The Blood and Light Series (Six Books Boxed Set)

by Rue Volley

  I looked at my wrists; his hold on them was getting tighter.

  “Do you think that you could stop doing that?” I asked.

  He smiled and looked at my hands then turned my palm over and kissed it. I just stared at him. He held his mouth to it, I felt a slight vibration in it and once again it faded. He barely took his mouth away from it and I could feel his breath on it. I looked at him.

  “Why do you love me?” I asked him. He stopped breathing for a moment and looked at me.

  “Love you?” he asked.

  “Yes Johnathan, I am asking why? I don’t return any affection to you and yet you still act as if I do,” I said as I pulled my hand from his. He stared at me, still grinning.

  “You are my mate Rue Valon. We are meant to be together for an eternity and we will be,” he said, like he was telling me the sky is blue.

  “I understand the ‘mate’ part. I just want to know why you love me,” I said, insisting we talk for once. He stepped back from me.

  “I do not love you, we are meant to be together, it is two different things,” he said.

  I looked at him in disgust. He doesn’t love me?

  “I do not want to be with you any longer,” I said.

  “Do you wish to be fed in your room?” he asked me. I don’t think he understood what I meant.

  “No, I am not hungry. I am telling you that I no longer want to see you,” I said, hoping that I made myself clear. He smiled. I didn’t expect that.

  “You are tired,” he said to me. I started to feel like he was treating me like a child, not a good idea.

  I cleared my throat loudly, hoping it would annoy him. “No, not tired just tired of this.” I waved my hand out and watched as the flowers pulsated different colors. I stared at them for a moment and wondered if I caused them to do that.

  “I do not want to mate with you Johnathan. I am tired of pretending that we are something that we are not,” I said.

  I felt a rush of adrenaline well up in me as I said each word. This was the first time, since I woke up, that I felt kind of normal, like I was tapping into myself. He stepped towards me and I took one step backward. I realized that I was at the edge of the stairs leading back down. I looked at him and he grinned again.

  “Why are you grinning? I just told you that I don’t want to be with you Johnathan.” He sighed. “You have such a strange way about you. You have always been nervous about mating, I think that your old fears are simply confusing you,” he said as he reached his hand towards me. I held my ground.

  “No, I think that I am simply realizing the emptiness I feel when I am with you, maybe that is why I jumped to begin with.” I raised my eyebrows and hoped that these words would stab his heart, deep enough to cause it to start beating. I waited and he simply stared at me.

  “You have nothing to say to that, huh?” I said.

  Johnathan flashed to me and hit me in the face. I stumbled as I grabbed at my cheek. I fell to one knee and caught my breath. I couldn’t believe that he had hit me. He reached down and pulled me up. I still held my face in my hand. He pulled me in front of him and had a different look on his face.

  “You should be grateful to me. The council would have been fine with your destruction. I have fought for you to even live within her walls again. I have spent hours talking to them, to my grandmother Sophia, convincing them to let you stay here. They have shown you mercy and in turn, you act like a child, defiant and ungrateful. You will learn your place, we will be mated, and you will mind your tongue.”

  I stared into his eyes and watched the color swirl. I didn’t feel frightened, but sad… sad that I would have chosen someone like this for myself. I couldn’t believe he’d acted that way, well, maybe I should have… he had no heart. I wanted to hit him. I felt a slight vibration in my hands and then it faded. My heart fluttered as he pulled me to him and kissed me hard on my mouth. I tried to pull away from him, but he held me too tight. I bit his lip and he moaned. Not the reaction I was looking for. He tried to pull me down and I felt a vibration in my palm, I tried to focus on it and I peeked at my hand as the light started to grow stronger. I slammed it against his chest and he flew away from me, hitting the ledge.

