by Liliana Hart
With a quick twist she escaped his hold and raced from the waterfall toward the only place she could ever feel safe.
She had to get home.
Cade cursed loudly. He thundered after her, but she picked up speed. He wouldn’t catch her.
So why did part of her feel so disappointed?
Because she was a fool who wanted to believe she could control the infection inside her.
She serpentined through the jungle, taking a circuitous route. At the stroke of midnight she reached the entrance to her sanctuary, her hideaway. The only place she felt safe.
Within seconds she slid between two mammoth stones which concealed the small temple’s entry. Her heartbeat slowed in her chest when she stepped inside the stone room she called home.
She slid to the floor.
No light could penetrate the thick stones surrounding her. Cade wouldn’t find her. She was alone.
And for the first time since her parents died, her heart ached with loneliness.
“What am I going to do?”
There was no answer.
Moonlight penetrated through the tops of the trees. Cade had tracked Aiyana for hours and had ended up only a little over a mile from the waterfall. Smart woman.
She was very good at what she did. Well, so was he.
Max had taken Amber Callaway for medical attention, but his mentor was suspicious.
Cade didn’t blame him. He touched his lips. They burned with the memory of Aiyana’s kiss. His blood still vibrated with need for her. He couldn’t explain it. He’d only felt that intensity once before…but not in a good way. Only in the aftermath of a kill, when a vampire’s evil grabbed hold.
He had to know. Was she a witch? An elf? A shifter? Something else? It didn’t matter. She wasn’t human, and she would never find safety with his kind.
The world had gone crazy, and he was walking straight into the chaos.
He paused between the massive stones which created a doorway into a Mayan temple.
The trail ended here.
His body tensed with confusion. Now that he’d found her, what was he going to do with her?
Get answers and go back to his life killing vampires? Something told him that Aiyana would change him forever.
He took a deep breath and edged through the narrow passageway. A few turns and he found himself standing just outside a room.
Her home wasn’t what he’d expected. The ancient pictographs on the stone walls would make any Mayan archaeologist salivate. The small woven mat that served as her bed and a stone basin as her sink were from another culture, another century even.
Aiyana raised her head to stare at him, her eyes dark with pain.
She scooted across the stone floor, stopping only when she contacted the wall. She shook her head. “Why did you have to find me, Cade? Don’t you understand what you’ve done?”
“I have no idea. Why don’t you enlighten me?”
Cade didn’t know what to think. A part of him wanted to leave this woman alone, to leave this place and forget he had ever seen her.
He faced her; the harshness of her breathing and the squawk of a macaw from outside her stone sanctuary filtered between them. He had never walked away from the unknown. He wouldn’t start now.
With the discipline of years of training, he forced his voice low and calm. “Tell me what you are,” he said, careful to keep his tone quiet despite his body trembling with the physical reaction from touching her.
There was magic here; he’d seen enough of the strange to recognize the reality that something between them was out of their control. And he couldn’t leave without knowing why.
She studied him, her eyes intelligent and assessing. He knew she could escape, but she stayed eerily still, only feet from him, but divided by a chasm of mistrust.
“This is not a good idea.” Caution laced each syllable.
Cade’s entire body urged him to reach out to her, touch her, to caress her until she cried out in a desire that would crumble the foundation of this ancient temple. He forced a relaxed smile. “Maybe not.”
“What about your friends?”
He scooted toward her. “They’re gone.”
“But they will return.” She rubbed the base of her neck, and the movement drew his gaze to her curves. In response, her nipples hardened beneath the thin material, as if calling to him. The tension pounding between them turned hot and thick and tempting.
He had to regain control. “Yes. I need to know the truth so I can protect you. Max—”
“Kills everything he doesn’t understand.”
“He’s been fighting a long time.”
“You’ve fought long enough to realize the dangers, though, haven’t you, Cade? You’re close to losing your humanity. Like your friend, Max.”
He kneaded the tense muscles at the back of his neck. “You can’t know that.”
Aiyana shifted forward and met his gaze, her own earnest. “The dark power you feel when you touch a vampire with your bare hand overwhelms you. Yes?”
Cade gave her a reluctant nod.
“Legend says the power you require to defeat a vampire feeds on your own soul, just as the virus consumes the vampire’s soul.”
“Wait a minute? A virus?”
“You didn’t know?” she said, shaking her head. “A vampire is as alive and human as you are. They are simply changed by the virus that infects them. If the virus grows quickly, the soul is consumed. What is left is evil.”
Cade looked at his hand. “Are we infected when we touch them?”
“Not according to the myths. But, the same energy which destroys a vampire’s soul eventually turns a Jaguar’s soul black. You must have seen it.”
Cade squeezed his eyes shut. He’d seen the change in his brother before his death. He’d seen it in Max. Cade just hadn’t wanted to accept that his brother’s best friend could be seduced by the darkness.
God, he’d even noticed it in himself.
“Don’t let it happen to you. Your brother wouldn’t want that.”
Cade rose and paced the small room. “You don’t know what my brother would want. You didn’t see how they tortured him, how they made him suffer. He’d want them to pay.” He turned on her. “What are you saying? I just let the murderers keep killing when I can do something about it. You may have given up, living in this temple away from the world, but vampires are out there killing people. I can’t stop.”
