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

Burke watched a droplet of water trail down her temple and leave a dark smudge against her light blue sweater. He was pushing it. Really, he was pushing all of them. Burke had never been an emotional man, but he found he was becoming one.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Fine.”

“Lovely.” Lyra clapped her hands before reaching into her pocket. She drew out three cords which held stone runes at the end. They were plunked onto the table as though they weren’t the most important things in her possession.

Burke glared at her.

“Oh don’t get your lacy little panties in a twist,” Lyra scolded him. “I got the damned things for you, didn’t I?”

“At what cost?” Jasper asked her. A shadow had crossed over his expression.

The same shadow darkened Lyra’s expression before it was wiped clean. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

Burke realized how little he knew about the people he worked with. On a daily basis they had taken each other’s lives in their hands, and yet he didn’t know them. They knew each other. But then, Jasper and Lyra had always come as a package.

He didn’t know what it was that he had asked Lyra to do. For all he knew, he had asked her to step into more trouble than she should have. Or to risk her own life for him.

“Thank you,” he said quietly.

Everyone stared at him as though he had grown a second head.

“Oh come on.” He rolled his eyes. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

“You don’t thank me.” Lyra zeroed in on him with a questioning gaze. “You don’t thank anyone. You just do your job.”

“I just thanked you. Don’t make a big deal out of it, Lyra.”

“Oh I’m going to make a big deal out of this for a very long time to come.”

She swung her legs back and forth as she watched him with a direct gaze. Burke started to squirm under her gaze before he finally broke.

“What?” Exasperated, the word burst from his lips.

“Oh nothing. Just waiting for you to grow a couple horns and start laughing devilishly.” Lyra started to do exactly that herself. Fingers tapping against each other, she laughed like the villain in a horror movie.

“We’re done with that,” Burke interrupted her as he leaned forward to snag the three amulets. “And these are?”

“Amulets.”

“I can see that, Lyra.”

“Amulets to get us across the border without being seen or detected.”

He rolled his eyes. “Lyra, I swear to God, it’s like pulling teeth. Just explain the damn things already.”

“There’s the man I know.” She stretched her legs out until her entire body was lying on the table among them. “So here’s the deal. Amulets are only good for so long. We’re going to need to be teleported as close to the facility that they’re keeping her in. We’ve got about ten minutes before we’re found out.”

“So they’re useless.”

“Not if we get in and get out.”

“That was the best the Harpies could do?” Burke snorted. “Hardly worth our time.”

“Watch your tongue.” A few drops of water splattered onto the table. “I went through a lot to get those damned things for you. We’re going to use them.”

“Of course we’re using them,” he countered. He wrapped the three of them around his fist and lifted them to press against his lips. They were his ticket to getting her back. To fixing his honor. To keeping her close to him when he hadn’t had a chance to have her close to him. “Jasper?”

The big man rolled his neck on his shoulders and shrugged. “I can get us there.”

“You sure?”

“Never been wrong before.”

Burke stood up. “Then let’s go.”

Gaia intervened then, though she usually preferred her soldiers to figure things out on their own. “Hold on.”

“We don’t have a lot of time.”

“No you don’t, but there are important things to know.”

Burke slowly sank back into his seat.

“Malachi will have many people watching the perimeter of his facility. You will need to be more cautious than ever. We do not, I repeat, do not want you walking into the building and attempting to blast the place to the ground. You are to get in, get the girl, and get out. Without letting anyone know that you were there.”

Stunned silence kept the three of them from answering. All of their wide eyes met before they turned to look at Gaia.

“That’s impossible.” Lyra was the first person to say it. “He’s going to have a ridiculous amount of people guarding her. We’re not going to get her silently.”

“That is your task.” Gaia stood and the rest of the Five moved with her. “Good luck.”

Burke, Jasper, and Lyra remained around the table. They were all caught in their own thoughts. The mission they were about to go on was likely to take at least one of their lives. Or perhaps they would succeed and no one would find out they had stolen the girl.

“That’s just bullshit,” Lyra grumbled.

“Impossible,” Jasper agreed.

“But necessary.” Burke had always been the voice of reason. “We’ll manage. Weapons?”

Lyra raised up onto her knees. “Silent, do we really need them?”

“Yes.”

Both of them turned their eyes towards Jasper and raised their eyebrows. He was staring down at his fingernails as though he didn’t know they were staring at him. Looking up, he mock pointed to himself. “Who me?”

“Jasper,” Burke growled.

“Just ‘cause you two are lazy doesn’t mean the teleporter has to go and get everything for you.”

Burke blinked and Jasper was no longer in front of him. They didn’t ask him to teleport because they were lazy. They asked because he was faster than them walking all the way to the other side of Haven and back. Time was of the essence now.

Moments later, Jasper was back with his arms overloaded with weapons. He dropped the mess of metal and blades onto the table with a shattering clank. Clapping his hands as though dusting them off, he crossed his arms and stared at them.

“Happy?”

“Yes,” Burke replied.

The three of them had done this many times.