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

Her mouth gaped open as her lungs screamed for breath. She did not have the luxury of gills like the Nixies that Wolfgang had helped. The surface of the water so far away. The light barely filtered down to her, which likely meant that the portal was close. Maybe she simply needed to pass out for Bones to finally snag her.

She didn’t want to be a slave. She didn’t want to be “safe” in his home. She wanted her life that she had built and would give away all the things Bones taught her to stay where she was.

She didn’t want to give up. Those words weren’t really in her vocabulary. But every muscle in her body was becoming heavy, and she was tired of fighting. She was tired of being afraid around every corner.

The hands on her ankles gentled. As though simply the mere thought of acceptance meant they would be kinder. For that, she was grateful.

A spark of light caught her attention. It crawled sluggishly from between her breasts and out of her shirt. Tiny and bright blue, once it hit the water it zipped away from her. It took a moment to circle her and the invisible hands before she swore it shook with anger.

Lyra suddenly realized what this was. A tiny blue light to look over her while she wasn’t at his side. Wolfgang was genius. Although she was going to have to argue with him about how right it was to put a little bug on her.

The light expanded in great shaking bursts until it was about the size of her head. Then it unleashed tiny bolts of lightning that zapped hand after hand off of her. A splash above her suggested someone was looking for her.

Hurry Wolfgang, she thought. They can’t know you’re here.

The magic finally finished its job. The blue light bolted towards her and pressed against her mouth. A great puff of air expanded her lungs and tasted faintly like cherry and cigar smoke. She was then shoved towards the surface as the light disappeared.

A firm arm curled around her waist and swam with her until she was able to gulp in mouthfuls of air Jasper shoved her onto the stone and pulled himself up beside her. Like a dog, he shook his large body as he immediately started scolding her.

“Are you kidding me? How are you falling into water? You know better than that!”

She immediately began to cough swamp water. Though it should have tasted foul, all she could taste was the lingering effects of Wolfgang’s magic.

“Lyra! Listen to me. Don’t you ever do that again. Do you hear me?”

She nodded.

“And you’re listening? Actually listening to me?”

Burke’s boot stepped into her line of vision. He leaned down to place a hand on her shoulder. “You okay?”

She nodded again.

“Can you talk?”

Shaking her head was the best response she could give them as swamp water made snot leak out of her nose like a fountain. She would never live this one down with the team. The teases were already playing through her head.

“Jasper, we need to get her home.”

Her extra large brotherly figure was grumbling. “Foolish woman. Absolutely ridiculous. And no thank you that I saved her.”

But he leaned down and hefted her into his arms.

“Thank you,” she coughed.

“Saved your life again you know.”

She kept her mouth shut on that one. Jasper could have his moment of glory, but she knew who had really saved her life. Wolfgang.

The next time she saw him, she planned on asking him where the taste of cherries came from.

“I need you to put this on,” Wolfgang remarked. He was holding a fine ribbon of black velvet towards her.

“I don’t think so.”

“Lyra, please don’t be difficult.”

She raised an eyebrow. She wasn’t being difficult. She was being smart. A blindfold? Here? She understood that he considered his home to be safe, but they were in a graveyard after all. Dead things were walking around them, and he wanted to tie her up like a turkey dinner.

“Uh, still no,” she said sarcastically.

The ribbon flowed through his fingers like water as he drew it from one hand to the other. “You won’t get your surprise unless you put this on.”

“Since when were we comfortable enough with each other for you to be bringing up kinky stuff like this?” She couldn’t help but ask him, although she did reach out for the band.

“Since you decided you wanted to have dinner with me.”

Again, she couldn’t help but stare at him in disbelief. The blindfold was brandished at him. “This is for dinner?”

“Of course.”

“You want me to not see the food?”

“I want you to not see me,” he muttered before stepping forward. His hands reached for hers, and he pulled the blindfold from her grasp.

“That’s ridiculous.” She couldn’t help but argue as he reached around her to tie a knot at the back of her head. “You eating can’t be any worse than watching a hydra eat. They have two heads you know.”

“Not anymore.” His fingers were gentle at the back of her skull. He spent long moments making certain that no hair was caught in his knot. Though he wasn’t a very strong man, she could appreciate the delicacy with which he handled her.

He was obviously trying not to snap any strand of her hair. Lyra’s lips curved into a smile when she realized this. No other man would have wanted to preserve her beauty quite as much as this one.

“You obviously haven’t met any Hydras if you think the multiple heads aren’t happening anymore,” she said.

“I take it you have been spending time with these creatures?”

“More than you want to know.”

The memories attached to that sentence were black. There were no words that could accurately describe the sense of complete and utter self loathing she felt when she remembered her time as an escort. A child. She had just been a child who thought she was a woman. Her Hydra boss should have