Dark Peril (20 page)

She turned back to watch as her mother shifted. She could hardly bear to take her eyes off her mother. It was shocking to see the effort it took to shift, the gasping pain for both the human and animal. Did her mother have internal damage? Broken bones? Only that kind of pain could affect the cat. Solange tried to keep an eye on her mother as they carefully crossed that nearly open space on the branch together and made their way stealthily through the canopy toward freedom.

As they put a good mile between them and the jaguar sentry, Solange allowed joy to burst through her. They’d done it. They had finally brought her mother home. She wanted to weep with happiness. The little cub suddenly squawked and shifted into human form, and Jasmine nearly fell from the canopy. She didn’t make a sound, a child already well versed in the need for absolute silence. She had never been able to hold the jaguar form for long. Her father had been human. Had she been in the village the day Brodrick had come, she would have been killed with the others.

They waited while she awkwardly crawled onto her sister’s back and, because she was in human form and it was too dangerous to continue moving through the canopy, they made their way to the forest floor. Audrey had the weapons stashed in a bag slung around her neck, but still, they moved fast. Every step lightened Solange’s heart more. Her mother. She’d dreamt of it at night, waking more than once calling for her mother. She could barely believe they’d actually managed to find her.

A sudden silence in the canopy froze her. A sentry monkey called a warning. A bird shrieked. Her heart nearly stopped. She reacted immediately, still the child but already the one most skilled. She shifted immediately and snatched the bag of weapons from around Audrey’s neck and signaled Juliette to run with Jasmine. Juliette would take to the water to keep from leaving tracks. Audrey and Solange would delay those following to give Juliette the best chance with little Jasmine to escape.

She sank onto the ground and quickly reached into the bag to pull out a gun. Her mother’s hand on her wrist stilled her. She, too, had shifted to human form. Very gently she tugged at the weapon in Solange’s hand. Solange shook her head stubbornly, holding on.

“Give it to me, baby,” Sabine said.

Solange looked at her mother, taking in the bruises and scars, the misshapen rib cage, the signs of the brutality she had endured these last four years. “Go with your aunt now.”

“No. You go with her. I’m a good shot.”

“You can’t get all of them. Do as I tell you.” Sabine hugged her hard for the briefest of seconds. “
Never
let them take you alive, Solange,” she whispered. “I love you, baby. Go with your aunt now.” She shoved Solange at her sister. “Thank you, all of you.”

Knowledge burst through Solange. Her mother was going to fight the attackers off to allow the rest of them to get away. And she would die here. She shook her head, opened her mouth to scream a protest, but Audrey, with surprising strength, clapped her palm over Solange’s mouth, wrapped an arm around her waist and turned and ran with her.

Solange screamed and screamed. No sound came from her throat. She heard the shots of the rifle and then the horrible sound of jaguars fighting. She screamed again, called to her mother. Again there was no sound, nothing. She couldn’t cry. She couldn’t look at anyone. The pain had gone so deep there was no adequate way to express it.

Solange found herself rocking back and forth, holding the comforter to her, the memories refusing to recede as they always did when she recalled them.
Mama,
she whispered softly,
I wish I had gone with you.

Coldhearted Solange had been born that day. Her mother’s daughter was dead. She had never been able to hold her mother close again, not even her body. They had burned it and left no trace for Solange to even mark. She realized something inside her had died that day, something she could never get back. She trained daily after that to become what she was now—a killer. She had fueled her rage to keep herself going every single day.

But Solange was no more. They had killed her that hot afternoon, just as surely as they killed her mother. She was alone. No one could possibly understand the change that had taken place in her that day. She had made a vow, sworn over the blood of her mother and then again, when she’d made her pilgrimage back to her village, sworn over the rest of her family—she would not turn her back on the other women who needed her. She would remain alone.

Fél ku kuuluaak sívam belső—
beloved.
The voice moved in her head. Soft. Tender even.
You are not alone anymore. I see you. I hear your screams and I share your anguish.

