Kindred (Book 1 The Kindred Series) Read Online Free Page B

eyes snapp ed into focus a gain . She did not seem as beat down by this vision as she was by many of the others , but a secret look lingered in her dark eyes .
       “Did you see my death?” Chris inquired like he always did when one of th e se premonitions seized hold of her in his presence.
       She smiled at him, shaking back her black hair as she popped a cucumber in her mouth. “Not this time .”
       Chris shrugged as he ran a hand through his shaggy hair. “Just remember , if you ever do see it, you had better tell me.”
       “You wouldn’t want to know,” Cassie and Melissa replied simultaneously .
       They grinned at each other across the table. “You owe me a Coke,” Melissa quipped.
       “You don’t drink Coke.”
       “You owe me something then.”
       Melissa chewed on her cucumber before grabbing a tomato. Cassie studied her questioningly, wondering what Melissa had seen, but she didn ’ t really want to know. The thought of knowing scared her. Besides, Melissa would not tell them, not unless their lives were on the line. And even then, Cassie didn’t want to know what Melissa saw, not unless there was a way to stop it.
       And most of the time , there wasn ’ t.
       It was very rare that Melissa ever saw anything she wanted to, but she had no choice as her “gift” ov ertook her whenever it wanted .
       Although, to be fair, Cassie had to admit she was a little disappointed she hadn’t inherited a “ gift ” like Chris and Melissa had. Apparently they ran rampant thr ough The Hunter line, but for some reason Cassie had come up short. She definitely would not want the ability to see the future, like Melissa, for she didn ’ t want to bare that cross, and she wasn’t sure that she could handle it . B ut she wouldn’t have mind ed Chris’s talent of being able to read people, to know what they were feeling , and to know who and what they were, good or bad , upon meeting them . A nd unlike Melissa, Chris was able to keep people b lock ed out , and control his ability if he want ed to .
        But then, any ability would have be en better than the nothing she had been given. Well, unless she counted her ability to fight, and fight well , as a gift . And she was a good fighter, she was even b etter than Chris and Melissa. But , to her, that was not a gift. She didn ’ t care if the people she killed were no longer human, it bothered her to ki ll at all , and it bothered her even more that she was outstanding at it.
       It was a fact that wore at her every day, slowly eating at her spirit. She sometimes wondered if that was where the growing hole inside of her had come from; if that was the reason she had been feeling less and less like herself lately . Maybe all of the death and murder that surround ed her had started to take away bits of her soul . W hatever it wa s that was missing , or off in her , she desperately needed to find it , and fix it .
       She could not keep living like this. She could not keep going on without k now ing wh y she was so lost , and why she couldn ’ t shake her misery . She needed to drown out the feverish need for something more that had e ncompassed her. She needed so mething to ease the pain that s uffused her . She had been living with the emptiness for the last few months, but o ver the past two weeks it had gotten worse . T he hole had becom e a chasm within her soul, ripping her open, leaving her raw and exposed.
       She was greatly afraid that if she di dn ’ t mend it soon , it would swallow her whole.
       Cassie shoved aside her morose thoughts , sick of them . S ick of herself even . Wallowing in her misery, and loneliness, was not going to ease it.
       “Are you going to tell us what you saw ?” Chris demanded, leaning forward on his knee.
       Melissa shook her head as she sat back in her seat, shoving the remains of her salad aside. “Nope, i t doesn’t involve you so there’s no need for you to know about