Blood Trinity (Belador #1)(87)

“Thanks, but no.” She didn’t trust anyone to take control of her emotions or her sensory abilities. Not even someone she’d allowed to kiss her.

Did that make me a control freak? Damn straight.

Men who offered to take care of her were dangerous.

The doctor her aunt had worked for had visited Evalle in the basement from the time she was eight until she was fifteen. He’d been her only friend. He’d promised not to hurt her when he’d performed her first female physical exam.

He’d said he was there to take care of her.

And he hadn’t hurt her. His touch had been clinical and his words had soothed her anxiety.

She hadn’t found out he’d been lying all along until the next house call after that, a week later, when he’d wanted to talk to Evalle about her test results. Her aunt had given the thirty-four-year-old family doctor keys to her house and to Evalle’s basement room so he could make a stop while her aunt had been working in his medical center.

He’d taken that private opportunity to give Evalle a hands-on lesson in his twisted fantasy.

“You have to get the Noirre venom out of your leg before you lose control,” Storm said, breaking her free from reliving that nightmare again. “I can see you fighting it.”

Her skin was clammy and cold in spite of the perspiration. She tightened her stomach muscles, anything to keep what was fighting to get out locked down. Cartilage along her forearms hardened and rippled beneath her skin. She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists until the ridges along her arms dropped back to normal skin and muscle. She’d explain the torn sleeves as having happened during battle, which was true.

“I can control myself,” she gritted out. “Tzader will know what to do.”

Tzader and Quinn were the only two she trusted not to say a word to Sen, who could use the Noirre majik infection as a way to put her into quarantine.

When she reached the walkway to the old Victorian house that Trey’s wife and sister-in-law owned, Evalle searched the group of people clustered on the veranda stretching from corner to corner across the front.

Tzader must have sensed her coming, because he and Quinn both broke off from their conversation with Trey and hurried down the steps to meet Evalle on the sidewalk.

“What’s wrong?” Tzader was staring at her, but that question had been directed at Storm.

“Not a big deal—,” she started saying, but Storm cut her off.

“She was attacked by a possessed ghoul that stabbed her. She’s got purple coming out of her leg with blood that smells like rotten oranges. Could be Noirre majik. We need to get that infection out now.”

“Where were you?” Quinn asked Storm in a voice harboring vicious undertones.

“Chasing three more ghouls. When I realized they might have been sent just to split us up, I tried going back to where I’d left Evalle, but something was blocking me from reaching the south end of the park. Someone had spelled the area to prevent anyone from interfering. I tried calling you on the cell, but it wouldn’t work. I don’t know who she battled besides the ghoul. She wouldn’t tell me that or let me touch her leg.”

She didn’t have to tell him a damn thing. “My leg’s fine and I’m reporting to Trey, not you.”

Storm turned a glare on her so hot it should have baked her face brown. “You’re getting that venom out of your leg first before you do another thing if I have to hold you down myself.”

She shoved close to him and paid for it with a sharp blade of pain up her leg. She croaked, “Try it and you’ll die.”

“You couldn’t kick a snowman’s ass right now.”

Quinn piped up. “He has a point.”

The chiding in his voice snapped her last straw. “Do not side with him.”

“We’re not taking sides,” Tzader said, but before she could feel relief at that he added, “but he’s right. We’re getting that venom out of your leg.”

She took a breath and dropped her voice. “I don’t want to tell the others about being infected with Noirre majik. They might think I can’t hold my human form.”

Storm could have busted her then, but he didn’t. She lifted her eyes to his, expecting more argument, but he actually looked … worried. How much of that was true and how much was him just doing what he’d been brought in to do?

Lucien was standing on the porch with his back to them. “We heard everything, Evalle. The only person on the team without exceptional hearing is Casper when he’s not in his Highland warrior form, but he isn’t even here right now.”

She leaned passed Tzader to see the rest of the team and Trey’s sister-in-law, Rowan, watching her from the veranda.

Oh, great, once again I’m the entertainment for the night.

“Nobody’s turning you over to Sen,” Tzader assured her.

“Not until after they find out what I know about the rock,” she said, sensing defeat hanging around the corner waiting for her.

“Don’t underestimate how much the team doesn’t like Sen either,” Quinn interjected.

“She thinks she’s the only one with Sen problems,” Storm interjected. “That everyone is her enemy except you two and she has to fight every battle alone to prove she’s as capable as she is pigheaded.”