Bloodline Alchemy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 6), Lan Chan [free ebook reader for android TXT] 📗

mind completely and...” She made the sound of an explosion and her laughter echoed in the long corridor. It had only been cut off when something grabbed hold of Kai without his consent and he disappeared from the dimension.

The memory splashed an icy resolve around me, dampening the fire his presence ignited. “I said leave me alone. I won’t ask again.”

Drawing on the alchemy, I bit my bottom lip and prepared to use blood. He saw the conviction in my eyes and his top lip curled. There was just the slightest hint of fangs. “What are you going to do?” he scoffed.

I looked him straight in the eye. “What I have to.”

There it was. The first signs of true unease. “That’s right, Max. I might be human, but I’m not some pushover who’ll do whatever you want. I’ve done things that will make your skin crawl. Now move before I lose my temper.”

He studied me for a moment, the red in his eyes receding to leave the glowing warm gold. “Remember that day in the fens when Lex saw that big rat?” he asked. I frowned, wondering why he would bring that up now.

“She screamed bloody murder and skewered it with her demon blade before running away in the other direction. You went back to retrieve the demon blade for her. You brought tools to bury the rat instead of just throwing it into the water like anyone else would.”

He reached up and grazed the back of his hand down my left cheek. I froze, too terrified to move. “You were crying when you buried it. Like you cry sometimes in the kitchen garden shed after Professor McKenna makes you dissect frogs in Potions class. So tell me, oh frightening one, how does someone whose heart bleeds for lower creatures kill another person just to take their magic? I call bullshit.”

Swallowing past the apprehension in my chest, I managed to say, “I know you can scent the necromantic magic in my blood. You have no idea what someone is capable of when they’re desperate.”

A humourless laugh rattled in his chest. “I know exactly what you’re capable of, Sophie darling.”

My nose scrunched. “If you don’t believe me, why didn’t you say something to the Council? They all believe I’m a murderer.”

He splayed his hand over my throat and pushed my chin so that he looked into my eyes. “Do you think I give a shit what the Council thinks? Do you think it matters to me whether they approve? They can think what they like. I know the truth.”

I. Me. What I want.

What a lovely proposition.

And yet I couldn’t help asking, “The pack circle–”

“A formality.”

“I...”

He pressed the pads of his fingers gently against my neck. “I let you go once,” he said, voice rough. “It won’t happen again. So you can get with the program or this is going to be very painful.”

With that, he pushed off the tree and started walking again, leaving me there with my head spinning.

9

Keeping up with him became a struggle. Anger radiated from him as he increased his pace until I was almost jogging. There was no time to catch my breath before we barged right in on a small clearing in the close hush of the Australian bush. Suddenly, I was surrounded on all sides by beasts in human skin. A literal circle of death.

The gap we’d stepped through was barricaded by two huge shifters I knew. Jeremiah of the bear clan and Harris of the primate clan. Both of them were second-in-command of their respective clans. Both now loyal to Max while Durin and their alphas were unavailable.

Leaving me to gape at the ring of hostile shifters, Max stalked to the gap between where Ari stood beside Gwen.

My heart beat wildly. I tried to get a measure of those around me. The once-friendly faces stared back at me with caution at best and outright hostility at worst. I didn’t even want to unpack the dark thing lurking behind the Blonde Shifter’s eyes. Or that of the two females by her side.

I was about to contemplate running when a familiar face appeared at the edge of the crowd to my left. Yolanda, or a wraith of Yolanda, was led into the clearing by a female shifter.

The sight of the once-proud alpha female caught me by the throat and shook me. Her shock of blue-black hair hung dull and limp around her withered frame. What had once been enviable tanned skin was now lined with wrinkles and sunspots. Blue veins crawled up her forearms and under the sundress she wore, appearing again as a web against her throat. It was as if a parasite had crawled inside her body and was sucking the essence out of her.

The shifters around her moved aside, creating a seat for her out of a fallen log. They piled their coats on it to make her comfortable.

I blinked rapidly to stop from crying. Hating that crying was always my first reaction, I flared my nostrils and took a long, deep breath.

And then she spoke, “You may begin.” So hoarse. Like she was choking just to get the words out. I swiped away the moisture from my eyes and ignored the way Blonde Shifter rolled hers. Thankfully, everyone’s attention moved to where Max stood.

I couldn’t help marvelling at the contrast. Where Yolanda was a husk of her former self, Max was a picture of shifter health. Beside him, even Ari and Gwen seemed plain. Thanks to their mother’s blood, Max and Charles were somewhat immune to the effects of magic. It made it possible for them to withstand the power of the malachim enough that they could fight back. Now, more than ever, the shifters needed a beacon of power.

“You all know why Sophie is here,” Max said without an inch of give in his voice.

Jeremiah spat on the ground. “She’s human.”

Bears weren’t known for their scholastic aptitude. Which was why Durin was a diamond amongst his species. He’d held