Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) (38 page)

He looked up and saw the short dark haired
man stumble backward out of the doorway. Alex was right behind him,
his fist slamming into the human’s face once more before the
smaller man fell to the ground. Marianne stumbled out of the tent,
her arms still bound. Her pant leg had been slit open and blood was
soaking into her boot. Her shirt had had a similar fate. Her face
was already swelling from the abuse it had taken, her bottom lip
split open from a hit. Alex jerked at something she said and he
stopped his dagger mere inches from the man’s heart. He took his
blade and slit the ropes from around her wrists. She stood and
looked at the human lying on the ground, her body shaking. Jasper
saw her lips move, watched as she pulled a wave he couldn’t see out
of the air then paused. Alex held the man down. Marianne knelt and
put her hands on the dark haired man’s chest. Jasper frowned.
Nothing was happening. The man twitched and a gut wrenching scream
exploded from his lungs. His skin turned red and seemed to melt
away. Alex stood and backed away a few steps. Marianne’s eyes never
left the human’s, even after they erupted in a splash of fire hot
ooze. His screams faded to tortured groans then stopped completely.
She sat heavily on the ground and Alex went to her side. She jerked
at the touch of his hand on her arm, stood, shifted, and ran out of
the camp.

Alex’s eyes met his. “I’ve got her!” he
yelled. Jasper nodded. The last thing they needed was for anyone
else to get captured. He scanned the rest of the camp. The odd
human straggler was being picked off as they tried to dash into the
woods to escape. A pained scream sounded from the furthest tent and
a man was thrown out of it. A dagger flashed through the entryway
and stuck into him. A blond man appeared, backing out of the tent
with his hands held up. He seemed to think this was pointless and
stopped, waiting for whatever was making its way toward him. The
grizzly appeared, his lips curled to show his teeth. He sucked in a
breath and growled in the man’s face. The human closed his eyes.
Harold’s paw slammed him to the ground, his claws ripping through
the man’s chest. There was no time to scream before all of the
bear’s weight came crashing down on his face.

Harold shifted back and pulled his tunic off
before reentering the tent. Jasper was scared to see what his
friend’s mate would look like. He looked up as Ternach made his way
to his side.

“Can you tell Hayden the healers can come?
I’m pretty sure this is done.” Jasper took a deep breath and bent
to lift the small girl into his arms.

The immortal nodded.

The first thing Hayden did was run to his
side and he pulled her close.

“Are you alright?” She looked into his eyes
and he nodded.

“I think she shifted with her arms tied.” He
held on to the girl as Hayden ran a wave over her and healed the
damages. He set her down and looked around for someone to watch
over her. “Here, let’s go see if Francine can keep an eye on you.”
He stopped as the girl clamped her arms around his waist. She shook
her head frantically.

“Alright, Sweetling. You can stay with
us.”

She visibly relaxed and peeked over at Hayden
who smiled.

“Did we find Gina?” He nodded and led her
down to the tent their friends were in. His heart was pounding in
his chest as he walked into the tent.

“Oh, god, Gina.” Hayden swallowed hard. Their
friend was curled against Harold’s chest, the tall woman wearing
only her mate’s tunic which was long enough to cover her to middle
of her thighs. She was so battered that Jasper couldn’t find any
area on her where the skin was a normal color. She lifted her head.
He thought she tried to smile.

“I’m fine, really.” She winced and lay her
head back down. Harold’s jaw was clenched, his face streaked with
tears.

“If you need any energy, take it from me.”
His eyes met Hayden’s and she nodded. She pulled the first wave out
of the air and spread it over Gina. She sighed with relief at
whatever she saw.

“There’s nothing really wrong here. You’ve
got bruises from hell and some shallow cuts…how did you keep them
from hurting you?” She pushed the wave into Gina and Jasper watched
as the cuts and bruises disappeared.

Gina looked up at Harold then closed her
eyes. “I fought back the first time. I…I didn’t want them to touch
me.” She swallowed hard. “The ones who fought were killed.” A tear
rolled down her cheek and Harold wiped it gently. “I knew you were
coming. I knew I just had to stay alive until you got here.” She
reached up and put her hand on his face.

