Blood (The Grimm Cases Book 3)

by Lyla Oweds

  My face warmed under the sudden attention, and I turned my gaze away to study my fingers. It was different, being civil to Bryce. But why did he have to look so happy about it.

  Bryce cleared his throat. “Well, it won’t be as eloquent as yours, so to speak. But, of course.” He walked within the perimeter of the circle. Lily’s remains, I’d noticed, had been removed at some point, but it had escaped my notice as to when.

  “James Cole.” Bryce’s voice had taken on an eerie quality. It was both fascinating, and caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand. And as he spoke, he raised his right hand in the air. “Dao wo zheli lai.”

  There it was again—more Chinese. But I’d said nothing of the sort. Had I done it wrong?

  I was about to ask when all the candles, save for three, were snuffed. A denseness moved through the air, and a second later, a shape appeared on the ground in front of Bryce.

  Unlike with Rosanne, who’d been visible right away, it took an instant for James to solidly show in front of us. He was young, like in Lily’s memories. Too-thin and extremely tall—his height obvious despite his kneeling posture. When he glanced up, chocolate hair fell over a dark brown eye. His face was half covered, but even with the veil of hair, the lack of emotion in his gaze was startling.

  “Where’s Lily?” His tone was flat. His focus was entirely on me.

  Words were stuck in my throat. Why was he talking to me when Bryce had summoned him? Half-a-second later, Bryce and Brayden stepped between the two of us, blocking me from his view.

  “Lily’s moved on,” Bryce replied evenly. “And it’s time you did too. Otherwise we’ll be forced to resort to drastic measures. Considering your past, this is an act of mercy.”

  Brayden face palmed, groaning under his breath. “Sensitivity,” he muttered before raising his voice. “James, Lily was growing weaker every day. She was in pain. She had to move on.”

  “I would have helped her.” James stood, the top of his head visible over the human wall between us. “I would have taken care of her. Protected her.”

  “That’s not how it works.” Bryce grunted, crossing his arms. “She was trying to protect Bianca from you. Doing that was hurting her. It was you she was running from. She wasn’t interested.”

  The air turned bitter as James replied, “You’re wrong.”

  “It’s time to leave,” Bryce said, as if disciplining a small child. “Listen to me, and everything will work out perfectly.”

  I fought the urge to copy Brayden and cover my face. Bryce was such an idiot, saying useless stuff.

  Then I felt it. A ripple moving through the room, power. It took a second to tie the feeling to Bryce. It was like when we’d first met, and the time he was trying to smack me with a ruler.

  He was trying to order James away.

  Yet, James hadn’t moved. “Where’s Lily?” Agitation touched my senses, growing stronger. “You’ve sent her away, but where? She needs me.”

  The boys fidgeted. Miles stood near Damen, holding a small cloth bear that he must have gotten from upstairs. I was certain it was James’s. And Damen’s face was torn. He and Titus glanced at each other, and I knew what they were thinking.

  They were going to give up. Stop James before he lost control entirely.

  I got up, ignoring Julian’s quiet whisper as I moved behind Bryce to peek at James. The spirit was becoming more shadow than ghost with every second. His eyes no longer resembled anything human, but were a terrifying onyx color instead. My skin prickled. If he turned that look to me, I was sure I’d fall through nothingness for an eternity.

  But he was looking at Bryce, who remained an undisturbed figure in front of me. Even so, because of our closeness, I could feel the tremors along his body. This was making Bryce uncomfortable. And I was certain it had something to do with James’s eyes.

  He was changing, becoming this ‘phantom’ thing that everyone had mentioned. We had taken away the only things keeping him here. He didn’t know how to move on, so he had given up.

  “Damen—” Bryce began, but I tugged on his shirt. Trying to shut him up before he sent James over the edge. We were supposed to be helping him, not being idiotic. I had promised. And clearly, if a person wanted something done right, then they needed to do it themselves.

