Read Online Kindred of the Fallen by Isis Rushdan - Free Book Online

said.
    “Let me heal you,” the young man said, hustling toward a sleek black car with tinted windows.
    “Get on the road, away from here first.”
    The boy nodded. “I didn’t see the merc until I circled back around the block. I’m sorry.” He opened the car door.
    Serenity slid Cyrus inside and scooted beside him. Cassian got behind the wheel and pulled into traffic.
    Cyrus crumpled into the leather seat. She probed his chest, gingerly.  
    Golden light streamed in the transparent roof, casting a spotlight on his injury. One shot had hit him square in the shoulder. Burnt flesh puckered, forming blisters over his tender pink skin.
    A sob escaped from her lips.
    “I’ll be okay,” he reassured with a groan. He was hurt because of her.
    “What were you doing there?”
    “You said no to dinner. I was hoping you might say yes to a respectable lunch.”
    Tears slipped from her eyes. She couldn’t bear the sight of him in pain. Her gaze flickered over the raw tissue, singed and swollen. The gun had torn through steel. Yet, he sat next to her, flirting, with nothing more than a flesh wound. “How are you alive? You should be dead.”
    He brushed her cheek with the back of his hand. “I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
    “How can you make jokes? Those men almost killed you and carted me off to—”
    “I would never let any harm come to you. I would die to keep you safe.”
    Her eyelids fluttered as she gawked at him. She’d known Cyrus less than two days, but believed him.
    “Did they hurt you?” He raised his injured arm to caress her face and winced.
    She shook her head. “Who are they?”
    “Mercs.”
    “What?”
    “Mercenaries that will do anything for a paycheck. They work for   a global consortium, Gallacom Industries.”
    “What do they want from you?”
    “It’s complicated. The consortium sees our kind as a threat that has to be stopped, and if they take out a few of us along the way, they don’t care. They’ve been aggressive with no regard to the loss of lives. But I’ve never dealt with an open attack by them before.”
    The fall down the elevator shaft must’ve given him a concussion, scrambled his head. Our kind? What was he talking about? “You’re not making any sense.”
    “They’re unscrupulous people that will do anything to get to me. I’m sorry. I didn’t think they knew about you.” He sucked in a breath as if it hurt to talk.
    She put a hand to his clammy cheek. “Pull over and help him now,” she said to Cassian.
    “No.” Cyrus shook his head, breathless. “We should get farther away first.”
    “Yes!” She looked at the young man. “Please, help him.”
    Cassian veered onto the shoulder of the Major Deegan Expressway and came around to the back. As cars whizzed past, he unbuttoned Cyrus’s shirt and peeled the fringes away from the charred skin of his right shoulder.
    From what she could see of his exposed torso, he was muscular perfection. Only the burned lesion marred his body.
    No one had ever risked their life to keep her safe. Evan had rearranged his schedule once to accommodate her need for a vacation, but she had to repay him by playing hostess at a dinner party for one of the partners.
    Cyrus sat beside her, injured and hurting, asking for nothing in return.
    A warm glow kindled in her heart. He held her with his gaze, cradling her soul, and smiled, despite the pain. The glow deepened, filling her with sheer splendor.  
    Cassian placed his hands on Cyrus’s chest. Before her eyes, the seared wound lightened from charred black to pink, until his beautiful skin was no longer scarred. Her jaw dropped as she stared at his shoulder. He was completely healed. But that was impossible.
    Rasping in deep breaths, the young man grinned. Then he lumbered back to the driver’s seat, put the car in gear and sped off.
    Doubting her eyes, she clasped Cyrus’s cheeks, needing to check him with both hands. Uneasy amazement rattled through her as she skimmed his neck