travel with have gone, we will finish our little dance."
Drago couldn't contain himself. He flew at Zacarias, his teeth exposed, growling and spitting. Demyan and Dominic both whirled toward him, holding up a hand. The lesser vampire slammed into an invisible barrier and bounced back.
Dominic gave a short, humorless laugh. "I see your beast needs a little more training, Demyan. He is not quite up to your standards."
Demyan shrugged. "It is difficult to get decent help these days. They believe they know more than they do. No patience to learn how to kill a hunter."
"Why do you bother? You do not need one such as this." Dominic gestured toward Drago, his contempt obvious.
Demyan, like most vampires, preened under praise. "They are useful, as you will find. You are used to working alone, but you will find having worms to serve you will be advantageous, especially in a position such as this one. Join with us."
"Yes, h?n ku lejkka w?ke-sarnat--traitor, liar. Crawl to your new master," Zacarias urged.
Demyan whirled to face him. "You can crow all you like, but your blood will soon feed our ranks."
Dominic cleared his throat. "One small detail, Demyan." He waited until the master vampire turned to face him. "His blood belongs to me, and I have never believed in sharing." He smiled and there was a clear challenge in his smile. Solange pushed herself to her hands and knees and took a careful look around. She inhaled the scent of the two jaguar-men. She wanted to remember them, to be able to know them anywhere, know the men responsible for taking the light from her beloved cousin's eyes.
Mustering as much strength as she could, she crawled along the trunk to the bank and let herself fall onto the ground, into the mud and grass. Giant root cages made a bizarre- looking jungle, dark and mysterious, where creatures could watch her with fear-filled--or hungry--eyes. She got to her feet and fell twice, so she dragged herself into deeper forest. She could shift, but she had so many injuries, she doubted if the jaguar would be better off than the human was.
She used a hanging liana to pull herself up again and, stumbling, took off in the direction of five small limestone caves. They each appeared to be small single chambers, but she had discovered years earlier, in one of them, an entrance that led to the honeycomb of caverns much deeper beneath the earth. More than once, she'd retreated to them when she needed to heal wounds and be safe. It never occurred to her to go to her cousins, or to anyone else. She was wounded and vulnerable. She would never take the chance of leading an enemy to her family's door. It simply wasn't in her code.
She wrapped her arms around her middle and continued her journey. It was dangerous moving through the rain forest at night, bleeding from a half dozen wounds, but she didn't dare try to examine her body. She burned with every jarring step, and she knew from past experience the damage claws and teeth could do, but as a rule she healed fast. Brodrick could have killed her, but he hadn't. He'd been angry, but he wanted her royal blood and ability to shift. He was depraved enough to think she might give him a royal son.
She pushed her hand through her matted, stringy hair. She often chopped it off when it got out of control. Her hair was thick, as it was with most jaguar-people, and it grew fast. The more she cut it off, the faster it seemed to grow. The color was dark sable, much like her jaguar fur, with a few golden streaks. If there was any one feature that might be considered beautiful on her, it would have been her hair. Not so much now.
Her cat's eyes allowed her to see in the dark as she made her way through the trees and brush, the forest of giant ferns and the tangle of roots snaking across the ground. She simply put one foot in front of the other. She had been here before, wounded, weary, heartsick, and she would be again. Sometimes, like tonight, there was no win for anyone. Annabelle had died; she wouldn't be going home to her husband. Annabelle probably hadn't even known why the men had kidnapped her from her home in France.
Solange closed her eyes briefly and then snapped them open, taking a deep breath, aware of the silence of