Shaman - An Enchantress Novel Book 2

Chapter 21

Adie reached across Kevin's prone body and snatched the shifters sunglasses from his hand. "He won't need these today then." The smell of blood stirred her senses; she held her breath, hoping to resist the urge to lap it up. Her hand brushed his forehead for a brief second, giving her enough time to send a strong pulse of healing energy into him. It had to be enough to stop the bleeding and any further damage until she could do something more without Devon around to assess her every move.

She stood, stepping over Kevin to stand beside Devon. She put the glasses on to shield her over-sensitive eyes from the suns glare.

"Are you not going to heal him?" Devon asked, watching her from the corner of his eye.

"Is that why you hurt him, to see me heal him?"

"Of course not, but why waste the opportunity now that it has presented itself?"

"Yeah right," she muttered, turning her back on him and kneeling on the ribbed wood of the jetty planks.

Pushing the dark glasses tight to her face, she took a deep breath and held it in a mix of anticipation and dread. Her power flowed the instant she thought of it, but it wasn't enough and she called for more. The tall lush grass and reeds to the edge of the lake began to wither, but it still wasn't enough. She needed more.

Shocru, she called for the power with her mind.

Leaves began to fall on them from the tree as it drooped and wilted, sucked dry of its life force. Still it wasn't enough. Kevin was dying, his brain shutting down. Searching deep in the earth she found what she needed. Power from the silver flowed to her unhindered. Sparks danced from her hands into Kevin's damaged brain. A thud sounded beside her; she ignored it and continued to pour life energy into her patient.

"Stop," instructed a feeble-sounding voice as something lightly tapped her foot.

Adie continued, ignoring everything that was going on around her until someone pulled her from Kevin's side. Her eyes snapped open and she glared at the shifter responsible, her hand shooting up with the palm facing away. An invisible force pushed at him, propelling him several feet in the air to land in the water.

"Stop! Please," the feeble voice begged again.

Spinning to face the voice, she found Devon on his stomach reaching out to her. His arm dropped to the decking as his strength faded. The dull thud of his forehead meeting the decking followed when the last of his energy was wrenched from him. He looked paler than normal, his skin slightly wrinkled from dehydration, to the point that it looked too big for his frame.

Two shifters moved cautiously past her, edging their way toward the downed master. They turned him over and both of them gasped at the withdrawn features and sunken eyes.

"He needs to feed or he'll die."

All heads turned to look at the shifter who spoke, answering in unison, "Yes Sir."

Adie laughed. "You could just let him die and save us all some heartache."

"Take him into the house and one of you may feed him." He instructed.

She could hear the authority in his command and stood in their way as they lifted him. "If he were to die, it would resolve at lot of issues," she tried to reason with them.

"Why on earth would I let my meal ticket die, Miss Williams?" the shifter in charge asked. He reached forward to move her aside.

Backing away from him, she tried to shoot the force at him like she had the other shifter, but nothing much happened, just a light gust of air that ruffled his hair slightly.

He laughed in her face. "You're tired and your power is weak from healing Kevin." He snapped his fingers and three more shifters stepped forward. "Take Kevin inside and escort Miss Williams to her room."

Once they were out of earshot Adie turned to the shorter guy she remembered from the caves, the one who helped her from the helicopter. "Who the hell was that?"

"That," He stole a look over his shoulder at the man in question, "Is Vince, our Alpha."

Adie nodded her head, understanding the reason for the obedience. "I get why you have to do as he says and all, but he'll probably get you killed. You know that right? Why doesn't someone stand up to him or take over?"

"None of us are strong enough to take him on and if we don't do as he says then we're as good as dead," he answered. "He'll kill us."

"One on one maybe, but he can't deal with a whole bunch of you at the same time. I've met a load of you guys now, and I know you're not bad people. Surely you can see what he's doing is wrong?"

"Right or wrong doesn't really come into it. It's survival of the fittest, and until someone takes him and Devon down then we have to do as we're told. Traitors, deserters and the weak are removed without mercy around here."

"But you defend them to the point of sacrificing your own lives? How is someone supposed to take them down?"

"We won't interfere in a fight for dominance."

"So can anyone be an alpha then?"

He sighed, sounding exasperated by her questions. "No, not anyone. It has to be a shifter of the same animal form."

He left her at the door to her bedroom and bade her good night, promising to let her know when Devon woke up.