Read Online Blaze of Memory by Nalini Singh - Free Book Online

incite even worse pain. Instinct rose, wiping out the civilized man and the cold control of metal both. “You want to cause an aneurysm?”
    Katya felt her entire body tense at the unsheathed blade of his voice. “I just want to remember.” The edgy response came from a new part of her, a part that hadn’t existed before she woke in the hospital bed; a part, she thought with wonder, that was fresh, unbroken . . . the phoenix part.
    “The memories won’t make you who you were before.”
    “I’m not sure anything could.” Her throat dried up as she glimpsed a flicker, a bare splinter of lost time. “I was so cold.”
    “You were Silent.”
    “Yes.” She stared out at the traffic in the next lane, everything moving at a crisp pace that ensured there were no log-jams inside the city as there had been in the late twentieth century. If a manual driver deviated too much from the optimum speed range, the car’s backup system would kick in, putting it back in sync with the rest of the traffic. It was all about programming. Just like her mind. “I’m a blunt instrument.”
    There was no warning. One moment she was speaking, the next she felt her eyes snap shut as her spine arched in screaming pain. Then ... nothing.
    “Katya!” Reaching out as Katya’s head fell limply to the side, Dev grabbed her wrist. Her pulse was strong, but irregular.
    Where the hell was the exit? There! Pulling off, he managed to get into the parking lot of a huge mall situated on the very edge of the off-ramp. Undoing his safety belt and moving around the car to open Katya’s door took only another few seconds.
    “Come on,” he said, cupping her face, “wake up.”
    When she didn’t respond, he focused his residual telepathic ability and spoke to her, hoping the call would reach her on some level, stir her back to consciousness.
    Katya.
    A hiccup in her pulse.
    That’s it, your name is Katya. “Come back to me. You’re stronger than this.” Another hiccup. “Katya.” It came out as a caress, a spoken kiss.
     
     
     
    Caught in the sticky strands of the cobweb that seemed to be growing ever stronger, Katya stilled, listened, heard a name. Hers? Yes, she thought, fighting the fog, fighting to wake up. It was hers. The first breath was a coughing rush, the second full of the exotic scent of a man with not-brown eyes and skin of such a beautiful shade that she wanted to taste it. “Katya,” she said, her throat strangely raw. “That’s me.”
    Dev’s hands tightened on her face, his cheekbones cutting against that golden brown skin. “We need to get you back to the clinic.”
    “No.” It came out without thought, an instinctive response. If he took her back, she’d be trapped again—and she needed to get moving, get there. Where? Shaking her head to clear the fog, she reached out to touch his shoulder. Muscle flexed under her palm, and her thoughts threatened to scatter.
    Then she saw the determination in his eyes and knew she had to speak. “I think it was a response to a trigger of some kind. The words I said... there was something in them that my brain couldn’t process, so it shut down for a few seconds to allow me to reboot.”
    Dev’s expression changed, becoming almost ascetic in the stark purity of its focus. “It’s coming back to you, isn’t it?”
    “Things come out of my mouth,” she told him, her gaze locked to his, “and then I know them.” It made sense to her, but she could see he wasn’t convinced. “I’m not misleading you on purpose.” It was so important that he believe her, that he know her, though he was all but a stranger.
    But Devraj Santos wasn’t a man who’d ever give her an easy answer.
    Now, his lashes came down to hood his eyes for a second before he said, “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.” Getting up, he motioned her out of the car. “We might as well take a break so you can eat a bite.”
    She stared at the mall, at the mass of people, and felt herself shrinking back.