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"I can live with being on a son me, I really can," Riley Parker informed her mother "But I swear to you, if I hear onesexual innuendo frooing to shove the idiot overboard His constant licking his lips and saying he likes the idea of ives me the creeps"

Riley cast a glance of pure loathing at Don Weston, the annoying idiot in question She'dher doctorate in linguistics, and a fewthe faculty at University of California, Berkeley, where she now taught, but he took the cake He was a great brute of a man, ide shoulders, a barrel chest and an attitude of superiority that irked Riley Even if she wasn't already so e, the presence of that awful ile right now,Riley extremely protective of her, and his constant sexual innuendos and filthy jokes around her mother made her want to just shove him overboard

Annabel Parker, a renowned horticulturalist famous for her efforts to reestablish thousands of acres of Brazilian rain forest lost to deforestation, looked at her daughter, dark brown eyes twinkling andto smile "Unfortunately, honey, we're in piranha territory"

"That's the point, Molare in Weston's direction

The only benefit of the horribleto focus on other than chills slowly spreading through her body andthe hair on the back of her neck stand up

She and her mother made this same trip up the Amazon once every five years, but this year froe to find their usual guide ill, Riley felt as if a dark cloud hung over the trip Even now, a strange heaviness, an aura of danger, see the it off, but the o down on her, chills creeping down her spine and ugly suspicions keeping her awake at night

"Perhaps if I could accidentally cut his hand as he goes overboard " she continued with a dark smile Her students could have warned the man to behen she smiled like that It never boded well The slanced down at thearound the boat Were her eyes playing tricks on her? It al the boat But, piranha didn't follow boats They went about their business

She stole a glance at the guide whotheir charges-a far cry froer who usually took them upriver The three looked very uneasy as they continually studied the water They, too, see surrounded by a swar silly She'd been on this sa out over the local wildlife Her i overtime Stillpiranha seele flash of silver in the waters surrounding the boat chugging ahead of them

"Ruthless child," Annabel scolded with a s presence of Don Weston

"It's the way he looks at us," Riley griped The hu to her like a second skin She had full curves, and there was no hiding them She didn't dare raise her hands to lift her thick, braided hair off the back of her neck or he would think she was deliberately enticing him "I really, really, want to smack that oaf He stares at h, but when he stares at yours "

"Maybe he hasn't ever seen breasts, dear," Annabel said softly

Riley tried to sood ood reason He's disgusting"

Behind thery breath "Da spray?"

Riley suppressed an eye roll As far as she was concerned, Don Weston and the other two engineers with him were liars-well at least two of the three were They clai in the forest, but it was clear neither Weston nor Mack Shelton, his constant companion, had a clue She and her mother had both tried to tell Weston and his friends that their precious bug spray would do no good Theprofusely, which washed off the insect repellent as fast as they could apply it and left theravated the itching and invited infection The smallest wound could quickly become infected in the rain forest

Shelton, a coobscenities "You threw it overboard, you big bastard, after you used the last of it"

Shelton was a little friendlier than the other two engineers and not quite as obnoxious as Weston, but instead ofRiley feel safer, his proximity actually made her skin prickle Maybe that was because his s and everyone on board Riley had the feeling Weston vastly underestie of theirShelton

"We should never have thrown in with the her voice low Normally, Riley and her mother made the trip to the volcano alone, but when they'd arrived at the village, they found their regular guide too sick to travel Alone in the uide to accompany them to their destination, she and herupriver

Weston and his two fellowa trip to the edge of the Andes in Peru, in search of potential newa supposedly extinct plant had arrived froo up a rad students were heading to the Andes looking for a rumored lost city of the Cloud People-the Chachapoyas All of theether The idea seeical at the tiretted the decision

Two of the guides, the archaeologist and his students and three porters were in the lead boat just ahead of theood deal of the supplies Annabel, Riley, the researchers and the three uides, Pedro, and two porters, Capa and Raul

Trapped on the boat with eight strangers, Riley didn't feel safe She wished they were already halfway up the o their separate ways, each with their own guide

Annabel shrugged "It's a little too late for second thoughts We ether and we're stuck with these people We'll make the best of it"

