Twelve Shades of Midnight:

by Liliana Hart

  A shiver rippled across her shoulders, through her neck and down her back. She wrapped her arms around her body and breathed in deeply. The fragrance of jasmine settled over her. Hiding in the bushes off to her right about ten feet, an ocelot purred.

  Normally the night sounds soothed her, but not now. She should return to her sanctuary, disappear into her hiding place and forget Cade. That’s what Noy would suggest. Instead Aiyana veered east, rounding a small mound in the landscape, another Mayan ruin swallowed by this ravenous jungle she called home.

  The sound of rushing water filtered through the palms. She was close to her destination, though the canopy of vines practically ensnared her. She reached through the labyrinth and peeled aside the tangle of green. One step through and the jungle hid her.

  Slate rocks surrounded a deep pool, its backdrop a waterfall. She’d longed for the peace of this place, wanted it to settle over her, but the emotions she’d tried to keep at bay roiled within her. She couldn’t keep the images away.

  So many people. So much blood. Only one she had been able to protect.

  “Why give me strength when I couldn’t save the others?”

  The monster had been a murderer—and of her kind. A vampire who lived to slaughter. She’d seen the joy in his eyes, the satisfaction. He delighted in blood. The memory made her shiver. Not just in revulsion. In fear.

  She wasn’t like him.

  But his kind of evil hid within her. She felt it rise every time she went out to feed. And tonight, tonight had been worse than ever. Her nostrils flared at the memory of the blood flowing, the sweet scent; she had wanted a taste. The red ambrosia had tempted her, called to her. Especially of the woman, Amber. She could literally taste the power in her blood…the same that flowed through Cade. She’d had to back away. Her body’s reaction had sickened her mind, but she could not deny her gut. Or the truth.

  She was vampire. To keep her soul she had only one option: to avoid temptation, to avoid humans and especially to avoid Jaguars.

  Like Cade.

  She dipped her hands into the pure water and splashed her face. His scent, so sweet, so enticing. She’d wanted to drink from him, taste him. The power in his life’s blood had called to her, tempted her to reveal her every secret.

  It couldn’t happen. She shook her head. She’d been told in no uncertain terms, if she ever took sustenance from a human she would surely lose her soul.

  She couldn’t risk it.

  But that didn’t mean she couldn’t imagine what it might be like. To hold him, to have him close, to—

  With a shiver, Aiyana removed her bandeau and slipped the sarong down her hips.

  The instinct to go after him was strong. It could override her head.

  Without hesitation she dove into the water, hoping to wash away the urge. She swam a few yards to the falls, climbed onto a flat rock and stood, letting the sheets of cold turbulence pound onto her.

  She lifted her face into the torrent and slicked back her long hair. But the vision behind her eyes didn’t change.

  All she saw was a man. A human. A Jaguar.

  All she saw was Cade.

  Then a flash. Cade, soaked in blood, eyes staring into the night, sightless, dead. At her hand.

  The inevitable future.

  The truth drove her to her knees, the despair overwhelming her. She rocked to the lament that tore into her. Not just in grief. In realization. She could never love or be loved. No matter how hard she tried, eventually she would become the very evil she fought.

  The sound of the waterfall roared in Cade’s ears. He shouldn’t have been able to find her. Her trail had been nearly invisible. He’d come close to losing her at the fork in the animal path. She’d stopped suddenly, displaced some dried twigs. So he’d headed down the eastern path.

  He’d lost track shortly after that, but he’d heard the water. He’d taken a chance.

  Cade walked through a wall of vine into paradise. Aiyana stood under the cloak of rushing water, elemental, nude, beautiful. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. He just stared, his entire body taut with the desire to touch, the need to possess. Whatever her answers to his questions.

  He stepped forward, but before he could wade into the pool her face twisted in agony. She stepped from under the falls and fell to her knees.

  The warrior he’d watched kill Branson had vanished. Before him, rocking as if she’d been brutalized, knelt a vulnerable woman, tears dripping down her face.

