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

with them. None of the people who worked with the Five were particularly good at healing. Jasper was the one who brought people to healers, as he could teleport himself and supplies. Both Lyra and Jiminy were trained fighters and could protect anyone if they put their mind to it. There were a few others who were in the employ of the Five, but they did not have any abilities that could have prepared them for this moment.

“Do you know where the sheets are?”

He looked down at the slight woman next to him, unused to her asking questions without making some kind of joke. “Jasper brought them with the medkits, didn’t he?”

“They aren’t there anymore.”

His gaze followed her pointing finger. Sure enough, the stark white sheets were gone.

“I guess we ran out,” he murmured.

She winced in response as her eyes looked over the many bodies that were laid out and covered so that their faces could not be recognized by the people who were gawking. He knew the small woman well enough, but Jiminy didn’t notice the determination in her eyes until it was too late.

She stomped over the people standing in a row behind the bodies. “Oy! Get the fuck off with you, yeah?”

They all stared at her in surprise but did not move. A huff of breath seemed to rock her entire body before she started to make an unusual sound. It built from the deepest part of her belly and rose through her torso. To Jiminy’s ears, it sounded rather like a whistle that was growing louder and louder.

Jasper ran towards Lyra and hooked an arm around her waist. “No more of that, fish bait.”

The sound instantly stopped as she was physically hauled away from the crowd. Jiminy watched the two of them as Jasper put her down on the sidewalk, and she burst into tears. He didn’t know whether or not she was capable of breaking down; now he knew that even she wasn’t impervious to this kind of massacre.

A severe glance from both large men splattered with blood was enough to send the crowd running. The house before him looked normal enough. It was a small apartment building that remained completely silent and still. There were a few lights left on in the rooms that these people had lived in.

But he knew what it looked like inside those walls. Malachi had turned a safe house into a horror story.

Jasper left Lyra on the sidewalk with her head buried in her hands. His silent footsteps paused next to Jiminy as they both stared up at the building that was meant to keep these people safe. Those who were still alive had already been removed to Haven. Those who did not have a chance of surviving had been left to die amongst their family.

Jiminy thought it all rather cruel.

“Burke?” He looked towards Jasper. “We’ve left her alone too long.”

For a moment, he didn’t understand the words. There was so much chaos around him that Jiminy had forgotten everything that he was meant to be doing. He blinked a few times before the world came crashing back down on him.

“Wren,” he murmured.

Jasper nodded. “We can handle it here. I’ll bring you back.”

“Jasper?” Lyra had looked up from her seat on the sidewalk. The cracked concrete around her was stained dark with water. Her hair hung limp around her as water dripped from her ears and eyes. “Are you leaving?”

The two men walked towards her, and Jasper hunkered down in front of her. “I’ll be right back. You want the jacket?”

She nodded, and he stripped the leather jacket from his broad frame. Jiminy remembered that Lyra got cold very easily. He could see why, considering that her entire body was soaking wet after her little episode.

He had completely forgotten that she was a Siren.

Jasper stood back up and held out his arm for Jiminy to take. Before his hands could touch the other man’s skin, Jiminy noticed the fine webbed tattooed pattern upon Jasper’s arm that disappeared underneath the line of his shirt.

“You know,” Jiminy said. “You’ve never actually told me what you are.”

Jasper jerked the shirt down lower. “Not your business. Take my hand, Jiminy. We don’t have time for bonding.”

Of course he was right. His hand slapped down, and for a few heartbeats, the two of them didn’t exist. Jiminy didn’t know how the other man did it, but teleporting had always felt like he stopped existing. There was no breathing. There was no heartbeat. There was nothing but the sound of static.

They landed hard, as though Jasper didn’t quite know where the ground was. Both of them staggered as they immediately started coughing. Smoke swirled around them and stifled their ability to breathe.

“Jasper, where did you take us?”

Said man was waving his hand in front of his face while trying to breathe in a clear breath of air. “Back to Wren’s place.”

“I don’t think so!”

The same time as Jiminy said that, a stiff wind blew the smoke away from them. The two men gaped at the sight before them.

What remained of Wren’s building was now ashes. The smoke was being emitted from the blackened frame of what had once been the Juice Bar. Rubble decorated the base, and as they watched, the last remaining piece of the second story came crashing down.

The damage was unique in that it had only affected the building itself. None of the neighboring houses were touched by the destruction. Not even a smudge of grey ash or smoke. Yet, nothing remained of the building that seemed to glow in the darkness of the night.

Coals burned hot at the base. The fire must have been incredibly fast to burn something so large to the ground. Jiminy stepped off of the sidewalk and towards the building. The ground crunched beneath his feet as he walked over shards of glass and shattered wooden pieces.

In the center of all the destruction, sat a woman with hair as black as night. He wouldn’t have noticed her