Carpathian 21 - Dark Peril

life. Riordan had converted Juliette to Carpathian to save her. But they had been too late to keep Jasmine out of the hands of the jaguar-men and she carried a child.

    Solange clenched her teeth together to try to keep them from chattering. Rage replaced her weariness. She wanted to rise up out of the water and shove her knife into Brett’s throat. She remembered Jasmine’s face, bruised and battered, her eyes wide with shock. She would never be that same carefree girl. There were shadows now where she’d been bright. Hate lived and breathed in Solange, and she despised being weak and helpless, cowering in a swollen river, clinging like a child to the tree branches. But she was wounded and exhausted. It was impossible to fight either of the men right then, let alone both together.

    Steve jumped from the tree back to the bank. “I say we get out before Brodrick kills us all. I can’t take the idiot humans he works with.”

    “They’ve found women for us,” Brett said. He followed Steve, landing on the bank in a crouch, staring out over the river. “We should find a little island no one knows about and start a collection. We could train them to do whatever we wanted.”

    Steve licked his lips. “Sex slaves. Brodrick had a room full of them until he got so brutal he killed them one by one. Damn maniac. I spent a lot of time with his little slaves.”

    “He didn’t mind?”

    Steve shook his head. “He didn’t give a damn about them. He liked to watch, especially if I hurt them. He gets off on hurting them.”

    Brett smiled. “I like it, too.”

    Steve laughed. “You’re so messed up.”

    “I don’t hear you complaining when we’re sharing a little hot bitch.”

    “Hell, I don’t care if you like to mark them up. All I care about is fucking them.” He cupped his groin obscenely. “They were put here for one thing.”

    “That’s where Brodrick went wrong. He wants cubs. Forget that,” Brett snarled. “Use ’em and abuse ’em.
    Half the fun is finding them, stalking them and taking them away from their safe little lives. I love watching a woman dancing in a bar, knowing I can take her any time I want right out from under the nose of anyone she loves. I can kill her boyfriend or lover or husband and take her right there next to the body.” He flashed another grin. “It’s even better when I force the man to watch. I like to make the bitch beg me to take her in every way possible right in front of him, show her how utterly worthless he is and show him what a whore she is.”

    “You’re so screwed up.” Steve snorted with laughter.

    “Let’s get the hell out of here,” Brett said. “Far away from this place. But I’m telling you, Steve, I want that little one. I want her in our collection.”

    Jasmine. Solange felt the tears burning behind her eyes and clamped down hard on her emotions. She couldn’t afford emotions. She would somehow find the strength to hunt these two. Anyone threatening her cousin was going to die. It was just a matter of time. But she was so tired. She ruthlessly pushed weariness away.

    She had weak moments—that was allowed. Pity wasn’t. She’d chosen this life. She had trained for it. She knew there was no going back once she’d set her foot on the path. There was too much evil and it couldn’t be ignored. The law of civilization hadn’t come to the rain forest yet, and until it did, there were only a handful standing between the predators and their prey.

    The voices faded into the night. She waited as long as she dared and then began to try to make her way to shore. Again she feared releasing her grip, but she was in a better position in the mass of branches beneath the water to climb, if she could make her leaden body move.

    She loosened her hand first, flexing her fingers beneath the water before she reached for one of the branches just above the surface. She grasped the branch tightly and let go with her other hand. Very slowly she counted to three, marshaling every bit of strength she had left. She let go with her legs and kicked strongly to propel herself upward. She dragged her head and chest completely out of the water to lie across the bed of branches.

    She had no idea how long she lay there, but other than the constant roar of the river, it was quiet in the forest. By the time she was able to find the strength to lift her head again and crawl the rest of the way onto the maze of branches to the solid trunk, the insects were once