Fifth Quarter by Tanya Huff Read Free Book Online Page A

face. His chin came to less delicate a point than hers and his cheekbones angled higher and sharper. Combined with the arc of his brows, the length of his lashes, and the wide bow of his mouth, they gave him a feral beauty that would look at home in any shrine of the Wild God. It wasn't difficult to imagine a rack of horns sweeping up off his brow.
     
    Bannon remained quiet, almost withdrawn, while she stared down at his body. Although his curiosity was unmistakable, he was wrapped too tightly for her to separate out any other emotions. She supposed thatwas for the best as her own emotional fabric had begun to fray. This is my brother. This is not my brother .
     
    "Mine…"
     
    "Hush, Bannon, I know."
     
    There was something wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She'd seen Bannon asleep a thousand, a hundred thousand times, but…
     
    But Bannon never slept on his back.
     
    Shifting her grip on the dagger, she reached down with her free hand to lightly touch the broad chest that rose and fell to another man's rhythm.
     
    He opened his eyes.
     
    They were still so dark a brown that they seemed to be all pupil. They looked like they always had and were, at the same time, completely different.
     
    "Now, Vree! Now! The knife!"
     
    Her instant of hesitation was all he needed. Vree suddenly found herself caught up in an iron grip and flung to the floor. She twisted to avoid his knees slamming at her gut, shoved a foot into his armpit, and kicked out hard. She'd sparred with her brother many times in the past, but this time he had all the advantages. He was obviously trying to kill her. She couldn't hurt him. He was rested. She was exhausted. He had a single life driving him. She had two, for Bannon kept flinging bits of her about.
     
    With the pressure of his chest grinding her against the floor, his hand closed around her wrist; the other reached for her throat. To her surprise, she broke his grip with a desperate move that Bannon should have been able to counter easily.
     
    Not all the advantages.
     
    This wasn't Bannon. Aralt might have Bannon's body, but he'd only been in it for hours. He didn't know it. Didn't know what it was capable of. Didn't have the training that made physical responses instinctive.
     
    And a man fighting naked had areas he had to protect—whether he did it consciously or not. She crammed her hip into his groin. When he turned to shield it, she threw her weight against his shoulders and this time, hitting the floor, she rode him.
     
    His skin was cool, smooth. The nest of hair between his legs brushed against her ankle as they struggled. They were so close she could smell the peppers on his breath.
     
    Then the blade kissed his throat and he froze, a pulse throbbing just above the steel.
     
    "Now, Bannon! Do it now!"
     
    She felt him surge forward and for an instant, he was both in her and looking up at her.
     
    Then he was gone. The place he'd been echoed, empty. He stared up at her for another instant, triumphant; then his eyes widened in fear. Then they were a stranger's eyes again.
     
    "NO!" Somehow, she reached out and clutched at the life being hurled into oblivion. For a heartbeat she was Bannon, she was Vree, then, as terror—hers; not hers—scraped jagged edges of panic against the inside of her skull, she slid into darkness.
     
     
     
    Chapter Three
     
    The rough hemp rope abraded skin as the corporal secured wrist to iron bolt. Her mouth set in a grim line, she muttered, "You both should've known better." as she tied off the last knot.
     
    Head up. Don't let them see you're afraid . At the last flogging, the recruit had blubbered like a baby even before the first welt rose on his back.
     
    A tug against the binding nearly brought panic. It was one thing to know that movement would be impossible and another thing entirely to be held immobile. No. Don't struggle. Don't give them the satisfaction .
     
    So maybe it had been a stupid bet. But they'd been cooped up