As Love Shifts (13 page)

Dropping to her knees, she could feel eyes upon her as she softly put her hand to Kris’s face. Ever closed up the teeth marks on his muzzle, but his eye could not be saved. The orb had been torn from the socket and all she could do was to heal the skin that remained. Ever lowered her hands to his right shoulder, feeling her way downward as she healed the torn muscle and crushed bone. If Willis were still alive, she would kill him for this herself.
He had already proven himself to be an egotistical old man with outdated values, but to risk the lives of his family members because Ever had dented his male pride was ridiculous. He had already challenged her and lost. To have him attack, figuring that she couldn't defend herself while wielding her magic
might have been a valid plan, but had he honestly thought that her mates wouldn't defend her? Maybe that was his plan. To force her family to fight so he could leave them torn and broken during a time when Ever couldn't heal them. She honestly didn't care why Willis had attacked. Ever wanted his head.

She wouldn’t do it as a wolf to make Kris look bad. She would do it as a witch, making his death slow and painful as she used her power to slowly crush his chest as if he was drowning.

To feel Kris injured was tearing her apart, to feel his damaged body and know the pain he was in was causing an internal fury that went far past the simple degrading comments that Willis had initially made. This was something dark and filled with hate. Willis and his family had harmed the man that she loved the most in the world. They had bitten and maimed her Kris, and Ever wanted them dead.

She ran her hands down his body, checking for other injuries and then looked around for Liam. He lay against the wall, one of his ears torn off, blood darkening the light fur over his chest. Ever ran to him, skidding to a stop as she slid to her knees. Her hands went instantly to his side, feeling for his heart, his lungs. One of them had been punctured and he was having trouble breathing. Ever needed to get the blood out before she repaired the hole. In the movies, the doctors did it by placing a tube in the lung to allow it to re-inflate. She didn’t have a tube or any idea of how to do the procedure.

She hesitated, her mind racing like it was on fire. With slow, tedious care, she used her power to force the cells to reabsorb the blood and then quickly repaired the lung wall before healing his ribs. Liam was breathing slightly better and she checked the rest of his body, finding that his hip was broken in two places. He had been physically slammed into the wall of the tunnel. She pushed the bones back into place and then mended them.

Liam lay still, his eyes closed, and she carefully checked his skull for fractures or signs of damage. There was nothing to feel, except for a small bruise on the side of his head that she soothed before repairing what was left of his ear. She could recreate tissue to heal damage, but not make it from nothing, and what was left was a tattered tuff. It was the best that she could do. Ever suddenly felt inadequate. She hadn’t been able to replace Kris’s eye or Liam’s ear. She had turned out to be a hell of a half-assed healer.

Pulling herself away from him, she took in the full scope of the encounter. Willis lay sprawled on the floor, his throat torn out. There would be no revenge on him. He was quite dead. Julius was sitting with Sherra in his arms and
Ever
got up, staggering to them.

Demetri caught her as she headed toward the floor. “Enough, Ever. You can’t do anymore. You are too drawn down.”

“But they are injured.” She was suddenly having trouble keeping her head upright. Demetri swept her into his arms.

“Are you two going to make it? Is there anything life threatening?”

“No,” replied Julius. “Just minor bites and bruises. I think my wrist is broken, but it can wait. Take her back to the room.

“I’m going to.”

“I need to help them.” Her voice was slightly slurred, her eyelids feeling as if they had weights on them. “Put me down, Deme…”

* * * *

He shook his head in dismay. She was going to fight with him right until the last word. Her will to heal was so strong, but her body was spent and there was nothing left to heal with. What she had done with the door was shocking. The steel had twisted and shifted as if repairing itself and then it had slammed shut, sealing the water off from the outside.

As he placed her into the bed, he heard the whoosh of the air filtration system as it went back on. The sun must be up and the solar panels were running again. Hopefully the flaw in the wiring had been repaired and the power cells would charge over the course of the day.

Demetri tucked her into the quilt and then turned, wondering why the room was so completely quiet. Daisy and the children were gone.

