The Blood and Light Series (Six Books Boxed Set)

by Rue Volley

  I looked down at my hands and felt a tingling. I watched as blue started to inch its way across my palm. I turned it and watched it snake around to the top of my hand then I leaned down and let the mist flow into my mouth. I saw a flash of light in the room and I sucked in my breath. I think that I just fed from myself. Was that even possible? Maybe there is a way to die.

  I stood up and walked to my window. I looked out at the clouds and thought of Laurie Anne. I wanted her there with me. I needed company. I turned as I heard my door unlock and a young girl with brown hair walked into my room. I stared at her. She kept her eyes to the floor.

  “Who are you?” I asked her.

  She did not speak to me. I took a step towards her.

  “I asked you who you are,” I said, trying not to sound unkind. She looked up at me and I saw that she looked flushed. I felt her heart beating hard in my ears. I sighed and waved my hand at her.

  “Listen, I want Laurie Anne to come to me, I don’t want you here.”

  The young girl stood her ground. I thought I felt a vibration in my palms and I looked at her. She was bleeding; I could taste it on my tongue. She raised her hands to me and both of her wrists were cut, she was bleeding badly. I flashed to her and gripped her wrists. She kept her eyes towards the floor.

  “What the hell?” I said as I stared at her wrists, she started to stumble and I caught her.

  I tried to help her to my bed. She sat down and started to fall to her side. I could hear her heart beat slowing. I grabbed my sheet and pressed on her wrists, the blood was everywhere. My stomach growled and I pressed on her wrists as hard as I could. I yelled out towards my door.

  “I need help!” I yelled.

  I heard the door open and looked, as a guard came flashing in. He scooped her up and took her from my room. I sat there with blood all over my hands. I raised them in front of me and felt the urge to put my fingers in my mouth. I suddenly stood up and ran to my bathroom. I started to run the water in the sink and placed my hands under the running water. The blood swirled in the white sink and mixed like oil in the water then disappeared down the drain. I looked up into the mirror and saw that my face was swirling in color, blue with a slight trace of silver. I bit my lip and started to splash water on my face. My stomach ached so badly, I bent over and groaned. I continued to try to slow my heartbeat when I heard a voice, the last one I wanted to hear.

  “I was afraid that you would do that.”

  I stood up, gripping the sink. I looked into the mirror and saw dark circles starting to form under my eyes. Johnathan stared back at me in the mirror. I tried to take a breath, but it was staggered. He stepped up behind me and I moved to the right, in a flash, away from him. He tilted his head at me.

  “How long have you refused to feed?” he asked me. I held my stomach and looked up at him. My vision blurred, he looked like two of him… for a second.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” I said, defiant even now.

  He stepped towards me and grinned.

  “Lying will not change the reality of the situation,” Johnathan said calmly.

  I gritted my teeth and looked into his eyes.

  “I hate you,” I muttered, as another strong pain bent me over. I stumbled and almost lost my footing. He laughed at me.

  “Why the hell are you laughing?” I asked him.

  I stumbled again and he grabbed my arm to hold me up. He scooped me up and took me to my bed. He laid me down and I scooted away from him. I swayed a little. I felt dizzy and nauseous… my two favorite things. He started to pace in the room and I tried to watch him, but it made my head swirl.

  “I am simply at a loss with you Rue. I offer you food and you refuse. I offer myself and you refuse. I am beginning to think that you would rather be destroyed, then live forever.”

  I sat rubbing my hands they felt like the blood had left them. I really had no intention of speaking to him, but yet again, my temper was getting the better of me.

  “I don’t understand why you keep me here. No one wants me here but you it seems. You don’t love me, and honestly I don’t know if I love you! So why?” I asked him as I tried to look tough. I know I didn’t though. He stopped in the middle of the room and looked at me.

  “You belong to me,” he said.

