Read Stephanie Rowe - Darkness Unleashed for Free Online Page B

his mind, spirits lodged in the depths of her existence. Her emotions flooded him. Fear. Regret. Determination. Love. A sense of being trapped.
    Trapped? He understood that one well. Far too well. Instinctively, he flipped his hand over, wrapping his fingers around hers, not to trap her, but to offer her his protection from a hell that still drove every choice he made.
    He heard her suck in her breath, and she went still, but she didn't pull away from him. Her hand was cold. Her fingers were small and delicate, like fragile blossoms that would disintegrate under a stiff breeze. A hand that needed support and help.
    Ryland snapped his eyes open but there was no one standing in front of him. He looked down and could see only his own hand, folded around air. He couldn't see her, but she was there, her hand in his, not pulling away. "Show yourself to me," he said. "I won't hurt you."
    Her hand jerked back, and a sense of loss assailed him as he lost his grip on her. "No!" He reached for her, but his hands just drifted through air. "Catherine," he urged, as he strained to get a sense of her. "I—"
    "Ry."
    Ryland spun around at the sound of Thano's strained voice. His teammate was a hundred yards back, hunched low over Apollo's neck. On his knees beside them was Zach, who was slumped against a tree. "Shit!" He bolted out of the graveyard and sprinted over to the others. He knelt beside Zach. The warrior looked up, and Ryland saw that the edges of both eyes had a faint orange glow. The discoloration was creeping inward, and Ryland knew that when it took over the entire iris, Zach would die and become a talrak.
    Quickly he ripped off his heavy jacket and handed it to Zach. "Put this on."
    "Fuck that, I don't get cold."
    "The talrak venom is poisoning you. You can use all that fire inside you to burn it up and hopefully slow it down, but if you're expending energy toward keeping warm, you'll lose the battle sooner. Wear the damn coat."
    Zach met his gaze, then swore and grabbed the coat.
    As he wrapped it around him, Ryland looked up at Thano. "Got space on that horse of yours?"
    Zach snorted. "I'm not riding that thing—"
    Apollo stomped his foot and swished his tail angrily.
    "We need to move fast," Ryland said. "Faster than I'm going to let you push yourself." He looked up at Thano. "Yeah?"
    Thano looked at the horse, who snorted and bobbed his head. "Yeah, it's cool with Apollo."
    Ryland didn't waste time asking Thano why he was asking permission from a horse. He simply picked up the dying warrior while Apollo went down on one knee, lowering his massive body. Knowing he didn't have time to honor Zach's protests to stay on his own feet, Ryland set him astride in front of Thano, ignoring his muttered resistance. The younger warrior locked a weary grip around Zach's waist.
    Ryland realized that Thano looked almost as weak as Zach. Adrenaline flooded him, an urgency to get his team to safety. "You think you can hold him in place?"
    "Shit, yeah. Youth is a powerful thing, old man. You forget that sometimes."
    Ryland laughed grimly as Apollo stood back up, his well-muscled frame towering above Ryland. They had to hurry. But what about Catherine? Without her, the Order was in trouble. Shit! He quickly assessed his options and came up with the only plan he had time for. He reached out with his mind to Thano. Catherine is hiding in the graveyard. I need to trick her into going to the village so I can grab her there. Follow my lead.
    Thano raised his eyes. Deception? I love it. Bring it on.
    Ryland nodded, then put on a serious expression. "We have to stay here and find Catherine," he announced, even as his instincts were shouting at him to get his teammates to safety immediately. One minute. That's all it would take to get the ball rolling to make sure Catherine stayed safe while he handled his team. "I know she's in the graveyard." Tell me that Zach's dying and we need to get the hell out of here. Suggest the village to the north. We