Hunter's Woman

by McKenna, Lindsay

  “That she is a member of the mysterious Jaguar Clan.” He raised his hand and pointed to the south. “It is said that the clan has a village known as the Village of the Clouds. It sits somewhere at the edge of the Amazon jungle on the border between Brazil and Peru. It is said to exist between jungle and mountain, always covered in a continuously rolling bank of clouds so that people who aren’t supposed to see it won’t. Those who are allowed to view it are guided into this village to be healed. Near the village itself is a place called the pool of life. People from around South America travel to that region to find it.”

  “Do they?”

  Ty shrugged. “This is where the magic and mystery that is only South America, that is only the Amazon, comes in,” he warned her warmly with a smile. He watched as Catt responded to his teasing. There was a flush in her cheeks, a softness in her halting smile.

  “I’ve met a number of people over the years who swore they went to find this place when they were sick and dying. When they found the pool they were healed of their illness. They also said they had met members of the Jaguar Clan. A clan member would give them information on why they were here on this earth, and what they should try to do now that they were healed, for the betterment of all humans and animals.”

  Catt relaxed and closed her eyes. She rested her chin carefully on the rim of the cup she held. “Then this place is sort of like Shangri-La? Only it’s in South America and not in Tibet?”

  Chuckling, Ty said, “I suppose it’s a good parallel.”

  Catt opened her eyes and gazed at him. The lapping of the water against the houseboat was soothing to her. In the distance, more and more birds sang as the day grew brighter. “And have you seen the Village of the Clouds?”

  Shaking his head, Ty murmured, “No. People who have gone there and were allowed entrance swear that it’s real, though. They all describe the pool of life in similar terms. And they don’t know one another, so I’ve got to think there’s something to it. These are village folk who live hundreds of miles from one another, with no transportation except by donkey or by foot. And they don’t have telephones, either. Their descriptions match, Catt. I can’t think they’d be lying to me about how sick they were before they went. When they speak of the Village of the Clouds, their eyes all light up. They become very animated and it’s like this light begins to glow around them.” He held up his hand when he saw her brows dip. “Honest…their faces light up. They become so excited and impassioned about what happened to them. Every time I’ve met one of them over the years, each person who had this experience has come back to his or her own village and done good for others. That person might have been a bastard before, but going there changed them—made them become better human beings, kinder, more loving and helpful instead of destructive.”

  With a sigh, Catt whispered, “I wish I could bring the pool of life to this Juma village then….”

  “Rafe said he was trying to get ahold of Inca, to let her know what’s going on. He thinks she might show up here. If she does—” he smiled a little “—she’s got one helluva reputation for laying hands on a dying person, or holding a very sick baby and giving it life again.”

  “You mean…a hands-on healer?”

  “It’s more than that, from what I understand. Rafe’s seen Inca in action. I haven’t. She always comes into a village unannounced because the Brazilian army has a fifty-million-cruzeiro price on her head, dead or alive. She’s wanted for thirteen murders in Brazil. She’s always on the run, and she travels alone. No one knows where she’ll show up or when.” Ty looked up as a flight of red-and-yellow macaws sped in fighterlike formation across the river. They winged directly over the houseboat, their feathers colorful and decadent in contrast to the grayish dawn.

  “Inca has a reputation for coming into a village, laying down her rifle and other weapons at the edge of it, and sitting on a chair provided for her by the officials. The people then bring their sick, their aged and especially those who are dying to her for healing. They stand in a long line, waiting patiently for hours for her to touch them. If it’s a child or baby, she’s known to hold him or her against her breasts for a long moment. When the child is released, it is no longer suffering from whatever it had before.”

  Catt saw the awe in Ty’s expression. “Rafe’s seen this?”

  “Yes, many times. He’s worked with Inca off and on for nearly a decade. Inca considers all Indians to be under her protection and jurisdiction. She’ll do whatever it takes to protect them from the gold miners, the greedy businessmen and the timber barons who want to destroy the forests her people have lived in for thousands of years in harmony and peace.”

  “She sounds like a cross between a healer and an environmentalist.”

  Ty nodded. “Better add warrior to the mix. Inca’s also got a fierce reputation for protecting Indians and killing anyone who would dare harm them.”

