Christine Feehan - Dark Possession

Manolito pulled her close to him to try to comfort her. Even as he did, the ground beneath him heaved and a huge plant burst through the soil close to his feet. Tentacles slithered across the ground, searching even as the middle of the bulb opened and a yawning mouth gaped wide, revealing thick tubes topped with poisonous stigma, sticky knobs waving toward him, trying to touch his skin.

«Watch the ground, MaryAnn,» he warned, whipping his arms around her and leaping back. He landed ten feet from the seeking plant, scanning quickly to pickup signs of an enemy. His senses didn't work as well in the shadow world, but he feared whatever happened to him here could very well mirror what happened in the other world.

«What is it?» She raked the ground with sharp eyes, her vision clearing entirely so that she almost felt as if she was seeing in an entirely different way. She could see Manolito, but whatever attacked him in that world she couldn't focus on. She saw it as blurring shadows, something nightmares were made of, insubstantial and eerie. His arms were fading, as if he was being pulled more and more into the other world.

«Don't let go of me!» She tried to grab his shirt, but she felt him letting go of her mind. She hadn't even known he'd been in it, but once he was no longer there, his form became nearly transparent.

«I cannot allow you in danger here. We do not know what can happen in this realm. You are safer where you are while I deal with this.»

«What is 'this'?» She yelled it, called him, implored him, but he was gone, other than that wavering shadow flicking in and out among the shrubbery, until even that was gone and she was alone.

Fearful, mouth dry, heart pounding, MaryAnn looked around her. No matter how hard she wished it away, the rain forest surrounded her. She swallowed hard and backed up a few more steps, her heels sinking into muddy water. Leaves and aquatic vegetation hid the shallow channel she'd accidentally stepped into. Water and mud were everywhere.

The rain poured down, making its way through the canopy to pepper the forest floor. Leaves rustled and

something moved in the water. She wrapped her fingers tightly around the canister of pepper spray and tugged it from her belt loop.

«Great time to disappear,» she whispered aloud, spinning in a circle, trying to see around her.

The branch overhead shook, and she tilted her head to look upward. She could see a snake looking down at her through the leaves. She swore her blood froze in her veins. For a moment she couldn't move, staring up at the thing, mesmerized. A hard tug at her ankle yanked her back to reality. Teeth bit through her boot and into her skin. She gasped, instinctively trying to pull her foot out of the water, but a snake with a very broad head held her while its long, thick body coiled around her legs, preventing movement.

She screamed. It was pure terror, a reflexive action she couldn't have stopped if she'd wanted to. In her wildest imagination, she had never been attacked by a hundred-pound anaconda. She tried frantically to get to the head, hoping if she sprayed the pepper spray she'd have a chance, but the body seemed endless, without a head or tail.

Already she could feel it crushing her bones. Panic wasn't far away, and deep inside, the wildness that she kept locked up so tight began once again to unfurl.

«Hold still! Don't fight.» The command was sharp, the voice unfamiliar.

MaryAnn clutched the pepper spray and forced her body to quit lighting. A hand with a wicked-looking knife came into view. Pain speared through her, as teeth sawed for a better purchase on her ankle. Anacondas didn't chew, but they held their prey while their muscular bodies crushed, and this one wasn't giving up so easily.

She saw the hand slash in and out of sight. The snake slumped to the ground and MaryAnn scrambled out of the water, knocking her heel sideways so that it wobbled under her as she ran away from the snake. She caught a tree trunk, hugging hard, breathing deep to try to calm the panic.

«What are you doing here? Are you lost?»

She turned around to find a man calmly pulling a pair of jeans from a small pack around his neck. He was totally naked. His body was strong, muscular, with scars here and there. She bit down hard on her lip, the urge to either laugh or cry very strong.

«You could say that.» As men went, he was built. He had a strong face, and even though he'd tugged up his jeans, she could see he was well endowed. «Do you just walk around the rain forest naked?»

«Sometimes,» he admitted, his serious eyes studying her and the can of pepper spray she had in her fist. «I suggest you stay out of the rivers and channels. Anacondas and jaguars and other predators patrol through here.»

«Thanks for the tip. I hadn't noticed or anything. Those snakes aren't poisonous, are they? Because it bit me.»

«No, the danger is infection. Let me take a look.»

MaryAnn inhaled sharply, everything in her rebelling at the idea of the man touching her. Shaking her head, she stepped back. «Thanks, but no. I've got some antibiotic cream I can use.»

He studied her face for a long time, as wary as she was. «This island is private property. Who brought you here?»

«I'm staying with the De La Cruz family. Manolito is around somewhere.» She didn't want him to think she was alone.

His eyebrow shot up. «It doesn't make sense that he left you, even for a minute.»

The worry in his voice gave her a small sense of assurance. «Do you know Manolito?»

«I met him earlier this evening. Dawn is approaching, and many animals hunt along the riverways at dawn. Let me take you back to the house, and Manolito will follow when he is able.»

MaryAnn searched the shadows for Manolito. She couldn't touch his mind or feel him at all, let alone see him. Where are you? I don't want to leave you. She reached out but found only a black void.

If her rescuer ran around naked in the rain forest and he'd met Manolito earlier, there was a good chance he was a jaguar-man. Juliette's younger sister had been captured and brutally attacked by the men of the jaguar species. MaryAnn took a firmer grip on the canister of pepper spray. She'd never find her way out of the rain forest, and she was terrified of being left alone, but she couldn't leave Manolito, especially since she knew something was happening to him, and she was afraid to trust this man.

«I'm Luiz,» he said simply, obviously reading her unease. «Manolito did me a great service today. I simply return the favor.»

«I don't want him to come back and find me gone. He'd worry.» She didn't want the only person there– human or not-to leave her alone. She couldn't look at the body of the snake. She hadn't wished it harm, but she didn't want to die here either. Getting consumed by an anaconda was on her list of least favorite ways to go.

«Carpathian males worry about very little,» Luiz said. «Come with me. You cannot stay alone. If you wish, you can carry the knife.»

MaryAnn sighed. Carrying the knife meant getting close enough for him to hand it to her. It also meant that she might really stab him with it if he made a wrong move, and she was definitely opposed to that idea. «You keep it.» She had the pepper spray and that she wasn't afraid to use.

He smiled at her. «You are a very brave woman.»

She managed a short laugh. «I'm shaking in my very favorite pair of boots. I don't think brave is the word I'd use. Stupid. I'd be safe at home in Seattle if I just hadn't been the save-the-world kind of idiot I tend to be.»

He started down an almost nonexistent path. She could see it had been used by an animal. Taking a deep breath, she followed, sending up a silent prayer that Manolito would find her soon. Maybe if she got to Riordan and Juliette, they would be able to find Manolito again and help him.