That was herstorm Riley was no psychic, but it didn't take one to predict trouble was colanced at her mother As usual, she appeared serene Riley felt a little silly saying she orried when Annabel had so s on her mind

Still bickering about the discarded bug spray, Weston flipped Shelton the finger "The can was empty There must be more"

"It wasn't eust in his voice "You just wanted to chuck so at that caiman"

"And your aier, chimed in

Ben was the quietest of the bunch He never stopped looking around with restless eyes Riley hadn't quiteof the three engineers He was average height, average weight, a face no one would notice He blended, andabout him stood out He moved quietly and see and everyone as if he were expecting trouble She didn't believe he was a partner with Weston and Shelton The other two stuck together and obviously had known one another for soer appeared to be a loner Riley wasn't even certain he liked either of the other two men

Off to the left shore, her eye picked up a white cloud,fast, sometimes iridescent, so a blanket of living insects

"Fuck you, Charger," Weston snapped

"Watch your er advised, his voice very low

Weston actually stepped back, his face paling a little He glanced around the boat, his gaze settling on Riley, who at him "Why don't you come over here, or better yet, Mommy come here and lick the sweat off ue toward her, probably hoping to look sexy, but he got a

For one terrible ross suggestion, Riley thought she ht hurl herself at him and really push him overboard But then, with her one, her unfortunate sense of hu "Seriously? Are you really so arrogant you don't know I'd rather lick the sweat off a ross"

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the pearly cloud of insects growing closer, widening as they ave a little flip of fear She forced air through her lungs She wasn't one to scare easily, not even when she'd been a child

Weston leered at her "I can see when a woman wants me, and baby, you can't take your eyes off ofoff forfor all the world like a snake

"Leave her the hell alone, Weston," Jubal Sanders snapped, iet tired of the sound of your voice?"

One of the twoplants, Jubal didn't appear to be a man who spent a lot of time in a lab He looked extremely fit and there was no doubt that he was a ed, outdoor life He carried himself with absolute confidence and moved like a man who could handle himself

His traveling companion, Gary Jansen, looked h very wellHe wore black-rilasses, but he seemed every bit as adept outdoors as Jubal The two kept strictly to the of the journey, but somewhere around the fourth day, Jubal beca close whenever the engineers were around He said little, but he didn't

Although soht be flattered by his protectiveness, Riley wasn't about to trust a man who supposedly lived his life in a lab, but hter Both he and Gary clearly carried weapons They were up to soh trouble of their oithout needing to get involved in anyone else's

"Don't be a hero," Weston snapped at Jubal, "it won't get you the girl" He winked at Riley "She's lookin' for a real man"

Riley felt another slare at Weston, but herhand on her wrist and put her head close to whisper "Don't bother, honey He's feeling like a fish out of water out here"

Riley took a breath At this late date, she wasn't going to resort to violence over sexual harassnore Don Weston until they went their separate ways

"I thought he was supposed to be so experienced," Riley answered herengineers who've traveled to the Andes countless ti they flew over the peaks and called that going into the rain forest They probably don't have anything at all to do with "

Herher eyes all the saet into the jungle They'll be falling out of their has crawling into their boots"

Riley couldn't help but sineers were supposedly fro prospective mines in the mineral-rich Andes She couldn't see that any of them were very well versed in the ways of the rain forest, and they sure didn't give uides All three complained, but Weston was the worst and most offensive with his constant sexual innuendoes He spent a great deal of tiuides and porters as if they were servants when he wasn't co at her and her mother

"I raised you away from here, Riley The men in some countries have a different philosophy toomen We aren't considered their equal Clearly he's been raised to believe women are objects, and because we've come out here alone, unescorted by a dozen faed, but the faint huer close, honey, just to be on the safe side You kno to handle yourself"

Riley shivered It was the first ti was amiss as well That ht back into the realm of reality Her ht so, then it was

A bird sounded in the forest on the riverbank, the noise traveling clearly across the open water To lighten her mother's suddenly troubled mood, Riley cupped her hands around her hter she'd hoped for but her mother did smile and pat her hand

"That's totally freaky how you can do that" Don Weston had left off slapping at bugs and was now staring at her like she was so?"

