by Laura Wylde
“Well, that’s good.” I nodded, defiantly. “You shouldn’t be going to the jungle at night.”
“I don’t want to go alone.” She rolled her eyes, dramatically. “I’m being smart about the whole thing because I don’t know the area well enough to guarantee that I won’t get lost. What I don’t understand is why no one will come with me.”
“Because it would be suicide, that’s why.”
She ran her fingers down my arm and shot me a flirty glance which wasn’t working on me at all. “But with a big strong man like you on my arm, I would be fine…”
“No.” I stepped back rapidly, unable to bear her touching me any longer. It was all too much. “Don’t do that. Just… just keep away from the jungle, okay. Especially, in the dark. You don’t know what’s out there and you don’t want to either. It’s dangerous.”
She called after me as I walked away, basically demanding that I come back, but I wasn’t going to. Tara needed to get the hell out of Brazil before she ended up getting herself killed. I hoped my actions highlighted that. I wanted my rudeness to push her far away, so I never had to worry about her again.
She smelled like jaguar. Ramon’s words from last night kept racing through my brain as I prowled the jungle with my panther pack. Someone is following her.
I didn’t notice that when I was talking to her, I barely smelled her at all, but now I was even more concerned about Little Miss Purple. Or Tara, as I was now going to have to remember that is what she was called. Someone knew that she was playing about in the jungle alone and she was in trouble. We needed to destroy that fucking jaguar pack before anything happened.
What the fuck was that? All of a sudden, flashes went crazy around us, leaving each of us in a panic. I darted around on my paws, ready to take out whatever danger came my way… not that I could see it. My panther eyes were about a million times better than my human ones, so the bright flashes were horrific. I couldn’t stand them…
My first real alert to danger was a set of sharp teeth digging into my legs. Jaguar teeth. The flashes had alerted our enemies and drawn them out to us. The fight was on…
I turned and attacked, using my other senses to help me. As I fought the jaguar, I wasn’t my best self, I couldn’t deny it. The thought that this was somehow linked to Tara, didn’t stop coming. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to end up being killed because of this stranger…
“What the fuck was that about?” Ramon gasped as he bandaged up his leg. If I didn’t know better, I would assume that he was also distracted during the fight. “Was it a trap?”
“I don’t think the jaguars set it,” Tony piped up. “No way. Yes, they used it to their advantage, but I don’t think it was anything to do with them. I think we have poachers to worry about again.”
“Nah.” Ramon shook his head. “Why would they do that? It’s too obvious.”
I didn’t want to think too much about it. It troubled me too much, and right now I had some injuries that were definitely going to become more scars. At this rate, I would be more scars than skin! I couldn’t get myself all lost like that again.
“I think it was her,” Seth finally said, grabbing the focus of all of us. A blush filled his cheeks, he was almost too shy to say this, but he forced himself to continue which was good. The more he spoke up and the rest of the guys respected his opinion, the more he’d come out of his shell. “I think it was Tara from the bar, trying to find out if there is anything to track in the jungle.”
“You think that was cameras?” I asked, suddenly seeing exactly where he was coming from. There was actually a very strong chance that Seth could be right. It made a lot of sense.
“Yes, I think she wants pictures. She always has a camera with her, haven’t you noticed?”
I slid my eyes closed and I could see it hanging around her neck. Seth was so much more observant than me, it was incredible.
“Well, she’s definitely going to have a million fucking pictures of us, isn’t she?” I snapped. “The jaguars too. Now she’s going to be even more intrigued by the cats here. I mean, what the fuck did she call herself? A felinologist? We’re in a real state.” I dragged my fingers through my hair, wishing that a solution would just come to me already. “She’s going to become a nuisance.”
“She won’t be the first person intrigued by us. I don’t know why you’re so worried.”
“Tony, that isn’t helpful. We need to worry about everything right now. Why do you think Jakar and Javier sent us out here? This is just something else to add on top. Now, we’re going to have to speak to her more to try and lure her away from this place. She needs to go back home.”
I glanced around at everyone in turn to see them reluctantly agreeing with me. We needed to make sure that Tara wasn’t making our lives even harder because it was bad enough. If my cousins learned why things were getting more complicated… well, they wouldn’t be happy to say the least. They needed Panthera protected for their children, and I wanted that for them.
“We need rest now,” I declared, wearily. “But after rest, we need to do what we can to get rid of Tara to keep her safe, and to get rid of those bastards. If we don’t, we will end up living under their rule, and none of us want that. Even if there is more of them, we need to win.”
Tara
Determination flooded through me as I headed towards the bar. My footsteps were more like stomps because I now had information that I needed sorting out. A picture that someone was going to have to answer for. In all of my studies, every bit of my fascination with big cats, I had never ever seen anything like this before. I didn’t even think that it was possible.
“Woah,” Pedro practically yelled as I stepped into the bar. “You look… I don’t know, mad.”
