“Help me,” she urged, not knowing who she asked. Tears ran down her face. She would not lose him. Not now. They’d just found each other. So what if she wasn’t a Healer. The wolf would be her friend. If she could just keep him alive.
Chapter Four
It had been so long since she’d had a friend, the word was more concept than emotion. But she’d do just about anything to keep Rune alive. For him to die because he’d been protecting her would open the scabs coating her heart all over again. She’d tended those scabs ever since her parents’ deaths, adding magic to make them impervious to stray emotion. In spite of all that, Aislinn knew the truth. She was scared shitless to peer beneath them. The tough girl veneer she’d cultivated these past three years was only the thinnest of coatings.
Her heart thudded against her ribs as she worked on the wolf soaking the ground in front of her with crimson streaks. Please, she sent up a prayer, hoping someone was listening. Don’t let him die.
She berated herself, muttering, “Shouldn’t waste my breath. Rune needs all my attention.”
Blood welled, hot and sticky on her fingers. The coppery smell was thick in her nostrils. She willed the blood to stay within, sent cells from her own body through her fingertips with instructions to patch the punctured blood vessel. When the flow didn’t stop, panic filled her, but she shoved it aside. I have to believe I can do this. She lectured herself. That’s how magic works.
Aislinn wasn’t sure how long she knelt there, weaving water, fire, and her own flesh into the blood vessels in Rune’s neck. Finally, when hope had nearly died within her, the blood slowed, then stopped.
Rune, who’d somehow stayed upright through her ministrations, sank to his haunches, panting. He leaned against her. “Bond mate,” he breathed. “Thank you.”
She sent her Mage senses into him. He was well enough to travel. Mage magic knew things. It also helped with what she’d always thought of as parlor tricks. Things like seeing through walls and finding water. Seer magic, which she didn’t have, foretold the future—at least, parts of it—and could alter the flow of time.
“We need to leave,” she told Rune.
“Not a Hunter. Not a Healer. Yet, it would appear you are both.” His voice was thick, but he was talking, goddammit. And thinking, too.
“Never mind that. We need to get out of here before those two who left come back with reinforcements. I was afraid they’d show up while I was working on you.” Her face twisted, as if she’d bitten into something sour. “I don’t know what I would have done if that happened.”
“Well, it didn’t. No point in borrowing trouble, human.” Gathering his feet under him, Rune stood and shook himself.
She thought about asking for his help, but decided not to. He needed all his energy to finish healing. Running the geography of what had been the western United States through her mind, she settled on a jump that would bring them to the eastern reaches of Nevada. Not too far. It should be within the scope of what magic she had left.
She gazed back at the bomb shelter. It would be convenient to bring some of the food along, but she couldn’t transport aluminum cans. The one time she’d tried, the cans had burst, made a god-awful mess in her rucksack, and peppered her back with sharp bits of metal. Generally, anything traveling had to be either flesh and blood, or something inert strapped to her body—like clothing or a backpack. Her dirk and cook pot didn’t pose a problem, but they weren’t sensitive to pressure changes like canned food. She blew out a tired breath. All the more reason not to go too far. She’d have to hunt once they got there. If she brought them out in one of the many mountain ranges in that region, there’d at least be cover.
“Ready?” She reached out a hand to stroke Rune’s head.
He moved to her side. He was still panting and seemed wobbly, but determined. Holding an image in her head of where she wanted to go, she drew her traveling spell again. Weightlessness began in the soles of her feet. She tightened her arm around Rune and willed them out of there.
The wolf did something while they were en route. It felt as if he pushed himself inside her body, merging with her. It made things easier, so she didn’t fight the sensation. But it was so unusual that it took her breath away. It was like she looked through two sets of eyes and heard through two sets of ears, her common world overlaid by the wolf’s enhanced senses. She’d expected the journey to be dull, but it filled with unexpected wonders. Scents bombarded her. She smelled growing things and wild horses and bees at work. The scent of honey was so thick, it almost coated her tongue. An eagle’s hunting cry came out of nowhere, followed by a pack of wolves howling.