Free Mercy by Eleri Stone Page B

herself slipping. He was her enemy. He’d apologized to her.
    “Where’s your boat?” She looked around, shielding her eyes from the bright sun with her hand, and then turned back to Gabriel.
    He tossed her a crooked grin and pulled his shirt over his head. She preferred him nude. He was not built in the elegant lines that wore clothing well. His body was powerful. Thick and strong as a tree trunk. She had the fancy he’d be just as dependable as one, which was a strange thought. She’d never been fanciful. Beatriz often told her she was too practical for her own good.
    She should be thinking about how to outplay her uncles so that she survived this. She should be trying to find out what Gabriel really wanted so that she could use it against him should it prove necessary. She shouldn’t be thinking about hard hands and sweat-slick bodies and rough whispers of trust.
    Still, Iada admired the view until Gabriel said, “No boat. We swim.”
    She scowled. “All the way downriver.”
    “Not quite so far. We cross here then travel overland for a ways.” He pointed. “There. You can see it from here.”
    She made a rude sound. “Barely.”
    “I thought the academy’s champion would be tougher than this.”
    She knew what he was doing but it still stung. Wordlessly she removed her dress and sealed it inside a watertight bag, threading her arms through the straps. They were made of a sturdy elastic material that would adjust when she changed. She’d never gone far enough from the compound to require one of the packs they had specially made to blend in with the colors of fur and jungle. Gabriel left his clothes where they lay. She supposed that he would have a stash of replacements hidden in the jungle near his home.
    “You can swim, right?” he asked.
    She responded with a look of murderous disdain and dived, changing to jaguar form before she hit the rushing water. The strength of the current whipped her from the shoreline. It took all her strength and concentration to angle herself to reach the narrow outcropping Gabriel had indicated. She dragged herself up onto the bank and shook the water from her fur, finding a flat rock to sit upon as she watched Gabriel struggle against the current. She licked some water from her forearm as she waited. No point changing back if he planned to travel through the jungle.
    Gabriel’s claws scored the muddy banks as he pulled himself from the river. He was as fine a specimen in jaguar form as human, heavily muscled and dangerous. She swallowed a purr of appreciation. She had to watch herself in this. Her cat body lacked all subtlety. Instinct was more powerful when she was in this form, all animal urges more intense. Her tail twitched with the concentration it took not to rise up and curl herself around his body, slide slowly down his length and tuck her head beneath his jaw.
    He nudged her to her feet and headed into the tangle of vegetation that walled the river.
    They stopped several times to rest in the shade, once to hunt, once to take shelter when a particularly fierce storm burst shook the canopy and drenched them with sweet cooling rain.
    Gabriel watched her with flat eyes. His intent was impossible to read, his head resting on one forearm, steam curling from his back. When the rain lessened to a mist, he rose up, flicked his tail and led her onward, already miles beyond her farthest excursion. They had rejoined the great river, skirting the small human settlements scattered along its banks. By morning they reached the very edge of the city.
    Iada sat back on her haunches, ears twitching, her nostrils flaring at the assault, and looked upon the dirty sprawling pile of rubble the humans called home.
    ***
    How could they live like this? The noise and the smell were appalling. Add to that the cold, ugly concrete and it was Iada’s personal idea of hell. There were people everywhere. Hopeless eyes. Dirty faces. The young men on the corner tracked their progress down the