Read Online Caged Warrior by Lindsey Piper - Free Book Online Page B

wasn’t even six. He would never outgrow this cruelty.
    In the end, Audrey’s survival instinct had been too strong. Over and over, she’d decided
     to give them one more day. One more chance. She hadn’t been able to abandon hope.
     She’d cursed it almost as often as sheclung to it—almost as strongly as she’d clung to her little boy.
    She was swathed in darkness once again, yet she wasn’t holding Jack. No slight warmth.
     No soft breathing when he finally drifted toward dream. Not that his dreams were without
     trauma. Even there he was not free. His nightmares broke her heart.
    She’d rather have a broken heart than empty arms.
    Her back ached. Regret and uncertainty were parasites digging into her mind. She was
     to become a Cage warrior. The decision whether to release Jack from that misery was
     no longer hers. Instead, she would free him and rebuild their lives. She had the power
     to make it so.
    You blew the roof off Dr. Aster’s lab.
    She no longer needed to wonder why she’d been plucked from one hell and deposited
     into another. New questions sprouted.
    How?
    Since when?
    And why this dread in the pit of my stomach?
    Every part of her body hurt. Her scalp burned where Leto had dragged her across the
     floor. Her arm creaked where he’d yanked it behind her back. Her gut cramped where
     he’d kicked her. The energy beneath her skin stung with pain close to pleasure. At
     least this pain had purpose.
    Audrey curled into herself like an infant in a bassinet. Only by remembering long-ago
     Tigony techniques for calming her restless mind did she finally feel the warm blanket
     of sleep.
    For a moment.
    A key rattling at the end of the sloping corridorroused her with a start. Noise meant danger. She was on her feet in an instant. Cold
     made her clumsy. She wobbled, focusing beyond shadow after charcoal shadow. Yet her
     muscles responded with surprising grace. The aches had eased. She buzzed with the
     need to move.
    “Awake so early?”
    She flinched away from the sudden spark of the two bare lightbulbs. But even that
     disoriented sense returned more quickly. Had releasing her powers done something?
     Maybe it was nothing more than shedding the sluggish hopelessness of Dr. Aster’s lab,
     but she doubted it. She wished she could remember or understand. Then she might feel
     more satisfaction, and banish the queasy, lingering dread. She didn’t have time for
     unknowns.
    Leto stood half a dozen feet away. He wore similar armor, but this set was free of
     damage. His right shoulder was covered by alternating layers of metal and leathers
     of different thickness and texture. The other shoulder was bare. Striated muscles
     flexed and shifted with every small movement. Biceps, forearms—even his hands. He
     was the most impressive man she’d ever seen. Something out of an impossible fantasy.
     Darkness and intensity. Vigor and power. A pulse of purpose surged in constant waves
     from his magnificent body, potent enough to feel against her skin.
    A man in control.
    A man who needed her.
    That she could be of any importance to such an intimidating mountain of skilled, deadly
     brawn almost made her laugh. No way. For Dragon’s sake, she’d clipped coupons and taken Jack to Mommy and Me swimming
     lessons. She was no warrior.
    Her amped-up body and sharpened senses said otherwise.
    She had no chance at survival, let alone rescuing Jack, if she didn’t transform into
     something like Leto of Clan Garnis.
    She nodded toward the small crisscross of surgical tape, where she’d pierced his cheek.
     “The bandage doesn’t suit you.”
    “Then don’t strike me again.”
    “I’m going to land as many blows as possible.”
    The heavy bag he dropped at his feet sounded overly loud in the cell. Two shields
     followed with twin clangs of steel against rock. “You’re in a mouthy mood. No breakfast.”
    As if spurred by the mere mention of food, Audrey’s stomach chose that moment to rumble.
     The guards