Bloodline Secrecy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 2), Lan Chan [readict TXT] 📗

demon blade! I hesitated to pick it up. Where I had created the markings for the circles, it looked like somebody had taken to it with a paintbrush. The thing now looked like a hippie canvas.

“Did you do this?” I asked the purple nymph. She danced around in the air, her speech a staccato beat. I picked up the sword and tried to rub off some of the colours. “It looks ridiculous!”

One of the other nymphs, the pink one, whistled her disapproval. It seriously looked like a kid’s toy now. How was I going to be taken seriously with a weapon like this? I could just imagine Skander’s reaction. Not that I really cared what a serial killer thought.

“Have you had this all morning? Is that why I couldn’t call it?” And how in the hell did they managed to work their magic on a demon blade when nobody was meant to be able to use it?

The purple nymph put her thumb and pointer finger into her mouth and blew. I couldn’t even hear the whistle it was so high-pitched. Next thing I knew they scattered. Thinking they were off to their other mischievous exploits, I picked up the sword and dusted myself off.

Something sharp whacked me in the back of my knee. “Ow!”

I spun to find the purple nymph with a two-foot-long stick in her hands. She wasn’t the only one. They were like bloody ants being able to lift ten times their body weight. All of them were armed.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

The answer was that they started hitting me. Just like when they pelted me with acorns, the attack came from all sides. Only this time, there would be no Nephilim to help me. I screamed, trying to dodge this way and that. I started running but they all converged in front of me, corralling me back into the clearing. Not only were they fast, somewhere along the line someone had taught them how to fight.

As I tried to dodge and weave, they moved with me, getting in as many wacks as they could. “Ow! Seriously stop!”

All I got was an ear-piercing whistle that shot straight through my eardrums and down the sides of my neck. At this rate, I was going to be a walking bruise. My skin was tender all over and there was no sign of relief in sight.

I wailed, considering curling up in a ball. Without thinking, the next time the purple nymph came to strike, I lifted the demon blade to meet her attack. The stick hit the blade. Instead of shattering, there was an almighty clang. It was as if the stick were made of metal too.

Rearing back, the nymph regrouped for another attack. Again, I blocked, lashing out in another direction to stop myself from getting smacked in the face by the red nymph.

One of the others rapped me across the knuckles. I almost dropped the blade but managed to hang on for dear life. There were too many of them. I was too slow.

“Why are you doing this?” I screamed.

That got me a hit right above my left eye. They were going to blind me. Nostrils flaring, I closed my eyes and reached for the web in the Ley dimension. I couldn’t anticipate their moves with the distracting flash of their magic. Inside the web, things were much clearer.

Using the webbed map, I could see the spot where we were standing. A collision of colours. My big blue one surrounded by a dozen smaller ones. I was going to get my ass kicked anyway, so I might as well give in to it. Taking a deep breath, I pressed my palm against the web. When I opened my eyes, it was as though everything around me had slowed down.

I saw the golden nymph come at me in slow motion. At the same time the purple nymph surged in front of my face.

I drew the sword up to meet her, using my free hand to snatch the stick from the golden nymph’s hands. As our swords clashed, the purple nymph opened her mouth. What I had previously heard as shrill whistling became normal speech in a lyrical voice that was beyond beautiful.

“You have to be faster,” she said.

I turned around and caught the blow to the shin before it could make contact. It was the last one I rebuffed before the world resumed at normal pace. My slight victory was short. I was pelted over and over again until the bell for the end of lunch rang.

The attack stopped abruptly. The purple nymph flew to hover at eye level. She chirped and pointed to the demon blade. Then she indicated the sun in the sky. Only she drew it at evening.

I stood there with my lungs feeling like they were going to collapse. “You want me to come back later?” She nodded. “Why? So you can continue beating me up?”

She flashed her fanged teeth. She held her hands out, palms up. A gathering of her purple fire trail turned to a mound of dust. She blew the dust in my face. As I inhaled, I was transported to another field. I stood on a hill alone, the demon blade glowing multi-coloured in my grip. A lone figure strode towards me, his golden armour reflecting the sun.

The image was fleeting. When it dissipated, I dropped to my knees. The purple nymph drew her finger across her neck in the universal sign of death. They left me there to contemplate what had just happened.

It seemed the nymphs were also into this vision thing. Only they saw me alone on a field of battle with Lucifer.

She was right, I was too slow. Without training, I would just end up getting myself killed. Glancing down at my arms, I could already see the bruises blooming on them. Better to be battered than dead. Fine. If the nymphs wanted me to come back and get my ass kicked, I would do it