He hesitated, then nodded right before he faded into a swirl of motion and disappeared.
“Evalle?”
She jumped around to see a man in a hoodie running toward her. But she’d recognize the moves of that body anywhere. Storm jogged with the same fluid gait in human form as when he shifted into a black jaguar.
He was alone, which meant he might not have called anyone yet.
She smiled, genuinely happy to be out of the maze and even happier to see Storm.
“What the hell happened?” he shouted at her from ten feet away.
That killed her smile. She yelled back, “I’ve been a little busy dodging pitchfork-wielding ghosts, fire serpents and an insane priestess.Don’tyell at me for being late.”
He stopped two steps short of her.
She was vibrating with so much adrenaline that she only picked up on a flood of intense emotion wafting from him. She’d been too battered over the last hour and a half for her empathic sense to narrow down specifics, but anyone could hear the anger riveting his voice.
“That’s not what I meant to say first,” he said, changing to his other voice.
She just realized he had this other voice, the one he’d used sometimes around her. Like when he’d soothed her after a demonic ghoul had stabbed her leg with Noirre majik two days ago, and to calm her while teleporting with him today.
“What did you mean to say, Storm?”
“I was worried when you ran late. What happened?”
She didn’t need her empathic side to understand honesty. Giving him a tired smile, she said, “I’ll tell you everything as soon as we have time, but I only have two Alterants right now.”
Taking a step forward, he said, “Two?”
“The Medb killed one.”
When he closed the distance between them to inches, he lifted a hand and pushed hair behind her ear, smoothing his hand against her cheek. One touch and pleasure rippled out from her center.
He gently tested a spot on her neck that felt raw. “Is that why you look like you’ve been in a rock fight?”
She nodded, trying not to smile and expose her emotions even though he could read them blindfolded. He’d been upset about what had happened to her. Again. When would that stop surprising her? She’d only known him a week, hardly long enough for the flutter of emotions he stirred up in unguarded moments.
She added, “But we won the rock fight.”
“We?”
“Tristan and the other two Alterants.”
He nodded, his eyes still taking in all of her. “I need a moment alone with Tristan when he gets here.”
Storm said that so amiably that she had to run the words back through her mind before she grasped his meaning. “Now, Storm.”
“Have you taken a look at yourself?”
She dropped her chin to peer at herself and had to admit an insurance adjuster would declare her body totaled. But her injuries would heal, even faster if she took the time to draw on her inner Alterant.
And she fully intended to do some practicing on her own. Anything she could use to prove Alterants could control their beast with some training.
But one look at Storm’s face said he planned to unleash all that pent-up anger on one person. “This was not Tristan’s fault.”
Not entirely.
“He took you into that hellhole. I warned him what would happen if you came back like this.”