  Brayden, on my other side, jumped—not realizing I was beside them. But I ignored them both now, my focus entirely on James.

  The longer I watched him, the less frightened I became.

  Sympathy for him, his situation, thrummed through me. But still, there was disapproval about his actions toward Lily. Anger for her warred for dominance.

  This was a question of ethics. He’d done wrong for many things. That couldn’t be denied. But how much did he understand? Surely, there was a way to know. To make sure that the innocent weren’t punished and the evil absolved? You couldn’t just ask a spirit, because they were once people. And people lied.

  There had to be a way. I had to try. “Look at me.”

  There was a roar somewhere behind me, but the sound was lost as James’s eyes snapped from Bryce to meet my own.

  The world faded. Silence surrounded us. Bryce and Brayden were no longer there, keeping me grounded. The comforting and knowing sensations that the boys evoked were gone too.

  All of that had disappeared.

  Instead, the lines of James’s face blurred and a cloak of night covered the area. I was alone in a dark and expansive space. Then, tiny dots of white broke through the suffocating veil. Pinpricks of white light. A lifetime of memories.

  They danced around me, resembling fireflies. On impulse, I reached out, grasping one as it flashed nearby. My fingers had barely closed over the soft glow when the scene changed from night to day.

  James

  I was graduating this year, and it was becoming harder to pretend to be normal. It wasn’t for my lack of trying. My studies were terrible. Even so, I worked hard every night, trying to become the man Father expected me to be. Yet, outside of mathematics, nothing came easy.

  That was one thing we couldn’t control, my grades. But Father once said that when I graduated, things would be easier. Judging worthiness on exams meant nothing anyway. Our legacy had already stated we were great.

  And we would save our world.

  Father said I would rule the world with him. I hoped so. He was a hero; everyone thought so. He’d even stopped a war between the necromancers and onmyoji. They were always fighting, both had bad blood. The system was fragile, the cycle broken.

  It was up to us to save people like Mother.

  I wanted to learn how to protect everyone too. Father said that one day he’d show me how.

  I’d been so lost in my thoughts I didn’t notice the bell ring, signaling the end of classes for the day. It took a moment to gather my books, making me late to meet the others. So I hadn’t been careful as I left the building.

  A girl crashed into me as I stepped off the landing stair. Her hurried movement, and the small weight of her form, almost knocked me to the ground. My bag fell when my hand grasped her arm as she, too, stumbled backward.

  “Sorry,” she gasped, out of breath. Her long hair and trail of her ribbon moved in the wind. I still held on to her arm as her face raised. “I’m sorry,” she repeated as her chestnut eyes lifted to meet mine. “I didn’t see you there.”

  My world stopped.

  I stared in response, my mind going numb. She terrified me, and pulled me to her, all in the same moment. Why? My face felt warm, but no one had made me blush before. Why was I scared about what she’d see when she looked at me? Why was my hand burning where I touched her?

  Her tiny pink lips turn down, and her thin eyebrows furrowed. “Are you quite all right?”

  Her tone caused me to bristle, but I never wanted her to stop talking either. The sound of her voice was already chasing away the ever-present taunting that haunted me.

  I glanced away first, no longer able to hold her gaze.

  “I
’m fine,” I muttered. I could see my friends, standing some distance away, watching curiously. But my focus returned to the girl in front of me, studying the shape of her hands.

  She was all that filled my vision now.

  “Well, could you let me go then?” she asked snappishly. “I need to meet my sister.”

  I’d forgotten I was still touching her. My hand dropped, and I already missed the warmth of her skin under mine. I was too flustered to meet her eyes again. And when I opened my mouth to ask her name, no sound escaped.

  A moment passed in silence, maybe two, before I finally mustered up the courage to speak.

  “What…” I glanced up, needing to know more about her already. We’d shared a connection. Surely she’d felt it too. And I almost hurt her. I could never forgive myself.

