Red Blood (Series of Blood Book 2) Emma Hamm (the beginning after the end read novel .TXT) 📖

“Start preparing for a guest.”

This time, the dead man did not argue with him. He listened carefully for the soft click as the door closed behind Mungus before he allowed himself a few moments of complete and utter abandon.

The rage that had been boiling inside of him burst free. An angry cry echoed in the room as he reached forward to sweep all the ingredients of the spell onto the floor. Power pulsed inside him and was expelled in great waves of pure energy.

Skeletons along the wall rattled. The angry sound grew louder and louder as each wave flowed from the Graverobber. His head was tilted back and his arms outstretched. Bright blue sparks of energy arched from his fingertips to sink into the stone floor until he closed his fists.

Everything that had once been living around him crumbled to dust. Great billows of white floated into the air. It wasn’t enough. There would never be enough to prevent the anger inside him from swelling once more.

She had no right to wish for death.

He didn’t understand where the thought came from. It was a nasty voice, a dark voice, that whispered from deep inside his soul until it was screaming through his mind. And it was right. She had no right to think that her soul was hers.

He inhaled a shaky breath as his hands closed into fists. She would come here. She would meet him.

There was much he had to do before then.

“Jasper.” Lyra’s exasperated tone should have been a warning to the lion headed man. “You have to leave.”

“I’m just making sure that everything is working as it should.”

“Are you kidding me? I’m supposed to be here alone.”

“And we don’t know who this guy is, other than the fact that he now knows you work for the Five,” Jasper growled. “Excuse me for being careful.”

They were already in the cafe on Fifth and Main. It was quaint little place that harkened to older times. Lyra thought that perhaps it was a themed cafe, but she couldn’t really make out what the theme was.

Gold trim bordering the ceilings and red paint on the walls made the cafe seem “high end”. She was told this by the waitress who had a few snide remarks for a Siren being in the establishment. Single red roses were delicately placed in flutes on each table. Lyra rested her hands upon the delicate, golden mesh tabletops gently. Lyra thought they were held together by magic but she had already been corrected on that statement. Everything in the shop was supposedly naturally made.

The waitress was annoying her already. It was going to be a long meeting.

“We already had this conversation, Jasper. I’m not in any danger from this man.”

“You don’t know that.” He peered around the small space again.

“Your eyes aren’t going to notice anything that I don’t notice. For god’s sakes, what has gotten into you lately? I’m your partner. Not your child.”

“I hardly think of you as a child.”

She rolled her eyes. “Out. Now.”

“But I haven’t checked—”

“You’ve checked everything. You’re going to ruin this entire mission if you don’t put your ass back in the shadows with the rest of the team.”

Yes, that’s right, the rest of the team. She had fought with them tooth and nail, but they had all agreed on one thing. She was part of the team. That meant that they had to be there to protect her. They had even gone so far as to force her to use a small moth in her ear that would whisper words. The team had another moth that would repeat all the words that were said at the meeting. Just in case.

None of them understood that she was capable of protecting herself. But she had at least managed to convince Jasper to leave the cafe before Wolfgang arrived. If he saw her with them, all bets were off. She knew how people like Wolfgang worked.

She was still disappointed that he wasn’t some random stranger she had met on the street. He was, in a sense, unknown to her. But he was now someone she was going to have to use to bring an end to this battle. Doing so meant that he was off limits. Romance wasn’t particularly easy to entertain when one was trying to get information out of the other.

Double whammy on this one. They both needed the other to spill their secrets, and she wasn’t going to do a lot of that. They were dead in the water before they even started.

Of course, maybe she could try to get him out of her system before the talks…

Lyra sighed. Too late for that, she supposed. But that didn’t mean she hadn’t tried to make certain that this meeting would be as interesting as possible.

Her body was encased in black leather. It was her most prized outfit, and she only wore it to battle. She had been saved many a night of scrubbing by these clothes. Not to mention that she looked hot in them.

Every curve was perfectly smoothed by skin tight leather. She ran a hand down the flat line of her stomach just to feel the butter soft texture against her palms. Lyra stuck out like a sore thumb in this place that was made for delicate women, the sound of velvet against flesh, and soft whispers.

Her hair was slicked back from her head and held aloft in a high ponytail. When she had left Haven, her lips had been blood red and her eyeliner had been perfectly winged. She looked like a warrior. Fierce, confident, a Siren on the prowl.

She eyed the glass of water in front of her. Bright red marks from her lipstick marred the crystal glass along with the drops of condensation on the side. She left the stain where it was, but lifted her knife to check that she was still wearing her warpaint.

Of course her lips were perfect. They were hers. She kissed the air in front of her to ensure that