Whirl (Ondine Quartet Book 1) (13 page)

No, that wasn't quite correct. I realized
those empty pockets were shifting, moving
through
the cloud
of human emotions.

And they were getting closer to us.

"What's wrong?" Tristan noticed my
expression.

I frowned, puzzled.

"I don't know. There's something —" The empty
spots moved closer. And in that second, I knew.

It came rushing back. The dream I'd had on my
way to Haverleau. The group in the alley right before they were
attacked.

And the only other time I'd felt such a
void.

"Tristan, they're —"

Five of them surrounded us, moving so fast I
barely had time to register their movements. Someone screamed. It
sounded like Chloe.

Tristan was already in motion, throwing
himself in front of the one jumping toward me and blocking it with
his body. The Aquidae snarled and they began circling one another,
eyeing each other like predators and exchanging vicious hits.
Another one came around them, its eyes focused only on me.

Fear and adrenaline began pumping through me
like a fast-acting drug. As it reached for me, I blocked with my
left arm and punched its cheek as hard as possible with my right.
It was like slamming my hand into a concrete wall.

I grabbed my dagger from its sheath and
attacked, slicing into its upper arm. The Aquidae hissed in pain
before smashing its elbow into my mouth. I tasted the copper tang
of blood as my lip split.

Feinting to the left, I quickly whirled
around in the opposite direction to kick it. But my movements were
too slow and it ducked, avoiding my leg.

Grabbing my left wrist, it whipped me around.
I cried out as my bone buckled in its grip. It threw me forward and
the ground gave way under me as my forehead slammed against the
wall. My entire body revolted against the force of the impact and I
collapsed to my knees.

Breathing through the pain, I turned around,
leaning against the wall for support. The Aquidae loomed over me
and when I saw the expression on its face, I suddenly knew it
wasn't going to kill me. It had the same conflicted look in its
eyes as the one in San Aurelio.

Oh, it
wanted
to kill me. But it had
orders not to. It had to deliver me alive.

Tristan suddenly appeared behind it, his face
shining with raw power and strength. He charged with astonishing
speed, pulling the Aquidae away from me. He slammed it face-first
into the wall next to me before flipping it over on to its back. He
lifted his
kouperet
up high and brought it down like a flash
of golden lightening, stabbing the Aquidae straight through its
Origin.

Tristan yanked out the blade, his face calm
and expressionless as he watched the dark, putrid liquid spill out.
The Aquidae fell to the ground, lying in a pool of its own
perverted blood. The other Aquidae that had first attacked lay dead
a few feet away.

Everything had happened so fast. Only a
minute or so had passed since the attack began. Out of the corner
of my eye, I saw Aubrey and Chloe cowering against the opposite
wall in the alley, their faces frozen in fear and panic.

But they were still safe. The other gardinels
formed a protective ring around them as they continued to battle
the remaining three Aquidae.

Tristan leaned over and slipped his arms
under my body. He ran out of the alley, effortlessly carrying me
against his chest. I struggled in his arms, though the pain in my
head made everything foggy.

"Wait…" I mumbled. "Aubrey and Chloe. They're
still there. We have to go back."

I pulled at his shirt, trying to get his
attention.

"The others will protect them," Tristan's
voice was strained.

I gradually realized there was something wet
on my temple and when I reached up to touch it, bright red blood
smeared my hand.

A dim realization of my surroundings slowly
seeped through the haze of pain. We were already in Tristan's car,
racing through the streets of Lyondale.

The faint sounds of a cello came from the
sound system and a hysterical laughter threatened to burst out of
me. Hearing such elegant music after what we'd just gone through
seemed absurdly funny.

Tristan's eyes never stopped moving,
constantly scanning all sides for danger as he drove at breakneck
speed. I attempted to make sense of what was going on through the
pounding in my head.

"Kendra." His voice was thick. "Hang on. I'm
getting you to a Healer."

