Free Leopard 02 - Wild Rain by authors_sort Page A

bathed her with cooling water, kept the door open with the mosquito net hanging down both at the door and around the bed. The lantern was extinguished to keep the bugs from entering.
    The rain persisted, a steady rhythm until the next storm hit about an hour later. It raged with enough force to blow rain through the heavy canopy. Rio slid out of bed, padded across the room to close the door. He stood for a long time staring out into the darkness, breathing in the scent of the rain, the call of the jungle. The chorus of male frogs sang off-key, joyfully hunting mates, adding to the lure of the forest. For a moment the wildness was upon him, beating in him with the need to shift, to escape. But the call of the woman was stronger. He sighed and closed the door firmly, shutting out the wind and rain. Shutting out the heady sounds of his world. He crawled back into bed, pulling the light cover over both of them, wrapping his arms around her and welding his body to hers. He was exhausted, but it took time for his body to relax, for his mind to let go. He fell asleep with a knife under his pillow and a woman in his arms.

    Four
    There were nightmares. One simply ran into the next. Rachael felt shelived in a sea of pain and darkness where nothing made sense but a male voice pitched low as it murmured soothingly to her. The voice was a lifeline, pulling her from the darkness where teeth and claws savaged her body, where bullets whistled by and thudded into bodies and blood flowed and hideous creatures lay in wait to attack her.
    Shadows moved in the room. The humidity was oppressive. A cat made a chuffing noise. Another answered with a gruntlike cough. The sounds were close, within a few feet of her. Every muscle in her body reacted, tightening in terror, increasing the pain in her leg. She couldn’t move her body and when she turned her head, she couldn’t see enough of the room to locate the source of those wild, cat sounds.
    Sometimes the wind blew a cooling wave through the room and over her. Always the rain fell. A continual, steady rhythm that both soothed and irritated her. She felt trapped and claustrophobic, confined as she was to the bed. It was humiliating to have a man see to her every need, especially when most of the time she wasn’t certain who he really was. Sometimes she thought she might be insane as the nightmare images of a man shifting into the form of a leopard replayed over and over in her head.
    There were moments she knew the man, where she was overwhelmed with love and tenderness, and moments when she stared into a stranger’s catlike, frightening gaze and her heart pounded with terror.
    Time passage was impossible to know. Sometimes it was daylight, other times, night, but the one thing she counted on was the voice to steer her through nightmares and help her find her way back to reality.
    She stared sightlessly at the ceiling, trying not to be alarmed at the sounds of wildcats so close to her when she couldn’t see them. A shadow moved again, across the window, outside on the verandah. Her heart accelerated. The floor creaked.
    Rio caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned as Rachael attempted to slip over the side of the bed. He leapt for her, his hands stilling her struggles. “What do you think you’re doing?” Fear made his voice harsh.
    She looked directly into his eyes, her fingers clutching at his arms. “They’re here. He’s sent them to kill me. I have to get out of here.” She turned her head away from him to stare eerily into the corner.
    “They’re over there.”
    Whatever she saw was real to her. She was so intent, it sent a chill shivering down his spine. “Look at me, Rachael.” He framed her face with his hands, forced her attention back to him. “I’m not going to let anything hurt you. It’s the fever. You see things because of the fever.”
    She blinked rapidly, her bright eyes beginning to focus on him. “I saw them.”
    “Saw who? Who wants to kill