Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) (33 page)

“No!”

Jasper sat up abruptly, his breathing so
quick he was sure he would black out. His chest hurt and he was
covered in sweat.

“Jasper?” Hayden’s voice was frightened under
the calming tone. “What’s wrong?” Her small hand touched his arm
lightly. He pulled her to his chest and buried his face in her
hair.

“You have to cross over.” He barely managed
to get the words out past the sobs he was holding in.

“What? No! I can’t do that. You know I
can’t.”

“He’s going to kill you, Hayden. I saw
it.”

She looked up at him, her strange green eyes
narrowed with her frown. “You had a dream?”

He nodded.

“It’s my job to dream. You don’t have dream
seers eyes and you’ve never had one before.” She ran a hand through
his hair. “Maybe it was just a nightmare.”

He shook his head. “It wasn’t a nightmare. I
could feel it, Shlova. I can still feel it. This is what I’ve been
dreaming every night, but this is the first time I remember it.
You’re going to die and I’m just going to stand there frozen in
place because of something and watch him do it.” He rolled his
shoulders to try and get rid of the tension in his body. The half
dead feeling in his chest was slowly leaving. He took a deep breath
to help it along. “I can’t loose you, Shlova.”

Hayden cupped his face in her hands and he
closed his eyes.

“I’m right here, Jasper, and I’m not going
anywhere. I already promised, remember?”

He nodded. “I remember.”

“I can’t leave, Hun. I won’t. I need to see
this through. You of all people should understand.”

He took a deep breath and nodded again. She
kissed him softly.

“Could you promise me you’ll stay away from
him?”

“I will. I promise to stay as far from him as
I can.” She kissed him again. “Ok?”

He nodded and lay back down. Hayden snuggled
into his chest.

“Are you alright?”

“Not quite.” He took another deep breath.
“Maybe another kiss would help.”

She smiled up at him. “So now you’re the one
having dreams and I’m the one kissing you better?”

He shrugged. He meant to tell her she always
made him feel better when she kissed him, but her hands ran up the
back of his neck, tangled in his hair, and pulled his lips down to
hers. The pain in his chest melted away and he wondered if maybe
she was right. Maybe it had been a nightmare.

She pulled away. “Better?”

He kissed the bridge of her nose. “Much
better, thank you.”

She smiled. “My pleasure.”

He tightened his arms around her as she
settled against him. He found himself awake long after she had
fallen back to sleep.

Dodge ambled over to where they were laying.
Is she sleeping?

Jasper nodded.

She shouldn’t be coming with us.

“I agree but I can’t convince her otherwise.
You know how she is.”

Dodge nodded.
Stubborn.
He stretched
his wings before continuing.
We could trick her and get her
away.

Jasper blinked. Now there was something he
hadn’t thought about. “How?”

Next time we get to some open ground, I’ll
fly her somewhere safe. It doesn’t have to be in the other world;
it just has to be far enough away that she’ll be out of harm’s way.
She can’t displace herself so we don’t have to worry about her
magically appearing in the middle of the battle.

Jasper thought it over. “It would work. The
problem is afterwards. She’d be mad we tricked her. Furious.”

Dodge nodded.
I’m not saying we wouldn’t
feel the brunt of it for a while after the fact. Quite frankly, I’d
rather have her mad at me for the next twenty years then to not
have her here at all. I’ve had the dream too, Jasper. It’s bits and
pieces and I can’t tell exactly what happens, but Ternach jumps at
her and then I feel her die. That’s where I wake up. I’ve been
having the dream since we left Howel and the closer we get to
Paradin, the clearer it gets. She won’t survive this one. There’s
nothing either of us can do about it.

“Can we win without her?”

Dodge’s head came up in surprise. He took a
minute to answer.
I doubt it.

“I’m at a loss, Dodge. I don’t know what to
do. We need to win this, but I can’t lose her.”

“I’ve thought about it too, but I can’t find
a solution.” Alex’s voice was just a whisper behind them.

“I’ve had the dream too.” Matthew sounded
miserable.

“I’m with Dodge on this one.” Phlann ran a
hand through his blond hair. “We’ll find a way to do it without
her.”

