by Неизвестный
He’d switched to chili.
Of course, dehydrated meat was never the first choice of a werewolf. But they’d be able to catch fish for a couple of meals.
Speaking of which, it was time to fix dinner now. Which wasn’t too much of a problem. All he had to do was pull a package of steak out of the refrigerator and open it up. When he was alone, he didn’t bother with the fiction of pretending to broil or fry it.
A noise outside made him tense, and he turned toward the office window. Since the visit from the cops, he’d been waiting for something else to happen. What that was, he wasn’t sure.
Through the glass, he saw the wind kicking up the branches of the trees. Then thunder rumbled. Storms could be fierce out here in the woods, and he’d better bring in the tents that were airing outside.
PUSHING away from the tree, Kenna peered through the gathering darkness.
With no idea which way to go, she chose the easiest direction—downhill—her mind racing as she hurried through the forest.
For months she had been living in a terrible place where an evil creature dictated every move, dividing the people and setting them against each other. But it hadn’t been that way in Breezewood, and there was no reason to think that she wouldn’t encounter ordinary human kindness here.
Or would she?
As she hurried into the unknown, the rain broke, and she heard drops hitting the leaves far above her head. When they began to fall on her, she raised her arms over her head—not that it did much good. Her clothing would be soaked soon.
She stopped under a tree with thick foliage. It helped to shelter her a little, and she wanted to huddle there. But she remembered a school lesson from long ago. Lightning was attracted to trees. You could get hit if you were too close to one.
Yet how could she get away from them? They were all around her.
Somewhere to her right, a blast of light flashed. It was followed by a crack of thunder so close that it shook the ground around her. Then, through the rain, she saw a massive tree come crashing to the ground, taking other trees with it.
Gasping, she tried to sprint in the other direction, but her sandals slipped against the wet ground, and she almost fell. When she felt steadier on her feet, she looked around, shading her eyes from the downpour. Through the branches to her right, a light shone out. Not a flash from the storm, but a steady, warm glow that called her forward.
Even through the rain it looked brighter than any artificial light she had seen in her universe.
Electricity. That’s what made it so bright. She didn’t know how it worked, but she knew that it did other things, too, like run refrigerators and televisions.
She had learned about those things in her recent studies, although she wasn’t sure she believed what the adepts had told her.
The light looked like it might come from the window of a house, although she couldn’t be sure. Still, she thought that heading toward it was her best option.
She kept her gaze focused firmly in the distance, which turned out to be a mistake. In the darkness, her foot caught on a root, shooting pain through her toe and almost sending her crashing to the ground.
Somehow she kept upright, then marched onward. Bursts of rain drummed down on her, making her shiver.
But at least the light was growing closer.
When she thought she saw the outline of a house through the gloom, she thanked the Great Mother. Probably, someone was home. Either that or they were rich enough to leave their lights on while they were out.
Trying not to slip again, she quickened her pace, heading for the dwelling.
Just as she broke into a clearing, another jagged spear split the sky, and thunder shook the ground.
When a huge tree came crashing toward her, she screamed and sprinted across the slippery leaves, trying to escape the toppling giant.
Though she ran as fast as she could, she felt branches clawing at her back. There was no way she could outrun the falling monster, but she instinctively used her telekinetic powers to keep the massive limbs from crushing her.
CHAPTER FIVE
CAUGHT BY THE sudden torrent, Talon stood inside the entrance of his storage garage, watching the rain pelt down and debating whether to wait out the storm or make a dash for the house.
In his human form he’d be soaked to the skin. As a wolf he’d get just as wet, but his thick fur would keep the water from penetrating to his skin.
Another bolt of energy speared the sky, lighting up the forest as the rain poured down with renewed force.
The power of the storm called to him, making the decision for him. Quickly, he began taking off his clothing. Naked, still standing inside the shed, he began to say the chant that turned him from man to wolf.
Once again, the familiar pain took hold as his body transmuted from one form to another.
In the middle of the change, he sensed another lightning bolt above him, followed quickly by a bone-jarring roll of thunder.
As he came down on all fours, he thought he heard two sounds over the wind and rain—a massive tree hitting the ground and a woman’s scream.
Silently cursing, he thought about changing back from wolf to man so he could shout out the questions, “Who’s there? Are you hurt?”
But that would only waste time. If someone was out there, he could find her more quickly as a wolf.
On all fours, he raced into the rain, stopping when he saw a great oak sprawled across the clearing at the edge of the woods, its branches still quivering from the fall.
As another sword of lightning split the sky above him, he sped toward the tangle of tree limbs.
THE tree was still rocking around Kenna, splashing water in her face and turning her hair into a dripping mass, but she had saved herself from getting flattened.
Cautiously, she moved her arms, relieved that they were not pinned down. They were sore, but the lack of serious pain told her that no bones were broken. Thank the Great Mother.
