Though the humans’ numbers had still been more than ours with our two packs together, the fact that not all of them had shifting stones was helping turn this fight in our favor. Someone had managed to free the five hostages, including Trent. I watched as my nephew shifted from a grey wolf so he could pull a dagger from one of the bodies near him. He stuck it in his belt and shifted back. The blond man he launched himself at screamed as the wolf’s teeth sank into his thigh.
Tara, Ben and my aunt and uncle had positioned themselves in nearby trees and were using their bows and arrows to pick off anyone who was trying to run away. Phlann, Shanus, and Prense were nearly cutting the humans in half with their broad swords. Matthew and Emelly were fighting back to back. Leslie spun and slashed out with her swords. The dark haired man that had been about to ambush Alex, who was otherwise engaged, fell to the ground with a scream, his belly spilling its contents onto the ground.
I looked down as a wolf launched itself at me. Dodge tried to spin to avoid it but was too late. I was knocked to the ground, my breath leaving my body with the impact. The wolf grabbed me by the arm and started to drag me away. I screamed as its teeth broke the skin and penetrated my bicep. I heard Dodge running toward us, saw a man stand over me with his dagger, and watched, unable to move as it came down at me. I closed my eyes and waited for the feel of the blade slicing through my flesh. The only thing I felt was Ternach’s nudge slamming into me.
I fell to the ground on my back and the breath was knocked out of me once again. Ternach came to kneel by me.
“Are you alright?”
I wheezed, trying to breathe. “Back! Send me back!”
He shook his head.
I sat up and my temper flared. “They need me over there! There will be injuries to take care of!” I looked around, hoping I wasn’t too far away to run back. My heart sank; I was in the clearing with the boulders. “Why did you bring me here?”
He shrugged and almost looked embarrassed. “I felt you getting ready to die. I couldn’t just leave you there.”
“But you’re going to try to kill me when we get to Paradin! What the hell does it matter if I die now or later! Save yourself the trouble, Ternach! Send me back now!”
He frowned and his green eyes flashed. “I don’t want to kill you, but you’ll make me do it. Until then, I’ll do my best to keep you alive.” His eyes met mine and he smiled sadly. “I’m still trying to come up with a solution to our dilemma.”
“There is no solution! I’m going to kill Braw and destroy the staff and you’re bound to protect them. One of us will die, Ternach. Why don’t we just do it now and get it over with?” I pushed my nudge as hard as I could and he was knocked to the ground.
“I won’t fight you, my love.” He stood and held his hands behind his back.
I threw another nudge and this time he cried out with the impact. He took a moment to compose himself before standing again.
“Fight!”
He shook his head and flew backwards into one of the boulders. He pulled himself into a sitting position while he tried to catch his breath. He wiped a hand across his face and I noticed the blood coming from his nose. He wasn’t even trying to shield himself from the blows. Regret flooded through me and I pulled back on the nudge I had been about to slam into him.
“Why won’t you fight me?”
“I don’t want to fight you. We have just over three weeks before we reach Paradin. Sometime between now and then I will think of a way to avoid our final confrontation.” He gave me a small smile.
I took a deep breath. “Ternach, please. I need to be there.”
“Not yet. It’s not done yet. Soon.”
“But…”
“My love, you can hardly start healing while the battle is still ongoing.”
I tried to think of something to say, but he was right. “Fine.” I sent Jasper a comforting feeling so he’d know not to worry about me then made my way to Ternach’s side. “Are you ok?”
“I feel like my insides have been turned to mush.” He coughed. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the boulder.
“Why didn’t you at least shield?”
“Even if I’m protecting myself it is in a way fighting, isn’t it? I was fairly positive you wouldn’t kill me.” He cracked open one white green eye. “After that last one I wasn’t sure, mind you.”
