Read Online Reawakened (The Reawakened Series) by Colleen Houck - Free Book Online Page A

his increasing proximity was setting off alarms in my brain. He gently pressed his palm to my cheek and gazed at me with eyes greener than the grass in Ireland.
    Instantly, I became aware of his unique scent—liquid amber with a kiss of cashmere and a hint of myrrh warmed in the sun. I liked it. A lot. I didn’t want to. My cheek burned where his palm rested, and I found I couldn’t turn away from him.
    With the utmost earnestness, he asked, “Does my touch prove to you that I am a real man and not someone found only in your dreams?”
    My throat had suddenly gone dry. I made an effort to swallow and reply, but instead I focused on his full lips and merely nodded, especially when I realized that I didn’t really know how to answer his question.
    His hand slipped down my face to cup my chin, and he studied my expression for a moment before saying, “You do not need to fear me, Lily. You are hurting because of my actions. Please let me help.”
    After he said that, I was able to focus once again on the throbbing at the base of my neck, the ache in my limbs, and the nauseating quiver in my stomach. I nodded, confused but trusting at that moment, despite the other half of my mind protesting to the contrary.
    Amon took a step closer, miles of bare chest mere inches from me, and even without coming into full-body contact, I felt prickles of warmth sink into my frame like I’d been shot with little solar arrows.
    Closing his eyes, Amon placed his hands on my neck and cupped it gently. The thought briefly occurred to me that I might soon be strangled, but he held me as carefully as a butterfly. He began murmuring and his hands burned in a VapoRub kind of way. My skin tingled as heat ran through my body, shutting off the pain and leaving a blessed numbness in its wake.
    When Amon lifted his head and staggered back a few steps, I could see the cost of whatever it was he had done. His golden skin now had a gray, pasty tinge and his bright eyes looked tired, more brown than green.
    Sinking on to the nearest piece of patio furniture, Amon buried his face in his hands, his chest rising and falling quickly, his breathing as shallow as if he had just run a race.
    “What did you do?” I asked, trying to make sense of what had happened.
    “I gave back some of the energy I stole. Unfortunately, it is only a temporary reprieve, Young Lily.”
    “Temporary?”
    “Yes. The pain will return, but I will share the burden of it for as long as I am able. You must believe that it was never my desire for you to share my fate.”
    “Look, I’m not really following you, fate-wise. I’m just going to assume that you did some kind of hypnotherapy on me, and it worked. So thank you. I feel much better.”
    After a brief moment of hesitation, I sank onto the cushion next to him. His emotions tasted bitter. Assuming he was telling the truth and we were connected, then what I was feeling now could, in theory, be coming from him. Pain. Weakness. And something else…something beneath the surface. It finally came to me: loneliness. As quickly as I made sense of it, the emotion was smothered.
    “Do not delve too deeply, Young Lily.” Amon leaned his head back against the cushion and added softly, “You may not like what you find.”
    He closed his eyes, long lashes casting shadows across his cheekbones. Tentatively, I pressed the back of my hand against his forehead. His skin, which had been full of heat a mere moment before, had turned as cold as ice. “You’re freezing,” I declared.
    I rushed into my room and scooped up my down comforter, stopping to close and lock my bedroom door just in case a parental figure decided to check on me, and headed back to the veranda. After tucking the comforter around Amon, I asked, “Were you serious when you said the sun makes you stronger?”
    “Yes, Lily,” he whispered.
    “All right, then. Let’s get you back into the sun.” I didn’t understand what was happening between us, but his weakness had