Read Online Unborn by Amber Lynn Natusch - Free Book Online

survived unscathed. What is your adaptation that serves you so well, since you implied that you were not one who could sense these few supernatural beings originally?”
    “The answer to that lies with my mother—well, Pierson’s mother too, obviously. Do you know of the Banshees?” He took my lack of response to mean I did not. “That’s what she was. I don’t know what Ares was hoping to accomplish through that bizarre pairing, but he seemed moderately pleased by what it produced.”
    “Which was?”
    “A strange bastardization of what our mother could do,” he said, leading me down yet another dark and narrow way. “A Banshee’s wail signaled an impending death, most often the death of someone in a prominent family. That’s what our mother did, but our powers don’t work quite like that. Alone, Pierson sees things, precognition, if you will, but his premonitions won’t necessarily come to pass on their own. They are not always certain.”
    “So he can see where danger lurks and stop it?”
    “Sort of.” He looked befuddled, trying to explain whatever gifts he had received from his mother. “But not without my help. Have you ever heard about twins having strange connections . . . knowing what the other is thinking without saying anything? Feeling what the other is feeling, stuff like that?”
    “No, I have not.”
    “Okay, well, this might sound weird to you then, but Pierson and I have that kind of connection. Like a strong one. When he sees something, I can sense it. I can’t see it, but it’s like he can direct me to it.”
    “This is why he is not out with us?”
    “Pretty much.”
    “Does he not fight at all then? He has the same fierce look as Casey at times, the same that Drew wore before he nearly ended me. Is he not a warrior as the rest of you are?”
    “He is, and don’t ever let him hear you say that,” Kierson warned, his playful demeanor quickly overtaken by one of caution as he caught my arm, demanding my attention. I stopped walking immediately. “He’s a bit sensitive about that particular issue. He tries to make up for that with knowledge, hoping that if he appears superior to everyone else intellectually, he will not be questioned.”
    “Understood.” My eyes looked down to where he still held my forearm, and when his gaze followed mine down to his hand, he released me.
    “Sorry,” he apologized, looking sheepish as he did. eepish Ӏ did. “And, yes, he can fight. If a war breaks out, you want him on your team, that’s for sure. He’s nearly as cold as Casey, and that’s saying something.”
    “How is it that you are so unlike him then?”
    He shrugged, tilting his head to the side.
    “He got the brains and the brawn,” he said quietly, looking over at me with a smile that did not reach his eyes as all his previous ones had. “I guess I just got the good looks.”
    I furrowed my brow, not understanding his logic.
    “But—”
    “It was a joke, Khara. Get it? We’re identical twins . . . we look exactly alike.” When he didn’t appear to get the response from me he sought, a look of exasperation overtook him. “I’m making fun of myself because it makes it easier than having others do it for me. Beat them to the punch, so to speak.”
    His words still perplexed me.
    “You must have brawn if you’re the one out here fighting while Pierson sits comfortably on a couch awaiting your return,” I countered.
    “I guess . . .”
    “Do you kill with ease or not?”
    “Well, yeah, but—”
    “Do you hesitate when the time to strike comes?”
    “Never,” he said, looking offended by the question.
    “And if something evil rounded that corner now and threatened my life?”
    His eyes darkened slightly.
    “I’d tear its fucking head from its body.”
    An unfamiliar tugging sensation plagued the corners of my mouth, and I could do nothing to stop it. What I could only describe as a faint smile ghosted my expression.
    “You see? You have something that