Desire Untamed (Feral Warriors #1)(38)

He grunted as he speared a piece of ham. "At the rate we're going, we may have those prisons filled again in no time."

As they ate in silence, her mind returned to Wulfe's accusations. And Pink's. Were they right?

Was she really that important… to the world? She'd kind of assumed they wanted to he able to shift, again because, well, it was fun. And if they'd implied that it was more important than that… much more important… she hadn't wanted to hear it. She hadn't been ready to hear it. She still wasn't sure she was ready, but Wulfe hadn't given her the choice any longer. And this time she'd heard him loud and clear.

Finally, four of the men returned, their clothes changed, the blood gone. Wulfe wasn't with them.

Tighe smiled at Lyon as he took his seat across from Kara. "Glad to have you join us, Roar."

Lyon nodded, his expression serious. "Any improvement in Wulfe?"

"No. He's still feral." Tighe looked at Lyon with worry in his eyes. "He's like a wild animal. It's as if his beast has completely taken over. There's no sign of the man at all in there."

Paenther sat on the other side of Kara. "How soon can we get Kara ascended?"

"Soon. I'm going to take over the prepping myself. If she's as strong as Hawke predicts, it may not take a full week."

"Thank the goddess," Paenther said.

As the men dug back into the meal, Kara picked at her food as she struggled to process her role as she now understood it.

She was some kind of power plug for the Feral Warriors. And if Wulfe was right, if she failed, even Spearsville could be in trouble. Shame filled her at the realization. She'd been so worried about saving herself, she'd given very little thought to what her leaving would do to everyone else.

Dear God, she couldn't continue to live with her heart constantly trying to pound its way out of her chest, though. But maybe there was a reason for it, a reason Lyon would find and eliminate. Or maybe once she ascended, she'd be able to see it for herself, if it didn't go away.

Either way, it didn't matter. She had to stay.

As bizarre as it might seem, the world was depending on her.

Miss MacAllister. Preschool teacher. Radiant.

The source of power for the guardians of the world.

* * *

Chapter Eleven

"You can feel my fear, can't you?"

Kara gripped the interior car door handle as Lyon drove back to the falls after lunch, taking the hills and sharp turns like a roller-coaster car.

He took his eyes off the road ahead for one moment to meet her gaze. "I can, yes."

"Have you felt the way it's been dropping as we've gotten farther and farther from the house?"

"The mind is a powerful thing, Kara. You're probably associating bad feelings with that place. Your grief the night your mother died. The nightmares."

Kara frowned at him. "You think I'm insane."

He met her gaze with a rueful lift of his lips. "Not insane."

"Deluded, then."

"Maybe a little unsettled by the shock of everything."

"Even though, as soon as I leave the house, I'm suddenly better?"

Lyon shrugged, his thick, golden hair brushing the broad shoulders of the rust-colored silk shirt he'd changed into after lunch. "Once we get you ascended, everything will be fine. You'll see."

"Fine?" Somehow she couldn't imagine life with Vhyper would ever be fine. But she didn't want to think about him right now.

She was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that she was so blasted important to the world. If she was going to stay in this world of immortals and shape-shifters, she supposed she'd better start trying to understand it.

"Tell me more about the Therians, Lyon. Why were you at war with the Mage?"

"Most recently, because they'd killed one of my warriors. The previous jaguar."

"So the spirit of the jaguar somehow found Jag? That's how this works, right?"

"Yes. Upon the death of the man, the animal spirit flies to the strongest Therian with the blood of his line still running through his veins. Jag was the strongest."

"Was he a child?"

"No. Children are rarely the strongest. Jag was over seventy at the time."

"Why did the Mage kill the previous jaguar?"

His jaw hardened. "They wanted the Daemon blade. They've always felt they should be the ones to guard it, and we've always disagreed. More than once the question of its guardianship has caused war between us."

"I can't believe anyone would willing go to war with you and your men."

"The Mage have just enough magic to even the odds. Their magic and their damned superior attitude."

"What do you mean?"

"Most of them consider all other creatures inferior to them. Greatly inferior. In their eyes, Therians are little better than the animals we can, or could, shift into. Humans are no account at all."

"Are there only the three immortal races? The Therians, Mage, and Daemons?"

"There were others, but we're the only ones who survived."

"Are the Mage as strong as you are?"

"Physically, no. But they have their weapons. Mostly they're just pains in our butts. Unfortunately, we have to be very careful not to kill them with the freedom we might like. While we tap into the Earth's energy through our Radiant, the Mage are part of nature itself. At least they used to be. Before the mortgaging of their power to imprison the Daemons, the Mage could affect, and often control, many of nature's functions. The weather, the growth of plants and trees, the reproduction of many of the Earth's species."