Dark Hunger (11 page)

Riordan staggered as he moved to get away from where the vampire had last seen him. There was stillness now, as if the forest held its breath. Riordan realized the sky was dark due to storm clouds. Dawn was only a matter of minutes away. The vampire had struck fast and ferociously in the hopes of defeating him quickly.

He felt me with you.
Zacarias thought it over.
He will not return to fight. He will most likely go to ground for a long period of time or leave our area. Whatever he wished to accomplish here is not worth his life. Whatever brought such a powerful enemy to our lands had to be important.

I believe he has tainted some of the jaguar males. They have been capturing women and forcing them to mate for the purpose of breeding. Their women all have psychic abilities and are capable of becoming lifemates to our males.
Riordan was certain a powerful vampire would only come to the jungle if it profited him. If the vampire could prevent the Carpathians from finding lifemates, more and more of their males would turn vampire or walk into the sun.

You are thinking this is a very defined conspiracy.
Zacarias turned the idea over in his mind.
This must be reported to our brethren in our homeland. I will send Manolito. We will deal with the jaguar males who are abusing their women. You must go to ground quickly, Riordan. Put your lifemate in the ground and stay until you are fully healed. I will begin the hunt for the women.

The sister of my lifemate has been taken.

You must heal or we will lose both of you. That cannot happen. Without children our race faces extinction, just as the jaguar.

Riordan abruptly broke off contact with his brother, despising the truth, despising the command in his brother's voice. It made them no different than the jaguar males.

"That isn't true." Juliette was at his side, pushing him onto the ground while she examined the blood-soaked pack in his chest. She pressed him to lie flat while she gathered more rich soil and healing herbs and mixed them with his saliva. "I learn fast. This ugly little recipe was in your mind while you were trying to do it yourself."

"It is true, Juliette. We need women desperately, and we need them to give birth to female children." He couldn't stop looking at her, bending over him with her beautiful feminine body. She was naked, crouched beside him, anxiety on her face, her incredible breasts swaying with every movement. He felt as if he were in a dream. She couldn't possibly be real. Women like Juliette didn't exist in his world.

"Riordan." She said his name sharply. "You're fading on me. Don't you dare pass out. Let me pack this tight and then I'll provide you with blood." She looked around nervously. "Are you certain he's gone? I never saw him. I couldn't help you because I never got a clear glimpse of him."

"It is dawn." Riordan sounded far away. He lifted his hand and touched her breast, barely skimming the soft skin to confirm that she was real. "He had no choice but to go to ground."

"Riordan, take my blood."

He shook his head. "You will be left weak and dizzy with no one to protect you."

She ignored the hand cupping her breast, massaging her flesh with gentle fingers. She caught his face and forced him to look at her. "Do as I tell you and take my blood. You can't die, and you will if you don't have blood. I need you to help me get Jasmine back. I want you to live for me. Forget everything else, Riordan."

"I cannot protect you while I lie beneath the earth these long hours."

"I can protect myself. Please take my blood, Riordan." She was beginning to feel desperate.

There was a faint stirring in her mind. Another voice swirled there for a time, whispering with the same accent, far away and distant as if it was difficult to find the exact path. And then it was suddenly clear.
I am Zacarias. He will never willingly put you in more danger by weakening you. I will aid you, but you must remember, should anything happen to you while he rests beneath the earth, he will rise vampire and I will be forced to destroy him. You must stay alive.

"Somebody ought to lay out the rules ahead of time," Juliette muttered under her breath, but gave the mental nod to Riordan's brother. She couldn't bear the idea of losing Riordan, and she could clearly see he was going to be stubborn and combative if she persisted without help.

She knew the exact moment Zacarias struck, taking hold of Riordan and forcing him to bite deep into Juliette's wrist. Even though he was under strong compulsion, she felt Riordan striving to protect her, swirling his tongue over her skin to lessen the pain. A surge of anger went through him briefly at what Juliette and Zacarias were doing, but his temper died a quick death. Juliette went her own way when she felt justified. If Riordan wanted to spend a lifetime with her, he had better get used to who she was.

Riordan pulled away from Zacarias's control the moment the blood gave him enough strength. He took only enough from Juliette to aid his healing before closing the wound with his tongue. He brushed his thumb over the pinpricks. "I want to spend several lifetimes with you, and I know exactly who you are, Juliette." He loved every inch of her, loved looking at her with her bare feminine curves, but time was slipping away and he was far weaker than he should be.

He fashioned jeans and a blouse for her, a soft lightweight material that wouldn't cling so much in the high humidity. "You must protect your eyes as best you can. I made the shirt long-sleeved to protect your skin. Try to stay under cover as much as possible. I know you will continue to track Jasmine, but do not put yourself in danger until I can aid you. It will not help your sister to have you killed or captured."

She pulled on the clothes, a little shaky from the blood loss and the terrible fear that welled up each time she looked at the shocking hole in his chest. "I'll be careful." She ran her fingers through his hair. "Do what you have to do. I'll see you as soon as the sun sets."

Riordan glanced around him, his fingers suddenly shackling her wrist, halting all movement. Uneasiness was beginning to creep into his mind. Scanning didn't connect with enemies, human or otherwise in the area. It would be impossible for a vampire to stand the rising of the sun. Although most Carpathians could take the early morning hours, Riordan was severely injured and the light was already affecting his body. He rolled over to stare up into the canopy, unable to shake the sudden alarm coursing through his body. The leaves rustled and swayed with the mild wind. Every kind of plant climbed the trunks of the trees and twisted around branches, creating a jungle of foliage. The wind touched the leaves, the smallest of brushes, but it was enough to reveal turquoise eyes, gleaming like rare gems, glittering down at them.

