Jared Read Online Free PDF Page B

confrontation.
    Raisa slept on top of him, a softly curved, sweetly
trusting, completely oblivious weight. He gently eased her to the side. She
moaned as soon as her shoulder hit the cold floor but didn’t wake. Just
shivered and pulled the blanket over her.
    Sitting up, he frowned down at her. She should be
awake, her senses screaming the same warning as his. But she wasn’t, which just
highlighted all the more why she needed protection. He lifted her head gently
and eased the backpack under her cheek before getting to his feet. With a
subtle manipulation of energy that went no further than the illusion, he
removed the concealing barrier. Raisa murmured. Jared glanced at her. She was
frowning in her sleep, looking completely insubstantial beneath the blanket.
The urge to return to her was overwhelming. The need to wipe the frown from her
face almost a compulsion, which made absolutely no sense. He barely knew the
woman.
    His gaze lingering on her, he flexed his fingers,
loosening the muscles before reaching for his rifle and stepping out into the
cave.
    It only took a second to restore the barrier, this
time with a time limit on the duration. Just in case he didn’t make it back. He
wasn’t really worried, but there was always an off chance something could go
wrong, and Raisa seemed to be the type who’d bitch up a storm if she were
entombed for eternity. He smiled as the illusion fell back into place,
irrationally amused at the thought of her angry, those brown eyes snapping with
that inner fire he felt in her and all that passion she suppressed raging free.
He bet she’d be the type who brought intellect to an argument. The type to keep
a man on his toes.
    He glided to the front of the cave, staying out of the
fading light, taking stock of the situation as he did. The falling night was
crisp with the promise of snow, ripe with the energy of those who tracked him.
They were making no attempt to hide their presence, which just served to make
him suspicious. Either they were extremely cocky or they thought he was stupid
enough to be so easily tricked. Either way could work for him.
    He waited ten minutes, until the light had faded to
the point that it would be just a discomfort on his skin, before he slipped out
of the cave. When he was two miles away, he released the barest hint of his energy,
keeping his path due west toward the heart of the mountains, away from
civilization. If they were smart, and he was sure at least one of them was
above average in the brains department, the unwavering determination of his
path would get them thinking along the lines of why he was heading so
purposefully in that direction and perceive his presence as a potential threat
to the secret compound the Sanctuary had there. Which would keep them from
exploring the area where he’d tucked Raisa.
    An echo of their energy bounced back to him. They were
taking the bait. Whatever was in that compound must be mighty important to have
them charging after him just because he was heading in that direction.
    Jared would have loved to actually check out the
compound. That was his primary reason for being out here, but with the
complication of Raisa, he didn’t dare risk it. He had a duty, first and
foremost, to get her to safety. He hit the button on his cell phone that sent
out the single signal—too short to be traceable—that said he was aborting his
mission, but that it was safe for someone else to try. If the three key
Sanctuary leaders were truly going to gather here in the next few days, the
Renegades needed to know it. Catching the bastards in one place would go a long
way toward ending the civil war that had started six months ago.
    There was just nothing like a bunch of immortals
throwing a hissy fit to upset the natural way of things. And things were
getting pretty upset. If they kept it up, the mortals would figure out they
weren’t alone in the world, that their Halloween tales were actually reality,
and then there’d be hell to