Bloodline Alchemy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 6) Lan Chan (uplifting novels .TXT) 📖

did. But I hadn’t run because doing so would leave things open, and I knew there were dozens of others just waiting to pounce. They would have every right to, and Max might have been so out of his head that...I couldn’t even contemplate it. The thought made me sick to my stomach.

He knew it too because his face lit up with a Cheshire grin. Some of the old, playful Max peeked out and my stomach flipped. It only made this thing between us seem destructive.

“This isn’t right,” I heard myself saying even though all of my attention was on the soft curve of his bottom lip.

“I know.” But we weren’t talking about the same thing. His arm wound around the back of the couch and weaved into my hair.

“Max.”

“Sophie.”

I heard a pop. “Andrei,” Andrei said. And then he cackled to himself.

Max went flying off the couch before I even knew what was happening. He left the start of a growl in his wake. Andrei disappeared before Max could grab him and re-materialised beside me.

“Do that again and I’ll take her, and we won’t be coming back.”

Gold rolled over Max’s eyes. I had to admit, more than once I’d considered asking Andrei to take me from here. But seeing the kids so broken and knowing that I was an anchor for them, a substitute for Lex, had made me decide to stay. Right now, it seemed like maybe I had made the wrong choice.

“You touch her again and I’ll hunt you down and shove that ring right up you–”

“Stop,” I said. “Both of you. I’m really tired, and I asked Andrei to come, but if you’re both just going to fight the whole time I would rather you both leave.”

“This is my house,” Max grumbled.

I scowled. “Squatter’s rights. I’ve been living here for weeks and you haven’t been around, so technically, this is my house.”

“I don’t accept these ridiculous human concepts.”

“Well, too bad. I’m human. I never get to use that for anything!”

His nostrils flared. “Are you trying to kick me out of my own house?”

Sighing, I stood up. “Fine, Andrei and I will leave.”

“Sophie –”

“Can you clear out some of the food in the cooler? It’s starting to stink and there’s no room for anything else.”

Death rolled over his face, but Andrei teleported us to the far end of the Reserve before he could do anything about it.

“Trouble in paradise?” Andrei asked. He leaned back on an oak tree. His arms and legs crossed over each other.

“I can’t even explain it.”

“You don’t need to. I could feel it though the teleport. How he’s managed not to just take you is beyond me. Whatever you’re doing to the matin–”

“Shhh. Are you crazy? Someone might hear you!”

He smirked. “Are you?”

“How’s Astrid?”

The abrupt topic change had the intended effect. “She’s coping.” The way he spat out the words said he might not be. It was strange to think of cold-blooded Andrei caring about anyone else. Then again, he’d come for me when I asked.

“How did you even get in and out of Seraphina? They’re not allowing anyone else inside.”

“You know this is Gabriel’s Key, don’t you? They have no defence against a celestial object. That’s half their bloody problem. If the malachim weren’t tainted by the Abyss, they would be sunk.” He watched me pacing. “I assume you didn’t reach out because you needed a body barrier?”

I told him what happened with Hugh. He spat out a few Romanian words that I knew had to be dirty because he only spoke his native tongue when he was highly emotional.

“Can you put a block in my mind so he can’t force me again?” I asked, wringing my hands.

Contrary to popular belief, vampiric compulsion wasn’t just a set-and-forget trick. It was a drain on the vampire and took a certain amount of concentration.

“Are you sure that’s what you want? I mean, maybe this is the out you need?”

I had been thinking the same thing. “Back at the start, why didn’t you just force me to kill those bounties?”

He shoved a hand through his hair. “Because it would have destroyed you. Agatha doesn’t have the same moral compunctions as I do.”

Ha! He had about as much moral fibre as a wet tissue. He cared about very few people and the rest could die a torturous death in front of him and he wouldn’t even blink. Sometimes, I wished we could trade places.

“If you want, remove the first compulsion,” I suggested.

“So you can get killed by a malachim next time? I don’t think so.”

I deflated. “I’m sorry. I wish I was stronger.”

“If you were any stronger, I don’t think I could handle it. I’m sure Fur-face thinks the same thing. Come here.”

It was an odd sensation. At once tingly but also as though I lost a part of myself. Mentally, it didn’t feel any different. That was the scary thing. I’d had about enough of things frightening me. When I told Andrei about the nightmare, he didn’t seem concerned.

“Did Astrid say anything about maybe feeling me?”

He gripped the trunk so hard I heard something crack. “Astrid isn’t saying much except that she saw Kai.”

That was a sore subject for Andrei. He had all kinds of confidence, but measuring up to Kai was a difficult feat for anybody.

“I’ve gotta go,” he said, pushing off the tree. “Try not to get into any more trouble. I thought I would be done with this when the other human disappeared.”

Not once in the past six months had he been able to say Lex’s name aloud. I tried not to put too much stock in it.

When I returned to the Thompsons’, Max was gone. Mini-Max was back, however. And he’d brought reinforcements with him. Cassie and Luther were doing the heavy lifting cleaning up the place. Charles had his head in the cooler which was magically empty.

“Nice of you to show up,” I said.

“Did you want me to get my head bashed in?” he said from inside the cooler. “Lucky I