Amber Fire

by Lisa Renee Jones

  4

  Emotion, awareness, heat—all of these things fluttered wildly within Amber as Jareth walked her to the outskirts of her camp. Amber was pretty sure it was insane to be falling for a man such as himself, a Yaguara—as much animal as human. She was, after all, an educated woman who prided herself on common sense. What she felt for Jareth had nothing to do with common sense, though, of that she was certain. But as she turned to face him, stared at those piercing teal eyes, and felt her throat go dry, she took comfort in knowing that she had at least sensed he was Yaguara. That she had sensed he needed protection in some way—protection she could offer by departing. No discovery was worth endangering an entire species, let alone her team, and she knew her father would have agreed.

  She drew a breath as he stepped closer, fitted his hips to hers, one hand settling on her waist. Erotic images flashed in her mind—of him inside her, touching her.

  “Remember,” he said, fingers stroking her jaw. “Say nothing to anyone. This is for their safety and yours. The Wildlife Preservation authorities will be here in the morning with a restraining order in hand.”

  Finding out Yaguara had friends in the right places, friends who would get her out of all of this, was a relief. “I’m still not looking forward to Mike’s flip-out. He is going to go nuts when they show up accusing us of endangering the wildlife.”

  “Let him,” he said. “Either way, you will have to abandon camp and regroup. That gets you out of here safely, and then we’ll talk through what to do from there.”

  Her brow arched. “We?” she asked. It might be silly, but for the first time since her father’s death, she didn’t feel alone. It was silly. She barely knew Jareth, yet . . . she couldn’t help but feel everything in her life had been leading here—to him. Maybe she was destined to help Yaguara rather than expose them.

  “We,” he agreed softly. “You are a part of this, Amber. I will not leave you to face it alone. You have my word.”

  Amber stared up at Jareth’s strong features, shadowed by the beam of moonlight twining through tree limbs, wishing she could read his expression. She didn’t need to see his face though, to feel the growing bond between them. It made her weak in the knees, damp between the legs, and warm in the heart. That was surreal, considering the violence responsible for bringing them together.

  “Help! Help! We need help!”

  The distant shout tore through the calm moment and settled in her stomach with the jagged-edged promise that something horrible had happened. Jareth and Amber locked gazes, silent understanding between them, and they launched into a run, toward the camp. The shouts grew louder, more urgent. The instant they entered the camp, a huddle of workers surrounded them.

  “Jaguars!”

  “A cat attacked Chris!”

  Amber’s heart fell to her feet. Chris was twenty-two—a college intern. Too young to die.

  “Is he alone?” Amber demanded.

  “No,” the man said. “Mike and many others are with him. The cats won’t let them touch Chris.”

  “Where?” Jareth demanded.

  Another man responded, “Over the hill, over the hill!”

  “I can take you! But you will need a gun,” the first man said. “The cats are everywhere.”

  “I don’t need a gun,” Jareth said. “I suspect that’s what got us in this situation in the first place.” Jareth turned to Amber. “Stay here.” He didn’t give her time to respond. He cut his gaze back to the man. “Take me.”

  Amber wasn’t about to stay behind. “Jareth . . .” But he was already on the move, leaving her behind. Amber hesitated, recognizing she had to leave prepared. Jareth might not need protection, but she did. Racing toward the cluster of tents at one corner of the camp, she found her own, and snagged a tranquilizer gun from inside. Not that she thought she would need it with Jareth around, but he’d left her behind, and she had to reach him.

  In a matter of seconds, she returned to the company of her frazzled workers. “It’s going to be okay,” she assured them all. She hoped. She prayed. Poor Chris. She raised her voice. “Everyone, stay calm and be ready with your weapons in case they are needed. Do not fire unless absolutely necessary. You might make it worse.” She turned to one of the women. “Call for an ambulance.” She motioned to several men. “Go to the road to direct them back here.” Then she focused on one of the two men who’d informed them of the danger, of Chris being somewhere over the hill. “Take me to Chris.”

