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

manifested by now. None of it had mattered. The lion half of me had chosen her long before the logic of the man could muddle it with practicality. But she’d been branded a criminal. She’d admitted to committing the same crimes as her great-grandfather. So, when I convinced her to mate with me, there was every chance the shifters would refuse to accept her. The lion bared its teeth in sudden protectiveness, and I knew where its loyalty had shifted. There was no choice now. They would accept her, or they would die. End of story.

Knowing the damage he’d been able to inflict with just his words, Charles grew bored. “Can you hand out my punishment now so I don’t have to suffer that constipated look on your face? It’s pathetic.”

The sting might have touched me if I wasn’t already being cut up inside. “I’m done sentencing you to hard labour or more hours on sentry duty. When your punishment comes, I hope you’re ready for it.”

He left with a backwards glance that was mildly gratifying. I was the one who stood there in the crumbling ruins of the office until the light outside turned wan with the setting of the sun. Gwen came and went, sensing my inability to take more mundane pack admin. As the first Fae lanterns came on, I gave in to the lion’s urge to roam.

Loosening the reins a little, I stalked away from the perimeter of the office buildings, past the intersection of the treetop conference halls, and away from the bustling comfort of the pack homes.

Taking care not to walk absentmindedly in the direction of Basil’s abandoned mansion, I slipped through the barrier of the civilized section of the Reserve and allowed myself to shift. Unlike the wolves and smaller cats, my beast wasn’t built for long-distance running. I wasn’t slow by any means, but I gave up a portion of speed for bulk and power.

Running for hours in lion form, especially now, wasn’t pleasant. And I wasn’t wired in a physical sense. Instead, I ran in a steady trot through the harsh terrain that morphed from one ecosystem to another until I came to the unnatural perimeter that now intersected a part of the Reserve that had once been an unending savannah.

The invisible line didn’t even need to be there. Scraggly grass and compacted dirt ended abruptly and morphed into lush grass too green to be anything but magical. The air on the other side stank of brimstone. The stench of the fens never failed to make me sneeze. My lion flattened its nose, burying it into the dirt of the earth to dampen some of the smell. No shifter in their right mind was comfortable this close to the fens. But for some inexorable reason, it pulled to me like the breaking down of an addict.

By the time dawn began to ease its way across the sky, I’d settled into an uncomfortable stalk. Though my eyes were closed, they snapped open at the sound of something familiar hitching a ride on the early-morning breeze. A scent of childish terror that had the hair on the back of my neck rising. I was running through the barrier before the first scream tore open the night.

3

Sophie

I’d made many mistakes in my short life but none of them was as bad as allowing an insane vampire to talk me into meeting a psychic. Worse still, allowing him to convince me to do it in a location so close to the Reserve. Then again, everything was close to the Reserve these days. Desperation had become my middle name.

“Hello, cupcake,” Andrei drawled from behind me. He sidled up so close to my back I felt the coolness of his breath against my cheek. The psychic chill was just as icy as the physical tingle that ran all the way down my spine. Bending down, he took a good, long sniff of me. Shuddering, I elbowed him in the gut.

It was really irritating that his guffaw was mostly theatrical. The smile on his sallow face when he stepped in front of me was not for show. Neither was the maniacal glint in his eye. Without meaning to, my gaze feathered over him. Prolonged contact with humans saw him imitating their slouchy, lazy way of dressing. His black jeans had a tear in them that had nothing to do with his current demon-hunting profession.

Four limbs. Both eyes functional, even if they were currently laughing at me. A scar that now ran along the seam of his neck where a malachim had tried to relieve him of his head. The blood blade sitting–I stopped dead in my tracks at the realisation of what I was doing.

A broad grin split his face, adding light to his seemingly dead eyes. “Aww, I missed you too, cupcake.”

Swatting his hand away, I threw him a withering glare that only made him chuckle. Missing Andrei Popescu was not on my list of appropriate feelings for a fugitive.

“I already have a bad feeling about this,” I told him.

Taking me by the wrist, he led me to a seat in a darkened corner of the bar. Like a lamb to the slaughter. Once upon a time my instincts would have gone crazy at the very mention of following Andrei anywhere. For months now, I’d kissed instinct goodbye.

Groaning, I noticed one of the two other figures at the booth in the corner. Looking up, Eugenia waved conspicuously at us. Like we were meeting to gossip and not trying to divine where the soul of Malachi Pendragon had been hidden.

Beside Eugenia, the other redhead at the table sniffed. You’d have to be blind to miss the resemblance between them. I wracked my brain for a name. Too many things had happened the night of the party with the Human League, but I remembered being introduced to Eugenia’s sister...her sister...whose name was...Cordelia!

As we took seats opposite them, Eugenia reached out and ran her fingers through a lock of