“I’m here, my sweet.” He swallowed hard.

“Hayden? We need you over here!” Hayden
looked up at the sound of Danny’s voice. Jasper took her hand and
the girl’s and led them to where the rest of the injured lay.

*****

I swung off of Dodge and looked around for
Alex. “You’re sure he’ll come back here?”

Jasper nodded. “He was going to find Marianne
and then come back.”

“What happened to Marianne?” Rodney pushed
his way to the front of the crowd. His hazel eyes were narrowed
with his frown. He noticed Jasper’s puzzled look. “We’re fated.
She’s not happy about it and will barely look at me, but even
though it’s a shock I’m not as opposed to the idea. Is she
alright?” He ran a hand through his dirty blond hair.

We all glanced up as Alex came walking into
our midst. Marianne’s small form shuffled along behind him, her
swollen eyes down to the ground. Her cuts had stopped bleeding and
I wasn’t too concerned that she was seriously hurt physically,
though mentally she had obviously taken a beating.

“Marianne!” Rodney ran to her side. She
stiffened and he stopped his hand before he put it on her arm. Her
grey eyes never left the ground. “Are you alright?” He stood
awkwardly before her.

She nodded, shook her head then nodded again.
She flinched as he softly placed a hand on her shoulder.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Marianne.” His
voice was just a whisper. She looked up at him then closed her eyes
before taking a step toward him. He pulled her close. “Come, now.
Let’s go sit and I’ll get you some water.” He guided her past us.
“I’ll let you know if she wants you,” he said to me.

I nodded and watched as they found a quiet
area not too far from our camp. Alex was almost knocked over as
Leslie threw herself at him. He laughed and kissed her deeply.
Peter pulled Cassandra to his chest and hugged her tightly before
holding her out at arm’s length and turning her in a small circle
so he could look her over. Satisfied that she wasn’t hurt, he
wrapped his arms around her once again. Luke was smiling at
Mel.

“Did you miss me?”

She grinned. “Not at all, Love. Why are you
back so soon?”

He snorted and crushed her lips with his. Her
arms snaked around his neck. When he pulled away they were both
breathing hard. She kissed him softly.

“Well, maybe I missed you a little.”

He hugged her close.

“Matthew!”

His face lit up as he watched Emelly make her
way through the crowd to his side. She frowned at the bruise on his
cheek where one of the humans had managed to sneak in a punch. He
smiled and kissed her softly.

“See, nothing to worry about. I told you I’d
come back.”

“You’re hurt.”

“I’m fine. You did more damage to me a couple
of weeks ago when we were sparring, remember?”

Emelly blushed.

“Alright, then, anyone who needs sleep to
build up their energy, you have four hours before we leave.” Jasper
emphasized his statement by taking my hand and leading me to our
blankets. I looked at Alex who sat by us.

“Did Marianne say what happened?”

“She did. I managed to get in there before he
could get much done. She said he told her he had to get her ready
first. That’s what the beating was for. He was about to undo his
pants when I burst into the tent and put an end to his
activities.”

“Thank God.” I looked around until I found
Harold and Gina. He hadn’t let go of her hand since we had found
her. She snuggled into his side and he kissed the top of her head.
I knew she couldn’t possibly be as unaffected as she put on, but at
least she was alive. If she was alive, she could heal and I knew
that Harold was the kind of man who would be there to help her
along her journey.

“Sweetling, come here.” Jasper smiled at the
tiny girl peering at us from behind a tree. “Are you hungry,
Nina?”

The midnight blue eyes lit up and fell behind
a veil of light brown hair as she nodded. I patted the ground
beside me. Her mother had been one of the women who had fought
back.

“Alright, then, here you are.” Alex passed
her some of his bread. Tara appeared with a pack she had filled
with food.

“Ok. Jein will go back with her.”

I smiled at the young Wedelven woman. “Jein,
this is Nina. Nina, this is our friend Jein. She’s going to go back
to Sageden with you so you’ll stay safe.”

Nina stopped mid chew and turned wide eyes to
Jasper. He put a hand on her head. “It’s best this way, Sweetling.
It will be dangerous where we’re going. We don’t want you to get
hurt again.”