  For an instant he hesitated, as if afraid, his hands tightly gripping his weapon before he started running. Amber’s heart raced, partly from what she estimated to be a two-mile hard run up a steep, rocky mountain terrain, but more so from the fear of what she would see when she found Chris.

  And that fear turned out to have good cause when they cleared the top of the slope and found themselves right inside the scene unfolding. Amber stopped dead in her tracks, barely biting back a gasp, at the sight of Chris lying on the ground, his chest mangled and bleeding, clearly having taken a swipe from a powerful paw.

  Jareth, and Jareth alone, stood beside him, with an intimidating line of at least a half-dozen snarling, bigger-than-life jaguars a few feet behind him. Yet he appeared unfazed. Ten-plus men stood opposite the cats, weapons aimed.

  Mike was amongst those men, and the only one not aiming his weapon at the cats—he was aiming at Jareth. Amber’s racing heart dropped to her stomach. “What’s going on, Mike?!” she demanded.

  “What’s going on,” Mike said, “is that your buddy here is the only one those cats will let near Chris. Something isn’t right about that. Something is damn wrong, in fact.”

  Jareth looked at Amber. “I told him I’d nursed a cub back to health,” he said. “The cats know me. And they know I don’t mean them any harm.” He leaned in to pick up Chris.

  “Don’t move or I’ll be shooting at you!” Mike shouted. “Because that’s a bunch of crap for an answer. Those cats are wild. They don’t give a shit if you nursed a cub. They’d still kill a normal person if they got the chance. But there isn’t a damn thing normal about you, is there?”

  Jareth gave him an icy look. “Those cats can smell danger. They know who means them harm. And it’s not me.”

  “Damn you, Mike!” Amber launched herself forward, acting before she let fear get the best of her. Chris needed help, and Amber wasn’t allowing Jareth’s secret to be discovered while he tried to save a man’s life. Something Mike was too busy making accusations to do.

  “Amber!” Mike screamed. Several other shouts mingled with his.

  In an instant, alive and untouched by the cats, Amber squatted down beside Chris. “Oh God,” she whispered, at the terrifying contrast of blood and pale skin on Chris. They were losing valuable time while Mike held them hostage with accusations.

  Amber rotated on her heels and glared over at Mike. “The issue is not Jareth, Mike, or the cats would be attacking me.” Emotion radiated in her voice. She was responsible for protecting her crew, and Chris was bleeding to death. She’d trusted Mike like a father. “It’s you and your damn guns. The guns weren’t supposed to be on my dig site in the first place!” Amber turned back to Jareth and cast him a pleading look. “Please. Help him.”

  Jareth’s eyes met hers, respect and appreciation in their depths. Then he picked up Chris as one might a child. He knew she’d covered for him, that she understood the risk he’d taken by showing his ability to approach the cats in order to help Chris.

  Jareth started walking and Amber followed. “I called for an ambulance.”

  Mike took a step toward them. The cats snarled a warning that stopped him in his tracks. “The cats will let them pass once they know we’re a safe distance away,” Jareth assured her but didn’t wait for a reply. He began a slow jog down the hill, carrying Chris’s two hundred pounds with inhuman ease.

  They made the rest of the run in silence, stepping into camp to a rumble of worried voices and thankfully, an ambulance in waiting. The emergency
team rushed toward them with a rolling bed, and Jareth set Chris on top. It was clear that Chris had taken one massive blow across the chest. In what felt like minutes, but was more like seconds, the crew had Chris inside the ambulance.

  Amber ran to the door. “What hospital?” The driver shouted a name and pulled the doors shut, the grim expression on his face not at all comforting.

  Amber whirled around to face Jareth, his dark shirt matted with the stickiness of blood. Her stomach rolled with the realization of how much blood Chris really had lost. “I have to go to the hospital, but the others . . . I need to know they’re safe.”

  He grabbed her and pulled her close. “They’re fine,” he said. “I promise. Go to the hospital, and I can meet you there soon.” Then he kissed her forehead.

