Carpathian 18 - Dark Possesion

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    Dark Possession
    By
    Christine Feehan
    Contents
    Chapter One
    Chapter Two
    Chapter Three
    Chapter Four
    Chapter Five
    Chapter Six
    Chapter Seven
    Chapter Eight
    Chapter Nine
    Chapter Ten
    Chapter Eleven
    Chapter Twelve
    Chapter Thirteen
    Chapter Fourteen
    Chapter Fifteen
    Chapter Sixteen
    Chapter Seventeen
    Chapter Eighteen
    Chapter Nineteen
    Chapter Twenty
    A MUCH-ABRIDGED CARPATHIAN DICTIONARY

    THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
    Published by the Penguin Group
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    Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
    Copyright © 2007 by Christine Feehan.
    Text design by Tiffany Estreicher.
    All rights reserved.
    BERKLEY is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
    The "B" design is a trademark belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

    First edition: September 2007
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
    Feehan, Christine.
    Dark possession : a Carpathian novel / Christine Feehan.—1st ed.
    p. cm.
    ISBN 978-0-425-21709-2 (hardcover)
    1. Vampires—Fiction. 2. South America—Fiction. I. Title.
    PS3606.E36D3S6 2007
    813'.6—dc22
    2007016634
    PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
    For Jaunnie Ginn, with love
    For Christine's Readers
    Be sure to go to http://www.christinefeehan.com/members to sign up for her PRIV ATE book announcement list and get a FREE exclusive Christine Feehan animated Screensaver. Please feel free to e-mail her at [email protected] She would love to hear from you.
    Acknowledgments

    As with all works, one has so many people to thank. Cheryl Wilson and Kathi Firzlaff, who spent an amazing amount of time with me helping with details. Brian Feehan, for the long nights you stayed up letting me talk the story line through with you. Domini, you were amazing, working with me at the end until we saw it through. Tina, for providing me with all the little things so I could get the job done. But most of all, my husband, the love of my life, for understanding and supporting me through everything.

    Dark Possession
    Chapter One

    Manolito De La Cruz woke beneath the dark earth with his heart pounding, bloodred tears streaking his face and grief overwhelming him. A woman's despairing cry echoed in his soul, tearing at him, reprimanding him, drawing him back from the edge of a great precipice. And he was starving.
    Every cell in his body craved blood. The hunger raked at him with merciless claws until a red haze covered his sight and his pulse hammered with the need for immediate sustenance. Desperate, he scanned the area above his resting place for the presence of enemies and, finding none, burst through the rich layers of soil, into the air, his heart thundering in his ears, his mind screaming.

    He landed in a crouch in the midst of dense shrubbery and thick vegetation, and took a slow, careful look around him. For a moment everything was wrong—monkeys shrieking, birds calling out a warning, the cough of a larger predator, even the brush of lizards through vegetation. He wasn't supposed to be here. The rain forest. Home.
    He shook his