Alterant

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

  He hadn’t walked her into sunlight, and he hadn’t taken advantage of her incapacitated position. Oddly enough, she wasn’t freaking out about being held by him, which could be due solely to the shock of a crushed knee, almost dying and low blood pressure.

  Opening her senses, she searched Tristan for some emotion, anything that might hint at his motive for trying to get her to risk changing into a beast.

  Tristan hadn’t survived all this time by being stupid. He would use any edge he could get in their alliance.

  The minute she opened up to him a flood of reaction hit her. Spurts of anger . . . and frustration . . . that was understandable. He wouldn’t have gotten over being furious at her . . . but . . . that wasn’t all of it.

  His central emotion came clear all at once.

  Anger and frustration emerged from a ball of worry.

  About her? Yes. Concern over her leg and her pain. Why would he care about a woman who had sent him back to prison?

  “Evalle, the longer you wait the more difficult it will be to repair your knee.” The grim set of his mouth said he meant that the longer she waited the more painful the repair would be. “If you’re vacillating over trusting me, keep in mind I have nothing to gain by healing you and plenty to lose.”

  With her gut and her empathic side in unison, she could only hope he was right about her doing this without shifting. “Tell me what to do.”

  “Close your eyes and think about the center of your body. It’s a volcano that can erupt and destroy everything or just bubble up and pour streams of lava down the sides. That’s what you’re going to do with your power.”

  She listened to the cadence of his voice and focused on calling forth the power deep inside her.

  Her beast roused.

  She panicked and shut down the call, opening her eyes. “I can’t do it. I’ll change.”

  “So I’m that much better than you at being an Alterant?”

  That just pissed her off. She didn’t care if anyone heard her curse mentally. She clamped her eyelids shut and slowed her breathing. He started talking again.

  She withdrew inside herself until she could feel the bubble of energy within her body.

  Focusing on that, she started calling up her Alterant softly, willing her beast power to grow very slowly.

  Warm fingers of strength began to ooze through her, just like a lava flow, easing out and touching the bruises on her chest and arms. They ached, but in a positive way. He instructed her to direct her energy down to her leg.

  She did as he said and felt the stream slide along her thigh, then circle her knee, building up in that one spot until . . .

  Evalle tensed against the burst of heat that seared her knee. She yelled when it wouldn’t stop burning her flesh, and she fisted her hands, clinging tight to her sanity.

  The white heat engulfed her until she was sure she’d disintegrate like the demon she’d killed. But slowly the glowing white turned into a soothing fog of coolness she could breathe into her dry lungs again.

  When she opened her eyes she had Tristan’s healthy forearm in a grip tight enough to break a human’s arm.

  Sweat rolled down the sides of his face and veins corded his neck with strain.

  She finally realized her knee had downgraded to a mild ache. Relaxing the muscles in her hands, she let go of his arm, where she’d left red marks that were sure to bruise. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to . . . didn’t know I was . . .”

  “It’s okay.” He shook his arm as if to help circulation return.

  She started to put her foot down and get out of his lap, but he stopped her. “Give it a couple minutes for the bones to finish bonding and you’ll be able to put weight on it. Won’t be strong for a little while, but you should be able to limp along without hurting yourself.”

  But now that excruciating pain no longer sidetracked her brain, she wasn’t comfortable sitting in his lap.

  A throaty growl from the encroaching jungle wiped away all her discomfort.

  She looked up to see a pair of gold eyes staring at them from where the animal stood just inside the dark cover of thick vegetation.

  She couldn’t fight anything with claws and teeth yet. Tristan was likely in the same shape until he fully healed.

  She whispered to him, “I say we risk me standing unless you can do your monkey whisperer thing with what’s staring at us.”

  Tristan spoke loud, not even trying to shield his words. “There’s nothing I can say to deter a demon.”

  Another demon? She couldn’t prevent the tremble that shook her body at the idea of facing another fanged demon in her weakened state.

