Alterant (Belador #2)(40)
After five hours—or had it been six yet—of feeling like the food source for every bloodsucker smaller than her fingernail, she started thinking fondly of nights spent tracking preternatural predators . . .
The amulet around her neck heated up.
Her skin prickled with awareness and a sense that she’d missed something important.
In the city, she stayed on constant alert.
Out here, she’d gotten lax, assuming Tristan knew the land better than her, since he’d hiked out of here with the Kujoo last week.
But she still should have been paying more attention, because something was following her with deadly intent.
Her heart double-timed with a jolt of fight-or-flight adrenaline that spread through her limbs at the hint of battle. Speaking out loud to Tristan would alert the enemy, but could she reach him telepathically?
Tristan, can you hear me? She waited for some sign from him, but he never paused his stride ahead of her. She’d give it another try. Something or someone is following us. It’s dangerous. I don’t want to harm an animal, but I refuse to be anyone’s dinner.
I hear it, he finally said. Stay close.
She took stock of her surroundings. They’d been gradually descending for the past half hour, and the land had become more rolling than downhill. Tangled vines and a healthy crop of branches forced Tristan to break open the path on occasion, but there had been a few clearings like the one with the lake and waterfall a hundred yards back . . . until now.
The trail had narrowed with sides formed by thick undergrowth.
Sizing up the ambush potential, she rated the terrain directly ahead of and behind them a high nine on a scale of one to ten.
The jungle had been alive with sounds moments ago.
Everything quieted.
A twig snapped, then leaves shuffled.
That hadn’t been by accident. Whatever stalked her was unconcerned about her hearing its approach. She picked up a ripple of power emanating from the woods behind her and to her left. Several origins.
Predators for sure, but not of the human world.
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.
A throaty growl above rattled the bones in her spine. Evalle looked up as the wolf-demon above her hunched his body, preparing to jump.
She ripped her attention back to the other monster on the ground, now up on all four legs and snarling.