She rose with a grace he couldn’t describe. “Is revenge worth your soul?”
“Maybe it is.” Within two steps, Cade crossed the stone room and clasped her arms. “I promised my brother. I won’t break that vow.”
At the touch of his bare hands to her skin, the surge of energy that had shocked him once pulsed through him. Heat and want.
Out-of-control desire. He yanked away, but his heart raced and his body had hardened. “It’s happening again. What is going on?”
“I told you. We are mates.”
Her legs shifted, and the soft material barely covering her thighs rode up, just enough that his hands itched to push the garment a few inches higher. A groan rumbled in his chest.
Her gaze shifted to the ridge pressing against his zipper. “Your body wants mine.”
A quick thrust shot his hand through his hair, and he clenched his jaw. “If you don’t want me to pounce on you, I suggest you change the subject.”
A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “In the jungle, the animals don’t worry about such things.”
“I’m not an animal,” he said, his voice a bare whisper. “I just wanted the truth, Aiyana. And you keep lying.”
“I’m not lying, I’m just not telling you everything.”
She stepped closer and lifted her hands to the side of his face. “I’m sorry. I cannot stop it,” she said, softly, pressing her body into his. “I cannot resist you. No matter how much it will hurt. We are meant to be.”
His breath caught in his throat as he took in each
beautiful feature: the softness of her tanned skin, the redness of her lips, the silky lengths of her ebony tresses. With a trembling hand he pushed the locks away from her face. “Are you saying this is destiny?”
She swallowed. “We are connected. You should never have followed. I am not strong enough to fight my urges.”
His body surged at her words and his arms pulled her closer. “You’re beautiful. I obviously want you.” He ground his hips into her, making it clear that he wouldn’t fight much longer. “Perhaps I just haven’t had a lover in too long. It doesn’t mean anything. We have a choice.”
She pressed closer, the softness of her feminine curves fitting themselves perfectly into the angles of his physique. “Do we? Perhaps our bodies know what our minds haven’t yet accepted.”
“This is wrong, Aiyana” he whispered, as he breathed in the jasmine scent wafting from her hair.
Why couldn’t he stop himself? “Aiyana,” he breathed, his lips hovering just above hers. “Your name, what does it mean?”
A half-smile tugged at her lips. “Forever flowering.”
“And will you open for me, my flower? Will you let me take you?” His thumb tugged at her lower lip, parting her mouth. Hunger roared through Cade’s ears even as his head dropped to hers. “I can’t fight it.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “So very sorry.”
He didn’t let her words stop him. Passion drove him. Her lips melted under the force of his mouth. His tongue slid within the sweetness, exploring, tasting until she met his thrusts with her own. He succumbed to the craving as his body sizzled with a vibration he’d never felt. As dark as the vampire’s touch was, this woman’s caress made his soul soar, his mind celebrate. Life, truth, love.
Cade’s body jerked with arousal, even as his mind closed down in shock. All logical thought disappeared. He could only feel. She was his forever. He would have her now.
Her hands wandered over his shoulders and he groaned against her. He wanted her hands on his naked body.
“Touch me,” he said, his voice husky with arousal. “Take me wherever you want to go.”
She opened her eyes and met his gaze, her pupils black with passion, her cheeks flush with desire. She wetted her lips with her tongue, her hunger transparent. “I will.”
Chapter Five
She didn’t wait. In one movement she pulled the garment from her body and ripped the sarong from her hips, standing before him as nature intended.
His eyes gleamed. His hands trembled as he cupped the curve of her breast, kneading the softness.
“You know how this will end,” he said.
“My body waits for you, Cade,” she said softly. “It has waited for you for a lifetime.”
His gentle hand cupped her neck and he let his fingers slide through her silken strands of hair. “You are a mystery, Aiyana, but I don’t care if I have questions. I want you.”
He shuddered and stripped off his clothes, throwing his weapons on top of the pile. “I can’t wait,” he said.
“Nor can I.”
His arms wrapped around her and yanked her to him. His hips arched toward hers, the hardness of his desire pressing into her belly. Head to toe, their bodies clung to each other. Suddenly, a white glow surrounded them, its warmth cocooning, vibrating around them, as if their desire, their passion had transformed itself into a prison she didn’t want to leave.
The world outside disappeared for Aiyana. His emotions, his desires became hers. With a deep breath she reached out to him. Her hands hovered over the defined muscles of his chest, the sprinkling of dark hair enticing her. His body tensed, but he didn’t move. She lowered her lips to his nipple and let her tongue bathe the pebble until he groaned.
Anticipation of a satisfaction she didn’t understand pulsed in her lower belly. Her body throbbed with longing, to be complete, to be filled, to be one with him.
She sank to the floor drawing him down, her softness cradling the planes of his hips. Without waiting, without warning, as if they had been lovers for centuries, he sank into her body in one fluid motion.
With a sigh he trembled against her. “My God.”
The fullness stretching her ached and she clenched around him, holding him, never wanting to let him go. “I am yours. No one else’s.”
