THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

way my body responded as it began to heal.
    Renewed strength poured through me. Ready to be whole again, I shoved the energy hard throughout my belly and side so quickly it ricocheted back to my hands.
    He grunted in surprise, having been the conduit between my hands and body.
    I opened my eyes and closed my fingers around his. He had large hands, calloused fingers. I felt a pulse beating through his hands, pumping harder the longer he stayed still.
    His face was so close to mine, I could see each long brown eyelash around his intense eyes. Was he breathing faster?
    From the effect of healing me...or being so close?
    I was breathing pretty fast myself.
    As for my organs, my heart beat just fine, pumping with the speed of a cougar running across an open field. I was afraid to move and break whatever spell had wound around us.
    My gaze moved to his lips, so firm and masculine.
    That pushed everything out of my mind except one strumming thought. I wish he’d kiss me .
    He leaned toward me as if drawn by my thought.
    My heartbeat raced out of control. Our faces were inches apart. I could smell his warm skin, a musky scent heated from battling the croggle.
    Movement drew my eyes to his chest where the strange colors on his skin shifted, a lot, morphing in hue and shape. I whispered,“Why does your skin change?”
    He jerked back, withdrew his hands and stood. The shapes on his skin became fixed again. “Are you healed?”
    What happened? Did his strange skin embarrass him?
    I didn’t think so. No, I sensed anger, but why?
    “Are you healed or not?” he repeated, snapping out the words as if I was taking a long time to decide if I wanted to live or not.
    I surveyed my stomach. Where I’d had a long welt before there was now a smaller scar line. Looking up at him, I said, “Looks like it. Thank you for saving my life.”
    It took him a few minutes to decide on a reply. “You’re welcome.” 
    Accepting my appreciation hadn’t been easy for him, especially from someone he believed to be his enemy.
    But joining hands with him to heal myself must have cracked his conviction. “So we’re clear now that I’m not a tek-nah-tee, right?”  
    “I haven’t decided. How’d you make the croggle burn?”
    So much for no tek-nah-tee can heal himself . I had no better answer about the croggle now than the one I’d given him earlier. “I wish I knew.”
    “Let me know when you’re ready to risk the truth.” Disgusted, he turned, searching the distance. “Time to go.”
    I uncurled my fingers, regretting the loss of touching him. Even without my memory, I knew on a deep level that I had never met a boy like him, and yet the word boy just didn’t fit in the same sentence with Callan. Besides being ripped with muscle, he had an air of maturity that came from carrying responsibility for many lives.
    Warrior, through and through.
    I still wanted him to kiss me.
    A sure sign that I’d taken too many hits to my head today. Twisting, I pushed up to my feet.
    And caught his gaze whip to my chest. My half shirt had ridden up dangerously high but still protected my modesty, though barely. I gave a little tug on the torn edge and heat ignited in his eyes, simmering beneath a barrier of strong will.
    Snapping up the spear that had been stabbed in the ground, he turned to walk. “Keep up.”  
    I tried out a few steps and suffered no sharp pains so I hurried to catch up, striding beside him as much as I could along the narrow path. The area around us confused me.
    “This looks different than where we passed through earlier on our way here.”
    “It is,” he said, not slowing or looking at me.
    I took in our surroundings that seemed more open, less thick brush and lush vegetation as before. I couldn’t help but point out, “Seems like it’d be easier to have your village in this terrain. Less lethal than near the jungle.”
    He made a scoffing sound that ended with him saying, “Think we’re stupid as dugurats?”
    What had Tony said that sounded like? A moron? “I have a great deal of respect for all of you who have survived living here. I’m sincerely interested in knowing how all this works.”
    Still no answer. “Can’t you, for one minute, accept that I really don’t know what’s going on? If I did, would I be fighting croggles and staying captive if I was with those scouts?”
    Ten more steps then Callan said, “SEOH built the framework of the village where it is. We’ve been too busy surviving to