Drake stared at him coolly. "You don't have to like me, Boudreaux, any more than I have to like you. You let this happen and you can blame me if you can't stomach shouldering the responsibility, but don't think for one minute your intimidation tactics are going to work on me. I'm not a girl wishing her brothers loved her."
Saria gasped, whirling around to face Drake. "What are you doin'? You're pushin' him to fight you."
Maybe he was. He couldn't get his leopard to calm down. The animal ripped and clawed, wanting to get at Saria's brother. Remy appeared to have the same problem, and if the tension emanating from the rest of her brothers was anything to go by--they were fighting for control as well.
Drake frowned, shaking his head, trying to clear away the red haze. He glanced over at the two fallen leopards, torn beyond belief, Elie crouched low, trying to aid them. His mind felt heavy, leaden, thick and dense, as though the red haze had penetrated his brain, making it impossible to think clearly. For one brief moment, his eyes met Armande's.
Armande Mercier and Robert Lanoux lay in puddles of blood, their bodies shredded, ribs broken, both fighting for each breath. The Boudreaux brothers looked at them with deadly intent, still not satisfied with the punishment Remy had inflicted, yet there was something off. An alarm bell shrieked at Drake, yet he couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong.
"Something isn't right here," he said aloud to Remy. The man was a homicide detective, obviously a leader. Surely he could feel it too.
Remy opened his mouth, closed it again and looked around. Yeah. He was feeling it too. He signaled to his brothers to finish dressing. Drake sent the signal to Joshua to call them in, but he was uneasy.
Joshua Tregre stepped out of the brush, automatic weapon ready, although he looked relaxed. He skirted around the brothers to close in to one side of Drake, about twenty feet out. Joshua's sun-bleached hair, worn shaggy, made him appear more of a surfer than a leopard, until you looked into his piercing blue-green eyes. His gaze held a stormy, turbulent sea, rather than a calm one, belying the laugh lines around his eyes. He had the deep chest and upper body strength of most of his kind. The weapon he held so comfortably appeared part of him.
A second man emerged from Remy's right, only thirty feet from the fallen leopards. Drake sent a small salute. Jerico Masters nodded. He was head of security at the Bannaconni ranch when Drake was gone, which was a good deal of the time. A quiet man, he was dark-haired with green, watchful eyes. Drake was a little worried to see him there. With Jerico gone, who was watching over Jake, his wife Emma, and their children?
The last man surprised Drake. Evan Mitchelson was a very quiet man, big and muscular, a former prizefighter with a major speech impediment. He rarely spoke, but used sign language. He never shifted in front of others and Drake had often wondered if he could. He held a gun as if he were rn with one.
"Nice to see you boys," Drake greeted quietly. "We have a little situation here. I need to know if your leopards are acting strange. Enraged. Pushing for supremacy, goading you to pick a fight or fire your weapon."
Remy sent him a shocked look. He looked at the three newcomers. Joshua nodded. "Almost from the moment we came into the marsh. We all discussed how edgy we were. We put it down to you being in danger. We just double-timed here."
Evan signed frantically. His leopard was rarely let loose because he was a killer, very difficult to control under the best of circumstances and Evan was fighting just for survival right now. He wanted to leave the marsh.
Jerico nodded his own confirmation.
"How did you know where to look?"
"We followed your scent--well," Joshua looked guilty. "Her scent. Her leopard is putting off some major pheromones."
Saria rolled her eyes. "Great. You can smell me throughout the swamp. Just what I wanted to know." She moved a little closer to Drake as if for protection. He could see the subtle movement was subconscious.
"Sorry, ma'am," Joshua apologized. "Your leopard is rather alluring."
Drake's leopard clawed so hard, his muscles contorted and his jaw hurt. He felt the change sliding over him almost too fast to comprehend. His vision banded and he just happened to glance toward the two injured men. Armande's eyes met his. The man stared back at him with despair and something else--something indefinable. The strange look steadied Drake as nothing else could have. It was if the two fallen shifters knew something the rest of them didn't and were waiting for a catastrophe to happen.
