Read Online Forsaken: The World of Nightwalkers by Jacquelyn Frank - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jacquelyn Frank
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consideration that he was just a mortal human being and Kamen was one of the most powerful men of his breed.
He was going to kill the bastard with his bare hands. Leo wanted to see how
he
felt while being gutted, flayed apart, and filleted like the catch of the day. Only, the moment he put all of his weight into a lunge for the sick fuck’s throat, all of the strength and energy in his body suddenly rushed out of him, like someone had connected a vacuum to his head, flipped a switch, and sucked up all the energy in his body like lint on a carpeted floor.
His legs turned to Jell-O. His body buckled. And now, instead of pulling Leo back, Kamen was holding him up on his feet. Weak and helpless, there was nothing he could do as Kamen levered him onto an upholstered bench sitting at the foot of the bed.
He was blind with impotent fury as he found himself looking up into those cold, assessing blue eyes.
“If you interrupt her, your friend will die,” Kamen said to him. There was no emotion to the words. It was as eerie as being in the middle of the Bering Sea in a flat calm. An unnatural thing.
“Get your fucking hands off me!” Leo snarled, shoving Kamen bodily away from him, clawing at the hands that were touching him and making his stomach churn. It was all he could do to keep from vomiting on the other man’s shoes. Then again, maybe he should do just that.
Of course, he hadn’t been eating very much lately, so the gist of his stomach contents would be some Jack Daniel’s and a bag of Fritos. Breakfast of champions.
But his efforts to push Kamen off himself were ineffectual, his body so weak he couldn’t even form a fist with his fingers. If not for the bastard’s hands, he realized with anger, he would have fallen over onto the floor.
“I am sorry to have done this to you,” Kamen said, once again that flat, emotionlessness that kept him from sounding anything near contrite. “But you must leave the Night Angel to her business if you want your friend to survive.”
Then Kamen let go of him, and Leo had to fumble out with his hands, trying to cling to the bench and not ooze onto the floor into a puddle of ineffectualness.
“Don’t you ever touch me again,” he spat at the other man. “You hear me? Even if it’s to push me out of the way of a speeding truck, don’t you ever lay another finger on me or you’ll pull back a mangled stump!”
“I highly doubt that,” Kamen said. “But I will do as you wish.”
Leo felt his strength coming back to him, but not in any effectual way. Only enough to allow him to turn and see what was happening to Jackson. He was just in time to see those two blurring halves slowly draw back into Jackson.
The Angel sat up slowly, the movement a little bit graceless, as though she too were drained of strength. She put her hands out against the bed to hold her torso upright.
“His souls are contained, the damage to his aura repaired. But it will wear thin again and develop weakened areas unless his souls are tethered soon. They will bounce against his aura, like a helium balloon bouncing along a ceiling. Eventually the balloon will shrink and wither and finally fall to the ground. The same will happen to his souls. They will shrink and wither and eventually…” She trailed off. Nothing else was needed in any event. She had given them all a very clear picture of what the situation was.
“How do we fix it? What do we do?” Marissa demanded frantically. All of her composure was evaporating. Leo could see it in the slump of her shoulders and the wetness trembling on the tips of her lower lashes. Her blue-green eyes were begging and anguished. It made Leo realize that, one soul or two, Jackson meant the world to her. No matter that the time since they had come together was short and seemingly insignificant in the grandest scheme, there was sharp truth and even sharper desperation of need in what Marissa and her Bodywalker felt for Jackson and his.
“I do not have that
He was going to kill the bastard with his bare hands. Leo wanted to see how
he
felt while being gutted, flayed apart, and filleted like the catch of the day. Only, the moment he put all of his weight into a lunge for the sick fuck’s throat, all of the strength and energy in his body suddenly rushed out of him, like someone had connected a vacuum to his head, flipped a switch, and sucked up all the energy in his body like lint on a carpeted floor.
His legs turned to Jell-O. His body buckled. And now, instead of pulling Leo back, Kamen was holding him up on his feet. Weak and helpless, there was nothing he could do as Kamen levered him onto an upholstered bench sitting at the foot of the bed.
He was blind with impotent fury as he found himself looking up into those cold, assessing blue eyes.
“If you interrupt her, your friend will die,” Kamen said to him. There was no emotion to the words. It was as eerie as being in the middle of the Bering Sea in a flat calm. An unnatural thing.
“Get your fucking hands off me!” Leo snarled, shoving Kamen bodily away from him, clawing at the hands that were touching him and making his stomach churn. It was all he could do to keep from vomiting on the other man’s shoes. Then again, maybe he should do just that.
Of course, he hadn’t been eating very much lately, so the gist of his stomach contents would be some Jack Daniel’s and a bag of Fritos. Breakfast of champions.
But his efforts to push Kamen off himself were ineffectual, his body so weak he couldn’t even form a fist with his fingers. If not for the bastard’s hands, he realized with anger, he would have fallen over onto the floor.
“I am sorry to have done this to you,” Kamen said, once again that flat, emotionlessness that kept him from sounding anything near contrite. “But you must leave the Night Angel to her business if you want your friend to survive.”
Then Kamen let go of him, and Leo had to fumble out with his hands, trying to cling to the bench and not ooze onto the floor into a puddle of ineffectualness.
“Don’t you ever touch me again,” he spat at the other man. “You hear me? Even if it’s to push me out of the way of a speeding truck, don’t you ever lay another finger on me or you’ll pull back a mangled stump!”
“I highly doubt that,” Kamen said. “But I will do as you wish.”
Leo felt his strength coming back to him, but not in any effectual way. Only enough to allow him to turn and see what was happening to Jackson. He was just in time to see those two blurring halves slowly draw back into Jackson.
The Angel sat up slowly, the movement a little bit graceless, as though she too were drained of strength. She put her hands out against the bed to hold her torso upright.
“His souls are contained, the damage to his aura repaired. But it will wear thin again and develop weakened areas unless his souls are tethered soon. They will bounce against his aura, like a helium balloon bouncing along a ceiling. Eventually the balloon will shrink and wither and finally fall to the ground. The same will happen to his souls. They will shrink and wither and eventually…” She trailed off. Nothing else was needed in any event. She had given them all a very clear picture of what the situation was.
“How do we fix it? What do we do?” Marissa demanded frantically. All of her composure was evaporating. Leo could see it in the slump of her shoulders and the wetness trembling on the tips of her lower lashes. Her blue-green eyes were begging and anguished. It made Leo realize that, one soul or two, Jackson meant the world to her. No matter that the time since they had come together was short and seemingly insignificant in the grandest scheme, there was sharp truth and even sharper desperation of need in what Marissa and her Bodywalker felt for Jackson and his.
“I do not have that
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