Jessica awoke with no idea where she was or why she was on the ground, but in seconds, memory reasserted itself. She sat up with a gasp, looking around and realizing that she was all alone under the lean-to.
She stumbled out, eyes wide, but then she spotted Marcus ambling through the bush, carrying a large pack with ease and dropping it next to the fire. Despite everything that had happened, there was a part of her mind that could not help admiring how easily Marcus moved, how handsomely he was walking through the thin morning mist. He was a shockingly handsome man, and she had to shake her head to clear it before she crawled out of the lean-to.
"Good morning," she said a little shyly. "Can I help?"
"You can take down the mosquito netting," he said with a smile. "We're going to need that tonight. Other than that, as soon as I get our supplies organized, we can stuff some food in our faces and get going."
She spied her bag of samples and medical equipment in the pile and breathed a sigh of relief. As long as she had that kit, everything was going to be fine. This wouldn't have all been a waste.
Jessica turned to do as Marcus directed, folding the mosquito netting down tightly and tucking it into the small bag it came in. When she was done, she saw Marcus expertly sorting through the supplies, making a face that promised nothing good.
"Everything all right?" she asked. "I mean, aside from the fact that we've crash-landed in the middle of rural Tanzania?"
He laughed at her words, shaking his head.
"We're going to be all right. I promised you we would, and I don't make promises that I can't keep. However... I'll be honest, we could be doing better. We have the essentials. We have water purification tablets and a filtration system and canteens. We have a tent, and we even have a hammock in case we want to take it easy. There are a few MREs to eat, so we at least we can starve slower, but the radio's trashed, and we're not going to get a signal out here at all. Looks like we're going to be hiking our way out."
She flinched, because that wasn't good, but he was right. It could be far worse.
"All right," she said. "I guess I'm ready to go when you are."
"Well, first, let me introduce you to MREs. That'll make whatever I end up hunting down for dinner look amazing."
*
Marcus had to admit that he hadn't expected a lot out of Jessica. She was a slight thing, even if the only thing she carried was the small knapsack and medical case of hers. When he saw her standing up after breakfast with the case slung over her shoulder, he had guessed that she might be ready to call it quits before noon.
Jessica had surprised him, though. He let her set the pace, and she moved more slowly than he did, but that wasn't a surprise. As slow she was, however, she persisted. She followed him, keeping her mouth shut and listening when he warned her around trees and at one point, a sleeping snake.
When they stopped for a rest and a drink, she drank her portion without question or complaint, her eyes looking forward.
"What are you thinking about?" Marcus asked finally, breaking the silence for the first time in an hour."
"About the samples in my case and the people who need help," she said absently. "This might be the information we need to get the breakthrough. These people are struck with a terrible disease, and every moment I'm delayed in getting to them is another moment that someone is suffering, someone is dying, someone is losing someone else that they can't live without."
She shot him a startled look.
"I'm... I'm not blaming you," she said hurriedly. "I mean, I don't think you like being lost in the woods any more than I do, and I don't think... I don't think you're like, being lazy about getting me where I need to go. I mean, you have your own issues, and..."
He laughed at her, shaking his head.
"Believe me, I take no offense, and if I could get you where you are going any more quickly, I would. I was only curious."
"And what about where you're going?"
He looked up, startled, and he found himself locked in her bright blue gaze. He had heard that were-lynxes from the far north had eyes like that, shining, gorgeous, and deadly, but they had nothing on Jessica.
"Me?"
"Yeah, you. I mean, at first when I met you, I thought that you were running guns or something like that. I mean, I figured you were doing something that we needed to stay quiet about. Now, though, I don't think that's it, so what is it?"
"It's... it's a private matter, and that's all I am going to say." His words came out a little harsh, making her flinch, and he cursed himself a little. It had been a while since he had spent any time with people not his own, and it showed.
"No, that's legitimate," she said, nodding. "I didn't mean to pry. I was only curious."
They got up to start moving again, and a thought occurred to him.
