Kira ran through the jungle with Jennifer clutched in her grip. The sun had set, but that only deepened the spots of shade in Kira's vision instead of plunging it into total darkness as it would appear to Jennifer. She had her arms around Kira's neck, which brought her throat within mere inches of Kira's mouth. The constant booming of her pulse from Jennifer's body pressed to hers was almost enough to make her delirious with need.

That burning pain within her was so constant, she couldn't remember a time when she hadn't felt it. Kira ran faster, trying to do more than elude the guards she could hear chasing her. She was trying to outrun her hunger, that mindless, clawing thing demanding to be sated on the person right beneath her mouth. You can't help yourself, her need all but screamed at her. It's not your fault. You're a new vampire, no one could resist.

I can, Kira told that hunger. She wasn't just a new vampire. She was a new vampire who had some of Mencheres's incredible power running through her veins. That's why Kira awoke hours before the guards expected her to. Why she could go almost two days without feeding and not be insane with hunger. Why she could smash all the bones in her hands and feet without making a sound, and why she could keep herself from tearing into Jennifer's throat now.

Mencheres said she would need extra power if Kira was to let herself be kidnapped by Radje. He flatly refused to agree to her plan otherwise, no matter that Vlad and Veritas insisted Kira was right, and it was the best way to provide indisputable proof of Radje's involvement to the rest of the Guardian Council. So though she'd objected, Kira had let Mencheres will out some of the power Radje had longed for over the course of thousands of years, albeit in a much smaller dose. Then all Kira had to do was wait to be kidnapped when she went to see Tina, cloaking that new power so Radje and the guards were lulled into a false sense of security, never knowing Kira had some of Cain's legacy running through her veins.

Now she was using that power to carry Jennifer through a dense overgrowth of Mexican jungle with who knew how many vampires chasing after them. If she had only the stamina of a new vampire, these guards would have caught up with her long ago, but she had strength and speed they could never have anticipated. She trusted Mencheres to break through that barrier in his mind and find her, but it would be better for both of them if he didn't have to battle through the temple to get to her. Radje had left orders to kill her and the other humans if anyone attacked. Kira couldn't stay manacled to a wall and just expect Mencheres to be strong enough to stop every guard from following that directive while she hung limply there, waiting to be saved.

And if Mencheres couldn't find her through his power, then she needed to save both of them. She'd managed to get away. Now she had to stay away long enough for Mencheres to find them. Or for the guards to admit to Radje that they'd lost her when he called to offer Mencheres proof that she was still alive. Either would be enough indisputable proof for the other Guardians to fry Radje. Kira used that thought as extra incentive to go faster as she continued to race through the jungle. Just evade them for a few more hours. Mencheres would have his proof that way. She could do it.

Then Kira heard something in the jungle ahead of her. Something not animal or natural.

She slowed, pulling Jennifer off her even as she warned her with a finger to her lips to be quiet. One of the vampires must have gotten ahead of her. They'd spread out to look for her, Kira had heard from their occasional shouts, but most of them were farther behind.

Somehow, this one had made it past her. Maybe he could fly. That would explain it.

She couldn't hope to outrun him, not while carrying Jennifer. If she meant to get past him, she'd have to find a way to kill him.

The Yucatan Peninsula lay below them, the remains of the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza tantalizingly near. Mencheres rose and instructed the two pilots to land on the first empty road or adequately long flat stretch of land they came across. He couldn't have the pilots land at an airport, not while Radje might have spies there as an extra precaution, watching for Mencheres or any of his people. Another flash of his gaze, and the pilots began to search for an unorthodox runway. The plane was small enough that it shouldn't take much to land on safely.

He was almost back at his seat when his mind seized with a pain he hadn't felt in several months - and never expected to experience again. Mencheres froze in disbelief, too stunned to reply even as a part of him registered that Vlad asked him what was wrong. Images filled his mind, somewhat dimmer than he was used to, but unmistakable.

Kira running through the jungle, a woman clasped in her arms. A vampire lay in wait ahead, others farther away but closing in. Kira set the woman down, turned and ran toward that vampire, grappling with him as she fought to strip away his silver knife . . .

He strode back to the pilots. "Go lower," he ordered them, his gaze lit up with green.

"Fly over Chichen Itza. When you are northeast of it, descend as low as you can."

"What are you doing?" Vlad demanded.

He swung around, determination and astonishment swirling inside him. "Kira's not in the Temple of the Warriors at Chichen Itza anymore. She's in the jungle just north of it." Vlad started to smile. "You saw that?"

"Yes." Mencheres's voice thickened with emotion. "In a vision."

The vampire rammed his knee into Kira's stomach. Pain blasted through her, but she kept her grip on his knife. His fangs tore into her shoulder next, ripping into flesh, but while that shot more searing pain into her, Kira reminded herself that he couldn't kill her that way. And she had fangs, too.

