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

out a squeak as Burke’s arms burst free for a moment. “I don’t think he’s happy about it.”

They held him down for longer than either of them wanted to. It might have been minutes or hours until Burke’s eyes flew open, and he stilled. Great gasping breaths filled his lungs until his heart quieted.

Only then did Gaia release his skull from her hands. Her fingernails had left marks upon his temples, along with bruises from Lyra and Jasper.

“Welcome back to the real world,” Gaia angrily said. “Foolish man. Jumping into the dreaming world after her solved nothing.”

“I have to find her.” Burke’s voice sounded raw. “This is our only chance until she disappears forever.”

“You found her once. You doubt yourself already?”

“I found her by luck. Malachi will have taken her out of my reach; he knows I’m a Dream Walker.”

“You did not think to immediately return to us?”

“I did what had to be done!” He sat up and moved to swing his legs off of the table. “You should not have brought me back. I would have found her.”

“Perhaps, but with your body moved how did you expect to return to us?”

Burke remained silent. He sat on the edge of the table and squeezed his hands into fists.

“Precisely,” Gaia said. “You do not think before you act. You would have found her and had no way to tell anyone else because you would have been lost in the dreaming world. You are a professional, Burke. Act like one.”

She walked towards the door with a disappointed look on her face. Gaia was absolutely correct. Burke was too old to make mistakes like this. He had been doing this job for many years, and yet with this one woman, he repeatedly failed over and over again.

But this time it felt personal. She had been right in front of him, so close he could have touched her. And then she had disappeared. Slipped out of his fingers as though he was trying to hold a palm full of water in a mesh net.

Gaia paused and looked over her shoulder. “Lyra, run a scan to find her heartbeat.”

Burke’s heart seemed to stop. “You know where she is?”

“I can find where she is. I don’t know where she is,” Gaia clarified. “I placed a bug in her when she was asleep.”

His face turned white. “You put a bug in her? Without her waking up?”

“I suspect E had something to do with that.”

The door clicked softly behind her and Lyra. Jasper was already wincing as he realized the strength Wren must have inside of her. A bug was literally that. It was a small enchanted beetle that crawled underneath a person’s skin.

It attached itself to the inside of a hipbone and existed upon the person’s life force. It took so little to keep the beetle alive that the person would usually never know that there was a bug inside of them. But the process of planting a bug in someone was rumored to be brutally painful.

How that woman had slept through the entire process was a mystery to him.

Silence stretched between the two men remaining in the room. “Burke,” Jasper began, “I’m so sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“We were both there. We both should have grabbed her.”

“No one could have known there were portals on the ground,” Burke murmured. He stared down at his hands, which were flexing. He should be gathering his strength to stand. The Dream World had a way of sucking energy out of a person.

“I’m sure they’ll find her signature.”

“It should be me finding her.”

Jasper could hear the frustration in Burke’s voice. He could hear the disappointment and anger that he was now stuck waiting. Sudden clarity struck as Jasper realized what all this was about.

“You’re in love with her.”

Burke snorted. “No, I’m not; I just want to protect her.”

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

The words hung in the air above the two men. They both held their breath for a few moments as emotions and thoughts whirled around them. But eventually, every bubble had to pop. Burke let out a long sigh.

“I don’t know, Jasper. All I know is I have to get her back.”

He could hear the rattle of air in his chest. He could feel the hairs on his arms stand up as his thoughts flickered through the possibilities. She was without him, possibly in pain, possibly dying.

But perhaps it was the knowledge that he had failed her, yet again. He had always been the person to save others. Burke’s job was to be a bodyguard for God’s sake. He knew how to put himself on the line so that another person might live.

Yet with this woman, no matter how hard he tried, she always slipped through his fingers. He hadn’t managed to save her once. It was trying on his ego.

Lyra barged through the door. Her dark hair was tangled around her face in long wet strips, which made Burke’s spine straighten instantly. She only lost control over her power like that when she was upset. He could hear Jasper gritting his teeth beside him and knew the other man had come to the same conclusion.

“We found her.” The words were said on a long sigh as she tried to catch her breath.

“And?”

“You’re not going to like it, Burke.”

“Of course I’m not,” he growled. “Out with it.”

“The bug’s signal was very faint, but she’s in the Ice Realm. Old Quebec.”

“Oh come on!” The words slipped out of his mouth without thought. “Canada? Really?”

She shrugged. “Guess the portal wasn’t capable of transporting her to Europe. It’s lucky, she’s only a hop, skip, and a jump away.”

“For the teleporter over here.” He hooked a thumb towards Jasper. “We’ll need authorization to cross over into another country.”

“Who needs authorization? We’ll just pop over and grab her.”

“Not without bringing M.O.M. down on our heads. The Frost Giants took over Canada a long time ago and want nothing to do with M.O.M.”

“Oh right,” Lyra murmured.

The chunk of land that used to be the United States