He drew the life, blood and spirit from Luiz and took them into his keeping. Slashing his wrist, he gave the command to drink, and Luiz, submerged so deeply, didn't fight. The jaguar gave one roar of protest and then allowed MaryAnn to calm it.
MaryAnn bit her lip and continued stroking Luiz's hair, trying to figure out how best to help the situation. She didn't know what to expect, but she didn't want Jasmine to be around if anything bad happened. "Can you help Solange to the bedroom," she asked, uncertain if the jaguar was unconscious or simply not moving.
The door burst open and Riordan strode in, Juliette a step behind. She was obviously frantic, pushing against him to get to her sister and cousin. There were burn marks down Riordan's arm and left cheek. A slash of blood along his thigh. Juliette appeared unharmed, but shaken. A small cry escaped when she saw the amount of blood spattered on the floor and walls, but Riordan's body blocked hers from any possible danger while he took in the scene.
"Does Solange need further assistance?" he asked Jasmine as he stepped aside to allow his lifemate to rush to her cousin's side.
"We need to put her in a room and allow her to shift back to human form," Jasmine said. "She's quiet now, but in pain."
"I'm so sorry." Juliette was close to tears. "We tried to get here, but our enemies are near. They must have guessed our resting place, and when we tried to rise, they attacked us."
Manolito flicked a quick, hard glance at his brother, to ensure the man had no wounds that needed immediate attention. Riordan shook his head to assure him.
"Jasmine and I can take Solange to her room," Juliette said, "while you help Manolito."
"What are you doing?" Riordan demanded, although he already knew. He just didn't want it to be true. "Have you lost your mind? We cannot bring a jaguar male over."
"Why?" MaryAnn challenged. "You have no problem converting women. Wasn't Juliette human with a little jaguar blood thrown in?"
Riordan's gaze flicked to her face and then down to her shredded leg.
"Riordan?" Jasmine called his attention back to her.
At once his expression softened. "What is it, little sister?"
"I asked Manolito to save the jaguar. If he hadn't come to Solange's aid, she would have been captured or dead."
"A mage traveled with them." Manolito supplied the information, his features set in grim lines as he stopped Luiz from feeding. "He unraveled the safeguards to allow the jaguar into the house and then he came in behind them and grabbed Jasmine."
Juliette spun around, her face paling. "Oh, no, it was a trap after all. We feared so when we spotted a jaguar watching the battle. Jasmine. Are you all right?"
Jasmine nodded. "But he wasn't after me. He thought I was Solange. He actually called me by her name. I didn't react or deny it, but he was definitely after her."
Manolito sat back away from Luiz and wiped the back of his hand his forehead, leaving behind a smear of blood. "Luiz had been tainted by a vampire. The Malinov brothers are using the plan to gain control. They are destroying the jaguar race from within, just as we discussed when we were young. They are looking for royal blood, but I don't know why. I thought Juliette or Jasmine at first, but Luiz told me Solange is the target. A vampire has placed a compulsion within the men of the jaguar race to capture and turn her over to him." He sent his brother a quick mental recap of all that had transpired.
Juliette shook her head. "Solange is pureblood and of the royal line."
"Solange cannot stay on the island," Riordan said. "We have to take her to the ranch as soon as she is able to travel."
"She won't go," Juliette said.
"She spoke of going," Jasmine countered. "I think we can persuade her."
"Take her up to her room," Riordan ordered. "I'm going to get rid of the mess in here and clean up. This time we'll use only the safeguards never woven by mage."
"Burn the jaguar I killed. He was tainted by the vampire and would most likely be used again," Manolito advised. "I do not want him to be used by our enemies."
"What plan?" MaryAnn asked, watching Manolito's face closely.
He remained expressionless, but flicked a glance at his brother.
It was Riordan who answered. "We were very young and thought of ourselves as intellectuals. We thought we could make the world a better place."