She twisted them over until she was on top of the vampire. All the training at police academy plus several years of defense classes came rushing to the forefront, mixing with her supernatural strength, Mencheres's power, and the hunger that still burned inside her. She slammed her elbow into the vampire's face, feeling bones break in both of them, but she didn't hesitate before ramming that same elbow into his face again. And again.

Her fourth blow blinded him. Then her knees smashed into his ribs before she scrambled lower, using her fangs to tear the knife from his grip. Before she allowed herself to think, Kira shoved that blade into his chest as hard as she could. His instant shout was cut off when she shook the blade roughly, feeling all his strength suddenly vanish. His body went limp, his head fell back, and that green light faded from his eyes.

Kira suppressed her urge to fling herself away from him out of repugnance. She had no time to second-guess the necessity of killing him. She yanked the blade out of the vampire's chest, clutching it as she doubled back to get Jennifer. With all the other sounds in the jungle, including the roar of an airplane flying overhead, Kira couldn't use Jennifer's heartbeat and breathing to track her. That was a good thing, though. It meant the other vampires couldn't, either.

Impatience, anger, and desperation unexpectedly filled Kira, almost overwhelming even the burn from her hunger. She ran faster toward where she'd left Jennifer. Had another vampire gotten to her? Was that why her instincts were all of a sudden going wild? Damn it, Jennifer had been through too much already! If one of those guards had found her, had hurt her again, Kira was going to kill him next.

Her grip tightened on the knife as she ducked, hurtling herself through the dense undergrowth. That desperation grew stronger, throbbing inside her along with the painful hunger. Sounds jerked her head to the left, then the right, and even echoed ahead of her where Jennifer was supposed to be. Dread ran up her spine. The guards. They'd managed to surround her.

Kira slowed. She might have some of Mencheres's incredible power fueling her, but she couldn't take them all on. Her only chance was one at a time, and even those odds were slim. Still, she wasn't about to drop the knife and give herself up. She whirled, heading for the closest sounds to her, feeling almost consumed by the desperation inside her. There! her subconscious seemed to scream. Right there!

She felt a blast of electricity then, as sudden and overwhelming as a bolt of lightning.

Kira froze so abruptly that it felt like she'd run into an invisible wall of cement. For a split second, she was panicked, looking down to see if she'd been pierced with multiple weapons to explain why she couldn't move. But then something else washed over her subconscious, replacing that former desperation with waves of relief and impatience.

That's when she realized what she was feeling weren't her emotions. They were Mencheres's. He's here.

Hard arms seized her in the next instant, swinging her up into an embrace that crackled with familiar power. Kira's paralysis vanished, allowing her to twist around to face him. Mencheres's eyes blazed emerald, his expression fierce as he stared at her.

She yanked his head down before she could even think, glorying in the bruising passion as Mencheres kissed her like this was the last chance he'd ever get to do so.

All too quickly he drew away, reminding Kira that they were surrounded by enemy guards and now was not the time to show him how much she'd missed him. Mencheres stroked her face before he stepped back, then spread out his arms.

Rolls of invisible thunder shook the jungle. Kira's eyes widened as everything went silent with an abruptness that was startling. Even the sounds from the birds and animals ceased, leaving only the rustle of the countless leaves and trees to break the sudden awesome hush. A weight seemed to press on her, the vibrations from his power thickening the air into a denseness that was palpable.

"There you are," Mencheres muttered.

That weight lifted, and the animals resumed their nocturnal foraging and calls. The thick feel of his power still lingered in the air, though, and it didn't escape Kira's notice that her pursuers had fall en silent at the same moment that she'd felt like she was struck by lightning.

"Do you, ah, have them all?" she asked.

A tight smile crossed Mencheres's face, relaxing the fierceness in his expression only a fraction.

"Yes, I have them."

Then slow shuffling sounds came from around them. One by one, Radje's guards walked toward them, forming a circle. Their steps were perfectly synchronized, but the fear on their expressions made it plain that they weren't in control of their actions.

An eerie blue light broke through the jungle a hundred yards ahead. Kira glanced at Mencheres, but he didn't look alarmed, and the brush of emotion she felt from him was icy determination and relief, not fear. So she said nothing as that light came nearer. After a few moments, Vlad Tepesh appeared through the brush, his dark hair swinging with his strides, one of his blue-flamed hands wrapped around the throat of a vampire he half dragged alongside him.

"hello, boys," he drawled as he entered the circle of vampire guards who were now standing still. The flames on his hands grew brighter, streaming down the vampire in his grip until the guard's body was engulfed. Vlad flung him into the center of the circle, not even a thread of his own clothing burned although the screaming vampire was writhing in a sea of flames.

"So then," Vlad said with pleasant cruelty. "Who wants to talk, and who wants to burn to death?"