“I’m sorry.” I ran a green wave over him and watched in amazement as everything I had managed to hurt healed itself without my help. “How did you do that?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. If I get hurt, it heals.” He ran a hand through his black hair. “Alright. If Jasper feels they’ve won, I’m assuming this is done. I’ll send you back.” He stood. “Be careful, my love. I’ll find a solution to our problem yet. And don’t be too hard on your mate for trying to get you away from here. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes with everything he’s feeling right now.” He waved in my direction and I landed on my back in the midst of our pack.
“You seriously have to work on setting me down more gently,” I mumbled.
Sorry.
I sat up and looked around.
“Hayden!” Luke was running toward me. Trent lay limp in his arms. I sprinted toward him.
“Put him down! What happened?” I knelt beside my nephew and wanted to cry. His chest had been sliced open. I swallowed hard at the sight of the dagger impaled on the left side of his chest. I pulled it out, ran a green wave over him to assess the damage and closed my eyes. The tears were running down my face as I looked up to tell Luke there was nothing I could do. I stopped at the desperate look in my brother-in-law’s deep brown eyes. I frowned and pulled another wave over Trent and pushed. I felt my energy start to flow out of me and into him. I growled in frustration when the flow stopped.
“No, no, no, damn it! Just get in there!” I pushed again and started to sob as I got the same results as the first time. Mel’s anguished wail tore through me. I pushed again, desperate for a different reaction.
Jasper knelt behind me and tried to pull me away.
“No! I can do this!” I ripped my way out of his arms and tried again. I looked up as Luke put a hand on my shoulder. He gave me a sad smile then turned to pull Mel to his chest. I heard Jasper take a long shuddering breath behind me. My chest tightened at the sound. I stood and turned so I could pull his head to my chest. His arms wrapped around me like vices, his tears soaking into the front of my tunic. I heard Luke crying, could hear Tara’s sobs and Ben’s comforting shushing. I looked around in a daze. I knew I should go help Fillian and Danny, but couldn’t seem to get my legs to work. Danny seemed to read my mind and caught my eye. I saw him whisper, “we’re good,” and I turned my attention back to my mate. He shook against me. The thought of my nephew lying on the ground behind me, of the pain my mate and his family were going through, of everything that was happening because of Braw and his staff made my anger and sadness flare. Jasper jerked as my energy ran over him.
“Sorry.” I knelt and wrapped my arms around him. “Oh, god, Jasper, I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head.
Mel’s voice was just a whisper behind us. “I have to go get Tyler.”
“Mel, you can’t.” Luke’s voice was hoarse.
“I… I have to see him.”
“If you go get him now, he’ll decide to come along. Mel, please. He’s heading home. He’ll be safe there.” Luke took a deep breath. “We can’t lose both of them.”
“What…” Jasper cleared his throat. “What happened to Tyler?”
“We came across a smaller pack of humans. Jenna was too hurt to keep going and Marie was killed. We didn’t have a healer. Tyler decided to stay with Jenna and get her home.”
“Good.” Jasper’s voice was just a whisper. We all looked up at the commotion at the far end of the field. Phlann was dragging a human by the hair. His yellow eyes were rimmed with red and his face was streaked with dirt and blood where he’d wiped his tears away.
My sister-in-law launched herself at him with a scream. Luke pulled her off of him.
“Mel! Mel!”
She collapsed back against him, sobbing. Jasper stood, wiped his face, and grabbed the man by the hair.
“Where were you taking them?” His voice seemed calm, but the way the human paled I knew his face indicated otherwise.
The blond man shook his head. “You’ll have to kill me. I won’t say a word.”
Luke gently handed Mel to Prense and Fillian passed her a drink I knew would calm her down.
“You heard my brother. Where were you heading?” Luke’s question was answered with silence. “Phlann? Do you have any rope in your pack?”
The Scannove nodded and handed it to the Maj. Luke cut it in half and handed the second piece to Jasper. The humans eyes widened as they each tied a wrist.
