Bloodfire (Blood Destiny) (35 page)

“I thought you were another monster!” he
interrupted, protesting.

I shot him a look and said drily,
 
‘Thanks.
 
Like I was saying, after you attacked me
this afternoon,
mistakenly
, you kept
looking at me like I’d sprouted horns or something.
 
What was that all about?”

He coloured and coughed slightly.
 
“Your blood.”

I looked at him blankly.
 

“It tasted funny,” he said.
 
“As if it was hot…and,” he fiddled with
his cuffs, “tasty.”

Both Alex and I stared at him.

“It’s not my fault!
 
It tasted nice, okay?
 
And strange.
 
But not like anything I’ve ever had
before.”

I opened my mouth to speak but Alex beat
me to it.
 
“Have you tasted human
blood before?”

This again.
 
Alex was clearly still
convinced that I wasn’t actually human.

“Of course not!” Tom replied defensively.

“So you’ve got nothing to compare it to
then,” Alex said slowly.

“What do you think I am?
 
I might be a shifter, but I don’t go
around eating people.”
 
He had a
disgusted look on his face.

“Anton,” I said suddenly.

“What?”

“Anton sneaked into the dorm and stole my
t-shirt.”
 
I was starting to feel a
bit sick.

“Uh, what’s your point?
 
Are you trying to tell me that he’s
secretly had the hots for you all these years and wanted to steal your clothes?
Or that he’s a closet cross dresser?”

I held Tom’s eyes.
 
“It had my blood on it.
 
He told Julia that he,” I paused and
swallowed, “had developed a taste for it.”

“The bloodfire!” Tom exclaimed suddenly.

Alex looked confused so I explained.
 
“When I get angry or upset, I feel hot
inside.
 
Sometimes
very hot.
 
Like fire.
 
It helps me to think and seems to make
me…
 
stronger.
 
And sometimes I can call on it if I need
some help to focus.”

“I told you!”
 
Alex almost shouted so that I had to
hush him in case we woke anyone up.
 
“You’re not actually human.
 
And you’re just telling me about this fire stuff now.
 
Honestly, dude, for a bright girl
sometimes you are duuuumb.”

“Of course she’s human,” Tom said,
puzzled.
 
“She’s always been
human.
 
She smells human. I mean,
not right now with Julia’s lotion on, but usually. “
 
He looked directly at me.
 
“You’re strong, Mack, but you’re not
otherworld strong.”

I took offense at that.
 
“I can beat Anton.
 
And I can beat you.”

“In skill, sure, but not strength.
 
Not really.”

I scoffed slightly but couldn’t really
argue.
 
Alex took up the thread
again though.
 
“Why can you hear
Corrigan’s Voice?
 
Why could you
hear John’s and Julia’s?”

“They can’t compel me,” I pointed out.
 
“And I can touch silver.”

Alex shrugged.
 
“Minor points probably related to the
fact that you’re not a shifter.
 
Does your blood do anything else?”

I was about to say no, when I suddenly
thought of how I’d managed to escape from the faerie ring.
 
There had been blood on my hands by the
time I punched through it. “Er…”

At that moment the kettle on the stove
began to whistle.
 
I sprang up, glad
to have the excuse of tending to it and pouring the coffee.
 
Could it be true?
 
Could I really not be human?
 
I felt both elated and deflated at the
same time.
 
Both Alex and Tom
remained silent until I’d placed the cafetiere on the table, along with the
mugs.

“It’s time you open that file,” Alex said
softly.
 

“What file?”
 
asked
Tom.

I filled him in on what had happened in
the study, trying to stall having to actually open the damned thing.
 
I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know any
more.
 
But there had to be a reason
why John had papers about me kept in magically locked drawer.
 
It’d be pointless having something that
secure that just said I was human, wouldn’t it?
 
Everyone in the keep already knew
that.
 

“Mack Attack…”

Tom raised his eyebrows slightly at my
newly acquired nickname.
 
Wait until
he heard the kitten one.

“I should go and visit Julia first, and
make sure she’s alright.”
 
I
neglected to mention that I already had.
 
Perhaps I didn’t need to know what was in the file after all.

“There’s nothing you can do,” Alex replied
calmly.
 
“She’s sedated and being
looked after by the doc.
 
She won’t
even know you’re there.”

“I’ll know that,” I growled.

“Quit trying to put it off,” he said,
firmly.
 
“I can vouch that Julia’s
not going anywhere, not yet at least.
 
Look at the file first, then go.”

I took a deep breath.
 
I wasn’t going to be able to get out of
this.
 
“Fine.”
 
My backpack was in the corner of the
kitchen beside the door, where I’d dumped it when I came in.
 
I carefully kept my back to Tom,
blocking his view.
 
I still didn’t
want him to see the flash of silver because there was no way I was going to
give him the chance of trying to be a hero and volunteering to come with me
through the portal.
 
All this file
and human/not human stuff was just a speed bump.
 
Once Tom was safely out of the way, I
still planned to get Alex to do his stuff and put a tracer on the cloth.

