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

“I don’t think E wants to talk to you.”

“E?” he asked as his finger pushed hard against her shoulder. “What a quaint little name for such a powerful creature.”

“E doesn’t have any power.” She swallowed hard.

“Are you certain of that?”

“That’s what it told me, and I trust E.”

“You see.” Her back hit the wall as he leaned forward to breathe deeply. “Legion lies.”

“Not to me.”

She hoped at least. This situation was yet another that was entirely out of her control. Likely, this was all E’s fault. If the creature hadn’t chosen her body as a child, then none of this would have happened.

But she couldn’t blame the person who had always been her best friend. Not in this moment when she needed to pay attention to the dangerous man in front of her.

She had to protect E at all costs.

Malachi was watching her carefully. His unnatural eyes danced between hers as he cocked his head to the side. “You weren’t talking to it there. I can feel it when it rises up.”

“Excuse me?”

“I had the pleasure of meeting your ‘E’ once before. Not in you of course but another. So much knowledge in a body as small as yours. How did you remain sane?”

“Couldn’t tell you even if I wanted to.”

He held her jaw in his hand and turned her face towards one of the glowing orbs. “Strange. Your mind is not one I would have expected to withstand it.”

“I’m stronger than you’d think.” Her words were muffled as his fingers tightened and dug into her cheeks.

“You are not going to like what I’m going to do next.”

“Try me.”

Her words were much more brave than she felt. Wren’s knees shook, and her mouth went dry. There were too many bad things this man could do to her, too many possibilities that danced in her head.

Through everything, E remained silent. This was what scared her most of all. E had always been brave, had always gotten her out of situations that it thought were dangerous. Why was it staying so quiet now of all times?

Malachi rose a hand to place it against her forehead. She was held immobile by the other hand forcing her head to remain where he wanted it. She watched his nostrils flared as he took another deep breath.

At first, nothing happened. Her brows furrowed in confusion as she stared at the long lashes that rested upon his cheeks. Wren didn’t think this was a joke. He wouldn’t be concentrating so hard if it was a joke.

She barely had time to finish the thought before she felt the burst of dark billows that was E slamming against her skull. The creature within her was brought to the threshold of her mind so quickly that she was shoved aside.

An ache unlike any other she had experienced burst inside of her head. Wren had always been separate from E, which had prevented her from feeling everything that the creature housed inside of it.

Malachi’s hand pressed harder against her forehead, and Wren felt the odd sensation of being sucked into the dark cloud that was the consciousness of E. All at once, she felt emotions she had never felt before. Memories flooded her mind that were not hers.

She gasped as voices screamed inside of her head. Her eyes squeezed shut. There were too many thoughts for her mind to handle, too many memories that weren’t hers. She understood now why E had always kept this from her.

Drowning was an accurate description. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t hear anything but the voices that called out to her. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as she lost all sense of self. There was no beginning or end to what she knew or what she had experienced.

She was woman. She was man. She was child. She was warrior. She was every life that had lived and more.

Wren was gone. There was no young woman who had been left by her parents, only a small spark of that girl who was swallowed by thousands of years experienced by countless souls. Every voice was hers and not. Every thought was experienced a hundred times over. Love. Death. Sorrow. Pain. Every emotion was there and minimized, because she had seen it over and over again.

Her eyes slowly blinked open. The white that had always been a clear sign of E controlling her body was there, but faintly the outline of storm grey eyes could be seen inside of it.

Malachi let out a quiet huff of breath. “Perhaps I underestimated you, human.” His fingers flexed against her skin. “Now let’s see what else you can take.”

Wren’s entire body swayed forward as though a string was tied around her navel. Her arms dropped to her sides, and he pushed her head backwards. Unseeing eyes stared up at the ceiling as she felt the smoke that was her consciousness swirl inside of her again.

Jumbled thoughts swelled, and she was once again adrift in a storm.

And then, all at once, something clicked inside of her. Wren was not controlling her body. In fact, she was doing very little. She was forced to remain silent as one of the many inside E was brought to the surface by Malachi.

Her eyes blinked open, but now they were brown.

“Ah.” His eyes met her confused gaze. “There you are.”

Again, she was sidelined in her own body. Wren could feel the warmth of his hand disappear, but she couldn’t stop her body from slumping backwards. It was someone else that pressed her palms against the stone walls.

“What?” She heard herself whisper.

“Yes, I suspect you haven’t been let out in a long time,” Malachi murmured.

“What is happening?”

“You don’t know where you are? I thought you were all aware at the same time.”

Wren was quickly realizing that this voice she was hearing wasn’t her own. Though female, it was much higher than her own. Lilting and sweet, it was the voice of an innocent.

“We are all aware.” Her eyes tilted to stare down at her