted to men, not like this. Not so that she wanted to do anything and everything he asked. Nor so she couldn't breathe or think with wanting him. She liked her calm, controlled life. She wasn't in the least adventurous, in bed or out. Definitely not in. He was exotic and mysterious and oh, so dangerous. She was-well-just plain MaryAnn with her feet firmly on the ground. She didn't indulge in wild fantasies. Or obsessions, and Manolito could certainly be characterized as an obsession.

  Manolito swept his arm around her. "You have only to talk to me about your fears, ainaak sivamet jutta, and I will find a way to reassure you. I will get you out of here. We need to do so quickly, as the sun will be rising. When our bodies are in the realm of the living and our souls are in the meadow of mists, it is difficult to protect ourselves out in the open in the rain forest. "

  "Then take us to your home. If we're there, we won't have to worry so much about something big attacking our bodies. "

  "We must go to ground. The richest soil is the terra preta. Better to stay where the soil has a chance to rejuvenate us. "

  Her heart slammed hard in her chest. "I'm not Carpathian. I don't go to ground. I'd die if the earth covered me. My heart doesn't stop like yours does. Please, believe me when I tell you, I'm not Carpathian. "

  Manolito rubbed the bridge of his nose and regarded her through long lashes. "I know you feel our connection. I can read your thoughts much of the time, not because I'm invading your privacy, but because you're projecting them to me. " He sent her a small half smile. "You try to comfort me. I can feel your energy wrapping me up in warm arms and stroking me, reassuring me all will be well. "

  He was so close, all she had to do was lean in and kiss his sinfully sensual mouth. He was temptation sitting there, in the midst of danger and mystery. Wicked, shocking temptation. And she couldn't resist. MaryAnn pressed into him, crossing the scant inches that separated them until her lips brushed his. Just once. A slow savoring. Because if she was going to die, or stay in hell, she might as well get a taste of heaven while she was at it.

  His arms slid around her, and the earth dropped away along with her stomach. His mouth simply took her over. She hadn't known anyone could kiss like that. She tasted addiction and need. She tasted hunger and the biting edge of raw, carnal sex. For one terrible moment, either terrible or sheer ecstasy, she thought she might have an orgasm just from his kiss.

  "I can't breathe. " She didn't care if he knew how much she wanted him. Everything ached. Everywhere ached. There wasn't a single cell in her body that wasn't aware of him; aware of wanting-no-needing him. In that moment she knew no one else would ever satisfy her. She would crave this man's taste, his touch, his face and body, even his wicked smile. She would dream of him and lie awake at night needing him. It was a terrifying realization that her life was no longer her own and that with him, she had very little control.

  "Easy, sivamet, you are in good hands. "

  His voice was mesmerizing, every bit as sexy as his mouth. Strangely, he wasn't taking advantage; rather, he gathered her closer and held her protectively as if he knew her uninhibited and all-encompassing reaction to him scared her.

  "I'm out of my depth with you," MaryAnn admitted. She tried to breathe, tried not to hyperventilate, but she couldn't get her lungs to work. If it was possible, she thought she might actually be experiencing a panic attack over a kiss. Cool, unflappable MaryAnn was losing control over a man, and there wasn't even a sister close by to talk to. She was so out of her world here.

  "No, you are not," he said, the gentleness in his voice whispering over her skin. He kissed her again, breathing air into her lungs. "We are both in an unfamiliar situation. "

  She wanted to laugh at the understatement, but she was too close to tears. Not because of the danger, but because this man who needed to be with some glamorous movie star or model was looking as if he had eyes only for her. She didn't dare talk about it anymore.

  Lifting her chin, she brushed his sensual mouth one last time and took a deep breath. "Let's try for the house. I should be safe there. Riordan and Juliette have to go to ground like you, but Juliette told me that her sister and cousin use the house during the day when no one is there. With three of us there, we should be safe. Vampires can't walk around during the day, can they?"

  "No, but they often have puppets who do their dirty work for them. The jaguar-men have been tainted by their evil. "

  "How do you know?" MaryAnn took a cautious look around, aware that all the while Manolito had been kissing her, holding and comforting her, driving her wild, he had been scanning for enemies. She wasn't going to be able to resist his lovemaking if he ever got serious about it, but she really, really wanted the opportunity to try.