  But she was already gone, skipping toward a female classmate of mine. There was a smile on her face. So different from the look she’d given me.

  It didn’t seem to matter where her joy was directed, because my heart pounded at her expression. Her soul, her magic, had called to me. I knew she’d felt it too. Who was it she was meeting, her sister? Of course she’d be happy to see her; that was normal. It didn’t mean she’d left me at all.

  I had to learn more about this girl. There was no other option. We’d known each other for only a second, but now I needed her like I needed air to breathe.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Bianca

  Stars

  The vision gradually faded, and I waited for my heartbeat to slow and my face to cool. Embarrassment filled me on James’s behalf, and my own. While it was true that his and Lily’s first meeting had bordered on creepy, hadn’t I also felt a similar connection to the boys? At least, on a less stalkery level.

  Although, looking back, they had stalked me.

  Perhaps what James had thought was love, was something else. What if the situation had been different? They might have been in the same quintet. Rosanne did say James was strong. Lily was too.

  If that were the case, did all quintets feel this way toward each other?

  There was no time to contemplate further, another light flared near me, and I grasped it.

  James

  “Her name is Eleanor Simmons.” Father slid a small, oval picture across the desk toward me. “Her grandfather was a high ranking onmyoji, the Tongjun. It’s a good match. I married into the necromancers, and their respect followed that union. Now we need the onmyoji.”

  I glanced at the picture, horror filling my heart with ice as his words registered. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t what I asked for. I wanted the girl I’d seen a year ago. I wanted the one who was destined for me.

  I wanted Lily.

  “This isn’t her.” My thoughts were too chaotic to consider the repercussions of my argument. Why wasn’t this my angel? Father said we needed to prevent a war. Lily would only be safe with me.

  Then I realized I’d spoken out loud—I’d argued. My panic skyrocketed. My eyes tore from the picture, meeting the displeased gaze of my father. “I-I mean…” I stammered, trying to consider how I’d explain my outburst.

  Father didn’t require an explanation. Instead, he frowned at me. That was almost more frightening. “That girl, Lily, is five years your junior. She is not at a marriageable age, and her father will not even open the discussion. Time is of the essence. We’ll consider alternative arrangements later, but for now, we need to move forward.”

  But I didn’t want to move forward. I needed to make sure she was safe. Maybe if I learned—

  I opened my mouth, but Father cut me off. “You’re not ready for me to show you.” His tone was decisive. “And it’s not time yet anyway. We’ll hold for another year. Generally, we can wait longer, but ensnaring the Tongjun required more power than expected. It was luck that the passing of the Fire Xing weakened his resistance. The time to act is now, before the Seclusion begins. We won’t have another opportunity like this until the next cycle.”

  I knew what he was saying, but I didn’t care. Nothing mattered. I wanted to wait for Lily, no matter what the risk.

  Anxiety and determination pooled in my stomach as the dark room came back into focus once again. I was torn, because the desperation he’d felt was profound, real. And not malicious in his intentions at all.

  Another light, another spiral.

  James

  She was dead. I couldn’t stop anything. Despite knowing better, I had struck out against him. But it didn’t matter. She’d already died.

  I had never seen one of Father’s rituals before, although the process had been explained to me repeatedly. Hearing the details was completely different than seeing the hum of magic first-hand. There was a force in the room, demanding attention. It moved through the space, ensnaring my senses. I didn’t think the others noticed. If so, how could they speak so casually instead of watching the sight?

  It was the second most beautiful thing I’d seen in my life.

  And so, for a second, I’d forgotten why we were there. The silk thread of her crimson blood weaved through the power in the air.

  But then she cried out, pulling at her bindings. My heart shattered as the wrongness of the sight crashed through my senses.

  What we were doing was right. It had to be. Father said that we needed to save our world, and this was the only way to do it.

  But if it was right, why did my heart feel as though it had been ripped out of my chest, like hers? And so, I disregarded everything I’d been taught.

