Tristan paused and dropped to retie his hiking boot.
Did he sense anything?
He turned toward her when he stood, eyes alert.
Demons,whispered through her mind.They’re drawn to our power. Link with me if you want to live.
Linking took absolute trust among Beladors. Plus, she had no clue what might happen if two Alterants linked together.
Evalle? You with me or not?
THIRTEEN
Can’t link with you, Tristan,Evalle sent back telepathically. She kept glancing around for the demons closing in on them.
Tristan sighed and shook his head.And you want me to trust you?
The first beast attacked, diving at Tristan from out of the trees. Too massive to be a wild dog and not quite wolf, with bared fangs and spiked claws extended, its red eyes burned with the urge to kill.
Tristan moved as a blur, fast as lightning, whipping his arm around to slam his fist between the animal’s bright eyes.
The demon went flying up and back into a wad of saplings, then rebounded to his feet and charged again.
Evalle had already turned to cover their backs. Noise crashed toward her from the force of a massive body wrecking everything in its path. She raised her hands to shove power at the next animal when two exploded out of the jungle.
She knocked one demon back against the trunk of a hardwood tree so large her arms wouldn’t reach around it. The other demon dodged her kinetic shot at the last minute, diving to the side, then rounding behind her. She whipped a blast of energy at him and rammed the demon into the base of the same tree.
He fell into a motionless heap.
The urge to shift fully into a beast coursed so strongly through her veins that she hesitated to risk even the small change into Belador battle form.
She might not be able to stop at that point.
Why hadn’t Tristan taken on his beast form? He had no one to answer to for anything he did out here.Shift, Tristan!
Can’t.
Why not? But talking would distract both of them. From the corner of her eye, she caught him fighting the first wolf-demon he’d hit, plus a new one.
She expected the demon she’d stopped with her first shove of power to attack again, but when he regained his senses he started climbing the old hardwood tree with humanlike ability. Once he reached twenty feet up, he climbed out on a limb and stalked her from above.
The other beast at the base of the tree began to rouse.
One glance up confirmed the tree-climber was actually waiting on his companion to wake up to attack as a team.
Something behind her screamed with pain. Maybe Tristan did have some super-charged powers without shifting into his Alterant state. Not fair since he had her weapon, too.
Her weapon.Tristan, throw me the dagger. I’ve killed demons with it.
No power to . . . reach it.
She risked a look and lost hope of surviving this.
Tristan was the one on the ground, struggling. A demon had his upper arm locked in his jaws, ripping muscle and bone with each jerk of its head.
The other animal Tristan had fought lay headless.
But the one chewing on his arm appeared to be weakening Tristan. His movements were sluggish.
