Page 28 of Unleashed

She didn’t think he’d actually harm her, but the beasts within these valos were so volatile, so wild, that there was no telling what any of them would do if those beasts seized control.

Finding herself suddenly without appetite, she offered her remaining food to Vortok. He took it with a questioning look on his face.

“You need your strength, Nina,” he said. “Eat more.”

“I’m full.” She collected her knife, which Aduun had borrowed, wiped the blade clean, and returned it to her bag. “I’d rather you have it than let it go to waste.”

He frowned, the expression making his tusks more prominent, but wolfed down the meat without further argument.

Once Nina was on her feet with her bag strapped on, Aduun approached her. She reflexively stepped back when he extended his arm. His features hardened, but a shred of vulnerability gleamed in his eyes. He lowered the butt of the spear in his hand to the ground.

“This will do better than a knife if we are set upon by predators.” His voice was low, strained, laced with discomfort or…pain.

Ashamed by her own reaction, Nina dropped her gaze and accepted the spear. “Thank you.”

The shaft was heavy enough to add some force to her thrusts, and yet not so heavy as to tire her out quickly. It was a primitive weapon, even by the standards of Orishok’s people before their change, but it was by far more effective than having no weapon at all.

He nodded, and unspoken words seemed to linger upon his lips. She found herself staring into his intense eyes and wondered if they’d been the same color before he had been changed. She did not doubt that their intensity, their magnetism, had belonged to him all along.

His gaze dipped to her shoulder. He touched the pad of his finger to the skin beside one of the puncture marks. The wounds were still a bit sore, but they’d greatly improved overnight thanks to the moonweed.

The muscles of his jaw bulged. He lowered his arm and turned away without a word, tossing the largest of the three spears he’d made to Vortok. He gave the last one to Balir before striding beyond the camp.

Vortok watched Aduun walk away before glancing at Nina. “We should follow.”

Nina nodded and moved forward, grasping the strap of her bag with one hand. Vortok fell into step in front of her, slowing his stride to match her pace, and Balir took up the rear. She found herself more than once looking past Vortok to seek out Aduun far ahead. Even from such a distance, his loneliness was apparent in the set of his shoulders and the stiffness of his movements.

Chapter Seven

Balir marked the passage of time by the warmth of the air; when they’d first set out, he’d felt no difference, but as the day wore on he grew more and more aware of the shafts of sunlight breaking through the canopy as they danced over his skin.

He continued to produce the clicking noises in his upper chest as he walked. It was an instinctual, subconscious thing, one he’d never truly understood. Though he’d lost his sight, his hearing had grown so keen and sensitive that it acted as its own sort of vision. His ears could distinguish the way sound reflected off the objects around him, allowing his mind to piece together rough images. The clicks, however soft, enhanced that sound-sight.

He could determine distance, shape, size, and even texture to a degree. But there was always information missing, details that his senses, however enhanced, could not obtain. He knew the lithe forms of Nina’s calves and thighs but could not determine the color of her skin or the long fur on her head. He could identify her merely by the sound of her breathing, and yet the intricacies of her facial features were lost to him. Though touch had filled in some of those details, he would never have truly known were it not for their shared dream.

His attention shifted to her again. She walked not far ahead, her soft footfalls accented by the gentle crunching of leaves. She’d served as a distraction during the journey; normally, he’d focus entirely on monitoring his surroundings, on watching and listening for danger, on keeping his fellow tribesmen safe. But Nina was something new. Something different.

Something he wanted more thananything.

His blood heated at the grace with which she moved. The sensation was enhanced by the remembered image of her face and the compassion in her eyes. Her skin was lightly browned, like a supple, freshly cured hide, and her eyes were the same shade of blue as the sky on a clear day. Her fragrance permeated the air, distinct and separate from the countless scents of the forest. He’d never smelled anything sweeter.

Did he desire her as man or beast? His heartstone held sway over both sides of his nature, but he didn’t believe his attraction to Nina was merely the result of her blooding the stone. Though it had forged the initial bond, it had not forced his want of her.

“These trees are getting…strange,” she said.

Her voice, with its gentle, feminine huskiness, jarred Balir from his thoughts.

“The forests we used to walk didn’t have trees like this,” said Vortok.

Balir extended his attention beyond Nina. She was right; the trees were taller, with larger trunks and thicker branches. The change had been gradual enough — and his distraction complete enough — that he hadn’t noticed, but the trees around them now were unlike any he’d encountered. They stood surprisingly straight, and many were so large that even Vortok wouldn’t be able to wrap his arms halfway around their trunks. The ground at their bases was largely devoid of the exposed roots that were so common in the forests he’d known in his youth.

“The ground is really flat and even, too,” Nina said. “That’s not normal, is it?”

“It is angled slightly,” Balir replied. “We’ve been moving gradually downhill all day.”

Their brief conversation ended. Unease soured the air. The place smelled like a forest — living wood, rotting leaves, moist earth, and faint animal scents — but the dank, cave-smell seemed suddenly more pronounced. The chittering calls of the small creatures in the surrounding woods warped as they echoed, making it difficult to determine their sources.

For the first time since they’d left camp, Aduun fell back to join the group. “Something is wrong. Listen to the animals.”

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