"So you were all right with getting into a plane with a man who might have been running guns?"
She shot him a grin that pulled at his heart-strings. Marcus almost reached out to touch her cheek right then, cupping her face and holding her still so he could kiss her. She was a beautiful woman, but when she smiled, it was like the sun coming out after a long dreary day.
"Well, I need to get out to that village and get my samples," she said, slightly impish. "Beyond that, well, I figure that's your business. As long as I don't get shot while you're giving me a lift, I tend not to complain much."
"Fierce," he said shaking his head, and then he led them into the bush.
When he had first laid eyes on her, Marcus had thought that she was not in any way his type. Too small, too short, too slender. However, now that he had spent some time with her, he knew that her beauty went far beyond the body she inhabited. He couldn't look at her face, into her bright eyes without realizing how very gorgeous she was. To see her was to feel something deep inside him.
It awakened a wanting inside him that he had thought long dead and gone. It made him desire things that he couldn't have, things he had not thought about in so very long.
This is foolishness, he thought, and he tried to put the thought out of his mind. There was no value in it, there was nothing to be done about it, and all it would do was distract him from his mission.
He was mostly successful, at least, until the hyenas attacked.
*
Jessica had once worked 20 hours straight in raging storm trying to get vaccinations passed out in a village in Rajasthan, and at that time, she had thought that she would never be more tired. She didn't think that she was quite that tired yet, but she was definitely getting close.
She was reduced to putting one foot in front of the other, the strap from the samples case digging hard into her shoulder and bumping against her hip with what felt like every step she was taking. Every article of clothing that she wore was soaked in sweat, and she was certain that her feet were so blistered that the only thing keeping her upright were her heavy boots.
Still, all she had to do was follow Marcus. Marcus would get her where she needed to go. He would lead her, and because he had promised that things would be all right, they would be.
In slightly more lucid moments, she wondered why she had put so much faith in him. She wondered how she could look at him, knowing everything that she did, about who he was and what he was, and still have this deep feeling of trust inside her.
Really, just because a man can change into a panther is no reason to look at him like he hung the moon, she thought to herself, but there was more to it than that.
She was still dissecting exactly what it was when she walked straight into his back. They had been walking along a surprisingly open part of the forest, the track relatively level and clear. After the steady pace that Marcus had set, she hadn't been watching where she was going.
Jessica started to apologize, but then realized first, that she hadn't budged him at all (god, how strong was he?) and second, that he was standing stock still, gazing around at the forest surrounding them.
Jessica bit back on the automatic question. She had been in enough emergency situations before to know that the best thing that an inexperienced person could do was be quiet until she got information. From the way that Marcus stiffened, she had an idea that this might be an emergency situation.
"There's something wrong," Marcus murmured, more to himself than to her.
When he said that, she could hear it too, or rather, she could not hear it. All the vivid birdsong, the movement of the small animals in the trees around them, the gentle ruffling of the underbrush, was quiet. The forest was too silent, and for a moment Jessica wanted to say something just to get it going.
Then they both heard it at the same time. There was something moving through the underbrush, moving fast and sloppily, and along with it came a strange cackling noise that raised the hair on Jessica's neck.
Marcus swore quietly, looking around and scanning the underbrush.
"All right," he said, his voice deadly calm. "This is one of those situations where you need to listen to me without question, you understand?"
"Yes," she whispered, her voice coming out more level than she had thought it would. "Yes, I understand."
"Good girl. All right, we're going to start back towards that big rock behind you and to the right. You know the one I'm talking about?"
"Yes."
It was a tall outcropping of rock jutting up into the trees. Covered with moss and vines, it looked as if it had been there for a thousand years. Jessica guessed that it wasn't its age that Marcus cared about so much about as the fact that it was tall and wide. No one could come up behind them if they kept it at their backs.
"All right, let's go. Be careful, but speed is good. Speed is very good right now."