  I lay there, breathing hard. I stared at my hand and then at him. He stood up and just stared at me. He walked up to me and held out his hand. I looked at it and then pushed myself up, without his help. I walked to the stairs and started to walk down them. I reached the bottom and started to run up the path, flowers wilted as I ran by them. I looked at them and back at Johnathan. He was walking slowly, like nothing had happened at all. I didn’t run because of fear, I simply wanted to be alone. I reached the door and waved my hand over it. It did not waver. I sighed. Johnathan flashed to my side and waved his hand, the door rolled like water and we stepped through it. He walked with me back to my room and I closed the door behind me. I heard him lock it. I leaned against it and cried. I hate him and this place… I do.

  ***

  Sam entered the library and started to walk by the counter. She heard a throat clear and shot a look over at Brooke. Brooke sat there looking at her from above her glasses and then she tried to grin at Sam. Sam smiled, showing all of her teeth. It looked psychotic. Brooke stopped grinning and went back to reading her book. Sam slid her key into the door, unlocked it then stepped in and closed the door behind her. She looked up and watched the clouds float overhead through the skyline. She sighed and wished that the room was being used for its intended purpose, a gift to Rue but there she was again, ready to pull out every book she could on their history.

  She had spent three weeks leafing through the Protector’s history and nothing. She could not find a single thing that would even come close to helping her pull Josh out of his stupor. After Caine had stabbed Josh in the chest, Theodore and Sam carried him back to the house and spent hours trying to save him. His heart stopped beating four times. His color faded, seeping from his chest towards the floor and each time Theodore had stopped it and Sam had fed Josh her own energy to revive him. There was no reason that he should still be there, on the mortal plain. He should have been living in memory until he faded into it, but in true Josh fashion he was sticking around, like a pain in the ass. Sam couldn’t even imagine what he would be like when he woke, if he woke. No, he will wake up… he has to.

  Sam ran to section 314 and started grabbing books, as many as she could carry. She sat down on the floor and laid them out before her. She thought she heard a door and realized it was just the noise from the outer library. She looked at cover after cover and then stumbled onto one she did not remember. Holding it up, she looked at the cover. It had a tree embossed on the front of it, in silver. The black leather looked old. She could not understand how she could have missed it these past few weeks. Perhaps her mind wasn’t as sharp because of her emotions. She grinned when she thought about that.

  “Emotions. Whatever,” she muttered.

  She ran her fingers across the tree and watched it swirl with color then opened it up and realized it was a book of alchemy, old magic, probably written before Theodore, before most of them. She heard a noise again, like someone had walked across the floor under her. She set the book down and pulled out her blade, closing her eyes till it started to glow in her hand, bright green. She leaned over the ledge cautiously and peeked down. She saw someone flash under her. She flashed back quickly.

  “Shit,” she whispered.

  She stood up and watched as a trail opened up in front of her, it was muddled. She crinkled her nose when a weird smell became apparent. It smelt like rotting flowers.

  “What the hell,” she said as she started to move forward slowly.

  She heard another noise and flashed down the incline quickly. She came to the bottom and crouched down. The trail was not familiar to her and she knew it had traces of another protector. She scanned the room and watched as it slowly twisted towards the back, under the stairs, towards the mirror designed for Rue. She flashed towards it, only to c
ome upon a small shadow clawing at the mirror. Sam tilted her head.

  “You are fucking kidding me,” she yelled out.

  Elin stood up and held a blade in her hand. It glowed in spurts, she looked older… haggard. Sam flashed to her and slammed her against the wall. Elin cried out as Sam put her blade to her throat.

  “Please,” Elin choked out, as Sam pressed her blade against her throat harder. Sam grinned at her.

  “I am going to kill you a few times. I only wish that Josh was here to join in,” Sam said.

  “Wait… please, wait… I can help you. I can,” Elin said as her eyes started to roll in her head.

  Sam laughed. “What...? So you can try to kill me too?”

  “No… I can help Josh, I can… I swear to you,” Elin whispered.

  She started to sink as Sam held her up. Sam tilted her head. “Bind,” she whispered. Elin dropped to the floor with white light wrapping around her wrists. Elin looked at it and smiled. Sam leaned towards her.

  “Why the hell are you smiling?” she asked her. Elin looked up at her.

  “I am sorry, I like the pain, I crave it,” she said.

