Unbound (The Captive Series, Book 7) Read Online Free Page B

see the corner of the boulder they’d come to a stop against.
    “Braith?” she whispered.
    She knew every inch of his body, every detail of his chiseled abs and broad chest. Every hollow, every dip, every sound he made when she touched him, and never before had he been so still.
    “Braith?”
    Tears choked her throat as her hands pushed against his chest as his body remained unmoving over hers.
    Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Don’t panic.
    The words became a mantra in her head; her eyes burned with tears and a scream lodged firmly in her throat.
    Careful not to throw him onto his back and drive the arrows embedded within his flesh even deeper, Aria managed to squirm her way out from underneath his heavy weight. Settling her back against the boulder, her body shook as her gaze fell on Braith’s still form.
    A choked sound escaped her. She was going to throw up. She was going to pass out. No, she was going to die. She nearly doubled into a ball, but despite the fact he remained so unmoving, and there was no way that arrow wasn’t embedded in his heart, she still felt the faint wave of a connection to him through their bloodlink.
    My blood flows within him, his within me. I am him and he is me. I’ll know if the bloodlink breaks. It wasn’t broken yet, but if she didn’t do something to get him away from here, it would be soon.
    Her gaze lifted to the hillside they had tumbled down. They’d plunged nearly two hundred feet down the rocky, steep terrain into a gulley. Near the top of the hill, she spotted the others from their group skidding down the snow-slickened hill as they tried to flee the group of white-cloaked vampires chasing them.
    Arrows fired into the trees around her friends and family. Timber cried out when leaves and dirt gave way beneath him and he tumbled down the hill much like she and Braith had. He smashed into a tree halfway down, getting caught up on it instead of plunging all the way to the bottom of the gulch.
    Aria glanced back and forth down the snowy gulch. Sheltered by the trees surrounding it, there was only a coating of snow to be found in this part of the forest. Her woods. She knew where they were, knew where to find shelter in order to keep Braith protected, and she had to get him there, now.
    Braith outweighed her by more than a hundred pounds, but it didn’t matter. Even if she’d still been human, she would have found a way to pick him up and carry him away before their enemies could get to them.
    Her gaze went back to the others making their way toward her. No matter how badly she wanted to make sure they were safe too, she couldn’t wait for them. It would mean certain death for Braith if she did. They would understand, and Daniel and William would know where she went. If they made it to the bottom of the canyon.
    She couldn’t think of that. Her main focus now had to be Braith. He was vulnerable, and if he died, then everything they’d fought so hard to achieve would be ruined. He was her everything, but not only that, so many others counted on him as well. His many loyal followers would die without him, as she knew that woman wouldn’t permit any of them to live, and Aria refused to let that happen.
    Grabbing hold of Braith’s wrist, she brought his arm around her shoulder. She ignored the wrenching pain in her chest from where the arrow had pierced her. She pulled him over her back and around her shoulders. A bloodlink made a vampire stronger. It had made it possible for Braith to see when he was around her, and for Hannah to walk in the sun after drinking from Jack. Now, she easily lifted Braith as she rose to her feet.
    She ignored every protesting ache in her battered body as she turned to the right and ran down the gulch toward the cave a couple miles away. She hadn’t known she could run so fast, but fear drove her to speeds she’d never attained before.
    Despite the fact her wounds were healing and she no longer felt blood seeping down her chest or side, her legs