Solange heard the ring of truth in Dominic’s voice. He had shared her memories. As violent and vivid as they were, every detail etched forever into her mind, she had disturbed his sleep, pressing those memories into him without her knowledge. His own beloved sister and her lifemate had been ripped from him. He had spent several lifetimes trying to find her, only to discover she had long ago been tortured and killed. Yes, he did know the anguish and sorrow inside of her, the slow death of everything good.

She pushed the comforter against her mouth, still rocking slowly. If she looked there in the darkness, she would see him with her cat’s eyes, but she didn’t want to look at death, see him lying so still without a heartbeat, without breath, not when the death of her mother was so close. She couldn’t bear to see him that way. Not now. Not with the past so near and her life closing in around her.

Not death,
avio päläfertiil
—lifemate. The earth holds me in her arms and heals me. She gives me sustenance in her way. This is life, just a different version than you know.

“I have to go outside and just breathe.” She couldn’t sleep. She needed to lose herself in her cat, to prowl the rain forest and look for—
him
.

I do not think so, little cat. If you must shift, of course you should do so, particularly if it eases your mind, but you cannot go out hunting him in your present state of mind. You would be killed. You are seeking death.

“That might be true,” she said, willing only to admit the possibility that he might be right about her seeking death. “But sadly for you, you’re lying there dead or not dead, and can do nothing to stop me.”

Amusement filled her mind.
I am an ancient Carpathian,
minan
, and far more powerful than you can conceive. I am your lifemate and it is my duty to see to your health. Do not think because I am gentle with you, that I do not have the ability to take care of your needs.

Had anyone else said those words to her, Solange would have scoffed at them, but Dominic was Carpathian, and she had seen and felt his power. And he had some sort of power over her. One she didn’t quite understand.

You may of course try, Solange, but your doing so would be going against my wishes and you would disappoint me.
Again there was no judgment in his voice, no anger. He simply waited for her to make her decision.

Her heart clenched hard in her chest. The pain was so real she pressed the comforter clutched tightly in her fists to her aching heart and then dropped her face into the soothing material. She wasn’t weeping. She was in human form.

His arm moved. She felt it. He touched her hair and she sensed the tremendous effort he made.
I have never had the pleasure of lying beside a jaguar.

That was all. A simple sentence, but Solange closed her eyes, grateful for something—anything—she could do to push the memories further away. She took a breath and forced herself to look at him.

He was so beautiful. Every muscle carefully crafted, and the thickness of his arms and chest made her feel small in comparison—almost feminine. She leaned over him, her breasts brushing his chest, nearly crawling on him in order to study his face. His eyes were closed, but she sensed that he saw her. Maybe he was only in her mind, but it didn’t feel that way. It felt to her as if his power filled the chamber and surrounded her with warmth, with acceptance.

He didn’t think less of her because she wept. Or raged. Or killed. He accepted everything about her. She doubted he would think less of her if she tried to leave, and there was no doubt in her mind that neither she nor her jaguar would find a way out of the chamber. She wasn’t going to waste her strength trying.
You don’t want to disappoint him,
her warrior self taunted.

She straddled him and bent down, her hands framing his face. He was so incredible, this one man she’d thought never to find. She didn’t know one such as he could exist. She was in his mind, knew him to be a man who would protect a woman, would fight to the death for her. She brushed her fingers lightly over his tough features. He was no boy. A strong face, for a strong man. He had chosen duty to his people, the one thing she understood. He thought to die.

“There are so many terrible men in the world, Dominic, men who do horrible things to those weaker just because they can. I don’t understand anymore. Why are you chosen for such a terrible mission, and not one of them?”

I chose,
fél ku kuuluaak sívam belső
—beloved. I did not know you were in this world. I was going to the next in hopes of finding you.

Of course he was aware of her hands on him. She sighed and rolled off of him, afraid she was too needy for his touch, for his wisdom. For his company. “Would you have chosen not to go on this mission then? Had you known about me, would you have allowed another to take your place?”

