Read Online Cursed: Brides of the Kindred 13 by Evangeline Anderson - Free Book Online

pain? How did you…make it less?”
    “I can’t for much longer.” Stav gritted his teeth. “How long does the medicine take to work?”
    She shrugged tiredly. “I don’t know. Twenty minutes?”
    Stav took a breath. Twenty minutes. It’s not that long. You can bear anything for twenty minutes. And you can’t leave her like this. You can’t.
    He didn’t know why but it was true. He was as incapable of walking out of the room knowing she was in pain as he had been when she had chained him to her sleeping platform and held a weapon on him. It was as though, in some strange way, he was still chained—chained to her.
    “Fine,” he growled. “But I’m not sitting on the floor for twenty minutes.”
    He stood wearily and gathered her small form into his arms.
    “Hey!” She struggled weakly. “Hey, what are you doing? Put me down.”
    “No,” he said shortly. “And stop fighting me—I am too tired for that now.”
    Though she continued to protest, she went still in his arms and he was at last able to relax back against the cushions of the chair. He held her gently but firmly against his chest and found that, though he was still taking half her pain, it was much more bearable this way.
    “Why are you doing this?” she whispered, going limp against him.
    “I don’t know,” Stav said honestly. “Gods, if I did, I’d be a wiser male than I am now.”
    He closed his eyes tiredly and let the agony roll through him. Twenty minutes, he reminded himself. You can do anything for twenty min—
    “ Stavros? Commander Stavros Rii?”
    The voice in his head made him jerk and caused the female in his arms to moan. Unconsciously, Stav rubbed her back soothingly as he answered the call.
    “ Who is this? Are you bespeaking me from the Mother Ship?”
    “ I am—or have been trying to for hours. This is Commander Sylvan of the High Council. We have need of you here.”
    “ But I—” Stav began.
    “ I know you don’t want to leave your post but you must. There is a mission only you can perform, Commander. The fate of the Kindred and of the entire planet Earth may rest on it.”
    Stav sat up straighter, the borrowed agony flowing through his body almost forgotten.
    “ Of course, Commander Sylvan—what must I do?”
    “ First we need…you up here. But…very…”
    “ What?” Stavros strained to hear the voice in his head. “I’m sorry, Commander Sylvan but the transmission is breaking up.”
    “… quickly!” the voice of Commander Sylvan echoed in his mind. “But…careful. Dark…very…must not…”
    “ What? I can’t hear you!” Stav sent with frustration.
    “… dangerous!” was the last word he caught and then the strange, temporary link Commander Sylvan had somehow been able to establish with him was gone.
    I can’t wait anymore, he thought, looking at the female in his arms. I must go now. I have to get back to my shuttle and get to the Mother Ship now—tonight!
    But what to do with Charlotte? She was in the grip of unspeakable pain. It might have eased the tiniest bit but it was still horrible. Stav felt strongly that he couldn’t leave her this way.
    Why leave her at all? whispered a little voice in his brain. Why not take her with you? The more he thought of it, the better the idea seemed. After all, she had admitted that no one here on Earth could help her with her desperate medical condition. Maybe someone on the Mother Ship could. Also, this way she wouldn’t get into trouble with her superior for losing him. She could simply say she’d been kidnapped. The conflict with Earth would surely be over soon and she could be returned to her home planet unharmed, as a heroic prisoner of war.
    Mind made up, Stav rose, lifting her in his arms. The pain was still bad but easing bit by bit. Now that he had a direct course of action, he felt more than able to carry her out to the car and get where they needed to go.
    Charlotte, however, seemed to have other ideas.
    “Hey, wait!” She