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

shifted and moved. Teeth rattled against teeth as the Lich King shifted his jaw back and forth.

“Lyra.” The voice vibrated with power and electricity. But it was a voice she recognized.

Standing slowly, she walked towards him and reached out. “Yes, it’s me.”

He grumbled and looked over his shoulder. “Bones.”

“Yes, that’s Bones. We’re in Bones’ home; we needed his help.”

Another affirmative grumble was her answer as his unnatural eyes looked around them. Wherever his gaze landed, blue light would wash over the floor. Lyra shivered in fear.

She had never thought of Wolfgang with fear. He was a good man. Powerful, yes, but not intimidating in a way that would make her pause. Now, she understood what his subjects felt when they saw him. He was the true meaning of terrifying.

“Do you remember me?” Lyra had to ask him.

“I promised I would.” The blue eyes shifted once more and locked upon the hand she held curled against her chest. He said nothing. He held out his hand in a silent command.

She stared down where there had once been flesh. She hadn’t thought it was possible to miss something so simple as warm skin. She was almost afraid to touch it.

Would he be cold as all dead things were cold?

Waiting would only prolong the issue, so she reached out with her wounded hand. It hurt her to see the missing digits as she was a vain creature and relied upon her looks. Her body was now something to be ashamed of. She could see feel the missing fingers as though they were there, but the streaks of black veins that crawled from the stubs betrayed that sensation.

Her remaining three fingers slide along the length of his. She had thought he might be rough and jagged. But the bones she held onto were smooth as glass. Tiny pricks of magic danced upon her palm.

Wolfgang made another rumbling sound. “How?”

“It was my price to pay. As were the brands upon my body from before.”

Now was likely not the time to tell him. But she was in pain and frightened he might use more magic to heal her. She couldn’t take that now. She needed a few moments and then she would be ready to fight. Right now she needed a break.

What she wanted to do was curl up in a corner and forget that the world was falling down upon her ears. Wolfgang had not been an attractive man, but he had been a man. Now she didn’t know what he was. A dead thing that belonged in a grave, not her arms.

His hand made a soft clicking sound as he closed his fingers upon hers. “I cannot heal you.”

“I did not ask you to.”

He shook his skull. “I do not have the spells to fix this.”

“Is that supposed to be some kind of apology? Wolfgang, it is a small price to pay to save our people.” And they were her people just as much as they were his. The misfits. The outcasts. The oddities whose families had wanted them even less than hers had wanted her.

He lifted his other hand to touch her cheek but froze just before his hand touched her. He hadn’t seen himself yet, she realized. He rotated the hand as though it was not a part of him.

“What do I look like?” Wolfgang asked.

“You’re fine. You’re going to be fine.”

“What do I look like?” His powerful voice was amplified by magic.

She licked her lips but gave in. “You look like Charlie.”

“Charlie?” His head cocked slightly to the side in question.

“Mungus.”

He stilled for a moment in only the way a dead thing could pause. Every inch of him stopped moving. He became still as stone.

His ribs rattled against each other until he tossed back his horrifying skull and opened his mouth wide. A harsh gasping sound wheezed through the open maw. He shuddered with the force of the sound.

Laughter. Lyra realized he had found what she said amusing, and this new sound from Wolfgang was laughter. Her heart fell as even this mirthful sound had been destroyed by the magic he had used.

“Oh Lyra,” he said once he calmed down. “I look fearful, then. Powerful.”

“I did not expect you to react like that,” she responded through tears.

“I know. But we do not always get what we want in this world.”

Bones cleared his throat and stepped towards them. He only paused when blue strands of magic reached towards him like static electricity contained in a glass globe. “You did mention you may be short on time.”

“Are we?” Lyra asked.

Wolfgang slowly nodded. “We have an evil man to drive back to hell and a promise to keep.”

“I can call Jasper now to come get us.”

He let loose another round of ugly laughter. “We do not need him.”

She did not want to be frightened of him. She did not want to look upon this creature and be incapable of seeing the man she loved. He was meant to be soft and kind to her. Not this creature who laughed with darkness in his lungs. Not this dark creature who ordered her around as though she was not necessary for his existence.

The tears that desperately tried to trickle down her cheeks were held in check. She did not want him to know she was disturbed by his appearance. There was a fight to focus on. She could not lose herself now when there were people who needed her help.

Later. It was always later when she could finally feel the way she wanted to feel.

“You go,” she found herself saying. “I will meet you there. I have a few things I need to speak with Bones about.”

He did not flinch or question if she were lying to him. Wolfgang nodded and disappeared from the room.

Lyra waited a few moments to see if she could feel him lingering. But all sense of magic had gone from the room with him. He was well and truly gone. And he had left her without argument.

“He’s not himself,” she whispered.

“No,