"The mob thought she’d be an easy kill. They were wrong."
Each red light felt like a countdown, amplifying the tension coiling in my gut. Bronson Riddick had called, he wanted to meet me at La Verité, a high-end restaurant in the heart of the city, and against my better judgment,...
"Lin contemplates her mysterious suitor. Metztli comes to a decision about Isaiah."
On the other side of the village, Lin Ming sat alone in the hut she shared with the rest of her group and ran her hand across the jaguar pelt over and over. Harwood and the others were off doing...
"About to run out of money, Leslie decides to respond to a mysterious job posting"
Leslie had been staring at her budget sheet for the past few hours. There was no mistake: she was in trouble. She had just finished her second year of college, and her loans were starting to get out of control....
"Supermarket Checkout & Party Preparations Get Underway"
Part 2 - The Cougar Catches Her PreyAs I stood at the till, I replayed what just happened in my head, her beaming smile and what she had just said. "Well, hello again, you. I hoped we might bump into...
"Alex returns home and then begins planning for her future."
The ride home was a blur of anticipation and raw nerves for Alex. What would she tell her parents? What if they found out? But as the taxi pulled up to her house, she realized she didn’t care anymore. She...
"Zolin goes hunting. Metztli begins teaching the boys how to hunt."
One of the reasons jaguars were so hard to hunt, Zolin reflected as he padded through the jungle, was that they left nothing in the way of a visible trail. They were like phantoms, appearing to human eyes as if...
"The Supermarket encounter"
Part 1 – The supermarket The first day of the weekend started like many others. I awoke drowsily to the early morning dawn chorus of birds through the open top light of my bedroom window and the dappled sunlight setting its...
"Lin Ming and the others meet the Aiwaha."
PrologueFrom the field journal of Dr. Layla Harwood:I took this photograph (see above) during my first stay with Naka-Mur and his tribe, the Aiwaha. The young woman in it--whose name I never learned--was one of those who willingly volunteered to...
"After returning to the hotel, Alex and Charles have an electrifying night."
The grand finale of the opera had come and gone, but the real performance was just beginning for Alex and Charles. They left the theater with a sense of urgency and hastened back to his car. The drive back to...
"Lin Ming and her classmates reach the territory of the Aiwaha."
Lin Ming stirred and opened her eyes, uncurling from her sleeping bag like a drowsy kitten. It was still dark outside her little tent, and from what she could hear, no one else in the camp was awake yet. She...