  It was a tender act, and she wanted nothing more than to take comfort from it, from him. But guilt overtook her with a chaser of fear and doubt. One of her men had been hurt by a jaguar. For all she knew, by a Yaguara. And Mike was acting crazy. If her father were here, he’d have never allowed this nightmare to happen. Her hands went to Jareth’s chest, and she leaned away from him.

  “Like Chris is fine?” she demanded. “Was it a Yaguara that hurt him?”

  His brow arched. “Is that an accusation that I hear in your voice?” he demanded. “Because it sure doesn’t sound like the trust you promised me.”

  “Was that cat Yaguara?” she repeated, needing to know if she was sleeping with someone whose kind could do something like that to a young, innocent man.

  The air crackled with an instant charge of tension. “You mean the one that died from the bullet Chris put in her?” he asked, his voice blistering with anger. “No. She was not Yaguara.”

  Amber absorbed that news like a punch in the gut. “I . . . I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  “Yes,” he said. “You did.”

  Voices sounded nearby. Shouts followed. “They’re back! Mike and the crew are back!”

  Amber and Jareth turned to find Mike and several of her workers walking down the cliff, all of them in handcuffs, two uniformed men acting as their captors. Amber’s eyes traveled from one uniform to the next, noting the men were both of dark coloring, both with long hair, both wore an air of danger that said they didn’t need a gun to kill. They were Yaguara; she knew it in her gut.

  Amber cut her attention back to Jareth. “I thought they were coming in the morning,” she said, certain these were the wildlife officials he’d talked about who were bringing a warrant.

  “They were,” Jareth said, releasing his hold on her arms. “Until your people started firing on jaguars.” He turned to start walking toward the men.

  Amber instantly grabbed his arm. “Jareth.”

  He stopped short and turned back. “Let’s deal with what is before us before someone else gets hurt, shall we?” His eyes were steely and cold. “We’ll deal with what is between us later. Alone.”

  She drew back, hugged herself. Alone with Jareth meant sex. Sex with Jareth meant total mental and physical meltdown. She would not think straight. She would want him. She would want more of him. She had to gain some semblance of control. Everything was spinning and tumbling out of control, especially her emotions. She took a step backward. “I’m not so sure that’s such a good idea.” Chris was in an ambulance near death. She barely knew Jareth. She needed time to think.

  Jareth grabbed her arm, dragged her close. “Do not even think about saying a word of what we have discussed to anyone, Amber. People will get hurt. You will get hurt.”

  She was shaking. Inside. Outside. All over. “Is that a threat?”

  “Sweetheart,” he said, his voice raspy, almost a growl. “If I had wanted to hurt you, don’t you think I would have done it back at that waterfall? Or perhaps you’ve forgotten the pleasure, and I need to remind you?” Teal eyes bore into her with a challenge. “Make your choices wisely, Amber. Lives are on the line.” His grip fell away from her. “Go to the hospital and be with Chris. Call his family. Do what humans do in these situations. And I’ll do what I do—keep everyone alive. We’ll talk later.” His voice firmed and he repeated, “Alone.”

  He turned and walked away, leaving Amber staring after him in total shellshock, much like she’d felt when she’d first seen Chris, wounded and bleeding. Jareth was overwhelming. He’d come into her life and taken it over. There was possessiveness about his way with her that was forgiven only because, well, before now, it had made her hot. Now, it simply made her confused. Okay—it pissed her off, too. Who was he to act like he owned her? One hot romp under that waterfall did not give him any say in her life. So damn it, why did she feel like calling him back to her?

  She inhaled, watching him stalk away with long, determined steps. A hero for saving Chris. Or was he? She didn’t want to believe this was a setup, but she couldn’t dismiss how well this situation suited Jareth’s desire to keep them all away from this place. She would lose her grant and never manage to get another to return here considering that a cat had been shot.

  Jareth might not have pulled the trigger, but did he order the cats to attack? Everything inside her screamed to reject that idea. He’d come to her. He’d told her the truth. But then, maybe he wanted her to have a reason to believe her crew would actually shoot a cat for reasons beyond protection. They had bullets, though, she reminded herself, not tranquilizers. Those men were out there with the intention to kill. Far from camp. They were not protecting the perimeter. They must have been hunting.