  The golden eyes narrowed, then a black jaguar stepped into the clearing and raised up on his hind legs as energy shed across his body. He shifted into a man.

  “Storm?” She couldn’t believe her eyes or stop the quick smile that touched her lips.

  No doubt about it. A naked, and furious, Storm.

  He crossed his arms over his chest, not the least concerned over his lack of clothing.

  Tristan’s body tensed. His grip tightened.

  “It’s okay. I know him,” Evalle mumbled to Tristan, a bit distracted. She tried not to look at Storm’s profile, but her eyes had a mind of their own and kept wandering below his navel while she struggled to push up off Tristan’s lap. Working part-time at the morgue in Atlanta, she’d seen plenty of male bodies, but not one so well . . . packaged. Literally.

  Black hair fell dangerously around the copper skin covering wide shoulders. Bunched muscles curved and cut the lines of his chest where he crossed his arms, and more rippled along his abdomen when he breathed down to where . . . a loincloth appeared?

  Storm glanced down at the brief length of what looked like buckskin covering his lower parts, then glared at Tristan. “Naked doesn’t bother me at all. But I can see why you would be uncomfortable with the comparison.”

  Evalle looked back and forth between the men. Had Tristan put that loincloth on Storm?

  Tristan helped Evalle to her feet and shrugged. “It should worry you to walk around naked . . . with so little to show.”

  Storm took a step toward Tristan, who turned toward him. Both bodies pumped with aggression.

  Evalle had endured all the fighting she could for one day. “I’m in no mood to watch you two play mine’s bigger.”

  Tristan smiled. “It’s not necessary. I already know which one’s bigger.”

  Storm stopped, but countered with, “Must be true what they say about the strides they’re making with implants.”

  Before that got out of hand again, Evalle broke it up. “I say we get out of here before anything else attacks us.”

  Storm asked in a wisecracking voice, “What? Didn’t enjoy the way he was mauling you? And who let him out of his cage?”

  “He wasn’t mauling me . . .” Her voice fell off when she caught the cold fury in Storm’s eyes. She wasn’t about to admit she had unintentionally helped Tristan escape. “We were on our way back to Atlanta and—”

  “I was protecting her.” Tristan moved closer to Evalle.

  Storm eyed her knee where skin hadn’t covered all the raw areas still healing. “Impressive job of protecting her. If I hadn’t shown up she’d have been dead before she reached the next town.”

  Tristan hooked his arm around her in a possessive way that slid under her skin like sharp needles.

  Unable to move away, she hissed at him, “Let go of me.”

  “No.”

  “Let go of me or I’ll hurt you,” she whispered.

  “You didn’t mind me carrying you into the lake for a bath.”

  She couldn’t believe Tristan had said that and clearly for Storm’s benefit. If she hadn’t still been so unsteady on her one leg he would be sprawled on his butt. “Get your hands off me.”

  “Do as she says,” Storm warned.

  “Or you’ll hurt me?” Tristan chuckled.

  “I won’t hurt you.” Storm smiled with evil intent
. “Well, maybe when I snap your neck, but you won’t feel it for long.”

  A strong emotion from Storm reached her. He was angry . . . no, not exactly.

  He was . . . jealous? Really? That brightened her day.

  The stupids must have set in again.

  Tristan grinned, taunting Storm with, “Come on. I’d like a jaguar rug for my next apartment.”

  Evalle jerked away from Tristan, keeping herself turned slightly away from Storm or she wouldn’t be able to think. “I don’t have time for a testosterone battle. And neither do you, Tristan, if we’re going to find those three Alterants.”

  “So you’re working with him now?” Storm asked.

  Tristan’s smile widened.

  Evalle glared at Tristan to cut it out, then looked over her shoulder at Storm. “We have an agreement.”

  The look of disappointment on Storm’s face crushed her. He had come for her just as he’d promised, but would he understand why she had to stick with Tristan?

  “Not so fast,” Tristan told her. “We had an agreement that did not include him.”

  She swung back around. “What do you mean?”

