“A huge pit viper with upper and lower fangs. The venom can kill within minutes of striking its prey.”
She glanced around, now adding giant snakes to the list of nasties to watch out for. Should she trust anything Tristan was telling her, especially about tapping her inner Alterant?
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.
