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

“It always has been.”

“That’s not part of the dream?”

“None of this is a dream, don’t you get that, Jiminy?” She hugged herself. Her hands smeared the silver blood in bright glittering streaks. “This is a memory.”

“I’m not going to leave you here alone.” He lurched forward, turning her so that his back was to the shadows. Any pain should be his to bear. His thumbs lingered upon the high arches of her cheekbones. “You shouldn’t be scared and alone.”

He didn’t know what made him say it. Perhaps it was the fact that he had never seen her afraid. Even when a Satyr was threatening bodily harm, she had refused to show any kind of fear. She had babbled and argued. Jiminy had never seen her so silent.

She pulled back slightly to look up at him. Grey eyes that reminded him of a storm connected with his hazel eyes so soundly that he swore he felt a zing of electricity run down his spine.

“It is mine alone,” she said quietly. Her hand raised to touch the cleft in his chin as a sad smile stretched across her face.

One step was all it took for her to slip out of his reach and fall backwards into the darkness. One step and all he could do was grasp at air. His hands were frozen into claws as her dress fluttered and snapped in the wind.

“Wren!” he screamed at her falling form.

Harm be damned, he wouldn’t let her hit the ground. Not by herself. He lept off the edge of the cliff without thinking of the damage it would do to his mortal body.

His body became an arrow as he desperately tried to reach her. Arms outstretched, he willed his body to be less human and more mist so that he might reach her in time.

He hit her hard and wrapped his body around hers. Mist like body became solid as he held her close to his chest.

“Take control!”

Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she clutched his shirt in her fist. “I can’t, Jiminy. I can’t!”

Moments after she spoke, time stopped around them. They hovered mid air as the wind gentled.

“Wren?” he asked.

In his arms, she stiffened. Her eyes flipped backwards in her head, and her body twisted to bend over his arm. Painfully, she contorted as her muscles seized. He curled her body towards him while being painfully aware that it was not longer Wren that he held.

“Don’t get too close to her.” The voice was not Wren’s. E had returned though its voice was slightly warped.

“Too late for that.”

“You keep saying that,” the creature grumbled. Its usual power was not in the words that were muttered.

Burke frowned. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked as he gently held Wren’s body away from him.

“Still fighting against the barrier. I feel very tired.” Her eyes were drifting shut.

“You’re in a dream.”

“And only just managing to control it,” E muttered before opening Wren’s eyes again. “She’s off limits, Dream Walker.”

He felt the power inside of him raise in answer. His eyes changed to a glowing blue. “You do not tell me who is off limits, Curiosity. And I believe you are a Dream Walker just as I.”

“Perhaps,” E murmured before clicking its fingers. Everything around them disappeared. Both Jiminy and Wren’s body were now standing in a meadow full of flowers and butterflies. The same meadow as the first dream and the meadow E had told him Wren liked the best. Now he wondered if it was E that liked the meadow more than Wren.

Jiminy looked around for a moment before he turned back towards E.

The creature looking through Wren’s eyes blinked. “You need to go now.”

“And leave her in this dream she’s going to turn back into a nightmare?”

“I need you to wake up, Burke,” E said. “She’s in your world now. Haven. They took her and blocked me from her mind. I need you to take care of her for me.”

“If they blocked you from her, then how are you talking to me?” He had to ask.

“She’s awake now.”

“What? How is that possible?”

E looked at him with a sad expression on Wren’s face. Burke found it disconcerting as he knew the body before him but did not recognize the movements.

“I’m the one that’s asleep,” E replied. “Now go to her. She needs one of us.”

Burke woke up.

CHAPTER 6

Wren’s head was pounding. She could feel every heartbeat thump against the inside of her skull. The last time she had felt like this had been after she drank enough to put a troll under the table. Had she been drinking?

Honestly, she couldn’t remember. She raised a hand to press against her temple and let out a soft sigh. She winced as even that minimal sound was too loud for her sensitive ears.

She couldn’t remember where she was or what had happened. In fact, thoughts appeared to be far too difficult for her to process. Pressing her fingers firmly against her temples didn’t seem to be helping.

A voice split through the haze of pain and disorientation like a shard of light on a rainy day. Unfortunately, Wren felt like she was hungover, and that ray of light was the last thing she wanted near her. She groaned in response and tried to curl away from the sound.

“I’m sorry about the pain. I’m afraid it’s unavoidable with a Null.”

Wren’s eyes opened just enough for the bleary world around her to be revealed. She blinked at the light and tried to focus her eyes on the ceiling. The room was rotating. Or was it the Earth that was rotating? She didn’t know, and she wasn’t certain she wanted to.

Wren could make out a few forms in the corner that appeared to be human. Hopefully they were human. Wren didn’t have the patience to deal with anything other than that. They were columns of dark blue and gold, so that must mean they were at least humanoid.

She groaned and slowly sat up. One of her hands