Inferno's Kiss Read Online Free Page B

her that she could never have children, she’d gone looking for trouble. She’d found three different Sicari warriors at the White Cloud estate and deliberately insulted them.
    It had been her attempt at cathartic exercise. It hadn’t worked then, and she doubted it was going to work now. Mario would have been just as happy listening to her rant as he was to spar with her. But she needed to do something, and she wasn’t ready to talk just yet. From the confusion on his face, though, she was certain he was wishing he’d offered her a bottle of beer instead. She grimaced.
    Despite the short time they’d known each other, Mario knew her pretty well. Maybe not as well as Lysander and others she’d grown up with. But she and Mario had shared almost as many secrets between them as they had shared glasses of wine. She’d met the martial arts instructor several years ago when she’d visited Rome on assignment. They’d become fast friends and drinking buddies.
    She should have realized he wouldn’t beat her into the hazy oblivion she was seeking. Christus , if she’d given it any thought, she should have gone out looking to spill Praetorian blood. She needed something to help her forget that her mother had been lying to her for years about her father. She was the daughter of a Sicari Lord. A fucking Sicari Lord.
    How in Jupiter’s name was that possible? She didn’t have the tiniest bit of Sicari abilities. No healing powers like Phae. No sensitive abilities like other Sicari women. Okay, maybe a molecule of precognition, but that was so fleeting and unreliable, it didn’t count. Hell, she didn’t have a drop of telekinetic ability her mother possessed.
    “Come on, Cleo. I think you’ve had enough.”
    “ No,” she exclaimed in a hoarse voice. “ I decide when I’ve had enough, not you.”
    “Damnit, Cleo. I don’t want to hurt you,” Mario snapped with frustration.
    “Fuck you.”
    She wanted to numb the pain in her heart. A workout to the point of physical exhaustion might help her accomplish that now. She forced herself to block out the physical pain and got to her feet. Limping her way back across the training mat, she met Mario’s exasperated gaze. With a jerk of her head, she invited him to attack her again. This time she wasn’t going to let him past her defenses. The martial arts instructor shook his head in disgust as he reluctantly stepped forward.
    With several quick hand strikes, she forced Mario into a defensive position. Deliberately ignoring the pain signals shooting up her injured leg, she kicked her good leg upward and landed a hard blow to the trainer’s solar plexus. He staggered back, and Cleo leaped forward to throw two more hard punches to first his chest, then his side.
    Mario landed flat on the hard rubber of the training floor with a thud. It should have made her feel good to drop him to the ground. It didn’t. Instead, her desire to kick someone’s ass was still pounding its way through her veins. Deus , where was a Praetorian when you needed one? An image of her dead brother flitted through her mind, as did the sound of her mother’s cry of pain. Her throat closed up at the memory. Swallowing hard, Cleo limped across the mat to stand over Mario.
    “Again,” she said viciously. “And don’t hold back this time.”
    “ Christus , what the hell is the matter with you, Cleo?” her friend exclaimed fiercely. “If I really let loose on you, you’re gonna get hurt.”
    “Again, you son of a bitch. Just because I don’t have any special abilities doesn’t mean I can’t beat you.”
    The trainer arched his back then pushed himself to his feet in one fluid motion. “This is my training room, and I say you’re finished for the day.”
    Something exploded inside her. Splinters of anguish, fear, and anger bombarded her heart, making her chest feel like it was on fire. She wasn’t ready to quit. The physical pain wasn’t bad enough to mask the hurt inside. She launched