  He shifted and she froze. She crouched in an attack posture and blinked back glistening tears. The moment her gaze flew to his an embarrassed flush colored her cheeks. She slid into the water, hiding from his gaze and turned her back.

  “How did you find me?”

  The accusation didn’t hide the slight tremble lacing her question.

  She wasn’t what he’d expected at all. He’d witnessed her fighting skills firsthand, and now? He didn’t know what to think, but he couldn’t shake the elemental longing that urged him to comfort her, to hold her. Despite his questions, despite her knowledge of his most secret fear—that he was becoming more and more like his prey with every kill.

  He’d denied the truth, and she had made him face it. Damn her. The foul taste lingered on his tongue.

  He knelt at the edge of the pool. “You hide your tracks well.”

  “Not well enough, obviously.” Her voice was thick with sorrow and weak with a fatigue. “What do you want from me?”

  “Will you look at me?” he asked.

  “Not until I’m dressed.”

  Cade picked up her spear, turned and stepped away from the scraps of material that were her clothes. “How do you know so much about us?”

  “You are Jaguar. The hunter and destroyer of vampires. I didn’t think you were real.”

  The words tied a knot in the muscles between his shoulder blades. “You’re not one of us?”

  “Hardly.”

  Water sloshed, tempting him to turn around, but he remained still. He needed her trust. Who the hell was she if not one of the Order? “You killed Branson with one blow. How, if you aren’t one of the Order.”

  “I had no choice. He murdered without purpose. His soul had been consumed.”

  A harsh laugh escaped from deep in Cade’s gut. “Vampires don’t have souls. I should know. I’ve killed enough of them.”

  “That is no secret.” Her voice held a puzzling sadness.

  The rustling of clothes caused a shiver at the back of Cade’s neck. The curtain of vines surrounding the pool made the world seem small. Just the two of them. For the moment.

  “Return my weapon.”

  Slowly he faced her. The damp material clung to her body doing nothing to quash the heat building low in his belly, but her espresso eyes held suspicion. And caution.

  “My spear.”

  He handed it over, and she planted the wooden staff next to her. “You shouldn’t have followed me.”

  At the stubborn line of her jaw and the tension in every muscle, no doubt she would make this difficult, but he needed answers. He needed every edge when his enemy was as dangerous as the one he faced.

  “Who taught you to fight?” he asked, sitting on the edge of a rock, forcing his body to signal relaxed indifference when he was anything but. “You’ve got some deadly moves.”

  “Not something I’m proud of. I didn’t want to kill him.”

  “He deserved to die. They all do.”

  “Your ignorance shows, Jaguar. You know very little of that which you hunt.”

  A nightmarish memory of his brother’s body torn apart as if attacked by an animal flashed in his mind. There had barely been anything left of the man he’d idolized. “I know enough.”

  She nodded her head and tucked her chin so that a curtain of ebony hid her face, but not before he saw her grief. “It is hard to lose someone you love. I am sorry for your loss.”

  He shot to his feet and before she could respond he was next to her. He grasped her a
rm. “How did you know?”

  The moment Cade touched her a pulse of heat flowed into his fingertips. Like the heat of the sun on a hot summer day, this strange light burst through his system, dousing the darkness that had enveloped him since he’d come into contact with Branson. He yanked his hand away and stared at her. “What the hell are you?”

  A deep-throated growl sounded from behind Cade. He whirled around, making certain Aiyana was behind him. A black jaguar, its sleek coat almost shining in the moonlight stood, its head peaking through the protective curtain of jungle growth.

  Cade palmed his weapon and met the jaguar’s gaze. The big cat blinked and seemed to look past Cade.

  Aiyana stepped beside him. “There is no danger,” she said. “Go now.”

  The big cat didn’t move.

  She sighed, clearly exasperated. “I can take care of myself.”

  A strange grunting noise sounded from the animal, but then it vanished into the jungle, leaving them alone.

  Bemused, Cade glanced at her. “Dr. Dolittle, I presume?” he said.

