Blood Ties Book Three: Ashes To Ashes. Jennifer Armintrout

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ all warm and fuzzy inside.”

      Our world? That stung more than the aspersions he cast on my optimism. I might not be as old as he or Nathan, and I’d never been a part of the Movement. Sure, there were things I didn’t know, but I was learning. I’d killed Cyrus— even if it hadn’t stuck—and I’d kept the Soul Eater from devouring Nathan. I’d willingly been possessed by the soul of his dead wife to break an evil spell. I might not have a vampire extermination record as impressive as Max’s, but I thought I’d earned some pretty impressive street cred.

      The thought that I might be wrong, that I may not have seen anything yet, froze the marrow in my bones.

       Five: Defenses

      Max woke at the sound of Bella’s scream.

      He’d been curled up at the end of her bed like a dog— he’d hoped in her post-possession panic she wouldn’t notice—where he’d fallen asleep watching over her.

      There was no time to berate himself for napping on the job. Bella clawed at the blankets, then her clothing, shrieking in utter panic.

      Grasping her shoulders, he called her name, shaking her lightly. “You’re okay, baby. I’m here. I’m here.”

      Her pupils changed size as she tried to focus. Frowning, she pushed back the hair that had escaped from her long braid. “I know. That is why I was screaming.”

      The fact she could make a wisecrack bolstered his faith that she would be all right. At least, for now. “You scared the bejesus out of me.”

      “That is what I was going for.” Her voice broke a little, as though she might cry. Of course, she didn’t. Max was reasonably sure werewolves were born without tear ducts. Or hearts.

      “Can I have a glass of water?” Her voice was hoarse, probably from screaming. She’d always sounded like that, after they’d—

      He didn’t just force the thought aside. He clubbed it unconscious, threw it into a crawl space and walled it up alive.

      He grabbed a bottle of water from the bedside table— he’d come prepared—and twisted the top off before handing it to her. Partly to see the look of annoyance on her face when she realized he thought her weak and incapable of caring for herself, partly because he took bizarre satisfaction in caring for her. He waited until she’d gulped down half the water before asking, “Are you okay?”

      She nodded. “I am fine. I am sore all over for some reason, but I am fine.”

      “Well, after you blacked out, we all took turns kicking the shit out of you.” He smiled weakly. “Do you remember what happened?”

      She shook her head vehemently, then winced and rubbed her neck. “The last thing I remember, I was looking into my scrying bowl, and I was starting to get a picture. Then I woke up here. I had the most terrible dream.”

      “Do you remember what it was about?” He briefly considered grabbing a pen and paper, but decided that might seem insensitive. Not that he would normally treat her with perfect sensitivity, but she’d had a rough ordeal. She deserved at least a day to rest before the interrogating began.

      When her gaze met his, her eyes held a hint of hopelessness. “I saw a man. He had white hair…. And the Oracle. She was there, feeding off of his blood. And she was becoming strong from it. I do not know why it was so disturbing, it just was.”

      “The Soul Eater.” He shook his head. “When you blacked out, the Oracle…she took over your body.”

      “What?” Bella shrieked, her face pale.

      He laid a hand on her knee to calm her. Even through the blankets and her clothing, he imagined her skin searing his. “Don’t be freaked. She didn’t make you go crazy or kill anyone, like the Soul Eater did to Nathan. She used you to speak to us. Basically, she just popped in to announce her presence.”

      Bella’s brow furrowed. “I knew that.”

      “Well, then you weren’t as bad off as we thought,” he stated, for lack of anything better to say. He could have murmured, “Tomorrow is another day,” or “Every cloud has a silver lining.” That would have been just as brilliant.

      “Somehow, I knew that.” She started to shake, her eyes wide. “How did I know that?”

      “It probably leaked into your subconscious. I mean, she could have left, like, psychic residue….”

      Bella quirked her eyebrow. “Residue?”

      “I’m sorry, I’m not hip to the whole mental communication scene.” He tossed his hands up.

      “You are a vampire. What about the blood tie? That does still happen, does it not?”

      You have no idea. Everywhere Max looked—at Marcus’s bed, Marcus’s chairs, Marcus’s obscenely expensive rugs— all he saw was a hole where his sire should have been.

      Of course, he couldn’t expect a werewolf to be sympathetic with that. “I’m just trying to help.”

      “I know.” Her voice was uncharacteristically soft. “She is on her way to meet the Soul Eater.”

      Max frowned. “We assumed that—”

      “She is on a boat. It is a cargo ship of some kind, headed for…Boston.” Bella shook her head. “Why would she give you that kind of information?”

      He decided to ignore the chills racing up his spine for a moment. “She didn’t.”

      They stared at each other for a long minute. Vaguely, he noted the ticking of the clock in the corner, and the click that registered it was about to chime. When it sounded, they both jumped.

      “How did I—”

      He cut her off. “I don’t know. Do you know anything else?”

      “Many things.” She trembled openly now, and a tear slid down her cheek. “She killed a sailor sent to check on something in the hold. Hold. That is not a word I would use.”

      “It doesn’t come up in a lot of my conversations, either. ” He brought his clasped hands to his mouth. “Maybe it’s a fluke.”

      “Fluke? I have her memories in my head. You think that is a fluke?” Bella moved as if to get out of bed, and Max put his arm out to stop her.

      “You’ve had a bad night. Just take it easy.” He tucked the blankets in around her legs.

      “Take it easy?” she screamed, kicking the covers back. “Do not tell me this! I have been used as a puppet!”

      “Look, there’s no reason to panic. At least, not yet. She didn’t have enough power to continue inhabiting you.”

      Bella covered her face with her hands. “Why me? I am not one of you. Why did she not seek one of her kind?”

      “I don’t know.” He’d wondered the same thing. More specifically, he’d wondered why it had to be Bella СКАЧАТЬ