  Her gaze lifted to Mike at the same moment that he spit at one of the officers. She cringed. This was not the Mike she’d thought she knew. Her father had kept the reason for his falling out with Mike quiet, despite her prodding. Today she had seen a side of Mike that made that falling out more understandable. Was Mike a Hunter? She had a bad feeling the answer was yes. But—then again, Chris was in an ambulance. How could Amber justify completely dismissing any guilt on Jareth’s part?

  She was confused. Mike was the closest thing to family she had left, yet now he felt like the enemy. But she had to face the fact that the real enemy might be the one she was sleeping with.

  Hours had passed since Amber left for the hospital, and Jareth stood on the porch outside a county jail where seven of Amber’s crew had been taken; they’d been released minutes before, Mike and his wife, Evelyn, included. Their release had been compliments of a high-powered attorney who Mike should not have been able to afford—funded, no doubt, by the Hunters’ hierarchy.

  “You’re certain she isn’t a Hunter?” The question came from Chase Bradley, a fellow Sentinel, and Game Warden. At least for now. Until the slow aging process of the Yaguara forced him to move on.

  Jareth leaned on the wooden rail and crossed one booted foot over the other. Thanks to Chase, he’d shed his bloody clothes for a pair of Game Warden fatigues and a tan T-shirt. “I’m certain,” Jareth said.

  Chase studied Jareth, his legs set in a V, hands on his narrow hips. “Because we have to be certain.”

  “What part of ‘I’m certain’ did you not understand?” he asked sharply. He did not care that Chase was the son of one of the seven high council members, and was destined to lead one day. He was still a kid, barely a century old compared to Jareth’s three hundred years.

  “But her father—”

  “For the last time,” Jareth said, making no effort to hide his irritation. “She’s not a Hunter. Until tonight, she believed her father was an archaeologist with a dream of finding Yaguara.”

  Chase crossed his arms over his broad chest. “She knows the truth now?”

  “I told her what was necessary,” he said. “No names. I don’t want her acting nervous around the people who are involved.”

  Chase considered a moment, and then ran a hand over his clean-shaven jaw, which was complemented by his short, dark hair.

  “Do you trust her?” Chase finally asked.

  Jareth noted the familiar look on Chase’s face. The one that said he had a br
illiant idea that would not seem brilliant to Jareth. “No,” Jareth said.

  “No,” Chase said, his brows dipping. “You don’t trust her?”

  “No, to whatever you are planning,” Jareth replied. “And yes. I trust her.”

  Chase threw his hands out to his sides. “You haven’t even heard my idea, and already you say no?”

  “I never like your ideas.”

  Chase snorted. “You never like anyone’s ideas.” He quickly got back on point. “Look. For years now, we’ve known Mike has connections to the brains of the Hunters’ operation, but we’ve turned up nothing. Amber can’t remain this close to Mike without this war pulling her under, but if she distances herself, she’ll raise suspicions. There is only one answer—Mike has to be dealt with.”

  “You and I both know that until we find his connections to Hunter leadership,” Jareth said, “we’ve been forbidden such actions.”

  “Use Amber to find those connections,” Chase said. “She can approach Mike, tell him she knows about Yaguara and about the Hunters, and that she wants to join. The timing is perfect. One of her crew just got mauled by a cat.” He paused and added, “It’s a perfect excuse for her entry into the Hunters.”

  “No,” Jareth said forcefully, his gut clenching with the thought of Amber being in danger. He had no idea what this woman was doing to him. It was like nothing he’d experienced in all his centuries of living. But it was there, whatever “it” was, and it demanded he protect her. “Not a chance in hell. It’s far too dangerous.”

  “So is living her life in her current state of exposure,” Chase said.

  “I said no,” Jareth ground out, feeling the rise of protectiveness.

  Chase arched a brow. “Why not let her decide?”

  “No.”

  It was Chase’s turn for irritation, throwing his hands in the air. “Can you say anything but ‘no’? Your vocabulary is supposed to expand with age, not shrink.”