"We thought we were superior to everyone around us," Manolito corrected. "We all had quick brains and fast reflexes. Few hunters were better. When we sat in the council circle, it was always Zacarias who came up with the strategies for battles. It was always one of us who managed to think up the ideas for keeping our people from heading toward disaster."
"What happened?" MaryAnn prompted.
Manolito sighed and dragged both hands through his hair. "Now I realize everyone's thoughts flowed together, flooding us with information. Our gifts allowed our brains to work fast to develop the answers we needed. That was what we contributed to the council meetings, just as everyone else had something of value to contribute. But back then we thought we knew the direction our people should go, and it wasn't the same as Vlad Dubrinsky decreed. He was prince then and our women were so few."
Riordan shook his head. "Back then there was little hope of finding a lifemate. Few children survived and none of them female. We all could see that the extinction of our species was at hand. It was a matter of time. Many resented being regulated to the murmurings of old men and ancient peoples. We were becoming myth along with the others—the mage, the werewolf and the jaguar. There were many species of shifters, but most had died out, and the same was happening everywhere we looked."
"We wanted to save our people, so we would sit around with our friends and come up with plans to take over. We had to lead the Karpatii people out of the dying shadows, and back into the world. Anyone who would follow the Dubrinskys and fight on their side had to go. So we played with ideas on how it could be done."
"They were stimulating intellectual debates," Riordan added. "We didn't mean anything by them." He spread his hands out in front of him and looked at them, as if he might see the blood of his own people on them.
"Regardless of what we thought back then," Manolito said, "the Malinov brothers are implementing that exact plan."
"Who are the Malinov brothers?" MaryAnn prompted.
Luiz stirred, eyes snapping open, a gasp of air escaping. His body writhed, muscles locking and contorting.
MaryAnn leaned over the convulsing body with a small sound of distress escaping. "It isn't working, Manolito."
Manolito caught MaryAnn and set her away from the jaguar-man.
"This is going to be rough, ainaak enyem. He would not want you to witness his conversion."
She lifted her chin, looking from one brother to the other. "You don't want me to witness the conversion because you don't want me to know what happens," she guessed.
"That as well," Manolito conceded. "But his body will have to rid itself of toxins as the cat fights for supremacy."
"Juliette's conversion was extremely difficult," Riordan added.
MaryAnn kept her gaze locked with Manolito's. "I honestly believe I can help him with the transition."
Riordan shook his head. "No one can help. If we could, we would bear most of the pain, but we cannot, not even for our avio päläfertiil, the other half of our souls."
MaryAnn reached her hand out to Manolito. He immediately took it, lacing his fingers through hers. "I can help him, Manolito. I comfort people. It's what I do."
"I am sorry, beloved," he said as gently as he could. "It is too big of a risk. You are unaware of your gifts and you merge with people without even knowing it. I cannot take the chance that you might be locked with him and his body give out before the struggle is complete. I will not risk it."
"It isn't your risk."
Something dark and dangerous flickered in the depths of his eyes. A muscle jerked along his jaw, but his features remained absolutely expressionless. "I said no."
MaryAnn scowled
at him. "Manolito, you can't tell me what I can or can't do."
He moved faster than she expected, his body a blur as he wrapped her up in strong arms, so strong there was no chance to fight. Before she could think to even object, he was striding with her through the house. In all her life, MaryAnn had never had anyone restrain her physically. Furious, she kicked at him, but his strength was enormous and his will made of iron. There was no stopping him.
"I am sorry, ainaak sivamet jutta."
Forever to my heart connected. She read that in his mind as he glided through the house to her room and deposited her on the bed. His lips brushed a caress into her hair and he left her, closing the door firmly behind him.
Manolito stood there for a moment, murmuring a binding spell to keep the door locked should she manage to remove the hinges. She was entirely capable of such a thing, if any woman was. She was going to be spitting mad at him, but for both Luiz's and MaryAnn's sakes, he preferred she not witness what was about to happen. A shoe thunked against the door, and then a second one. Yeah. She was angry all right.
