Chapter Seventeen
“Lift your chin higher. Turn a little more,” Guy said. He was crouched by Jody’s knees, aiming the camera upward to catch the water cascading over her body.
She did her best to channel her inner minx, but she just couldn’t force herself to do it. Standing under the waterfall ought to have been cool and refreshing, but she felt dirty and used, especially with Richard leering from the background like that.
“What’s with you today?” Richard complained. “Where’s the magic we had in the last shoot?”
She hid a scowl. The magic was Cruz, but she’d sent him away. Worse, she’d upset him. Didn’t he understand why she didn’t want him to watch? She’d bared her truest, most private self to him the day before, and she wanted him to treasure that, not pollute the memory with this caricature of herself. And damn it, she was helping him by doing this, too. Wasn’t he grateful for that?
But Cruz had barely looked at the sapphire after a first glance, so maybe it wasn’t the jewel he and Silas were interested in.
Doubt clouded her mind. What if Cruz didn’t care? What if he was only interested in a jewel — a different jewel — and not truly interested in her? What if he had been using her all along?
Without thinking, she brought her thumbnail to her mouth to gnaw on, then yanked it away before Richard could comment. Had she been too trusting, too eager? Had she been too entranced by the dark, brooding warrior so shrouded in mystery?
“Center the necklace and lean forward,” Guy said.
When she bent at the waist, the sapphire swung away from her chest. She caught and steadied it, then glanced down. Despite the cool temperature of the water, the gem felt warmer than it had at first. Was that from her body heat?
She scowled. Her body heat that wasn’t all that high, not with Cruz gone.
“Try lifting it up,” Guy said. “Let’s see if we can get it to catch the light.”
She held the gem higher. Clouds were sneaking over the sky as she spoke, but sunlight still pierced the valley — for the moment, at least.
“Right there. Great. I love how it splits the light,” Guy said.
Jody studied it. Wow. The jewel really did reflect the light.
“Get under the waterfall. Put your head back like you’re in the shower.”
Letting go of the sapphire, she did as she was told. A warm spot on her chest told her where the gem lay, though her attention jerked away when a helicopter zoomed overhead. Not Kai’s brown striped machine — a different one. Moments later, several men appeared on the rise she’d hiked down from.
“Who’s that?” she asked, breaking out of the pose.
Richard snubbed his cigarette against a rock and tossed it into the pool at her feet. “Must be the guys from the Elements corporate office I invited.” He rubbed his hands together. “When they see these pictures and bring them back to the boss, we’ll be the primary ad team, for sure.”
You what? she wanted to yelp, but she held back — barely. The last thing she wanted was more people to watch her prance around half naked. Of course, the photos would end up being published, but having people see her pose in person seemed even more an invasion of her privacy.
“Concentrate,” Richard grunted.
Jody did her best, but the water skipping over her body came in thin, irregular bursts, and having the men watch from above made her skin crawl. Where was Cruz?
“I wish we had a little more water,” Guy said.
Jody knew just what he meant. The waterfall split into six separate streams, and each was more of a trickle than a shower. She imagined the rock pool at Cruz’s place. That had been just the right amount.
A second later, she squealed as what felt like a bucket emptied over her head. Guy jumped back and turned to protect his camera from the splash. Jody blinked, looking up at the waterfall.
“Ha. Watch what you think, sweetheart,” Guy joked. “Now quick, while it’s running. Look this way and hold the sapphire against your heart.”
She expected the jewel to feel cold and edgy, but it was surprisingly comfortable — almost as if it wanted her to hold it close.
“Perfect! Hold it right there so I can get the light reflecting off it.”
She couldn’t help peeking down. That wasn’t just the light. The sapphire was glowing.
“Come on, honey. Let’s have some of that magic from the other day.”
She didn’t have an ounce of magic in her, not with Cruz gone. But, wow — maybe the sapphire did, because the light streaming off it intensified. The facets didn’t just reflect daylight — they seemed to project their own luminescence.
“Good. Now, shut your eyes…”
She closed her eyes and found herself adrift in images of water of all kinds. Rushing river water. Roiling surf at the edge of the sea. Pitter-patter rainwater. Babbling brooks. All those scenes merged together like one of those relaxation videos city dwellers used to conjure peace.
Footsteps splashed nearby, and at first, she thought that was part of the menu of water conditions bubbling through her head. But then Richard called out in greeting.
“Gentlemen, gentlemen. Glad you could make it.”