Kacey sat up. “If we survive Braw without
her, there’s no way we’ll survive Hayden when we get back to
her.”

Jasper ran a hand over his face, careful not
to wake her. “Have you all had this dream?”

Everyone in their pack nodded and he growled
low in his throat. Hayden stirred against him.

“What’s going on?” She looked around. “Why
are we the only pack awake?”

Jasper shrugged. “We just couldn’t
sleep.”

“Jasper?”

Everyone looked up at Danny as he walked into
our camp.

“I, umm… well, I was in charge of taking the
north perimeter for the last watch and…” He frowned. “I found
this.” He held out a dagger and placed it Jasper’s waiting hands.
“I wouldn’t have recognized it were it not for the fact that he’d
shown me the names on it.”

Jasper frowned. A shiver ran through him and
he took a deep breath. “Something’s wrong.”

“What?” Hayden got up and started to pack
their things. The rest of their friends followed suit.

“It’s Luke’s.” He stared at the twins’ names
engraved on the blade for a second then jumped to his feet. He
leaped over three campfires to reach Damian’s . “Get everyone up.
Something’s happening. We’ll leave now; catch up when you can.” He
found Cole’s camp. “You’re in charge of the cats.”

Cole nodded. “Stay safe.”

“Stay safe. We’ll meet you up there.”

He gave Hayden’s leg a squeeze as she swung
onto Dodge and they all bolted into the night.

*****

I leaned forward onto Dodge’s neck to avoid
being hit by a branch. When the danger had passed, I straightened
only to see another one coming at my face. I threw myself backwards
so that I lay flat on his back.

Sorry.

I straightened and patted his neck. “No
worries.” We had been running most of the day and by the way my
stomach was growling, I was betting it was past lunch time. “Look,
there’s a clear spot up ahead. Maybe we can spot something from the
air. Jasper!”

He looked back at me and slowed until we were
even with him.

“We’re going to fly.”

He blinked his perfect blue tiger eyes to
show he’d understood. He looked at Dodge who gave a tilt of his
head. Jasper gave a quick nod then sped up again.

“What was that all about?” I stayed as still
as possible as Dodge’s wings started to beat and we lifted off of
the ground.

What was what?

“I swear to god, Dodge, if I feel you turning
away from where we’re going, I will jump off of you, I don’t care
how high up we are. Do you understand?” I felt him grunt.

Perfectly.

“Good. Now, let’s see what we can find from
up here.”

Dodge soared higher into the air and I looked
down into the woods to try and find any clue as to where Luke, Mel,
and their pack might be.

“Can you see anything?”

No. Nothing. They couldn’t have been that far
ahead of us. Maybe they weren’t heading straight north. With Tyler
guiding them, maybe they veered off somewhere.

“West or east? You pick.”

Dodge angled to the left and sped up. We had
been flying for a half hour when I finally gave him a pat on the
neck. “Let’s go back, Buddy. Your wings must be getting tired.”

He blew out of his nose.
I’ll
manage.

Hayden, my love, what brings you to these
parts? I hope you’re not looking for me.

“I’m not. Where are you?”

I heard a snort in my head.
Are you still
trying to kill me?

“I’m not here to kill you. I have bigger
things to worry about right now. I’m looking for my
brother-in-law’s pack. They were hunting down the human pack that
kidnapped my nephew.”

Ah, now see that I can answer for you. Look
down. What do you see?

I looked and tried to find a landmark he
might know. “There’s a clearing with one, two, three, four large
boulders in it. There’s a stream that runs through it.” I squinted.
“Is that you?”

His laughter sounded in my head and the being
in the middle of the clearing waved at us.
Go straight north of
this clearing. They aren’t too far away.

“Are they safe?”

For now. They’re coming up to the pack they
are hunting. I hope your brother-in-law can fight. The pack that
holds your nephew is twice the size of his.

“He can fight and he won’t be alone. You
might want to vacate the clearing. My pack will be coming through
shortly.”

Why warn me when you could try to take me by
surprise?

“You just finished helping me so I’m
returning the favor. Don’t think I’m going soft on you.”

Of all the words that come to mind when I
think of you, soft is not one of them, my love.

