Cursed: Brides of the Kindred 13 by Evangeline Anderson Page A

before another pain hits you.”
    She glared at him. “Yeah, right. And let you slip away while I’m higher than a kite on muscle relaxers? I don’t think so.”
    Stav blew out a breath in frustration. He couldn’t promise not to try and escape so that she could take the medicine that helped her. He needed too badly to get back to the HKR and find out what the Mother Ship wanted to do that. But if he didn’t promise not to leave, she would continue to torture herself. And him also, since his mental shields had never been less effective.
    Why can’t I block her out better? he wondered. What is it about her that’s so different from any other female I’ve ever met?
    “Take your medicine,” he urged, knowing she would refuse, but helpless not to ask. “Please—the pain is more than you can bear.”
    “I can stand it.” She clenched her jaw, as though determined to get through the pain, no matter how bad it got. “I’ll be just fine.”
    “You won’t—this agony is sapping your strength and causing great physical damage,” Stavros growled. “You must take whatever it is that helps you.”
    “I told you, I ca—”
    Another pain hit, this one worse than all the others combined. Stav writhed in his bonds. Taken by surprise, he was unable to block it out even a little. On the chair, Charlotte moaned and curled in on herself. Her weapon fell from her nerveless fingers and thumped harmlessly onto the carpet.
    Through the haze of pain, Stav saw his chance. She was helpless and for the first time since he’d met her she wasn’t pointing a weapon at him. He might never get another opportunity like this.
    Summoning all his mental effort, he pushed up a barrier between them. It wasn’t enough to filter out the pain completely, but it helped him recover enough strength for what had to be done.
    He clenched his fists and surged forward. With a mighty heave, both of the thick wooden posts he was cuffed too splintered and broke, snapping like matchsticks under the force of his muscular arms.
    Charlotte jerked at the noise. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw him stripping the metal cuffs off the broken wooden posts.
    “But how could you…those were solid oak.”
    “Desperation gives a male strength,” Stavros said grimly. “I must go.”
    “No,” she groaned, reaching for her dropped weapon. “You can’t…”
    “You won’t be needing that.” Stav quickly kicked the weapon out of reach, well under the sleeping platform. “I’m not going to hurt you—I’m just going to leave.”
    “No…” she moaned again but he was already in the small room where he had seen her take his leathers and boots. They were still damp from the water she’d rinsed them with but at least they no longer smelled of the human male’s urine. Stav shrugged into them quickly and turned to go.
    A low, pitiful moan from the chair in the corner of the sleeping chamber stopped him. No matter how urgent the situation on the Mother Ship was, he couldn’t leave Charlotte like this.
    He crossed the room to her in two long strides and knelt down beside her small figure, curled into a ball of pain.
    “Where’s your medicine?” he demanded softly. “Where it is, Charlotte? Let me get it for you before I go.”
    She shook her head. Her arms were crossed over her knees which were drawn up to her chin. She clutched herself tightly—it was as though the pain inside her was a beast, trying to rip its way out and she was trying desperately to hold herself together.
    Stavros recognized the look on her face from the many combat missions he’s been on. She was too far gone in the pain to answer his question. Indeed, she was so far gone he wasn’t even sure she’d heard him.
    He frowned, at a loss for what to do. If she’d had an obvious wound he might have been able to heal it by licking her there—that was what Blood Kindred did for their mates, anyway. They could seal wounds with the essence that came from their fangs when their mate