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

this time when his hands cupped over her eyes. A spell was murmured quietly, and still she did not open her eyes. The suspense was killing her.

“Alright then, open,” Wolfgang commanded.

“Oh,” she whispered as her eyes fluttered open. “Of course you’re blue.”

Blue wasn’t even enough of a word to describe him. He glowed. Everything about him was brilliant and painful to look at. He was the most stunning color that rivaled the sky, the ocean, the most prized sapphires.

The magic that flowed through him made him the most stunning thing she had ever seen. Blue tendrils strengthened his body. He was larger than life in this way of seeing. She couldn’t step back but could see how large his shoulders were. She could see how defined his chest had become. She could feel the strength in his arms just by looking at them.

She had known he was not a weak man. But she was ashamed to say she had never thought to see him like this. Her hands rose to hold onto his forearms as her world began to tilt.

His hands were gentle against her eyes. Parts of his magic reached towards her, and she watched as a thin filament tangled with a bit of the seafoam of her fingers.

“What’s it doing?” she asked him.

“What it always does when I’m around you.”

“Why is it doing that?”

He shrugged. “I believe we are more connected with each other than either of us could have imagined.”

“Oh.”

Wolfgang swallowed hard. She watched as the ever moving magic dust began a chaotic spiral inside his chest.

“Lyra, if you wish, I will bring my doppelganger back.”

“Why would I want that?” She didn’t understand the question. Although that Wolfgang was certainly more attractive, he was not the same as the man she could touch.

“I know what I look like—”

She reached forward to press one of her hands against his mouth. It was unnerving to watch the colors of her own body meld together with him until she could not tell where she began. But as she stared, she realized that another part of herself settled.

Her soul. That soft feeling was her soul, she was certain of it.

“I don’t care what you look like, Wolfgang. I may be a vain Siren, but I am only vain when it comes to myself. Your looks mean nothing to me.”

“I will hold you to that,” he murmured against her hand.

“You won’t have to.”

His fingers shook against her eyes, and he slowly lowered them. The light faded. Without his touch, she was staring into only darkness. The change was jarring. Unwelcome.

His hands smoothed along the edges, and he gently pulled the blindfold from her. He had been kind enough to have only a few candles burning behind her, so the light didn’t burn her eyes. Lyra blinked at him.

It was true. He was an ugly man. But now all she saw were the bright lights of his magic and his soul. She grinned.

Wolfgang looked as though he had been shot. She hadn’t thought it was possible, but he grew even more pale as he stared at her lips.

“Where did you come from?” he asked her.

Normally, she would have given some ridiculous answer. Lyra particularly liked to make up stories about far off places and daring adventures. She was a pirate’s daughter who sailed the seven seas while stealing treasure. It was a believable story for a Siren.

But staring up into those mismatched eyes, she couldn’t lie to him.

“The Golden Corridor. My parents were a politician and an extremely wealthy businessman.”

His hand raised to trace the air next to her cheek. He did not touch her, not yet. “A wealthy girl with a contract?”

“My parents despised me for what I was. Sirens are hated by many creatures, my parent’s included. I rebelled. You can thank Jasper for that. He teleported me away and landed in the Black Market. I did what I had to. Survival was more important than dignity at that point.”

Wolfgang’s eyes darkened the more she spoke. “Survival?”

“I have a dark past.” She shook her head. “I don’t particularly like visiting it.”

“You do not wish to tell me.”

“It’s not that,” she replied. She was uncomfortable with the entire idea of it. If she could tell anyone, and she had never told anyone, she should be able to tell this man. He was damaged in the same way she was. Touched by darkness and incapable of finding light.

Except in her.

Lyra shook her head again. “I’m not sure I can tell you. I don’t think I could make the words come out.”

His hands curled gently on her neck. “Would you mind if I looked?”

“You can—?” She let the question linger in the air without finishing it.

“Yes.”

She took a deep breath. Never in her life had she told anyone what she had experienced that night. Even Jasper didn’t know what had happened with Sneep. No one else but her and Bones knew that she had willingly killed a man. That she had blood on her hands long before she began fighting for the Five.

No one else knew that Bones had been right. After the third dead body hit the ground, she really had stopped feeling guilty about it.

The weight had pressed on her for so long now that she didn’t even feel the burden. Lyra was no longer aware of the darkness that had sunk far into her soul. It festered like an open wound, but she did not feel the pain.

So for once in her life, she was going to clean the damn thing out. She met Wolfgang’s probing gaze and nodded.

His hands dug into her hair, and he closed his eyes instantly. The whispered words of a spell made her spine straighten as electricity danced across her skin. She felt the strange discomfort of dizziness and aching muscles.

He was flicking her memories. Every bit of her life was laid bare between them. Her thoughts were suddenly like a book. He turned a page, and she hadn’t finished reading it yet. Lyra logically knew