Silver Blood (Series of Blood Book 1) by Emma Hamm (bill gates book recommendations .TXT) 📕

arms. Running this long had winded her, because she wasn’t the type to work out. How much help did he really think she was going to be?

Both Burke and Wren took a step backwards as the other three began to walk towards them. Burke yanked two deadly knives out of his jacket and held them with practiced hands.

“What are knives going to do?” she asked him. Wren chose to ignore the fear that made her voice tremble.

“Better than guns. One of these is likely an illusionist. Now reach into my back pocket, there should be another knife there for you.”

“I can’t fight, Burke!”

She felt a stirring inside her head. Like the flutter of a butterfly it rose from the base of her spine and unfurled into the expanse of her mind. She blinked hard and stumbled backwards as a blinding headache nearly split her head in two.

“Wren?”

Burke turned towards her and watched as her hands rose to press against her forehead. His eyes widened as she shuddered.

“I can’t fight,” she muttered. Her eyes flipped backwards in her head, but the milky white gaze stared back at him with intelligence.

“But I can.” The voice was Wren’s but not. It was laced with another voice, a darker voice that made Burke severely uncomfortable. This was her creature. The Curiosity that sometimes inhabited her body.

“Good,” he said although a tingle ran down his spine, “let’s get out of here then.”

CHAPTER 4

“A  mind is a fragile thing. I didn’t mean to hurt her; I was trying to protect her.”

“Well, what else did you think you were going to do?”

“It didn’t matter at the time! She was in danger. I did what I had to.”

“You did what you selfishly thought was required and look what happened!”

“And you were the one asking for someone to fight with you!”

Wren groggily came back to herself. Her mind felt scrambled as though someone had stuck a fork in her head and swirled it around. Brains weren’t meant to feel like spaghetti.

“What?”

She sat up slowly and rubbed her hand against her head. Memories started filtering into her conscious mind as she pressed her forehead firmly against her knees. She had been in that alley, staring at those people, and Burke had been telling her to get a knife and then… Nothing. Nothing at all. Nothing but a blank void where a memory should be.

The realization made her heart jump hard in her chest. Wren had never blacked out before. She had never forgotten facts so completely that there was simply nothing where she should have remembered something.

Her head raised, and she fully expected to be laid out on the pavement staring up at the people who were going to kidnap her or worse. She was shocked to see that she wasn’t there at all. In fact, she didn’t think she was even near Pitch’s warehouse any longer.

She didn’t recognize her own apartment immediately. Instead, all she saw was the peeling walls and the dim lights.

“I’m dead aren’t I?” Her voice didn’t sound like her own. It croaked from her throat and fell dull into the air around her.

“You’re not dead. Just a little confused.”

“Burke?”

She turned her head and tried to find him. He was beside her with a hand holding onto her arm. Funny that she hadn’t felt his touch at all. Wren stared hard at the strong fingers holding onto her flesh until she finally felt them against her. The warmth seemed to banish a bit more of the fog that had hold of her mind.

Those green eyes were staring at her. Worry had turned them so dark that she could see the forest in his gaze. His hand smoothed down her arm before he leaned away from her.

Perhaps he thought she needed space to breathe. Maybe she did. But in that moment, she could have sworn that he was leaning away from her because he had wanted to lean closer. But that was a foolish dream to be stored away with thoughts of princesses and princes.

“How did I get back here?”

“You don’t remember?”

“No.”

He stood then to grab a stool from the side of her tub.

Tub?

Wren felt around and realized she was sitting in cold water with all of her clothing on. Immediately, she began to shiver as the ruined black velvet clung to her skin.

“Burke, what the hell.”

He dragged the stool closer to her and shrugged. “It was E’s idea.”

“E?”

“You wouldn’t come to. It thought if your body was cold then your mind would wake up.”

Wren grumbled as she tried to raise her shivering hands to her chest. Of course E had wanted to dunk her into a tub full of freezing water. Memories flipped through her mind as though she were turning the pages of a vaguely familiar book.

“Are those people… Did we get away?” she asked.

“You don’t remember?”

“No. I don’t remember anything after the alley.”

Burke stared at her in confusion. His mouth opened and closed a few times as he clearly tried to figure out what to tell her. She knew how odd it was. She should remember what happened to them, but she didn’t.

Wren cleared her throat. “Why don’t we start from the beginning. How did you find me?”

“I followed you to the club.”

“But how did you get in? You weren’t invited, and Pitch has the best security I’ve seen in this district.”

“I flashed my badge.”

This time it was Wren’s turn to look confused. “Your what?”

“My badge.” At least Burke had the decency to look sheepish. “I still have my badge from when I was one of M.O.M.’s intelligence.”

“They let you keep those things?”

“Well… Not usually.”

Wren didn’t want to know. She didn’t want to be dragged into whatever nonsense he had created in his life. The last thing she needed was M.O.M. to be following him into her home, because he was illegally saying he worked for the government.

“Right. So, you flashed this illegal badge, and they just let you in?”

He made a sound of agreement. “He has good security, I’ll give