On the Prowl by Eileen Wilks

Author:Eileen Wilks [Eileen Wilks]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780425216590
Google: A6LFwLzRmjYC
Amazon: 0425216594
Publisher: Berkley
Published: 2007-08-06T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

NATHAN turned and gripped her arms. "Kai. I didn't know—I never guessed… let me hold you. Let me hold you a moment." But he didn't wait for permission, just wrapped himself around her. Gradually his ragged breathing eased.

So did hers. "Okay," she said into his shoulder. She dragged in one more long, uncertain breath and lifted her head to look at him. "Okay. What is a binder, and why does everyone think I am one?"

"They see your energy, your Gift. I don't have that vision, so I can't say what they are seeing, but… the chameleon, Kai. You tied her to you. She asked. You didn't force her, but you… it didn't occur to me because you're so whole, but this is a thing a binder does."

She swallowed. He thought she was a binder, too. He just didn't want to. "So what is a binder?"

"A rare type of telepath who tampers with others' thoughts, binds their will. They are terribly dangerous, because so few can guard against them. Queens' law calls for… it is death to be a binder."

Kai had heard of blood running cold. She'd never experienced it until that moment, and didn't like it at all. When in fugue she could tamper with thoughts. She even wanted to, because some patterns were so sad and wrong…

"No, Kai," he said firmly, as if he were the telepath, not her. "Binders are warped. They are moral infants who understand only their own needs, their own wants. You aren't like that."

"I'm not like a regular telepath, either." Not that there was much regular about telepathy, but—oh, God. These people wanted to kill her—not for anything she'd done, but for what she might do.

She had to think. Kai squeezed her eyes closed and tried. "This examination she wants to give me… it's not a true-false quiz."

"No. It can be—almost surely will be—painful. She has entry to me because of our bond, but to find the truth of you she'll have to force her way in. If…" He ran his hands down her arms to take her hands. "If she finds what I know is true, Kai—that you don't tamper with others' will—she might not kill you."

Kai licked her lips. "I was hoping for something more certain, like she won't kill me."

"She won't," the Huntsman said matter-of-factly. "I will." He squatted beside Dell, scratching behind her ears. The big cat purred for him. "Nadrellian—no, it's Nathan now. I need to remember that. Did you know Dell was a mage's familiar?" He snorted. "Illegal in several realms, to take a chameleon for a familiar, but not a violation of Queens' law. But that's why Dell needed the connection, the communication, so much. Why she knew how to find it, too. When the power winds blew, her master… who seems to have been an idiot," he added, giving Dell's chin a good rub, "wasn't he, girl? He was killed, and she was blown here."

"The power wind blew in Dell's realm, too?" Kai asked, startled.

His eyebrows jumped in astonishment.

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