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

She didn’t even have the audacity to deny it. Instead, she massaged her cheek and went to grab a bottle of liquor. I wanted to snatch it out of her hand and smash it against the wall. “Rachel!”

She sat cross-legged on her bed and took a swig. That’s it. I marched over there, took the bottle, and threw it out the window. “You owe me thirty bucks,” she said.

There was smoke coming out my ears. “I owe you a hell of a lot more than that.”

“So why don’t you run off to your Nephilim and tell him what I did?”

I sputtered. Was she kidding right now? I watched her for several beats. Her eyes were slightly glazed. Not like she was crying but like she was in shock. In disbelief. “I don’t get it. This treaty was meant to be a starting point towards peace. Why would you sabotage that?”

I couldn’t get the question out of my head. Ever since I’d seen her magic where it marked Max and Desi. She’d done something to trigger their innate supernatural responses. In true hedge-witch fashion, I suspected she’d concocted some kind of salve that made Max regress.

It didn’t shock me when she started to giggle. It was the mirthless effect of it that sapped me of anger. “We’ll never have peace. They’re always a hair’s breadth away from reverting to what they truly are.” She swiped her sleeve over her nose. “How much Arcana fruit have you eaten?”

The question took me aback. How did she know about Arcana fruit? “Does it matter?”

“Yes. Your Nephilim could have snapped Sean’s neck without blinking. That shifter would have torn through the room if the female Nephilim hadn’t stopped him. We had one defence against them. One advantage, and now they’ve taken that away. How do you think he figured it out?”

She said it all in a jumble of words that I had to scramble to make sense of. “You weren’t there when Giselle was terrorising them –”

“Whatever. They deserved to feel uncertain. They’ve lorded themselves over us for centuries. The sooner humans learn about them, the better off we’ll be.”

“You can’t really believe that. Not all of them are out to get us.”

She smirked. It was the kind of look you gave someone who just had no idea about anything. She was acting like I was some kind of naive kid.

“So tell me,” I said. “You keep making these statements but you won’t tell me why you’re so adamant they’re evil. I understand fear. I get that some of the things they do are wrong. But you can’t just eradicate them the way you want. How is that any different to what you’re accusing them of doing to us?”

She smiled. I wasn’t sure why until I backtracked and realised I’d been using terms like them and us. I couldn’t keep my allegiances straight. It was insanely frustrating. I also thought I was ready for her to open up.

“My family used to live in Rivia,” she said. My legs gave way. Luckily I landed on the edge of my bed. “Mum was a teacher. She taught some of the kindergartners about humans and how they should behave to hide themselves. Sometimes she brought students home with her to see how we lived. We were like lab rats. I used to think they were so cute. Furry little half-monsters with teeth that weren’t so sharp at that age.”

She looked dead ahead as she spoke. I didn’t realise I was bunching up the covers until I heard something tear. Unwittingly, I was waiting for the story to turn. “Dad and I were shopping for school supplies when we got the bulletin. By the time we arrived at the pre-school, she was on her last breath. Apparently some of the vampires had started a fight with the shifters. She tried to stop them and got injured. Her blood caused the vamps to change. Those same little kids that she’d taken home with her ripped her apart. She was so far gone even the Nephilim healers couldn’t save her.

“The Council pronounced it an accident. They tried to compensate us with money. Like that would make everything better.”

I didn’t know what to say. I would have tried to comfort her, but she was giving off don’t-come-near-me vibes. And it seemed like this wound had scabbed over. The way she spoke was clinical. She’d gone through it so many times in her own head that it no longer held the sting even if it continued to fester.

“Where is your dad now?” I asked.

Her shoulders tensed. “He’s still trying to pretend they’re not monsters.” That’s where the bile was directed. “I went back and looked at the archives. There have been so many incidences across the decades of supernaturals accidentally going rogue and killing humans. But nobody ever does anything about it. It’s always swept under the rug. Like we’re so insignificant and we should be grateful they’re not just murdering us freely.”

I bit my lips together. I couldn’t help thinking about what I’d do if a vampire murdered Nanna. My mind refused to give the notion wings. I knew there would be no reasoning with me. I sighed and lay down on the bed. It would be so nice just to close my eyes and forget about this whole night.

“I get that you’re friends with some of them,” Rachel said. “But are you telling me you’d trust them completely not to go postal if they’re triggered. You saw the way that vamp and shifter reacted tonight. And that was just from one small piece of stimuli. That’s all it takes and you’re dead.” She cleared her throat. “Except you specifically might not be dead. And that’s why they’re so obsessed with keeping you guarded. There’s something about your power that makes you strong enough to fight them. It’s only a matter of time until they decide you’re too much of a threat.”

Despite trying to deny