The Cure Read Online Free

No movement wasted, no attack he couldn’t anticipate. His black hair fell to the right, grazing a mole on his cheek. His square jaw, in need of a shave, was set in determination, and his eyes glittered with anger. He carried a gun in his right hand, and the sword emerging from a back sheath announced that he’d come prepared to find Emporium Unbounded. Wet-looking patches spotted his black jeans and jacket. Definitely blood.
    Ritter was back. After two months with no word, he was back.
    “Gaven and I took care of their friends.” He spoke in a clipped voice, one he might have used in his former life as a policeman a quarter of a century ago. I wondered if he was thinking of his family—and the woman he hadn’t been able to save.
    “Who are you?” Desperation laced Mari’s voice.
    Ignoring her, Ritter crossed the space between us. I felt burning inside him when he was still feet away. I’d always been able to catch glimpses of him like this, even from the first before I knew about my ability or how to use it. Desire swept through me, and I couldn’t tell if it was his or mine—or if it mattered. I had a brief vision of going into his arms, of our mouths clinging together, our bodies melding. Everything in my body screamed that he was mine.
    Yet he’d broken his promise, and in a world where almost everyone I knew lied to survive, I valued truth more than just about anything. At least that’s what I told myself.
    He reached for me, but I held myself stiff.
    “Erin,” he began.
    “Later.” I pulled my arm from his grip, jerking my chin at the Hunters. “They’ll be able to identify me, and we still don’t know how they found Mari. Are you sure you got the rest of them?” The emotions swirling around him cut off when I pulled away, as though they’d never existed. I knew differently.
    “I’m sure.” His eyes glittered so darkly that the only color for them was black. He was nothing but empty space to my sensing now, and it wasn’t likely he’d relax enough to let anything more slip. We all learned how to block or suffer the consequences. The Emporium had at least two sensing Unbounded, one more powerful than I dreamed of becoming. She’d almost controlled me once, and I knew she’d eventually come for me again. I might be young in Unbounded terms, but I was valuable—or so everyone told me. I hoped when the time came that I’d be ready for her.
    For a brief moment I thought with envy of my former life as a law-school dropout working a dead-end job as an insurance claims agent. Nothing more exciting than talking to distressed people and pushing buttons on a keyboard.
    No one trying to carve me or my family into pieces.
    Except I didn’t really want to go back. If it meant saving the lives that had been lost, I’d agree in a heartbeat, but that could never happen.
    Being Unbounded changes everything.
     

 
     
     
     
     

     
    G AVEN MATERIALIZED FROM THE DARK and began talking quietly with Mari. His face, the color of rich coffee, was sharp and dangerous-looking and his wiry body was pure corded muscle, but he had an easy way of speaking and I hoped he could calm her. There were other things I needed to do.
    Kneeling next to the old Hunter, I reached out and touched his face, while Ritter stood over me, a silent brooding shadow. I wanted to ask him where he’d been, what had been more important than being at the hospital after the operation, but now wasn’t the time. Maybe a part of me didn’t want to know the answer.
    I closed my eyes and pushed my awareness inside the Hunter’s mind. I still trusted Ritter to watch over me. Didn’t that say something?
    Down. The Hunter’s unconsciousness made this part easier—perhaps made it possible at all. Of course I wouldn’t be able to learn much about the kind of person he was while he was out, just observe some of his memories. Down further. Until at last I dived into a lake of memories that appeared below me, my entry rippling the placid