"Are you worried about Fritz?"
"No, he's had wounds before. He knows how to hole up in the forest. He'll come back when it's safe. I didn't want him at the house alone. If the spotted leopard found him, it would have killed him just out of sheer meanness. Look at this one." He pointed to a very small track much like the clouded leopard track. "This is a leopard cat. They're about the size of a domestic cat, usually reddish or yellowish coats with black rosettes. This was a busy place this morning."
"What's that strange track? It looks like it has webbing on the feet."
"That's a masked civet. They're nocturnal." He looked up at her. "Are you ready for me to carry you?" He straightened slowly. "Or do I have to pull rank and give you an order? You're limping."
"I didn't realize we were in the military."
"Anytime we're under a death threat, we're under military rules."
Her laughter rose to the forest canopy, blended with the continuous call of the barbet, a bird that seemed to love the sound of its own voice. "Are you making up rules as we go along?"
"It was quick thinking on my part. Aren't you impressed?" He swung her into his arms. "I want to know a little more about your mother's family. Did you meet your grandparents?"
"I don't remember hearing of my mother's parents at all. My brother spoke of our birth father's parents. He said we went to visit them in deep jungle once. They gave him treats and my grandmother rocked me. But they died around the same time as my father. He was on a trip and he never came back."
"And then your mother took you away?"
"I don't honestly remember, I was so young. Most of what I know is what my brother told me. After my father died, my mother took us to another small village on the edge of the forest. She met my stepfather. His family was very wealthy and they had a lot of land, a lot of power where we lived. We were there for some time and then he moved us to the United States."
Rachael looked around her, drinking in the scents and sights of the rain forest. It was truly beautiful with thousands of varieties of plant life in every color. Butterflies were in abundance, sometimes covering trunks of flowering fruit trees, adding to the explosion of color everywhere she looked. The forest seemed alive, leaves swaying, lizards and insects continually on the move, birds flitting from tree to tree. It was teaming with life. Termites and ants vied for territory near a large fallen tree.
"We lived in Florida on a huge estate. It was such beautiful and wild country in the mangroves and swamp. We had humidity and lots of alligators." She brushed back his hair. "No one turned into leopards."
"There were no big cats in the area? No signs of big cats?"
Rachael frowned. "Well of course there were rumors of panthers, the Florida panther in the swamps, but I never saw one. There are rumors of Bigfoot in the Cascades but no one actually has proof of Bigfoot. There aren't any cats in my family."
"Did your brother spend a lot of time in the swamp?"
Rachael stiffened. It was more a shift of her body, but Rio was so in tune with her he felt her slight withdrawal. She averted her face and looked upward at the feathery foliage, the bright red fungi and fruit draping heavily on the tree. Antlerlike fungi and cups of brilliant color covered the trunks. Large mushrooms grew around the bases and made fields of large caps inside the buttress roots.
"The humidity in Florida isn't as intense, but it can be oppressive to some people. It doesn't rain nearly as much either."
"Did he go into the swamp, Rachael?" He kept his tone low, gentle even. Rachael wasn't a woman to be pushed. She trusted him with her life, but she didn't trust him with her brother's life. He couldn't push her too hard. She'd walk away first.
"My brother is a long way away from here, Rio. I don't want any part of him here, not even his spirit. Don't bring him into this place."
Temper rode him hard and he was silent as he walked quickly through the patches of light and dark, heading deeper into the forest. It took him a few minutes to work it out. "You don't want him in our place. My place. You don't want him anywhere near me."
"He doesn't belong here, Rio. Not at all, not with us." Rachael looked down at the splint on her wrist. She probably didn't belong with Rio either. She'd been lucky enough to meet him, but she didn't want him in danger.
"Sometimes, sestrilla I feel like I'm trying to hold water in my hand. You flow right through my fingers."
Rachael looked at him with her dark, liquid eyes. Sad eyes. "I can't give you what it is you want."
"Before my father died, Rachael, he asked my mother to promise him that she'd take me and leave the village. He wanted her to find another man so she wouldn't have to raise me alone. A man or woman who lost their mate would never choose another husband or wife from our people. My father talked to my mother more than once but she didn't want to live with another man. She stayed near the village."
"Why wouldn't the others want to take care of her and you too? If there aren't very many of you, surely they would want to make certain you were well taken care of?" She sounded outraged all over again. "I don't think I like your elders very much."
"The elders would want to care for widows and children, but there would be problems. Most leave if they want to find a companion to spend their life with. We can live and love outside of the rain forest, and many do. It's possible your father asked your mother to take you and your brother and find another man to fill his shoes."
"How did your father die?"
"He went in with a team to pull a diplomat from a rebel force. He was shot. It happens."
Rachael rested her head against his shoulder. "I'm sorry. It must have been so difficult for your mother to know that you chose to carry on your father's work."
"She didn't like it. My mother didn't do what my father wanted her to do. She stayed in the rain forest on the edge of the village. It caused some problems occasionally. She was a beautiful woman and it was easy enough to fall in love with her. Do you look like your mother?"
