Read Genesis: A Soul Savers Novella for Free Online Page B

collapsed. Then the wolf saw me coming and ran away, probably to its death.”
    “You didn’t make sure? You didn’t kill it yourself?”
    When Jordan didn’t answer, Cassandra cut her eyes toward him. He shook his head, without further explanation. He hid something from her, she could tell, but she had more pressing issues to worry about. She lifted Niko’s arm and draped it over her shoulder.
    “Well, if you won’t help me, I’ll do it myself.”
    She hoped Niko remained unconscious because he would never understand how a woman half his weight could carry him. Jordan rolled his eyes and blew a frustrated grunt through his nose. Then he rose to his feet and lifted Niko’s limp body in his own arms.
    When they entered the hut, Cassandra’s eyes immediately slid to Father’s empty bedding. But she just couldn’t disturb it. Not now. And not with a filthy, bloody stranger. She gestured to Jordan to lay Niko on her own bedding. With a patient to tend to and her brother nearby, the overwhelming loneliness disappeared. She went to work, cleaning Niko up and caring for his wounds.
    Jordan collapsed into his own bedding and fell right to sleep. Cassandra stayed by Niko’s side throughout the night, though he remained unconscious the entire time. His skin flamed with fever and she rubbed water over his body to cool it. The herb treatments in his wounds kept turning black, gagging her with a bitter odor and requiring her to change them frequently. As his life signs became stronger, he slept more fitfully, tossing and thrashing, crying out and whispering, “Man-wolf.” But by the time the sun rose high in the sky, the herbs no longer turned black in his wounds, his skin no longer burned with intense fever and he settled into a calmer sleep.
    Jordan finally awoke, barely glanced at Niko’s sleeping form and set out to hunt and gather fruit. He stayed away throughout the morning and into the afternoon. Niko never woke, never even stirred. Cassandra looked longingly at Father’s bed as the thought of a nap tugged at her barely coherent mind, but she was afraid to leave Niko’s side. His life signs remained weaker than normal and his skin still felt warm, but not as hot as he’d been through the night. She made herself stay awake until Jordan could relieve her. Surely he had enough compassion to keep an eye on the sick and injured man long enough for her to get a little rest. But when he returned, he had no interest in staying for long.
    After they ate a meal of rabbit and berries, he asked her to go outside with him. Cassandra looked at Niko’s sleeping form and sighed. She didn’t want to leave him in case he woke, but anything she and Jordan had to discuss—their father, their belongings, their future—this stranger didn’t need to hear. She followed Jordan out the door and far into the clearing, which was turning gray in the fading light of dusk.
    “We need to leave in the morning,” Jordan said as he turned around to face her.
    She blinked at him. “Leave? Why?”
    He’d just brought home a month’s worth of supplies. They would only need fresh food, easily found in the nearby woods and streams. Why did they need to go already? And did he actually plan to take her with him? This caught her by surprise, but the thought of leaving crushed her heart. This was the last place Father had been. The last place she’d ever feel his presence.
    “I’m not leaving,” she said before Jordan could even explain his reasoning. “Not yet.”
    “Don’t you want answers?”
    “Answers to what?”
    “To what Father revealed to us. He kept it hidden all these years, so there must be a reason he told us. Don’t you want to know what that reason is? Don’t you want to know more about us?”
    “And just where do you plan on finding these answers?”
    Jordan’s eyes lit up. “There are others out there like us. I know where to find them.”
    Cassandra’s eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about? You know others