  Her brow wrinkled for a moment before her lips tilted up and her eyes sparkled. “My mother read me those books. The man who could communicate with the animals. I don’t talk to them. Not really. She’s just overprotective,” Aiyana said. “She watched over me after my parents were killed.”

  Okay, this was as surreal a conversation as he’d ever had, but then again, he hunted vampires for a living. Still Cade couldn’t afford to let down his guard. He walked the perimeter, searching for any sign.

  “She’s gone,” Aiyana said. “I promise.”

  She sat on a slate outcropping over the pool and tucked her knees to her chest. Cade thrust his hand through his hair before joining her, resting his hip against the stone. He had so many questions, but he settled for the one that gnawed at his gut.

  “What happened to your family?” he asked, afraid he already knew.

  “They were missionaries. I grew up in remote villages all over the world.” A bittersweet smile crossed her lips. “Then they were assigned to Belize. I came home from college for Christmas break.” She let her head fall to her knees. “I fell in love the moment the plane landed. It felt like paradise.”

  “That didn’t last.”

  “For a while everything was perfect. Mom and Dad adored the history and the people. I’d just finished a mythology class. I visited every Mayan temple I could.” She shivered and gripped her legs. “Then one night two men came to our hut. I was on the floor at the back. They attacked, tore out my parents’ throats. I don’t remember much after that except they jumped on me. I screamed.”

  She pressed her hand to her throat. “I remember hearing a jaguar’s growl before I passed out. I thought I was dead, but I woke up later. The jaguar lay guarding me. My parents were dead.”

  “Vampires.”

  “Yes.”

  “Yet you survived. And stayed.”

  “Too much had happened.” She looked away. “I couldn’t bear sitting in a classroom trying to study. So, I asked to remain. The villagers burned the hut where my parents had died. They nursed me back to health and helped me find a place to call home. I learned to hunt, to help protect the village.”

  “From the vampires.” He reached out and touched her hair, as if to prove to himself she was alive, that she hadn’t died.

  “You did the same,” she said.

  “My brother,” Cade said. “I couldn’t save him. But we were on the job. We knew vampires were real. You must have been terrified.”

  “It was a nightmare,” Aiyana whispered, “that changed everything.”

  She bowed her head, the heartbreak in her eyes something Cade wished he could show. But he couldn’t let his emotions overtake him. He had to stay strong. He had to make certain his brother’s death wasn’t in vain. “I understand.”

  “I know.” She raised her head and met his gaze. “It makes keeping my distance that much more difficult.”

  At the words, Cade’s heart slammed against his chest. Could it be true? Did she want the same thing?

  Her eyes gleamed, beckoning him. Her breath caught and she swallowed. “I don’t know how to play these games, Cade. I never learned.”

  “It’s not a game.” She’d opened her vulnerability to him with her words. Part of him wanted simply to take her into his arms, to touch her warm body again, to feel the tremor that had driven Branson’s legacy out of him. The other part simply longed to protect her from her past—and from him.

  “Aiyana,” he said, testing her name on his lips. “I want to kiss you.”

  “Cade,” she sighed. “It cannot be.”

  He shifted closer. She didn’t move away, simply stared up at him. His fingertips hovered just shy of touching her cheek. Her pulse throbbed against her throat.

  An odd energy buzzed between them.

  “You can stop me with a word,” he said, bending closer, his mouth just inches from hers.

  He inhaled and the scent of jasmine intoxicated him more than a fifth of Jack Daniels.

  “I want to know what it feels like.” Her tongue wet her lips. “I need to know.”

  It was all the invitation he required. Almost afraid of what he might find, Cade’s lips brushed hers. She let out a low whimper and her mouth parted beneath his. So very sweet. So intoxicating. He couldn’t stop himself. With a groan, his mouth claimed, tasting her. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tight against him.

  A glistening light shot through his body. He gasped, but unlike before, he didn’t pull away, he reveled in the feeling. Heat pulsed between them, reaching for his soul, braiding, entwining, ensnaring him.

