Red Blood (Series of Blood Book 2) by Emma Hamm (best short books to read .TXT) 📕

the only one that froze then. He knew how much she hated that nickname. He knew how much she hated it when people knew she came from a background that not many people had been lucky enough to experience.

He knew her story, dammit. And still he had to push her. He just had to.

Lyra’s hand raised, and she snapped her fingers. The magic that had been controlling the woman suddenly shattered with the sound of breaking glass. She blinked in confusion and looked around her before focusing on the two people in her store once more.

“You just had to go there didn’t you,” she growled. A drip of water leaked out of Lyra’s ear and traveled down her neck.

Sirens weren’t really capable of a lot of harm. Some species could do damage to everything around them. But Sirens had their looks and their charms. As well as a few hidden secrets that not many other creatures knew about.

The warning signs were very easy to catch. Jasper’s eyes widened as he watched the water drop. Leaking always meant that she was either incredibly sad or she was going to break something. He had a good reason to be worried.

“Lyra-” he started as he raised his hands.

“You are the worst!” Lyra shouted as she reached down to yank one of the boots off of her foot. “Go back to your tree, Fairy boy!”

This time, he was the one to growl at her. “Now that isn’t necessary.”

“Oh yes it is.”

She cocked her arm back and threw the boot at him as hard as she could. He dodged the boot, which struck the mirror behind him. Shards of magical glass exploded around them as the enchanted boot hit its match. Too much magic in one place was bound to cause trouble.

That was enough for Lyra to make her move. She darted forward to place her hands square against his hips and shoved. Jasper was a lot bigger than her but even he wasn’t prepared for her to throw him towards the glass shards.

She didn’t care if he got hurt. He would heal faster than a human and deserved whatever he got. Maybe a little blood would teach him that he couldn’t insult her like that.

Lyra didn’t wait to see if he fell all the way down. She was already stomping out of the store and onto the street. Limping was more accurate, as she still had one of the boots on her foot.

“Stupid man,” she muttered as she made her way down the street. “Stupid, stupid, inconsiderate man.”

He shouldn’t have insulted her like that. Jasper was well aware Although she hadn’t traveled very far, she had very short legs, but Jasper was the other half of her. He had been her dearest friend and a kind of brother since before she could remember.

He was right. She was a rich girl who tried to fix her problems with material objects. But it was so much easier to just buy something when she grew upset. It felt better. She suddenly had something new and shiny that wasn’t contaminated by her touch yet.

She stopped and looked down at her palms. They looked like anyone else’s. There were a few callouses and a few scrapes. One fingernail had dirt underneath it. Yet every time she looked at them, she remembered a time when her hands hadn’t looked like this at all.

She saw smooth, unmarred, pale skin and perfectly manicured nails that were curved into claws. Lyra saw hands that were meant to be on a lady. Hands that had done more damage than any hands had a right to do. She never saw the hands that were actually hers, only the ones she had once owned in a time long past.

Boots couldn’t fix her problems. She knew that. But they would make her feel better for a little while.

Lyra sighed. “Fine.” She turned to go back to the store. “I’ll go back and deal with my stupid, idiot, good for nothing-”

A body was behind her. She didn’t remember seeing anyone on the street when she had walked out of the store, but there it was. A man. One she almost ran into so hard that he probably would have bruised her.

At the last moment, he flinched backwards so quickly she stumbled and nearly dropped onto her knee. The uncomfortable height of boot versus bootless leg made her far more clumsy than she usually would have been.

She let out an angry shriek as she righted herself. A glare was leveled towards the man who was now at the very center of her anger.

“Really? Do you just walk around hitting every woman you see or is it just me?”

“Excuse me?”

It was then that she actually looked at the man in front of her. “Wowee,” she whispered.

He was…perfect. For her. He wasn’t particularly tall for a man, but he was broad shouldered and clearly strong. His sleeves were rolled up his forearms, and she was such a sucker for that style. A vest was stretched tight across his chest. He had a strong square jaw and the strangest eyes she had ever seen. One was a blinding blue and the other the darkest brown. Although, she stared a little deeper into his gaze, and realized there was a ring of dull yellow in the brown. Patterns were shaved into the sides of his head while the top had been left long.

Dangerous. Wickedly handsome. Obviously so incredibly out of her league. But that did not mean she wasn’t going to try her damnedest.

A girl had to try.

“Well, hello there.” She cocked her head to the side and put her hand on her hip. “And you are?”

“No one,” he muttered as he tried to sidle past her.

Lyra made herself as big as she could and stepped in his way. “Oh, I doubt that. Darling, you look like someone who is definitely someone.”

“Is that a complete sentence?” he asked her as he looked for another escape route.

Two could play at that game. She danced