He risked a glance at Remy and saw he was battling as well. "I think it's this marsh." He spoke loud enough for his voice to carry to the wounded shifters, watching them from the corner of his eye. Both looked uneasy, but they were as troubled as the rest of them.
Remy frowned but signaled to his brothers to work at controlling their leopards. "Perhaps we should all leave this place immediately."
Drake glanced at Saria. "What about you, honey? Is she quiet, or giving you fits?"
"She's extremely quiet. In fact, if it wasn't for all of you talking about pheromones, I might not even know she exists." Her gaze slid away from his, and for the first time, he knew she lied to him. Her leopard was reacting, but she didn't want to admit it.
"Remy, I want my men out of here. Evan is having great difficulty with his leopard."
"I am as well," Lojos admitted.
"Same here, Remy," Gage said. "If I don' shift soon, he's goin' to tear me up inside."
Remy looked to his other two brothers. Mahieu and Dash both nodded their agreement. "Elie, the boys are goin' to help you move those two. If you have a painkiller, give it to them." He glared down at the two wounded shifters. "We're goin' to pack you out of here, but all of us are havin' trouble with our leopards. Shut the hell up and stay that way. Neither of you had better give a reason to killecause it isn't too late dump your sorry asses in the swamp."
Gage and Lojos immediately went to help Elie get the wounded men on their feet. There was a lot of hushed cursing, but neither of the punished shifters was stupid enough to protest. They began walking back toward the dock where the Boudreaux brothers had left their high-powered boat, picking their way carefully around all the hazards.
Remy and Mahieu remained behind. They waited until the others were completely swallowed up by the brush before they approached Drake and his team members.
"Boss, do you need us here?" Evan signed.
Drake shook his head. "I'll meet you all back at the inn."
Joshua sent a hard look toward Remy and Mahieu, but he followed Jerico and Evan after the others.
"I'm Remy Boudreaux, Saria's oldest brother. This is Mahieu," Remy held out his hand.
Drake took it. "Drake Donovan. Jake Bannaconni sent me to check into some things for him. I hired Saria to guide me in the swamp and things just got out of hand fast."
Remy nodded slowly. "I can see how it could happen, and if you're her choice, we'll stand with you. We need new blood here. Our lair has dwindled down to nothing. Most of us have no choice."
"You might consider heading into the rain forest and seeing if you can find a mate," Drake said. "Although I'm fairly certain you've already done that."
Remy shrugged his shoulders. "I tried. I'm sendin' my brothers as soon as things settle down here. We didn' believe Saria had a leopard."
Drake opened his mouth to snap a reply. As far as he was concerned, that was no reason to neglect their little sister, but he didn't know all the circumstances and he honestly couldn't be certain if his leopard was driving his wrath at Saria's brothers.
"I do have one," Saria said unexpectedly, her eyes shining.
Drake wanted to smile. He slipped his arm around her shoulders and brought her close to him. "Yes you do."
"She's a little tough to control in this place," she added, again avoiding his eyes.
"You've been here before," Drake said. "What's different?"
Saria frowned and looked around her. "I don' know. It's beautiful, but it always was. More flowers and plants than I remember, but it change
s all the time dependin' on the weather and the storm surges. You can see all the water. Sometimes it washes away the top soil and other times the water deposits rich soil here. This marsh is very wild and natural. Of all the places, this land has the most diversity of life and even terrain. All of this is marshland, but, although we call it Fenton's Marsh, it's a huge piece of property. The land firms up the more you go inland."
"Are you goin' to explain what's goin' on, Saria? All hell's broken loose in the lair. If Elie hadn't contacted us, I'd be in jail right now for killin' those two," Remy said.
"I don't think anyone expected me," Drake said. "Saria needed help and I was there. Our leopards definitely recognized one another. When the other one attacked her, her leopard hid from him."
Remy's eyes went ice-cold. "Who was it, Saria, and don' tell me you didn' recognize him. You had to have smelled him. And when he marked you . . ."
Drake felt a surge of anger at the words. He turned Saria around and raised the hem of her shirt, revealing the long marks, still red, although scarred over.