  He didn’t want to let go. It felt too good.

  “What’s going on?” he whispered, as his will slid from his body. His gaze shot to hers, and her eyes lightened to a bronze iridescence, flashing with awareness.

  Her breathing quickened, her lips parted, begging for his touch. He leaned into her, his body hardening with a desire he couldn’t control. In his mind, he pictured his hands peeling the bandeau that hid her breasts from his gaze. He would remove the soft material from her hips and lose himself in her softness, give into the passion now pooled low in his belly.

  He throbbed with wanting a woman he’d never met.

  He tried to snatch his hand away, but as he tugged back, a shadow of despair clung to him, as if only by touching her would he be complete.

  This was wrong. What kind of magic did she possess? And it was magic. This wasn’t just passion. It was something else.

  He wrenched his mouth from hers. “What the hell are you?”

  Chapter Four

  Aiyana couldn’t let Cade pull away. She nuzzled his neck and breathed in the scent of him. “Does it matter?”

  Her instincts had bloomed to life. The wrong instincts.

  Somehow, right now, she didn’t care.

  Her tongue tasted the salty skin at his throat, reveling in the rhythmic pulse of his heartbeat. He groaned and pulled her closer. She wrapped her arms around him, and her heart synchronized with his, beating as one as she pressed against him.

  Heady, overwhelming. Her gums burned and her canines threatened to elongate.

  She nipped at his neck, mimicking the temptation. One taste. What she wouldn’t give for just once to taste the purity of Cade’s Jaguar blood. She knew he would taste sweet, addicting, succulent.

  She could feel the fire burning behind her eyes. No. She slammed the feeding instinct into the back of her mind. He was not her victim. He was something else. Something much, much more.

  Just like she hadn’t believed in the Order of the Jaguar, she hadn’t believed in mates. She did now.

  Cade could be her mate.

  He was certainly her enemy.

  He might not know the truth about her identity yet, but he had vowed to kill her kind. He probably should kill her.

  Now she understood. She was part animal, all instinct. She could feel the rightness between them.
She wanted him. Her body had softened, preparing itself for him. She couldn’t stop, even if she’d wanted to.

  And Lord knew she might not survive if he walked away.

  She reached up and ran her hand along his chiseled face, memorizing each angle for a moment that must last a hundred lifetimes. His hands returned the favor in a feather-light caress as they travelled up her arms to her neck and down to the bandeau she’d made. His fingertips toyed with her nipples through the fabric. She closed her eyes and arched her back. “Please.”

  His hand dropped. “Look at me.” His words were husky, elemental.

  She couldn’t. She couldn’t let him see the truth. Instead she pulled his mouth to hers, desperate to lose her head in the passion of his kisses.

  “Look at me, Aiyana.”

  A phone ringing from his pocket brought her out of a hazy fog. Oh God. What had she almost done?

  She wrenched from his embrace, willing the burn from her eyes. She didn’t want him to see the golden glow that illuminated her irises. If she could calm herself, it might go away.

  “Pierson,” Cade snapped.

  “Where the hell are you?” Max shouted through the phone.

  Aiyana looked at Cade from under her lashes and edged closer so she could hear.

  “I’m trailing the jungle girl.”

  “You found her path?”

  “This is me,” Cade said. “I’m the one who trains the Jaguars to track.”

  Max let out a laugh. “True enough, but the chip shows you haven’t moved for a while.”

  The muscle in Cade’s jaw throbbed. His expression furious he scratched at his arm. “I’m close,” he muttered into the phone.

  “You okay, bro?” Max asked. “You need me to bring you out.”

  “I can handle it.”

  “You don’t sound like yourself. Stay put for now. Once we get Dr. Callaway to the clinic, I’m coming after you. We’ll find her together.”

  The call ended. Aiyana’s gaze met Cade’s. “We must leave.”

  He clasped her arm. “This isn’t over.”

  She touched his cheek. “Yes, Cade. It is over. You won’t see me again.”