  “Hence the thirteen murder warrants hanging over her head?”

  “Yes, but Rafe says that the Brazilian government is after Inca on trumped-up charges. That fact doesn’t matter much though, because she’s a dead woman if they ever find her.”

  “That sounds unfortunate,” Catt murmured, finishing the last of her coffee. “The Indians love her. The government hates her. Inca sounds like a woman of conviction. Not someone I’d want to run up against as an enemy.” She stood up, though she longed to continue their talk. How much she enjoyed and craved Ty’s conversations. She always learned something from him. He had such an interesting and diverse background.

  Ty watched as Catt slowly unwound. “The Juma call her a green warrior. She’s considered an eco-warrior for Mother Earth and all her children.” He gestured toward the village. “These are Inca’s people.”

  “Maybe she’ll show up.” Worriedly, Catt stared in the direction of the village, which was hidden by the dark jungle. “Because if those antibiotics don’t start working, we’re going to have a lot of people dying today….”

  He saw her fingers close tightly around the cup, her knuckles whitening as she stood there, looking so alone and embattled. The set of her lips told him of Catt’s personal stake in this unfolding drama. Life was fragile and should be lived as fully as possible each day, as far as Ty was concerned. “You’re worried about Mandei, the pregnant woman?”

  Softly she replied, “Yes….”

  “Rafe is on his way to Manaus with those slides and tissue samples. He left early this morning. He will wait there until he hears from OID on exactly what you’re battling down here before he comes back.”

  Rubbing her furrowed brow, Catt murmured, “I know. He’s been indispensable to us.”

  “But you’re already fairly certain it’s anthrax?”

  “I’d bet my reputation on it.” Lifting her chin, Catt turned and gazed down at where he sat. Relaxed as he was, Ty looked part little boy in that moment and part virile male. He’d always had those two engaging qualities about him. The urge to simply move toward him and ask him to hold her once again as he had late last night nearly tore her heart open. Such a huge part of her wanted to be close to him. And right now, for whatever reasons, she was feeling terribly vulnerable. Her mind moved back to Mandei, to the unborn baby she carried, and she felt her heart squeeze. Mandei couldn’t die! She just couldn’t.

  “I’ve got to get going,” Catt said abruptly. “I need to see how Mandei is doing.”

  Quickly rising, Ty rasped, “Hold on, I’ll go with you.”

  The darkness was complete when night fell once more. Catt moved from hut to hut checking on her many patients. Her whole team had worked as feverishly as she had all day and she had sent them home to have dinner and get a good night’s sleep. Her head swam with fatigue. Her hand shook as she held the flashlight trained before her on the red clay earth as she headed, almost with dread, to Mandei’s hut. All day long the condition of the young mother-to-be had been worsening. Catt had given her the absolute limit of antibiotics in order to try to save her life.


  “Catt?”

  Stumbling to a halt, she felt a warmth flow through her. It was Ty. Right now, she needed him. Dread was suffocating her with every step she took toward that hut that held the mother and unborn baby. She saw his large bulk emerge out of the darkness. When he came closer, she saw that he was no less stressed from the day-long activity than she was.

  “You’re going to check on Mandei before we call it a night?”

  “Yes.” Catt gazed up at him. When he placed his hand on her upper arm, it no longer made her recoil in dread. Something had happened out on that boat deck this morning. Maybe it was part of the magic and miracles Ty had spoken about. Catt wasn’t sure. She wanted to take that step and move into those strong arms she knew he would open for her. Though Ty’s features were shadowed, she saw the worry, the anxious look in his eyes. His fingers closed firmly on her arm.

  “Let me go with you?” He saw Catt’s expression, the longing for him, and it surprised him. Ty knew how weary she was. She’d gotten only three hours of sleep the night before. And once again, she’d worked herself relentlessly throughout the day and evening, without rest. Earlier he’d shoved a sandwich into her hands and forced her to stop for fifteen minutes to eat, and drink a little water. She was a tireless worker in the midst of the carnage of this epidemic.

  “Yes, I’d like that,” she whispered, her voice low and off-key. And then she blurted, “I’m afraid, Ty. Afraid…”

  Releasing a sigh, he rasped, “I know you are. I know how much she means to you.”

  “The baby…” Catt looked forlornly at the hut in the distance.