“You have until we reach those trees over there and then we will make you talk.” Jasper hauled him to his feet and they proceeded to drag him toward the woods. The man clenched his jaw and refused to make a sound. Tara came to stand beside me as Ben followed behind them.
“You may not want to watch, Hayden.”
I looked at my best friend, shocked by the strange tone in her voice. She sounded angry, sad, and somehow, pleased. The human started to struggle as Luke and Jasper stretched him out between two trees. Phlann’s carefully placed broad sword between his legs stopped any further commotion. The blond man stared at the Maj, Namael, Wedelve and Scannove standing in front of him.
“Talk.” Luke barked the order. He gave the man a fraction of a second to answer before his fist connected with his stomach. He doubled over as much as he could considering his restraints. I looked around at all my friends. All of them had the same uncaring, hard look on their faces.
“Maybe I didn’t make myself clear. We want to know where you’re keeping the prisoners.” Jasper didn’t wait much longer than his brother before the human’s head snapped back with the impact of his fist.
Tara put a hand on my arm. “I know you’re ok with this so far, but they will hurt him if they don’t get the information we need. You’ll need to make sure you shield Jasper from what you’re feeling. We can’t risk not finding out where those prisoners are, Hayden.”
My heart beat a bit faster in my chest. There had to be a better way to get information. I opened my mouth to object then stopped. I glanced back to Trent’s body on the ground, saw the dazed, half drugged look in Mel’s eyes then looked at all the bodies on the field, some of them theirs, some of them ours, and I pushed the objection down. My attention snapped back to the scene before me as the human screamed in pain. Phlann had used his broad sword to cut the man’s tunic off of him and hadn’t been careful about not getting too close to the skin. A long cut ran from his left shoulder to his right hip. From the amount of blood oozing from it I knew it wasn’t very deep.
Phlann twirled the sword in his hand. “I believe you may want to start answering.”
The man looked up, his nose dripping blood, his eyes as hard as anybody’s I’d even seen. He spit a mouthful of blood at them and shook his head. Ben shrugged, pulled an arrow from his quiver and let it fly. It dug deep into the man’s thigh. This time the scream sent a shiver down my back.
“Now, what’s great about that shot is that my friend Roben, here, was actually aiming for your leg.” Luke walked over and put some pressure on the arrow’s shaft. “Start thinking about where you want the next one.” The man’s eye rolled back into his head. My brother-in-law pulled his dagger and placed the tip of it in the cut on the human’s chest. He pressed down and followed the already existing red line down to the hip.
Tell them to keep going. The pain and emotions he’s feeling are so intense he’s projecting his thoughts as images. I jumped at the sound of Ternach’s voice in my head.
The man screamed again but refused to say anything. Jasper slipped his dagger across both of the man’s biceps. The skin seemed to split open under the blade to reveal the muscles underneath. The thought of the pain he must be going through made my own arm throb and I glanced at it, surprised I had forgot the bite mark on it. I’d get Fillian or Danny to have a look later.
“We can keep this up for hours,” threatened my mate. “How long do you think you’ll last?”
Ben let another arrow fly. It dug into the opposite thigh.
Tell them to ask the question again. He’s fading. His thoughts are all over the place.
I stalked up to them, a little surprised at how little remorse I was feeling about letting this go on. Jasper looked at me as I neared.
“Hayden…”
I ignored him, knowing he thought I was coming to stop them. I walked up to the man and kicked him between the legs as hard as I could. “Where the hell are you keeping them?”
Got it. They’re about a days’ travel to the northwest once you get across the river. There’s a camp where they are holding all the prisoners.
I smiled. “Let’s go, Hun. I know where they are.”
“You don’t know shit, bitch.” He obviously wasn’t from here. “You and your freaks will all be dead soon and it will be me doing the smiling.”
“What if I told you your prisoners’ camp is a day’s travel to the northwest once you get across the river?”
The man’s smile slipped and he glared at me. “You’re going to die.”