"Manolito, hurry," Riordan called. "This is going to be bad."
MaryAnn heard Riordan's urgent yell to his brother, and she caught up the pillow and held it to her stomach, feeling sick. She had been the one to push Manolito into saving Luiz, but now she'd deserted all of them. Luiz was alone, facing a terrible ordeal. She didn't know what it was, but sensed it was traumatic both for him and the two Carpathian males.
Had they ever converted a male before? If it had never been done, maybe there was a reason why. A good reason. She'd been rash to push them into it. She buried her hot face in the pillow, feeling tears burn. Luiz was going to suffer, and somehow she knew Manolito would suffer right along with him. She wanted to hold onto her fury at his highhandedness in locking her in her room, forbidding her, as if she was a small child, from witnessing the change, but because a part of her was still there, with Luiz, with Manolito, and she felt their agony, she couldn't sustain her anger.
She went into the bathroom and ran hot water in the tub, needing to relax her cramped, hard muscles. Her stomach was in knots. She caught impressions of convulsions, of Luiz's body contorting, wrenched into the air and dropped down hard. She could get glimpses only and realized Manolito was blocking her from merging with him. It had taken a bit to get the trick of their connection, and most of the time when she tried, she simply wasn't that good at it. But now it seemed impossible.
She took a deep breath and let it out. She would not desert Luiz at this stage, not when he needed her most. Manolito was trying to shield and protect her, but whether he knew it or not, he needed her, too. She concentrated on him. The feel and texture of him. The layers in his mind. The intimacy of the path between them—such an unexpected gift. As much as she thought him arrogant, she knew him better now, the gentleness he hid from the rest of the world. She saw his compassion as he held Luiz, felt the way he had reached to calm him.
She felt the cat rake and claw, fighting for survival, and then the sensation was gone. She let her breath out slowly and continued to picture Manolito holding the jaguar-man. She caught a small wave of compassion from both Riordan and Manolito and then the cat again, the alarm building to panic, snapping and biting as it defended itself against the onslaught of Carpathian blood.
She went to her knees, stomach heaving. She knelt, hands and knees on the bathroom floor, gasping for breath as pain rippled through her. She caught Manolito's startled awareness that she was with him, and he once again put her firmly away from him.
There was an agony in being alone, knowing Luiz was suffering and Manolito needed her with him. She felt the need, but couldn't do anything to help either of them. Manolito had been uncompromising, not realizing, or maybe he did, that he was asking her to go against her nature. Once more she pushed away fear and concentrated on Manolito, because in that moment she had connected with him, she felt his struggle with the shadow world. She might not be able to reach Luiz, but she could Manolito. The connection between them was incredibly strong.
And then she was solidly in his mind, in Luiz's mind, and saw for herself the true horrors of conversion. The agony wrenching at the jaguar-man as death called, as the cat fought. Manolito took way too much on himself, shouldering as much of the pain as nature would allow. Both men were stoic, each fully aware of the other, Luiz trying to bear it all with great dignity. Manolito strove to be compassionate and comforting while allowing the jaguar-man his self-respect. In that moment, with tears running down her face and her body writhing in the shared pain of the two men, she knew she could love Manolito wholly, with everything in her.
The attraction may have been started with some ancient ritual. She may have been obsessed physically with him, but in the end, she saw his true character. He was open to her as he tirelessly worked to help Luiz come fully into his world, and her heart responded in the only way MaryAnn knew—completely.
Chapter Twelve
The conversion was the most frightening thing she could imagine, a dark, painful death and rebirth. She knew she was facing it and that Manolito, watching what Luiz had gone through, was not as certain as he had been that he wanted to risk her. Strangely, for the first time she did consider risking everything, because what she had learned here today was that Manolito De La Cruz was far more than a gorgeous man with a too-arrogant attitude, and she was already more than halfway in love with him.