  Tristan raised his hands, palm out. “If that tomcat found his way here, then he can find his way to the next town. Storm goes or I go.”

  Storm said nothing, which worried her a lot more than his anger. What did he think? That she’d been allowing Tristan to touch her body . . . that way?

  As if.

  Evalle couldn’t afford to lose Tristan, but neither would she abandon Storm after he’d come all the way down here to find her. She told Tristan, “You’re not going anywhere without me if you expect me to speak to the Tribunal for you.”

  Tristan’s eyes moved from Storm to Evalle, making a decision. “Remember when I told you gods and goddesses could be tricky? You said Loki’s exact words were ‘Let the one who returns the three escaped Alterants to VIPER be cleared of prior transgressions.’ I don’t need you to talk to the Tribunal. All I have to do is show up with those three to negotiate for my freedom. And finding them shouldn’t be a problem, since I’m the one who told those three where to hide in Atlanta.”

  Tristan was going to snake her deal with the Tribunal. “You son of a—”

  He shook his finger back and forth. “Uh-uh. Brina doesn’t like her minions to curse. Make up your mind if it’s me or him if you want to continue our partnership.”

  “It’s not technically a partnership,” she said for Storm’s benefit. “Just an agreement.”

  Tristan wouldn’t relent. “You with me or him?”

  “You know I need your help.” The disgusted sound that erupted behind Evalle lowered her expectations of smoothing this over soon with Storm. Surely he realized she would not leave him here. Nobody was going anywhere until she got things straight with Storm first.

  Not that she should care what he thought with so much at stake, but she did. His disappointment ate at the happiness that had bloomed over seeing him here.

  She said in a firm voice, “I’m not leaving anyone here.”

  “Can either of you teleport?” Tristan asked.

  “No,” Evalle snapped, losing patience. “What’s your point?”

  “I can.” Tristan vanished.

  “Blast it!” She turned to Storm, saying, “I can’t believe he can still tele—”

  Storm was gone, too.

  FOURTEEN

  Evalle shut her eyes, then opened them again, willing Storm to still be standing there.

  Nope. No Storm. No Tristan.

  Nothing but vine-strangled jungle surrounded the small clearing near the lake where she stood.

  Where had Storm gone? Had Tristan taken him . . . or harmed him?

  Nobody could have luck this crappy but her.

  She raised her fist to the heavens. “I have had it! Just kill me now and spare me all this crap!”

  “What’s your problem?”

  She jumped and lowered her arms to find Storm standing right in front of her. Pain, aggravation and frustration balled in her chest. He’d just made her crazy by disappearing. “Where in the blazes did you go?”

  “To put on real clothes. I had a canvas bag I can hook my neck through to carry clothes with me for shifting back into human form.” He wore a pair of faded jeans and a dark brown T-shirt.

  Her heart did that weird dance it had been perfecting every time this Skinwalker was around.

  Which she was not letting him know after he’d glared at her and acted as if she’d allowed Tristan to grope her. What had all that posturing between him and Tristan been about?

  He was still glaring at her. “Back to why you were asking to be struck down where you stand? What’s your problem?”

  “I’ll tell you what my problem is, Storm. First you change my aura to gold, then you act like I was committing a crime with Tristan.”

  “Letting him out of his cage and allowing him to touch you are crimes.” The fierce edge in his voice had a ring of possessiveness.

  The steamy air between them shuddered with awareness.

  She’d consider how she felt about that later when she didn’t have to find a way back to another continent. “I didn’t let him out, not intentionally.” She was not going into detail about how Tristan had grabbed her and lunged through the invisible barrier. “Tristan had agreed to help me.”

  Storm made a sound that couldn’t have been construed as flattering. “Help you do what? Practice for a wet T-shirt contest?”

  Out of a knee-jerk reaction, she looked down to see her soaked shirt clinging to her breasts. Her nipples puckered. She crossed her arms over the damning mammaries and glared at him.