  "I met one of them, Luiz, not too far from here. He attacked me. When I reached for his mind to calm him, I knew the vampire had been influencing him. He actually was not a bad man at all. In other circumstances, perhaps we could have been friends. "

  "I felt his attack on you. I tried to stop it," she admitted. "How bad did he get you?" She frowned. "He wanted to kill you. "

  "It was brave of you to try to intervene, although you must never place yourself in harm's way. Trust me to take care of us. " He had felt her, for that one moment, standing between the leaping cat and him, and he had slammed his mind closed to prevent any injury to her, but he had felt proud of her and, most importantly, part of her. "A few scratches is all he managed. "

  He lifted his shirt to show his very muscular stomach. MaryAnn licked her lips. "I didn't think men were really built like you," she blurted out and then covered her face with one hand. He was holding the other one or she would have used that one, too.

  She was so shallow. That was it. Shallow. Because she was fixating on his six-pack, his ripped muscles, and how could she not notice the impressive bulge in the front of his jeans? He wasn't even trying to hide it. She should be thinking wounds and oh no and are
you all right? But no, she was thinking about stripping him naked and having her way with him. She hadn't always been shallow, so maybe it was the strange shadow land they seemed to be in. But while she was at it, she might as well go all the way. She glanced down at her once beautiful boots. Maybe she needed some thigh-highs and a good long whip to be in control of herself¨C or of him.

  "I'm reading your mind again. " There was male amusement in his voice.

  "Well good. Try to make some sense of it, because I'm not doing so well myself. Are you all right?" There. That was certainly appropriate. A little slow in coming, but she got it out there.

  The rain forest surrounded them, the water still pouring out of rocks and flowing into rivers. Everything appeared the same, yet different. Fouler. Much more frightening and strangely still. Before, when she'd first entered the forest, she had noticed it was quieter than she had thought it would be, but as she walked, she began to hear the cicadas and other insects, the cries of the birds, and wind and rain in the canopy. After a time, the forest seemed loud and filled with occupants, so that she didn't feel quite so alone. Now it seemed less vivid, drabber and dark, not so alive, and ominously quiet.

  Snakes slithered along the forest floor and coiled over twisted branches. Worms, leeches and ticks made the vegetation writhe and move as if alive. The beetles were large, with thick, hard shells, and the mosquitoes were ever present, searching endlessly for blood. The flowers gave off a rotten fragrance, and the scent of death seemed to cling to everything. But sometimes, when she blinked rapidly, or she thought about Manolito and how gorgeous he was, the rain forest was all vibrant color again. It made no sense, but it gave her hope that if she just took a little time, she-could unlock the secret to getting them both out of the shadows.

  "Take me back to the house. Can you find your way?"

  "I do not want to lead danger back to the others. "

  "If a vampire is hanging around the neighborhood, my guess is he knows all about the others. We're safer in numbers, especially if you aren't going to be with us. " The idea of him leaving her alone caused instant panic. Her throat swelled until air could barely get through to her lungs, but she refused to give in to fear. He was Carpathian and she was human. . .

  MaryAnn went rigid. "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. " She held up both hands, palms out as if she could block the information flowing into her. "Did you take my blood?"

  "Of course. "

  There was that puzzlement again, as if she was maybe not quite as bright as he'd expected. "And you think I'm the other half to your soul. Destiny told me that in your society the man can marry the woman without her consent and bind them together. Is that true? Did you do that to us?"

  "Of course. "

  MaryAnn scrubbed a hand over her face. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. "How many times does it take to convert a person to Carpathian?"

  "It takes three blood exchanges if they are not already Carpathian. "

  She bit down hard on the end of her thumb, memory flooding her. She looked down at her fingernail-the one she had broken earlier in the forest. It had grown to the length of the others and then some. All of her fingernails had grown. Sometimes that was a problem. She had to cut them often, but not daily. Maybe it was the Carpathian blood accelerating the growth. "How many times have you exchanged blood with me?"

  Her palm slid over the mark on her breast. It still throbbed and burned as if his mouth was on it. Why could she imagine that all of a sudden? Why was she so certain his mouth had been there? Why could she feel his mouth, burning like a brand, against her skin when his lips should never have been there? Not skin to skin. He had kissed her, slid his mouth over her; she still had a warm, wet spot on the nearly nonexistent lace of her bra. As sexy as it had been, it wasn't his mouth on her skin, so why was the memory suddenly so strong?

  "I would imagine many times. "

  She inhaled sharply. "You don't really know, do you? Manolito, if you don't know, and I don't know, we could be in real trouble. ! am not Carpathian. I was born in Seattle. I went to school there and then to Berkeley, in California. If it's true that you've exchanged blood with me, I know I haven't gone through the conversion. I would know if I had to sleep in the ground. I'm still just me. "

  "That cannot be so. I remember taking your blood, binding us together. You are a part of me. I cannot be mistaken. "

  She opened her mind and memories to him. "I'm telling the truth when I say I haven't met you before. It's the truth that I saw you at a party in the Carpathian Mountains, but we were never formally introduced. I am physically attracted, but I don't know you at all. " Okay, wildly physically attracted, but this was serious and she could overlook it-she hoped. Everything was falling into place. The things Riordan and Juliette had told her were beginning to make sense. Her heart thudded hard.

