Luke and Jasper burst out laughing. Matthew raised an eyebrow and cocked his head at me. “By the moons, it’s already happened, hasn’t it?” He shook his head at my blush. “How in the world did you manage that with over two hundred cats and dogs sitting at your feet? Not to mention all of the other beings gathered around!”
“Ugh. Don’t ask.” I laughed. A group of shifters walked past us toward the clearing. One of them stopped and nodded.
“Hayden.”
I smiled. “I’ve seen you before. Give me a sec, I’ll remember.” I looked over his dark auburn hair and light green eyes. He was a couple inches taller than me and looked to be about twenty. His most obvious feature was the healer’s tattoo under his eye. “You’re a fox?”
He nodded and grinned.
“If I remember correctly, the last time I saw you, you were blowing backwards into a cell.”
“That would be me.”
“Hey! I remember you!” Matthew was smiling.
The young man nodded to him. “I thought that was you. My name’s Danny.”
I made introductions all around. Danny nodded to Jasper and looked embarrassed.
“Sorry…you know… about the beatings.”
I tried to push down the memory of Jasper lying on the ground in a heap in one of the cells of Rainen’s secret cave. Jasper shook his head.
“No worries. My memory is a bit blurry after the second or third day, but if it serves me correctly, you didn’t join in.”
Danny shook his head. “It felt wrong even then. My bond broke about a week after Hayden and her crew rescued you.”
“Why didn’t you come here?” Most beings who broke their bonds managed to make their way to Sageden to find me.
“Honestly, every bone in my body told me to come. I stayed away thinking that after what I had done to your mate you wouldn’t take me into your pack.”
Luke started to laugh. “Hayden is pretty forgiving. I abducted her after the fight on the ridge when she first got here. You’ll know Kacey? Of Roala?”
Danny nodded.
“He was part of the pack that helped capture Jasper just before you met him. He’s been with us ever since.”
Mel smiled. “Don’t forget Brice.”
I took a deep breath. “With Brice, it’s time to return the favour. Even if things go wrong in Paradin, we get him out. No matter what.”
Jasper squeezed my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Shlova. He’s top priority on this mission.”
“Hey, guys!” Steven came jogging up the path from the meadow followed by Parker. “A couple of runners from Rainen’s pack made it to town this morning. She should be here by lunch and asks that Hayden and any other healers we can round up be ready for them if at all possible.”
“Oh! What happened?” I started walking toward Sageden and everyone followed, Danny included.
“The runners weren’t entirely sure. The one said he was by Rainen when it happened. It was almost as if she ran into an invisible wall and collapsed. Any Maj that had a feel for magic was affected. The stronger ones, like Rainen, were immobilized, while the weaker of them were killed. Once the magic wielders were taken care of the rest of them were ambushed by three or four large packs of humans. They were a bit vague on the details because it happened so quickly.” Steven ran a hand through his white blond hair. “Any idea on what could cause that?”
I nodded. “Only one thing pops into my head.” I shivered and Jasper took my hand.
“Do you think he would leave the Northern Regions?”
I looked up at him. “Who knows. But if Ternach is around here attacking shifters we’d better set up more lookouts. We need to get everyone as close to Sageden as possible. I think that between all the magic wielders here we should be able to set up a shield large enough to at least warn us if he gets close.”
“I’ll tell all of the captains to inform anyone who has a feel for magic to keep their guard up. If he’s around, someone will feel him.”
“So why would he come this far out of the Northern Regions?” asked Steven.
“For me.” I shivered, thinking of the last time I had met Ternach face to face. “My guess is that he is helping Braw and is hoping to find me so we can have our rematch.”
“But supposing he succeeds and kills you that would go against Braw’s plan to capture you to project the powers of his staff.” Parker looked confused.
Jasper shook his head. “Ternach doesn’t care about Braw’s plan. He wants Hayden for his own purposes. He doesn’t plan on killing her.” A low growl rumbled through him.
