Inferno's Kiss by Monica Burns Read Free Book Online

didn’t comment on Cleo’s change of heart but quickly performed the Curavi . When she finished, Violetta ordered her to rest and left. A healing was always a draining process for both the healer and the injured party, and Cleo’s eyes drooped as the door closed behind Violetta.
    Despite her exhaustion, she struggled with the tangled mass of images shifting randomly in her head. The memory of her mother’s confession made her toss restlessly on the couch. Atia’s remorseful expression fluttered through Cleo’s head. She winced. Maybe Ignacio was right. Maybe she was being too hard on her mother.
    A sigh parted her lips as she realized her mother had only been doing what any good mother would do. Atia had been protecting her. Would she have done any less if she were a mother? Her heart clenched painfully in her breast. She certainly hadn’t been thinking about her unborn child the night she’d gone out on assignment. She could have easily asked for reserve duty until after the baby was born. She hadn’t, and she’d paid the price. It was the last thought she remembered as she slipped into the darkness of sleep.
    Shafts of moonlight streamed down through the girders of the abandoned bridge overhead as she quietly moved forward. A few feet away to her left, she could barely see Lysander’s tall form. That was a good thing. The longer they went undetected, the easier it would be to execute their target. Assassinations weren’t easy. Most of their targets had a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later.
    “Just like we planned, okay?” Lysander’s command echoed quietly in her earpiece.
    “I’m ready if you are.”
    Her whisper seemed to echo all the way up to the train bridge above her head. It made her uneasy. The whole situation didn’t feel right. And that was saying a lot, since she wasn’t like most Sicari females who could sense danger.
    She put the sensation down to an overactive imagination and moved toward the black sedan that was parked at the opposite end of the bridge. She’d gotten halfway to the car when it roared to life and gravel sprayed everywhere as the car spun out from underneath the bridge and onto the nearby pavement.
    “What the—? Cleo, we’ve got company.”
    Lysander’s clipped words were followed by the sound of a sword hitting metal three times in rapid succession. Instinct made her pull her sword out of the sheath on her back and whirl around all in one fluid motion. Even as fast as she moved, she still failed to block the sword coming at her. The Praetorian’s finely honed blade sliced into her raised forearm as neatly as if he were slicing a piece of steak.
    “Goddamnit. Son of a bitch.” A soft chuckle followed her cry, and her gaze met the menacing amusement in the man facing her.
    “You’re quite right, Unmentionable,” the Praetorian murmured in a silky tone that was all the more unsettling because of its pleasant sound. “My mother was a bitch. A Sicari bitch who had the decency to die giving birth to me.”
    The callousness of the statement made Cleo’s blood run cold. This guy was more malicious in his hatred than most Praetorians she’d encountered. His sword headed toward her again, and she quickly shifted her weapon into her opposite hand to block and parry. The instant her blade cut into the man’s chest, she saw the surprise on his face. She managed a tight smile of satisfaction.
    “Didn’t expect to meet a switch-hitter with a sword, did you, you sorry ass bastardo ?”
    With a vicious oath, her opponent swung his sword in a furious round of strikes that had her stumbling backward. His skill was on the same level as hers, but it was the strength of his blows she couldn’t match. And the option of darting out of his reach wasn’t really a viable one when the guy was almost two times her size. The Praetorian’s sword sparked against hers as the two weapons slid downward against each other to lock at the hilt. The gleam of triumph in the man’s