  He was silent, assessing her memories of him, dwelling a little too long over the one he found of a man coming into her house and attacking her. He felt the lengthening of his sharp teeth and the demon within roaring for release. Very carefully, he hid his reaction. She was coping with enough, and if he had somehow brought her into his life without her knowledge-or his-raging like he wanted to because she hadn't been safe would only make things worse.

  "If what you say is true, MaryAnn, then how is it we are lifemates? Speaking the ritual words cannot connect two people who arc not one. I could say them to every woman I met, but it would do me no good. "

  "Maybe you made a mistake," she ventured. "Maybe we aren't really connected. "

  "I see in color. I feel emotions. I can think of no other woman but you. I want no other woman. I recognize your soul. We are lifemates. " His voice was firm, brooking no argument.

  MaryAnn couldn't find an argument. While it was true that she didn't know everything about Carpathian life, she knew enough that the possibility was strong. Judging by her reaction to him alone, she had to admit it was probable. "All right. Say we are lifemates, Manolito. You say you wronged me in some way and that is why you're stuck here. Why do you think that?"

  His thumb slid up the back of her hand, stroking tiny caresses over the silky smooth skin. He bent his head to nibble the pad of her thumb while he thought about it, the gesture automatic, sexy, burning through her with ease. "I felt like I was being judged for something I had done to you. I should know if I wronged you. "

  "I should know, too," she conceded, trying not to react to the feeling of his teeth scraping erotically over her thumb. How could such a small thing be felt in the pit of her stomach? Or make her womb clench? Or her

  breasts feel swollen and achy? There was no way she could ever let this man touch her in a bedroom. She'd never get over it.

  "I'm reading your mind again. "

  "You do that a lot. " She wasn't going to apologize. "Stop being so sexy. I'm trying to think here. One of us has to get us out of here. " She sent him a smoldering look from under her lashes, but he only grinned at her, his smile sending need skittering over her body as easily as his caresses had. She was in trouble. Big trouble. Huffing out her breath, she pulled her gaze away from his, determined to find a way to free them.

  "Could that be the wrong, Manolito, because tying us together without my consent and taking my blood without my knowledge shouldn't be okay by anyone's standards. Maybe you need to feel remorse in order for us to get out of here. "

  "I can say I feel sorry for claiming my lifemate, but it would not be true. "

  She sighed. "You aren't exactly getting into the spirit of the thing here. If we want out of this shadow world and you somehow wronged me, shouldn't we be figuring out what you did?"

  "The wrong cannot be binding us together. That is a natural act for a Carpathian male. I would be wrong not to bind our souls. I would turn vampire and you would eventually die of heartache. "

  She snorted. "Of heartache? I don't even know you. " But she'd grieved for him. Cried for him. Had been clinically depres
sed and now she was feeling hot and bothered and exhilarated in spite of the fact that she was surrounded by ghouls and insects and spiders the size of dinner plates. She tried again to make him understand. "What if I was married? You didn't even wait to find out. I could have been. " Because a lot of men thought she was fine.

  His fingers tightened around her and tiny flames leapt in his eyes. "There is only one man for you. "

  "Well maybe you were late in coming. The point is, I could have been married. I had a life before you came along and I liked that life. No one has the right to turn someone else's life upside down without that person's consent. " She forced herself to look into his eyes. "I don't love you. "

  His eyes went very black, liquid heat, turning her inside out and stealing reason along with her ability to breathe. "That may be, ainaak enyem, but it cannot change what is. You are my lifemate, the other half of my soul, as I am yours. We are meant to be together. I must find a way to make you fall in love with me. " He leaned close, so that she felt the warmth of his breath on her skin, so that when he whispered to her, she felt the brush of his lips, soft and firm and tempting, over hers. "Rest assured, palafertul, that I will focus my complete attention in that direction. "

  Her heart went crazy, pounding and slamming so hard she thought she might have a heart attack. "You're lethal. And you know it, too, don't you? Were there other women? Maybe that's your big wrong. " And the thought set her teeth on edge, even though it was silly. He hadn't known her, he still didn't, but reason didn't seem to enter into her emotions. That strange wild thing hiding deep within her began to awaken and stretch, raking with sharpened claws at the inside of her belly.