Despite her dislike of the raphicthey see or read I call what I have 'phonographic' memory I can remember and repeat virtually any sound I hear That's one of the reasons I went into linguistics"

"That's quite a talent," Gary Jansen remarked

"Isn't it?" Annabel slid an arm around Riley's waist "When she was little, she used to io crazy trying to find theuage he shouldn't in front of her She could repeat it perfectly, right down to the pitch of his voice"

Riley's heart dropped at the sorrow and love in her ood atmy teachers, the ones I wasn't particularly fond of," she volunteered with a srin "I could call from school and tell Mom just what a wonderful student I was" Now her h, and the sound filled Riley with relief

To Riley, Annabel was beautiful She was of ht, slender, with dark wavy hair and darker eyes, flawless Spanish skin and a smile that made everyone around her want to sht blue-black hair that grew alht no h cheekbones and pale, nearly translucent skin Her eyes were large and the color was nearly iold Her -dead ancestor

To her knowledge, her mother had never been sick a day in her life She had no wrinkles, and Riley had never seen a single gray hair on her head But now, for the first time, Riley saw vulnerability in herin the air signaling a coo, and in their fa without one another Riley was determined to stick close to hermore despondent by the day, but Riley was deterrief, and not to whatever was hunting them on this trip

Earlyhad seen the last of theup a tributary toward their destination In the reed-choked waters, the ever-present insects were getting worse by the s continually assaulted the fresh blood Weston and Shelton both went into a frenzy of cursing and slapping at exposed skin, although they both re a er and the two researchers endured the insects stoically, following the exauide and the porters

The locals in their party didn't bother to even slap at the bugs as the pearly cloud descended en masse Riley could see the boat ahead and they were even closer to the shore, yet as far as she could tell, the bugs hadn't attacked anyone aboard Behind her, Annabel let out a soft startled cry Riley spun around to find her mother completely enveloped in the cloud of insects They'd abandoned everyone else and every inch of Annabel's body was covered hat appeared to be tiny flakes ofsnow

La Manta Blanca Tiny es Some said tiny mosquitoes Riley had never researched them, but she'd certainly felt their bites They blazed like fire and afterward, the itch drove one crazy Once scratched and open, the little bites becaed a blanket off the flat board seat and threw it over her s as she took herher as if she was putting out a fire

"Get it off of her," Gary Jansen called "You won't get them all that way"

He crouched down beside Annabel and yanked at the blanket Annabel rolled back and forth, her hands covering her face, the insects attached to every bit of exposed skin, clinging to her hair and clothes Many were smashed fro to save her mother from further bites

Jubal snatched up a bucket of water and threw it over Annabel, brushing at the insects to get them off of her The porters iain, while Gary, Jubal and Riley scraped the soaked insects from her with the blanket Ben eventually crouched down beside her and helped to pick the bugs from her skin

Annabel shuddered violently, but she didn't ht red, as a thousand tiny bites swelled into fiery blisters Gary ruh a satchel he carried and drew out a s the clear liquid over the bites It wasn't a small job as there were so many Jubal held Annabel's ar itch spreading like waves across her body

Riley clutched hernonsense Her previous suspicions caone straight for her mother There was no one rew abundant and lush around her She whispered to the her as if she were Mother Earth When her h the backyard at their home in California, Riley was fairly certain she could see the plants growing right in front of her For the forest to begin attacking her, so

Annabel gripped Riley's hand tightly as the two researchers lifted her to her feet and helped her stu areaacross thin ropes

"Thank you," Riley said to the two men She was all too aware of the stunned silence out on deck She wasn't the only one to notice that the white bugs had attacked her mother and no one else after their initial swarled to their feet and crawled toward her as if programmed to do so

"Use this on the bites," Gary Jansen said "I can make up some more once we're in the forest if she runs out It will take the edge off"

Riley took the vial froed a look above her head and her heart juful Profound She tasted fear in herher head

Annabel attempted a halfhearted siving the wo

"Moht?" Riley asked, the moment they were alone