Red Blood (Series of Blood Book 2)

by Emma Hamm

  “I was.”

  He strode towards her again to place both of his hands against the sides of her neck. He pressed firmly and then she felt yet another burning high on the inside of her thigh. This time, the pain was much more intense. She felt as though a knife was carving a symbol into her flesh.

  Fire engulfed the two of them. Flames licked up her sides but did not harm her. It did not appear they were harming Wolfgang either. She could feel the tendrils of heat brush against her arms and coiling around her legs like snakes.

  She did not like it. She did not like the heat. Sirens were meant to be around water, not around flames.

  “Wolfgang,” she tried to tell him how afraid she was. But the word wouldn’t come out of her mouth correctly. The garbled sound was anything but assertive.

  The pain in her thigh twisted until it was nearly slicing into her bone. She could not feel blood soaking her pant leg, as it seemed the magic was using her blood. The amount of power needed to create this flame devoured her life force as penance for creating something that was not meant to be created.

  Lyra wrenched herself away from Wolfgang’s grasp, and the fires immediately disappeared. They were both breathing hard as they stared at each other in shock. She reached behind her to feel the ease on her back and felt a raised scar in the shape of a rune.

  “I knew there was a reason I was so enamored with you.” Wolfgang finally broke the silence.

  “For power?” She was both stunned and angry. “That’s the only reason you can come up with?”

  “No, no.” He shook his head. “Not that. Lyra, you are part of me. Just touching you makes both of us more powerful than we could have dreamed of.”

  “We? It makes you more powerful, not me.”

  “Together, we could do great things. Don’t you see the potential?”

  “I see you asking for a business agreement.”

  The words stung. They twisted in her heart as she realized she was once again being used by a man for his own purpose. She wasn’t his love. She wasn’t his other half. She was a means to an end for him.

  “Am I not explaining this? I want you to be with me.” Wolfgang reached out for her. Lyra took a step away from him.

  “You want to use me.”

  He could not understand her past, despite having seen it. He had no way of knowing how afraid she was of being used again. She didn’t want to be at the beck and call of any man. Yet now she was being pulled in many different directions by many different men.

  “Please.” The word he uttered paused her raging thoughts. “Do not flee when this knowledge has only just been uncovered. It is not an explanation of our feelings; it is a justification of them. We are two figureheads of the same coin.”

  She should tell him that his magic had caused her pain. She should tell him that by touching her, he was transferring his dark magic to her body as well as his own. But that knowledge was sharp like the edge of a blade. She would hold the secret close to her soul and only give it life when the timing was right.

  Try as she might, she couldn’t turn away from him. He now not only made her thoughts whirl but he also caused her pain. But the devil of a man standing before her spoke truth. They were each a half of a larger creation. A creature the world had never seen before.

  “Okay,” she whispered.

  Wolfgang’s harsh expression smoothed for a few seconds in pleasure. “We shall need to practice.”

  “Not today. Today, I need you to agree to do something for me.”

  The pleased expression faded quickly as he realized what price she was going to request. “No.”

  “You don’t get everything in life handed to you, Wolfgang. You know what I’m going to ask you. The Five need us. My team needs us.”

  His shoulders tensed, and he slowly turned away from her. Once more, his hands braced against the table, and his head dropped as he stared down at the worn wood. “I need privacy.”

  “We don’t have a lot of time for you think about this.”

  “Tomorrow. All I ask is tomorrow.”

  She rubbed her hands over her arms as the air grew cold around them. Apparently they were over the honeymoon phase of their infatuation with each other. But anger was something she was comfortable with. Anger was something she understood.

  “Fine.” Lyra flicked her hair over her shoulder and made her way towards the door. As a final say, she glanced once more towards him. “But you should know, Bones isn’t going to wait much longer.”

  “Bones will wait as long as I tell him to.”

  “Considering what happened in the swamp, I think you’re wrong.”

  Wolfgang snarled but did not respond.

  “Pitch said to tell you that contracts can be broken.” Lyra said the words as a last ditch effort to have him look at her. She needed some kind of reaction from him.

  He did not move. Still as stone, he let her walk out the door and back into her world of light.

  She stormed into her apartment in Haven and looked around at the chaos. Lyra’s mind was whirling with the oddities that had infected her life. Wolfgang. Jasper’s strange behavior. Pitch. Bones.

  All men.

  Every single problem that had arisen before her was related to a man. She wouldn’t have it. She couldn’t sit around and wait for the men in her life to figure out whether or not they were going to allow her a restful night’s sleep. She needed to leave. They were destroying her life.

  Just look at her apartment! She placed her hands on her hips and glared at the mess. There was dust on her shelves. Clothing was haphazardly tossed across the furniture and floor. Her oasis of relaxation and calming colors had turned into a mess.

  There wasn’t time to clean. She was constantly dancing between fleeing Bones, avoiding Jasper’s questioning gaze, and breaking down Wolfgang’s secretive nature. At what point was she going to break?

  She stepped on a sharp edge of mirror that hadn’t been swept up yet. The glass cut into the soft arch of her foot and caused her to trail long streaks of blood on the floor. Every step was an aching pain that lanced directly into her wounded heart. She didn’t care. There wasn’t the smallest vacant space in her mind that could spare the space.

