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

“I don’t understand,” I said. “What’s wrong with them?”

Rachel leaned against the wall, her face grim. “What does it look like to you?”

It didn’t take long to come up with an assessment. “They act like drug addicts.”

She nodded. By her shoulder, one of the patients turned over on his bed. He saw me and stopped moving. For a second, his eyes narrowed. Then they widened and he gave me a toothy smile. “Well, if it isn’t the Alley-Cat,” he said. “I thought you’d run away for good.”

Right now I wish I had.

33

I moved around Rachel and approached Randall’s bed. While I was homeless, we’d had an uneasy alliance. Aside from that one incident with the rat, he had been good to me. Now he watched me with murky eyes that couldn’t seem to focus.

“You look like you’ve had a couple of square meals,” he said.

“You look like you’ve gone a couple of rounds with a street sweeper,” I informed him. The hacking laugh he produced made me wince. Despite being homeless, he always managed to pinch a cigarette off someone. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had emphysema. “How did you end up here?”

I sat at the edge of his bed. A single bed that somehow managed to dwarf him all the same. He’d never been a big guy. That was part of the reason why we were drawn together. Two skinny outcasts trying to make it on the mean streets. His emaciated frame and the blue veins popping out of his arms said the mean streets were winning. He tapped at his throat and I caught sight of the multiple puncture wounds. My eyes flicked to Rachel for a second but she was mute.

“Got me some money-making leads,” he said. “Was gonna come back for you eventually, but you were long gone by then.”

That was Randall all over. He used to say he’d come into some scheme to make money and get himself off the streets. “What kind of leads?”

His eyes shut. He breathed like he was sucking in air through a tailpipe. “Giving blood.” I already knew the answer but having him confirm it made me green.

“You know that’s illegal, right?”

He laughed again. It was scratchy. “Nah, this ain’t for the government.”

Like that made it okay somehow. “You’re not going to do it anymore, are you?”

This time, when his eyes opened, they were creased at the sides. His slack mouth puckered. “I’m trying to. But these narcs won’t let me outta here.” He grabbed my hand. His skin was somehow both dry and clammy at the same time. “You come to get me outta here didn’t ya?”

I wasn’t sure what to say. Rachel chose that moment to make her entrance. She pressed what appeared to be a taser into his neck. I heard decompressed air hiss. Randall’s eyes rolled back in his head and he fell unconscious.

I stood up when one of the helpers covered him up with blankets. “Poor bastard,” the girl said. “He’s been harvested so many times he doesn’t even know when he’s on the brink of death.”

I couldn’t do anything except sit there staring at the loose skin around Randall’s ankle. It was almost as though his blood had been sucked right out of his body leaving him a leathery shell. “Seen enough?” Rachel asked.

“What’s going to happen to him?”

“Same thing as everybody else in here. We try and revive them, and once they get out they usually go right back to what they were doing before.”

“Who’s giving them money for their blood?”

“Who do you think?”

I tried to reason with her. “But, in other countries, people are paid for their blood too.”

“They also have to have tests done to make sure they’re medically fit to donate. Does it look like your friend is fit for anything?”

I couldn’t get the word “friend” out of my head as we returned to Terran. Randall was a friend despite everything. He’d been there for me as much as anyone could be while I tried to survive without Nanna. Now look where he was. Would I be the same if the demon inside Nanna hadn’t tried to kill me and Kai had extracted me?

Needless to say, my sleep was fitful. At least I didn’t have a nightmare. When I went down to breakfast the next morning, Samantha and Matilda were in there with Jessica and Sean. I heard their strained voices from the hallway. They didn’t drop their heated topic of discussion when I entered.

“The soul gate will prevent any of them from entering,” Jessica said. “But we need to stockpile provisions should we be cut off for a prolonged period of time.”

“What will we do if they create a barrier around Terran?” Sean asked. I almost choked on my spit. Matilda noticed it immediately.

“How did he figure out how to counter our phasing?” she asked. Gone was the jovial demeanour and in its place was the Soul Sisterhood assassin.

“I didn’t show him anything if that’s what you’re getting at.”

We locked gazes. Neither of us would back down. She had an unwavering death stare. But I had stared down demons. I would be damned if I let them intimidate me. My eyes were straining from not blinking when Samantha reached out and shook Matilda’s arm. The other woman finally broke eye contact.

“We’re not going to get anywhere fighting amongst ourselves,” Samantha said. “Alessia hasn’t betrayed us.”

Her words seemed to be enough to placate everybody else. “But you can help us,” Jessica said. “You can tell us whether the supernaturals are thinking of an assault.”

“You just got done interrogating me for being their spy. Now you want me to be yours?”

Samantha rubbed her eyes. It was the first time I’d seen her distressed since the beginning. “We need to know how much time we’ve got to make preparations,” she said.

“Preparations for what?”

“Don’t kid yourself,” Matilda said. “We’ve lost our one advantage. Any minute now, those supernaturals are going come for us. Just like they