The jaguar sprang, its stocky, compact body hurtling through the air, claws extended, eyes focused on its prey. Riordan shoved Juliette hard enough to send her sprawling and dissolved into mist, so that the cat hit the ground where he had been. The cat whirled, using its flexible spine, swiping with large claws at empty space.

"Solange! No!" Juliette rushed to grab the cat, running her hands through the soft fur, looking for damage. There were several lacerations, a series of ragged, gaping wounds where a cat had obviously raked her side. "You're hurt, these are deep." She turned to look for Riordan, felt his fingertips brush her cheek.

She meant to kill me, Juliette. I feel it in her mind. I must go to ground. She is enraged over the taking of her cousin. You stay safe and do your best to settle her down.

She heard the regret in his voice, the weariness and pain. "Go, Riordan. I'll see you at sunset."

Clothes floated to earth as he streaked away. The jeans were for someone with longer legs and a smaller waist. The shirt would cover Solange's well-endowed body. It had been easy enough to catch her exact proportions from Juliette's memories.

"He's gone, Solange. Tell me what happened."

Solange shifted to her natural form, remaining crouched on the ground, facing Juliette. "They already had her before I reached the house. I couldn't stop them, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She shook back her heavy fall of dark hair. "One stayed behind to try to give the others a head start. Once he realized I was female, and capable of shifting fast, with a more pure bloodline, I had a very real advantage. He didn't want to hurt me." Blood was dripping from the wounds in her side. "He did this before he realized what I was. I'm afraid it puts Jasmine in more trouble. They'll guard her much more carefully."

Juliette hugged Solange. "We'll find her and take her back."

"Who was that man?"

"Not one of them. He is Carpathian. Riordan. You heard Mom talk about them before." She couldn't help the defensive note in her voice.

"He's still a man, and they can't be trusted, Juliette. What does he want us for? Isn't the Carpathian race in the same trouble as the jaguar race?" Solange took the clothes from Juliette's hands and knotted them together before tying them around her neck. "They need babies to keep their race alive."

"They at least respect women and want them to be happy, Solange. All men are not responsible for what a few have done. And there is some suspicion that the jaguar males have come into contact with a master vampire. I saw one, and if that is so, I felt how evil he was. The males may very well have been influenced by him."

"It matters little to me why they do what they do. They cannot have Jasmine," Solange said. "Get rid of the clothes and let's get out of here." She studied Juliette as her cousin stripped. "You're very pale." There was suspicion in her voice.

"I don't want to argue with you, Solange. Let's find Jasmine before we do anything else."

"We don't argue," Solange objected. "At least we didn't before you took up with a man." She studied her cousin's pale body. "A man who takes blood from others."

Juliette ignored the implication. "Is the jaguar still on your trail?"

"I doubled back and led him near the laboratory just to see if he would ask for assistance. A bunch of men are sifting through what's left of the building. It completely collapsed. Did the Carpathian have something to do with that?"

Juliette nodded. "I found him there, chained in a cell, and got him free. He was in bad shape. They'd tortured him."

Solange swore. "I suppose that makes me like him more. At least he knows a little bit of what our women go through."

Chapter 9

"The sun is burning my eyes," Juliette said, pressing her fingertips to her face. "No matter what I do they weep. My skin feels like it's blistering."

"It is. Shift, Juliette, hurry before you're a mass of blisters. We'll talk about this later." Solange looked at her closely. "You can tell me what that man has done after we get Jasmine back."

"Tell me whether or not the jaguar male went near the humans," Juliette encouraged as she tied her own clothes in knots and looped them around her neck.

"He did. He spoke briefly with them, although he didn't reveal his body to them. He was able to half shift.
Half
of his body human and the other half jaguar. I can't do that. None of us can."

"You come from the purest bloodline we know of," Juliette pointed out. "Mom referred to you as a princess once."

Solange made a face. "Somehow I don't consider myself very lucky. I wouldn't want to be the princess of the jaguar people." She glanced around her. "Are you ready? We have to get out of here. Those men have had Jasmine far too long." She was already shifting, fur bursting through her skin, rippling over her face while her muzzle elongated to accommodate teeth.

Juliette closed her burning eyes and reached for Riordan.
Tell me you are safe.

I am deep in the arms of the earth. Let me help you shift.
He sensed how tired she was, how weak. He stifled the need to keep her with him. Greater than his own need, there was hers. She had to find her sister, and he understood that. He didn't like it, but he understood it.

Juliette called up her large cat, concentrating on the shifting of muscle and bone. She felt Riordan moving within her, lending her power and strength when he didn't have it to give. A part of her wanted to weep when she felt his pain. She feared the coming separation from him, but she had to find Jasmine.

The change took her rapidly. Juliette touched muzzles with Solange and they turned together and raced off into the darkened interior. Using the jaguar's highly acute sense of smell they found Jasmine's trail immediately and hurried after her. They took to the overhead highway, the tangle of branches high up in the canopy that allowed them to travel fast and in secret.

Birds took to the air, shrieked warnings at their passing, but neither jaguar paid any attention, and after a moment the birds settled back into the tops of the trees, ignoring them. The forest had stirred to life, insects humming, frogs croaking and deer barking to warn of the larger predators.

Juliette knew the exact moment when Riordan succumbed to the climbing sun and his heart stopped beating. The breath went out of her lungs, her heart stuttered in reaction, and she was suddenly and utterly alone—bereaved, grief-stricken. The jaguar stumbled, nearly tumbling from the branches. Claws dug into bark, scattering leaves and twigs and sending the birds once more shrieking. Solange turned sharply to growl a warning for stealth. They did not want to alert any of the males that might be guarding the back-trail.