When she tried to shift her legs, the news wasn’t quite so good. Her right foot was stuck.
Grasping the branches beside her, she braced herself and gave a mighty yank on her leg, but all she accomplished was scraping her skin.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she considered her options. Perhaps she could use her telekinetic abilities again.
She’d never tackled such a daunting task, but what if she could just lift the branch an inch or two?
She was gathering the energy to try it when the sound of wet leaves rustling made her head jerk around.
At first she saw nothing through the screen of greenery. When she encountered a pair of yellow eyes staring at her, she gasped.
Unable to turn away, she saw the eyes were centered in a gray, furry face. Taking in the whole picture, she made out a canine muzzle, pointed ears, light facial hair, and a ruff of creamy fur around the creature’s neck. When he opened his mouth she was treated to a view of sharp, pointed teeth.
A guard dog? A wolf? She had never seen a natural wolf, although a werewolf had once come to her class for young psychics. From what Vandar and his adepts had told her about this world, she was sure they didn’t have such beings here. Still, the shape was the same as what she’d seen.
As he approached, she smelled his wet fur and heard his panting breath.
He looked like he could rip out her throat in one savage lunge, and she would have run if she could, but the branch held her captive. Unable to escape, she raised her chin and stared at the animal as he took a careful step into the tangle of branches around her, then another. When he reached her, his eyes sought her face, and she had the strange feeling that he was going to speak to her. The moment stretched. Of course he didn’t say anything because animals didn’t talk. Instead, he brushed past her arm, and she felt the rain on his fur.
Shifting his body, he pawed at the place where her leg disappeared under a stretch of wet bark.
The tree limb didn’t move for him any more than it had for her.
She lay on her sopping bed of branches and leaves, breathing hard, watching the wolf. If he’d wanted to hurt her, he could easily have done it already, she reasoned as he sniffed around the natural trap that held her fast.
When he took a step back, she made a small sound of distress. “Can you bring help?” she asked, knowing that he didn’t understand her and that he couldn’t answer.
To her surprise, he raised and lowered his head, like a man nodding, and his expression seemed to say, Wait right there.
In the next moment he disappeared, leaving her alone and shivering in the rain and wondering if she had made up her unlikely visitor. Maybe she had gotten hit on the head, and her brain was serving up strange visions.
Like the light flickering off to her left.
She turned in that direction, wondering if she’d gotten turned around and misplaced the direction of the house.
Then the smell of smoke drifted toward her, and she realized that the lightning had started a fire in the forest.
Could it keep burning in this damp environment? She didn’t know, but she saw that the flames were coming closer to where she lay trapped.
When panic constricted her chest, she ordered herself to steadiness. Fear wasn’t going to help anything.
She could get out of this. She had to, because there was no alternative, and there was one thing in her favor. The rain was still falling, although more gently. Maybe it would put out the fire before it reached her.
Drifting smoke made her cough. Trying to ignore the distraction, she flexed her fingers and leaned forward, putting her hands on the heavy branch holding her fast. Eyes closed, she pressed her fingers against the bark and used her mind to extend the reach of her hand, sending her thoughts through the surface and into the living tissue beneath. She needed to learn the mass and weight. Learn how the branch was connected to the central tree trunk.
As the answers fell into place, she formed a plan of action. Pulling the branch up wasn’t enough. She had to rotate it as she lifted; otherwise the trunk would hold the limb down.
Opening her eyes, she saw the fire creeping closer, heard the hissing of the wet wood.
Terrible images leaped into her mind—of herself, surrounded by flames. In Breezewood, teams of adepts would have come to pull water from a nearby well and shoot it toward any fire that threatened the city. But she was the only one here, and she couldn’t stop a fire by herself.
Unable to hold back a whimper, she watched for a moment, then tore her gaze away and sent out her invisible energy, trying with every shred of power she had to make the branch shift.
Fear made her desperate as she poured out her psychic power. Despite the cold, sweat broke out on her forehead, and her muscles trembled. When the limb quivered under her fingers, she took hope and increased her efforts. To her dismay, the quivering was all she could accomplish—for now.
Unwilling to give up, she lay back, sucking in great drafts of air and shivering from the wet clothing plastered against her skin.
She’d been in this world less than an hour, and she was already in more trouble than she could have imagined.
Still, iron determination made her reach out again with her mind. Before she got very far into the process, she heard something moving rapidly through the forest—coming from the direction where the wolf had disappeared.
Was the animal circling back? This time to attack?
She tensed, probing the darkness. In the flickering light from the fire, she made out a dark shape hurrying toward her. A beam of light ran along in front of it, and as the figure drew closer, she saw it was a man holding a thing called a flashlight.
She’d seen it in a training exercise with Vandar’s adepts. And also long ago in one of her classrooms.
Her teacher had made each of the students try to turn it on with his or her mind. She’d been one of the few who could do it. Here she knew that something called batteries made it work.
