Silver Blood (Series of Blood Book 1), Emma Hamm [free novels txt] 📗

to claim her mouth. He devoured her body and soul and left her as a fluttering bit of silver Curiosity that now was stained with bright blue.

Eventually he withdrew from her with an odd expression on his face. Her lips were swollen, and her cheeks abraded but she had never felt more alive.

Or so weak.

“Finish getting your things,” he said as he forced himself to step away from her. “I don’t want to be here any longer than we have to be.”

She disappeared behind the sheer red curtain that marked her bedroom. The clothes that she wanted to take were ripped out of her dresser and tossed behind her shoulder to land on the floor in Jiminy’s line of sight.

“I don’t know how much to take. How much should I take?”

He didn’t answer fast enough for her, and more clothes decorated the floor in a flurry of wild colors and translucent fabric. It was all a little overwhelming for Jiminy whose expression quickly grew more and more confused.

“I don’t… Do you really need-?”

Wren continued to throw clothes over her shoulder until she realized that Jiminy had gone suspiciously quiet. Leaning back so she could pull the curtain aside, she arched a brow at him. “Suddenly silent?”

His gaze wasn’t focused on her, but his brow had furrowed. She recognized the expression. She usually had the same one when E was speaking to her. But Jiminy’s creature didn’t speak to him as they were the same person.

He nodded firmly before looking at her.

“Jasper’s coming. Don’t be surprised.”

But she jumped when the lion-like man suddenly appeared in front of them. He turned towards Jiminy and held out his hand.

“Wren,” Jiminy turned towards her rather than taking the outstretched hand. “I have to go assist Lyra and Jasper. Malachi has launched an attack on one of Haven’s strongholds for Red Bloods.”

“Go,” she said. Her eyes were wide and darkened with worry.

He hesitated. “Are you going to be alright alone?”

“I think your attention is elsewhere.” She fluttered a hand at him. “I’m fine. It’s not like you’re going to be gone for days.”

“I’ll let the Five know you’re alone. E?” He waited until her eyes flipped backwards, and the creature inside her stared back at him. “Don’t let anything happen to her.”

“I don’t plan on it.” It was said with Wren’s voice, but he knew very well who was responding to him. Power resonated with the words and thrummed from within her chest.

“Good.” He turned then and slapped a hand against Jasper’s shoulder. In a blink, the two disappeared from her apartment.

“Well,” she said quietly as she stared at the place they had once stood.

Whatever Jasper was, he was another powerful creature that she didn’t quite know what to do with. He was obviously capable of far more than she gave him credit for. She knew that he had some sort of abilities; he didn’t seem like any creature she had met before, and she doubted the Five would have a Curiosity in their employ.

However, she hadn’t really believed he was capable of what he did. Teleportation was only listed as a power for a small number of species. Wren found she didn’t want to speculate which one of those species he actually was.

Without Jiminy, her apartment suddenly seemed more dangerous than before. The shadows seemed a little too dark, and the silence was a little too still. She found she didn’t like that she had relied upon him so much. She hadn’t even thought that she was doing it until he was gone, and now she realized that he had become a constant sense of comfort.

The thought was ridiculous. She had always been a loner. Wren had never needed anyone other than E to take care of her, and she didn’t want to start now. She had been alone growing up in orphanage.

Alone had never been a word to be scared of. It had been a word that meant freedom and liberation from teachers that were constantly trying to change her, and a family that had given her up.

E had been more than enough to keep her entertained. It had constantly been switching characters and always made certain that she found out new and exciting things. The wealth of knowledge that the creature had made sense now that she knew what it was.

However, “alone” was now something different. Alone meant that she was vulnerable, because she wasn’t certain whether she knew how to take care of herself. Alone meant that there could be something waiting to grab onto her. Alone meant that she wasn’t safe at all.

“We weren’t safe for all these years. You just thought we were.”

“E,” she whispered as relief made her knees weak. “Of course we were safe.”

“There are things out there just as dangerous as Malachi.” E paused for a moment to chuckle. “Well, just as dangerous to you. You were constantly getting into situations that could have killed you.”

She smiled. A memory played in her head of a particular afternoon when she had decided to learn how to swim on her own. It had been particularly disgusting water. A murky watering hole that no person in their sane mind would have stuck their toe in.

E had been there to take cover and swim for her when she sank to the bottom. Her foot had gotten stuck in the muck, and in her struggles, she had snapped the bone. This was the most violent memory of her early life.

She shook her head and tried to ignore the uncomfortable feeling that was overwhelming her. She shouldn’t feel like this in her own home. She had lived here for so long, Wren was well aware that there shouldn’t be any danger.

Her hands shook as she went back to the dresser and started picking out clothes again. This time, she crumpled them in her hands before dropping them at her feet. Folding them didn’t seem necessary if she was going to move back in with the Five.

“You know I’m going to take care