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

Lips pressed against the hot stone, she closed her eyes and hoped that he would come. He had been so angry at her the last time they had spoken. She knew why. She simply didn’t want to think about it.

A slight popping noise behind her made the tension slowly drain out of her body. She kept the stone pressed against her lips even when she felt the familiar, heavy weight of his large hand. He held onto her thin shoulder for a moment before his hand fell down the length of her back.

She had once said that he never knew his own strength. He didn’t understand that even the softest of touches from him felt commanding. Now, even this felt overwhelming.

“You okay?” Jasper asked her.

“No.”

“I thought you wouldn’t be.”

“Did you see him?” Her tone cracked at the end as a small sob escaped her mouth. Somehow just being around Jasper when she was upset always managed to make her cry.

“Yup, we were all waiting for him at the Graveyard.” He cleared his throat. “That’s a… That’s a change.”

“I don’t know how to deal with that.”

“I might be biased, but I’m not sure how you deal with that either. That’s not a man anymore.”

She whirled around. Her hair smacked against his arm like a whip as she buried herself into the heat and comfort of his chest. He automatically held her as she knew he would. She should be worried about Wolfgang. She should be finding him immediately.

But she was afraid. Of him, of the creature he had become. Lyra was afraid of the walking grave who was no longer the man she knew.

Brother. She kept telling herself she was safe in Jasper’s arms even as she inhaled the earthy scent of him. Brother, family, friend. Not lover.

His hands tightened on her waist. “We can go.”

“No, we can’t.”

“We’ve done it before. We can sneak away, disappear to anywhere in the world you wish. We’ll go to white sand beaches where the air smells like salt water and pineapples. You’ve never seen the ocean. I can take you there.”

“We can’t do that.”

“Why not?” He sounded incredulous, as though she was the one talking nonsense. “Why is this different than any other situation when you and I would have run?”

“I don’t know Jasper.” She pulled away from him then. “Maybe because the world is ending? Maybe because we have to find the people in this prophecy so that we don’t all die?”

“Like you found him?” He spat the last word. “Like you found the most ridiculous dangerous human in the world who is supposedly going to help us? I don’t wish to find anyone like that. I don’t wish to save the world. I don’t care about the world; I care about you!”,

The words echoed in the room. They sunk into her ears like tiny teeth until she slowly closed her eyes, so she didn’t have to see him. So she didn’t have to look into those gorgeous blue eyes and think: what could have happened?

“You know that can’t happen,” she said.

“Why? Why can’t it happen? Or should I say, why won’t you let it?”

“You are my brother—”

“I am no such thing!” He was shouting now. Angry as she had never seen him before. “I am not your brother. I am not your blood.”

She exhaled long and low. “I know that. I do know that. It just can’t happen.”

“Because of him?”

“No.” She shook her head and finally met his gaze. “No even if he had never come along, you and I would never have happened. You know this as well as I, Jasper. You weren’t waiting for me to come to my senses. You were avoiding ever having to live.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Excuse me?”

She didn’t want to be the adult. Lyra wasn’t good at being the adult. But right now, she saw him spiraling. She felt herself doing the same. And in the end, she had to be the bigger person.

“I was a safety net,” she told him. “You knew me, and you knew I was outcast just like you. Loving me was safe because you never had to put yourself out there. You knew I would never love you back the way you loved me, and that was the only reason why you chose me. I was safe because I wasn’t real.”

He appeared stunned. His eyes widened, and he stared at her as though she were a completely different person. His mouth opened and closed a few times before he finally shrugged.

“You can’t tell me that it’s any different. You know that I am right,” Lyra told him firmly. She knew she didn’t have to convince him. She had always known what he was doing, and in some way he was aware of it as well.

Jasper shrugged again. “You know what I am.”

“I do know what you are. And you’ve always used that as a shield to not have to be someone.”

“I don’t want to be someone. I want to disappear; that’s what I’m good at.”

“And you’ve been running your entire life because of that.” She stepped towards him. “I don’t want to fight. But please do not use me as an excuse to run.”

“You’re not safer with him than with me,” he said. His shoulders squared, and he shook himself as though preparing for battle.

“No one would ever say that Wolfgang is a good man. No one would ever say that he would be a protector of his people, but that is exactly what he is doing. Perhaps you don’t know him as well as you think you do.”

Jasper’s face twisted into a quizzical expression. “You’re different since meeting him.”

“I think I’m growing up,” she answered honestly.

At the same time, they both stuck their tongues out at each other and said, “Yuck.”

She giggled while he laughed. In their own way, they had addressed the issues that stood between them. Lyra hoped he had heard her concerns. Jasper would need to be more outgoing without her. She wasn’t going to