“Good. Now get out of here before Jasper and
the rest of them get here.”

I thank you for the warning and I shall move
along. Good luck with the search for your nephew.

Dodge angled back toward our pack, circled
behind them when we found them, and hit the ground running beside
my mate. Jasper’s head came up at the sight of me.

Dodge blew out of his nose.
I’ll explain
later.

I glared at the tiger. “We’ll have a chat
when this is done. For now, there’s a clearing just up ahead. Luke
isn’t too far north of there and he’s about to run into the pack
that has Trent.”

By the time we had reached the clearing I was
too worried about Luke and Trent to still be mad at Jasper and
Dodge. Jasper kept looking toward me as if trying to judge how I
was feeling. I finally gave him a small smile.

“I love you.”

He blinked in acknowledgement.

“Be careful.”

He nodded and gave a low growl.

“I promise I will be too.”

We broke out of the woods at a dead run and
found ourselves in an immense field. We heard shouts; some of them
yells of welcome, others screams of surprise. I saw Mel fall under
two men, her black wolf form disappearing under their bulk. I
nudged Dodge in that direction with my legs and pulled my swords
out of their scabbards. One smooth stroke across both of their
backs was enough to free Mel before she was hurt too badly. Her
eyes widened at the sight of us before turning back to the battle
at hand.

I heard Jasper growl and watched as he
shifted, pulled his dagger and threw it. His elbow came up and
connected with a man’s face just as the dagger impaled itself in
another’s back. The man fell to the ground.

“Luke! Catch!” Jasper tossed his brother his
dagger and the two of them stared at each other for a moment. I
noticed the same wild look in both of their eyes.

Dodge spun around and kicked back with both
hind legs. I heard the sound of the human’s chest imploding with a
sickening wheeze. I slashed down with my swords as another man
tried to reach up and pull me off of my horse. He screamed as my
blade connected. The spray of blood was hot against my face.

Though the humans’ numbers had still been
more than ours with our two packs together, the fact that not all
of them had shifting stones was helping turn this fight in our
favor. Someone had managed to free the five hostages, including
Trent. I watched as my nephew shifted from a grey wolf so he could
pull a dagger from one of the bodies near him. He stuck it in his
belt and shifted back. The blond man he launched himself at
screamed as the wolf’s teeth sank into his thigh.

Tara, Ben and my aunt and uncle had
positioned themselves in nearby trees and were using their bows and
arrows to pick off anyone who was trying to run away. Phlann,
Shanus, and Prense were nearly cutting the humans in half with
their broad swords. Matthew and Emelly were fighting back to back.
Leslie spun and slashed out with her swords. The dark haired man
that had been about to ambush Alex, who was otherwise engaged, fell
to the ground with a scream, his belly spilling its contents onto
the ground.

I looked down as a wolf launched itself at
me. Dodge tried to spin to avoid it but was too late. I was knocked
to the ground, my breath leaving my body with the impact. The wolf
grabbed me by the arm and started to drag me away. I screamed as
its teeth broke the skin and penetrated my bicep. I heard Dodge
running toward us, saw a man stand over me with his dagger, and
watched, unable to move as it came down at me. I closed my eyes and
waited for the feel of the blade slicing through my flesh. The only
thing I felt was Ternach’s nudge slamming into me.

I fell to the ground on my back and the
breath was knocked out of me once again. Ternach came to kneel by
me.

“Are you alright?”

I wheezed, trying to breathe. “Back! Send me
back!”

He shook his head.

I sat up and my temper flared. “They need me
over there! There will be injuries to take care of!” I looked
around, hoping I wasn’t too far away to run back. My heart sank; I
was in the clearing with the boulders. “Why did you bring me
here?”

He shrugged and almost looked embarrassed. “I
felt you getting ready to die. I couldn’t just leave you
there.”

“But you’re going to try to kill me when we
get to Paradin! What the hell does it matter if I die now or later!
Save yourself the trouble, Ternach! Send me back now!”

He frowned and his green eyes flashed. “I
don’t want to kill you, but you’ll make me do it. Until then, I’ll
do my best to keep you alive.” His eyes met mine and he smiled
sadly. “I’m still trying to come up with a solution to our
dilemma.”