but they might as well have been bright spots on a rustic painting.
“Is Chuna in those forests?” Cole asked.
“Yes,” Sophie told him. “Chuna is there, but still sleeps. If that has changed as well, you Skinners will get more old school than you might have wanted.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The journey into South America was one of the longest runs Randolph had taken.
It was glorious.
He was able to run as fast as he could go without holding back. The ground flew beneath his paws without him really feeling it, voices trailed past his ears without having a chance to sink in, and his eyes only needed to focus on what was directly in front of him. If he was human, he might have called it therapeutic. Covering more ground in a series of leaps between runs, he gazed around to notice the landscape changing from mountains to desert to wetlands and back to desert before finally becoming a lush green that stretched up to surround him on all sides. Perhaps the trip had taken hours. Maybe the better part of a day. Perhaps more than one day. All that mattered was that the air rushing over him carried scents he hadn’t experienced in decades. The water splashing against his belly was cool and wild. Creatures snapped at his heels as he passed, and exotic insects buzzed in his ears.
Jungle surrounded him on all sides until it became the only thing capable of slowing him down. Even if he’d wanted to, he would have had a rough time breaking free consistently enough to regain his former speed. He was in his four-legged form, prowling beneath a green canopy as a thousand eyes watched from above, below, and within the waters of the Amazon. Propping himself onto his hind legs, the Full Blood craned his neck while drawing in a breath that not only swelled his lungs, but caused his muscles and skeleton to realign. When he exhaled, he stood upon two legs with thick claws stretching from his fingers.
Something heavy moved nearby. If not for the distinctive scent, he might have allowed the sound to blend in with the constant movement of his surroundings. Even though he could feel the familiar weight against his back, Randolph placed a hand on his chest to touch the strap of the sling he’d fashioned. It was still there, as was the cargo he’d gone through so much trouble to collect and bring to this place that was as far away from human civilization as he was from their species. He turned while crouching down and bared his teeth at the other Full Blood emerging from the thick wall of trees on the opposite side of the river.
She made no attempt to hide from him. Moving comfortably in her upright form, her muscles writhed beneath protective layers of thick, dark yellow fur that might allow her to be mistaken for a cheetah from a great distance. Long legs and a lithe body might have furthered that illusion if not for the thick musculature and tapered snout of a werewolf. As she walked toward him, the animal features melted away, leaving a woman with dark, bronzed skin and flowing black hair long enough to cover her firm breasts, if not for the whims of a restless breeze. Coming to a stop several paces in front of Randolph, she bore the countenance of a sentinel that was more than capable of fending off him or anyone else who dared take another step. Reflexively, Randolph came to a halt.
“If you’re seeking refuge from the storm to the north,” she said in a musky voice that was colored with accents from several different cultures, “you can keep running. There are still some quiet places in Panama where the military and wretches aren’t such an eyesore.”
“I’m not running away, Jaden,” Randolph said.
“Good. After all you’ve done to brew that storm, the least you could do is sit in it.” Propping her hands on rounded hips, she said, “You’d better not be thinking about reversing my deal to trade territories with Liam. If you have a problem with the arrangement, you’ll have better luck bargaining with him than me.”
“That’s quite an amusing prospect. Liam never was much for speaking reasonably with anyone. Perhaps that’s why he’s dead.”
Claws eased from beneath her fingernails, but only enough to be seen. More than likely they’d appeared as an unbidden reflex, along with the tension showing beneath her skin. “He’s dead? Did you kill him?”
“That does seem the likeliest scenario,” Randolph said with no small amount of sadness. “He fell to the Skinners.”
This time Jaden didn’t try to hide what she felt. Her hands hung at her sides, ready to put her curved, daggerlike claws to use. Wide eyes, the color of polished gold, flicked back and forth to study the trees along the riverbank. “The Skinners have acquired more Blood Blades?”
“Not yet, but they did organize well enough to take a stand. Not that the others left them any alternative. You heard about what happened with the Breaking Moon?”
“I’m out of touch lately,” she said. “Rarely leave the jungle. Only see the occasional human, and that’s easily avoidable most times. I knew there were others of our kind in America. Liam told me about the Mongrels taking a more active part in defending their homes. I honestly don’t know what took them so long to rise up like that.”
Randolph’s brow furrowed as he asked, “You’re sympathizing with them now?”
“No. We’ve been tearing at each other for so many years that it’s a wonder they haven’t grown sick of hiding or pulling up their dens when one of us gets too close for their comfort.”
“Perhaps they’re one of the few that always knew their place.”
“Now that,” Jaden pointed out, “is Liam speaking. Despite your differences, you two always were more like brothers.”
“I often wanted to kill him myself.”
“As I said. Like true brothers. So how did the Skinners manage to defeat him? Did he try to clear out another city?”
Randolph’s mouth formed a smile that opened at the edges to reveal teeth that had partially formed into fangs. “He brought the others together so they could draw more of the Torva’ox, empowering himself as well as a few of them with the ability to spark the Breaking within humans at will.”
“I haven’t heard of that happening since Gorren purged almost every other Full Blood from the planet just so he could have a Breaking Moon to himself. But that was long before my time.”
“Mine as well,” Randolph said. “The Skinners weren’t working alone. They had help from the Gypsies as well as the military. Minh was even encased by gargoyles and spirited away by the Dryad.”
Some of Jaden’s defensiveness was replaced by wonder as she asked, “Gargoyles?”
Randolph nodded. “They must have gotten stirred up amid all the confusion that brought everything else to the surface. Have you ever seen them before?”
“I’ve found a few old statues in the depths of the jungle and spotted some fleeting shapes in the upper tree cover, but not enough to be certain it was a gargoyle. I don’t know if anyone’s seen one of those dreadful things for ages.”
“They caught Liam, Esteban, and Minh by surprise, I can tell you that much. I might have been caught as well if I hadn’t distanced myself from all of that. It took more than gargoyles to bring Liam down, but he was taken down eventually. Probably poisoned or hobbled by some other Skinner trick.” His entire body shifted closer to the savage end of the spectrum as he added, “Knowing those ghouls, they’ve probably already chopped Liam into pieces and will be wearing his pelt while adorning their weapons with his teeth. With him gone, the humans have become brave enough to stand against the wretches even when it is clear the Breaking will claim them no matter how many guns or machines are at their disposal.”
“Such is the way of things, Randolph. You and Liam were always spoiled when it came to the harshness of the Balance. So much proud, self-righteous talk when it tipped your way. So much venom and contempt when it didn’t. The humans are simply doing what they do. Armies will fight and Skinners will sharpen their sticks. Shame about Minh. I know that you two had something of a history. Have you freed her?”
“I don’t even know where she is.”
Skepticism crossed Jaden’s finely sculpted features, but she let it pass. “So you came to warn me about the military?”
“No,” he chuckled. “If you need someone to warn you when those soldiers are packed into enough trucks and helicopters to announce their presence hours before they arrive, you’ve got bigger problems. I came because I have