“Are you all right?” a man called.
“I’m caught. And . . . and . . . the fire’s coming.”
“Yeah. I’ll take care of the fire.”
Despite the circumstances, a spurt of wonder leaped inside her. This was her first encounter with a person from the other side of the portal.
She listened to his voice. It was strong and confident, and his accent was different from the people she knew in her own world.
“Hang on. I’ve got a fire extinguisher.”
He backed away. As she listened to the sound of his footsteps receding, fear rose in her throat.
Then she heard a hissing sound, and the flames that had been lapping closer died away.
Moments later, he was back, clambering to her side and hunkering down.
“You put out the fire?” she whispered.
“I can’t be sure it’s dead. I’ll have to check it later.”
He kept the beam of his light out of her eyes as he studied her face, apparently as interested in her as she was in him. Up close, in the light from the flashlight, she saw that his hair and eyes were both dark and his features were hard-etched.
And he had a . . . knapsack over his shoulder. Squatting beside her, he took something from the carry bag. It was a small rectangle that unfolded into a surprisingly large blanket, which he spread over her.
The blessed warmth made her want to weep, but she held on to her emotions by force of will while he turned and played his light over the place where her leg disappeared under the branch.
“This is a nice mess,” he muttered. “You’re lucky your leg isn’t broken. Or is it?”
“I don’t think so. I mean, I’m not in pain.” Switching the subject, she asked. “How . . . how did you find me?”
“I was putting some things in my storage building. I saw the tree fall, and I thought I heard a scream. It took me a while to locate the tree.”
Her own situation had made her sensitive to half-truths. “What happened to the wolf?”
He tipped his head to the side, staring at her with a steady gaze. “What wolf?”
“He was here.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t see him.”
She nodded, wondering if she had made up the encounter with the beast. No. He had been too real. His animal smell. His wet fur. The intelligence in his yellow eyes.
The man brought her back to the present. Did he smell like the wolf? Or did the animal scent simply linger in the wet air?
“We have to get you out of here.”
“How?”
“I’ll lift the branch. You pull your leg out.”
She sighed. “I tried. It’s too heavy.”
“Of course it is,” he said, and she wondered if she’d made a mistake by revealing her attempt at escape. Without her telekinetic powers, lifting the thing would have been clearly impossible.
He played his flashlight beam over the bough, inspecting it. “If I can’t get the branch off you, I’ll go back for a chain saw. But that will mean you’ll be out here for a lot longer.”
Bending over the limb, he wrapped his hands around the circumference, giving an experimental tug before looking back at her. “Get ready to pull your foot out if I can lift this damn thing.”
“Okay,” she said.
“My name is Talon Marshall.”
An exchange of names. Another test.
“Kenna,” she said, then remembered an important fact from her training. People here had more than one name. The last name told what family you belonged to. Vandar’s men had picked a last name for her that was very common, in case anyone started trying to figure out where she had come from. “Kenna Thomas,” she supplied.
“Sorry to be meeting you like this.”
With a murmur of agreement, she braced for more questions. Instead, he silently grasped the branch again. As he strained to pull upward, she sent her telekinetic energy to the tree limb, giving him a jolt of assistance.
Feeling the pressure ease off her ankle, she kept up her energy burst while she yanked her foot out, then tum
bled backwards at her sudden release.
He made a startled exclamation, his voice uncertain as he said, “It suddenly got lighter, then heavier again.”
She only shook her head, unable to tell him that it had been her lifting and that the extra weight had piled on the branch when she’d run out of energy.
She was free! Finally.
He was talking again, and she struggled to focus on his words.
“Can you stand?”
“I think so.” Quickly, she pulled off the blanket he’d draped over her and pushed herself up. But she had been in one cramped position for too long, and when she stood on wobbly legs, one knee gave way and she started to fall back into the tangle of branches where she’d been lying.
Talon Marshall darted forward, catching her before she could go down. As the two of them swayed on the uneven surface, she came to rest in his arms with her head on his shoulder and her wobbly legs wedged against his solid ones.
She felt herself trembling, from the cold and from her reaction to him.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes. I’m lucky you found me.”
“You’re lucky the trunk, or a major branch, didn’t smack you in the back or hit you on the head.”
His arms were strong. And his body was warm and comforting. She’d been virtually alone in a crowd of people for months. It was hard to remember a time when anyone had held her, comforted her. Unable to stop herself, she let her head nestle against his shoulder as she raised her arms to grip him.
He cradled her in his embrace, and she wanted to burrow further into his warmth.
“How did you get here?” he asked as his hands stroked over her back and shoulders.
The question brought a knot of tension back to her middle. This was the real start of her assignment. The story she would have to tell. She wanted to confess everything to him and get herself out of the terrible situation she’d been thrust into. But confession was not an option. Not when she was under Vandar’s compulsion.
“I guess I got lost,” she managed to say.