Remy and Mahieu both snarled, almost simultaneously, their leopards reacting to the sight of Saria's wounds. It mattered little that the furrows were nearly healed and had happened some time ago.
Remy moved closer, inhaling deeply in an effort to detect a scent. Saria shook her head and yanked down her shirt, glaring at Drake.
"I couldn't tell who it was. I don' know why I couldn' smell him, Remy. Maybe I was too scared. I thought he was going to kill me. I never had a leopard attack me before. I'd never been that close to one."
"You should have come to me immediately."
"And say a leopard attacked me? The only leopards I knew about were my five brothers." She made the statement staring him steadily in the eye.
"You knew?" Remy asked.
She nodded. "I saw all of you when I was a kid. At the time, Pere was still alive and I watched him carefully after that. I watched all of you. It was excitin' and scary. There were rake marks in the house some times and I saw all the signs. I'm good at trackin'."
Remy shook his head, clearly shocked at his younger sister. "If you'd come to us, we would have talked to you about it."
She pressed her lips together for a moment, but Drake could see she was distressed, although she quickly hid it with a casual shrug. "I thought maybe you didn't come around me much because I wasn't one of you."
She tried to hide the pain in her simple, honest statement, but Drake felt it--and so did his leopard. The big cat leapt so hard against Drake, his entire body shifted position, his muscles rippling and contorting. He had to breathe deeply to keep the animal at bay. Evan had said he kept his leopard under strict control, rarely letting it loose, and only then when they were completely alone because his animal was so violent. Drake was beginning to think his cat was following suit--at least around Saria's family.
Remy stepped back, drawing Mahieu with him. "Do you generally have problems with your leopard?" he asked in a low voice.
Had Remy sounded taunting or snide, Drake was fairly certain nothing could have stopped his leopard, but there was a note of worry there and Remy was once again looking around with wary, assessing eyes.
"No. Never. My leopard is always calm, otherwise I could never lead the teams into combat situations."
Remy nodded his agreement. "Somethin's not right. I can still feel it and it isn't Saria's leopard," Remy said. "I don' think it's safe here for either of you."
"It's important, or I wouldn't keep her here," Drake said. "I might be able to make it back on my own if you . . ."
Drake sent Remy a rueful grin. "She's hard to argue with."
"She's always been like that. I'll expect the two of you back at the house." Remy gave his sister a stern look. "And talkin', Saria. I want to know everythin' goin' on, you hear me?"
"I hear you," Saria said, then muttered under her breath, "I think the world heard you."
"What was that?" her brother snapped.
Drake could see the amusement in his eyes belying his tone. "We'll be there." His palm slid down Saria's arm to her hand, his fingers tangling with hers. He gave a little tug. He wanted away from Fenton's Marsh as quickly as possible.
Saria looked up at Remy, still a little shocked that her brothers had come to rescue her. "Bien merci, I had no idea you'd come."
Mahieu stepped close to hug her tight. "Of course we'd come for you, Saria."
"Don' make me cry, Mahieu. I didn't know."
"We're famille." He leaned close. "J'aime beaucoup, ma soeur. How did you not know that? If you're in trouble, Saria, we all come."
10
DRAKE nodded to Saria's two brothers as he took her with him back down the narrow path leading away from the water, but he walked carefully, keeping them in sight until they had put foliage between them. Saria lifted her hand toward her brothers in a brief wave, but she didn't say anything more, although they shifted positions, Saria taking the lead.
Drake frowned. His leopard was still prowling, pacing back and forth, fighting him occasionally to get out. "You're certain your female isn't giving you trouble?" He watched her closely, searching her dark eyes for signs of trouble.
Saria shook her head, glancing back at him. "She's quieter now."
Drake looked around them. Fenton's Marsh smelled like death to him. "Let's get going. I want to do this before nightfall."
Truthfully, he wanted Saria away from the area, although he couldn't say the marsh wasn't beautiful. He could see why Fenton's pristine acreage was the habitat to so many wildlife species as he followed Saria into the interior.
