Summoned and Bound (Summoned Series Romances Book 3) by Susan Hayes Read Free Book Online Page A

we’re getting out of here. Both of us. Ak and Az would kill me if I showed up at the outpost and admitted I left you behind, so you are going to have to come with me.”
    Instead of the smile he’d hoped to elicit, Gwyneth sighed. When she lifted her head to look at him, her quicksilver eyes were stormy with regret and sadness. “I may be able to get you free of this place, but I won’t be going with you.”
    “I’m not leaving you behind. My entire race was created to protect your race. There’s no way I’m going to abandon you to your master and his apprentice.” He reached between them until his fingers brushed the edge of her slave torc. “I want to see you without this vile thing wrapped around your neck.”
    That light contact shifted the metal away from her skin, revealing the rise of an angry red welt beneath the metal. “What in the hells?”
    “I’m supposed to be treating your injuries, not the other way around,” Gwyn said before moving his hand away from her throat.
    “That was when I thought I was the only one who had any injuries,” he grumbled and batted away her hand to lift the collar again. The inflammation only appeared where the metal made contact. Everywhere else her skin was pale as moonlight and without flaw.
    “It’s the collar,” she finally admitted. “The spells etched into it are designed to capture and twist the essence . Since that same essence flows through me, the two are in constant conflict. The more I use my powers, the worse the reaction. Today I cast a fair number of spells. Thus, my skin is inflamed.”
    She said it calmly as if she were discussing the weather and not her perpetual suffering. It made him wonder how much pain someone needed to endure before it stopped mattering. He wanted to take her away from this cursed place and find a way to protect her from ever hurting again. The feeling was almost overwhelming, hitting him harder than any blow he’d taken during his testing. He’d felt it before, last night. At the time, he’d assumed it was because she was an elemental, the first one he’d come across in so long that his deep-seated instinct to protect were kicking in. Now, he wasn’t so sure.
    In many ways, the Garda were like their creators. They could both channel the essence to teleport themselves short distances and create portals that allowed them to move across worlds or even planes of existence. They were both similar in appearance, and both races were gifted with the ability to recognize their soulmates. Mates were drawn together, aroused and intrigued by each other, their unique energies harmonizing. Because of his singular birth, Vamir never expected to feel another soul call out to his. He thought he would live his life alone. What he felt for Gwyneth, however…he was starting to think he’d been wrong.
    “Will the ointment you brought for me work on you as well?” he finally asked, veering away from that line of thinking.
    Gwyn didn’t know what to make of the man who held her so gently and who cared about her comfort. In the short time she’d known him, Vamir had shown her more tenderness and compassion than she had experienced in her entire life. “It’s what I normally use, yes. But you have to let me see to your injuries first. After all, I am not the one currently bleeding on the only blankets we have.”
    “Shit! Sorry.” He started to get up, but she put her hand on his chest to stop him.
    “Stay still, Vamir.” She added a tone of command to her words, and the collar forced him to comply.
    “That was sneaky,” he muttered, shooting her a baleful look.
    “I will not apologize for making you hold still. It’s for your own good. I still have to clean up the rest of you and then apply the ointment. Please let me do this for you.” Her throat tightened as she forced herself to confess the truth. “It’s my fault you were beaten like this. I want to try and make up for it.”
    He tried to reach for her, but the collar