  The couch was fairly clean, so she sat herself down to wiggle the piece of glass out of her foot. A face that was not hers was reflected as soon as it sat in her palm.

  Lyra let out an angry scream and chucked the glass piece at the wall.

  “I’m done! I’m done with all of you!”

  With the scream came a wave of anger that crashed over her. The shattering sound of glass eased some of the red rage that blurred her vision. Her hand found a vase of its own accord, which she then tossed against the wall.

  Pieces of clay flew back towards her. One sliced open her cheek, but she could not bring herself to care. This was not the moment to indulge in pain. This was a moment to release all the frustration and anger that had built up inside of her.

  Tilting her head back, Lyra let loose the Siren scream that lodged in her throat. The sound, which would have dropped any living creature to the ground, shattered every solid object in the room. Vases, glasses, plates, even the wooden legs of furniture burst in a rain of jagged edges and splinters.

  And in the end, Lyra was left standing in the midst of all the rubble. Her chest heaved with angry gasps that could not be contained. Her fingers curled into fists, and her nails dug into the palms of her hands.

  There was no relief from this anger. From the confusion. From the pathetic way she wanted to crawl back into Wolfgang’s grave and beg him to tell her pretty things that would distract her from her problems.

  “Quite the show.”

  Shadows in the corner of her apartment shifted. Pitch stepped towards her and ignored the long filaments of shadow that held onto his body. He never appeared to notice how much the darkness clung to him. Or how much it suited him.

  As per his usual appearance, he was dressed in immaculately pressed dark clothing. Hi
s red silk shirt was unbuttoned to reveal his sculpted smooth chest. He had no idea how much it annoyed her that he was essentially perfect in every way.

  She grit her teeth. “Now is not the time, Pitch.”

  “You’re looking for a fight? For someone to release that anger inside of you?”

  “Yes.”

  Pitch quirked an eyebrow. “And you think that person should be me?”

  “It’s not personal,” Lyra growled. “You’re the only person in the room other than me.”

  “You can try.” He shrugged. “But you won’t win.”

  “Watch me.”

  She launched herself at him. Lyra was tactical in the way she fought. Bones had given her all the powers a Siren could possibly have. Enhanced eyesight, impossibly fast reflexes, strength that a woman her size shouldn’t have. She no longer was a magical creature held captive in a human body.

  Her ponytail whipped around her body in a graceful trail as she flung herself at him. She feigned to the left and lifted her leg to strike hard against his ribs. She didn’t assume it would hurt him too much. And if it did, he would heal.

  Except her foot did not connect with his body. Instead, she whipped around as the only thing in front of her was air.

  “I’ll tell you one more time. You don’t want to do this.” His deep voice rumbled.

  “Oh yes I do.”

  She spun on her heel and shot a fist towards him. He was directly behind her; she could tell by his voice. But again, he was nowhere near her once she turned. Lyra was disoriented now as she spun and tried to find him in her relatively small room.

  “Are you hiding from me?” Lyra taunted.

  “No.”

  His voice was directly behind her. She could feel the heat of his breath against her ear. This time, he caught her wrist when she turned upon him. He squeezed the delicate bones but she was beyond pain.

  Her other fist struck towards his stomach only to be caught again by his free hand. She grunted and tried to knee him. Pitch seemed to know every move she was going to make before she made it. She couldn’t touch him.

  Again and again she tried; until eventually, she grew tired. Her entire body folded against him. Sweat slicked the fine hairs around her forehead to her skin. She could hardly catch her breath as both mental and physical exhaustion overwhelmed her.

  He held her through the entire ordeal. This was a familiar scene to her. Pitch had done the same thing in the kitchen. And though it was not a situation that felt sexual, he appeared to understand that she needed physical touch in this moment.

  “Better?”

  “No,” she sobbed. “No, nothing is better.”

  “Did you think this was going to be easy?”

  “Yes. Yes, I thought it would be easy. I would find him; I would bring him back; we would save the world.”

  A chuckle rumbled through his chest and made her cheek bounce against him. His hand rubbed a circle across her back. “Even you can hear how foolish that sounds.”

  “Why are you here?”

  “Because I am invested in what you do.” Pitch’s finger curled underneath her chin to tilt her head up towards him. “Now, what are you doing here?”

  “This is where I live.”

  “You should be with Wolfgang.”

  “He threw me out.” She sniffed loudly. “And he doesn’t like you by the way.”

  A smile spread across his pale face. Lyra hadn’t noticed how cruel that smile looked. Pointed teeth that were pristine white looked like a predator’s smile. She had forgotten again that Pitch was not known to be a kind man.

  “No, I imagine he doesn’t like me. Very few do.”

  “Care to explain why?”

  “None of the Lords do. They consider themselves to be the big bad wolves of this world.” That feral smile spread further across his face. “But even they are afraid of me.”

  She should be as well. Hadn’t she already learned that dangerous things were not meant to be toyed with? Of course, she was still toying with Wolfgang. So perhaps that lesson hadn’t truly sunk in yet.

