Second, no sound reached her ears. It was as if the camp itself was abandoned.
And third, it was way too bright inside the tent. There was no way in hell it was predawn.
She rolled out of bed and her arms flew up, clutching her head as the dullness that filled her cranium left her feeling severely light-headed, like she was hung over. She knelt on the floor, fighting to gain some sort of equilibrium, and spied her clothes a few inches away, neatly folded.
“Son of a bitch!”
Her voice was hoarse, full of fury, and she ignored the pain that edged through her brain and across her temple. She grabbed the clothes and hurriedly pulled them over her naked form, noticing the plate and water bottle from the night before. Her heart sank to the very bottom of her toes as she began to piece together why she was here, alone.
With a fuzzy head.
She’d either been drugged or charmed. She didn’t know which, but at this point she didn’t give a shit.
There was going to be hell to pay, and she didn’t care whose ass needed kicking, she was going to oblige with gusto. That Jaxon thought he could screw her and then proceed to really fuck her over was unbelievable. Her eyes flashed coldly as she envisioned all the ways she would make him pay.
She whipped the tent flaps back, her mood growing darker as her eyes swept the empty base camp. There was no one in sight, but she knew Ana had to be there somewhere. There was no way the vampire could handle the intense sun that filtered through the canopy above her head.
She glanced upward and bit her lip in an effort to keep her anger from exploding. It was obviously later in the morning then she would have liked. If she had to guess, she’d say around eight. Shit! That meant that Jaxon and his crew were at least two or three hours ahead of her.
What the hell had he been thinking? Did he really think he could keep her away from the compound?
Libby was so furious she didn’t know who she wanted to kill more, the sadistic bastards who’d imprisoned her for the last three years, or the man who’d pleasured her to unheard of heights and then betrayed her, treating her with no respect and a blatant disregard for the consequences.
He better believe there would be consequences. She was done with being thrown aside.
Had she been drugged?
The more she thought about it, she decided it was more likely she’d been charmed. How the hell had Declan managed that without her knowledge?
Because you’d been too distracted with thoughts of your lover.
She stood still for all of two seconds, then quickly crossed to the large tent where all the electronic equipment was set up. She whipped open the flaps, feeling a burst of pleasure run through her at the irritated hiss that greeted her.
Black hair floated in the air as Ana jumped away from the beam of light that now lit the interior of the tent.
“Are you trying to fry me?”
The shriek that flew from the vampire’s lips would have been comical at any other time, but at that moment, Libby was too angry.
“When the hell did they leave?”
Libby’s chest heaved and her eyes pinned Ana with a stare that could have frozen the Amazon. She watched the vampire close herself off, the pale face going blank. She’d seen that look before. There’d be no information forthcoming.
Panic began to beat at her and her eyes scanned the room, searching for weapons of any kind. There was a table to the left of where she stood, and she lunged for it, grabbing a large machete and feeling like she’d hit the jackpot when she spied both a semiautomatic and a rather deadly looking Glock.
“You can’t take those! They’re for the techie and me!”
Danger scraped along the back of her neck and she warily looked over her shoulder, feeling a pang of victory as she noted the bright ray of sunshine that pretty much had the vampire cornered. There was no way Ana could touch her.
“What are you gonna do? Come over here and bite me?” For the second time, the sarcastic line brought the vampire to a froth.
Libby tucked the guns in
to her pants, holding the machete in front of her as she shot a look of triumph toward Ana, who let fly a mess of curses, flushing a deep crimson that left uneven splotches across her high cheekbones.
Then Ana began pacing along the edge of darkness, looking wildly for a way to attack. It deflated Libby’s own anger. She had no quarrel with the vampire. She just didn’t like her very much.
“You should save your energy, Ana. The jungle is a deadly place. There are things that live here that would make your skin crawl. This little corner of the world is haunted by dark magick, and now I have your guns.”