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

“She was Fae,” I muttered.

He beamed. “Yep! We’ve gotten all comers. Even a half harpy. That was awkward. She almost busted our eardrums when she spoke.” He made a grab for the casserole. I was going to play keep-off when I realised if Charles got to it first then Max would never see it.

His fork was halfway into the casserole – tuna, as it turned out – before he must have noticed the same thing.

“Eat it,” I said.

He put the fork down. “Why? You don’t care, right?” With that, he placed the casserole delicately into the cooler. When the door was closed, he banged on it. “Stocked as per your request. My end of the bargain is complete.”

“Is that a hint that you’re hungry?”

“If he’s not,” Andrei’s voice said from behind me, “I definitely am!”

Turning, I couldn’t help the smile that lit up my face. “Blood, please.” I held out my hand.

He flicked my nose. “Hello to you too.” He dropped two new vials into my palm. Wasting no time, I raced up the stairs to lock them up in my ingredients chest. Thankfully, somebody had seen fit to put it into my room.

When I returned to the kitchen, it was to the sight of natural enemies sizing each other up. Though he was drinking blood again, Andrei wasn’t built for bulk. Charles was huge for his age. They were pretty evenly matched.

“So you’re just going to teleport in and out like you own the place, huh?” Charles was saying.

Ignoring him, Andrei glanced at the demon blade. “So you’re just carrying that around like a security blanket, huh?”

Charles’s eyes went gold.

“If you two don’t keep it in your pants, nobody is getting fed.”

It was a terse forty minutes while I prepared dinner. We had only just sat down when the front door opened again, and everyone went preternaturally still. Max stalked through the house, his aura seeming to precede him. He neither greeted nor gave Andrei a second glance. His attention was on the food. “You cooked?”

“Somebody left you a casserole,” I informed him. Charles pressed the toe of his sneaker on my foot when I made a motion as though to cover the steak and chips I’d made.

“I’m not staying.”

“Then why did you ask?”

He didn’t respond, bounding up the staircase. A minute later, I heard the sound of running water. Andrei picked up his knife and handed it to me. “When he comes back down, do you want to finish the job?”

“Beg your pardon?”

“C’mon, cupcake! You’re being a super bitch.”

I almost choked on my own spit. “I’m being held captive in this house! How do you want me to react?”

“Maybe a bit like someone who doesn’t care that there are other women sniffing around. Not like you want to flay him alive for it even though he’s already proven he’s half-mad for you.”

“I…” My nostrils flared. “You know why this is happening.”

He stuck a cherry tomato in his mouth and let his fangs grow, piercing it through the middle. “That’s why this is so amusing. I wonder what the poor bastard might be suffering from that he doesn’t even understand?”

The food in my gut turned to lead. Andrei just grinned harder. I learned this lesson well. Never let Andrei Popescu know your secrets.

Max came back downstairs smelling of soap and cut grass and man. I stopped breathing for a second. That was all the time it took for him to pass by before my brain kicked in and I realised I needed to speak to him.

“Max!” I called out. He turned at the door. “Can I speak to you about my schedule?”

“Talk to Gwen.”

He shut the door and was gone. What the hell?

“Well, I guess that’s the two of you,” Andrei observed.

I ground my teeth. “Why is he making me stay here if he’s not even going to be around?”

“Because he can’t stand the idea of you being anywhere else,” Charles said. Then he made a face.

“What are your thoughts on me summoning here?”

“Not great. Is that technically sinister magic?”

Wow. “Have you ever paid attention in class? Summoning is arcane magic. Not sinister magic.” I made a face at him. “Suddenly I don’t feel like you’re equipped to be guarding me.”

“Well, you didn’t really kill anyone so it’s a pointless conversation!” He huffed. “The answer is still no, by the way.”

“Well, I can’t just sit around for half the day.”

He inspected me. “Are you even recovered enough from what happened with Agatha this afternoon?”

Suddenly it dawned on me why Max might be in such a foul mood. “How did you know about that?”

“Duh. Noah gave me a handover briefing.”

“Right. Is this the same briefing he would have given to Max?”

“You betcha.”

Perfect.

After dinner, Andrei gave me the bad news. “I’m going to be stuck in Seraphina for a while. Astrid needs help working on the defensive barrier around Cardinal City.”

“I can’t believe you’re ditching me here.”

He gave me a smile that was full of fangs. “I think you’ve got enough overprotective men around to keep your hands full. And no offense, cupcake, but the view in Seraphina is more my speed.”

“I hope she runs you ragged.” Red dots bled into his blue eyes for a second. It made me ill thinking about Andrei stalking Astrid. He tapped me lightly on the forehead.

“If that breaks,” he said, referring to the compulsion that kept the malachim from pulling me under their melancholy spell. “Don’t come looking for me.”

If the compulsion broke, it meant he was dead. “Andrei.”

He shook his head. “I don’t do goodbyes anymore.” Not after last time, he didn’t need to say.

“Thank you.”

“Just find her.”

Unable to study and without access to the MirrorNet, I found myself walking the perimeter of the house with my sack of salt in my hands. It felt a little redundant to do this inside the hundreds of protective spells the mages must have placed on the Reserve after it was attacked, but it