  Perhaps it was her destiny to always end up in the arms of dangerous men. She certainly had found herself there enough in her life. Lyra reached up to dab at her face and pulled away from him.

  “You know what I would like to know? Who do you work for?” she asked.

  His gaze met hers, but he remained silent.

  “I’m not telling you a single thing until you tell me the answer to that question,” Lyra said angrily. “You’re showing up on my doorstep. Constantly. I find that odd when everyone I know says to not trust you.”

  “You’ve been spending too much time with Wolfgang I see. Paranoia does not suit you.”

  “But lies certainly suit you,” she responded with a glare.

  “I only do as I am bid.”

  “And who is doing the bidding? Because it’s not the Five. The hate between you and them is mutual.”

  “That’s information you don’t get to know.”

  Slowly, Lyra blew out an angry breath. She was going to explode on him again even though she knew it would get her nowhere. She couldn’t manage to hit the bastard.

  “Fine,” she said. “Then why are you here?”

  “Because you’re going to run.”

  “No, I’m not,” she scoffed. “Excuse you. You don’t know me.”

  Pitch crossed his arms over his chest. The muscles of his arms and chest flexed as he moved. She would swear he almost glowed he was so pale.

  “I can’t let you run.” His words rang true. It was the truth in that muttered phrase that instantly made her uncomfortable.

  “You can’t control what I do. If I want to run, I’m going to run.”

  She didn’t need to look around her to see how he had come to that conclusion. She was trashing her apartment. The last time she had done this, she had booked it out of Bones’ house and run away with Jasper. They had come here. Haven. The first place in the world she had felt safe but now felt like a prison.

  “You can’t run,” Pitch said while shaking his head.

  “Why not?”

  “Because you have important things to do here. Things I need you to do so that everything works out the way it should.”

  Lyra shook her head. “There are runes on my back, Pitch. When he uses Blood Magic, he uses it through me.”

  “And that frightens you.”

  “It terrifies me. I shouldn’t be talking about this with you of all people.” She pressed a hand to her forehead. “I need to find Jasper. I need to tell him everything.”

  Pitch reached out to wrap an arm around her waist and press her back against his chest. “You can’t do that.”

  “I have to!” Lyra began to struggle against his hold. “He’s my brother! He has to know everything. I can’t keep lying to him!”

  “You need to calm down.”

  “No!”

  Pitch lifted her from the ground. His hands snaked up her body to press both palms against her temples. “I need you to remember why you came here in the first place. I need you to remember why you are doing everything you are doing. Now.”

  Her back arched as heat pierced through her skull. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as her eyes opened wide and memories slammed into her conscious as though she had hit a brick wall.

  7 YEARS AGO

  “Lyra!”

  She was guarding the door into a special meeting room that held Bones and another of the Lords. Black leather encased her entire body. She was beautiful and deadly. Poison and wine.

  There was a reason why she was dressed like this. She was supposed to be both alluring and intimidating. That’s what Bones wanted. But he didn’t understand that the outfit was hot, and she couldn’t scratch the sweat trickling between her breasts.

  She wanted to go home. She wanted to relax on a couch in shorts and eat chips. However, that wasn’t her life. Bones said he wanted her to come with him, and she had to agree. There was no arguing with
the man who had changed her life.

  He had given her control. If any man tried to force her to do something she didn’t want to do, they regretted it. Instantly. Bones had taught her to have no remorse when she killed a bad man. He had taught her how to break bones that would cause incredible amounts of pain but would not be easily visible.

  He had turned her into a weapon. Lyra was not ashamed to say she liked that.

  “Lyra!”

  Her head snapped towards the sound. Whomever was trying to get her attention would regret it. They had no place shouting at her in a crowd, not when she was supposed to be making certain that no one disturbed Bones while he was in his important meeting.

  A big man was walking towards her. Too big. He would be someone difficult to fight if she had to. Her hands slipped to the small of her back where she kept her orbs. One quick move and painful gas would bring the big man to his knees before her.

  Just where she liked men his size.

  Except she recognized him. His hair hadn’t looked like that before. Jasper had never worn his hair long since she met him stealing things in the streets when they were little. He tended to enjoy close cropped hair in case someone tried to grab onto him.

  She straightened. “You got bigger.”

  “Now that’s the best way to make me feel confident about myself.” He grinned and patted his stomach. “What, you have no hug for me?”

  “Of course I do.”

  They were both grinning now. She reached forward to hug him around the waist. He held onto her even though her head barely reached his chest.

  Lyra breathed in the earthy scent of him and smiled. “It’s been too long since we’ve seen each other.”

  Longer than they had ever gone in fact. Yet another change in her life she could blame on Bones. He didn’t want her to have anyone reminding her of times when she was unhappy. Jasper himself had never made her upset, but he was a symbol of the girl she used to be.

  He had protected her when she was in her parent’s grasp. He had provided for her at the escort house where the women were arm candy and nothing else. He hadn’t been able to get her out of that situation. Hell, he hadn’t been able to get himself out of the job where he was a bodyguard and assassin for a very bad man.