I turned and faced him head on. “Probably.” I flicked my wrist around a dark red wave and glared at him over the fireball. “But not before you.” I threw it at him and watched as he disintegrated in the extreme heat. Absolutely no one moved. Even Jasper was looking at me like he might be afraid.
“Hayden?” He was frowning.
I took a deep breath, but couldn’t bring myself to meet his eyes. Good lord, what had I just done? My chest tightened. I heard Mel sob behind me and the regret that was starting to engulf me retreated. It occurred to me that maybe Mel would have wanted to get a hit in and that I was maybe going into shock. I went to kneel beside her. “I’m sorry. I should have asked if you wanted to do anything to him before I burnt him.”
She burst out laughing and pulled me into a hug. “By the moons, Hayden, you have no idea how funny that sounds coming out of your mouth.” She snorted and shook her head. “No, you pretty much covered it when you kicked him in the balls and burnt him to a crisp.” Her laughter died and her sobs resumed. “They took my baby from me.” Her voice was just a whisper against my shoulder.
I hugged her tightly and my own sadness spilled from my eyes. “We’ll make them pay, Mel. I promise you.”
Luke took her from me and Jasper pulled me into his arms. “Are you alright?”
I shrugged. “Is anybody alright?”
He swallowed hard and shook his head. “I’m sorry. I know you don’t like things like that.”
I buried my face in his chest. “It’s alright. It had to be done.”
He took a deep breath. “Can you tell Ternach I won’t be trying to kill him?”
I appreciate it.
“Oh, you can still hear me. Thank you for saving Hayden. I saw it happening and was never going to get there in time.”
Mel and Luke’s eyes were bugging out of their heads.
I couldn’t just let her die. I’m still trying to find a solution to our issue once we reach Paradin.
“Well, here’s hoping you do. I hate to admit it, but I think I’m actually starting to like having you around.”
I started to laugh. “Now that sounds hilarious coming out of your mouth!”
Brinnan came to stand by us. “We, umm…” He looked down at Trent and swallowed hard. “We have the graves dug and the humans are in a pile.”
I looked up and saw the shifters that had been killed being placed in graves. I moved to where the pile of dead humans lay and I
bowed my head. “If you weren’t from here, I’m sorry they found you first. If you were from here, I’m sorry you were never given the chance to know better.” I pushed a red wave at the bodies and stayed to watch for a moment as they burned.
Jasper squeezed my shoulder. “We’re going to bury Trent.” He took my hand and led me to our nephew’s grave. Mel was leaning back against Luke and I was sure the only reason she was still standing was because he was holding her up. Ben had his arm around Tara, Matthew was holding Emelly’s hand. All of our closest friends stood surrounding the grave of one of the youngest members of our pack. We all stood close together, giving each other comfort with the touching of our arms.
Luke took a deep breath. “You were always a great son, Trent.” His voice was just a whisper but was still loud enough for all of us to hear in the silence that engulfed the clearing. “You were a friend to everyone, a brother to anyone who needed it. You never let anyone talk you out of what you believed. You were turning into a man any father would be proud of.” The tears were streaming down his face. Mel reached back and pulled his head down to hers. “By the moons, Mel, I’m so sorry.” He broke down and she turned to hold him.
“It wasn’t your fault.” Her sobs raked through her. “I was watching, Luke. There’s no way you could have stopped it.”
“There had to have been a way. There should have been a way.”
I reached over and put a hand on Luke’s arm. He pulled Jasper and I into the hug. Everyone moved away to give us a minute alone.
I hate to interrupt, but there’s another pack heading your way. They just went past the clearing coming from the east.
Jasper growled. “Damn it.” He wiped his arm across his face and I followed him closer to what was left of our pack and Luke’s. We’d been lucky and only lost six of Luke’s Majs. Luke came to stand beside us.
“What’s happening?”
“We’re getting company. Ternach, did you see how many?”
Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) Page 26