by Liliana Hart
The surge pulsed through Cade’s body. For one moment he experienced the hunger of the beast; he could taste the blood of the victims on his tongue. In that instant, he became one with the vampire, his need to kill nearly overtaking him.
Within seconds an all-too-familiar strength exploded within him, feeding off Branson’s energy, drawing all the power that the vampire had absorbed from his kills.
The animal within Cade, the heart of the jaguar, pounded strong and ready to battle. With the speed of a vampire, he sideswiped Branson. The man fell onto his back, staring openmouthed at Cade. He pressed his forearm against the vamp’s throat. “Do you know what I am?”
“It can’t be,” Branson wheezed. “Or...order of the J...jaguar?” His eyes bugged. “You’re a myth.”
“Well, this myth is going to kill you.” Cade grabbed Branson’s collar and jerked him to his feet. “Look into the eyes of those you’ve killed. They were innocent.”
“Please,” Branson panted. “I beg you.”
“Did they plead?” Cade leaned closer, his quiet words jabbing with undisguised disgust. “You were a good man. Do you even remember the meaning of compassion?” Cade rested the blade of his machete against Branson’s throat. “How can you when you have no soul?”
A cry split the air. The vampire’s eyes widened. He gasped and sagged in Cade’s arms. He looked down. A spear impaled Branson’s chest. Blood pulsed from the punctured heart.
Cade dropped the vampire, but didn’t release his grip. He couldn’t let go. Skin to skin, the darkness ensnared him. He wanted more power. He needed it.
The drug-like high made his heart race. What a rush. His nails dug into the dead vamps’s arm searching for more.
“Fight the need, Jaguar.”
Cade looked up.
The woman wrenched her spear from Branson’s body and stared at Cade. “You must let go.”
With a loud groan, Cade wrenched his hands away from Branson’s cooling skin. At the loss of contact, Cade stumbled back, bent over and braced his hands on his knees, gasping for air.
“You shouldn’t touch them again,” she said softly. “They will consume your soul.”
Slowly the power eased its savage grip. God, a hundred times worse than his nastiest fraternity hangover.
“I have no choice.” Cade straightened, his breath returning to him. “It’s the only way I can defeat them.”
He despised becoming one with them, but the alternative was to quit. Or to die.
She stared at him, her knowing gaze seemed to see straight through to his heart. She knew.
With a practiced move, she wiped the blade of her weapon. Her strong but small frame was barely covered in a tight forest-green bandeau across her breasts. A matching sarong anchored low on her hips. A man’s fantasy. His fantasy. Except she could kill evil with vicious precision.
“Who are you?” He didn’t know what else to say.
She ignored him and knelt beside the injured survivor of the massacre. One moment a warrior, and now, her expression opened with empathy for the injured woman.
“Your attacker is gone,” she said quietly. “No harm will come to you.”
The victim shivered, shaking her head.
“What is your name?” the jungle woman stroked the blood-streaked face, helping her sit up. “I am Aiyana.”
Aiyana. The name fit her. Exotic, beautiful, mysterious.
“Amber C...Callaway.” She rubbed her eyes. “Where’s Mike? Is he okay?” Amber twisted around. She let out a low moan, reaching out a hand toward a man only a few feet from her, his eyes gazing sightlessly into the night. “This can’t be real.”
Cade understood the bewildered words, the disbelief, the shock, so very familiar. So similar to the first time he’d realized nightmares were real.
“Mike!” Amber struggled to her knees, crawling toward him. She collapsed next to the body, cradling his head to her chest. “No, not you.” She rocked him to and fro, shaking her head as if to ward off reality. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I should never have brought you here.”
Her choking sobs echoed through the night.
“She needs help,” Aiyana said with a pointed look at Cade. She stroked Amber’s hair. “Help only you can give.”
Her words made no sense, but Cade knelt next to Amber.
Their gazes locked. “Touch her,” Aiyana said. “She needs to know life still exists.”
Cade covered the devastated woman’s bare hand with his. Waves of sorrow, of confusion, of fear, assaulted him. Amber whimpered. Cade yanked his hand away.
