Bloodline Diplomacy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 3) - Lan Chan (thriller books to read .txt) 📗

it mentally, I thought of the time Brigid had low-key stabbed me. If Kai hadn’t been there to heal me, I would be dead. I thought of how hard I trained only to be naturally outclassed by all of them in Weaponry and Combat. And worst of all, I thought about how they were locking me out of everything because they were worried about where my loyalty would fall.

“This is really messed up,” I said.

“No it’s not. It’s simple. Like it or not, you’re still human. Let me show you what being human means when you don’t have power.”

My eyes flicked open. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Yes or no?”

I didn’t really have much of a choice. She scrambled out of bed. “What, right now?”

“No time like the present.”

I beg to differ but changed into jeans and a T-shirt anyway. “I’m taking Alessia to the city,” she announced to the kitchen at large before opening the front door. Samantha, Jessica, and Matilda were still in the kitchen speaking in low voices. Samantha nodded but they didn’t say anything.

“I can’t believe they’re just letting us go,” I said.

“Why? You’re an adult now.”

If I were in Bloodline what I’d be getting was the third-degree. I supposed that was the point Rachel was trying to make. She noticed me picking at the leather seat.

She put her foot on the gas when the light turned green. I waited for a little while before I spoke again. “Rachel. I understand that you really don’t like the supernaturals. But Max is a friend. So is Desi. Next time you feel like you need to make a point, speak to me instead. Because until they do something to hurt me, I don’t like them being used.”

I knew Max prided himself on his ability to keep himself contained. This episode would hurt him in more ways than she could know.

She eyed me sidelong. “You’re pretty fricken scary for someone so small.”

I left it at that.

I chewed my nails blunt as we got closer to Melbourne. We veered in the opposite direction from where we had gone last time. I couldn’t help glancing back around. At this time of night, the city was awash with the glow of lights. But that part of the city was shrouded in darkness. I shuddered at the thought. The tension in my chest only eased when the skyline was eaten up by other, taller buildings.

We came to a halt in a suburb on the other side of the city. Rachel parked the car illegally in a side street and bade me out. We walked a block or so until we hit a strip of shops. Most of the retail stores were shut at this time of night but the restaurants were packed and so was the nightclub we were clearly headed towards.

Rachel made her way to the front of the queue. I tried to ignore the death glares we were getting from some of the other patrons in line.

Colour me surprised when the bouncer looked at Rachel and me and let us in. I’d never been inside a night club before but the smell of it immediately had me recoiling. I wasn’t a music connoisseur but the thumping bass set me on edge. Maybe it was the hedge-witch thing, but I liked peace and quiet. This was the complete opposite.

Rachel elbowed her way through the crowd and somehow managed to find an empty booth in the corner of the dance floor. We could really use her skills in the dining hall. I suspected she was a regular.

“What exactly are we here for?” I screamed at her above the music.

She pointed at the crowd in a way that suggested she wanted me to watch. I blew out a breath and did as requested. All of my knowledge of clubs came from the little bit of television I’d managed to watch before Nanna got possessed. My eyes glazed as I studied people moving about the dance floor. Their erratic movements were kind of soothing. Rachel kicked me in the shin. I jerked alert.

My gaze landed on a guy a couple of years older than me. He was standing over near one of the speakers. His features were half-obscured by the dim lighting but I could make out enough of his face to be momentarily mesmerized. There was nothing extraordinary about him. He wore plain denim jeans and an eggshell-blue shirt with the cuffs rolled up. His build wasn’t overly muscled but he wasn’t weedy either. If I had to describe him in just one word it would be: average. And yet when he speared me with his gaze, I felt the overwhelming urge to rise from my seat and shimmy over to him.

For a second, my legs moved without me thinking. Rachel threw her arm out to stop me. Somebody danced past my field of vision. The obstruction broke his eye contact. Something snapped inside my mind. I gasped as though I had just broken the surface of the ocean.

“What just happened?”

Rachel was digging a hole into the laminate table with one of her hunting knives. Round and round she turned the handle until I was sure the tip would eventually come out the other side. “Compulsion.”

I frowned. Surely that wasn’t all it took. Despite my better judgement, I returned my gaze to the guy who was clearly a vampire. Where I had been stopped from approaching him, other girls weren’t so lucky. One of the girls who had been dancing near him was now leaning over and saying something in his ear. When they left together, I thought Rachel would move to intercept them.

“Shouldn’t we go after them?” I asked, my mind filling with all kinds of dangerous scenarios.

“How do you pick?” was the weary response. She flicked her hand around the room. It dawned on me then that we were surrounded by vampires. They came in every shape and form. Both genders and then some.

“Don’t the people who come here know what they’re getting