Tiger Bound by Doranna Durgin Read Free Book Online

that herself—downplaying her ability to discern the visions and what they meant, finding subtle ways to prod people into action if action was necessary—which it rarely was. Distancing herself from the skepticism she’d simply rather not fight.
    Then, obviously uneasy, he added, “But it would change things for me.”
    She got it, quite suddenly—brevis didn’t have any idea how affected he was. And if they found out, it would change everything for him. They’d call him in from the field, they’d call him back into medical...they’d take the tiger from the wild green—from the freedom and the action.
    She’d left them for her solitude; he gambled for the freedom to hunt. Nothing alike, and yet not so very different at all.
    Before she could react out loud, he added, “I’ll call them. This—” he nodded to the back of the house “—is bigger than anyone thought. But until they do send someone else...I will take care of you.”
    She didn’t throw angry words back at him—especially not the all-too-easy like just now?
    Truth was, he had protected her just fine. That she’d looked down the barrel of a gun was her own fault.
    So she let the whole thing go. “But listen to me about that arm, okay? Maybe I’m no Ruger—” Ruger, the ultimate brevis healer—he took the bear, he took care of others and he took care of himself “—but I’m a healer. I’ve had training, I’ve worked in the field. I’m here because I choose to be apart from brevis, not because I couldn’t pass muster.” She made a little face. “I’m a little surprised they didn’t call me in after Core D’oíche. ”
    He shrugged, a one-shoulder gesture. “Many of those who were untouched...they chose to leave untouched. Doing their same work. It—” He made an impatient gesture—an encompassing movement, and she had a sudden impression of strength and wholeness.
    “Kept us as a foundation?” she guessed.
    He looked at her in surprise, as if he hadn’t expected her to understand, and nodded.
    “I warned them, you know,” she told him, unable to hide the tinge of bitterness in her voice. “A month before it happened. But ‘the bogeyman is going to get us’ isn’t much of a starting place. I can still feel that...the darkness from that vision.” She buffed her arms in spite of the day’s warmth. “But compared to what the field agents have been through—and before that, you and Ruger—”
    “And Michael,” he said, looking away from her with an expression gone tight. “And Shea. Because I opened that door.”
    She tried to hide her surprise—that Maks had been with the legendary Ruger when he’d been injured, that Maks considered himself responsible for what had befallen them all. That he’d so quietly taken up such an important role, and so silently borne it. “Your field file is need-to-know about a lot of things like that,” she said. “Are...are the others recovered?”
    “Still trying,” he said. “Like so many of us.” He nodded at the house. “Our friend dropped something.”
    A blatant change of subject. Katie let him have it. She was too busy absorbing the fact that Maks had been on that Flagstaff team. Too busy realizing what it said about his nature—about his place in the Sentinels.
    Brevis may have sent her a wounded tiger. But they hadn’t sent her just any wounded tiger.
    And watching him from behind, she saw clearly what he was— all of what he was: a big man of perfect proportions, his shirt soaked with blood and his arm tucked to his side, his stride powerful and at the same time not quite steady. His tiger strong and close to the surface—and yet his energies damaged.
    Strength in need.
    Ohh, Katie. What have you gotten tangled in?
    She caught up with him, easy strides that bore little resemblance to her deer’s delicate movement. Not for the first time, she wished herself born into a shape of more nobility than a Chinese water deer—an elk, a strong whitetail, even a mule deer.