He glared at Aiyana. Amber Callaway was a Jaguar. One of the so-called undiscovered. Those who possessed the Jaguar gene, but who didn’t know of their gift.
Aiyana gave him a sharp nod and rose. She’d known, too. It could only mean one thing since the world knew nothing of the Order, or of vampires. The stuff of nightmares.
Aiyana must be Jaguar, too. She moved like a Jaguar, fought like a Jaguar. She sure as hell killed like a Jaguar.
“I shouldn’t touch her right now, so why did you want me to?”
The lingering malevolence from Branson still flowed within Cade. Amber was too vulnerable, had seen too much.
“You understand now. She doesn’t know what she is or why he wanted her. She needs your protection.”
A battle cry shouted through the dense foliage.
Aiyana’s head jerked around. She peered into the jungle. “I cannot be seen.”
She stood proud and strong and powerful. He wanted to stop her from leaving. Something indefinable and indescribable called to him. Powerful, animalist, elemental.
Like nothing he’d ever felt before. Not around his fellow Jaguars. Not with anyone.
And he needed answers.
He wanted to follow Aiyana. He eased away from Amber, but she gripped his shirtsleeve. “Don’t leave me. Please.”
Cade glanced at the woman who had barely survived. What choice did he have? “Stay,” he said to Aiyana. “I have questions.”
She shook her head and walked to the edge of the clearing before facing him. Her curves were silhouetted in the moonlight. Cade could easily make out the outline of breasts and hips, the powerful muscles in her arms and legs.
His body leapt with awareness. “Stay,” he said again. He couldn’t let her walk away.
“It is not safe for me,” she said, then paused. “Beware, Jaguar. You are on the edge of the abyss. Soon, you will become as evil as those you destroy.” She gripped her spear. “I would regret killing you, but make no mistake, I will not hesitate to do so if you lose your soul.”
He didn’t doubt her words for a second.
“Are you one of us?” he asked.
“I am Aiyana.” She touched her hand to her chest, a plea in her eyes that reached out to him in a way he didn’t expect. “Please, Jaguar. Do not make me kill you.”
Chapter Two
Only a few feet from the clearing Aiyana disappeared from the Jaguar’s view. She circled the edge of the glade away from the half dozen sets of boots closing in. An owl hooted from the branches above her shoulder. She glared up at it. She didn’t need a beacon pointing out her location.
Her heart hadn’t stopped racing since the moment she’d realized the man in the clearing was real. She’s heard the stories, knew of the legend, but she’d been just as shocked as the vampire known as Branson.
She’d thought the Order of the Jaguar was a fairy tale.
But now she understood. The stories the wise woman Noy had revealed were true. Which meant her enemies had just doubled.
With a shout, a man burst from the jungle, a half dozen men behind him wielding spotlights. The beams swerved around. Aiyana ducked closer to the ground.
“What the hell happened here, Cade?”
So, that was his name. Cade. Aiyana tested it in her mind. A strong name. A good name.
He shut his eyes, turning his head against the bright onslaught. “Point those things somewhere else
, Max,” he growled. When the spots flipped off Cade faced the men. “Took you long enough.”
Max’s eyes flattened at the carnage surrounding them. Until this moment, Aiyana hadn’t let herself fully take in the devastation. She’d focused on killing the vampire, but hidden from view as she was now, she allowed herself to see. Branson had shredded his victims’ throats. Like an animal feeding on a meal.
Not human. Her stomach twisted in revulsion. How could anyone do such a thing?
But she knew. Branson had lost his soul long ago. Whether the intruders knew it or not, the soul was as real as the body. Whatever good mankind possessed emanated from it.
Max crossed the clearing to the vampire. Aiyana refused to regret killing the beast he had become. She mourned the man he had been though.
The Jaguar stared down at Branson, lying in a pool of blood that was too much even for the beast’s regenerative powers to overcome.
“Tell me he suffered,” Max ordered Cade through grinding teeth.
Aiyana closed her eyes. She recognized the hate, the rage, the vengeance. The animals of her jungle possessed none of these. Only humans did. Which meant vampires did as well.
