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

that your kind was considered to be dangerous. I did not know that any of you had managed to survive the culling.”

His eyes flashed dark at her mention of the culling. Wren’s mind was flooded with memories of a dark time that was filled in blood and screams. One of the creatures that had been absorbed by E had been there.

A memory burst in front of her like a bubble. The image of a sword being drawn down upon a creature who stared up at her with black and red eyes. Blood spurted towards her and left Wren’s soul weak as she experienced the moment as if she had drawn the sword down upon the creature’s neck herself.

“You’re forgetting something very important,” Malachi murmured as he leaned closer to her.

“What am I forgetting?” the aged voice replied.

“That a Void always lies.”

His hand speared forward to smack against her forehead. She was pinned to the chair as he rifled through the countless souls in her head. He was looking for something, that much was clear.

She could feel every time he snagged a new soul and tossed it aside. Each soul that was flung backwards into her mind caused her unbearable pain. Her back arched, and her hands clutched at the chair as her mouth opened in a silent scream.

Her mind had turned into a book, and he was careless in his treatment. Her pages were not just flipped but torn as the souls experienced agony for the first time in centuries. Again and again, he bruised the fragile edges of her mind until finally he found the darkness he sought.

His hand drew back from her forehead, and with it, a very old soul. This soul had been long buried beneath the many layers of Legion. She was not a voice or an image that Wren recognized.

A long breath escaped from her lips as the soul experienced a body once more.

“Ramana.” The name fell from Malachi’s lips with the distinct taste of reverence. His tongue shaped the word like the slow glide of flesh against flesh.

She blinked her eyes a few times and looked upon the man she had not seen in many centuries. “Malachi?”

“I have searched for you for many years, ancient one.”

And she was ancient. She felt every year of her life in her very bones. Yet she was not ancient in this body. Ramana was like him, yet not. She remembered the Void that called to her endlessly. She remembered generations of swallowing creatures whole.

But now things were different. Her power that once swelled with the tides now was little more than a puddle. She had no power just like the creatures that shared her mind with her.

Unlike the other that Malachi had brought to the surface, Ramana welcomed the minds of the others. They gave her knowledge. Knowledge was power.

In the back of her mind, she felt the girl stir. The girl whose body she currently had control of and the girl who had saved them many times. The girl Ramana and the many others had chosen to protect.

“I am not the same as I once was,” she murmured.

Malachi gathered her hands in his. Long fingers covered hers, and she savored the warmth they brought with them. She had not experienced touch for herself in many years.

“You do not have to be,” he murmured as he brought her fingers to his lips. “We are the last. Together, we will be strong again.”

“Strong again?”

“Of course. We will continue the work of our people.”

“The work of our people?” she repeated as she slowly pulled her hands away from him. His lips slid against the skin of her knuckles. “The work of our people was destruction and death, Malachi.”

“Yes.” His brows furrowed. “I do not understand. You disagree?”

“I have been provided a unique opportunity to experience the minds of others. I know what our actions have caused. I have felt their pain and sadness. I was first absorbed with all the others that were dying. I have felt their pain and reconciled my actions long ago.”

“Darkness is our purpose. We were meant to wipe the humans from this earth.”

“I remember those days.” Ramana remembered it well. She shared her memories with the others that were part of Legion. They all felt the blood wash over them and the screams of pain. They had lost one of their own today and knew all too well the power that a Void wielded. “The world has changed since then.”

“But our purpose has not.” He stood then. His fingers tunneled through the long locks of his hair. “You of all people should understand. I have created the road, you must only walk down it.”

“I wish to walk a different path.”

He paused in his pacing to stare at her in disbelief.

Ramana could hear then the soft sound of the human girl speaking. She was so quiet that Ramana would not have heard her if she had not been listening.

“He cannot kill the humans. We house the magical creatures. Without us, everyone is dead.”

All the souls in Legion felt great pride that the human had come to this conclusion. It was the only solution to this problem. Malachi had fallen into madness, but perhaps one of his own kind would be able to explain to him the flaws in his plan.

“Humans must be the host for all creatures,” she murmured quietly. “Malachi if you destroy them, then you destroy the world.”

“So be it.”

His words seemed to echo in her head.

“That is your answer?”

“If I must destroy the world, then I will.” Frenzied anger and grief marred his handsome face. “We are the last of our kind. Humans destroyed our people, our homes, our children. And you expect me not to wipe them from the face of the earth?”

“There is another way. There must be another way.”

“You will help me.” He whipped around to jab a finger in her direction. “You have to help me. You are a Void.”

“No, Malachi. I am Legion.”

She watched as he seemed to