A quick body assessment told me that I hadn't
suffered any major injuries. A few scrapes and bruises on my knees
and hands, and the stinging pain on my mouth from my split lip. I'd
hit my forehead hard against the wall, which was probably why there
was blood on my face.

My head pounded, but it didn't feel like I
had a concussion. I'd suffered one in the past, so I knew the
symptoms. Just a cut, then. And my left wrist was throbbing from
either a fracture or break.

"I'm okay," I croaked out. "I don't have a
concussion and the other stuff is minor."

He shot me a disbelieving look. Guess it
didn't help that blood was smeared all over my face.

But concern for Aubrey and Chloe overrode
everything else.

"We have to go back!" I tried to shout, but
my voice came out hoarse and weak. "We can't leave them there!"

His face was perfectly controlled. "My job is
the
sondaleur
. I had to get you out."

He refused to look at me. I gave him my
fiercest glare, which was a bit hard to do because I was trying to
blink through the blood that partially covered my eye.

Tristan's expression betrayed nothing, but
his fingers gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. "My men
will protect Aubrey and Chloe. They would give their own lives to
save theirs."

Suddenly, it was so obvious. I didn't need my
Virtue to see his conflict. Leaving Aubrey and Chloe was killing
him. And he was worried about his men, who were not only subjects
of his kingdom, but also his friends. They could get hurt or
die.

And he'd left them behind to fulfill his duty
of protecting me.

I'd thought Tristan was someone who could
easily handle any situation or problem without being affected. That
he was this quiet, aloof tough guy. But I was wrong. When he
accused me at Axis of making a mockery of other people's efforts,
he was right.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think." I took a breath.
"I didn't think about how it must be for you."

Surprise flickered across his face as though
he didn't want me to know that. Maybe he hadn't expected me to
understand. Or maybe he just wasn't used to anyone seeing that part
of him.

Somehow, the thought made me sad.

I sank further into my seat and closed my
eyes, trying not to think about what might have happened to the
others.

With Tristan's super-human driving skills, we
made incredible time and were now on the road through the woods
near Haverleau.

"How did you know they were coming?" he
asked.

What had happened back there? A few days ago,
I had a strange dream about that alley and it had come true.

It had to be some kind of coincidence. I
didn't have any prophecy-making magic. Besides, clairvoyants saw
things in visions, not in dreams.

A different kind of fear than the one I felt
for Chloe and Aubrey uncurled in my stomach. My mother had become
unstable after she turned seventeen, enough so that they locked her
away.

The doubts I had ever since I heard about my
mother surged through me again. Now that I was seventeen, maybe the
same thing that happened to my mom was happening to me.

Was I going crazy, too? Did my mother have
the same darkness I always felt deep within me?

It terrified me more than I wanted to admit.
My deepest fear was that black ball of hate and anger would one day
rise up and consume me. That I wouldn't be able to control it any
longer.

Tristan glanced at me, questioning.

No, I couldn't tell him the part about the
dream. Especially since I didn't even know what it meant. He'd
think I was losing my mind.

"That night in San Aurelio," I said slowly.
"I used Empath on the Aquidae. It felt…weird. There was a void,
like an empty nothingness. With humans, I sense their emotions
pushing outward. With elementals, I feel a solid wall I can't quite
break through. But Aquidae are different. It's like a black hole.
Like it sucks things in so there's nothing left."

I shook my head at the disturbing memory.
"When we were outside the club, I used magic and felt pockets of
that same emptiness moving through the humans." I couldn't suppress
the slight shiver that ran through me. "I felt them coming."

Tristan remained silent and we didn't talk
the rest of the way back. By the time he pulled the car up in front
of the Academy, my body was almost rigid with the attempt to
control the fear.

"Come on. Let's get you to the clinic."

"I'm not going."

Staring at a spot just outside my window, I
clenched my teeth. I was not going to sit around at the clinic
getting medical attention while Chloe and Aubrey were still out
there.

Tristan sighed. "You have to —"

"No. Not until I find out what happened."

