Red Blood (Series of Blood Book 2), Emma Hamm [little red riding hood ebook free .TXT] 📗

get her bearings. Somehow, she was in one piece. She didn’t feel any bits of herself bleeding. She didn’t feel wounded at all.

She leaned up on her elbows to stare at the shards of orb, which were hovering in the air. Each one had stopped before they had hit a person.

“Well,” Mother grumbled. “That was incredibly rude. Everyone is all right?”

Crone smacked her lips together. “Just barely. Did you get a good look at him?”

“No,” Mother replied. She was visibly shaken. “Not even the smallest glimpse of the person. It is now time for you to leave, I think.”

“You didn’t answer the third question,” Lyra argued.

“We did. The person you seek is so powerful that not even we can see who they are. That in itself is an answer.”

The other three on her team were already standing. She could see how shaken both Jasper and Burke were. E was a stoic as ever. She suspected that Wren would not have taken this quite as well. The woman was a spitfire when Burke was put in danger.

Just as he was for her. His hands were clenched at his sides. Lyra could almost see the thoughts dancing through his head that he wished it were Wren in control over her body. He probably wanted to get all sappy with her and make sure she was fine.

Lyra hadn’t ever thought she’d want that in her life. Sirens weren’t a settle down with one person type of creature and neither was she. Her thoughts had been straying lately though.

She got up to follow the others and stuck her tongue out at Jasper when he reached out for her.

“Excuse you,” she chided.

“I’m just seeing if you’re all right.”

“Mom. I’m fine.”

“I’m not your mother,” Jasper grumbled.

“No, you’re my annoying big brother, and you’re smothering me with worry.”

“Young man,” Crone warbled. “The big one.”

Jasper looked down at Lyra with a questioning arch of his brow before he turned to look at the old woman. “Yes?”

“You be careful.”

“I always am, darling.”

“No, I mean when you meet her.”

The entire team stopped to stare at the scene before them. Her? Jasper was a solitary man. He had never expressed interest in any woman. At least not when he was around them. Already he was turning bright red.

“Her?”

“My warning to you is that she was created to destroy. When she arrives in your life, she will come violently and without control. You must learn to control her. Otherwise, you will only hold a monster on a leash.”

Lyra watched Jasper’s face turn white. She leaned forward to take his arm in her hand. “Jasper?”

“What is she talking about?”

“I don’t know.”

Crone cackled. “You’ll find out soon enough, handsome man. One of these days, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.”

“Is she a prophetess?” Lyra asked.

Laughter was her answer. Crone’s voice seemed to vibrate. The sound was soon joined by that of Mother and Maiden. Three tones melded together until they were one sound that grew louder and louder until everything around them dissolved.

The house and everything in it was simply not there anymore. Lyra was staring at a tangled bed of roots that were attached to weeping willow that had nearly been ripped from the ground. All four of them were now standing in the swamp alone.

Her feet tapped against the stones that now made a clear path out of the swamp. They were large enough for three people to stand upon and an easy distance to leap between. She would have liked to have seen these earlier.

She swallowed hard. “Well that was odd.”

A muscle in Jasper’s jaw ticked. “No kidding.”

“Did we get everything we needed here?”

“Yes.”

“Are we going home now?”

Jasper looked down at his hands and flexed them. “I’m working up to that.”

“You burn yourself out getting us here?”

“Not burned out, just tired.”

Lyra patted him on the shoulder. “Take a rest, big guy. We’ll relax for a bit without the terrible three getting creepy on us.”

They were used to allowing Jasper time to refill. He was the only way for them to get places like this as quickly as they managed. Pushing him would only result in them waiting longer and for something even more important.

She turned to look around the swamp one last time. This entire afternoon would be an adventurous story to tell to Wolfgang. He would be very interested in all the things she had seen, especially if he knew the Trinity. Maybe he could even help her find that third person.

Something moved at the edge of her vision.

Cocking her head to the side, Lyra turned fully away from the others to look in the water. She had yet to see any fish in these waters. But if there were, then she was curious.

Another movement revealed something pale underneath the thick pond scum. Interesting. Perhaps some of the fish were albino then. It wouldn’t surprise her considering that so many other creatures had been affected by magic.

Lyra didn’t know she had traveled far away from the people on her team. She had her knives and felt a sense of overconfidence because of the blades. Not to mention, she was a Siren. Water was basically her home.

Her eyes narrowed as the water again rippled. She couldn’t see into the water past her own reflection, the layer of algae was so thick.

“What in the world?”

She had only moments to whisper the words before hands slapped down on the rock she stood upon. Then more reached out from the depths to grab at her ankles. She let loose a loud scream as she was pulled from the safety of the stone and into the water.

Lyra knew what this was. These weren’t dead bodies underneath lily pads. These were hands sent directly from Bones to drag her back to his home to serve her sentence. She had so easily forgotten that even water itself was reflective.

She struggled against the pull of the hands, which now could not be seen. Somewhere there was likely a portal. All they needed to do was pull her