by Kym Dillon
He grinned at her with real humor, and she wondered again at his spirit and his heart that could keep them going when she was all but ready to stop and to collapse from sheer weariness.
"There's also a chance I did nothing beyond confuse a very nervous and now-traumatized fish," he said gravely.
For some reason, that made Jessica laugh, and once she started, she couldn't stop. She sat down on the ground, covering her face and shaking her head. Marcus waited patiently for her sobs of laughter to subside, but when they showed no sign of doing so, he simply sat down next to her.
Eventually, the hilarity left her, and Jessica shook her head, looking at him with a fond smile.
"Whatever life with you is like, Marcus," she said, "it is definitely not dull."
Jessica would never have said that life in the jungle, trying to walk away from a plane crash, was dull, and it wasn't, but over the next few days, she found it surprisingly peaceful. Despite her fears and Marcus's, his enemies made no appearance again, and even if she twitched whenever the underbrush shook, there were no wild snake women to emerge and try to kill her again.
Their days settled into a pattern, long walks interspersed with breaks, and at night, Marcus would string her up in the trees to sleep.
"Like a ham you want to keep away from the bears," she said a little ruefully.
"You are at least as valuable to me as a Virginia ham," he responded gravely. "Although there is one big difference."
She eyed him through the dim twilight. Once she was safe, he would descend and hunt. In the morning, by the time she woke up, there was often food cooking, and though she found that she was hungry more often than she might have wished, she was not starving.
"One big difference between me and a large chunk of roasted salted pork? This I have to hear."
The look he shot her was sharp with more teeth than she thought she had seen. There was something hungry about it that shook her a little, but instead of repelling her, it drew her in. She would have called it animal magnetism if she didn't want to be too pat, but there it was.
"Well, if you were a ham, I would have been nibbling you along every stop this trip."
"Well, I think you know all you need to about eating me," she muttered with a hot blush. The words brought to mind pictures of his skilled mouth venturing low on her body, teasing out sensations that she had never thought she was capable of. Right now, once again, Jessica could tell that that was exactly what was on Marcus's mind. If they were on the ground, there was no telling what they might be doing together right now. Jessica was growing to trust the hammock to carry her weight, but she didn't think that she would trust it to handle her weight and Marcus's at the same time, let alone if they tried something more energetic than just sleeping.
Marcus laughed as if he could read her mind, and then in a dizzying display of athleticism, he hopped onto a nearby branch to lean in and give her a kiss. It didn't matter that she was dozens of feet up in the air, or that there was really nothing between her and the hard ground. The kiss warmed her, and when he pulled away, she only sighed with regret.
"Be good," he said with a wink. "I'm off to hunt. Possibly I’ll bring you wild fowl of some kind for breakfast."
Then he was gone, and no matter how hard Jessica listened, she could never hear more than the softest thump of his panther's body hitting the ground.
The rattling pack of testing and sampling equipment reminded her of the dire nature of her mission, but otherwise, there was something almost idyllic about their trek. She missed the comforts of her life before less than she thought she had, and there was a tiny part of her that suggested that perhaps she would not mind doing this forever.
Jessica pushed that thought down whenever it came up. It was ridiculous. She wasn't in Africa to get a boyfriend, dammit. She was here to save lives, and a distraction like Marcus certainly didn't have a place in her world, not really.
When she looked ahead to a time when she would have to split her path from his, it made something in her heart tear, but she ignored it. She was a woman with a mission, and from what he had told her about his sword, he had a mission of his own.
Our paths are the same for the moment. We should walk together as long as we can and then... then it will be over."
That morning, she was not thinking of missions or anything more important than navigating the steep path in front of them without falling and breaking an ankle. Jessica was trying to find the best way to descend the slope, Marcus below and watching her intently, when she heard a soft buzzing roar.
"What the hell," she murmured, but there was more exasperation than fear in her voice. The swarm of mosquitoes seemed to rise up around her like smoke, sudden and thick, and she clamped her mouth shut to avoid swallowing any.
"What's the matter?" Marcus asked, suddenly concerned, and she waved at him to tell him she would be right down.
She wasn't overly worried. She was inoculated against the worst of what mosquitoes had to offer, and mosquitoes were typically sluggish during the day, uninterested in even the most easy-going of hosts. She concentrated on climbing down towards Marcus, who seemed to be getting more agitated by the moment.
It was true that these mosquitoes were more aggressive than she was used to. They seemed intent on following her, on trying to alight on her limbs. Of course, they were still incredibly light and fragile insects, and a single swipe of her arm knocked a good half-dozen spinning away.
She knew that she had not gotten off Scot-free. She had suffered at least a small handful of bites, but that was a small price to pay for getting through the jungle of Tanzania, she figured.
"All right, I'm ready to go," she said once she had made it to level ground again. "Did you get bitten at all?"
Marcus was still looking up the path where the pests had come from, and he shook his head.
"Not at all."
"Lucky," she said with a grimace. "I guess you're one of those people who don't really draw mosquitoes."