  I’d never willingly touched my father before. The fragile skin of his arm was a sensation under my hand.

  Yet, just touching didn’t work. He didn’t pay attention to me—he was too intent on the conclusion of his ritual. Pulling him back from Lily’s still form didn’t work either. I’d been hopelessly outnumbered. The others in the room were physically stronger.

  In the end, I’d failed. The problem was, I wasn’t certain what I’d failed at.

  Father was disappointed in me. He said that because of me, Lily’s sacrifice had been minimized. She had great potential, but my interference had distracted him at a pivotal moment.

  Or did I hate myself because she was gone? I would never again be able to sneak glimpses at her when she’d come to visit her sister. Never again would I see that smile.

  I didn’t understand why I couldn’t do both—protect our world, and have her. Father taught me that if we did things right, we’d been rewarded with everything we desired. But now I had nothing. I was dirty, hungry, and so lonely. Locked in the basement, as if I was a disobedient child once again.

  Even mother—despite her shouted protests—couldn’t convince Father to allow her to visit.

  How long had it been since I’d seen her last? I’d lost track of time. Months, a least. My only company had been Father—and his belt. I felt more ashamed with each visit. Because when he asked me what I’d done wrong, what I needed to do better, I couldn’t give him the answer he wanted.

  He wanted me to say the most important thing was to follow tradition. To do good in the world. But how could hurting Lily be good?

  “You’re too naive,” Father would say in between strikes. “You’re not strong enough. If you can’t exercise tough judgment when necessary, we’ll fail. You’re weak.”

  He was right; I couldn’t do it. I was weak. Weaker than him.

  Each punishment grew longer. My skin scarred, showing the proof of my failure. But Father’s anger wasn’t appeased.

  I would die here. But I didn’t mind, because she was somewhere nearby. Maybe I’d see her again.

  I’d never felt closer to the earth than I did now. My magic was earth-based, but I’d never felt close to nature before. I didn’t even have to concentrate to feel the humming of the ground. And when I pressed my cheek against the floor’s comfort each night, I was soothed and warmed. Which was helpful, since my clothing had become little more than rags.

  The earth provided. When I was certain I’d die of thi
rst, a trickle of freshwater made its way into my prison. When my stomach cramped from hunger, the earth moved under me. When I dug with my hands, there was always something to eat. Roots, or even small insects. It didn’t matter what; I was no longer discerning.

  The only thing that kept me from going crazy was hope—the feeling that she was close.

  Almost as if she was waiting for me to join her.

  She had to know. See how I’d suffered for her. She accepted our connection.

  A door opened, causing me to flinch. I’d been drifting in a half-state of consciousness. Footsteps approached, and my body instinctively curled as his shadow fell over me. Father’s frame was highlighted by the lantern he’d left on the landing.

  “You’re an abomination.” Father’s tone was mild. He must have been in a particularly good mood. “The fact that you’re still breathing is testament to that. The heavens are testing me. I’d been given such a disobedient and useless boy, and now they won’t relieve me of him.”

  My heart twisted at his words. I was sorry, I was so sorry. “I’m sorry…”

  I didn’t know I’d whispered the words until Father laughed. “If you’re so sorry,” he said, “does that mean you’ll never do it again?”

  I wanted to say yes, but her face flashed through my mind. Either way, I couldn’t do it. “I can’t…”

  His expression transformed from indifference to fury.

  “Weak.” The breath rushed from me as his heavy foot slammed across my chest. “I’m done with this. Even your wife has gotten tired of waiting for you. She’s gone. The stupid whore vanished without a trace eight months ago.”

  Eleanor was gone? That relieved me. We hadn’t been very fond of each other, but at least she wasn’t here.

  “Don’t look so happy, you idiot.” Father growled, backing up a step. He turned, fumbling with something he’d laid next to the lamp. “The fact you cannot comprehend the seriousness of this is proof of your hopelessness. It makes this next part easier.”