Lucas’s brows dropped so low I couldn’t see his eyes. “You’ve shifted to different things when you Jump?”
“Yesss.” The word came out as a hiss, as the bones in my body contorted, developing a second ribcage that lengthened to accommodate four long equine legs, the first two of which extended out over the waistband of my rather stressed leggings.
The agony robbed me of breath, and I was barely aware of what I was saying. “Was even a boy, once.”
I heard a mental curse from Havoc. And suddenly Lucas was front and center, pushing Rafael aside. “She’s changing into a Centaur.”
A Centaur? How was that possible? It sure hurt, and hurt bad.
Lucas gripped my hand. “Focus on me, Riley. You have to think of yourself asyou. How you look, how your body feels, even how you smell. Get that impression fixed in your mind.”
That’s what Kiko had said, too. But I was in so much pain, I couldn’t even think.
“Riley!” Lucas shouted at me, gripping me by my shoulders. “Focus! Think of you. And only you. You have to ignore the pain.”
Easy for him to say.
“Listen. I’m not sure why this is happening to you, but it’s still a type of shifting, and the way you are doing it is dangerous. Focus on who and what you are as a human.”
All I wanted to do was curl up and die.
“Do. It. NOW!” Lucas insisted. His fingers dug into my skin.
Behind me, someone else lifted my upper body into his lap. Cool fingers stroked my brow and soothed away some of the pain. And a scent wrapped around me and sent my pulse to pounding.
“Breathe, Riley,” Rafael said. “Let me help you.”
Let the wizardling do his thing, Dreambitch.
I’m not a dream anymore. As nicknames go, it’s lame.But I had no problem following directions. I’d let Rafael do anything, frankly.
It should have surprised me, but it just seemed soright. After the rejection from my two other men, his gentle touch penetrated straight through my turmoil. And he smelled like sin itself. I couldn’t find the words to describe it adequately—warm and musky with overtones of spice—I only knew that I wantedmore.
“Let me in, Riley,” he whispered.
In answer, I turned my head against his arm, and breathed him in. He bent over me, and his energy reached—wrapped around the piece that was purely me. And then he pulled it to the surface.
Reversing the changes hurt even worse than before, and I writhed in his grip, my four equine legs lashing out and almost nailing Lucas.
“I’m sorry,” Rafael apologized. “My healing power is in pieces. I can control, but I can’t do much for the pain.”
Iskar had said that he’d beencontrolledby Rafael. It sounded so sinister, but he had hold of that which was me, and I wanted his help. Two of my equine legs altered into my human ones, the other two vanished into my torso, and the long body shrank, then wrapped in smooth human skin.
Every inch of it was excruciating.
Rafael’s fingers stroked my brow. “That’s it. Just breathe.”
I did, grateful for the retreat of pain.
Isobel taught him well.Havoc didn’t sound quite so frantic now.
I was too dizzy to come up with something snappy.Isobel is a bitch.
Isobitch,he agreed.
Rafael’s fingers continued to trace circles over my temples. “So, you’ve changed shape before?”
I nodded. “I think it has something to do with the Jumping. I must absorb forms from those I’m near.”
