“Your company and its rich stockholders?”
“It’s way more than that, and you know it. I have to try to figure out what to do about the plant. About Victor’s murder.”
“What will you tell the authorities? That a were-jaguar ate your friend?” His words were bitter and laced with disdain.
“I need to stop Armando,” she said, as she grabbed her bags from the floor and tossed them on the bed beside him.
He vaulted from the bed and came to her side, fists clenched at his side. “Do you think it will be so easy to stop Armando?”
She shrugged. “There’s got to be a way to get justice for Victor. Maybe if I can shut down the logging—”
“By showing them some special little plants? Do you think that will do it?”
Jessica didn’t know how to answer him at first, but then she thought about Victor and her sister. About death that came before its rightful time. She knew then that she couldn’t just let Armando continue with his revenge, because his actions wouldn’t just hurt the tribe—they might hurt countless others who could possibly be helped by the plant.
“If flower power is all I have to fight with, then that’s what I’ll use. Seems to me the fang-to-fang fight hasn’t accomplished much except getting Victor killed.” With that, she grabbed some clothes and stuffed them into her bag.
Javier cupped her cheek and forced her to face him. “If I promise that Armando will receive his punishment—”
“Even if you did, I can’t stay here.”
Some of his anger faded, and with hands held out, almost pleading, he said, “Because of what I am?”
Jessica considered him. All that strength and beauty in front of her, basically asking to be hers. But Javier had been too right with his earlier statement about her not being able to call anywhere home.
Walking up to him, she cradled his cheek and said, “No, Javier. Because of me. I’ve chosen a path in my life—”
“A path to fame and glory.”
Anger surged at his words and got the better of her. Jessica slapped him across the face, the impact so hard it left the imprint of her hand on his cheek. “You know nothing about what drives me!”
“Tell me it isn’t what drives most of the outsiders who come here. Tell me it isn’t about greed or conquest—”
She cut him off with a brusque slash of her hand. “I lost my sister when she was only twenty. It was a weird infection the doctors couldn’t control. She died, Javier, and I vowed I would spend my life making sure that nobody else would have to go through such pain and suffering again.”
“So you run from place to place, searching for miracles?” he asked. His tone had changed. He tenderly caressed her cheek, his gentle touch making her feel guilty about slapping him.
“It’s what I need to do. I can’t let the same thing happen to someone else. I promised.”
A resigned sigh slipped from his body. “Don’t let the dead steal your life, Jessica.”
“I have no other choice, Javier.”
Tension crept into his features, and he pulled his hand away from her face. “You always have a choice, Jessica, but you’ve already made this one. It’s best you go back to civilization now. The bullet you shot Armando with was silver and laced with silver nitrate. It should have weakened him enough that he might lie low today and give us time to get you out of here safely.”
“But won’t we be on the river at night?”
“Not for long. By then, we’ll be close enough to town that it shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll let my tio know that you’re leaving.”
He quickly wrapped a towel around his waist and stalked out of her hut.
She watched him depart. With him gone, the room felt empty. She wouldn’t admit that a part of her felt empty as well.
But nothing could deter her from what she knew was right. From what she had to do.
Not even the words he had uttered during their argument.
Don’t let the dead steal your life.
Chapter 6
I t didn’t take Jessica long to pack up the rest of her belongings, since she hadn’t packed all that much to begin with. The things she took the most care with were the specimen plants she had collected earlier that morning. She had the necessary permits for removing them from the country and hoped that once she got the plants back to Jersey, she might be able to propagate more of them.
The tribe members gathered by the dock to wish her good-bye alongside the tribal elders. She smiled at all the people, shook hands with some, and heartily embraced Javier’s uncle, the last person by the edge of the dock.
“Doutora Morales. Are you sure about what you’re doing?” Antonio asked, concern etching deep grooves of worry into the lines of his face.
“There are things I must do at home, and I need to see what will be done about Armando,” she said as she held his hand, cradling it warmly in hers.
Antonio shot a quick look at his nephew, who waited by the boat, arms folded across his chest. Javier looked angry but resolute. He probably won’t even miss me, she decided.
“I’m sorry, Antonio, but it’s best that I go now. Thank you for showing me the plant and for making me feel so welcome.”
“You will come back to us,” he said knowingly.
She embraced him again and then climbed onto the boat. As Javier jumped onboard, a number of men from the tribe surged forward to release the moorings. Then Javier gunned the engines, and the boat surged forward. He kept to the closest shore instead of cutting across the broad width of the river, and Jessica watched the underbrush and canopy for signs of anything unusual, but nothing caught her eye. An hour passed quietly, then another. Jessica began to grow tired of the silence.
She risked a glance at Javier, at the features that had become so familiar and dangerously enticing in too short a time.
“When we reach the city—”
His hands tightened on the wheel of the boat. “I’ll make sure you’re safe until you get on the plane.”
Anger rose up swiftly. “I don’t need you—”
“To keep you safe. Eu sei, meu amor.”
