Defeat the Darkness (Hearts of Darkness) (11 page)

When he entered the room, he recognized trouble when he saw it. The negotiations were going to get tougher. This time she was dressed for seduction.

Hopefully he knew her intentions well enough to fight her. Yes, she could enter his mind, but by sharing her blood with him, he’d been privy to some of the thoughts she hadn’t been able to block quickly enough.

The one thing he still maintained control over
was his own orgasm, and she couldn’t influence him enough to willingly fuck her. Since the cat within him had other ideas, Kyle was constantly on his guard against her nature. What he did discover was by taking his blood she weakened the jaguar. That gave him some power over the cat.

He’d resigned himself to the fact that in order to feed, he would be her slave in all things—all things but sex. While biding time, until the day he could escape from her and find another food source, he’d block her from his mind as much as possible. It wasn’t going to be an easy task. She was an ancient and smart, but he was no fool. He knew the game they played. She knew just how to keep him strong enough to play with but too weak to leave her. He knew just how fast to take her blood and maximize the take before she reached climax.

She was frustrated, and that made him happy. The favorite male guard gave him a knowing glare and sneered at him every time he escorted him back to his room. Kyle figured Amyra took her frustrations out on her guard after every feeding.

He still needed help and informatio
n, but who did he dare risk going to for help? She’d mentioned Victor. He remembered that strange image he had of Salazar. Was there more going on Kyle didn’t know about? Maybe...

Chapter 13 Encounter

Guatemala, three weeks later

Shelby climbed to the dock. After being cramped with the medical supplies and foodstuffs on the boat, her knees were stiff and shaky.

Mr. Hamilton had done his best to get her into Guatemala, but when she arrived over a week later, she still couldn’t get down river to the camp. There’d been rainy weather over the area for weeks and the rivers were swollen.
To her relief, before boarding the boat upriver, she’d received a simple message from Dr. Salazar, informing her Kyle had been found, and he was safe.

Safe perhaps, but different.

Kyle.
Her heart lifted in her chest then dropped to her stomach. No matter how bad he looked, she recognized him by his stride.

As h
e approached her from the surgical tent across the compound, her feet seemed glued in place. When she finally forced her legs to move in order to reach him, she had to skirt around the influx of bodies trying to off load the supplies.

Something was very wrong. His coal black hair hung about his shoulders, and his beard was a dark scruff. The shirt he wore looked a size too large, and a rope held up his pants. His once full face was thin and drawn over his broad cheekbones and jaw, and the usual sparkle in his eyes—the one that always made her insides melt—was missing.

The man glaring at her wasn’t the same man, the man she had fallen in love with. This man who resembled Kyle was a complete stranger.

She held her breath. Her lips moved to greet him, but nothing escaped—not his name, not the breath she was holding, not the
scream she felt building. Nothing escaped except the fleeting sense of relief she’d experienced when she learned he was alive. Both the breath and the relief rushed out of her as he drew closer.

He paused in front of her on the wooden planks where she waited and didn’t even try to touch her. His lack of a welcoming embrace or greeting certainly didn’t invite hers. She bit her tongue and kept quiet. All she could do was stare and wonder.

The dock area at the edge of the mobile medical set up was busy with people coming and going, yet all she could focus on were Kyle’s empty eyes.

She understood his weight loss in this heat, especially after his experience in the jungle. What she didn’t anticipate was his anger. He was furious—his expression thunderous.

“You shouldn’t have come,” he whispered.

He’s right.
The thought entered her mind as if spoken by someone else.

He scanned the camp like a hunter, never making direct eye contact for long, searching the area for what? Danger?

This wasn’t the welcome she expected. The moment was more than awkward. Her chest tightened with apprehension, followed quickly by anger. His behavior was inexcusable. When she thought about the trip and the worry, her anger felt justified.

“Really? You went missing for almost t
hree weeks. I was understandably concerned.”

He merely shrugged as if her concern meant nothing to him.

“Can you at least tell me what happened to you?”

