Read Online Jaguar Night by Doranna Durgin - Free Book Online Page A

right. “That can’t be the same wound.”
    Her face held the smallest of smiles. “My mother’s herbs drove off the Core poison,” she said. “You think they can’t deal with a couple of scratches?” But she shifted so the window light hit her skin, and he saw the remains of the bruising, the clean red puncture marks. “It’s still sore,” she admitted. “But give it another day.” She slid the tunic sleeve back into place. “There’s a reason I don’t use those herbs for everyday injuries.”
    So she thought like a Sentinel, even if she didn’t want to. Low profile. “It would draw a lot of attention if you healed overnight from every bump and bruise.”
    She brushed a self-conscious hand down the front of the tunic. “Bad enough they’ll wonder why I’m in townclothes with a horse coming in any time now.” But of course a plain T-shirt or tank top would have revealed the wounds—and her healing rate.
    She gathered the throw and draped it over the back of the rocker as she went to the window, looking over the back edge of the property, the intense blue sky filling the window. Light shone through the gauze tunic so the tank top outlined her spare shape in clear silhouette—strong shoulders, the nip of her waist, the flare of her hips and a tight, toned bottom.
    Dolan scrubbed a hand over his face. It still felt like someone else’s hand, not quite doing his bidding, tingling painfully in every joint. “I didn’t mean to take your bed.”
    She turned, startled, a three-quarter view he found just as arresting. “This? This is the guest room.”
    Which would explain why it held so little of her personality. And yet…he gave the chair a pointed look.
    She turned away again. “I headed for my room, and somehow I ended up here instead. I just felt…I just…”
    “There’s something,” he said, realizing it himself as he watched her stiff back.
    “From last night,” she said, barely audible—but her resentment was clear enough.
    He didn’t answer. He didn’t think he needed to. It was obvious enough to both of them. He turned to other matters from the night. “The Core came in on a sending mist,” he said. His hand clenched into a fist—and that, too, felt like someone else’s doing. “I don’t know how. They shouldn’t have been able to find me. And what they did with that mist…I’ve never seen anything like that before. The Core has some new toys. I need to warn—”
    Her back stiffened even more; her head snapped around. Her hair, of course, had loosened in its ponytail, and strands of hair fell at the sides of her face. Dolan felt a barely perceptible thrill of alarm…and he didn’t think it was coming from within. No, it came from her.
    “I almost forgot,” she said. “I think they were here. Or not them, but…something. I just happened to… look.” She glanced at him, a question on her face—seeing if that was enough, if he understood.
    He understood, all right. He understood that she used her skills on a daily level in ways she didn’t even think about. “There was a…” She shrugged. “A grody spot. I’ve never seen anything like it. It came right through my mother’s wards, too—good strong ones.”
    “And?” he demanded.
    She laughed, but it had a hint of darkness in it. “You think I’d have come back for a nap if that thing was still heading toward us? I slammed it between two ward lines.”
    “You did what?” His explosion startled her—and then her eyes narrowed, her sharp jaw going hard. “You think they’re not going to be just a little bit curious about who obliterated their little toy? You think they won’t come looking? You should have led it astray, weakened it slowly—let them think their damn probe failed!”
    “I shouldn’t have brought you back here!” she said, just as vehement as he’d been. “The probe wouldn’t have mattered if you weren’t here. And you shouldn’t have come in the first place!”
    Astonishingly, he