"That's not it," he said.
She might have questioned Marcus more, but then they were back on the trail. He had told her that they were getting close to some of the human habitations he could smell. Their scents were present all the time rather than just when the wind was right, and though she knew that rushing would be worse than dawdling, Jessica couldn't stop herself from walking just a little faster, hoping to get to a place where she could discharge her mission, offer the help that she had.
"Hey, wait, you're walking really fast," Marcus said, and Jessica glanced back at him with humor.
"Oh, are you wearing out a little?" she teased.
"That'll be the day when a little human female can best me," he retorted, quickening his pace to match hers. If Jessica had been paying attention, she might have noticed that there was a flash of concern that went through his eyes, but she was too intent on the path ahead.
When twilight began to close in, Jessica groaned in frustration.
"God, we're never going to get anywhere," she said, gazing into the deepening shadows with irritation. "I don't suppose you've got eyes that can see into the dark and that you can just... I don't know, keep leading us, can you?"
Marcus shot her a look that was distinctly unamused.
"I can, but I won't. If I led you into that, you'd probably fall and twist your ankle after only dozen steps. Just because I can see a clear path doesn't mean that you can."
Jessica felt as if she might cry with frustration as she set her pack down.
"I hate this," she whispered. She felt as if her entire body was covered with sweat and grim. She would have paid an easy ten grand if she could just push her way out of her skin. "I can't stand this."
"I'll be honest, I'm not too fond of it myself," Marcus said grimly.
To her surprise, he came to sit next to her, taking her hand in his. For a moment, she thought he might kiss her, and then she shocked herself with the sudden and intense anger at the thought.
If he tries to ki
ss me, I'm going to slug him, she thought grimly, and then she was shocked at herself. Even when the trail was at its worst, she had not gotten angry at Marcus's touch. There was bright and shiny aggressive layer of glass between herself and the rest of the world, and right now, she was realizing how very foreign it was.
Marcus nodded as if he could hear her thoughts.
"Your pulse is up, and your skin is burning. You look a bit as if you want to bite my head off."
"I wouldn't," she protested, but he shook his head.
"If it would make you feel better, I would let you bite the hell out of me," he said. "As it is, I'm worried. I think those mosquitoes gave you something nasty."
"I know about every disease that incubates between here and South Africa," she protested, "and I've been inoculated against..."
"You don't," Marcus said, and she was feeling far too worked up to hear the worry and the raw fear in his voice. "Jessica, I need you to sit down and to take several deep breaths..."
When had she gotten to her feet? Jessica knew that he was right about the pulse because right now, she felt as if she had run a marathon. Her body was drenched with exhaustion, but there was a nervous energy that vibrated through it, making her shiver with a need to be away from here, to be moving, to be acting.
"Let's keep walking," she said, almost begged. "I want to keep walking, I mean, the sooner we find people, the sooner I can rest, right? I want to keep going..."
She didn't wait to hear Marcus's response. Instead, she spun away from him, intent on starting down that trail with or without him. She did not think of the dangers of the night or the uneven terrain, all she knew was that if she didn't keep moving, she might die...
Marcus's hand around her wrist felt like an iron manacle, and she cried out at how cold his grasp was. It nearly hurt, but even as she tugged, he refused to let her go. Her exhausted mind crossed over from panic into rage, and she spun towards him.
There was a torrent of poison on her mouth that she was ready to unleash on him, but then her vision swam as if she was underwater. It felt like the ground was falling away, and somehow, her feet had stayed with it as her head was catapulted towards the clouds. She was moving fast, her stomach roiling with unease as she went, and all that was stable in the world was Marcus, watching her, his face pale and worried.
"You... you might be right..." Jessica got out, and then she collapsed.
10
When he thought back to that night much later, Marcus would remember it as being one of the longest nights of his life. In the lavender light of evening, he watched in shock as Jessica collapsed in on herself like a house of cards, as if every bone in her body had disconnected from its neighbor. He caught her before she hit the ground. In his arms, she felt light and impossibly hot, as if all of the essence that made her who she was had evaporated straight out of her slight body.
Her bright, clear eyes opened wide for a moment, and he saw her shape his name with her lips. Then her eyes rolled back in her head, and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was no natural illness.
He thought of the people chasing him, and for a moment, Marcus wanted nothing more than to find and slaughter every single one of them. He was a warrior by nature, and his instincts rode high and hot for a moment. Then common sense reasserted itself, and he knew that he had to take care of Jessica.
He gathered her in his arms, and with the sure step and certain vision of his animal nature, he walked into the forest. Less than half an hour later, he had found what he needed, a small cave rising out of the forest floor. The opening was barely taller than his shoulder, the inside of the cave not much higher, but it was deep enough, and what he had prayed for. The debris told him that other animals had used it as home, but they were gone now.
Marcus couldn't leave her in a hammock in this state. He would need to stay with her, and that meant going to ground. He made her a bed of fallen branches covered with a blanket of fronds, and then wove her a bower out of tall sticks and mosquito netting. When he was done, Marcus tried not to focus on how much she looked like Sleeping Beauty behind the swathes of gauze, beautiful and perfectly still.
