Ravens by Kaylie Austen Read Free Book Online

He wanted to kiss her badly, but this wasn’t right,
not now, not like this.
    Instead, Liam kissed her forehead and
whispered into her ear, “Kendra.”
    Liam moved to the foot of the bed. The
escalated awareness of the attack faded and he returned to his natural, playful
demeanor. He took notice of Kendra’s attire and grinned. What was she supposed
to be anyway, a super hero? Certainly the hottest one he’d ever seen.
    Kendra rested on his bed, completely
passed out. He slipped off her boots, taking hold of one calf at a time, being
generous with his time, and stroked her skin with a thumb. He reminded himself
this was not an illusion, but reality where Kendra existed in his perilous
world.
    Before taking the covers, he glanced at
her tattoos, and smiled to himself. She took the idea from his ink, and
imprinted his memory on her.
    Liam pulled the sheets to Kendra’s chest
and sat on the recliner in the corner. He watched her, observed her as reality
seeped in. The first half of his plan was completed, and he could only hope the
latter half would follow just as smoothly.

Chapter Six
     
    Kendra moaned in the aftermath of the
bizarre transportation.
    She had a splitting headache. Her body
quivered and ached as if she finished many days of insane weight training.
Drawing her petite fingers to her forehead, she rubbed hard to push away the
pain. It didn’t work.
    What an abnormal night.
    Kendra’s lids felt heavy when she opened
them to a blurry gray and blue room. She lurched up in bed and panicked. Within
a few minutes, clarity stepped in. Colors and objects came into view. She fell
back against the pillow and sighed. Thank goodness, she hadn’t gone blind. On
the other hand, she didn’t recognize her surroundings.
    In the quiet day, light entered the room
through breaks in the blinds. Black curtains, pulled above the window, revealed
a blazing red sun with solar flares so close it was impossible to fathom they
hadn’t scorched Earth. A giant red sun wasn’t normal.
    She sat in a simple bed in the corner
with white linen and two pillows. The sparsely decorated room had a white
five-drawer dresser and mirror across the way near the foot of the bed, a white
bedside table to her left, and a white recliner near the door.
    She pushed aside the sheets and swung
her legs over the side of the bed near her boots. She slipped into the tall,
black heels and zipped them as quietly as possible. She stood, a bit wobbly at
first, but found her balance.
    She crept across the room, careful when
opening the door. She peered out into the living room, which appeared to be
nothing out of the ordinary. There was a dining table near the front door,
cornered between the modest kitchen and the living room. There was another door
to her right, down a short hallway. She peered into the adjacent room. The
currently unoccupied bedroom had splashes of vibrant orange, pink, and green,
obviously a teenage girl’s room.
    Kendra crept toward the front door,
making note of the sound of a shower.
    The water turned off just then, ending
with a slight squeak of an older faucet. Kendra froze. She didn’t have time to
panic. She had to get her tail out of here. Admittedly, fear crawled into her
reflexes. She sucked in a breath, attempting to regulate her heartbeat so her
actions moved with less jarring mistakes.
    Her host only needed one stalled moment
to appear.
    Someone opened the bathroom door. Kendra
jumped around and froze. Her only movement being heavy breathing and the
flutter of her lashes set against wide eyes. She stared at the young man who
nonchalantly stood before her, and who looked like the Liam from her dreams.
Water beads dripped from his wet hair onto his neck and torso. They streamed down
to the white towel that clung loosely over low hips.
    His auburn hair, a wet mess, stuck to
his forehead and flickered over his brows, which arched in curiosity of his
visitor. He looked down at her through thick lashes. Black sclera set