“Not here.” Kyle motioned for her to follow him off to the side, out of the main stream of people gathering near the boat.

Perhaps his distant behavior had to do with so many people bustling about. She’d never known him to be an overtly private person, but maybe this environment was different.

“Things got blown out of proportion,” he said, without offering to take her into the main camp.

“Over blown?” She examined him slowly from his flat expression to the hands he’d shoved in his pockets and then lowered her voice, “I doubt that. Look at you.”

“I’m fine. I was a fool. I got lost.”

If she believed this was just about him feeling foolish, she would let it go. Convinced there was more—still something he was hiding—she reached for him, barely touching his cheek before he recoiled.

Stepping back, he shook her off as if her touch repulsed him. Her chest tightened. His abrupt reaction forced her to drop her hand. The other strange thing she noticed was how cold his skin felt despite the jungle heat.

Before she could ask about it, he pissed her off by saying, “This was a waste of time. I’m in the process of training a new surgeon, so I’ll probably be back next month.”

“It’s not like I could have turned around. I was on my way here
and stuck up river when I received the news you’d been found safe.”

“A phone call would have been sufficient.”

“I needed to see for myself—”

“Okay. You’ve seen.” His words hardened his already icy greeting.

No matter how uncomfortable the thought, the other distinct possibility for his behavior squeezed her heart. He’s over me. While she’d been worried sick, had his feelings for her changed?

Visions of their last few days together battled with the present. The one thing that made sense was that he’d found someone else. Although it wasn’t even in his character to flirt, it wasn’t impossible. No matter how she played out the scenario, she couldn’t wrap her head around it. If she was going to bet on faithful, Kyle was the man. Max was the player.

Straightening her back and swallowing hard, she gathered her reserve. More resolute than ever, she vowed she wasn’t going home or letting him dump her, if that was his intention, without a better explanation.

“You’re fifteen pounds leaner and you look exhausted.”

“Of course! I’ve been lost in the jungle for two weeks and working my ass off, day and night when I’ve been here.”

Shelby heard the desperation in his tone before he caught himself.

“But none of that is your concern.”

The sharply snapped out words felt like a slap.

“O-oh. Okay.” Not her concern? Then whose?

The painful rejection practically confirmed her greatest fear. Hope dissolved. If he wasn’t her concern then they were finished. In spite of her medical training, she discovered a hear
t could break. This wouldn’t destroy her, but how would she face the future—her plans, their plans—if their relationship was over?

He ran a hand down his face. “The boy I went looking for still hasn’t been found.”

That may have explained a lot. She understood his concern but not his complete change of character.

“I’m sorry about the boy,” she said and waited for Kyle to say or do something. When he offered nothing more, she encouraged him with what little information she had. “They said they found blood all over your backpack and medical bag—”

He shook his head. “It wasn’t the boy’s. I told them it was the jaguar’s blood, not mine. I had to kill the animal with my hunting knife.”

“My God, you could have been killed.”

Suddenly, the air was too thick to breathe, the heat too repressive. She struggled to take her next breath. As she stood facing him with her knees wobbling, he continued to look everywhere except at her. She wanted to reach out and shake him.

After a long silence he said, “It’s more dangerous here than we thought.” His shoulders drooped and his posture sagged.

The idea of Kyle killing anything, surviving in the jungle, or living in a rough camp like this would have seemed preposterous if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes. But here he stood, paying penance for the lifestyle of his family.

“You don’t have to do this, Kyle,” she whispered
, gripping him by the shirtsleeve. This time he didn’t flinch away—but he did tense.

“Do what?” he asked and finally looked up at her. A light flickered as if he saw her for the first time, and hope arrowed through her heart. Then his brows drew together into a dark scowl. The light faded and her hope died.

“You know what I’m talking about.” She didn’t understand why she persisted except that they’d shared too much for her to be blown off in a muddy tent city without a good explanation. “There’s no need for you to die proving you’re the one member of your family who isn’t a leach sucking the life blood from the underclass.”

