Blood Knot Read Online Free Page B

hug a black cloud. It eluded her at first. There was nothing to grip. Then she simply stepped inside it and…inhaled.
    The agony tore through her like burning. She thought she screamed.
    “ Winter, what are you doing?” Sebastian was shaking her.
    “ Healing you…” she whispered. Or perhaps she just mouthed the words.
    She inhaled and struggled and fought. She would not give up. Not Sebastian.
    And then it was done. The cloud was gone. Sebastian’s heart beat normally. His systems were correct, proper, normal. Sweet and clean.
    But Winter knew something was very wrong with her. There was no euphoria this time. She blinked, trying to bring her vision together and look at Sebastian.
    He was staring at her. So was the guard.
    She lay half-way across Sebastian’s chest, her hand on his neck.
    “ Your eyes,” Sebastian breathed.
    “ They’re fine now,” she said.
    “ They changed,” Sebastian told her flatly.
    “ Bring the guard here. I need to touch him,” she said urgently.
    The guard started to scramble to his feet, but Sebastian snatched out his hand, grabbing the guard’s ankle and dragging him back within Winter’s reach. The guard kicked and struggled until Winter circled his ankle with her fingers. She sent him to sleep. It took effort to do it and made her feel sick. But he went limp and began to snore.
    “ Fuck…” Sebastian breathed.
    Winter took a few breaths, then reached into the guard’s brain and wiped his recent memories. It took the last of her dwindling reserved.
    Black sickness swamped her, making her giddy. She tried to quell the nausea, but it wouldn’t go away. “Something’s wrong,” she muttered.
    “ No kidding,” Sebastian replied, staring at the peacefully snoring guard.
    “ I can’t fix myself,” she gasped, clutching at her head. The darkness was looming larger within her, demanding and sucking at her. Pulsing. Blooming.
    Sebastian cupped her face. His gaze was steady. “What do you need, Winter? It’s yours. Just name it.” So strong. So dependable.
    She bit back the first truthful, harmful words that bubbled to her lips. Instead she settled for the practical. “Get me home, Sebastian.”
    Then she surrendered to the blackness.

Chapter Three

    NATHANIAL STARED UP through the big basement windows at the noon-day sun, which at Montana latitudes, was low overhead. He had been standing that way for a full ten minutes since she had finished relating how Sebastian and she had completed the Sumitomo job.
    Now he turned back to face Winter again. “You didn’t take anything out of the vault,” he said.
    Winter blinked. Of all the startling facts she had handed over, Nathanial chose to focus on the booty they had hauled or not hauled out of the bank?
    “ Why do you care what we took with us?” she asked.
    “ Verification,” he replied. “I was told the Sumitomo job was a raging success. You just told me another version that doesn’t seem to…match.”
    “ You don’t trust me. I’m wounded,” she said dryly. “What do you think happened? I did Sebastian in, drained him and now live off what’s left of his blood?”
    Nathanial smiled. “Your blood fever was real enough. You wouldn’t limit your blood supply by killing the source. But there is a discrepancy here. You didn’t take anything from the vault.”
    “ No,” Winter said flatly. “And the contract I took had a confidentiality clause, so let’s drop the subject.”
    Nathanial’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t take anything. You put something in there.” He smiled. “The data centre. That’s why Sebastian went in. He’s the computer expert. Something…a trojan or a phishing module, or even a piece of hardware sitting unobtrusively on a server, sending data to the right people. That’s why the contract specified no one must suspect that a break-in happened. That’s why Slavomir passed up the two million dollar pay off—because he couldn’t figure out a way to do it. But you could, because