The Jaguar Star (Tales of the Were: Jaguar Island Book 4) by Bianca D'Arc (e book reader android .TXT) 📗

some random hotel. It was a magnificent edifice run by a small staff of people and, she was told, the place wasn’t usually rented out for these kinds of events. Sonia had called in some favors to get the owner of the place to let her film here, and he had also agreed to allow some of the cast and crew to stay in the many guest rooms that went unused most of the time.

Katrina soon realized that the people allowed to stay at the castle just happened to be all of the jaguar shifters she’d gotten to know over the weekend, plus a few others, including Sonia. Ren had hinted at Sonia’s uniqueness, but he’d said she wasn’t a shifter. He’d said she was very magical, which implied that other kinds of magical folk existed. Katrina hadn’t had the nerve to ask Ren for details yet. She was hoping things would become clearer if she just watched the director a bit more closely.

Sonia was all smiles when they arrived at the castle. She greeted them in the grand entry as if she were the owner of the place, welcoming them and dispatching her assistants to show everyone to their rooms. Dinner, she promised, was being served in an hour and a half, and their host would be attending. She cautioned everyone to dress for dinner and to mind their manners, which made Katrina wonder exactly what the owner of the grand estate was like, but she supposed she’d learn soon enough.

The long day of traveling was getting to her, so she was happy to find that she and Ren had been given a suite at the top of one of the many staircases in the giant edifice. Their friends knew they were now a couple and had arranged the rooms accordingly, much to Katrina’s satisfaction.

“The view from up here is amazing,” she said, looking out one of the windows.

“We’re actually at the base of the west tower,” Ren commented, coming over to stand next to her. “The forest where we’re filming most of the woodland scenes is just visible from here. See the dip in the landscape? There’s a stream over there that’s going to be where I dump Little John into the water when we first meet.”

She turned into him, reaching up to wrap her arms around him. “You sound just a little too gleeful at the prospect,” she teased. “I don’t know Clive well, but he’s huge. I wouldn’t be too quick to want to mess with a guy that size.”

“Did you know he’s got Samoan blood? There’s a small Clan of jaguars in Arizona that are mostly his size and bigger. They’re monsters,” Ren said, sounding impressed, “but I’m still senior to him in the hierarchy, so I’m not too worried.”

“How does that work? Do you guys vote on who’s in what position?” she asked, puzzled.

Ren laughed outright. “Honey, it’s not a democracy. Shifters work the power structure out other ways. Mainly, it’s a dominance thing. While Clive might be stronger than most physically, he’s still quite young and lacks the experience and confidence to best me. That may change in the future, of course, but for right now, he knows he’d be fighting above his weight if he tried to take me on in jaguar form. Our inner cats know who’s who in the pecking order, even when our human sides don’t, sometimes.”

“That’s kind of fascinating, and a little scary,” she told him, reaching up to kiss his jaw.

Things were just about to get interesting when a gong rang in the distance, and Ren stepped away.

“That’s the warning gong,” he told her. “We have about a forty-five minutes to get ready, and we don’t want to keep our host waiting. These older guys can be tricky about formality and respect. We’re on his turf. We need to play by his rules.”

“Who is he?” Katrina asked, intrigued as Ren went to his bags and started unpacking, looking for something to wear to dinner, she supposed.

Ren gave her a sideways look as he paused in his unpacking. “You might not believe this, but the owner of this castle and pretty much all the land you can see from here is an ancient vampire. A nobleman who was turned centuries ago and has safeguarded this place ever since. Bloodletters—especially the older ones—can be very powerful in many different ways.”

“Bloodletters?” Katrina repeated, unfamiliar with the term.

“What they call themselves,” Ren told her. “I’ve met a few in my travels, and though you can never be quite sure, the ones I’ve dealt with have all been servants of the Light. Of course, they do have their bad apples, so never take an unknown bloodletter at his word unless you know, for certain, where he or she stands.”

His warning chilled her to the bone. She had a lot to learn about the world, apparently, and the people she was working with and encountering on this movie set. A thought occurred to her.

“You said Sonia was magical, but if she’s not a shifter and she’s not a bloodletter, then what is she?”

“Fey,” Ren answered, his head tilting slightly. “Frankly, I don’t know much about them. They mostly left the mortal realm well before I was born, though I hear a few travel back now and again. Some even interbred with mortals and they come back to check on their families, or so I’ve been told. Sonia only came back recently, to help us in the upcoming fight. She’s one of the good guys and highly magical in a way I don’t fully understand.”

Oddly reassured that someone with Ren’s powers seemed impressed by Sonia and that she was on the right side of all this, Katrina nodded. She would have to tread carefully around these powerful beings. She’d already been on her best behavior because Sonia was the all-powerful director who was giving her a big break, but with this new knowledge, Katrina would be even more respectful. She’d have to be on