I glanced up at him and knew that even though I had never told him what Ternach had said he had planned for me, Jasper knew. I let him feel my love and was glad to see his jaw unclench, his shoulders relax.
“How many healers are in the second shift?” I changed the subject.
“There should be at least three.” Jasper looked back to Matthew. “Would you mind heading to the clearing and getting anyone with healing knowledge to Sageden?”
Matthew nodded. He shifted and loped off, Emelly just behind him.
“Alright. Who else? Fillian should be in town already. We should find Jein’s sister. The oldest one.” Jasper frowned, trying to think of her name.
“Juins?” I wasn’t sure that was her name.
“Juina. We’ll go by her place. She can’t do magic healing, but I remember your uncle saying she’d been training with herbs.”
Parker looked back at us. “Should we set up in the courtyard?”
“I think that’s the best place. The injured can be taken there and the rest of the packs can set up in the field by the silver tree.”
After sending Parker and Danny to find more healers, we headed to Juina’s house where she lived with her mate Garndin. I knocked and waited.
“Haaaayyydeeeennn!” The voice coming down the path sounded familiar. “Haaaayyydeeeennn? Are you around here? By the moons, why can’t I ever get exactly where I’m trying to get? I think of her and I get displaced here… and she’s nowhere in sight.” A young man with light brown hair and dark blue eyes came around the bend and I smiled.
“Teean! What are you doing here?”
He smiled and gave Jasper and me a hug. “Oh, you know, just trying to find my new pack leader.”
“Really? When did your bond break?” I looked back to Juina’s house and decided they weren’t home.
“About a month and a half ago.” The young sorcerer frowned. “I ran into someone on the way over. He says he knows you and would like you to follow me to him.”
I frowned. “Why can’t he come to me?”
“He thinks there is a good chance that he will be killed on sight by some of the shifters here.”
“He’s a shifter?” Jasper was starting to tense.
Teean shook his head. “He’s human. That’s why he doesn’t want to come any closer. He wouldn’t tell me his name in case I was to tell anyone else. He’s blond.” He smirked, knowing that this bit of information by itself was useless.
I looked at Jasper. “What do you think?”
“I think this would have been nice to know before we sent everyone in search of healers.” He looked to Luke and Mel. Luke shrugged.
I was trying to think of who this human might be. “How far is he?”
“It took me about ten minutes to get here, but I was shifted. So, oh, I’d say twenty minutes?”
“You were just grumbling about displacing here.”
He nodded. “That’s how far out of the way this stupid spell displaced me to…” He shook his head and rolled his eyes.
“Alright. Let’s go. He wasn’t hurt?”
Teean shook his head and led the way down the trail.
“Tell me exactly what happened when you saw him.” Jasper was still frowning.
“I was just walking along when I heard a whistle. I looked around and saw a man sitting on a rock. He looked nervous. I wished him a good day and asked if I could help him with anyth
ing. He asked if I knew you. At first, I wasn’t sure what to think so I lied and told him I’d only heard of you. He went on to explain he was a friend of yours and was trying to find you but because he was human he didn’t think it was safe for him to get too close to town. When I asked how he knew you he smiled and said you were like a sister to him. He described you perfectly but without the healer’s tattoo or the magic wielder’s amulet. He then went on to describe Jasper and Luke and Mel and the twins. He knew about Dodge.”
As Teean talked I tried to think of who this man might be. With the details he’d been able to recall, he had obviously been close to us at one time.
“He described your first battle on the ridge where you managed to kill Ream with the wall of fire. He said that if I asked you would be able to show me the scar on your calf where the fox bit you.”
I glanced at Jasper. “Could it be someone from your pack? Someone we didn’t know was human at the time?”
“I suppose that might explain it.”
We walked a bit farther in silence as we all tried to think of who this blond human might be.
“Did he happen to mention if he had a shifting stone?” I still had no clue.