Her bottom lip trembled and Jasper pulled her
into a hug. “There, there, now.”

The sight of Jasper comforting the child made
my chest hurt. His eyes met mine and I had to swallow a few times
to make the cheese I’d been chewing go down properly.

Have you ever wanted to try flying, little
one?
Dreega, a bay mare from Dodge’s herd, walked over to
us.

Nina nodded, but looked unsure.

Well, then, finish your bread and we’ll take
to the sky. You get to ride me back to where you’re going. How does
that sound?

Nina smiled and quickly finished her bread.
She hadn’t said a word since we’d taken her from the camp. The
little bit of information we had about her had come from the other
shifters who had met her there. All we knew was that her mother had
been killed two days after arriving, that Nina had tried to shift
when she’d seen her mother’s body being dragged away, and that no
one ever remembered hearing her talk. She also had refused to shift
again since she’d been rescued. One of the men we had saved had
been able to recall she had shifted into a bear cub.

Jein gave us all a hug, put on her pack and
swung onto Dreega. Nina waved to us then threw herself into
Jasper’s arms. She frowned at him and he smiled.

“We’ll see you when this is through,
Sweetling.” He handed her up to Jein and turned to Dreega. “Don’t
stop unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

She nodded.
I’ll try to make it back in
time.
She loped off toward the open riverbank and lifted from
the ground with a few graceful beats of her wings. Jasper sat
behind me and I leaned against him.

“Dreega is fast and Jein is a great shot with
her bow. They’ll be fine.” He smoothed my hair.

“Can you read my mind now?”

He chuckled. “I think that was more for my
benefit than yours, Shlova.”

We looked up at the sound of wing beats
overhead and I wondered why Dreega had come back. I caught my
breath. The Faelie’s long black hair was pulled back into two thick
french braids. Her eyes were the same color as the bright yellow in
her wings. These reminded me of moth wings. They were covered in
what looked like fine velvet made up of greens, blues and yellows.
She was wearing a dark brown leather halter top and dark brown
pants which were tucked into black boots. She looked extremely
tanned. Standing there in front of me, she reminded me of the Gysps
people who lived on the sea. She had to have been close to seven
feet tall without weighing more than a hundred and fifty pounds.
Thin was the understatement of the year, though she wasn’t bony,
just long.

“I am Delaleh.” She waved me down as I
started to stand. “Our elders did not wish to become involved and
for this reason our numbers are not many.”

“Any little bit of help is greatly
appreciated.”

Delaleh looked past me to Jasper. “Where will
you need us?”

“We’d like for you to come in from the
mountains to the west of Paradin. The Winged Ones will be there
with you.”

She nodded, beat her wings, and disappeared
into the sky.

“Chatty, isn’t she?” I smiled and Jasper
chuckled.

“Get some sleep, Shlova. We have to be on the
move soon.”

I wiggled under my blankets. “Bossy, isn’t
he?”

Jasper grinned and stood to attend whatever
he had next on his agenda for the day. The last thing I remember
thinking as I fell asleep was that once this was over we would be
in dire need of a vacation.

*****

“Shlova, you need some of that calming tea.”
Jasper put a hand on my arm and I jumped. I took a deep breath and
leaned into him.

“No. I don’t want to take any in case
something happens. It makes me drowsy.”

He wrapped his arms around me.

“Aren’t you nervous? I mean, in three days we
will be fighting the fight that will decide if Braw will get his
wish to rid the world of strange beings or not.” I looked back at
him.

“Of course I’m nervous, but going in there
scared will only help Braw get what he’s after.” He paused. “How do
you feel when you need to fight and I’m hurt?”

I thought about it and pictures flashed
through my head. Jasper’s perfect blue cat eyes barely opened as he
struggled to breathe on the ridge, his limp form lying in a heap in
the cave, watching him fall to the ground after Mark had stabbed
him and knocked him out cold. My heart beat faster and something
stirred in me. I concentrated on that feeling; angry. When someone
hurt him it made me angry. I felt him nod.

“That’s the one.”

I thought about what Braw was doing to these
beings and the anger flared. Jasper jerked.