  Sam kicked her in the side and she fell over gasping for air. “Really…? Well, there is some more for you, you treacherous bitch!”

  Elin spit some blood onto the floor and then put her tongue in it.

  “Geezus Elin,” Sam muttered. Elin pushed herself up and licked her lips.

  “I’m sorry Samantha! It has been awhile since I have tasted blood… I apologize.”

  Sam placed her hands on her hips and stared her down. “What are you doing in here?” she asked her.

  “I brought you the book, it can help. I meant to leave before you came, but I got stuck in this fucking place, I cannot move through mirrors easily anymore. Trust me; I had no intention of running into you.” Sam laughed as she stared at her.

  “You look like shit Elin. What? You can’t find any beds to crawl into?”

  Elin pushed herself up and leaned against the wall sighing. “Listen, I know that you have no reason to trust me, but I assure you that the book I brought to you will help Josh… and Johnathan too.”

  Sam flashed into her face and hissed at her. Elin’s face lit up green from the glow of Sam’s blade. She didn’t look scared, just tired. Sam tilted her head.

  “You think that I could trust you?” she asked her. “After all that you have done?”

  Elin tilted her head. “You need my help Samantha. Without it, Josh will never return to you and you will never find Johnathan.”

  Sam stood up over her and stared down. She cleared her throat. “You smell like death Elin.”

  “That is true; it seems that I am dying, slowly. I have not fed and it is taking its toll on me.”

  Sam laughed and pointed her blade at her. “You deserve to rot.”

  Elin sighed and tilted her head. “Well, if you truly feel that way, then kill me now.”

  Sam flashed into her face and lifted her from the floor. She dragged her out into the middle of the room, dropped her, and stood over her with her blade pointed at her. Elin started to laugh.

  “What the fuck are you laughing about Elin?” Sam asked as the color started to swirl around them. Elin looked up at her and grinned.

  “You are so like your brother. Always fighting the urge to battle… You Barrington’s are a special breed.” Sam looked at her blade and then leaned down, placing it to her throat.

  “You know nothing of us. You are a parasite, a shadow of humanity. You are worth nothing to me.” Sam held her hand steady and felt a vibration start to well up in her. Elin held up her hands to her.

  “I will admit that death would be a relief, but revenge would be sweeter to me.”

  Sam stood up slowly and stared at her. “Revenge?” she asked.

  “Yes, that ass left me here, told me to wait, he never returned! He promised immortality, he promised that he would return but nothing, he has left me here to rot in this flesh.”

  Elin bit into her arm and Sam watched as blood started to run down her arm and then dripped onto the floor. Sam’s stomach growled and she lowered her eyes, controlling her hunger. Elin peeked up at her and took her mouth away from her arm. Blood traced her lips and she licked them. Sam looked up at her and felt her jaw tighten. She started to pace back and forth to ward off the energy she felt welling up in her. Elin grinned.

  “You are hungry,” she whispered. Sam stopped pacing and looked at her.

  “I would rather suck the dead blood from a rat, then from you Elin,” she said with her blade at her side. Elin watched as Sam’s knuckles whitened from the tight grip she had on it.

  Elin tilted her head. “I can help you Samantha, I can… but I ask a favor of you.”

  Sam looked at her and rolled her eyes. “If you are going to ask for me to bite you, then save your breath.”

  Elin bit into her arm again and Sam sucked her breath in. Elin moaned as she drank her own blood. Sam flashed to her and knelt down. She grabbed her wrists and tossed Elin to the side, Elin grunted as she hit the stone. Sam leaned over her and laughed.

  “I am not attracted to you Elin… you cannot seduce me.”

  Elin raised her eyes to her and got a curious look on her face. Sam stared into her eyes for a moment and backed away. Elin pushed herself up into a sitting position.

  “You look so much like your brother Samantha,” she whispered. “I will not lie to you, Josh was a high light in my search for a protector to turn me. I spent many nights in his bed and it was not until the end that he did not enjoy my company.” Elin looked at her and grinned. “I will do anything for you, anything you ask of me.”

  “Die then,” Sam muttered to her. Elin smiled and scooted towards her.

