Rachael bent over the animal in her lap, examining the chunk missing from the ear. “So this one is Fritz?”

He nodded as he peered closely at his work. “This puncture wound is not as deep as the other one. I’m going to give him something for the infection. The leopard did this deliberately.”

“Why?” She didn’t look at him when she asked. Rio had bitten the words out between his strong teeth, almost as if he said them without thought, angry at the leopard for hurting the smaller cat. She sensed that Rio was on the verge of telling her something very important.

Rio glanced at her. “I think he was hunting for one of us. I just am not certain which. At first I thought it was me, but now I’m not so sure.”

She heard the thud of her heart and counted the beats. It was a trick she often used when she was in a dangerous situation and wanted to appear calm or when she needed more information and didn’t want to react too fast. Something inside her went very still when he turned his direct, piercing gaze on her.

Ther e was something there she couldn’t quite read. A swirling dangerous mixture of beast and man.

Rachael knew cats’ eyes contained a layer of reflective tissue behind each retina which allowed them to concentrate all possible light during the darkest nights, or in the darkest forest. Called thetapetum

lucidum, the membrane acted like a mirror, allowing the light to bounce back through the retina a

second time for maximum ability to see. The membrane also reflected light back in iridescent colors of yellow-green and red, both of which Rachael had observed in Rio and in the clouded leopards.

“Why would a leopard be hunting one or the other of us, Rio?” she prompted. It didn’t make sense that the large cat would care which of them he killed and ate.

There was a long silence broken only by the sounds of the moaning wind, the steady fall of rain, Franz pacing back and forth in agitation. Rachael was certain Rio could hear the pounding of her heart.

“I don’t think he was a leopard as you know a leopard. I think he was a different species altogether.”

Rio’s voice blended into the night, held secrets and shadows she didn’t want to examine.

Rachael didn’t voice the protest welling up in her. She was certain Rio wasn’t being melodramatic. She didn’t think he was capable of drama for drama’s sake. “I’m sorry, I’m not certain exactly what you’re saying? A new species of leopard here in the rain forest that hasn’t been discovered? Or a genetically engineered species?”

“A species that’s been around for thousands of years.”

She rubbed the clouded leopard’s ears. “How are they different?”

He looked at her then, turning the full focus of his strange eyes on her. “They are not animal, yet not human. They’re both, yet neither.”

Rachael went very still, pulled her gaze from the power of his, her mind racing with possibilities. “A long time ago, when I was a little girl, my mother told me a story about a species of leopards. Well, not leopards, they were a species able to shift into the form of a leopard, or large cat. They had some of the attributes of the leopard, but also attributes of humans and of their own species, sort of a three-way mixture. I’ve never heard anyone else ever mention them until now. Is that what you mean?”

Few things shocked Rio anymore, but his hands stopped in midair and he stared at her. “How would your mother have heard of the leopard people? Few people, outside the species, know of their existence.”

“Do you realize what you’re saying, Rio? That there is such a species? I thought it was simply a story my mother liked to tell me at night when we were alone together. She always told me tales of the leopard people when I went to bed.” She frowned, tr ying to remember the old stories from her childhood. “She didn’t call them leopard people, there was another name.”

Rio stiffened, his brilliant gaze slashing at her face. “What did she call them?”

The name eluded her as hard as she tried to remember. “I was a child, Rio. I was only a young girl when she died and we went to live with…” She trailed off, shrugging her shoulders. “It doesn’t matter. Are you saying there’s a possibility that the species exists? And if it does, why would one of them want to harm you? Or me for that matter?”

“I’m on a hit list, Rachael. I’ve stirred up the bandits a few times, taking back what doesn’t belong to them and costing them a lot of money. They don’t like it and they want me dead.” He shrugged his shoulders and patted the cat, straightening tiredly. “Hold him a couple more minutes while I fix a bed for him.”

“And I’ve made it worse for you by coming here, haven’t I?”

“A hit list is a hit list, Rachael. I don’t think anything makes it worse, I’ m already on it. If they track you to me, we’ll move. They aren’t going to best me here in the forest. They prefer the river, not the interior. And I have a few people who will help out if needed. I know all the local tribesmen and they know me. I’ll hear if they enter the forest.” He doused the light, plunging the room back into darkness.

“But not if one of these leopard people is working with them,” she guessed, blinking rapidly to adjust to the change in lighting. The moon was trying valiantly to shed light in spite of the clouds and the heavy canopy of foliage, but it was a mere sliver and far away. “And if the species does exist, why haven’t they been discovered yet? They’d have to be highly intelligent.”