I pulled out the clump of papers and sat
back down at the table, nervously smoothing them over.

“We can give you some space,” Alex said
kindly.

“No,” I replied quickly.
 
“I’d like you to stay here.
 
Both of you.”
 
I didn’t want to do this alone.

Each of them nodded.
 
I felt a shiver in my stomach and turned
over the first sheet.

It was a photo of me, aged seven, clipped
to a letter.
  
I scanned down
it to the bottom to see the signatory and the world suddenly stopped.
 
It was from my mother.

I lifted my eyes to Tom and Alex and
swallowed out the words.
 
“It’s from
my mum.”

“Your….
 
But, how, can that be?” Tom burst out.

I shook my head in confusion.
 
Alex told me to read it out.

Dear
John,

I
know it has been a long time since I’ve contacted you, and, believe me, I
wouldn’t be doing it now if I thought I had another choice.

 
I’m in trouble.
 
They’re getting closer and Mackenzie is
in danger.
 
If they catch her, you
know what they will do.
 
I need to
know that she’ll be safe.
 
It’s a
lot to ask, especially because of pack rules, but I need you to look after her
for me.
 
I know that she’ll be safe
with you.
 
I’ll be in Cornwall in a
few days’ time and be able to leave her at the keep.
 
She doesn’t understand what is
happening, and it’s probably better that she never does.
 
If she stays with you, then she never needs
to know the truth.
 
She’s strong,
and she can look after herself, but sometimes when she gets angry I feel
afraid.
 
I can see the power inside
her.
 
Maybe you can turn her when
she’s older and then it won’t matter.
 
I have no idea if it will work.
 
But they can’t find her, John, no matter what.

Please
believe me that if there was another way then that’s what I’d do.
 
You’re my last hope, and my daughter’s.

Martha

My mother had already known John before
she left me here?
 
And what did she
mean that she was afraid of me?
 
“What am I?”
 
I whispered,
aghast.

Tom was tense and motionless, but Alex
reached out and gently touched me on the arm.

“It’s okay,” he said.
 
“Whatever it is, it’ll be okay.”

I flipped to the next page, heart in my
mouth, terrified at what I might read next.
 
It was a medical form with my name at
the top.
 
I had a faint memory from
not long after I arrived, of John taking me into his study and pulling out a
needle.
 
I’d been so frightened and
had tried to back away, but he’d soothed me and said it wouldn’t hurt for
long.
 
That it was just in case
there was an accident and they needed to do a blood transfusion.
 
I hadn’t even understood what that was at
the time but something about the look in his eyes made me trust him so I’d
offered him my arm and let him draw my blood.
 
I wondered why I’d not remember that
until now.
 
John had certainly never
mentioned it again after that day.

I stared down at the smudged piece of
paper.

“Red?” prompted Tom, softly.

I passed it over him and he read over it,
drawing in a sharp breath and then turning it over to Alex.

“Oh my God,” Alex breathed.
 
“Now it all makes sense.
 
This is why you are so strong, and feel
fire in your blood.
 
This is why you
can hear Voices.
 
And this must be
why Iabartu…
”
 
His
voice trailed off and he looked at me sadly.

“Uh, who’s Iabartu?”
Tom
asked, brow furrowed.

Tears filled my eyes.
 
It was my fault after all.
 
Craw had been right.
 
John had died protecting me, hiding me.
 
Julia was lying upstairs fighting for
her life because of me.
 
Four
Brethren shifters were dead because of me.
 
I fought the tears back and felt rage and
fire fill
me.
 
Without thinking, I stood up,
violently kicking back my chair and flung my mug against the tiled kitchen
wall, spattering it with dark coffee stains and shattering the porcelain.
 
An inhuman cry fell from my lips and I
picked up the chair and began hitting it against the wall.

“No!
 
It can’t be me, it can’t be my fault,” I gasped, slamming the wooden
frame against the wall, again and again and again, until a small wooden leg was
all that was left in my hands.
 
I
threw it to the side and doubled over in pain, hugging myself.
 
It was my blood that the bitch wanted.
 
I howled in grief, anguish and anger.

I was part dragon.

Chapter
Twenty Four

Once my sobs subsided, and I was
hiccupping in a ball on the floor, Alex came over and picked me up, hugging my
body to his.

“It’s not your fault,” he said
gently.
 
“You didn’t know and you
couldn’t help it.”
 
He pulled out
another chair from the table and sat me down.
 
I gazed dully down at the grains of
wood, and traced a whorl with my finger.

“I don’t understand.”
 
Tom came round the other side of the
chair.
 
“What does this mean?”
 
He waved the piece of paper at me.
 
“What’s not your fault?
 
And, I say again, who the hell is
Iabartu?”

I took a deep breath and answered.
 
“She’s a demi-god.
 
She’s the blue bitch who Alex scryed and
who killed John.
 
She’s the…thing
that sent through the terrametus and the ispolin.
 
She’s looking for me because she wants
my blood.”

“But why your blood?”
 
He looked frustrated and his fist
tightened on the paper.
  
‘What
does this mean?”