She smiled and relaxed in his arms, sinking into him without being aware of it. "I do look somewhat like her pictures. We have the same eyes, and my face is shaped like hers. And I have her smile. She wasn't as tall or as heavy."
Rio stopped right there under a tall tree with silvery bark and hundreds of orchids cascading down the trunk. "Heavy? You have curves, Rachael. I'm very fond of your curves." He bent his head to her throat, his breath whispering fire against her skin. "Don't say anything bad about yourself or I might be forced to prove you wrong."
Rachael laughed happily. He made her feel bright and alive when she had been so close to gloom. "I don't think that's much of a threat, Rio. And thank you for bringing up my mother. It's been a while since I had such a mental picture of her. When you asked me about her, I began to think of all the little details and I can see her again so clearly. She had thick hair. Very curly." She touched her hair. "I always kept my hair long because she wore hers that way. When I wanted to disappear, I cut my hair to my shoulders because I thought having it reach to my rear end was too conspicuous. I cried myself to sleep every night for a week."
"Wear your hair any way you want to wear it, Rachael. They've already found you here." He began walking again, picking up the pace, wanting to get back to the house and get her settled again. She was obviously growing tired and attempting to hide it from him.
"But they don't know I'm still alive. We might be able to make them think I drowned in the river. I threw my shoes in so something would turn up if they were really looking."
"Rachael, the only way we're going to be able to live a normal life is to remove the threat completely. We don't want to be looking over our shoulders the rest of our lives."
Rachael was silent, turning his words over and over in her mind. Rio was thinking along the lines of a permanent relationship, she was still taking it one day at a time. She looked closely at his face. The right thing to do would be to leave him as quickly as possible, remove all threats to him. She took a deep breath and let it
out slowly. "I'm just realizing I have an incredible selfish streak. I always thought I was unselfish, but I don't want to give you up. It isn't the greatest moment in one's life to find out how completely self-centered you really are."
"It might be my greatest moment, to find out you want to keep me."
"Tell me that in a couple of weeks and I might believe you. This is all so unexpected. And as for normal, is how you live here in the rainforest your definition of normal?"
"I've rarely lived any other way." The smile faded from his face. "I doubt if they'll allow us to live in the village. I can shop there, although I don't much. It's uncomfortable for some of the people. As I'm supposed to be dead to them, shopping is difficult. They look through me, I can't ask questions, I leave money on the counter."
Her dark eyes flashed. "I know what I'd like to say to them. I don't want to live in the village. Not now. Not ever. And I'll have to think about shopping there. I wouldn't mind making everyone uncomfortable, but on the other hand, I would hate to help them out by supporting them."
Rio made an effort to keep from laughing. Rachael didn't need to be encouraged in her defense of him, but he couldn't help secretly loving it. "You might want the protection of the village when we have children."
"Are we going to have children?"
"Don't look so shocked. I like children--I think." He frowned. "I haven't actually been around any children, but I think I'd like them."
Rachael threw back her head and laughed more, hugging him to her as they drew closer to the house.
13
THE bath was heaven. Rachael slipped beneath the water to soak her entire head. She hadn't felt clean in weeks. Days of taking sponge baths didn't work for her, especially when an infection ravaged through her body the way it had. She came up and looked at Rio, trying not to let the happiness in her burst out. He'd been through such an ordeal, fighting the leopard, and he hadn't talked much about it. He looked older, the lines in his face deeper, shadows lurking in his eyes.
He rubbed shampoo into her hair. "You look happy."
"I never thought a bath would feel so good. Whatever Tama used on my leg is a miracle product. I couldn't believe the difference in the swelling and I'm certain it helped heal the puncture wounds. They'd been draining all the time, but now it's stopped. I feel so much better."
"Good." His fingertips rubbed her head in a slow massage. "Fritz is back. He snuck in when I was heating the water. I saw him go under the bed."
"What about Franz?" She wanted to moan with ecstasy. His fingers massaging her head were magical. "I'm worried that we haven't seen him."
"He followed us through the forest. He was in the canopy. He'll come in when he's ready."
"You should have pointed him out to me. I have to be more alert." She smiled up at him through the shampoo. "See, if I were a leopard, I would have noticed."
"I expected him, and we travel together all the time. I know his patterns. Leopards will even cache food in the same place repeatedly, making it easy for poachers to destroy them. We have to fight to keep from setting patterns. We all have that tendency and in a business like ours, it can get a person killed. I try never to use the same path twice. I never use the same escape route twice. I don't come to the house the same way. I have to make certain I always think about it."
Rachael ducked under the water to rinse out her hair. She didn't feel feline right then, she loved water, the hotter the better. She wanted to stay in the bath for as long as possible. She was beginning to realize bathing was a luxury. When she came up, wiping her eyes, she heard the radio crackling.
"I thought that was broken. Didn't I shoot it?"
"Drake left his for me." He picked up the small handheld radio and listened to the warble of distorted voices. "They think they've found the right camp. They're going in soon, probably after midnight."
She read the anxiety in his voice. "You stayed behind because of me, didn't you? Rio, if you need to be with them, go. I'm perfectly fine by myself. I've got weapons here. You know I can use them."