He hurried back out into the main chamber, and stood looking around in desperation. It wasn’t as if they could have gone far. He grabbed the man that was standing beside him by the sleeve. “Have you seen Daisy or the four little ones?”

He pointed to a place on the other side of the room. “Thank you.” Demetri walked swiftly, dodging around people as he worked his way across. In the far corner a small slide and jungle gym had been set up and the children were playing on it. Three others that appeared to be around the same age were also there. Avia sat with another little girl and they were chatting as if they had been friends forever. Daisy stepped closer to stand beside him.

“With everything that was going on, they were a bit antsy. I brought them out here to play with the others. These were the children that they spent the first days of their lives with before Ever had milk.”

He had been told of that and smiled. “They still know each other?”

“Yes, it is quite amazing, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

Lash ran up and wrapped his arms tightly around Demetri’s leg. He bent down, lifting the child into his arms. It was wonderful that Lash had come to him willingly and seemed to be quite comfortable with the person holding him. “Where’s Mommy?”

“Mommy is sleeping. She got very tired keeping air flowing into the tunnels and now that air is no longer needed.”

“I know. I heard the system go back on. I also heard the snarls. Did Mommy have to heal them?”

“Just a little.” He didn’t want Lash or the children to know how great the injuries were. They would find out soon enough.

Lash looked over his shoulder. “I think more like a lot. Daddy Kris looks like shit.”

Demetri wanted to laugh, but stopped himself. “That is not a nice thing to say, Lash. Children aren’t supposed to use curse words.”

“Why not? Adults use them.”

“I know that, but adults know the parameters of when it is okay to use bad words and when it isn’t. You don’t have those nuances in your vocabulary yet.” He was talking to the child like a damn Rhodes Scholar and it was completely ridiculous.

“Okay. I will wait until I understand the proper uses better. Can I go back and play?”

Demetri nodded and set the boy down. What he had said had obviously been fine and had been answered quite reasonably.

He turned, looking at Kris, and then suddenly wasn’t sure what to say. Kris’s right eye was sunken in. The center part of his eyebrow was missing in lieu of a scar. Below his eye still remained the slight imprint of the vicious bite he had been given. It probably looked worse because he still had remnants of fresh blood that was slowly drying on his face.

“Does she ever think about the consequences before she opens her damn mouth?” asked Kris angrily.

This was not the place to be having this discussion. Demetri walked to him and spoke directly into his ear. “Let’s go back to the room.”

Kris turned in obvious fury and strode back through the hall. Those present scrambled back away from him, creating a clear path as they made their way back to the room. Demetri shut the door. He poured some water into the basin and wet a cloth, handing it to Kris.

He took it, sitting down on the bottom of the bed to scrub at his face. When he was finished, it looked quite a bit better than it had before. Kris handed him back the cloth and Demetri washed it out before opening one of the folding chairs to sit on. “Are you really blaming this on her?”

“Yes, I really am. The Parths would have kept to themselves if she hadn’t spoken out against them.”

“Do you really believe that? Do you honestly think that the man intended to let it go even though it was supposed to be over? Ever ruined him in the eyes of the tribe. It didn’t matter that she had healed him. What mattered was that a female half-breed injured his ego. I don’t think Willis had any intention of letting it go. He knew that he wasn’t supposed to be here and he intended to let everyone know that he was not going to bow down to Ever. Just the fact that he challenged you and Liam gives me a full view of his intent.”

Kris was staring at him, but he could see the anger in his eye fading. “All Ever did by making that ridiculous comment was bring things to a head quicker. If she hadn’t been sealed in a bubble of power with me, they would have attacked her in full force. They tried. Two different wolves jumped at her at the same time, but they hit the shield and bounced off. One of them was lying on the floor with a broken neck which told me how intent they were on taking her down. The family didn’t give two shits that she had just saved all their lives. They didn’t care that if they killed her, the tunnels would be flooded with water. All they wanted was revenge.”

Kris angrily swiped back his hair and then looked at his hand. It was covered with blood. “He took my fucking eye. How bad do I look?”