“No. I actually never thought to ask. But when I told him I would keep an eye out for you and let you know where he was, he thanked me then shifted into a jaguar and walked into the woods.” So almost definitely someone from Jasper’s pack.
“Are we going to kill him?” asked Teean.
I frowned. “Why would we do that?”
“Well, he’s human.”
“Not all humans are trying to get rid of us, Teean. We have a few who run with our pack right now actually. You’ll meet them later.”
We came around a bend.
“He was right over here, by this rock.”
I scanned the woods.
“Hello, Hayden.”
We all spun to face the talker. Jasper and Luke’s growls stopped short and my heart jumped into my throat.
“Brice!” I threw myself at him and he wrapped his arms around me. He kissed my forehead and held me at arms’ length.
“Wow. You look good. When did you get the tattoo?”
“Oh, about a year and a half ago. What are you doing here? How did you get out?”
He ran a hand through his dark blond hair and shrugged. “Piece of cake.”
“Are you ok? Did you get hurt?”
“Hayden, I’m fine. Really. There’s not a scratch on me.”
“But William told us about what they did to you. God, Brice, why didn’t you let us know?” I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. “We would have got you out.” I wiped my tears with my arm. “I thought you were dead.”
Brice pulled me to his chest and smoothed out my hair. I felt him look behind us.
“Jasper.”
“Brice.” Jasper’s voice was quiet. “Would you like your stone back?”
“My stone?” Brice sounded confused. I frowned, took a step back toward Jasper and looked up into Brice’s blue green eyes.
“That’s right. Sonia had your stone. We found it when I killed her in Pinsaber.” The butterflies in my stomach were starting to bump into each other.
Brice smiled. “No, that’s fine. I’ve got another now.” His grin widened though I noticed it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Teean?” I glanced back at him.
“Yes?” He looked confused by this little exchange.
“How many beings can you displace?”
“Just myself.”
Instead of looking insulted or worried about this inquiry, Brice actually seemed amused.
“Then no matter what happens, I need you to shield Jasper, Luke and Mel.” I picked a silver wave and threw it as hard as I could. Brice flew backwards, shifted in midair, landed on his feet and came running at me. I felt Teean’s shield go up.
Brice ducked the flame I threw at him.
“Shit!” I managed to pull the ground up in front of me to form a wall. It shattered with the impact of the jaguar crashing into it.
“Hayden! Look out!” Jasper’s voice sounded strained and I was sure if I looked back I would see Luke restraining him.
I picked a grey wave and threw it at Brice as he got to his feet. A whirl of wind picked him up and I pushed him as far from us as I could. He fell hard and stood, shifting back. He picked a silver wave and threw it at me. I pushed my shield out and blocked it.
“Not bad, Hayden. You’ve gotten stronger.” Brice smiled.
“And you haven’t changed, Ternach.” I stood still, my breathing hard, ready to block whatever he happened to throw at me. “Funny thing… we were just talking about you.”
Brice/Ternach grinned. “Really. What about me?”
“Oh, just about the little surprise you had in store for Rainen and her packs.”
He chuckled. “I had expected a bit more of a fight from her.”
“It’s hard to put up much of a fight when your opponent is too chicken shit to tell you he’s about to attack.”
Ternach dropped the Brice look and shifted into a blue dragon the size of a pickup truck. I looked into its eyes, trying to see what type of dragon it was, hoping for a clue as to what he was about to do.
“You’re cheating,” I mumbled. Its eyes were changing from red, to blue, to grey and to brown. Its lips curled back in an evil smile.
All’s fair in war, my love.
“I’m not your love.”
Oh, but you could be. Just think of all the fun we could have together.
Jasper growled behind us.
Suddenly, Jasper was standing where the dragon had been. I paused, stunned, before realizing what had happened.
“I thought you never changed into the same being twice.”
Jasper/Ternach shrugged. “It usually gets boring, but I like how you react to this form.” I felt the whisper of fingers in my head and couldn’t stop the groan that made its way up my throat.
