Tomas caught sight of Lojos below him. Lojos was a direct fighter. He always took the battle straight to his opponent. Watching him, at first one would think there was little finesse, but Lojos was poetry inmotion. There was a distinct artistry to the way he took down his enemies. He might rush them without saying a word, using blurring speed and going straight for his prey, but when one slowed down the way he moved and actually studied it, Lojos flowed across the ground. There was no wasted movement. Tomas had always admired the way Lojos conducted himself in a fight.
One vampire was incinerated, and Lojos was elbow-deep in the second of his enemies’ chests. He kept the imposter resembling himself between him and the vampire that faintly resembled Mataias. Kinta blasted a trail of fire between Lojos and the remaining vampire.
The fake Lojos slammed his fist into the real Lojos’ chest, racing to try to extract his heart before the hunter could slay him. The imposter shrieked his hatred, the sound echoing through the forest. The birds in the canopy lifted from the branches, taking to the sky, and monkeys called hysterically to one another in warning. The floor erupted with hundreds of scorpions crawling out of the decaying vegetation to rush Lojos.
Out of the trees, a second dragon, one colored an ever-changing green, charged. One moment it was part of the jungle, and then the nearly transparent dragon shimmered like a phantom, almost impossible to spot even as it streaked toward Lojos.
Tomas continued forward to check on Mataias, knowing Lojos’ dragon, Fantoma, would aid him—not that Lojos needed it. Tomas had every confidence in his brother’s ability to win against any odds.
Mataias was the thinker of the family. The calm strategist. His brain worked at top speed, and he went through each move dozens of times in a rapid evaluation of any situation. Having been born first, he was the one who led his brothers. He took his role seriously, the same way he did everything in his life, including taking down their enemies. He was methodical and relentless. Mataias appeared to be the most laid-back of the triplets, but he was lethal as hell.
At the moment, he was engaged in a battle with all three vampires. The imposters looked ludicrous beside Tomas’ brother. Mataiasappeared strong and fit against the undead, who were trying to tear his body apart. He moved in a circular fashion, almost a balletic dance, a beautiful, deadly tango. He moved in and around the three vampires, striking first at one and then at the other, so fast and smooth, he couldn’t seem to be touched.
The frustration level of the undead engaging with Mataias reached a fever pitch. All three shrieked and cursed at Mataias as he moved in and out and around them, each time inflicting damage on the vampires. That was his brother’s methodical fighting technique, whether there was one or multiple he was up against. He was constantly in motion, never giving the vampires time to set themselves.
Tomas leaned over the neck of his dragon to study the forest floor and the exposed tubes running from the vines toward the interior. The tubes suddenly disappeared as the earth erupted into dozens of wildly spinning mini-cyclones. The leaves and dirt and debris were thrown into the air, temporarily blinding him. When the vegetation settled, there wasn’t a single sign of roots or the thorny plants.
Chapter
3
“Wait.” Sarika held up one hand defensively. “I don’t understand.” Her cousin was going tocarryher? Like a sack of potatoes through the jungle? She’d been told many things about her looks, including that she looked ethereal at times, but she’d never been called fragile. She wasn’t a delicate hothouse flower. “I find that offer rather insulting. I’ve traveled all over the world on my own and managed to get through every jungle I was in by walking on my own two feet.”
Luiz raised an eyebrow, but his expression remained exactly the same. “We can travel much faster if I carry you. I have only this night to give you. During the day, I will be sleeping. I thought you wanted to talk. To discuss the history of our family and learn as much as possible about the shifters in this area. Was I mistaken?”
His tone was mild. Pitched low. She had no idea why he raised her alarms—and irritated her at the same time. He hadn’t really said or done anything wrong. She was so out of sorts. Her breath caught in her lungs. Out of sorts. That wasn’t her personality. Arguing and getting irritated with males wasn’t in her personality. She found the men she traveled with on her trips down the Amazon and throughout the world’s rainforests a little amusing. She respected them and what theydid, but they often tended to act superior—until they realized she could pull her weight on the treks. That realization usually changed their attitude toward her.