He didn't say anything, but I felt the weight
of his gaze on me. After a few moments, he got out of the car, went
to the back, and took something out of the trunk.

I kept my head turned toward my window, even
after he returned to the driver's seat.

"Kendra."

I refused to look at him, my stomach lurching
with worry and guilt. I'd put Aubrey and Chloe at risk with my
behavior tonight. And then I'd been unable to do anything to
protect them.

Aubrey, Chloe, and the gardinels could now be
hurt or dead or even worse, turned, because of me…

"Kendra."

Just my name. But he filled it with so much
power.

A lump rose in my throat. With my hair
partially covering my face, I turned to face him.

A small first aid kit was open on his lap.
Tristan carefully moved thick strands of my hair to the side. With
his other hand, he used a cleaning cloth to gently wipe the blood
off my face.

I couldn't move. I couldn't stop staring at
him. His eyes were calm and focused as he stroked my face and at
that moment nothing else existed in the world.

When his hand fell, I immediately felt its
loss.

"Do I look less like Carrie now?" I joked
lamely.

His eyes swept my face, checking for other
injuries.

"Most of it was from the gash on your
forehead." His voice was so quiet. "And your mouth…"

He stared at my lips. And then slowly, ever
so slowly, his hand reached up, a thoughtful expression on his
face. His fingers cupped my chin, tilting my head slightly. With
his thumb, he softly brushed my lower lip, right where the Aquidae
had split it.

I froze and forgot to breathe. Every cell and
nerve ending in my body focused on that one spot he touched.

He dropped his hand, and his expression
shifted as though he were surprised at what he'd done.

His cell phone rang, interrupting the
moment.

"Yes?" His voice was gruff.

I snapped back to the present and leaned
forward, anxious for news. Tristan's eyes met mine, but were
unreadable. The wall was back up in full force.

He spoke a few sentences in that smooth
selkie language.

"Okay. Thanks." His voice was steady as he
hung up the phone.

"Tell me," I demanded.

A small smile played over his lips. "Everyone
made it out okay. No one was hurt."

I let out a long, low breath and we exchanged
silent looks of mutual relief. I lifted my hand to push my hair
back and winced.

Tristan swore. He cradled my wrist in his
large hands, examining it closely. There was some swelling and a
nasty looking bruise that was turning an ugly purple. His fingers
moved around the bruised area, carefully avoiding the tender and
painful parts. The heat from his skin felt soothing and the
callouses on his fingertips reminded me of the years of training
needed to be a gardinel warrior.

Fascinated, I followed the movements of his
fingers. My chest tightened and I suddenly imagined what it would
feel like if those long, graceful fingers touched other parts of me
— my face, my skin, my body.

All that control and intensity. I wondered
what it would be like to be naked in bed with him as he whispered
sexy things in my ear…

What the hell?

"It might be a fracture."

I forced myself to breathe and managed to
find my voice. "Oh. That's not too bad."

Maybe that blow to my head was worse than I
thought.
Stop thinking about the prince that way
.

We walked together through the campus toward
the clinic. My movements were a little unsteady, but otherwise my
body was functioning.

I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that
Tristan and the gardinels had been willing to give their lives for
us. Even though I fought back, my training wasn't good enough. In
many ways, I'd been as helpless as Aubrey and Chloe.

"You and Uncle Gabe are pretty close, right?"
I sneaked a sideways look at Tristan. "I mean, you're Chief
Gardinel and he's Head Chevalier. You must work together all the
time."

"Yes, I suppose we know each other quite
well."

"Gabe respects you. Listens to what you
say."

Tristan's eyes turned suspicious.

"I mean, if you had a suggestion or an idea
about something," I continued innocently, "he wouldn't dismiss it
right away. Because —"

"Kendra, I'm not going to help you become a
chevalier."

So Gabe had already told him.

"Why?" I argued. "The law isn't fair! Wasn't
my grandfather Head Chevalier before my father?"