“He’s dead, Max,” Cade said.
“Doesn’t look like your handiwork,” his mentor said with suspicion. “Not a gun, not a machete, not a Bowie.”
Aiyana didn’t like the maniacal look in Max’s eyes. Too much like the soulless vampires.
“Branson’s not coming back,” Cade moved his body to shield Amber. “He can’t recover from that much blood loss.”
“They’re never dead enough. Until you learn that, you could easily get yourself killed...or worse...turned into one of them.”
With a rough kick, Max shoved the vampire’s body onto its back. Cade grabbed his friend’s arm. “Don’t do this. It’s unnecessary.”
Max yanked away. “If you’re so squeamish, hide your eyes like the girl.”
The muscle in Cade’s jaw throbbed. Aiyana could see his internal struggle. Cade was nothing like the rest of them. Darkness hadn’t yet consumed his soul. He not only wanted to protect Amber; he’d even wanted to protect Aiyana.
Amber moaned.
“She needs medical attention.” Cade barked. “Trace, get over here.”
One of the Jaguars raced over and hunkered down beside Amber. The woman pulled away. Aiyana didn’t blame her. She wouldn’t have let anyone unknown near her.
“It’s okay, Amber,” Cade said, his voice soothing. “They’re here to help. He shot Trace a pointed stare. “She’s one of the undiscovered.”
Trace nodded and retrieved antiseptic and bandages to clean the worst of the wounds then slipped on protective gloves.
Good. At least he wouldn’t touch Amber with his bare skin. From what Noy had told Aiyana, a Jaguar’s touch held their power. Skin to skin. Heart to heart. Emotion to emotion.
At the thought, Aiyana’s fingers sizzled with a strange instinct. Her mind wandered to an uncomfortable place. What would it be like to feel Cade’s skin next to hers? Would he recognize the evil within her? An evil she struggled to keep hidden from everyone. Even herself.
If he touched her, he would know her heart. And Aiyana didn’t trust herself.
Noy had revealed that no one had been immune to the infection Aiyana had contracted five years ago. It was only a matter of time before it consumed her.
The thought terrified her. Branson’s eyes had been dead. So were Max’s.
The Jaguar frowned and flicked the edge of his knife, not bothering to sheathe it. “What’s she doing in the middle of nowhere? She just happened to be in the middle of vamp attack.”
Aiyana gripped her spear and crawled closer to the edge of the clearing. If that madman made one move toward Amber—
“The temple,” Trace said, joining the other two jaguars. “She said she’s an archaeologist. It’s unlike anything ever discovered. Hieroglyphs they’ve never seen before.”
Aiyana let out a small gasp. Cade’s gaze narrowed and he looked straight at her. He couldn’t see her, but she’d given away her position.
“Most vamps aren’t the intellectual type. I think he just wanted a good meal and she got in the way,” Max said, easing away from Branson and toward Aiyana.
He’d heard her.
Aiyana backed up. Max made a couple of hand-motions. Two jaguars disappeared from the clearing.
Aiyana sprang to her feet. She couldn’t stay. She had to trust Cade would protect Amber.
“They’re close,” Max shouted. “Find them and bring them to me.”
Fool. She should never have stayed.
Aiyana raced into the jungle. Clouds began edging across the moon, darkening the shadows of night. She put on a burst of speed. They wouldn’t catch her. They were human. She was not.
She was vampire.
Two Jaguars returned to the clearing. “Lost ’em,” one said to Max.
“I want a perimeter set up. Shoot anything that moves.”
Within seconds the men dispersed, moving into a position, spotlights illuminating the jungle.
Cade hoped Aiyana had run long and far. Max wasn’t in any mood to deal with the unexplained, and Cade had too many questions. Was she Jaguar? She knew of the Order, though, and it wasn’t something Cade could overlook.
Whether she knew it or not, he wouldn’t let her just disappear. But the idea of Max getting to her first…something inside Cade railed against the idea.