Demetri sighed. “You look vicious. In all honesty, it doesn’t look that bad. Maybe when Ever wakes up she can heal it a bit more. I don’t think she can do anything about your eye, though. She doesn’t have that kind of intricate medical knowledge. I suppose if you could get the information on the exact working of an eyeball, she might be able to recreate it, but I’m not sure. I don’t know exactly how her healing power works. How’s Liam?”

“He was still unconscious. I, in all my self-righteous anger, only wanted to confront Ever. I guess that was kind of an asshole move in itself, huh? Is she okay?”

“She burned herself out healing you and Liam. She also fixed the hatch and held the water back by herself during the fight. She is a truly amazing woman, Kris, and she is far more powerful than I ever imagined.”

“So my woman gets more powerful and her mate falls apart. Hell of an alpha I turned out to be. Maybe I should have let Mick go on believing he was alpha. He probably would have done a better job.”

Demetri frowned. Had the damage to Kris’s face really done this big of a number on his ego? “What are you talking about? Mick would have been a crappy alpha. He didn’t have the personality for it and honestly, if this had happened to him, I think you would all be dead. Why are you suddenly questioning yourself? I think you are a great alpha.”

“I guess suddenly is the appropriate word here. I just got my ass kicked.”

“You just defended yourself and your entire clan. As I said before, if Willis had his way, Ever would be dead. Then we would all be dead. Even if those in the bunker had been able to seal the inner hatch to keep the flooding to a minimum, then they would have sealed themselves in with no way to get fresh air. Eventually, it would have killed them. Most importantly, you are not dead even though you were outnumbered. I counted eleven different wolves and there were only five of you. If you don’t mind a suggestion, I would send a crew to round up the rest of the Parth family and make sure they behave.”

“I already did that. I put Aramis in charge.” He pushed himself to his feet, turning and looking at Ever. “She always looked at me as if I was the most attractive man on the face of the earth. I can’t help but wonder how she is going to look at me now.”

Ah, so it was pride that was eating at his ego. “She may have a big mouth, but she isn’t shallow enough to allow this to change her opinion of you. She loves you, Kris. If you want the honest truth, I think she loves you just a bit more than me or Liam, or even the children. You are the most important person in her world. Try not to blame this on her. It really wasn’t her fault.”

“I know, Demetri. Let’s go check on my brother.”

Without waiting for an answer, Kris strode from the room. Demetri took a final glance at Ever. She appeared drawn and tired and even in sleep, he saw a single tear drip down her cheek. Had her mind taken in the conversation, despite her exhaustion
?
He certainly hoped that it hadn’t.

Kris strode out into the main bunker and then into the tunnel. His father was still sitting with Sherra, and Liam was still lying against the wall. Gear lay on the opposite side, a young woman tending his wounds with a wet cloth. He walked over to his father. “How bad are the two of you hurt?”

“Minor injuries,” replied Sherra. “Of course, we were outnumbered by almost two to one. We should be quite proud of ourselves. The Parths are known for their fighting skills. They train by challenging one another on a regular basis. Quite a few Parth young men had been killed during training sessions. The family is quite nuts in my opinion. Too much inbreeding.” She grinned sassily. “You have no idea how much I enjoyed watching Ever kick that old man’s ass. How is she?”

“She’s sleeping. I guess magic is quite exhausting.”

“I imagine that it would be. She is using the energy in her body that we normally use just to survive.” She looked past him and Kris realized that Demetri was now standing behind him. “So how exactly does that work, Demetri?”

He seemed to consider her question. “It’s kind of hard to explain. For me, I have simply strengthened my brain so that I can willfully channel my aura into something more physical. In this case, I was using it as a shield to protect myself and Ever. She was using hers to hold the water back which is far more difficult. She had to channel her energy upward, keeping it in a hollow cylindrical form so that air came in, but water didn’t. Ever even went one step farther, making the natural energy that she was expending warm the air and even cycle it into the tunnel. I’m not even sure how she accomplished it, but I have to think that it was simply that her mind is stronger than mine. I guess that I could liken it to taking a piece of clay and molding it with your hands. Your mind is controlling the actions, but in this case, we are using energy rather than a solid substance.”