tanit looked toward the cave. "it's a temple of death. only the master is allowed inside." he trembled with fear. "master han is a great and powerful chiang-shih. he has killed thousands. we will die if we go inside. please. we must - "

"look at me," carlos interrupted. "your master cannot harm us during the day. we'll stake him, and then you'll be free."

tanit's eyes filled with tears. "it's too late. i saw you shift into a cat, and i told the professor. he ordered me to stay with you until the guardians come for you."

caitlyn exchanged a worried look with carlos. why would a vampire want a were-panther?

carlos stood and dragged tanit to his feet. "it doesn't matter. by the time the guardians find me, your master will already be dead. the game will be over."

tanit whimpered. "it is impossible to kill master han. he can live forever."

"we shall see." carlos shoved him toward the mouth of the cave. he skidded to a stop in the pebbles.

carlos wedged tanit's knife under his belt. caitlyn handed him the gun, and he holstered it. he picked up the flashlight and shouldered his backpack.

she did the same while her heart raced. she didn't want to admit it, but she was as scared as tanit.

"ready?" carlos asked her.

she glanced at the sun. it was low enough to paint the sky pink and gold. "we'd better hurry." and get this over with.

carlos grabbed tanit by the arm and escorted him inside the cave.

caitlyn followed. the setting sun shone inside for a short distance. the interior was a large room, wide and deep. far in the distance, her light picked out a narrow opening. this room might be the first of many.

"what's all this?" carlos shone his flashlight overhead. ropes crisscrossed the ceiling over them, and yellow strips of paper dangled from the ropes.

"those are prayers," tanit whispered. "buddhist prayers to keep the evil in this cave from escaping."

caitlyn looked around the empty cave. "who left them?"

"him." carlos's flashlight beam landed on a man's skeleton. his tattered orange robes identified him as a buddhist monk.

caitlyn drew in a sharp breath. a spear protruded from the monk's rib cage. "someone murdered him."

"i told you!" tanit cried. "any who enter this cave will die!"

"relax. it looks like it happened years ago." carlos shone his flashlight at the narrow opening in the distance. "we need to go through there." he walked forward.

caitlyn followed closely. tanit hung back, his face deathly white.

carlos took a step and froze when a metallic click echoed through the cave. "booby-trapped."

"what?" caitlyn didn't have time to think or react. the ground shuddered under her feet. carlos grabbed her and leaped forward, much farther than any human could have. they landed, falling forward.

she glanced back and saw the ground caving in, taking tanit with it. he screamed, then disappeared. a cloud of dust rose from a ditch that now pided the cave room into two halves.

"tanit!" she crawled to the edge of the ditch and gasped. iron spikes shot up from the bottom of the ditch, and tanit was impaled on one of them.

she screamed and looked away.

carlos grabbed her and held her tight. "it's all right."

"he's dead!"

carlos grabbed her by the upper arms. "caitlyn, we have to stay calm. the cave is booby-trapped. i think we made it past the first one because the buddhist monk set it off."

she drew in a shaky breath. "we wouldn't have survived the second one if you couldn't leap like a cat."

"there could be a third one. we have to be careful."

she started to shake. they could no longer get to the cave entrance. it was cut off by the ditch with spikes. and they couldn't move forward without setting off another death trap. "how can we move?"

"don't worry, sweetheart." he squeezed her arms. "i'll get you through this." he took off his backpack and tossed it forward a few feet, angled to the right.

nothing happened.

"okay, that space is safe." carlos stepped close to the backpack and picked it up. he held out his hand to caitlyn.

she grabbed his hand and stepped close to him. just a few feet more and they could slip through the narrow gap. "do you think the next room is safe?"

"probably so. that ditch was designed to take out an entire group."

she shuddered, and the beam from her flashlight quivered. poor tanit. they shouldn't have forced him to come inside.

carlos tossed his backpack again, and it landed just to the right of the entrance. when nothing happened, he lunged toward it and picked it up. he reached for caitlyn.

it was a jump for her. she leaped, but overcompensated and bounced into him hard. when she fell backward, he dropped his backpack to grab her.

click.

a spear flew from a hidden crack in the cave wall, zooming straight toward them.

"get down!" he pushed her down and jumped in front of her.

she fell on her rump and looked up just in time to see him jolt. the point of a spear shot through his stomach, coming to a stop inches from her face.

she screamed. carlos shuddered, his face pale, his eyes wide with shock. he collapsed to his knees.

she scrambled to her feet. the spear had impaled him from the back. "oh god, no."

he crumbled onto his side.

"carlos." she knelt beside him. she could see him before her but didn't want to believe it. he couldn't die. not carlos.

with shaking hands he grasped the spear that protruded from his stomach. "not much time," he rasped. he gritted his teeth and attempted to break the shaft of the spear. he cried out in pain.

"carlos, what are you doing?"

"have to break off the point. help me."

she stared at the blood rapidly coating his hands.

he fumbled for a knife at his belt. "help me."

she pulled the knife free and sawed at the spear shaft.

"let me try again." he gritted his teeth and snapped the shaft in two. "pull it out of me. from the back."

"it'll make you bleed more."

"pull it out!"

tears ran down her cheeks as she grasped the shaft and gave it a hard yank. carlos cried out.

"don't die on me!" she yanked handfuls of t-shirts and underwear from her backpack and pressed them against the wounds on his back and stomach. "don't you dare die on me."

"don't be afraid," he whispered. "i'll be here for you."

her tears splattered onto his t-shirt. "carlos, don't leave me."

his eyes flickered shut. his body shuddered, then went still.

"carlos?"

he lay there, still and pale.

caitlyn let go of the clothes she'd pressed against him. she sat back and looked at her trembling hands covered with blood. his blood. he was gone.