Kyle inhaled sharply. His skin went even paler than it had been, and the expression on his face looked as if her words gutted him. His entire presence vibrated beside her. His jaw clenched, his eyes went dark, and for a long moment, Shelby thought he would ru
n.

Then he straightened his shoulders and without an ounce of expression spoke so softly, she almost wasn’t c
ertain she heard him correctly. “No. I was mistaken. I’m not different from the rest.”

“What are you talking about?”

“People do what it takes to fulfill their needs. I discovered I am one of them, after all.”

“You’re here, aren’t you?” she asked. “You’re doing good and helping—”

“Look, you should get back on the boat and get out of here.” He held her by the shoulders and turned her in the direction of the river. “This place isn’t set up for a visit.” His voice was sharp, his words clipped.

In the three years she’d known him, Shelby had never met this Kyle. This wasn’t the man she’d fallen in love with. She searched his face
hoping to find some semblance of who he’d been a few months earlier, but his gaze darted back and forth. Still, he wouldn’t maintain eye contact.

“It’s not safe. There are animals, looters, danger.” His hands shook when he tried to steer her toward the boat. Despite his
appearance, he was curiously strong.

But she dug in and held her ground.

“Stop.” She shrugged his hands off her shoulders. “I can’t leave before morning. They don’t have room.”

The grip on
her arm tightened. “They can make room.”

“Don’t.” She put her hand on his arm again, and this time it seemed to calm him. “Kyle? It would mean one less needy patient gets transported to the hospital.”

Shelby saw desperation flash in his eyes when his attention drifted to the local men loading the injured on stretchers into the boat. A child waved at him. Another smiled. One injured man thanked him as they carried him by. The strained expression on Kyle’s face changed and softened momentarily as he resumed his role as surgeon. He became the doctor she remembered, more like himself.

The illusion was fleeting. He turned his back o
n her and said, “You have to go...but you’re right. Not now. There are too many injured today.”

Shelby huffed and squared her shoulders. “Surely, you can put up with me until morning. I think I can stay out of trouble for a few hours.”

He merely grunted, refusing to look in her direction. He started to walk into camp, then stopped himself. “Stay here. Don’t move. I’ll be right back. I want to be sure they make room for you on the boat tomorrow morning.”

“Okay.
After, could you show me around the facilities?”

“Not much point.”

“You don’t know that.”

He shrugged. His rudeness left her stunned as he walked over to the boat’s captain.

The man gestured when they spoke, and Kyle pointed at her. Apparently, he wanted to make sure they didn’t leave in the morning without her.

Kyle returned, still doing that strange scanning thing
as if he was waiting for someone or something to jump out of the bushes. When he reached her, he cursed beneath his breath. “Max never should have let you come here.”

“Let me? Max doesn’t say what I can or cannot do.” She poked him in his chest
emphasizing each word. “And neither do you. Is there someplace where I can put this bag?

He shook his head, and she sw
ore he released a low growl.

“In my tent.”

“Where will I stay tonight?”

“With me. There’s no other place.”

She wasn’t thrilled by the prospect after his cold greeting, but maybe it would give her time to find out what was wrong.

“Here, let me take that.”
His offer to take her bag was unexpected. It was as if he’d suddenly remembered his manners.

At least he didn’t seem as weak as he looked. He picked up the bag as if it weighed nothing, and briskly walked off in the direction of several small tents on the perimeter of the compound.

“You coming?” he asked over his shoulder.

“Yes.” Shelby followed him doing her best to slog through the mud and check out the facilities at the same time. “Is that the surgical center there?”

“Yes. Triage is on the right and recovery is on the left.”

Kyle acted as if he couldn’t wait to get to shelter. No time for talking, she guessed.
He ended the conversation as she tried to keep up with his quick pace all the way to the far edge of the camp.

“Make yourself at home.” He held the flap open for her and followed her inside. She thought he sighed when the flap closed behind him.

“You have your own tent?” There were two small fold up beds with real mattresses, a desk, and a chair to one side, with the portable sink set up on the other.

“I work odd hours. It’s better this way. I don’t disturb anyone coming or going.”