Dark Possession Page 0,37

while the rain poured steadily down.

"You must leave me. Go back to where you feel most safe. Stay away from me. I do not know why I believe you belong to me, but I fear for my sanity-and for your safety. Go now, quickly, before I lose my resolve."

Because he couldn't bear the thought of her being out of his sight. Until that moment he hadn't realized how much he needed her. His needs no longer mattered. She had to be safe-even from him-especially from him.

There it was-her freedom. She looked around her. The rain forest was dark and somber but for the water. It was everywhere, forming both small and large waterfalls, finding new paths and converging into wide, rushing streams. The water poured down, relentless and steady, adding to the falls pouring out of the rocks

and dirt. She was so out of her element here, so completely without a clue what to do.

Manolito appeared just the opposite, even if it was true that he was losing his mind. He was at ease in the world, confident and powerful, his eyes once more searching the area around them, trying to assess the danger to them-no-that was wrong-he was trying to assess the danger to her.

She took a deep breath and slipped her hand into his. "We can figure this out together. Are you hearing voices now?"

"Yes, mocking laughter. And I see vampires in the ground, in the trees, in the shrubbery. They are surrounding us."

MaryAnn closed her eyes briefly. Just great. And she'd been worried about jaguars. Vampires were much worse. Reaching with her free hand, she settled her fingers around the canister of pepper spray. "Okay. Show me what you see. You can do that, right? Open your mind to mine."

He felt her moving inside his mind, already merging and stretching to meet him. She seemed unaware of it, but the integration was initiated by her. Her mind slid easily and seamlessly into his. Her fingers tightened around his. A tremor went through her body.

You see them.

MaryAnn stared around her at the hideous faces. No wonder he didn't know reality from illusion. The vampires were all too real there in his mind. At least she thought they were there in his mind. "Do you trust me?" she asked.

"With my soul," he answered promptly. He believed she was his lifemate and there could be no betrayal, no lies between them. And if he was wrong, so be it. He would die protecting her.

"Let go of my mind and I'll get us out of here." She tried to step in front of him, gripping the canister of pepper spray hard, prepared to de battle with whatever came their way, so she could get him to safety.

He caught her chin and forced her to look at him. "I am not the one holding the merger. You are. I cannot release you; only you can do that."

She moved closer to him as if for protection. "I can't be the one holding the merge. I'm not psychic."

"It is going to be all right, ainaak enyem. Forever mine," he translated. "I will not allow harm to come to you while we dwell in lamti bol juti, kinta, ja szelem."

"I don't speak your language." And whatever he'd said couldn't have been very good. It sounded demonic. She braced herself for the translation.

"The literal meaning is the meadow of nights, mists and ghosts. We seem to be partially in our world and in some measure in the netherworld. I am not certain how that occurred or why, but we have to find our way out."

"I was afraid it might be something like that." She so didn't belong in this world. She didn't even watch horror films. "All right, tell me what to do, because that really ugly vampire to our left is moving closer."

The world was gray. A dull, veiled gray with shrouds of fog hanging like moss, draping along sticks of blackened tree branches. And there were insects everywhere. Big ones, flying around her face and every

available inch of exposed skin. She whipped out the bug spray and doused them with a burst from the canister. The mixture came out of the nozzle a weird grayish green vapor, drifting slowly and thickening as it went. The sound was a slow hiss, animal-like, overly loud in the sudden quiet of the world.

"They don't make any noise," she whispered to Manolito. "The bugs. It's so quiet here."

Immediately ghoulish heads turned, and demonic, glowing eyes bored into her.