Carpathian 18 - Dark Possesion

though it was silly. He hadn't known her, he still didn't, but reason didn't seem to enter into her emotions. That strange wild thing hiding deep within her began to awaken and stretch, raking with sharpened claws at the inside of her belly.
    Horrified, MaryAnn jumped up, yanking her hand away from his She was buying into this entirely. The nonexistent shadow world. The lifemate of a man she didn't know. A species that dealt with vampires and mages. Nothing made sense in this world, and she didn't want to be there. She wanted Seattle, where the rain came down to clear the air and the world was right.

    MaryAnn felt Manolito's restraining fingers circling her wrist, hut when she looked down at his hand, it was gray. She blinked. All around her, the rain forest was vivid and bright, the colors so brilliant they nearly hurt her eyes. The sound hit her then, the continual drone of insects, the rustle in the leaves and the shifting of animals moving through the underbrush as well as the canopy overhead. She swallowed hard and looked around her. The water was pure and clean and rushing with enough force to sound like thunder.
    She reached for Manolito, clutched him to her, afraid she would lose him. His form seemed solid enough, but there was something not right about his response, as if part of him was otherwise occupied. "I think I just did something."
    "You are fully back where you belong," Manolito said, relief in his voice. "We need to get you to safety before the sun comes up. You may not be Carpathian, MaryAnn, but with at least two blood exchanges, you will suffer the effects of the sun."
    "Tell me what's happening." She hadn't liked that other world, but being alone in this one was terrifying. "I don't want to be separated from you."
    The anxiety in her voice turned his heart over. "I would never leave you, especially not when danger surrounds us. I can fully protect you even with my spirit locked in this world."
    "What if I can't protect you?" she asked, her dark eyes filled with trepidation.
    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