Blue Blood (Series of Blood Book 3) by Emma Hamm (books to read this summer .txt) 📕

“Bluebell?” Lyra snorted. “She’s a sensitive little thing with a mean streak, so I could believe it.”

“No.” Wren’s head shook in quick jerks. “You see, Fairies have a lot of different subspecies. We’re essentially the same thing. Little people with wings. But some of us err towards a darker side. Your Jasper is sharing a head-space with a Tooth Fairy.”

Wolfgang started laughing. “A Tooth Fairy? Like the things we used to leave teeth under the pillow for?”

“No. That would be the human legend. Tooth Fairies are not good creatures. They’re known for being the extreme side of a Fairy. They are selfish, controlling, obsessive, and known for attacking when their enemy is asleep. Their calling card on a dead body was taking out all of their teeth.”

“That’s disgusting,” Burke commented.

“Yes, most certainly disgusting. To them it was the ultimate disgrace. Losing one’s teeth meant that um… Well to be delicate, that there were many avenues with direct access to the brain through the holes where the teeth were.”

Lyra shuddered. “I don’t want to know any more about that. What should we expect?”

“Jasper is likely going to have to control himself in any way possible. He’s exhibiting signs of a male Tooth Fairy when it is preparing itself for war. Sometimes they would manage to destroy entire trees and, in the gravest of cases, entire forests.”

“And someone stealing his mate likely isn’t helping that?” Burke asked.

“Just remember that he’s still in a human body and because of that is weak. I hope that once he feels clean and is reminded that he is human this will go away. Otherwise, you’ll have to keep an eye on him. Tooth Fairies don’t fight fair.”

Wren’s eyes flipped back to her own. She shook herself slightly and flexed her fingers. “That doesn’t bode well for us.”

“No.” Lyra said. “We might be one man down in this fight.”

The popping sound of teleportation made them all jump. Jasper stood in the middle of the room, hands already fisted. His long hair dripped droplets of water onto the floor, and his shirt was on inside out. “Are we going?”

“We still don’t know where she is, Jasper,” Lyra replied.

“Then we need to find out.”

It took them longer than he wanted to locate her. Burke couldn’t latch onto Mercy’s dreams, which meant she wasn’t asleep. That was a relief in itself, but Jasper didn’t know why. Lyra tried to call in a few favors, but no one was talking to her. Wolfgang even contacted the other Lords of the Black Market, but none had ever heard of a Phoenix.

Malachi should have been running his mouth. He was known to brag, and their informants would have sent word. Yet, he remained silent.

Jasper paced back and forth in the kitchen, feeling useless. He hated feeling like this when she needed him. The others buzzed around him, using their various skills and contacts in an attempt to locate Mercy.

Wren tried to calm him. A few of the Fairies inside her even popped up every now and then to try and talk to him. He didn’t want to talk to his own kind. His kind were largely incompetent fools, easily distracted by pretty things and highly selfish.

“We should just go, Jasper,” Bluebell hissed. “We can find her on our own.”

“We can’t fight Malachi on our own.”

“We can damn well try. All we have to do is get close enough to let her go, and then she can take over. You know she’s strong enough.”

“She could get hurt.”

“So?” Bluebell’s voice rose to a shrill octave.

“So getting her hurt is the opposite of what we want.”

“Which is?”

Jasper stopped pacing and cracked his knuckles. “To get her home safe and in our arms.”

One of his arms went numb and lifted on its own. Bluebell usually didn’t force any kind of control over his body, but she did now, using his hand to pat his opposite shoulder.

“We’ll get her back. And we’ll make them pay.”

Lyra’s voice carried over to him. “Are you talking to that Fairy?”

“Yes.”

“Well tell her to stuff it! We’re getting close.”

Bluebell swore as Jasper rushed to Lyra’s side. “Where?”

She pointed to a spot on the map laid out across the kitchen island. “It looks like someone heard Malachi was here. Bones said there were a few sightings, but he couldn’t get anything concrete out of the messenger.”

“Bones? You’re still in touch with him?”

“Yeah, he’s not as bad as I thought.”

“The man that trained you to kill and turned you into a bodyguard for his own uses?”

Lyra glared up at him. “He taught me to stay alive. For that, I am grateful. Now do you want to listen or keep shoving your head up my ass?”

He gritted his teeth and gestured for her to continue.

“Here.” Lyra’s finger jabbed at the center of the city.

“Why there?”

“Apparently, he’s about to make a very important announcement.”

Everyone in the room stilled. A message from Malachi couldn’t be a good thing. And him choosing the very center of the city was even less encouraging.

“We have to go,” Jasper growled. “When is this happening?”

Lyra looked down at the glass globe in her hand. It pulsed with magic that was suspiciously the same color as Wolfgang’s before it went blank. She looked back up at him while the color drained from her face.

“Now. It’s happening now.”

Before he could teleport, Lyra slammed her hand down on the table. The noise startled Jasper just enough to make him hesitate.

“Don’t you dare,” Burke warned. “We go together as a unit. If Malachi is talking then we have a few minutes to suit up and get our weapons. Get your head in the game.”

They moved as one, each person calmly walking towards the weaponry at the other end of Haven. All except Jasper and Lyra. They remained staring at each other, both with their palms flat against the table.

“You need to get your shit together,” she told him. “I can’t be worrying about you and fighting at the same time.”

“I have a sick feeling in my stomach