Shield of Fire (A Bringer and the Bane Novel) Read Online Free Page A

attacker released a ball of fire into the black sky, but hit nothing. Another blow from the invisible assailant pummeled the creature.
    The demon released its hold and Ravyn plummeted toward the ground. Something black captured her, cushioning her fall as she hit the soggy earth and continued to roll. The breath rushed from her body. With barely enough time for thought, Ravyn registered that a man, not the monster, held her.
    He rolled to his feet, and ran toward the trees, taking her with him. Ravyn held on to a thin thread of consciousness. None too gracefully, he deposited her in a mass of brambles and raced away again.
    Sounds unlike anything she had ever heard echoed around her. She lay unmoving within the feeble protection of the foliage. Death neared. As the fight to live ebbed, so did her pain. Peace encompassed her. The noise of battle faded to a distant muffle. She watched a leaf dance in the falling droplets of rain and waited for the dark angel’s embrace.
    No longer in control, her soul shifted and pulled free of her body. She drifted away from her limp form and the fight that raged several yards away. Her soul hovered, held to her physical body by a single delicate thread. Need to pass through the Veil called to her.
    The man was suddenly standing over her body. “Don’t leave me.”
    His command broke through the muffled haze surrounding her spirit. The need to obey him warred with the desire to be free of the physical world. The stranger’s body began to glow with amber light. Copper and gold flecks swirled within his growing radiance. It reached toward her in the darkness.
    She recoiled from his light, somehow knowing it would hurt. His brightness flared and captured her soul. She fought against his control. Please, don’t make me return.
    His distant voice yanked her from the peace she craved. “Don’t you leave me!”
    She strained to drag her spirit from his will and go where there was no pain, but his commands ordered her to return to the fight.
    His power poured into her and filled her with a strength she didn’t want, but her traitorous body drank deep. She gorged herself on his healing light, which saturated her dying body.
    Heaviness pressed her. Golden cords of light wrapped and tightened around her ankles, wrenching her spirit toward her limp form. She fought the pull, but the increasing speed and force slammed into her corporeal body. Her physical form awakened and took command of her spirit.
    Air poured into her lungs as she broke through the surface that separated the living from the dead. Pain and panic once again gripped her. “The creature?” She coughed. “Powell?”
    The stranger crouched beside her but didn’t touch her. “Gone, but not for long.”

Chapter Three

    Agony mired in determination stared at Rhys through ice-blue eyes. The demon’s attack had taken its toll on the girl and with every second, her defensive wall weakened. Pain—her pain—drummed against his mind as her mental shield crumbled. Hiccups of energy escaped like puffs of steam with each spasm that wracked her body.
    What was she? The fire she’d shot into the sky suggested a full-blooded Bringer.
    “Can you stand?”
    “No.” The word sounded raw, as if it grated against her throat.
    He reached to touch her but stopped when her eyes rounded with fear. “I won’t harm you. I need to get you away from the road and hidden. Can you trust me?”
    Her nod was barely discernible, but he took the small movement as a yes.
    He slipped an arm around her back and lifted her into a sitting position. The contact roused a long-forgotten thirst he hadn’t experienced in decades. A familiar nudge pressed against his psyche. Now in her presence, with her in his arms, he knew she was the force that had drawn him to the abbey. The connection was undeniable, though denying it was exactly what he tried to do.
    He tethered his thoughts and stood. The prickling of the Bane still lightly played along his arms. He scanned