Flowers grew among the darker greens of the plants, tall stalks strangely striped a dark and light green. The blossoms resembled a golden lily with dark splotches in the soft coned petals. Scattered among the taller flowers was another species he didn't recognize, each one of them growing about halfway up the striped stalk of the strange lily. Just as the vines tangled in the branches of the trees and wove them together, the smaller bright-colored flowers did the same on the ground.
Moss hung in long veils from tree branches, and every kind of plant possible seemed to vie for space in the thick brush. As they moved deeper, away from the water's edge, the foliage was even thicker, resembling a dark jungle. Mushrooms and fungus grew in abundance. Here, the flowers were thick carpets covering the ground beneath the trees.
"This is like a rain forest in here. The soil must be incredible."
She sent him a smile over her shoulder, immediately capturing his attention. "I've photographed every inch of this land through here. I'm slowly working my way south. I can't find the names of some of these plants and flowers anywhere. Like I said, no one comes here, they haven't for years. I'm hopin' there's somethin' important to National Geographic or one of the other science mags."
"Get some plant named after you?" He watched her walk, the easy sexy sway of her hips. She walked with straight shoulders, and that gentle sway emphasized her narrow waist. She wasn't fashionably thin, but rather had curves where a man like him most appreciated them.
"No, that's more Charisse's style. I just want to have my photographs paid attention to and somethin' like that would make me famous. I could really make my livin' that way." She flashed him another look over her shoulder and he forgot everything about his surroundings. It was a beautiful place, but there was nothing there more beautiful to him than she was.
"Stop it." She laughed softly. "Sometimes I don' know what to do with you."
"I can give you advice," he said.
The ground was growing spongy beneath his feet again, indicating they were crossing back toward the water on the other side of the long finger of land. Saria laughed softly again, but she didn't reply.
Drake was silent for a moment, trying to figure out a subtle way to broach the subject of her brothers. He kept his voice very gentle. "You know we have to tell your brothers someone is killing using both a leopard suffocation bite and a knife," Drake said, wishing he didn'
t have to bring them back to the purpose of their visit to the marsh.
For a few moments, it had been just the two of them again, but she had to come to terms with disclosing the information to her family. He wanted them both on the same page. They needed allies to figure out what was going on inside the lair. No one would talk to him, his team or probably Saria. They needed her brothers.
"I found those bodies some time ago and there won't be any evidence left," Saria pointed out.
"We don't have a choice, Saria. They know something is wrong."
Saria kept her gaze fixed on the trail as they walked. The path was becoming thinner, the surrounding area more hazardous, but Saria knew exactly where she going. "It won' be easy," she ventured. "Remy is a homicide detective and he won' like that I was afraid of them."
"Saria," Drake said softly. He stopped her by gently shackling her wrist and forcing her to turn back to him. "Whatever led up to your fears was real. One time coming to your rescue doesn't erase years of neglect. You had a reason to suspect them."
"Maybe, Drake, and maybe it was pride. They seemed so close to one another and I was so alone and not a part of them. Maybe I wanted to punish them in some way."
Drake leaned into her and brushed the top of her dirtstreaked face with a kiss. "It's always easy to second-guess yourself with new information, but at the time, honey, you did the best you could. You were trying to protect them."
She squared her shoulders and nodded. "Thank you for not making that worse back there with my brothers. I know you were angry."
He raised an eyebrow.
She smiled and shrugged. "Your eyes start glowin'. Really, Drake. They go gold and then shimmer. I think every once in a while I'll be tempted to get you angry just so I can see all that shimmering fire."
He bunched her hair in his fist and brought his mouth to hers. When he lifted his head, his eyes were every bit as golden as she'd claimed. Saria laughed and the tension in his belly dissipated. She was back, sure and confident. She'd been shaken for a moment, but she'd been true to her word, and she stood with him.
"I wasn't angry so much as my leopard was behaving badly."
"All of you were behaving badly. I thought my brothers were going to kill you. And Remy nearly killed Armande and Robert. It was very tense there for a while." She gave a little sniff. "I was the only one with a lick of sense.