Read Online Wild Hunt by Bilinda Sheehan - Free Book Online Page A

smacked of hypocrisy of the highest order.
    Her hand whipped out faster than lightening and wrapped around the wrist where the Heart Hound had sunk its teeth into me. Something sparked between us and I felt her draw whatever magic existed within the Heart Hound’s venom out and into her own body.
    My back arched as she tugged it free, my breath whooshing out of my body. I didn’t even have the chance to fight against her. Images filtered into my head but they were so garbled that I found it impossible to latch onto them in any real, concrete way.
    Sounds filtered through and arms that felt more like tree trunks wrapped around my chest, jerking me back from Lily and breaking her grip on my arm.
    “He wants you, Amber. He’s not going to stop until he wins you over, and when he does, then the real fun will begin!” she shouted after me as I was dragged back out of the room and dumped unceremoniously on the floor.
    Guards flooded into the room and Lily screamed in rage, power sparking to life and illuminating the white walls as she tried to fight them off. But they’d weakened her, she hadn’t lied about that, and I pushed onto my feet as one of the guards caught her across the back of her neck with the base of his baton.
    Surging forward, I followed them into the room, but someone grabbed my arm and jerked me back into the hall as Lily’s howls of pain and terror set the other prisoners off. Her screams were joined by the howls and mournful cries of the other inmates.
    “Get off! You can’t do this to her, she wasn’t trying to hurt me!” I said, fighting to shake free of Jason’s grip.
    Bringing my fist up, I caught him across his jaw, but the blow seemed to bother only me and pain flared across my knuckles. His hold tightened and he swung me around so my back slammed into one of the white walls behind us. Stars exploded behind my eyes and the white gleam off my surroundings did nothing to help the situation.
    “Stop fighting, you’re only making it worse,” he said, gritting his words out between his clenched teeth—it was then I glanced up into his clouded white eyes.
    “You can’t let them treat her like this. You can’t let them treat any of them like this. It’s wrong, we both know it is.”
    Jason shook his head and cast a quick glance over his shoulder into the room behind him. Lily screamed again, pain contorting her voice into something inhuman.
    “They’re monsters,” he said simply, and his words hit me like a blow to the stomach. And then Nic’s words rang again in my head. He likes you. If it were true, then perhaps I could manipulate him, make him feel differently.
    “No, they’re not, they’ve still got rights like you and me and she doesn’t deserve this … please…” I said. The words tasted like ash on my tongue but I poured as much pleading into my tone as I could muster. The urge to force my way past him and destroy everyone in the room beyond was almost unbearable but all that would serve to do was to get me caught, too.
    Jason swayed for a second and then turned away from me with a groan. He strode into the room and I shifted away from the wall, my head and back throbbing as I shuffled forward to the doorway.
    In the time we’d been in the hall, the guards had managed to get Lily pinned on the floor, her face pressed into the white floor. But she’d managed to do a little damage of her own and several of the guards lay scattered around the cell like broken rag dolls. From their moans, I could tell she hadn’t killed them, but there were definitely bones broken.
    “Get off her, she doesn’t need to be pinned,” Jason ordered and the guards reluctantly released their hold on her as he crouched next to her.
    A woman kneeled next to Lily’s head, her hands moving in time with her lips as she wove an incantation. One of the guards who had been holding Lily pulled a syringe and a small bottle of clear liquid from the one of the many pockets covering his body