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

I could punch her in the face. Sorceresses weren’t known for their physical prowess. If her spell work was concentrated in another direction, then her physical body was exposed.

“Noah,” I said. “Calm down, please.”

The yellow eyes that stared back at me were still focusing correctly. That was good. I could work with that. “Is this what this class is supposed to be?” he said, teeth sharp and cutting into his bottom lip. “Training you to steal supernatural essence?”

“Yes,” Agatha said. “No more tiptoeing around.”

Hugh smothered a grin behind his hand as the rumble in Noah’s chest escalated. “What’s the problem?” I asked Noah. “You said yourself that I’m weak. That I wouldn’t be able to do it even if I wanted to.”

He locked his gaze on me. The harsh lines of his face were so tight I was terrified the wolf was going to burst out of his skin. Sweat beaded against my brow. An immense pressure built behind my eyes as though somebody was crushing my brain in their grip. My discomfort was reflected back at me in Noah’s strained grimace. His bottom lip was actually quivering.

It struck me then what was happening even though I didn’t understand how. I was playing a dangerous dominance game with a wolf who could write the book on childhood trauma. When the muscle in his arm bulged under my hand, the mating link snapped out and a spark of something jumped between our fingers. He broke the standoff, his eyes lowering to the floor.

“Well,” Agatha said, “would you look at that? The girl just tamed a wolf.”

I wasn’t so sure. “Noah?” I tugged at his arm.

When he raised his head, his eyes were back to dark pools. Floating in them was disbelief. “You,” he gasped, unable to figure out why he’d backed down. “You’re not submissive.”

“I’m not anything,” I said between big gulps. “I’m human.”

“And isn’t that a shame?” Hugh drawled. “We’d have fewer problems if you were a sorceress.”

Casting Noah a final, disconcerted look, I squared my shoulders. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Agatha grumbled. “Where is the source of your powers?”

I tapped my foot on the floor. “The Earth.”

“And what is this wretched dimension all about?”

I scratched at my cheek. “Balance.”

Hugh beamed. His violet eyes danced. “After you use your blood alchemy, how long does it take to recover?”

I paused, my mouth hanging slightly open. How did they know? When the silence stretched too long for me to deny the truth, I shrugged. “It depends on the spell.”

“I think we’re going to need a demonstration. You said you’re meant to be transmuting Alessia’s blood. How successful have you been?”

Again, I clammed up. Agatha’s aura flashed magenta. “For someone who claims she wants to learn, you’re making it very difficult.”

What could I say? It wasn’t me, it was them. When uncertain, the truth was the best defence. Even if a part of me cringed at the bluntness of my words. “No offense, but I don’t know you.”

Hugh ambled closer to me. “What does that have to do anything? It was a simple question. How successful have you been at transmuting Alessia’s blood?”

It wasn’t that simple. But their expectant faces were staring back at me. So I stripped all of the unnecessary peripheral issues and got down to the core of the issue. “My alchemy, even my blood alchemy, isn’t close to being strong enough.”

“Have you tried taking someone else’s blood by force?” Hugh wanted to know.

Trying my hardest not to glance in Noah’s direction, I said, “Yes.” Aggression suddenly slapped me in the back. Gripping the edge of the bleachers, I tried not to react to the painful stabbing in my side.

“Did you actually go through with it?” Agatha ventured.

“What do you mean?” I squeaked.

She appeared right in front of me, her clawed nail tipping up my chin. “You tried to take blood forcefully,” she said. “But did you actually go through with it?”

For some reason, I averted my gaze when I shook my head. Like it was shameful not to have the stomach to hurt somebody.

“You’re aware that a blood sacrifice is the most powerful source of energy besides the destruction of a human soul, aren’t you?”

I gritted my teeth and swiped her hand away. “Yes, I am aware of that.”

“Your great-grandfather was so strong he was able to give himself the ability so shapeshift. He even prolonged his mortal lifespan.” She pierced me with a look so haunting, so hungry, I wanted to tuck my tail between my legs.

“I don’t want to hurt people.”

Hugh gave a snort. “This is going to be interesting then. Say a demon–”

I cut him off. “I have no problems killing demons, but I can’t transmute their essence. I can only use their blood.”

“What’s the distinction?”

“If you don’t know the answer to that, I can’t help you.” Lex was the only one who could gather demon essence. Her power came from Lucifer. It was a curse I was glad not to be afflicted with.

Agatha grew impatient. “Enough. Show me.”

Blowing out a long breath, I took the vial of Lex’s blood out of my jacket pocket. There was only the slightest bit left. “How did you get it?” Hugh wanted to know.

Strangely, he was one of the few people to ask. Everyone else had just assumed she’d given it to me. “She was sick at the end. Quite violently so. I collected it when she was asleep.”

“So, she didn’t know?”

I shook my head.

“So it wasn’t a sacrifice of any kind?”

I saw what he was getting at. A blood sacrifice involved a kind of unnatural magic that was harnessed through extreme, distressing emotions. Lex had no idea I’d collected her blood. Some of it I had used in the potion I made to keep her alive. None of it had been taken from her unwillingly. Which meant that it only contained a fraction of her strength. That was the frightening part. If I couldn’t even contain a drop of diluted power, how would I ever withstand the real