  “I am very useful, I assure you... to boys, but to girls also,” Elin said, hoping she was finding a chip in Sam’s armor.

  Sam turned away from her. She felt her body humming. The smell of Elin’s blood was starting to make her heart beat quicken. Elin licked her blood from her arm and exhaled. She sucked in her breath and stared at Sam, hoping that she would weaken. Sam spun around and pointed her blade at her.

  “You will not seduce me, you sicken me,” she said, with hatred in her voice. Elin frowned.

  “You cannot save him, not on your own, he will simply fade away,” she muttered.

  Sam flashed to her and knocked her onto her back, she leaned forward, pressing the blade to her throat. Elin looked at her, and grinned.

  Sam tilted her head.

  “You will tell me about that book, you will tell me what you know.”

  Elin licked her lips in reply.

  “Seems we are at an impasse, you want what I know and I need to feed. I think that you understand that we need to trade.”

  Sam pressed her knee into Elin’s side and twisted it. Elin groaned and made a noise that sickened Sam. Sam stared at her as she held her blade against her throat.

  “You want me to let you feed from me?” Sam said.

  Elin arched her back as she enjoyed the pain from the pressure on her ribs.

  Sam stood up and grumbled, “You are disgusting.”

  Elin rolled onto her side.

  “You have your fetishes, I have mine,” she muttered.

  Sam paced, realizing that pain was not going to waver her, she welcomed it. Sam stood there and suddenly made her choice. She grabbed Elin and pulled her up. Elin stood there on her tippy toes, looking at her. Sam grabbed her arm and held it out. She took her blade and carved a binding spell into Elin’s arm. Elin moaned and squirmed as the metal cut her skin. Sam took her blade and held it up to Elin’s face.

  “I have bound you; you will not be able to run. I will allow you to feed from me. If you try to trick me in any way I will kill you myself, quickly. I will give you no joy.” Elin smiled.

  Sam frowned and dropped her to the stone floor. Elin gave out a high-pitched grunt as she hit. Sam held out her arm and looked at her blade. She looked at Elin
.

  “You better know everything about that book,” Sam said as she looked down at her.

  “I promise you that I do. It is Caine’s and I watched him use it for many things, it will help Josh and it will lead us to Johnathan, I promise you.”

  Sam looked at her hand and sighed. “It better Elin… I swear to god.”

  Sam ran her blade across her palm and watched as a glow welled up in it. She closed her eyes and concentrated on her own energy, she drew it up through her and her body started to swirl in color. Elin’s eyes got wider and she started to grin. Sam opened her eyes and leaned down. She grabbed the back of Elin’s head and gripped her hair. She put her palm to her mouth and closed her eyes. Sam pulled at Elin’s hair as Elin moaned at her palm. She slowed her breathing and watched as Elin drank her blood. Elin’s hair started to shine brighter, her skin started to get its color back, and the dark circles under her eyes started to fade away. She drank in the blood and her heartbeat became stronger, her breathing harder. Sam started to feel a little weakened and she jerked Elin’s head away from her palm. Elin had her eyes closed and she took a deep breath. She opened her eyes and stared at Sam. Elin looked at her hands and then back to her.

  Sam grumbled, “I will take it off, you are still bound, try anything, anything at all, and I will kill you.” Elin nodded.

  Sam waved her hand over her wrists and the light faded from Elin’s wrists. She rubbed them and pushed herself up off of the floor. She stood there, looking as young as ever. She ran her hands down her body and grinned. Sam rolled her eyes.

  “You tell me what we need to do… now,” Sam said as she gripped her blade.

  ***

  I sat at my vanity and stared at myself. I had a huge sinking feeling. I am being held here. I wanted to run but I didn’t know where I would go. Everything I knew was there. One thing I was certain of, above anything else was that I did not want to be with Johnathan. I didn’t even know if I wanted to be what I was. Maybe that was why I jumped. Maybe I realized how hopeless I felt, stuck in an eternity with someone who I hated and I god, did hate him, I hated his kiss, I hated his brutality.