Marcus went to the cave mouth and took a deep breath. He had wanted to avoid this if at all possible. They weren't his people. They weren’t his enemies, but in the distant past, their people and his had quarreled, and while there was no bad blood, there was no strong affection either.
It didn't matter. He would have to take the risk.
He lifted his head up to the sky, which was now a deep and velvet blue. He could have made this call in his panther shape. From his human mouth, it came out harsher, less nuanced, but no less desperate, no less demanding. For a long moment, he heard the echoes of his scream recede and this disappear. Nothing happened, but he wondered what he could have expected.
Marcus dragged large branches across the front of the cave, and created a banked fire to act as a barrier. It would keep them warm, it would ward off most natural enemies, and it allowed him to see the woman he loved. At that moment, risk or not, he wasn't sure that he would be able to take his eyes off of her. He joined her under the netting, and almost instinctively, she reached for him. Her eyes were closed, but she stirred fitfully. There was a strange scent rising from her, almost sticky sweet, and it gave him more evidence that this was no natural aliment. There were demons yammering at the back of his mind, telling him what might happen to her if he could not get her help, if he could not save her, but he savagely shut them up.
She had soaked the clothes that she was wearing with sweat, and after a moment of indecision, he stripped them from her body. There was a mostly clean cloth in his bag, and after soaking it in water from the canteen, he started to bathe her. The water was only lukewarm, but she still cried out piteously at the shock to her skin, and Marcus bit his lip as he held her still.
He could feel his male body responding to her nudity, and while he would never touch her while she was not awake to consent to it, he was forced to acknowledge the hold she had over him. There was a bond between them that was made of more than just their circumstances. He would have felt like this if they had met in the largest city in the world, at the top of a mountain or the bottom of the sea. Somehow, his heart had left his body and entered that of the pale and trembling woman in his arms.
"I love you," he murmured, bathing her fevered limbs over and over again. "I love you, Jessica, don't leave me..."
She wept thin tears in her delirium, shuddering and whispering his name. He knew that she was unconscious, but whenever she said his name, he felt a moment of tortured pleasure mingled with satisfaction.
It seemed to take hours, but finally, she was still, sleeping a restless but finally quiet sleep. Marcus settled down next to her, watching the fire as it burned, looking out to the shadows beyond.
Please, he prayed, but at this point, he wasn't sure who was listening.
At some point, Marcus had fallen asleep. He was awakened from violent dreams by a scream, and he rose up from the bed, ready to transform, ready to fight.
He realized two things. First, that it was morning, the banked fire completely dead. Second, his call had been received.
A second shriek followed the first, and even if he had not at least partially understood their tongue, he would have recognized it as a challenge. Come out and prove that you are who you say you are.
He glanced back at Jessica, still on the bed he had made. She slept quietly, but she looked pale and drawn, as if she had lost weight in the night. He took a deep breath and walked out into the thin dawn light.
They weren't making a point to hide themselves. Instead, they sat in the trees around him, their dark forms hanging from the branches. The chimpanzee troupe watched him with cold, round eyes, and in a moment, Marcus could see that this was a war band that had come to meet him. All adult males in their prime, a single one could tear a man's arm from his body. There was nothing in the jungle that would take on the full brunt of a warring troupe, and
now they all watched him to see what he would do next.
Marcus spread out his hands to show them that he meant no harm, and when that at least did not provoke an attack, he started to speak.
"I am Marcus Van der Berg, and I'm on a mission. My plane was downed miles ago, and my human companion has been attacked. It is some dark magic that has taken her, nothing that I can cure with human medicines. She is suffering."
He hesitated for a moment, and even if the words choked him, he knew that they had to be said.
"She may be… dying. Please. I know that I am in your territory. I swear we were only passing through. I ask for your help now. If you help us, I will owe you a forfeit. Anything. My teeth, my claws. Please. Help us. Help her."
There was a moment of utter stillness in the jungle. No birds sang, and even the wind seemed to hold its breath.
The largest male, enormous even for his kind, seemed to come to a decision. He shrieked a response in their dialect, and two smaller males dropped down from the trees. They approached Marcus, and Marcus thought that it was the hardest thing he had ever done to let them skirt around him and to take Jessica. He knew that he could have killed two easily, perhaps even three, but a troupe of this size would overwhelm him unless he fled, and he could not flee. Not when Jessica would be left behind.
He was gratified to see that they handled Jessica with care, their large and clever hands gentle on her prone form. She stirred, but she couldn't even call his name anymore. Marcus told himself that they might still be too late, but he brushed it aside. The chimpanzees followed their leader into the forest, and with a sigh, Marcus followed them into the depths.
11
The sound wasn't singing. That much Jessica was certain of. It was, perhaps, more like humming, with a soft cadence that made her think of words. It was what singing was at the dawn of time, when such things were still an experimentation on the part of people, stepping out of the cloak of the prehistoric.