Jody snapped her eyes open, and her hands flew to her chest. She’d grown accustomed to Guy and Richard — more or less. But five newcomers had appeared — big guys with long, leonine hair — and to have them look on…
“Oh, don’t let us hold you up,” the tallest one said, looking right at Jody.
Guy coaxed her on. “Come on, honey, one more set. Chin up…”
Jody shivered. The clouds marched steadily on, and the temperature dropped. She cast her eyes around for Cruz, feeling naked and vulnerable. Clutching the sapphire made her feel more grounded, though. More powerful, somehow. Slowly, she straightened her shoulders.
I can do this. I can do this…
“Good. Now angle that way…”
She did her best, but it was hard with those men there, undressing her with their eyes.
“Nice. Keep that up. Bring it right up to your eyes,” Guy said.
She blinked as she cupped the jewel with both hands. Light danced and flickered within the facets, taking on a life of its own.
Guy muttered to himself, as he always did. Richard chattered away at one of the big guys flanking the tallest, leanest man. And then — in spite of all the distraction and the noise of the waterfall — she heard the tall man’s sharp intake of breath. His eyes shifted to the sapphire, and his lips moved.
A shiver went down her shine, and she clutched the jewel tighter.
“I love the way the light reflects in that stone,” Richard said.
Thunder rumbled over the mountaintops, making everyone peer up.
“Damn it. We’ll have to hurry to get these last shots,” Guy said, fumbling with his lens.
The tall, lean man stepped forward, hopping from one rock to another with incredible speed and grace. One second, he was far away, and the next, he was far too close. Every step he took forward made Jody retreat, pressing her back to the waterfall.
“Miss Monroe?” he asked.
His eyes were black and eerily dull. The whites of his eyes were a jaundiced yellow. His hair was shiny and slicked back, his voice deep and commanding.
“Hang on there, Vasco,” Richard said. “Let Guy finish shooting.”
She could see anger flare in the newcomer’s eyes. Vasco. Who was he?
“I say when you’re done shooting,” Vasco said in a scary monotone. His eyes locked on hers, a predator fully focused on its prey.
Richard shook his head. “We’re on a tight schedule.”
Richard, she wanted to whisper. Be quiet. Don’t push him.
Vasco had a simmering undercurrent of strength, much like Cruz. But unlike Cruz, he exuded a scary feeling of ruthlessness. Of evil, almost. She tore her gaze away from him to search the hillsides. God, where was Cruz?
“Moira LeGrange may be the big boss,” Richard blustered, “but I’m the product manager of this shoot, and I say—”
Vasco twisted the hand Richard placed on his shoulder and shoved so hard, the manager fell backward into knee-high water. He came up sputtering, but the other men grabbed his arms, pinning him in place.
Guy, oblivious, played with the zoom. The camera was so close to his eyes, he hadn’t noticed the shove. “All right, now I need you to—”
Jody’s heart pounded as she backed a few inches along the face of the waterfall. The tall, lean man was clearly capable of terrible deeds. The urge to run coursed through her bones.
“You are Jody Monroe, daughter of Ross Monroe?”
“Wait a minute,” Guy yelped as Vasco stepped into the frame.
Jody was so terrified, she couldn’t speak. Horrible images raced through her mind. Had this thug done something to her father or sisters?
“Now, you listen to me,” Richard said.
Vasco didn’t even look back. He simply raised one hand and snapped his fingers. The men holding the manager put him in a headlock and twisted.
One second, Richard was wide-eyed and panicked. The next, he was dead.
“Richard,” she screamed when they snapped his neck like a twig and dropped his body without showing the slightest emotional response.
“Jesus,” Guy yelped, spinning around.
Vasco didn’t pay the least attention as Guy fled, only to be caught by the other men.
Jody searched wildly for something to defend herself with. A stick. A rock. But she could barely move, let alone think.
“You are Jody Monroe, correct?” Vasco repeated in a frighteningly controlled voice.
“What do you want with me?” she cried, clutching the sapphire. Water splashed over her shoulders as she sidestepped through the thin curtain of falling water.
Vasco broke into a grin. “A sip. Just one little sip,” he whispered, looking at her neck. “A taste of your blood.”
His canines were much too pointy. His fingernails, too. Jody froze, horrified.
There are all kinds of evil spirits out in the world, her great-aunt used to say. Ghosts. Demons. Vampires…
She wanted to scream that there must be some mistake. That there was some other Jody Monroe in the world who’d somehow attracted the interest of this monster.
