Scorch by Kaitlyn Davis Read Free Book Online Page B

register her name.
    "Kira!"
    Again, the words were lost to her.
    "I've been saying her name for five minutes,"
a woman's voice called from a few feet away.
    "Kira!"
    Hands grabbed her shoulders, rolling her
over, but Kira's eyes were wide and full of water. The world was a
mix of brush strokes that didn't make sense to her overloaded
brain.
    "Kira, it's Mom, what's wrong?"
    She didn't move.
    "What happened?"
    A deeper voice asked from over Kira's
shoulder.
    She heard the words around her, but didn't
understand them. Her mind had turned red—she was drowning in the
blood settling in her stomach.
    A fissure broke through, cracking along her
brain, forcing foreign thoughts into her frozen senses. They were
white and airy, flecked with yellow. Like balloons, they floated
higher, forging a path through the crimson droplets raining down on
her.
    Kira's mind started to settle. The tremble in
her body slowed and a sense of peace settled over her—a borrowed
sense of peace.
    "I think it's working," a low voice said.
    "Luke?" Kira whispered, reaching her hand out
aimlessly, striking gold as her fingers brushed his warm skin. A
hand clutched hers, trapping her small fingers in a worried
grip.
    "I'm right here, Kira."
    Trusting those words, she blinked and his
face, silhouetted in a halo of gold, smiled down on her. Kira
pulled up, or maybe Luke reached down, but within seconds she was
wrapped in his sturdy arms, letting her cries disappear into the
soft cotton of his t-shirt. His hand ran soothingly through her
curls and he rubbed small circles into her back. He whispered soft,
secret words into her ear, stilling the chills running down her
spine.
    "Kira, what happened?" He asked after a few
minutes, when he felt her heartbeat return to normal.
    Kira shook her head against his chest, "I
can't."
    "Kir—"
    "I can't!" She shouted, jumping out of his
arms to pace across the street. She didn't want to think of it ever
again. She refused to acknowledge the smell still tantalizing her
senses, the new awareness she felt for his warm pulse, the shadows
dancing around her frightened heart. She refused to acknowledge
that the hunger was still there, even as the UV wall penetrated her
skin.
    Luke cocked his head, trying to understand
what was going on inside of her. Above him, with one hand on his
shoulder, her mother stood, looking just as perplexed and
concerned.
    "Pavia," Kira said, abruptly changing the
subject.
    "Over here."
    Kira turned, "Where were you?"
    "Relax, I just took a quick look around. No
more vampires, well, except me of course." She grinned and
shrugged.
    Kira breathed a sigh of relief, glad that the
vampire hadn't witnessed the sun scorch her body.
    "That guy mentioned Aldrich. He was here,
waiting for me, because of Aldrich. What do you know?"
    "I told you we needed to talk," Pavia said
casually while sweeping her long hair back over to one side of her
head, "but it can't be here."
    "Fine," Kira spun on her heels, "Luke, we're
leaving. Let's get Tristan and go."
    "Are you serious?" Her mom squealed.
    "Deadly," Kira said. And it might be. She
needed to get out—away from the Punishers, away from the
conduits—before she went crazy.
    "Kira, you can't just leave and run away all
the time. What about the Councils?" Her mother stepped forward,
ready for the challenge. But Kira knew her real concern; she saw
the panic settling in her mom's eyes, the deep-set fear running way
back to her father's death.
    "Mom, I can handle myself. And the Punisher
Council doesn't even want me to speak. I need to end this—I need to
find Aldrich and I need to kill him. And," Kira paused, her eyes
flicked over at Luke, "and I need to take Tristan home. There's
nothing for me to do here."
    "Kira, I forbid—"
    "Mom, I know you're the parent, but I just
saved your life and I think I deserve a little credit."
    "She'll be fine," Luke said, putting his hand
on her mom's shoulder reassuringly, "I would never let anything
happen to her."
    "But—"
    "I