Black Blood (Series of Blood Book 4) by Emma Hamm (scary books to read .TXT) 📕

pained expression which passed across his features made her heart clench. Now it was she who was being unnecessarily cruel. Lydia had already heard him say time and time again that he knew his past lover was dead. He was taking care of her because he wanted to, not because of Sil.

Kidnappers didn’t do that.

“Not to keep a memory alive,” he murmured. “Although I will admit I do not understand it any more than you.”

She met his dark gaze and wondered what would become of them. They were a strange pair. She was losing all of her color, turning white as snow and fading into Time itself. He was growing darker every time she looked at him. The shadows curled around him until he inhaled them.

Memory burned through her mind until she winced.

“There’s a woman,” the words burst from her lips, “she will need our help.”

He arched his brow again. “A woman?”

“A red woman. Made of fire and brimstone and smelling like ashes. There will be a mob that wants to kill her and I need someone to turn their minds away from it. She needs to go away and be awakened in two hundred years.”

“The World Tree then?”

Lydia gasped. “Yes. How did you-?”

“There are few who know about the World Tree. Only myself and my head assassin know of it.”

“Leo.”

Pitch nodded. “Leo.”

“So I’m… remembering things she knew?”

He seemed at a loss for words until he stammered, “I do not know.”

“Will you help?”

“If you bid it, then it shall be done.”

He turned to leave, but words tangled upon her tongue. His hand hovered over the doorknob.

She rushed to get out, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Did I-” she licked her lips. “Did I change? More?”

Pitch turned to place his back against the door and raised a foot to thump against the solid wood. His arms crossed firmly over his chest as he looked her up and down.

“Yes.”

At least he didn’t pull any punches. She frowned and tried to move, only to remember that her body felt like it was stuck in cement. “How much of a difference?”

“A great deal.”

Lydia winced. “Is it ugly?”

“I imagine you might think so.”

She wanted to rage at that answer. She wanted to cry until she threw up and then likely cry even more.

Her eyes blinked away tears. “Do you?”

Lydia wasn’t certain why his opinion mattered so much. She didn’t need someone to tell her she was pretty, rare even when she was just a human. Now with horns growing out of her head and an additional frailty to her body, she couldn’t find herself passable.

But she wanted to know his opinion. She wanted to know what he thought of this new form with a fierceness that startled her. The fabric of her soul needed to hear what he thought.

When Pitch spoke, it was with a gentle quality she had not heard before. “No, I do not find you ugly.”

“Do I look like her?”

“Sil?” He raised a questioning eyebrow before shaking his head. “No. No she was a tall thing. Larger than life and more goddess than physical form. You are very much a child of this dimension.”

“Oh.” Lydia tried not to dwell on how disappointed she sounded. “I suppose that’s fitting, considering that I live in this dimension and she did not.”

“Why do you want to speak about her so much?”

“It seems natural to want to know who’s magic I am using.”

“You bring her up far more often than one who wants to understand magic.”

He was more perceptive than she gave him credit for. Lydia wanted to curse at herself. How had she forgotten? He saw into her mind as though she were made of clear glass.

A slow sigh parted her lips. It would be far too easy to lean on him. She wanted to tell him all her secret worries and all her fears. But that would let him in and he was a kidnapper. How could she come to trust a man like him?

Still, the worries slipped past her tongue. “I guess it’s a defense. Every time it seems like the conversation slides to me, I deflect.”

“And why is that?”

“Because I don’t really want you to know all that much about me.”

“Curious,” he muttered as his fingers twisted in the air. A cigar appeared between his pointer finger and thumb although he did not light it. “Why wouldn’t you want me to get to know you?”

“It seems dangerous, considering your relationship with Sil and -”

“And you’re doing it again,” Pitch interrupted.

Her mouth gaped open for a second before she slammed it shut. “No, you’re right. I should have caught that one.”

“Why don’t we start with something simple?”

She wanted to nod, but her body refused to do so.

“Most people would panic if they woke up and couldn’t move their body. You, however, are doing remarkably well. Why is that?”

“Oh,” she blinked. “I’ve spent a lot of my life in hospitals and with healers. I’ve never been paralyzed like this before, but I know how to stay calm when I’m sick.”

Pitch seemed incapable of speaking. His jaw dropped open for a second before shadows made his eyes turn dark. A muscle jumped on his jaw, catching her eye.

A small spark burned in the air near his hand and he raised the cigar to his mouth. Red colored smoke poured from his nose as he exhaled.

“Why?”

“Why what?” she asked.

“Why were you in the hospital?”

“My body isn’t my biggest fan. It’s allergic to almost everything, and it took a while for us to figure it out. I’ve almost died a few times because I ate things I shouldn’t. Peanut butter, shellfish, soy, milk, egg products, I could keep going on the food list. And then there’s pet dander, grass, pollen, really anything outside.”

Both his eyebrows raised. “But you were at my bar.”

“I don’t see how that has anything to do with it.”

“If you’re allergic to that many things, you were most certain allergic to something in my establishment.”

“I was used to having those kinds of allergies. Living in a bubble