Chapter 61
Maya’s first thought was to kill in self-preservation. She was weak from hunger and already dripping precious blood. The wisest and safest course of action would be to end the battle quickly.
Respect for the rain forest’s strongest predator made her hold back. She had always lived in harmony with the creatures of the forest. She would not take this animal’s life if there was another choice. She growled a warning, clearly telling the male to back off.
Testing the air, She could find no female leaving scent that might give the cat added incentive to fight.
The other janguar fighting with the black wolf was also male. Surprisingly, it was bleeding all over, whilst the black wolf stood tall and proud, uninjured one bit.
The jaguar fighting with her circled her powerful furred body, showing teeth and rumbling with challenge. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ.net
Hoping to subdue the animal, she leapt. The jaguar rushed to meet her, slashing with stiletto-like claws even as she reached for the mind of the beast.
The jungle erupted into an explosion of sound as the two cats came together. Birds screamed and took to the air, high in the canopy above. Monkeys shrieked warnings and threw twigs and leaves down on the two jaguars as they rolled in the vegetation. Boughs broke beneath the heavy bodies, scattering debris into a thick cloud around them.
Maya pushed past the red rage in the cat’s mind and tried to find the spirit of the animal as she kept its lethal fangs from sinking into her.
Jaguars possessed extremely flexible spines that allowed them to turn and twist, move their legs in lateral sideswipes, even change direction in midair. And the ropes of muscles all over their bodies gave them tremendous strength.
She took another vicious rake on her side as she tried to focus on calming the cat. She pushed harder, breaking through the wall of rage and found-man. This was no jaguar.
This was one of the rare and solitary jaguar-men who still made their homes in the rain forest. Her and the jaguar people had always lived in harmony, avoiding one another, yet this one had deliberately attacked.
She dissolved and took her human form, this time from the comparative safety of a distance away. Cats could cover amazing distances in a single leap, and the jaguar people had cunning and strength beyond normal.
She stood, breathing hard, watching for any signs of aggression as the cat faced him, sides heaving, a snarl on its face.
“I know you are a man. You will die here if you continue. You cannot use my respect for the jaguar to defeat me. Why have you broken our unspoken treaty?” She deliberately pitched her voice soft, calming, a mesmerizing tone of notes to aid in soothing the cat’s temper.
The jaguar bared teeth, but held his ground, the eyes never leaving her face, as if he was just waiting for one moment of weakness that would give him an advantage.
And Maya was weak. She held the pain of her wounds at bay and ignored the raging hunger nearly consuming her.
The scent of blood was heavy in the air. Both jaguars had been torn, and droplets showered bright spots of crimson over the leaves. Deliberately the jaguar licked at the blood drops, to remind her that he had scored.
Maya exploded into action, ice-cold fury washing over her at the insulting taunt. She leapt on the animal’s back, knees digging tightly into the banded muscle, legs nearly crushing the animal as she locked her ankles under the belly.
One arm snaked around the thick neck in a half nelson to drag the head up. She sank her teeth deep into the jugular and drank. The animal tensed with resistance, but the man inside the cat form forced stillness, realizing she could-and would-rip out his throat.
The hot blood pumped into Maya’s starving body, soaking into tissue and cells, and rejuvenating muscles.
For a moment she was flooded with euphoria, the adrenaline-laced blood too rich and addictive when he’d been so long without and so very closing to turning.
“So good. Do not stop. Feel the rush. Do not stop. There is nothing like it in the world. Join us, sister. Be with us. Take it all. Every drop p>
Maya heard several voices whispering the temptation. The buzzing in her head grew louder until it was almost painful.
It is forbidden to take a life.
“A cat only. Nothing to one such as you. He attacked you. Why should you give him his life when he would have killed you p>
The enticement was strong. Hot, rich blood. And she was starving. The cat had attacked her first. It would still kill her, given the chance, even now, when she had spared its life.
Although she felt the difference in her body, she felt sick again, as if her stomach was cramping, which didn’t make sense. Insects buzzed in her ears, loud and obnoxious, but when she wished them away, the noise didn’t abate. Around her the ground rolled, as if an earthquake had taken place deep beneath the soil. His gut rolled with it.
“You need strength. The cat wounded you. You need blood to heal, and it is so good. Drink, brother. Drink it all.” The persuasive whispers continued. Beneath her, the cat began to shake.
The man prowling within the animal shouted something unintelligible, something human. Human. She could not kill while feeding.
” Not human. A cat. Tear its throat out. Rejoice in the power. Feel it, sister, feel the absolute power of a life ebbing away beneath your hands. Be what you were always meant to be-what you are p>
What was she? A killer? Yes. There was no doubt she had killed so many times she could no longer remember all the faces.
Where was she?
She looked around, and for a moment the rain forest was gone and the black wolf was gone and she was surrounded by shadowy forms, the stretched and knotted fingers of the dead pointing accusingly.
Branches clacked together like brittle white bones, sending a shiver down his spine. She killed-yes. But not like this. It was wrong.
Self-defense was one thing. And there was justice and honor in dispatching a fallen one when he had given his soul over to evil, but murder while feeding was against everything she believed.
No. Whatever, whoever, was trying to get her to kill was no friend.
It took discipline to take only what she needed to survive, only what she needed to push past the beast’s barriers and lay open the mind of the man hidden inside.
She swept her tongue across the punctures to seal them and dissolved into vapor, only to reappear a distance away, taking a careful look into the shadows around her.
Were those faces in the shadows, peering through the leaves and coming up out of the ground? Were vampires lurking?
She shifted onto the balls of her feet, ready for anything.
In front of her, she noticed that the black big wolf was staring at her, beckoning her to follow him.
She did, toward an ounce of light down a narrow channel, and then there was stillness.