His head rested next to hers and then he shifted, stroking inside of her, teasing her nerves, tempting her with what she had only envisioned through him.
She couldn’t help but moan as the hair on his chest tickled her breasts, her tightened nipples tingling with each caress. She’d heard the stories of what a mate could do to your body if he were the right one, but she’d never imagined. The tension within her rose and she couldn’t remain still any longer. With each of his thrusts, she rose to meet him; her head shifted back and forth as a strange tautness squeezed her midsection.
Her arms pulled him tighter. “More,” she cried out. “I want more.”
All she saw was the light that burned bright around them; all she heard were sighs of ecstasy filling the stone temple.
Soon, the frenzy escalated. More and more, higher and higher. “Aiyana,” he cried and pressed into her, hard, shuddering in her arms.
In one cataclysmic moment their bodies erupted in joy. Aiyana wrapped her arms and legs around him, holding him even closer, gasping.
Her heartbeat slowed and she stroked his hair, savoring every second. She might die today, but at least she’d had this.
The strange light surrounding them slowly faded. Cade raised his head and stared into the face of the woman who had given him more pleasure than he’d ever experienced. Her dark eyes gleamed as if they were lit by the moon. He pushed back the hair from her glowing face and pressed his lips to her forehead. What had he done?
“I don’t know if I regret it, but this shouldn’t have happened.”
She stiffened against him. “I did something…wrong? It wasn’t…okay?”
The sudden shyness in her expression sent a cold wave of concern through him. He hadn’t been gentle with her. His body had taken over, unthinking, unfeeling. Not worried about anything but his own release.
“God knows. If it had been any better, I’d be dead.”
She smiled, the relief clear and he knew for certain.
“You’ve never done this before, have you?”
She bit her lip and shook her head. “I was waiting for you.”
“Ah God, Aiyana. Did I hurt you? I wasn’t gentle. That light thing…it was like I couldn’t control myself.”
She smiled, the joy on her face humbled him. “For me as well.”
Cade ran his hands down her arms, and the tingling energy which flowed between them returned. As if he could hear her heartbeat, could sense her joy. But that was impossible.
Then there was something else. A panic. She was afraid.
Of him? Of the deadly beasts he fought?
His thumb caressed the fullness of her lower lip and she captured it and suckled. His body leapt to life. “Don’t distract me,” he muttered, holding her closer. The satisfaction and passion exuding from her body were as clear as his own fulfillment. As was her dread.
“I can feel you,” he said.
He cupped her breast. “You like that.” He tweaked her nipple. “You love that. I can sense how much.”
But before he could lower his mouth to her nipple to prove it, the emergency tone on his satellite phone sounded.
He reached for it. “Pierson,” he snapped.
“Yo, Cade. We heard some rumors from the villagers when we dropped off our undiscovered. That girl you saw. She’s like a bogeyman to them. They say she’s a ghost. That she fights monsters in the jungle. We need to talk to her. I need to know exactly who she is and what she knows. I’ll meet up with you soon.”
“What about Amber Callaway?”
“She’s out cold, but she’ll live. Did you know that temple they discovered is dedicated to a Mayan bat god?” Max let out a harsh laugh. “Ironic, huh?”
“Bat gods. Vampires. What do you think?”
Cade met Aiyana’s worried gaze. “Right. When will Amber wake up?”
“The doc at the clinic said she’s in bad shape. Lost a lot of blood. Sometime tonight maybe.”
“We need to know everything she knows about that temple, Max. You’d better stay put and talk to her.”
The phone crackled in Cade’s hand. “You could need help,” Max said.
“I can take care of myself. I’ll find the woman. When have you ever known me to lose a track?”
His mentor laughed, but the sounds sent a frisson of cold through Cade. He rubbed his cheek against Aiyana’s and the feeling dissipated, like she was healing him from the inside.
“Good point. But I’ll hit the trail come dawn. Your girl was brought up at the knee of some old wise woman. Find her, Cade, and keep her with you no matter what. I’ll take care of extracting the information.”
Cade held Aiyana closer, trying to shove away the foreboding that prickled the back of his neck. Despite her physical strength and her obvious knowledge, she was innocent in many ways. He rested his cheek against the top of her head. He would protect her from Max’s vicious vengeance, but he needed to know what she knew.
“You there, Cade?”
“Tomorrow morning. See you then, Max.”
He clicked off the phone, and even in the darkness, Aiyana’s face had turned pale. “You cannot let him touch me.”
Cade cupped her cheek, her warmth flowing through his fingers. So good, so right. “Max won’t hurt you, honey. He only kills vampires.”
Aiyana pushed away from him and pulled on her clothes, lot of good that it did when he knew what lay beneath every small scrap of material. The musky scent of her still lingered, and his want hadn’t lessoned. In fact, now that he knew how they fit together, his body wanted more and forever.
“Not any longer. He kills for the sake of killing. He hurts people because he can.”
Cade eased closer to her and tried to touch her, but she backed away. “This doesn’t have anything to do with us.”
“It has everything to do with what happened here, Cade. Don’t you understand? We’re connected and he will destroy me because of who I am.”