  Ty winced, his hand tightening momentarily on her arm. He wanted so badly to just hold Catt and protect her from the inevitable. “I’ll go with you, darlin’….”

  This time his endearment filled her with hope, if only for a moment. Catt looked up at him, a twisted smile on her lips. “I just can’t figure you out, Hunter.”

  He matched her wry smile. “Don’t try. Just let me help you all I can. Okay?”

  “Okay….” And she turned unwillingly toward Mandei’s hut.

  Ty tried to gird himself for what would happen. He saw the reality in Catt’s face. She knew the woman would die and so would the baby she carried. Sensing Catt’s utter frustration, he walked at her side, his hand firmly around her arm. She was almost staggering from fatigue. This time she did not fight the contact. This time, it seemed, she almost welcomed him at her side, and his heart took off on wings of sunlight.

  Just as Catt approached the hut, she heard a man’s wailing scream. A number of other voices began that same, animal-like sound from within the hut. Catt clenched her teeth. She tore loose from Ty’s grip and ran toward the structure. Jerking the cloth away from the front door, she flashed her light across the earthen floor. Mandei lay on the pallet, her father beside her rocking back and forth in agony. A number of relatives sat off to one side, all of them wailing and sobbing. Aroka was holding the limp hand of his daughter, while her other hand was protectively resting against her swollen belly beneath the cotton shift she wore.

  “No!” Catt cried softly. She fell to her knees and pressed her fingers to Mandei’s neck. A pulse! There had to be a pulse! No…there was none.

  “No…” Frantically, she searched for other signs of life from the mother.

  “She has died! She has died!” Aroka wept. Kissing his daughter’s hand, he howled, “Aiiiee, she has died. They have taken her soul. They have taken my grandchild…aiiiee….” He covered his face with his other hand. The relatives followed the father’s lead and began to weep harder. They sat crouched together, rocking back and forth, praying and crying for Mandei’s lost spirit.

  Catt sat there, stunned. Mandei was dead, her body ravaged by the deadly disease. Automatically, Catt put her hand across Mandei’s, which lay across her abdomen. There was no way to save her baby. No way! With a moan, Catt leaned forward, her brow resting against her hand as it covered Mandei’s. No, she just couldn’t die! Why hadn’t the antibiotics worked? Why hadn’t they saved this valiant woman’s life? The life of the baby she carried?

  The sounds of grief swelled and filled the hut. Catt lifted her head and sobbed, “I’m sorry, Aroka. I’m so sorry…. I tried to save her…and your grandchild. I thought the antibiotics would save her…oh, Lord….”

  Ty leaned down. “Catt, come home. Come with me.” He curved his hands around her shaking shoulders as she wept unashamedly, huddled over Mandei. He knew there was nothing else to be done. Ty understood as no one else in this hut the devastating effect this would have upon Catt. She’d lost her own baby. Now Mandei was dead, and her baby, too. Gently, he lifted Catt upward. She sagged against him, inconsolable. Curving his arm around her shoulders, he rasped, “Come on, darlin’. Let’s get out of here. You’ve done all you could do. You fought hard for her, Catt. I’m sorry.” And he was.

  Tears blinded Catt. She staggered into Ty’s arms. He felt so comforting to her now, when her heart was ripped open and bleeding because of the mounting losses. He led her out of the hut and walked with her across the village. She was crying so hard, her hands pressed to her face, that she relied on him to guide her.

  Catt’s weeping struck Ty profoundly. She was shaking and trembling against him as they slowly made their way down the path. Soon the jungle and the darkness enclosed them completely, absorbing the sound of her sobs. He was glad to be alone with her.

  Ty felt like crying himself—for Catt, for the loss of their baby, for not being there for her in her greatest hour of need. Bitterly, he shoved away all his guilt. Right now he had to deal with Catt. He wanted to attend to her needs and be here, this time, to support and help her through this awful situation.

  The rest of the outbreak team was already asleep in their tents on the shore of the Amazon by the time Ty got Catt to the houseboat. By then she’d stopped weeping. He guided her to where they’d sat that morning and asked her to sit down on a coil of rope.