“Let me go,” Guy protested from behind. A second later, he grunted as one of the other men punched him in the stomach.
Cruz! Jody screamed silently. Help! Cruz!
Vasco’s grin grew. “All right, maybe I want more than one sip. But don’t worry, I won’t drain you dry. Someone as unique as you…”
Unique? She wasn’t unique. She was just her.
His eyes dropped to the necklace she wore, and he clucked in appreciation. “Such a nice jewel you have there. Moira will be so pleased with this unexpected gift.”
Her fingers closed around the sapphire instinctively, and a surge of power pulsed through her arm.
It’s not the jewel itself so much as what it represents, Silas had said. But the more you know, the more you enter a world you may not wish to be part of.
Jody had a sneaking suspicion she’d just stumbled into that world, whatever it consisted of. Murderers? Worse, vampires? Was there really such a thing?
Vasco lunged for her so quickly, the movement blurred. Jody barely managed to jump backward, slipping out of his grasp. One of Vasco’s long, pointed fingernails scratched her forearm as she moved, and she yelped, covering the wound.
“Ah.” Vasco grinned. “A little appetizer. Just what I’ve been dreaming about.”
He held up his finger and slowly licked the drop of blood the way a child might lick a lollipop. He closed his eyes, savoring the taste as she backed away, disgusted.
“Jesus, who are you people?” Guy yelled.
Vasco’s yellow-tinted eyes snapped open as his lips moved, testing the flavor. “Wait a minute…”
When he jumped forward and grabbed for her, Jody froze, catching sight of his pointed canines.
Vasco slashed down her forearm, leaving a three-inch gash. Only then did she pull away, watching him lick her blood a second time. His tongue darted out, tasting. Testing. Then his face darkened.
“Human? A mere human?”
Jody wanted to scream. What else would she be?
Dark, remorseless eyes stared at her. “Are you or are you not Jody Monroe, daughter of Ross Monroe?”
Her mind spun. Whatever interest this lunatic had in her blood, it was misplaced if he was looking for a relative of Ross Monroe — the best father ever, but not her biological father. Not that she dared mention that. What if this monster tracked down her father next? Or maybe her younger sister, who really did carry their father’s blood?
Jody tried to run, but all she could coordinate was a splashy shuffle over a large, flat rock.
Then a voice boomed from above, and a shadow loomed. She ducked, yelped, and then cried out in relief.
“Cruz!”
He vaulted from the top of the waterfall, landing in a crouch in one eerily silent move. And, man, she’d never been happier to see someone. Even — whoa — a naked someone. What was that all about?
“Back off,” Cruz snarled at Vasco.
As Cruz straightened, he flung an arm backward, protecting her. She reached out to touch his back, desperate for that sense of sanity. The moment they made contact, a burst of energy pulsed through her, and she gasped, blinking. Fear had slowed down her mind and limbs, but suddenly, she felt invigorated and fully alert. As if she’d just plugged in to a new power source — Cruz. The heat coming from the sapphire seemed to double, too.
There’s a possibility that the jewel — if it’s the one we fear — could find its way into the wrong hands, Silas had said.
She held it tightly. Vasco was definitely the wrong hands. But, shit. What could she do to protect it?
“Are you okay?” Cruz growled without taking his eyes off Vasco.
Jody wiped the cut on her arm, letting the waterfall cleanse the blood away. “Yeah,” she said, hiding the shake in her voice. Because, crap. Even with Cruz there, how was she going to elude five men?
“Take the jewel if you want. Just leave us alone!” Guy cried.
Vasco didn’t blink an eye. He just looked Cruz up and down.
“Now, who do we have here? The hotheaded Mr. Khala, I presume?”
Cruz snarled. “Don’t presume anything about me, asshole.”
Jody kept her hand on his back, trying to keep him calm. Wondering how Vasco knew Cruz. Wondering what the hell was going on.
Then the gears in her mind clicked into place, and she pointed at Vasco. “You were there that night at the party. You tried to kill me.”
Rage bubbled up inside her, and suddenly, Cruz was the one clutching her hand, trying to calm her down.
Vasco tut-tutted. “I don’t try, my dear. I succeed. The shooter was an associate of mine.” He glared at one of his men. “An associate who might have been punished for ineptitude if his actions hadn’t revealed who you really are.”
She stared. What the hell did that mean?
Vasco’s eyes narrowed, and his lips formed a thin line. “Unless, of course, you are not as special as I was led to believe. Or is it that your bloodlines are so diluted, the flavor isn’t there any more?”