  She refused to feel guilty about any of this. “Demons attacked us. One of them ripped up his arm.” That didn’t faze Storm, whose eyes still narrowed with dark thoughts. She added, “And they crushed my knee. Tristan carried me here with his only good arm so we could wash the demons’ saliva out of our wounds.”

  The swift change in Storm’s face from anger to concern trimmed the edge off her irritation, but his face closed down again just as fast. He eyed her leg suspiciously. “Doesn’t look crushed.”

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. When you walked up, he was showing me how to heal myself.”

  “What exactly did Dr. Tristan show you?”

  Sarcasm did nothing to improve her mood. She should be getting frostbite from his cool reserve, but Storm didn’t seem as angry as before.

  She huffed out a long breath and tried once more to clear up Storm’s misconception. “Tristan has more experience than me at being an Alterant and knows how to control the change to his beast. He taught me how to tap levels of power before shifting so I could heal safely.”

  Feet apart and arms crossed, Storm might as well have had a Not Sold sign hanging from his neck. “So you shifted.”

  “No, of course not. That’s the great part. I only drew on my Alterant powers.” She couldn’t get past his stony exterior. Or that suspicious glint in his eyes. “What’s with you? Ten minutes ago I faced losing my leg . . . and probably my life. Never mind.”

  She took an angry sidestep and grimaced at the pain still streaking up her leg.

  Concern broke through his hard gaze. “Your leg was really crushed?”

  “Yes.”

  Storm squatted down, studying her exposed knee and bloody jeans where claws had clearly ripped open the material. He lifted shredded flaps of material aside and touched the swollen skin gently until she hissed. “How bad is it?”

  “Tolerable, but it’s healing by the minute.” She avoided putting more weight on her leg, and shrugged. “It’s sore, but I can walk through the pain.”

  His shoulders relaxed when he stood. He lifted his fingers to her face. “I don’t like seeing you hurt.”

  Her heart squirmed under the look he gave her, as if he wanted to maim anyone who harmed her. “I need to get moving to figure out where Tristan went. How’d you find me?”

  H
e scanned around them while he answered. “I had some help. I gave it an hour once I left you around midnight, then I contacted Nicole and asked her to locate the amulet.”

  Evalle hadn’t wanted to involve Nicole, especially since Nicole’s life partner, Red, didn’t like Evalle and hadn’t been happy about Evalle bringing Storm in jaguar form around Nicole two nights ago. “You woke up Red? She’ll give Nicole grief over this.”

  Storm’s gaze stopped wandering around and met Evalle’s. “I’d have dragged Sen out of bed to find you if I’d thought I could make him tell me anything.”

  How was she supposed to hold onto any anger when he said things like that? “But Nicole only put a temporary invisibility spell on this amulet when we borrowed it. I don’t understand.”

  “I put a protection spell on the amulet the last time I saw you.”

  That’s why the thing had been warming and glowing right before something had attacked her. Storm had been trying to protect her from a distance. “But how did Nicole determine where I was this quickly?”

  “She used a scrying bowl to narrow the location of the amulet to this region, and I had access to a private jet.”

  Who did he know with a private jet? But she didn’t want to waste time by interrupting.

  Storm shrugged, saying, “I grew up in Chile and roamed all over this country. Once I got here it was just a matter of tracking you by the majik I used on . . .”

  When his voice drifted off, his lips tightened into a frown of remorse.

  But she’d caught his slip, which reminded her that she had a serious beef with him. “Speaking of the majik that changed my aura—what’d you do? It’s gold!”

  He heaved a sigh. “I don’t know.”

  “Wrong answer. Fix it.”

  “Not sure I can, but you don’t have time for that right now anyhow if you intend to find Tristan. I’m assuming you had some plan in mind while traipsing around with him.”

  That blasted Tristan.

  Sure, he’d patched up her leg, but he could have teleported the whole time they’d been together. If he’d spirited them away from the demons, she wouldn’t have suffered a crushed knee.

  And he hadn’t shifted. Had he been saving energy to teleport?