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knew she couldn't, not until she found Manolito De La Cruz and assured herself he was alive and well and not in some kind of terrible trouble. Damn her nature, the one that always needed to help and comfort others. She lifted her shaking hand. Her nail had already grown, much, much faster than even the accelerated rate normal for her. "What do you think he did to me? You must have, a guess. And is it reversible? Because I'm human and my family is human and I like being human. This is what comes from having a skinny bloodsucking white girl as my best friend." And she was so going to have a few things to say to Destiny when she saw her again-if she ever saw her again.

Juliette cast Riordan another anxious glance. "I'm so sorry, MaryAnn. If I knew what was happening, I'd tell you. The thing is this-humans have lived for centuries side-by-side with other species. In all those years, you and I both know, eventually the species are going to mix. Maybe several centuries ago, there was something we don't know about. I have jaguar blood. So do a lot of the women who are psychic."

MaryAnn shook her head. "Not me." It felt wrong. She knew her mother and father and her grandparents and great-grandparents. There weren't any spots in her family and no one sucked blood.

Could she be mage? Juliette ventured.

Mages hold power, that's for certain, and most are good people, but she would be weaving spells. She does not appear to be doing that. She gathers energy as we do and uses it, but she is unaware. That is why she is such a good counselor. She unwittingly urges them to feel better. She wants them happy, so they are. She senses the right thing for each person to hear and she says it.

MaryAnn's heart went into overdrive. They were clearly talking to each other again. She turned on her too-high heel and ran headlong into the underbrush, thinking she might outrun them, forgetting they could take to the air if they wanted. And they wanted.

She felt the rush of displaced air all around her, and Riordan dropped down out of the sky, cutting her off.

MaryAnn screamed and backpedaled, her heels catching on one of the many roots snaking across the ground. She went down hard, landing on her bottom, looking up at him as he stood over her.

"That way is dangerous," Riordan explained, extending his hand to her.

She kicked at him, furious with him, but mostly angry with herself for being in such a vulnerable position. How many times had she counseled women about going off with strangers-people they met through the Internet, or through friends, but didn't really know themselves. She curled her fingers around the small canister of pepper spray. Did it work on Carpathians? Or vampires? No one had mentioned them in her pepper-spray class.

"MaryAnn," Riordan cautioned, frowning at her. "Don't be silly. Let me help you up. You're sitting on the ground. Did you know that there are a million and a half ants per half acre in the rain forest?"

MaryAnn suppressed a yelp of fear and scrambled to her feet without help, backing away again, brushing at her clothing, feeling the swarm of insects on her legs and arms. I hate this! She screamed it so loud in her head she felt the echo through her clenched teeth. Her eyes burned with tears again.

The air around them charged with electricity so that the hair on her arm prickled.

"Take cover," Riordan yelled and leapt back.

Thunder rolled. The ground shook. Monkeys howled. Birds screeched and rose from the trees. Lightning sizzled and snapped, slamming to earth in a near-blinding display of energy. Fog poured in all around her. MaryAnn felt strong arms slide around her, and one hand pressed her face into a large, muscular chest. Her feet left the ground, and she was flying through the treetops so fast it made her dizzy.

Riordan swore and caught Juliette's arm when she would have pursued. "That was Manolito and he gave us a clear warning to back off. We have no choice but to do so. She's his lifemate and we have no business interfering."

"But..." Juliette trailed off helplessly. "We can't just leave her."

"We have no choice, not unless we want to provoke him into a battle. He will take care of her," Riordan assured. "We cannot do any more here."

Chapter Five

MaryAnn circled Manolito's neck with her arms and