  Horrified, MaryAnn jumped up, yanking her hand away from his She was buying into this entirely. The nonexistent shadow world. The lifemate of a man she didn't know. A species that dealt with vampires and mages. Nothing made sense in this world, and she didn't want to be there. She wanted Seattle, where the rain came down to clear the air and the world was right.

  MaryAnn felt Manolito's restraining fingers circling her wrist, hut when she looked down at his hand, it was gray. She blinked. All around her, the rain forest was vivid and bright, the colors so brilliant they nearly hurt her eyes. The sound hit her then, the continual drone of insects, the rustle in the leaves and the shifting of animals moving through the underbrush as well as the canopy overhead. She swallowed hard and looked around her. The water was pure and clean and rushing with enough force to sound like thunder.

  She reached for Manolito, clutched him to her, afraid she would lose him. His form seemed solid enough, but there was something not right about his response, as if part of him was otherwise occupied. "I think I just did something. "

  "You are fully back where you belong," Manolito said, relief in his voice. "We need to get you to safety before the sun comes up. You may not be Carpathian, MaryAnn, but with at least two blood exchanges, you will suffer the effects of the sun. "

  "Tell me what's happening. " She hadn't liked that other world, but being alone in this one was terrifying. "I don't want to be separated from you. "

  The anxiety in her voice turned his heart over. "I would never leave you, especially not when danger surrounds us. I can fully protect you even with my spirit locked in this world. "

  "What if I can't protect you?" she asked, her dark eyes filled with trepidation.

  Manolito pulled her close to him to try to comfort her. Even as he did, the ground beneath him heaved and a huge plant burst through the soil close to his feet. Tentacles slithered across the ground, searching even as the middle of the bulb opened and a yawning mouth gaped wide, revealing thick tubes topped with poisonous stigma, sticky knobs waving toward him, trying to touch his skin.

  "Watch the ground, MaryAnn," he warned, whipping his arms around her and leaping back. He landed ten feet from the seeking plant, scanning quickly to pickup signs of an enemy. His senses didn't work as well in the shadow world, but he feared whatever happened to him here could very well mirror what happened in the other world.

  "What is it?" She raked the ground with sharp eyes, her vision clearing entirely so that she almost felt as if she was seeing in an entirely different way. She could see Manolito, but whatever attacked him in that world she couldn't focus on. She saw it as blurring shadows, something nightmares were made of, insubstantial and eerie. His arms were fading, as if he was being pulled more and more into the other world.

  "Don't let go of me!" She tried to grab his shirt, but she felt him letting go of her mind. She hadn't even known he'd been in it, but once he was no longer there, his form became nearly transparent.

  "I cannot allow you in danger here. We do not know what can happen in this realm. You are safer where you are while I deal with this. "

  "What is 'this'?" She yelled it, called him, implored him, but he was gone, other than that wavering shadow flicking in and out among the shrubbery, until even that was gone and she was alone.

  Fearful, mouth dry, heart pounding, MaryAnn looked around her. No matter how hard she wished it away, the rain forest surrounded her. She swallowed hard and backed up a few more steps, her heels sinking into muddy water. Leaves and aquatic vegetation hid the shallow channel she'd accidentally stepped into. Water and mud were everywhere.

  The rain poured down, making its way through the canopy to pepper the forest floor. Leaves rustled and

  something moved in the water. She wrapped her fingers tightly around the canister of pepper spray and tugged it from her belt loop.

  "Great time to disappear," she whispered aloud, spinning in a circle, trying to see around her.

  The branch overhead shook, and she tilted her head to look upward. She could see a snake looking down at her through the leaves. She swore her blood froze in her veins. For a moment she couldn't move, staring up at the thing, mesmerized. A hard tug at her ankle yanked her back to reality. Teeth bit through her boot and into her skin. She gasped, instinctively trying to pull her foot out of the water, but a snake with a very broad head held her while its long, thick body coiled around her legs, preventing movement.

  She screamed. It was pure terror, a reflexive action she couldn't have stopped if she'd wanted to. In her wildest imagination, she had never been attacked by a hundred-pound anaconda. She tried frantically to get to the head, hoping if she sprayed the pepper spray she'd have a chance, but the body seemed endless, without a head or tail.

  Already she could feel it crushing her bones. Panic wasn't far away, and deep inside, the wildness that she kept locked up so tight began once again to unfurl.

  "Hold still! Don't fight. " The command was sharp, the voice unfamiliar.

  MaryAnn clutched the pepper spray and forced her body to quit lighting. 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. "

  "Than
ks 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¨C 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 continual 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.