Jessica took a tighter grip on the satchel that held her sampling kit and walked in the direction that he had indicated. It wasn't that far away, just a dozen yards or so, but it felt like a few football fields.
Please, I don't want to die here, she thought. I don't want Marcus to die here either.
They had just made it to the stone when there was an explosion of motion in the jungle ahead of them, and a few large animals, stone gray and cackling like fiends emerged.
"Hyenas..." she choked out, but then there was a roar to her right.
She had thought that Marcus as a man was fast and strong. It was nothing compared to what he was capable of as a panther. He shifted so quickly that she didn't even see the moment in between. One second he was a man, the next he was a panther, and the moment after that, he was launching himself at his foes.
Frantic to do something, anything, to help, Jessica slid her kit next to the rock and picked up a large tree branch. The moment she turned back to the flurry of violence in front of her, however, she knew that she would be of absolutely no use.
There were at least four hyenas circling Marcus, tall and broad animals that were skilled pack hunters. They lunged at him, taking snaps that they pulled back from. They were testing his range, she realized with dread, seeing how far he would stretch out before leaving himself vulnerable to another hunter.
The hyenas would draw things out until their prey was exhausted and making mistakes. Marcus, however, refused to allow them to do so. He let them test him for a moment, and she realized that it was only so he could put a little more distance between the vicious predators and the rock where Jessica was sheltering.
Then, Marcus lashed out like a hurricane, and with a single, powerful blow, he crushed one hyena's head and just as quickly lunged around to swipe long, sharp claws across another's face. They tried to draw back, trying to regroup and strike at him, but Marcus didn’t let them.
As Jessica watched in complete awe of his powers, he refused to back down. Marcus flung himself at his foes over and over again. He dispatched another with a powerful bite to the spine, but as he did so, one of the mangy beasts had circled to his side and bitten down hard on his foreleg.
Marcus's roar of pain filled the forest, and he spun around, clubbing the offender down with sheer force, but the damage had been done. His leg dripped red with blood, and he faced his final opponent, the biggest and smartest, on three legs.
This one, alone now, played a different game. It danced just outside of Marcus's reach, forcing him to extend himself farther and farther over that injured leg. It circled him over and over, and from where she stood clutching her branch tightly, she could see he was wearing out. All it would take was the panther being just a little too slow, just a little too sluggish, and it would be over.
Unless the hyena is distracted...
Jessica knew how hopelessly outclassed she was when it came to animals that were at the top of the food chain. She knew that even the weakest hyenas could likely tear her limb from limb. It didn't matter. If she didn't do something soon, Marcus might..
She couldn't think about it. Instead, she acted.
Jessica strode forward just as the hyena stood between her position and Marcus. Realistically, it was the most dangerous place that she could be standing right then. If the hyena made a lunge for her, there would be absolutely nothing that Marcus could do about it.
Taking a deep breath, she brought the end of the branch sweeping across the hyena's rear legs. The thing was too heavy to be knocked off its feet, but it buckled for a moment before turning on her with a snarl. She could see its enormous dog-like teeth, the anger and fury in its eyes, and then with a roar, Marcus was on top of it. His final killing lunge had none of the elegance or grace that he had had before. This was a desperate animal's last ditch fight for survival, but fortunately, it worked.
The hyena went down with a final shriek, and then silence returned to the clearing. The branch fell from Jessica's numb fingers, and she slid to her knees in exhaustion.
"Marcus?"
The name fell out of her mouth, and the panther looked at her. Marcus's words echoed in her ears, and she wondered who was in control now, man or beast. She wondered if the beast had any compassion for her, if the man had enough strength to protect her if it did not.
Then with a blurring that was hard for her mind to understand, the panther disappeared and there was only a naked man in front of her, crouched on the ground, looking exhausted with a bloody arm.
To Jessica's surprise, he grinned at her, and there was something savagely proud in that grin.
"I told you to stay put," he said, but he couldn't keep the laughter from his voice.
"I decided I knew better," she retorted, and the sound of his laughter bellowed through the clearing.