Read Fractured Soul for Free Online

killed one, doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous.”
    I looked at him, surprised.
    “Yeah, I know what you did,” Jackson said. “The other Auras may not, but most Guardians do. We’re all aware of how Christian screwed up.”
    Heat rose to my face. “He did not screw up! I snuck away so no one else would get hurt.” Calm down , I told myself. I don’t have to tell this guy anything.
    “It doesn’t matter what you did. Christian should’ve been there. It should’ve been him who killed the Vyken, not you.”
    “Why?”
    “Because you’re an Aura. You’re incapable of killing.”
    It was my turn to look at him as if he were the idiot. “But I did kill one, and I was just fine. In fact, I liked it.” Hearing myself say this was the one thing tonight that had managed to frighten me.
    “Then there’s something wrong with you,” he said, as if that was the only explanation.
    “I don’t have time for this.” I took a step toward the shadows.
    Jackson grabbed me by the arm. His grip was incredibly strong. “I can’t let you do that.”
    I shrugged his arm away. “You don’t have a choice. I’m not a prisoner.”
    He considered this. “Fine, but if you insist on running out here then I’m going with you.”
    “You sure you can keep up?” I took off before he could answer.
    Darkness swallowed me the moment I entered the old forest. There was something strangely seductive about the way the dark felt against my skin, cool and tingly, and I liked the way it made me feel as if I was running faster than I actually was. Before I could stop myself, I began to giggle.
    I raced through the trees, sometimes swinging from a branch to help myself over thick shrubs or dips in the landscape. There was nothing to slow my pace except for Jackson, who wasn’t doing too bad of a job keeping up. I turned a sharp corner into a small clearing and stopped abruptly. The forest felt different here, even smelled different, like burnt pine needles, and I had the strange feeling that I’d crossed over into someone else’s territory.
    Behind me, Jackson said, panting, “That was incredible! I never run like—” he froze as if he were sensing the same thing I was. He stepped in front of me and returned to his soldier-like stance.
    Not more than twenty feet in front of us, a wall of trees, black as night, appeared to shift. Something moved within it. My pulse quickened when a throaty growl, low and deep, filled the air around us. The hair on my arms rose.
    “Run,” Jackson whispered.
    I was about to take him up on his offer when a voice said, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” From the shadows, a Vyken in his pure form stepped out. Air caught in my chest, and I almost choked on it.
    The Vyken wore normal clothes, jeans and a dark T-shirt, but there was nothing normal about him. A leather-like skin, black in color, pulled tight around his face, but in some areas the skin stretched too far, creating cracks and spaces where yellowed bone, specifically on his cheek bones, shined through.
    As horrible as his appearance was, it was nothing compared to his dark, sunken eyes. They begged for an audience, a theater production of the worst kind of violence imaginable. I stumbled back, a wave of nausea threatening to collapse me, but Jackson caught my arm.
    “Get back, Vyken,” Jackson said.
    I forced my gaze down and stared at the ground while I tried to overcome the effect the Vyken had over me. I shook my head, wondering again why this was. Auras couldn’t “feel” Vykens. At least that’s what Sophie had told me, and my mother had been killed by one whom she considered a close friend, so obviously she couldn’t. Christian once spoke of an Aura in the thirties who could do the same thing as me. “It’s a gift, Llona,” he’d told me. Looking at the Vyken in front of me, I wondered if it was more of a curse.
    The Vyken raised a leathery finger toward me. “I want that one.” A string of saliva dripped from his