“Then why patronize me?” she accused.
“Because I thought you might want to spend some final time together. That it might help you decide whether you want to come back to this place,” he said, and swept one arm outward to the majesty of all that surrounded them. “It could provide you with much that you seek.”
In his words was the unspoken plea that he somehow might be part of what she sought. It moved her more than she wanted to admit. She couldn’t quite remember why she was in such a hurry to return to New Jersey.
Rising, she stood before him and cradled the strong line of his jaw, brushed her thumb across the fullness of his lips.
The strong thrum of a powerful engine interrupted them.
Jessica moved from his side and to the back of the boat to investigate. A large speedboat was well behind them but gaining ground rapidly. It kicked up quite a wake, a testament to how swiftly it sped through the waters.
Too quickly, she realized, and as the boat drew nearer, she thought she detected a familiar face beside the man at the helm.
“Is that—”
“Armando,” Javier said, and he reached for a pair of binoculars beside the steering wheel. He raised them and looked back at the boat. A muffled curse escaped him as he handed her the binoculars. He manipulated the engine controls, slowly increasing the speed of their boat.
Jessica peered through the binoculars. Armando stood beside the driver of the boat, looking relatively unscathed from his earlier encounter with Javier, although she thought she detected something bulky beneath the shirt he wore. A bandage, maybe? she wondered.
She shifted to Javier’s side, but the tension in his body confirmed to her what she had already suspected: they couldn’t outrun the more powerful vessel. With each passing minute, the speedboat was gaining on them, making it possible for her to see that beside Armando were two other men arme
d with rifles. As the distance between the boats closed, one of the men picked up his weapon and opened fire.
The ping and crack of bullets striking the back of Javier’s boat signaled that time was running out.
“Do you have a rifle?” Jessica asked, searching the confines of the boat for anything they could use as a weapon.
“Shotgun in the storage bin to your right, but that’s only good at close range.” As the bullets struck closer, tearing through the canopy over them, Javier looked back at the boat chasing them. “We can’t afford that kind of close range.”
A bullet whizzed by her head and slammed into the wood of the boat’s cockpit. She crouched down behind the protective cover of the seat next to the captain’s chair.
“What can we do?”
Javier crouched down as well, as more gunfire erupted. He pushed the engine ever faster, and the boat picked up a little speed, but with a shuddering complaint that said it couldn’t go for long at such a pace. It was intended for leisurely travel, not flight.
Javier jerked his head toward the closest bank. “Just ahead, there’s a tributary. It’s shallower than the main river, but shortly past the entrance is a series of fairly wicked rapids.”
“Will they be able to follow?” she asked, glancing nervously at the larger speedboat as the gap between the two vessels narrowed with each passing second.
“No. The draft on their boat’s too large, but even with our flat bottom, we might not might make it past the first few sets of rapids.”
Even as he said it, he steered them toward the edge of the river, and when she peered past the bow of the boat, she could see that they were almost at the entrance to the offshoot he had mentioned.
“We don’t have a choice,” she said, and Javier nodded.
“Get ready to hang on.”
With a lurch, he steered the boat into the narrower and shallower tributary.
Gunfire peppered the side of Javier’s boat, but it stopped as they swiftly advanced into the rapidly moving waters of the side stream. The distance between the two boats widened considerably. As Jessica rose and looked back, she realized that the other boat had stopped at the mouth of the offshoot.
Armando was beside the captain, gesticulating roughly with those thick-muscled arms. He clearly wanted the other man to continue, but he wouldn’t.
When she turned back around and stared ahead, she realized why.
The waters before them had turned into a roiling and churning mess, marked by large boulders and deep dips.
Javier cut their speed, but the boat still rushed forward, propelled by the current. When she met his gaze, he said, “Hold on, Jessica.”
She wedged herself between the side of the boat and the chair. She looked for a life vest but couldn’t see one, so she grabbed the rail along one wall and wrapped an arm around the chair as the nose of the boat dipped. They entered the turbulent waters.
Beside her, Javier braced himself but kept to the wheel and engine controls, trying to keep their course steady and safe.
The boat bucked and lurched violently, slamming her from side to side, but she kept her hands tight on the railing and the chair, fingers turning numb from the pressure she exerted to hang on.
Water crashed up and over the low sides of the boat, drenching them as they struggled against the violence of the current.
Javier fought the buck of the wheel, trying to steer the boat through the deepest and safest of the channels along the rapids. His arms strained as time and time again, the force of the waters nearly ripped the wheel from his hands.
Daring a glance at Jessica, he saw the determination in her gaze as she braced herself for yet another jolt.
And then it happened.
For just a second, the wheel eluded his grasp. The bow lurched without that second of control and grazed a large boulder to the right, flinging them violently to the left. The stern of the boat swung around sharply, catching them cross-current for a moment before they went sliding into the next rapid facing backward.
The bow of the boat swung up precariously, unseating both of them and sending them rolling to the back of the boat. The force of the current began to sink the boat.