The moment she recognized that she was not in her usual state of mind, alarms shrieked at her. Her jaguar female couldnotgo into heat in the rainforest. Not when she knew it was occupied by male shifters. That would be a disaster. A total, absolute disaster.
When jaguar females came into heat, they were extremely vocal in looking for a mate. She’d experienced the heat of her jaguar female on more than one occasion, and it had been very uncomfortable. She hoped she wasn’t coming into heat now. That scent would call every male shifter for miles. Jaguars could mate up to a hundred times a day in the wild. When she’d been in heat, she’d felt as if she could have accommodated a man at least that many times. Instead, she went into the woods alone and ran until she was so exhausted she couldn’t stand. The last thing she wanted was to go into heat here in the jungle with male shifters around. She gave a fleeting thought to leaving the rainforest until she knew for certain, one way or the other.
She sighed, trying to decide what to do. She’d counted on finding out about her history. It was important to her to learn where she came from and what had happened for her to be sent away. Having a living cousin had been exciting to her. A relative. Someone she hoped to have a relationship with.
“Are you concerned that I mean you harm?”
Startled, she raised her gaze to her cousin’s face. For the first time, there had been a change of tone. Still low and mild, but there was a hint of gentleness in his voice that hadn’t been there before. Perhaps that was what had been wrong all along. He seemed so indifferent to her, as if it meant nothing to him that she was his family. He didn’t seem to care one way or the other that she was related.
“Sarika?” he prompted.
She’d taken too long to answer him. “I didn’t come to be a burden on you, Luiz. I wanted to meet my only relative. My parents made itvery clear to me before they died that they wanted to know I had someone in the world.” She tilted her chin at him. “I’m a grown woman. I’ve been well educated, and I’m certainly capable of making a living for myself. I wanted to meet you, but if you have no interest in an acquaintance, it is best to say so, and we can be done with this.”
Never once had his piercing gaze left hers. It was difficult to meet his strangely colored eyes when he had the direct focus of a predator.
“I have given you the impression I am unhappy to meet you?” Again, a note of gentleness crept in.
She didn’t see a change of expression on his face or in his eyes. He looked as dangerous as ever, yet there was something appealing about his tone. Maybe she was just so anxious to believe someone other than her parents wanted her. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized that knowing her father had kept her brother but sent her away had made her feel as though she was unwanted. She’d been isolated to a great extent growing up, mostly through necessity, but aside from her adoptive parents, she’d never been close to anyone.
Sarika tried to make light of her insecurities when she didn’t feel that way at all. “I don’t wish to be a burden on you, cousin. I’m very aware you had little notice before my arrival.”
Those artic-cold green eyes didn’t blink but remained fixed on her so she couldn’t possibly look away. “Have I indicated in some way that you are a burden or that I am unhappy to meet my only family?”
“I must be misreading you,” she admitted. “Or perhaps I have a chip on my shoulder because my father sent me away while his son and you were wanted. You did explain his reasoning, but that explanation doesn’t negate a lifetime of feeling unwanted by family.”
It was his lack of expression. He had said he was sorry forherloss when he spoke of her adoptive parents, but that loss had been his as well. Alois and Gemma were his only relatives other than Sarika, and now they were gone. Granted, he hadn’t grown up around them and hadn’t had a chance to develop real feelings for them, but Alois was his father’s brother. Surely, his father had spoken of Alois to Luiz. Aloishad certainly regaled her with tales of growing up with his two brothers in the rainforest and how mischievous they had been. She had grown fond of those memories of her uncles and their antics with Alois.
“Family means a great deal to me,” she confessed. “Maybe too much, since we don’t know each other. I didn’t like the idea of being alone, but that doesn’t mean I’m incapable of being alone.”
She knew she’d tilted her chin in that telltale gesture her parents had called her on more than once. In fact, often.