"no!" she flung herself on top of him. "no, carlos, no." this couldn't be true. she couldn't lose him. she clutched at him, willing him to come back.

the cave suddenly grew much darker and colder. she glanced at the entrance. it was dark outside. and she was all alone in the jungle, in the temple of death.

with a shudder, she realized the sun had gone down. she might not be alone after all.

chapter twenty-two

caitlyn fumbled on the ground and located the flashlight she'd dropped earlier. the beam quivered in her shaking hand as she pointed it at the narrow opening.

get a grip. but how could she when carlos was dead? a sob racked her body. don't fall apart now. think, think. she needed to protect herself. carlos would be angry if she hadn't learned her lessons well. he would be even more pissed if he'd died in vain protecting her. he's not feeling anything. he's dead.

she wiped at the tears streaming down her face, then realized her hands were still coated with carlos's blood. she rubbed her hands on her khaki pants. she had to protect herself. she had to make him proud. she removed the gun from his holster. if anything came through that opening, she'd shoot and keep shooting.

the gun trembled in her hand, and she prayed for strength. she kept the flashlight aimed at the opening and waited. and waited.

she edged closer to carlos 'cause somehow she felt safer when she was sitting next to him. his body was still warm. and solid. tears slid down her face, but she didn't dare put down the flashlight or gun to wipe them.

it was going to be a long night. in the dark. how long would the batteries last in the flashlight? carlos's was still on. she quickly set her flashlight and gun down, so she could grab his flashlight and turn it off. she might need a backup.

still nothing from the narrow opening. maybe the vampire was gone. maybe she was safe. relatively safe. there was still a ditch filled with iron spikes between her and the cave entrance.

if she couldn't go back, could she go forward? she eyed the narrow opening. maybe there was an exit on the other side of the mountain? or maybe there were more booby-traps. or worse.

no, she wasn't going through that opening. it was too much like the silly girl in the movies who ventured up to the attic all alone. or the basement. in her underwear.

she dug into her backpack and pulled out her cell phone. it was worth a shot. no signal. not surprising when she was in a friggin' cave in the middle of the jungle.

"what do i do, carlos?" she whispered.

she dropped her phone into the backpack and noted the silk scarves she'd bought for the three were-panther girls. she smiled, remembering how carlos had fussed about her shopping. more tears rolled down her face.

she smoothed her fingers along the silk. so soft and shiny. and amazingly strong. she fisted her hands in it and yanked. if she tied the three lengths together, she'd have a nice rope. she scanned the cave with her flashlight and studied the crisscrossed ropes where the monk had hung the yellow paper prayers. maybe the prayers had worked. the vampire didn't seem to be using this cave anymore.

she tied the scarves together, then tied one end to the spear shaft. hopefully, all her exercising with carlos had helped her upper body strength and aim.

she propped the flashlight on top of her backpack so it would light up the prayer ropes. then she threw the spear like a javelin, hoping to wedge it into the crisscrossed ropes. the first few tries failed, and she retrieved the spear by pulling on the scarves.

it was too lightweight, she decided. she reattached the end of the scarf with one of the silver panthers. this time when she threw the spear, it caught. she tugged hard on the scarves to make sure it was secure. she needed to swing across the ditch without falling in.

she anchored the end of the scarf on her side with carlos's backpack. she would wait till morning before attempting to cross the ditch. no way was she venturing into the jungle in the dark.

she sat beside carlos with the flashlight and gun within reach. a new wave of grief swept over her, and more tears fell. as the hours dragged by, it seemed like she'd fallen into a nightmare that would never end.

carlos jolted as an electric bolt of energy jump-started his body. he opened his eyes to darkness.

something behind him jerked, and he heard a gasp and a fumbling sound. a flashlight beam struck him in the face, and he turned his head.

caitlyn screamed and scrambled away.

"cait - " his throat was tight, so he cleared it. it rumbled deep in his throat like a growl.

"what - who? what?" her voice sounded panicked.

"caitlyn." he sat up. his eyes adjusted quickly to the dark. "dammit, woman, don't point that gun at me."

"you - you're dead. i saw you die."

"put the gun down. i can explain." or maybe not. he didn't have much time. already he could feel the surge building inside him.

"you were dead," she whispered.

"i know." he yanked his t-shirt over his head. "i hate it when that happens." he pulled off his hiking boots and socks.

"you're alive?" she set the gun down. "and stripping?"

he unbuckled his belt, yanked down the zipper, and pulled down his cargo pants, taking his underwear with it. "i don't have much time. the surge is coming. it always comes right after - " he jolted as the first wave of new power shot through his system.

"carlos?" she stepped toward him.

"stay back." he gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. so much raw power. he wasn't sure he could control it. "i'll try not to hurt you."

"what?"

he cried out as the surge took him over. wave after wave struck his body with increasing force, pummeling him so that he writhed and twisted as the power grew and grew. he flipped over onto his hands and knees and arched his back. his body shimmered, then transformed. but that wasn't enough. no, now he would be a level four were-panther, larger than he was before. his bones crackled, lengthening and thickening. he thought his head would burst. he roared with the pain, and the sound echoed around the cave.

he rolled his massive shoulders back and looked at the huge paws supporting his black powerful body. his claws sprung out, more sharp and lethal than ever. his vision was sharper. even in the dark he could make out the tiniest of spiders on the cave wall.

with a low rumbling growl, he turned his head toward caitlyn. his woman. his wife.

she stepped back, her face pale. the flashlight trembled in her hand. "ca-carlos? are you there?"

he lifted a paw, then advanced a step in her direction.

she stepped back. "n-nice kitty?"

a red haze filled the cave. something strange was happening to his eyes. his woman seemed to shimmer in a red glow. it made his blood boil, his heart pound. he had to take her. he stalked slowly toward her.