Jasper smiled and took a few steps forward. “Don’t you remember how much fun we had the last time, my love?”
Invisible hands ran over me. I could feel him everywhere; in my head, on my breasts, between my legs. The urge to give in was overwhelming. I heard someone sit hard on the ground behind me with a groan and I looked back. Jasper, my Jasper, was sitting with his hands to his head, his eyes closed. I realized that with Ternach in my head I wasn’t able to shield him from what I was feeling. A spark of anger flared in me and I pushed the fingers out of my head. I felt a stronger nudge of magic push back. I dropped to my knees.
“Hayden!” I heard Jasper move behind me. My heart flipped in my chest and I screamed as the tiger ran past me toward Ternach. I felt the invisible hands leave and suddenly there were two tigers in front of me, circling. I looked from one to the other, trying to see which one was the real Jasper. The tigers leapt at each other and collided. One of them managed to knock the other onto his back. I felt a tremor start deep inside of me as the tiger on the bottom raked his claws along the other’s side.
“Which one’s which?” Teean must have been asking Luke. He didn’t get an answer.
The tiger on the bottom rolled and managed to get away before turning back and jumping at the other again. This time he was the one unfortunate enough to get clawed. The tremor shook through me. I felt my muscles tighten and I struggled to stay on my feet.
“Stop!”
I was fairly amazed when both tigers listened to my order. They turned to look at me.
“That’s enough!” Another spasm raked me and both tigers shifted into concerned looking Jaspers.
“Hayden?” The Jasper on the right took a step toward me.
“Are you alright?” The Jasper on the left imitated the first.
“Not a word from either of you. I won’t keep doing this. I refuse to. Ternach, I’m tired of worrying when you’re going to pop up and try to take me away to be your…well, lover I guess. And Jasper, you can’t be putting yourself between me and everyone who
’s trying to take me.” I looked from one to the other, trying to find my mate. “I need you to stay alive.” I took a deep breath. “So, here’s what we’re going to do.” Each of them looked back at me questioningly. “You each get a kiss. That’s it. One kiss to make me pick you.”
Two pairs of perfect blue eyes widened in surprise. The one on the left seemed about to say something and I shook my head. “Not one word; just one kiss.” I pointed to the one on the right. “You first.”
He frowned and started toward me. As he reached me, his frown deepened. I looked up at him and closed my eyes as his hands cupped my face. His lips brushed mine softly. Another tremor pushed through me and I held the energy in as it tried to leave me and enter him. Our tongues touched gently and my head started to spin. He pulled away, his breathing fast. I could hear his heart pounding in his chest. His forehead touched mine and he ran his thumb over my lips. After taking a deep breath, he kissed me again before going to stand by the other Jasper. I looked into his eyes then called the other over.
This Jasper was also frowning. I looked up at him and smiled. The frown vanished. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to his chest. His lips melted against mine. My head started to reel. I pulled away for a fraction of a second to look at him then threw myself into the kiss. He groaned, the sound vibrating through both of us. My fingers laced in his dark curls. The next tremor came and I held it in as long as I could. Jasper started to pull away, his eyes wide.
I pushed the energy into him, moving with him as he tried to scramble backwards. I felt the nudge stop short and pushed harder. He groaned low in his throat. The sound slowly turned into a cry of panic as he realized that whatever this magic was, it was stronger than his. He arched against me as his own muscles started to spasm and just like that I was holding on to nothing. I fell to the ground.
“Hayden!” Jasper was beside me in an instant. He hesitated before touching me. “Is it gone?” He pulled me to his chest at my nod.
“By the moons, how did you figure out which one was which?” Mel was kneeling beside us.
I smiled and kissed Jasper, my Jasper, softly. “His eyes. Jasper can’t hide how he feels. It’s always in his eyes. Ternach’s eyes are dead.”
Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) Page 19