Shadow Rising by Cassi Carver Page B

Kara’s hand and touched it to his forehead, and at the same time, pressed the fingertips of his other hand above her brows. She felt a strange sensation, like a cat’s paw batting the inside of her skull, and jerked away. “What are you doing?”
    “I’m already finished. Rasi? Your turn.”
    Tyre stepped back, and Rasi took his place. Kneeling beside Kara, he leaned into her and drew a long, slow breath. When he was finished, he stood.
    “Well?” Aiden asked.
    Rasi turned to the blond lord and replied, “She carries the scent of an Aniliáre, there’s no doubt about that. But I can’t place him.”
    Aiden nodded. “And you, Tyre? What do you see?”
    He looked at Kara when he spoke. “She remembers Lord Julian’s face. She’s telling the truth about that, and her memories don’t seem disturbed. Most likely a black-wing has taken his form.”
    Kara shot to her feet. “These are your healers, Aiden? They seem more like your private investigators to me.”
    Aiden placed his palms out. “I have to know what I’m dealing with, Kara. That’s the only way I can help you. You’ll learn soon enough that you can’t believe everything you see.”
    “I know what I saw. It was Julian. He’s confused and alone, and…angry, maybe. But it was him.”
    “Tell me what happened.”
    She crossed her arms over her ribs, hugging herself tight. “I had a horrible night. I was in an accident and saw a couple of people…hurt.” That was all she could bring herself to say. “Tray walked me home, and we had a disagreement with Jaxon and Abbey.”
    To call it a horrible night didn’t begin to describe it.
    Aiden walked to her and placed his hand lightly on her shoulder, as if he didn’t really want to but thought it was the right thing to do under the circumstances. “I’m sorry, Kara. Please go on.” When she stiffened at his touch, he seemed to get the picture and folded his hands in front of him.
    “I decided to take a walk. I walked down toward the bay and started feeling something strange in the air.”
    “Did you hear anything?”
    “No. And I don’t get that. If your warriors are that badly hurt and it happened around me, shouldn’t I have heard something?”
    “The Aniliáre have powers you can’t begin to comprehend. If he didn’t want to be seen or heard, he could will a sphere around himself or whomever he chose. A black-wing can walk among the humans without ever being seen, or if he chooses to be seen, can change their memories with a glance. That’s what we are dealing with here.”
    No flippin’ way. Kara knew the Aniliáre were powerful, but she clearly hadn’t realized the full extent of it. “Okay.”
    “Tell me what happened next.”
    “Well, next I decided to hide in an alley.” Had she just said that out loud? Shit. “Not really hide, but get off the street. Then the next thing I knew, the warrior landed behind me, and when I turned, Julian was there. I tried to run, but I smacked into some kind of force field. He didn’t seem to recognize me.” She rubbed the dried blood from her upper lip.
    Aiden swallowed, his expression grim. “And then he…forced himself upon you.”
    “What? No! God, no. Julian wouldn’t do that.”
    The men exchanged glances. “His scent is all over you, Kara,” Aiden said carefully.
    “Yes, but it wasn’t like that. I was scared, but I’ve just—” she searched for the words and then met Aiden’s eyes, “—I’ve just missed him so much. I wanted to touch him again. I wanted to feel that he was real. I thought he might remember if I kissed him.”
    “ You kissed him ?”
    “Yeah.” Kara ran her thumbnail under the tips of her fingers. She hated the nervous tell, but Aiden was acting like she’d done something wrong.
    “And then you came to your senses?”
    “And then he dumped me on my ass.” If he hadn’t, there was no telling how far she might have taken it.
    Aiden frowned. “Has Jaxon been taking care of you?”
    “Jaxon? What