"There's more to it than that, Rachael. You always take on responsibilities that aren't yours. I make my own choices, the same as you. I wanted to stay with you."
"Because you didn't altogether trust them."
He shrugged. "Maybe I don't right now, not where you're concerned. If the elders of your village contacted the elders in mine and asked them to aid in carrying out a death sentence, it's possible the elders here would agree. They don't know you and our laws are very strict. Some might think harsh."
"You really think I'm some sort of a shape-shifter, don't you? I can't change my form. I've thought about it and tried, just to see if you're right, but nothing happens. I'm still me."
"Just hear me out for a moment, Rachael. Suppose your mother took you and your brother away from her village. She didn't want to upset the balance in the village but she decided she was too young to live the rest of her life alone so she chose to give up her heritage and live entirely with her human side."
Rachael rested her head against the back of the small tub he had carried up from a locked shed nearby and painstakingly filled with water he had heated. Darkness was slowly falling in the forest. The night creatures were stirring to life. "I suppose she might have thought that way."
"She met your stepfather."
"Antonio."
"She met Antonio. He was handsome, wealthy and very nice. He courted her, she fell in love with him and married him. His estate was on the edge of the forest. Every night it called to her. Night after night. The Han Vol Dan, the way of the change, whispered and tempted. Finally she began to steal away and run free in the forest in the way our kind is meant to do. Antonio wakes up night after night and his woman is gone. He's alone in his bed. What do you suppose this good man thinks?" Rio helped her stand and wrapped a towel around her. Lifting her from the tub he leaned into her, catching a bead of water that was running down her neck, lapping with his tongue. "He would think what any man would think. His beautiful wife was stepping out on him. And he would follow her."
Rachael shivered at the tone of his voice. "Okay, you don't have to add any drama in. You're a very scary man when you want to be."
"I was just thinking how I'd feel if I thought you were sneaking out of our bed to go meet with another man."
"Well quit thinking about it. You obviously have a very vivid imagination, and in case you haven't noticed, your claws are bursting through your fingertips."
He looked down with some surprise to find she was right. His hands were curled and stiletto switchblades--thick, curved and dangerous--had emerged with his rising temper. His claws could be rapidly extended through muscles, ligaments and tendons when needed or retracted when not in use. His frown gave way to a wry grin. "I'm not too civilized, am I?"
"I guess we can't take the jungle out of the man."
"But you weren't afraid of me, sestrilla, that should tell you something right there. Any normal woman would be terrified to see claws on a man."
She sat on the edge of bed, laughter in her eyes. "Are you saying I'm not normal? I think you've managed to mention that a couple of times now. It's rather like the old saying, 'the pot calling the kettle black'. In comparison, I'm perfectly normal."
"I think being what I am is perfectly normal, Rachael, and I'm more and more convinced that you're like me. I think your stepfather saw your mother shift shape. He loved her and it didn't matter. He may have even thought it was extraordinary. But if the elders in her village found out that he knew, that a human knew, they might banish her or worse, sentence him to death."
"Kim and Tama know."
"They're tribesmen. They live in the forest and have a deep respect of nature and other species. Not all men do."
"So my stepfather moves us in the dead of night into the city and we immigrate to the United States."
She obviously didn't realize how much that single sentence told him. Her stepfather had been afraid for his family, moving them at
night to the States. "Where he has family and an estate in Florida on the edge of the Everglades. Where your mother can continue her nightly runs without fear of reprisals. I think he moved to protect your family." He watched her closely, with sharp, piercing intelligence shining in his eyes.
She averted her face, tossed off the towel and reached for a shirt. "Well he didn't do a very good job of protecting us. Or himself. His own family isn't so very hot. Not in the rain forest and not in the States. They're probably every bit as rigid or worse than your elders. You're on the wrong track, Rio."
"Maybe. It's possible. Didn't his family accept you and your brother?"
She shrugged casually--too casually. "At first they pretended they did."
"He came from money," Rio guessed.
"He had money. A lot of it. At least his family did."
"What family? Did he own the estate near the forest outright, or did it belong to his family?"
"His brother owned it with him." Her voice was without any inflection whatsoever, but he felt the distaste. Revulsion even. It was almost tangible in the room between them. "They shared all the homes, even the ones in the States."
Rio's radar went off immediately. "So they are very wealthy. They really can afford the million-dollar reward. Rachael, has it occurred to you that the reward is only to be paid if you're returned alive? The sniper wanted you dead. Could there be two factions at work here?"
She swung her head around to look at him, some emotion flickering in the depths of her eyes. "I didn't think of that."
"So it's possible."
Rachael nodded reluctantly. "Yes. And both sides have a great deal of money. My brother and I inherited my stepfather's share of the estates and his part of the businesses."
"How did your stepfather and your mother die?"
"They were executed. The official police report said they were murdered."
"Then there were autopsies performed."
She shook her head. "The bodies disappeared out of the morgue. They were stolen. It was a big scandal. I was still young and it was a terrifying time."
"So where did you and your brother go after your parents died?"