“I’m not mad.” I shook my head hard. “But I do need a drink.”
I continued my journey over to the bar with my head spinning wildly. I wasn’t sure how much of that came from all the photograph development chemicals that had been around me all afternoon and how much of it came from what I saw. Unfortunately, it was not from one of my motion sensor stills cameras because video footage would have been awesome.
Still, it would get me some serious cash if I sent this image in to a magazine… if it turned out to be real. That was the only thing that had stopped me from doing it already. I was scared to find out that it was a fake. Or something supernatural that no one else would believe.
“Beer, please,” I rasped at the bartender. “The strongest one that you have.”
He handed one to me and I took a giant swig as I pushed a bill over to him. I remained at the bar while I finished it all. I already knew that I was going to need another one right away. If I didn’t get a buzz to kill off this anxiety, it was going to drive me insane.
“Bad day?” He asked me with an amused look on his face.
“I don’t know yet. I haven’t decided.” I motioned for another beer. “I will figure it out.”
Once I had my second beer, I went back to sit with Pedro. To be perfectly honest, he hadn’t been all that useful to me. He didn’t ever seem to know anything, but I liked him all the same. He had a sweet and honest personality. The qualities that I always looked for in new friends.
“So, what’s going on?” Pedro smirked. “A new find with all the big cats?”
He was doubting me, but soon I would wipe that look off his face. I pulled the picture out of my bag, taking great care not to damage it in any way possible, and I placed it on the table in front of him. Pedro narrowed his eyes curiously before leaning forward to examine what I was showing him. I watched him intently, knowing that his reaction would tell me everything.
“What is this?” He asked, curiously. “I don’t know what I’m looking at here.”
“An albino panther,” I snapped back, curiously. “I’ve never heard of anything like it before. All white fur and red eyes. I tried to find something online but there’s nothing.”
He nodded slowly, drinking this in. “T
his isn’t just some camera light trickery?”
Urgh, this was just the sort of reaction that I didn’t want to face. People disbelieving me, thinking that I had done something on purpose. If Pedro, the first person I had shown it too, had that reaction then surely everyone else was going to as well? This was a nightmare.
“This is a real picture. I wouldn’t have brought it in otherwise, would I?”
“I don’t know. You do get some weird people who will do anything for attention.”
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Do I come across this way? Come on, you’ve known me for a few days now. I think you understand me better than that, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I guess so.” His smiled suggested that he was just winding me up, anyway. I guess I was more sensitive than I thought today! The stress was getting to me. “But what I want to know is how you got this. I didn’t think you could find anyone to take you into the jungle at night.”
“No, I haven’t yet, but now I need to more than ever. I left cameras all through the place to try and track what activity there was, and this was the one thing that stood out.”
“Nothing else?”
There was something about the way that Pedro asked this which had me really curious. Did he know more than he was letting on? Was there a secret that even my closest friend in Brazil wasn’t going to tell me? Not that we were exactly close, but I thought that we had a bond.
“There was something else, actually… something that surprised me, but I didn’t think to bring the pictures with me. I was so excited about the albino panther, I didn’t think.”
“Tell me.” Pedro leaned in closer. “What is it?”
“A fight between the panthers and the jaguars.”
“Hmmm… well, they are both pretty territorial, aren’t they?”
“I suppose so, but it didn’t seem like that. I can’t explain it, but it was different.”
I grew intensely angry with myself that I hadn’t bothered to develop the rest of the images. I was just so excited about this one deliciously fascinating creature, the one that no one else seemed to know existed. But now, I wanted the whole lot with me so I could make Pedro understand why I was so wild-eyed and crazy about the whole thing.
“Argh, I’m so annoyed.” I banged my fists down on the table, knocking some of his drink from his glass. “I’m really pissed off that I can’t make you see…”
“Oh no, it isn’t that I don’t believe you,” Pedro reassured me. “I do. I’m just trying to work out what you’re going to do with this information.”
I paused for a beat as I tried to figure out Pedro’s cryptic message. He definitely knew something that he wasn’t letting on. If he didn’t let me know what he knew soon then I was going to lose my damn mind. Couldn’t he see how desperate I was? How determined I was? I would find out this information in whatever way I could.
“What do you mean? What could I do with this information?”
He shrugged but his eyes weren’t meeting mine. “I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking.”
I folded my arms across my chest and stared right at him. He didn’t have to look at me for me to be looking right at him. “Maybe I will speak to the environmental media. Someone has to be interested in this. If the albino panther is as rare as I believe it to be, then wildlife photographers from all over the world will be here, wanting to study the creature.”
“Hmm, I see.” The color drained from Pedro’s face. “I don’t think the locals will like that.”
“Why not? Because they don’t want their town overrun with people? Because they aren’t prepared for it to get that busy? Or is there another reason, Pedro?” I was getting dangerously close to going on a rant. “Would it scare the beasts? Amp up the strange rivalry between the panthers and the jaguars? Will it affect all the spiritual beliefs surrounding cats here?”
