Read Online Inferno (Book 4 The Kindred Series) by Erica Stevens - Free Book Online Page B

her
conflicting feelings about Julian either, didn’t want him to be
hurt anymore than he already had been.
    She didn’t want him to experience what
she had gone through; didn’t want him to know what had been done to
her at all. She knew that she could not keep it hidden from him
though. If she tried to do so, it would only cause him more
distress and doubt over her feelings for Julian. She could sense
that he already felt shut out, that he was threatened and confused
by her relationship with Julian, and it was making him even more
volatile and unstable. She could not continue to let that happen,
it would only result in more devastation, and next time she might
not be able to stop him.
    Slumping against him, Cassie gave
herself over to his questing mind. All of her barriers slid away as
she allowed him in, letting him see it all. She knew she risked his
rage again, but she couldn’t hurt him anymore. She needed him far
too much, and loved him far too much to keep anything from him. Let
alone something as important as this. He cradled her gently, his
hands entwining in her hair, holding her tight to him as her
memories, and her terror, enveloped them both. She could feel his
shock, his horror, his sorrow as he cradled her tighter, seeking to
comfort and soothe her, seeking to try and take her pain from her.
His love enveloped her, wrapping around her, easing the torture of
her soul as only he could do.
    She could also feel his pain, the
constant struggle he had been going through since she had been
taken. She could feel the battle he had waged to keep himself under
control enough to find her again. For if he had lost control, he
would have destroyed everything in his path. He would have become
much like the mindless monsters stalking this town. She could feel
the agony that her loss had caused him, the torment that had
plagued him endlessly. She could feel his fear about her
relationship with Julian, a fear that was eased by the taking of
her vein.
    He withdrew from her, his head dropping
into the hollow of her neck as she held him tight. His lips were
warm against her neck; his body trembled as he held her close to
him. He licked her wounds gently, closing them with the healing
agent in his saliva. She shuddered at the feel of him against her
skin, at the wonderful touch of his tongue against her.
    “I’ve warned you repeatedly not to put
yourself in my way,” he whispered, nuzzling her ear gently with his
nose and lips.
    Her fingers curled tighter into his
back as her knees began to tremble. “I’ll always put myself in your
way,” she whispered. “I’ll always be here for you.”
    His lips moved to her cheek, brushing
gentle kisses across her face, her nose, her lips and then back
again. “My Cassie,” he breathed in her ear. “It’s not your fault
what they did to you in there, you did not deserve it. And you
aren’t in love with him. You were just confused, lost, wounded, and
you were brutalized both physically and psychologically. You care
for him and he kept you alive and sane, and you love him, but you
are not in love with him.”
    She burst into tears; her knees gave
out as she fell against him. She hadn’t realized until then just
how much she had needed his forgiveness, his love, his
understanding. She hadn’t realized just how much she had feared her
strange feelings for Julian, her sudden, binding connection to him.
But Devon had seen it all, and he had understood it all. And
because of his unconditional love, and understanding, she was now
able to understand it better too.
    She also hadn’t realized just how much
she had blamed herself for what had happened in there. She had gone
against her own kind by loving Devon, and she was abnormal,
different from the rest of her kind. She was an abomination,
lacking and dangerous in ways that none of the rest of them were.
But his forgiveness, his words, helped to ease the torment and self
hatred that had lingered in her soul, eating her alive from