Sandu felt Adalasia grip his thigh, and he covered the gesture with his larger palm. You did not bring this enemy to these people, Adalasia, he assured her.
We don’t know that for certain yet. They’re guessing. Her hand trembled on his thigh. I couldn’t bear it if I brought harm to Jasmine after all she’s been through. You know Nera uses reptiles and animals as spies.
Dominic, Solange and Jubal looked at her.
Solange sent Adalasia a reassuring look. I know the feel of rogue Jaguar males when they walk in the forest and disrupt the natural rhythm. While your guardians were talking, I was listening to the background as they sent the images and sounds. Unfortunately, Adalasia, I am all too familiar with those disruptions. As a young child, I was taught to listen for the sound of the rogue Jaguar male. We knew if they came, they brought death and worse.
We each have enemies, Sandu reminded gently. They may be different, but we face them with courage. We have no choice if we stand in front of others to keep them safe. In this case, Jasmine and Sandrine or any other woman of Jaguar blood will not be victims of these men if we can stop them.
Solange nodded at him. Thank you for standing with us.
Petru added to the information they were collecting on the intruders. I did not see these men, but in the village, there was talk of them. They came by boat and they had supplies. The supplies were not all in the way of food. Mostly, they had weapons. The ones that watched them said they didn’t recognize all the weapons they carried. I made certain I was not seen so I could follow the ones that had the most information, and I took it from their minds.
Sandu felt Adalasia wince. She still wasn’t on board with the way Carpathians so casually extracted information they needed simply by taking it. They took blood and opened a pathway if they really wanted to delve deeper or if they wanted to monitor the individual from a distance.
We do not have to torture anyone for information, he pointed out.
Adalasia turned her dark eyes on him, and he had to resist grinning at her.
Just wanted to say it was much more civilized.
Now you’re just being smug. She kicked him, but very gently.
The images Siv sent filled their minds with containers sitting on the rickety pier. Behind them, giant Victoria amazonica were in the shallow water, basically giant green lily pads. Tied to the pier were several crude fishing boats and two modern ones.
The two fishermen from the village sat “guarding” the containers. The two men looked all around them, clearly searching for the men who had come upriver. One stood guard while the other peered into the containers. His eyes went wide and he spoke rapidly to the other. The two hurried away from the pier, clearly afraid of the contents.
There were all kinds of guns and ammunition, but it was the strange weapons Sandu had never seen before that intrigued him the most. What are those?
Jubal made a small sound in the back of his throat and then looked at Jasmine. He set her aside and stood up, pacing across the room, putting distance between them.
Some of those are more recent inventions to kill vampires. You point and shoot, and the bullet incinerates the heart. He turned to face the Carpathians, his brows drawing together. Where the hell would they get these?
They clearly aren’t on the market, Dominic pointed out, as calm and steady as always. Where did they come from?
I invented them with Gary. The two of us. We needed weapons for the kids and women when they couldn’t go to ground, just in case the undead sent their puppets. These were only in the Carpathian Mountains and . . . Jubal trailed off.
Dominic and Solange continued to look at him. Jubal shook his head and looked away from them as he paced restlessly back and forth across the room.
Sandu caught guilt laced with anger. Jubal Sanders was very angry. Whoever had taken those weapons and given or sold them to those men, he regarded as a traitor. He had an idea of how that particular weapon had gotten into their hands and was worried about others.
Jasmine got up and went to him. “Jubal? What’s wrong?”
He didn’t stop pacing, nor did he look at her. “Sweetheart, I’m going to go out there and see if I can find these jokers.”
“Jubal.” Dominic said his name softly. “We just had a talk about responsibility. And self-sacrifice. This is not the time to blame yourself for what others do. You know better. That is a gut reaction.”
Jubal shook his head, for the first time not taking advantage of Jasmine’s closeness. She wrapped both arms around his waist as if she were holding him to her—and maybe she was. It did stop his pacing, but he didn’t put his arms around her. He just stood there in the center of the room, looking torn.