Blood Moons by Alianne Donnelly Read Free Book Online Page B

matter how softly he walked. The guard was almost there. A few more steps and he'd reach the cell.
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    Blood Moons
    by Alianne Donnelly
    Tristan closed his mind to him, but not before catching a glimpse. The man was deprived, living light years away from his wife, and he meant to take it out on Dara. She reminded the man of his old college crush and he wanted to seize a missed opportunity.
    Tap, tap ... tap.
    No more time to think.
    Tristan threw back his blanket and moved without thinking. He slid off his bunk and onto hers in one fluid motion. His body hid hers from sight completely. As his weight settled on her, she woke, her eyes open wide but unseeing in the darkness. Tristan put a hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. "Don't make a sound," he whispered into her ear, so close his lips brushed its delicate edge.
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    Blood Moons
    by Alianne Donnelly

Chapter Five
    She was suffocating in the darkness, unable to breathe—
    not because of the big hand covering her mouth, or the body on top of hers, pressing her down—but because air suddenly didn't exist.
    ...gonna have me a good time tonight, oh yeah. 'Bout damn time too—shithole can drive a guy out of his fucking mind ... just a little game to start ... fucker better not give me any more grief...
    Dara balled her hands into fists, her entire body tensing in fear. Images flashed through her mind's eye; she was lost in them, unable to see what was real and what wasn't. In the night, in the nightmare, phantom hands grabbed at her: invaded; hurt. Her eyes watered.
    Fantasies. Sick, sick thoughts. Anticipation.
    Hungerlustsexsexsexgonnahaveittonight. I will. I will.
    Willwillwillwillwill...
    Dara bucked, thrashed, tried to escape her own mind. It wasn't him. It wasn't the man on top of her thinking those things. It was the one outside.
    Security officer Alexander James Blanc.
    Coming closer. Closer. Step. And one more. Drooling for her. Groping himself.
    ...sweet piece of asssssssssss...
    Dara cried out, the sound muffled by Hunt's hand over her mouth. She bucked again, but it felt as if the entire world was pinning her down. She didn't gain an inch. Terrified, she 58

    Blood Moons
    by Alianne Donnelly
    fought harder. "Let go!" she screamed in her mind. Needed to run.
    "Nowhere to run," Hunt replied, trying to calm her.
    "Then I have to hide!" Dara could feel Hunt in her mind now, heard the sound of his breath and felt compelled to match it. Inhale, exhale. In and out. It hurt, as if the air was being forced in and out of her lungs.
    "Hide in your mind," his voice said. "Go somewhere else,"
    he whispered to her, and with no other recourse she grasped onto the sound. Followed it out of the terror. Ran toward something else. Anything.
    She fell into another mind—Hunt's.
    Heart thumping quickquickquickquick. Breathe slow—about to lose it! No! Won't hurt her. Pain at the base of his/her skull, washing over him/her. Head pounding with it. Muscles tensing. No! Growling. Low, animalistic; fury and wrath manifesting in sound. Will kill the fuck first. Snap his neck and feel the bones break.
    Dara couldn't fight that maelstrom. She cringed and cowered, her body going tense, wanting to curl into a ball, but unable to move.
    He sensed her then. Thoughts quieted, a soft vacuum around her where nothing made a sound. She was in a black fog, but it was warm, and the fear faded. She could breathe again.
    "Don't be here," he thought, and she knew he was speaking to her. Next to her ear, he whispered, "In your mind. Don't be here. Go somewhere else." She was already moving, leaving; being pushed—pulled?—back to herself.
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    Blood Moons
    by Alianne Donnelly
    "Think of something other than him. Think of your castle, and the bonfire and dancing." Dara squeezed her eyes shut and let it happen. Before the noises and nightmares could claw at her again, she built her castle around herself, the walls rising toward the sky. Armies were at the door; she could