Bloodline Diplomacy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 3), Lan Chan [best way to read an ebook .TXT] 📗

We returned inside as the Councillors moved to a room that had been set up for the talks. They filed into the room in two lines. The supernaturals on the left, the humans on the right. Nobody spoke. If their postures got any more rigid they would be inanimate. All of the adults left the room. The door closed behind them. It might have been nice to be a fly on the wall.

“Do you think Max can still hear what they’re saying?” I asked Sophie.

“They’re not supposed to be using their powers.”

“Yeah, but he can’t just turn off his hearing, can he?”

She pointed at the speakers wired into the ceiling. “Those are special soundproofing units. They were made by a low-mag—” She stopped short as Rachel approached us. The older girl’s expression could have stripped paint.

“Go ahead,” Rachel said, “Keep referring to yourselves as low.”

“I’m sorry,” Sophie said. “It’s a habit.”

Astrid floated over to us. I squeezed her arm. “It’s good to see you.” In a sky blue evening dress, quite a lot of her skin was showing. I couldn’t help noticing the many scars on her arms from the chemical burn.

“Likewise,” she said. “Happy birthday, by the way.” She spotted the necklace and paused. “Malachi gave that to you?” The hushed quality in her voice alarmed me.

I suddenly wanted to take the necklace off because it was drawing too much attention. My hand was reaching up when Astrid stalled me. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to make you self-conscious. It’s just been a long time since I’ve seen the necklace. It belonged to Kai’s mother.”

Sophie and I exchanged a look. The enormity of what this meant wasn’t lost on me. I bit my bottom lip.

It was at this point that Rachel tried to back away. I snagged the material of her dress and dragged her back. “This is Rachel. She’s my Terran roommate.”

“Hi,” Rachel said. It sounded like she was pushing speech past grinding teeth. She couldn’t have been more insincere if she tried. Astrid wisely chose to ignore it.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Astrid said. “I’m sorry about all the animosity.”

Rachel’s left eye spasmed. “Thanks.”

Sophie shot me an alarmed look. I returned a weary one. This wasn’t going well at all. And from what I could see, it was the humans resisting the idea of living peacefully. Astrid couldn’t possibly be more innocuous. If I were her, I would be spitting fire at the humans for having poured toxic chemicals on me. But she took it all in her stride. You would never have known that she had been in a supernaturally induced coma.

Silence stretched out ahead of us. We didn’t need to be shifters to try and overhear what was being said in the other room. Conversation in here was stilted. Mostly everybody just kept to themselves.

I’d seen Max and Desi try to strike up a conversation with Ashton, but after a few minutes they ran out of steam. For all their big talk, the Evil Three didn’t appear all that comfortable around Adam. If ever there was anyone who could charm the enemy, it was Adam. But even he was finding it difficult.

What concerned me the most was that Brigid was doing her best impression of a wallflower. She’d only given me one killing glare when I’d first arrived. Since then she’d been by the front door, speaking in low tones to one of her Fae friends.

“Well,” Rachel said. She too eyed my necklace. “I thought you said no presents?” I was beginning to get good at deciphering Rachel’s tones. This one questioned why Kai thought he could get me a present against my wishes. I could just about hear her voice in my head. “Why doesn’t he ever call you by your real name?”

Sophie noticed me faltering. “We might forgive him this time, I think.”

“How many times do you have to forgive them?” Rachel wanted to know. The way her lips pressed together made me think there was something else she wanted to say. Before I could pry it out of her, my eardrums were assaulted with yet another of Max’s soul-destroying roars. My whole body quaked.

Sophie and I instinctively shrank back. As did Rachel. She curled in on herself for a second before her fight instinct kicked in. I looked on as a mask of pure rage slipped over her. In the same way that I railed against authority, she had conditioned herself not to be afraid. The reminder that she was human amongst the supernaturals caused her muscles to bunch.

Sean gagged. I couldn’t see exactly what was happening past the taller figures in front of me, but the telltale snapping of reshaping shifter limbs told me someone had gone furry.

“Max!” Sophie screamed. She bolted forward only to be restrained by Astrid. The Nephilim pushed Sophie back at me as she strode forward.

“Get off him!” Ashton yelled. The last of his sentence echoed as he was flung clear across the room. He landed on the buffet table. It collapsed under the weight of his impact, sending plates and glasses shattering to the floor.

Instead of racing to his aide, Rachel produced a silver dagger from who knows where and inched forward. I could see Astrid’s indecision in the straightening of her spine. She wasn’t sure whether her intervention in Rachel’s decision would be appreciated. I didn’t care for the dull shimmer of Rachel’s blade. And then she did something odd. She nicked her palm with the blade. The crowd had dispersed to the edges of the room. In the centre of it, I watched as Desi’s glamour disintegrated. She’d been holding Max’s lion back. I knew for a fact her grip on her vampire half was second to none. She was finishing up her last few classes at Bloodline before taking up a post with the Night Guardians, the vampiric arm of their military. No way would she be enticed by the simple sight of blood.

And