Dark Storm (Dark #23)(85)
Author: Christine Feehan

Riley turned, stepping in front of him, halting his forward progress. She linked her fingers behind his neck as her eyes searched his carefully. "I don’t know how you’ve done this so long, Dax, but I admire you for it. I wish I had the courage to tell you I’m going with you no matter what, but I already feel sick just with the thought of it."

She pressed her face against his chest, right over the steady beat of his heart. He was such a rock. So calm. So completely confident. There was no doubt in her mind what he would find when he approached that little cabin. Lives were lost, others changed forever. She sighed, wishing she could somehow prevent him from having to witness the depravity and cruelty of Mitro.

Dax caught her chin, tipping her head up, his strange, beautiful eyes staring down into hers, captivating her with those spinning colors and the bright flame that shone with such intensity every time he looked at her. "I appreciate that you would spare me this, Riley. It is enough that I know you don’t have to see."

"I wish neither of us had to do this. And poor Gary and Jubal. Traveling with me, they had no idea what was in store for them."

He bent his head and brushed a gentle kiss across each eyelid and then blazed a trail of fire to the corner of her mouth. "Don’t worry about them, my gentle heart. I watch over them. They’re good men and good friends to our people. I won’t let them see more than they can handle. They’re tough, both of them, and they’ve done this many, many times already."

"You’re a good man, too, Dax. You’re so worried about everyone else that you don’t take yourself into consideration," she protested. "I love that you want to shield all of us, but I’m just saying, I wish I could do the same for you."

"But you do," he assured, bending his head down to brush his lips back and forth across hers like a soft whisper. "That’s what you don’t understand. You wipe out every bad place I’ve ever been. I see only you when you’re with me. Loving you is the easy part, Riley, and when I’m with you, everything else disappears. Just wait for me here. Don’t put your hands in the ground; you know he’s gone. Just sit quietly and wait for me."

"I’ll stay here and wait," she promised. "I’ll stay in sight of you at all times. I don’t feel that horrible dread that signals he has a terrible trap for us. I think you’ll be getting the worst of this one."

"At the first hint of trouble, if you, even for a moment, feel something isn’t right," he said, "reach for me. I’ll be close."

Riley flashed a small smile meant to be reassuring. "I’m really not all that brave, Dax. I’ll be yelling at the top of my lungs for you as well as screaming in my head."

"Do you have the weapon Jubal gave you?"

She nodded. "I keep it ready at all times. It might not kill Mitro, but it might slow him down and for certain it would slow down the creatures he creates."

"He won’t make a try for you himself unless he’s cornered, or if he finds himself with a certain opportunity, otherwise, he’s too cunning for that. He’ll let someone else do the killing, and that’s what worries me the most. He was trapped in the volcano and he managed to delay your mother and then get others to kill her for him. He can do the same to you. You can’t trust anything, not animal, insect, bird or even man."

"Dax." She raised her hand to his face and traced his jaw. "If you’re trying to scare me, you don’t have to. I’m terrified. I’m not the heroine type."

He couldn’t stop the small smile and shake of his head. "You really don’t see yourself at all, do you? Fear has nothing to do with courage, and you have more than your share of courage."

She shook her head and tipped her head up to kiss him briefly on the mouth. There was nothing sexual in her kiss at all, just a warmth of companionship, a trust that squeezed his heart hard. "Be safe," she murmured.

Dax turned away from her abruptly. It was getting much harder to give her the room she needed. He’d been so long without anyone and the threads binding them were getting tighter so that needs and wants became the same. Hunger for her was growing with each passing hour he spent in her company. He had set out to coax her to fall in love with him, spending time in her mind, an intimacy difficult to resist, but he found he was the one falling off that cliff.

Long strides took him back to where Jubal and Gary were waiting. "This one is going to be bad," he advised. "I’ll go in first and try to find any traps Mitro left behind. You two stay just at the edge of the tree line. Don’t step into the clearing. There’s no way of knowing what will trip any ambush he’s set."

"We’ll have to find them before we leave this place," Jubal said. "Otherwise someone innocent could come along and be injured or killed."

Dax nodded grimly and shifted into mist and streamed into the clearing beside the river. The cabin was very small, no more than a single room with a small covered porch that had been up on stilts. Now it was tipped on one side, blackened and burned. Nothing was left of the house but three half walls, a mere husk surrounding a smoldering ruin. The roof had been constructed of tree branches and leaves as many of the huts were when natives were on the move. This one had been built hastily and there was little there to say anyone had lived there long. He moved around the cabin carefully, testing the air for any sign of Mitro’s inevitable traps.

Dax found the body a hundred feet from the burnt-out ruins. She’d been young. He knelt beside her for a few moments, waving away the insects and touching her hair briefly in a salute to her. She’d had courage. She’d been pregnant, and she’d tried to protect her unborn child. He shook his head and signaled the two waiting men.

Jubal arrived a stride or two ahead of Gary. Dax saw Gary’s face. He knew exactly what he was going to see. There’d been too many of these times, humans ripped apart by a vampire.

"Mitro’s a bastard," Jubal stated.

"She was jaguar," Dax said. "And pregnant with a jaguar baby. The baby is over there." He indicated the infant with his chin. "A boy."

"He killed the baby in front of her, didn’t he?" Jubal asked grimly.

Gary took off his shirt and wrapped the baby’s body carefully in it. "He took the baby while she was still alive, drained the baby dry and then attacked her. He likes to play with his victims. Jaguars need to be burned. They never leave bodies where others can examine them."

"Let’s get it done before the helicopter comes for us," Dax said grimly. He glanced over to Riley. "There’s no need for her to see this. It will be bad enough telling her about it."