Max let out a slow breath and stared Cade down. “You want to tell me who was out there?” His mentor gripped his Uzi. He didn’t go so far as to point the submachine gun at Cade, but the threat was there.
He stared into the eyes of the man who had first trained him in the ways of hunting and killing the vampire. Max’s temples had grayed, and his eyes had turned cold in the last few years. Why did Cade notice that now?
Easy answer, really. Aiyana. Her warning had made him look at everything differently. Include Max.
Max Midnight wasn’t evil. He and Cade fought evil. Together.
Max had been at it a quarter of a century, Cade only five years. The first three with his brother, the last two…well, he’d gone through a decade of missions in the last two years.
Cade thrust his hand through his short-cropped hair. Max could read a lie.
“You were right. I didn’t kill Branson.”
“Who did?”
Cade nodded his head away from the others. They walked out of Amber’s earshot. “A woman came out of nowhere, fought the vamp. And won.”
Max lowered his weapon slightly. “She one of us?”
“Probably. I didn’t get a chance to touch her.”
“Too strong to be normal though,” Max said, “if you believe she’s Jaguar.”
“I have…unanswered questions.”
“Walk with me,” Max said, turning on his heel.
Cade gave Amber one last look and joined Max.
His friend studied him. “Can I trust you?”
Cade bristled at the question, but knew he’d given Max reason to ask.
“I haven’t changed. I want every vampire dead,” he said, meeting Max’s gaze unflinching. “For Jace. For every innocent victim.” It was the truth. And the only certainty Cade felt at the moment.
Max didn’t speak for a moment. Then he smiled and slapped Cade on the back. “You had me worried for a minute, bro.”
“This…” Cade swept his arm around the clearing, “This was a reminder of what they can do.”
Max’s knuckles whitened on the hand gripping the Uzi. “What I’m going to stay has to be between us, but there’s more out there than vamps, Cade.”
He couldn’t have heard Max right. “What are you saying?”
“The Order just uncovered a prison in Salem, Massachusetts. A prison no one has ever heard of. I want you to check it out. We need someone smart, someone the Order can trust.”
“Why not someone from the northeast?” Cade couldn’t do it. He had to
find Aiyana. Every instinct he possessed rejected the idea of leaving Belize.
“Because we need someone who won’t panic when they realize the implications.”
The shiver started just beneath Cade’s shoulder blades and ran up to his neck. “What’s in this prison?”
“Witches.”
Cade froze. “Witches aren’t real.”
“Just like vampires?” Max said with the crook of a brow. “I thought so, too. But two weeks ago the Order learned differently. An archaeologist on our payroll uncovered several hidden books. So far he’s identified four types of non-humans: vampires, shapeshifters, witches and elves.
“And us,” Cade said.
Max shook his head. “We’re more than human. We’re their enemy. We’ll destroy them.”
Rubbing the fingertips of the hand that had gripped Brandon, Cade tried to stop the shiver of unease. “A prison implies there’s law and order for these witches.”
“Have you ever met a good non-human?” Max said.
“No.”
“Exactly.” Max glanced around at Branson’s victims. He strode over to the body and stared down at the vampire, his eyes gleaming with hatred.
“Max—”
“You know what, forget I suggested Salem. You’re getting soft. You gotta learn how to enjoy the kill. Otherwise, you won’t survive. I’m going to finish your job.”
Max snatched Cade’s machete.
Cade hurried over to Amber. He knelt beside her, blocking her view. “Don’t worry,” he whispered. “He’s making sure the vampire will never bother you again.”
She swallowed and nodded, her expression clouded with confusion. “Can I trust him?”
“He won’t hurt you,” Cade said. “You’re human.”
At the loud whack of the decapitation Amber flinched. Cade looked over his shoulder at Max wiping the blade clean. “Now, that, my friend,” his mentor said with a smile, “felt good.”
Chapter Three
Aiyana sped through the jungle. The shouts of the men searching for her faded in the distance. She reached a fork in the path, skidded to a stop and blew out a slow stream of air. Her heartbeat refused to slow, and not because of her escape or her race through the jungle. It was a man. Cade. The Jaguar.
