Bloodline Alchemy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 6) - Lan Chan (libby ebook reader txt) 📗

his breath was a hot caress against my ear. “You should thank her,” Max said, his voice full of a lion’s rumble. “I wouldn’t have been able to stop.”

My pulse was still uneven when Noah arrived to escort me back to the Thompsons’. Max refused to leave until Noah turned up. Those two minutes with Anastasia inspecting her nails like she was thinking of slitting my throat with them were agony.

“Sorry,” I said to Noah when I stepped onto the porch.

“I was already awake.”

“Still, it can’t be fun to babysit.”

“It can’t be fun to be babysat.”

I closed the door on his retreating back. As I made my way up the stairs, Eugenia was a phantom in my memory. “Feel the need to peel your skin off yet?” she asked.

No amount of cold water helped the situation. I stood under the high intensity blast of the shower until my teeth chattered and my lips turned purple. But when I looked inside me, the mating link was still an inferno raging out of control.

17

Internally, I was ecstatic to walk into Weaponry and Combat the next morning to find Sasha joking with Dev about ways to stay hidden while doing surveillance. When he set me down after a rib-crushing hug, his expression said I was still raging externally.

“So, life in the Thompson house not what it’s cracked up to be?” he asked, flashing me his fangs.

Dev opened his mouth, but my expression made him bite his lips together. “Don’t even think about it,” I said. “I so don’t want to hear your opinion on the matter.” Not least because his parents were leaders in the civilian community. They ran communication for the pack. I didn’t care if technically they were ambassadors. In my book, that was just a fancy term for professional gossips.

Somebody tapped me on the shoulder. Turning around, I let out a whoosh of contained air tainted with affection and threw my arms around Astrid’s neck. Like the other supernaturals, Astrid seemed to have an innate sense of how much pressure to apply so as not to break my bones with her strength. Today she added a little extra. I leaned into the pressure and still felt it wasn’t enough.

When I pulled away, her expression was strained. In my mind, I curled into a ball and began to howl like a dying creature.

“Hello, Sophie,” she said, her posture ramrod straight. The hug had been an aberration. Behind her crystalline blue eyes and the militaristic way she held herself, all I could see was bewilderment. Like she didn’t understand how to function in this world where Kai no longer existed and Lex was in mortal danger.

Unable to give her any sort of comfort, I tried to stick to a somewhat normal topic. “So, are you ready to kill Andrei yet?”

Her brows creased. “We’ve been assigned to work together securing the protection of Cardinal City. My personal feelings about him don’t matter.”

Huh. That she had any personal feelings about him at all was interesting. She raised her hand, stared at it, and then lowered it again. For a second, I thought she might stroke my arm, and then midway through the motion, she forgot what it was she had meant to do.

“Are you okay in the Reserve? If I could, I would make Father allow you haven in Seraphina. But they’re so agitated at the moment. Raphael remains unreachable.” She wound a lock of her pale blonde hair around a finger and tugged. By her very nature, every one of her movements was graceful. But I heard the distinct sound of ripping and pried her fingers loose.

“It’s okay. I’m okay.” The lie didn’t sit with either of us. “Or I will be. Please don’t worry about me.”

Her mouth opened, but before she could say anything, Professor Eldridge marched into the room with Tyler. My heart gave a little lurch at the sight of them. It almost erased some of the terror I was conditioned to feel in Professor Eldridge’s presence.

“Dammit,” Sasha said. “Picked the wrong day to come back to school.”

“How did she get the prison to let her go?” Orla asked.

“She’s spreading her time evenly. There are only a few classes here now.”

You wouldn’t know it based on the sheer number of students in the class. Twice as many as there had been in Arcane Magic. Granted, only the magic users would truly benefit from those classes.

Professor Eldridge didn’t bother with any introductions even though half the class hadn’t had the displeasure of being subjected to her teaching methods. “You’re probably all here because there are terrifying things out in the real world,” she said.“Let’s see if we can get you ready for them. We’ve got instructors from every race. With the malachim, there’s no telling who might turn on you at any moment.”

“What a beautiful sentiment,” Kieran commented. “It almost brings a tear to your eye.”

And then Professor Eldridge kept going, and I actually felt like weeping. “Most of you will know Astrid Bellamy, Evan McKinnon, and Brigid Harcourt, and of course, Tyler Jackson.” She pointed to the back of the room where Evan and Brigid had snuck. They stood against the wall beside the closed door. Their companion was the one who held my attention. “Our other volunteer is Anastasia Black. They’ll be with us for the remainder of the semester.”

The arm that Sasha had slung around my shoulders constricted. It was only then I realised I was grinding my teeth.

“Professor,” Kieran asked. “How exactly does the Council expect us to fight off the malachim when they’re not corporeal half the time?”

“Poorly,” came the blunt reply. “I won’t sugar coat it.”

“When does she ever?” Sasha observed.

I pinched his side.

“The malachim are unlike any other demon we have fought before. Their origin makes them an amalgamation of all the demons’ strongest abilities. They are less affected by the wards we keep in place in order to protect ourselves from the other demons. That is why, today we will not be