“You don’t need to yell,” Pedro whispered, begging me to stop.
“Well, I think that you know something you aren’t sharing with me. In fact, I’m certain that you do, and I don’t know why you would want to keep something from me. I’m not a bad person, I have been very open and honest with you; I haven’t given you any reason to distrust.”
“I don’t know what you think I know, but I don’t.”
“This.” I smacked my finger down on the picture. “This is what you know about.”
“I already let you know that I don’t. If I did, I would tell you.”
“Then who does? Huh? Who does know anything about this?”
Pedro parted his lips and was about to say something, something I hoped would be significant and powerful, but before those words properly came out, the bar door swung open and in walked the four massive guys who seemed to silence everyone. I wasn’t even mad as Pedro’s words clearly melted away because I felt the same way in their presence. There was something magical about them which took my breath away.
“Those are the people,” Pedro whispered to me, almost making me jump. I nearly forgot that he was around. “They are who you want to talk to about this.”
“Why?” God, I couldn’t even drag my eyes away to find out what Pedro’s revelation meant.
“I’m just telling you to speak to those four. They might be able to help you better than me.”
My fingers curled around the picture. Pedro was right, I needed to speak to them. I wasn’t sure what it was, but my instincts told me that this was the path I needed to take. I hadn’t exactly had a pleasant conversation with them before, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t…
“I’m going now,” I whispered to Pedro, but my body didn’t move. “I will talk to them…”
My entire body was encased in a lead-like feeling. I couldn’t move however much I wanted to. Instead, all I could do was examine their movements, watch the way that their bodies moved, and something started to come to me. It was a fuzzy image, one of the pictures that I hadn’t even spent a lot of time looking at because I was more interested in the beasts, but now it was obvious.
“It was them,” I gasped out. “They were there. I saw them.”
“What do you mean?” Pedro leant in once more. “You saw Jabari and the others?”
“Yes. Those four guys. They were in the woods. Maybe they know something about the albino panther. Perhaps they saw the fight between the cats as well. They might know where to look…”
All of a sudden it hit me that I saw them going into the woods but not coming out. They should have knocked off one of my motion sensor cameras or even some video footage would have been great, but I had nothing. Where the hell did they go? That was so weird. They must have come back some way. I covered a big area and should have caught something.
Shit, now I really needed to speak to them.
“Right, I’m going.” I sucked in a deep panicked breath. “I’m going over there now.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“No.” I shook my head. “No, I will be okay.”
I wasn’t sure that it was the right decision, but I rose to my shaky feet and headed over to their table, my heart pounding against my rib cage as I went. It was hard to keep my confidence up high as I faced my fear. They all seemed to notice me as I walked and they each fixed their eyes upon me. None of them had anything like an expression on their face which made it a little more intimidating. I wasn’t sure if I was heading straight into the lion’s den.
“Are you about to ask us to take you into the jungle at night?” The guy who seemed to be the leader, the one who spoke to me before, snapped. “Because I already told you that it’s dangerous.”
“Oh, I know. Believe me.” Surprisingly, my voice came out stronger than I was expecting. “I have seen evidence of this, and I believe that you have too.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean this.” I slapped the picture down in front of him. “And the fact that you were there in the jungle last night. I’m pretty sure you couldn’t have avoided this albino panther and that fight betwee
n the jaguars and the panthers…”
All the guys darted their eyes towards the guy with white hair, the one who matched the picture of the panther with his locks and surprisingly, his reddish eyes too. In fact, he really looked like the human version of this animal which reminded me of the beliefs that Adriana talked about when I went to visit her museum. The men who became beasts. Was that possible?
“So, you took this picture?” An Italian accent flew out of one of the guys’ mouths. “You must be a very good photographer to get this close to a wild animal.”
“I have cameras stationed around the jungle to track movement because I want to know where to look. No one will tell me where to go so I need to find out for myself.”
“Ah, I see.” He gave me a charming smile which made my heart flutter. I was sad to say that I could feel myself falling for this guy a little. “That’s very smart. You’re a clever woman. Beautiful too. Although, I’m sure that’s something you hear a lot.”
I giggled and tucked my hair behind my ears before I remembered what I was supposed to be doing. “You can’t distract me, you know? I want to know what the hell is happening here, and you know all about it. You’re hiding something.”
“We aren’t hiding anything…”
“Don’t give me that shit.” I leaned in closer, giving my fiercest look. “I can assure you that I will find out what’s going on here, one way or another. So, if you want to control how I find out then I suggest you start talking. You think it has escaped my attention that you look just like this panther?” I stared at the white-haired guy. “Or that all of you went into the jungle but didn’t come out. Or that there were four panthers fighting with the jaguars.”
“Okay, okay…” The enigmatic leader announced. “We can talk about this, sensibly.”