She French-braided her hair in the tub, her hands adept at the familiar task, giving her comfort when she wanted to weep a little for what Manolito, not Luiz, had gone through. His brothers thought him insane. He even believed he might be, but he had handled the jaguar-man with great care and respect and had suffered greatly for it. He had known she was there, helping Luiz and soothing him as best she could, and he would have done anything to spare her that, but it only made her feel closer to him.
She pulled on lacy thong underwear in midnight blue, the ones with the tiny gold chain on either hip that made her feel sexy and courageous in the worst of circumstances. Her skirt was calf length and fell in ripples of material, a fall of royal blue that looked dynamite with her butter-soft matching blue knee-high boots with the cuffed tops. They molded to her feet like slippers and whispered when she walked. The skirt showed off her nicely rounded butt to the best advantage and she was going to need every advantage she could get with Manolito when she discussed with him the dos and don'ts of their relationship. Because she'd made up her mind they were going to give it a try.
Her demi push-up bra matched the thong, dark and exotic, giving her curves a nice allure and enhancing the fit of her short, royal blue sleeveless blouse with the little pearl buttons up the front. Accessories were everything, and she had plenty. As she pushed bangles onto her wrist, she conjured up his image.
The way he smiled. His thick, jet black hair, even more shiny and luxurious than she had realized the previous evening. His eyes. Oh, lord, he had those hot, demanding eyes and that wickedly sensual mouth, and what the hell was she dressing to seduce him for? She was trying to get a handle on her emotions, and she was definitely dressed to get him to sit up and take notice. She was playing with fire, and she knew enough about life to know that if she did that, she couldn't cry when she got burned.
The tension in the house was gone, and she let her breath out slowly and sank down onto the bed to wait for him. She could hear the clock ticking. Endlessly and loudly ticking. He was coming. Soon. Immediately. She waited, but as the minutes passed, the smiled faded from her face. Her teeth clicked together as she—dare she use the word—gnashed them. He wouldn't leave her locked in her room like an unruly teen. He had better come. Now. Before she lost her sweet forgiving nature for all time.
She stalked across the room and gave the door a thump with her fist. "Come on, jungle man. Enough is enough. Get me out of here."
Silence met her demand. She was going to kill him with her bare hands. Her nonviolent beliefs were wasted in the rain forest and
definitely obsolete with jungle man. "I take back every good thing I ever thought about you," she yelled at the door, and smacked it with her open palm for good measure. Right where his face should be. "You need someone to slap you upside that hard head."
And a good hard slap wouldn't be enough. She might have to think up other, much more savage punishments, although she didn't have that kind of imagination. Whips and chains. But that conjured up black leather boots with stiletto heels, fishnet stockings and a leather bustier. And that was so not happening, because he didn't deserve it to happen. What he needed was the smackdown of a lifetime. Those horrible shows on television with men fighting in cages and one of them pummeling the other, that would be the way to go, not leather and boots.
The door swung open, and Manolito's broad shoulders filled the frame. He stood there blinking down at her, rubbing his jaw ruefully, a quizzical look on his face. "I believe it best if you only think nice thoughts about me."
She opened her mouth to slay him with words, then snapped it shut abruptly. He looked exhausted. Totally exhausted, weary from his flight to save two lives, heal her and keep the two worlds he existed in separate. She felt the weariness like a great weight on his shoulders—on hers. She knew what he'd been through, and she knew why he had tried to spare her.
MaryAnn put her hands on her hips and regarded him from head to toe. "You managed to exhaust yourself. Did your brother give you more blood?" She felt courageous asking the question, forcing herself to face who and what he was without flinching away from his needs.
A faint smile softened the hard edge of his mouth and pushed the deep shadows from his eyes. "I did exhaust myself. You look beautiful, MaryAnn. One look at you and everything else fades away." He held out his hand. "Come with me."
She wanted to be alone with him so badly she actually took a step back instead. "Where?"
Dark 18 - Dark Possession Page 20