The waters rose up over them.
Javier reached out for Jessica and managed to grab hold of her arm as the force of the current pulled them one way and the boat another.
He had a tenuous grip on her arm and tried to drag her toward him, even as the pull of the water threatened to suck them apart. He managed to push up to the surface for a moment so they could both breathe, but then he slammed into a boulder.
The strength of the impact knocked the breath from his body, but he never released his hold on her. With his were-strength, he might be able to survive the beating the rapids would inflict, but not Jessica. He had to protect her.
As the waters rolled them downward, he fought for a better grasp on Jessica, but when they flew over one cascade and he landed heavily against a jagged trio of rocks, the air was driven from his lungs, and Jessica was ripped from him by the strength of the current.
Javier managed to get upright in the roiling waters, clinging to the rocks long enough to see their boat, or what was left of it, being trashed against the various boulders and hidden rocks farther down the rapids. Jessica’s head popped above the surface, and he watched as she slammed into a boulder and disappeared in the foamy water.
Javier dove toward her, pain lancing through his back as he tried to reach her. He tried to protect himself as time and time again, the current dashed him against the rocks, pummeling his body until all he could feel was the pain.
He tried not to think about how many times his body hit one of the boulders along the rapids. Instead, he concentrated on keeping to the least damaging course through the rocks and on finding Jessica in the midst of the watery turmoil.
When the waters finally deposited him in the calmer river beyond the rapids, Javier took a moment to collect himself, but then he immediately began his search.
Swimming to the shallower waters, he called out her name over and over, fighting desperation at the silence that answered him. He paddled back and forth, but saw no sign of her. He screamed out her name again one last time.
No answer came as Javier surged toward the river bank. He rushed and stumbled through the waters until he spied what was left of the boat, bobbing along on its side toward his edge of the bank. He crawled up onto the muddy bank for a better view.
Every movement brought agony from the assorted cuts and bruises caused by his wild ride. A deeper, knifelike pain in his side hinted at greater damage, but he forced it back, certain that a quick change into the jaguar would take care of his injuries.
Unlike Jessica, he thought. A different kind of agony created a sharp pain in the middle of his chest.
What was she wearing? he asked himself, and the answer came quickly.
A hot pink tank top.
He called out her name again and stepped back into the waters for a closer look. For a moment, he caught a glimpse of something just below the surface. He swam toward it. As he neared, the hot pink became a beacon.
Jessica floated facedown in the water. Totally motionless.
Fear gripped Javier’s insides as he swam to her. He rolled her onto her back and then pulled her to the bank, his side protesting the strain of carrying her with each stroke.
Once he had her on shore, Javier immediately began CPR, since she wasn’t breathing. Long, agonizing moments passed as he applied pressure on her chest and gave her mouth-to-mouth.
Finally, her body twitched beneath his hands.
He turned her onto her side as she coughed up river water, but it was tinged with pink. A second round of coughing brought yet more blood.
Her breathing was shallow. A sickening gurgle followed each breath. He suspected a punctured lung. If the waters of the river hadn’t drowned her, the blood seeping into her lung would.
Blood also trickled from one of her ears.
; A concussion?
With gentle fingers, Javier probed the back of her skull and realized it was worse: a skull fracture.
He slipped his fingers over her wrist. A thready and almost nonexistent pulse beat against his fingers.
Cradling her in his arms, he allowed his animal spirit to sense her life force, but it only confirmed what he had already suspected.
Jessica is dying.
Cold rage and pain filled him. Guilt followed quickly.
This isn’t right, he thought. She didn’t deserve to die because of him. Because of Armando and his crazy vendetta.
Only one thing might possibly save her, but could he live with the aftermath of that choice?
With only a moment’s consideration, Javier decided that it would be easier to deal with her hatred than with her death.
Gently, he lowered her to the ground and stripped off her clothes. As he did so, he called forth his animal spirit, summoning the jaguar. Thick, lush fur sprouted, each strand piercing his human skin until it covered his entire form.
He dropped to his knees and roared out in pain as bone and muscle shifted, rearranging themselves until the jaguar emerged.
He bent his head and nuzzled the side of her face. He licked her cheek with his cat-rough tongue, but she didn’t move. Didn’t rouse. With a nudge of his massive head, he turned her head to the side, exposing the fragile line of her neck and shoulder.
He took her shoulder gently in his jaws, and as tenderly as he could, he bit down, urging his spirit to flow from his body to hers. The taste of her blood was rich against his fangs and mouth.
Beneath the gentle clasp of his jaws, he sensed her life spirit awakening as his bite called for her to respond.
Searing pain dragged Jessica from numbness to reality.
She moaned and tried to lift her hand, but she was too weak. She could feel the cold in her extremities and the heat pooling in the center of her, trying to preserve life.
She knew all the signs of imminent death.
But as the agony in her shoulder dragged her to full awareness, warmth began at that spot and raced outward to her extremities, driving away death.
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