  “Stay here,” he urged. “I’ll get us something to drink and be back in a minute, all right?” His narrowed gaze met and held her tear-swollen eyes. “Catt? I’ll stay if you don’t want me to go.”

  Miserably, she wiped her nose with her sleeve. “No…you can go….”

  When Ty returned, Catt felt his hand on her shoulder. Absorbing his quiet, strong presence, she rested her elbows on her thighs and pressed her hands against her damp face. For several minutes she sat there, trembling like a leaf in a storm as his hand moved gently and slowly back and forth across her shoulders.

  “You did everything you could,” Ty rasped as he set the tumbler aside after she had taken a drink. He knelt on one knee beside Catt, one hand on her shoulder, the other wrapped around her arm. “You never gave up on Mandei,” he told her in a broken voice. “You did everything humanly possible to save her, Catt. Don’t blame yourself for what happened. Please…”

  Lifting her face, she cried out, “I should have saved her, Ty! I should have! Why didn’t the antibiotics work? They should have!” Her own voice cracked. “Dammit, those are third-generation antibiotics. The best we have. They didn’t faze that damned bacteria! None of the people treated with the antibiotics lived, do you realize that?” Huge tears rolled out of her eyes and down the taut planes of her cheeks. She saw the agony in Ty’s narrowed gaze and in the tight set of his mouth. In frustration, she opened her hands, her voice cracking. “Why didn’t they work? Why? I know we’re up against anthrax. The medicine should have worked! What the hell’s going on here? I don’t understand it! I just don’t!” Catt sobbed in angry helplessness.

  Reaching up, Ty threaded his fingers through her hair. “I wish I had answers for you, Catt. I really do, but I don’t. I agree with you, it’s anthrax. It should have responded to the antibiotic, but it didn’t. We’ll have to wait to hear from Rafe, from OID, to understand all this. Don’t take it personally, please. You’re so damned tired. You need a good night’s sleep….” And he wanted to add, I’ll sleep w
ith you. I’ll hold you. I swear I won’t take advantage of you or the situation. I just want to hold you and heal you, Catt. I know I can do that for you…. He remained silent, however. He knew she’d never acquiesce to his request because of their own shattered and grief-stricken past. And worst of all, she had never reached out to ask for his help one time during this epidemic. Why should she? He hadn’t been there the last time when she’d pleaded for his help.

  Miserably, Catt wiped her eyes with shaking fingers. “Sleep…” she muttered. “Maybe if I sleep…”

  “That’s right,” Ty urged as he helped her to her feet. “Come on, let’s get you down below. Take a shower and go to bed. You’ll feel better in the morning.”

  Catt allowed him to guide her to the stairway. Gripping the rail at the top, she uttered hoarsely, “Nothing is ever going to make how I feel go away….” She tottered unsteadily down into the dimly lit hold.

  As he began to follow her down the steps, she looked up at him. “Please, I—can you give me a few minutes? I—I need to be alone.” More than anything, Catt needed to escape his strong presence. The thought of being in that small cabin with him tonight when she felt so vulnerable frightened her.

  Ty stood there for a long time, hands on his hips, the suffering moving through him in unrelenting waves of agony. He felt every emotion Catt was feeling, and now he was getting a taste of the kind of grief she had gone through by herself when she’d lost their baby.

  “Son-of-a-bitch,” he whispered hoarsely as he turned on his heel and went over and sat down on a coil of rope. Catt had been like this before—and he hadn’t been there for her. Why would she want him around now? What kind of idiot had he been back then? The worst kind of man, that was for sure. He’d chosen his job, his career, over Catt’s need of him. That one phone call was the worst possible mistake he’d ever made in his life, affecting not only him, but Catt, whom he had loved with every cell of his being.

  As Ty sat there, enveloped by the night, hot, unwilling tears welled up into his eyes. Hanging his head, he no longer fought them off, but let them roll down the stubble on his cheeks and tangle in the bristle of his dark beard. In the darkness, he felt all of Catt’s pain. All her grief. All her isolation and the pain of being abandoned in her time of need. But he also remembered how lost he’d felt—how helpless when he hadn’t been able to find her. As he sat there alone, he remembered all those nights he’d lain awake wondering where she was, how she was. He knew the loss of the child had devastated her, and seeing her sorrow tonight proved to him just how much pain she was in, then and now.