His words didn’t make any sense, but they turned her stomach all the same.
“Listen, I don’t know what’s going on here, but—” Guy started to protest. His yelp was followed by a bone-chilling snap and a dull splash.
“Oops.” A big man chuckled as he dropped Guy’s body. Like Richard, Guy floated facedown in the pool, lifeless.
Jody gasped. “You… You…”
Cruz turned slightly, shielding her. His eyes met hers, blazing with outrage and giving her courage at the same time.
Vasco sighed at the killer. “Now, how are you going to cover that up?”
Jody couldn’t believe his casual tone.
“No problem,” the man who’d killed Guy said. “We just make it look like humans did it.”
Jody did a double take. There it was again. Humans. What did that make these men?
Cruz’s body went stiff, and a low, dangerous growl escaped his lips.
Another man snorted to the first and gestured to Jody. “No one will ever buy that she killed them.”
Jody’s jaw hung open. They wanted to frame her?
“It doesn’t take much,” the first man said. “Plant a little evidence, spin a little tale…”
Cruz’s face turned a scary shade of red. “Planting evidence? Where else have you done that? India, maybe?”
Vasco took a slight bow. “A true aficionado travels the world to sample its best flavors, my dear tiger.”
Jody stared. His dear what?
“You did it. You killed my family.” Cruz’s hands curled into fists, and his voice dropped to a murderous growl.
Jody grasped at the threads in her mind. Cruz’s family had been killed in some horrible event he refused to speak of. By Vasco and his men?
“You killed them, and you covered it up.” A vein in Cruz’s neck pulsed wildly as he stepped toward Vasco.
Jody grasped at his shoulders, trying to restrain him.
“And you, I see, bought the whole story.” Vasco grinned.
Jody cried out. “Why would you kill anyone? What kind of monster are you?”
Vasco’s smile grew, the points of his teeth showing again. “I’m not a monster. I’m a connoisseur, if you must know. A collector of rare tastes.”
She blanched. He was talking about blood as casually as some people discussed wine.
Vasco’s eyes took on a faraway look. “Once you taste shifter blood, you never want to go back.”
Jody’s ears got stuck on one word. Shifter?
Cruz hissed. “You bastard.”
But Vasco wasn’t done. “Tiger blood. Wolf blood. Even mermaid blood, or so I’d been led to believe.” His eyes drifted to Jody.
“You’re crazy,” she cried, looking around for some means of escape. The man was delusional. A first-class lunatic she had to get the hell away from.
Thunder rumbled in a long, angry drum roll, and dark clouds swept overhead. The temperature dropped another ten degrees, though the sapphire remained warm against her chest. Jody looked up, checking if there was any way to climb up the waterfall. But the flow was too steady, the rocks too slippery.
The water in the rock pool swirled urgently around her feet, and an image formed in her mind. An image of turbulent water, pulling her enemies away.
No telling when a flash flood could rip through, Kai had said.
She shook her head, trying to keep her wits about her instead of grasping at straws.
Cruz squeezed her hand, signaling something. His left shoulder dipped, and he tugged her forward. What exactly was he planning to do?
An engine buzzed in the sky, and for a moment, Jody hoped it was Kai in his helicopter. But it was only a small plane on the way back to its home base in the impending storm.
“Jody,” Cruz whispered under the engine noise, pulling her close. “The second I say run, you run. You got that? Run and don’t look back.”
She’d witnessed Cruz in a dozen dark moods, but she’d never seen him as grim. His yellow-green eyes glowed, and a muscle in his jaw twitched.
His gaze dropped to the gem around her neck. “Use that.”
Her lips moved, but no sound came out. What use was a jewel in a situation like this?
“Don’t look back,” he repeated in the split second that Vasco and the others were distracted by the plane. “And trust me. No matter what happens, please trust me.”
Jody’s heart pounded and not just from the anticipation of whatever might happen next. Cruz wasn’t just telling her. He was begging.
Please trust me.
“Of course, I trust you,” she whispered.
Cruz didn’t look so sure, making her wonder what exactly he had in mind. But there wasn’t a moment to ask, because Vasco turned his attention back to her.
“I’m not crazy,” he murmured, stepping closer. “Just hungry.” He motioned his men closer and looked Jody right in the eye. “Hungry for new tastes, which is where Miss Monroe comes in. But you, Mr. Khala, will do nicely, too.”