An image of Zacarias came into her mind.
He offered. He wanted me to go to a healer and try to remove the blood. He said he would go in my place.

Her heart contracted as he replayed the exchange in his head. “Because I am his family? I despised him. He is so . . . overbearing.” She was ashamed. “I had no idea he would do such a thing for a woman he has never met.”

He loves his brothers. His memory of that love and of his honor have kept him going all these long endless years, Solange. He believes he cannot live with a woman who would resent his dominance. He has little left but service to those he loves.

She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes hard. “Why didn’t you say yes?” Her heart pounded, waiting for the answer.

I have the best chance to fight the pull of the bloodlust call. I am Dragonseeker. I will not, for my own pleasure, turn this job over to someone else. I set my foot on this path and I must follow it.

She let her breath out. Of course he would do the right thing. He had honor. “When Juliette found Riordan in their laboratory, Jasmine was taken. They managed to get their hands on my mother, my aunt and little Jasmine, although I had taken an oath to protect them—especially her. There was a jaguar who could partially shift. I’d never seen anything like that. None of us could do that, not my mother, and not Aunt Audrey. I knew how strong they were when I saw that.”

She was silent and he simply waited for her to continue. The silence stretched a long time, but he never stirred, not even in her mind. She could feel his presence there, but he didn’t push her. If she wanted to share, he would listen, but he wouldn’t force her confidence.

Solange sighed. She’d never needed anyone, and to tell him her secrets was frightening and yet liberating. She respected his abilities as a warrior. She wanted to succeed in killing Brodrick. She didn’t want to die in vain and leave her birth father behind to continue his despicable purging of any jaguar strain that wasn’t pure.

“I began to practice. Running and shifting. Leaping from trees and shifting. Most of all partially shifting, and I’ve gotten very good at it. Purebloods can do things other jaguars can’t do. My blood is pure, Dominic, but it’s also royal. As far as I know there are only two people left on earth with my blood type.”

She reached back and touched the bite marks nearly gone from her shoulder, thanks to Dominic’s ministrations. “I’m far faster than he knows. Maybe as fast as or faster than he is.”

So your plan is to confront him.

She listened for the censure in his voice, but as always he sounded strictly neutral. “It’s the last thing he’ll expect. And he knows I’m his daughter now, that I carry the royal blood. As vile as it sounds, he will believe I’m his chance for an heir. He isn’t the kind of man to allow a little thing like incest to stop him.”

You believe he will hesitate to kill you, that he will seek to incapacitate you in some manner.

“Which will be another advantage.”

He put his teeth into you, his claws.

“But his bite was to my shoulder, not my neck.”

Her hand crept up to stroke the scars there, where, so long ago, Brodrick’s claws had bitten into her neck in an effort to kill her. Had she moved just enough that he’d gone much shallower than intended? She had no idea what had saved her. She remembered his face, twisted with disgust, blood spattered across him, and those evil eyes staring down at her. He’d jerked her up by her hair and swept his claw across her neck and then, as he had the girls before her, thrown her outside the cabin into the clearing with the other bodies he considered rubbish.

So he will try to keep you alive. And if you do not succeed in killing him and he captures you, he will force you to bear his child, just as the mage forced my sister to bear his.

Her heart ached for him. She hadn’t considered how similar the scenario was to his past. His tone of voice gave nothing away, but still, there was censure there in his words. She wished she could give him reassurance, but she wouldn’t lie to him. “I will find a way to commit suicide before that happens.”

You know that is unacceptable.

She snorted and slowly stretched, the languorous stretch of a lazy cat. “You should know. Your plan is equally stupid.”

You are very brave when I cannot move.

She found herself smiling. This was what she was most familiar with. In the dark, she could pretend he was a dream man rather than a real flesh and blood one. She had no inhibitions with this man. They could play their verbal chess match long into the night and she was absolutely safe. She shifted into her jaguar form and the cat curled around him, guarding him, daring anyone or anything to try to harm him.