  I sat there for a moment and let that sink in. The idea of owning someone had never even crossed my mind. I wanted to jump up and hit him in the mouth for even saying it… how disgusting a thought? I pushed myself up and stood. I had to hold onto the side of the bed to avoid dropping to the floor. The smell of blood had clouded my thinking and my balance. I turned and stared at him.

  “No one owns anyone,” I said. He grinned and took a step forward. “I swear to god, if you hit me. I will slit my throat and my wrists,”

  “You would do that in vain. You cannot bleed out Rue… you would simply bleed. Your blood, as every Protector’s, regenerates quickly,” he said as he sat on my bed and looked up at me.

  “Well, that sucks,” I said. Johnathan laughed, it made me even madder then I already was.

  I decided to try another route, perhaps I could sway him with logic.

  “Listen, I don’t want to mate with you. I don’t know why I feel that ‘love’ is necessary, but I do… I don’t want to ‘own’ you,” I said with no compassion in my voice.

  Johnathan looked at me and then to his hands. I decided to continue, maybe he would hear me… I hoped so anyway.

  “I am not well, surely there is someone here that you would enjoy being with, other than me.”

  Johnathan stood up and waved his hand at me. “We are genetically compatible, we are going to create children together, it is already decided.”

  “Umm, no,” I said, without any thought.

  He flashed towards me and I swayed backward. I thought I would fall, but he wrapped his hand into the small of my back and held me up. I looked away from him. I heard metal slide from his holder on his back and I tried to pull away from him. He leaned into my ear.

  “Please stop fighting me, Rue,” he whispered. I felt a slight tingling in my neck and I tried to shake it off. “We have been so close to mating before, I assure you that you would enjoy my affection, if you would only accept it,” he continued.

  He pushed me onto the bed and I would have struggled, if I had any energy at all. He grabbed my hand and slid the blade across it. I could feel the mist rise from it. I exhaled, it felt like a release. He placed my palm to his mouth and licked it. His breath was hot on my skin. I turned my head away from him and closed my eyes. I could feel my heart flutter.

  He cut his own palm and pressed it against my mouth. I kept my lips pressed together tightly. He reached down and pressed his hand in between my legs and I opened my mouth and gasped. His blood entered my mouth and I felt a rush through me. I arched my back. He pressed against me and held his hand in place over my mouth, he kept his other in between my legs. I moaned under his hand, panic running laps in my mind. He is going to do what he wants with me right here, if I don’t stop him.

  Something flashed in my mind, a face of a boy with dark hair looking at me.

  I didn’t recognize him, but he felt so familiar to me. I tried to focus on him as Johnathan started to take my dress off. I could feel color swirling on my skin, it started to twist and turn. I saw his face again, he was leaning towards me. I wanted him to kiss me… this dark haired boy.

  I inhaled and felt Johnathan bite into my shoulder. I kept my eyes closed tightly and I started to feel a vibration in my whole body. I opened my eyes and my skin was shimmering silver with bright blue swirls of color lifting off of me. I drew in my breath and ran my hand across Johnathan’s back. He had taken off his shirt at some point. I traced my fingers across his skin and lifted them. I watched his color follow my fingers and then absorb into mine. He moaned, not a pleasure moan, but a painful one.

  I started to get flashes of memory, voices echoing so loud in my ears, it made me squeeze my eyes shut. Johnathan trembl
ed on top of me and I pushed him off me. His skin was turning gray, with traces of black, like bruising. I looked at him and at myself in the mirror. I was swirling with color, all of it coming from his body to me. I felt stronger as it kept hitting me and absorbing into my skin. It tasted sweeter than blood, sweeter than honey. I stood up and watched as Johnathan’s image started to go static-like in front of me. I shook my head. It had to be my mind, finally breaking.

  The dark haired boy flashed in my mind again.

  I winced as the pain welled up in my head. I grabbed it and screamed out. A sonic flash swept the room and hit Johnathan, knocking him off my bed. I ran around to the other side and stared down at him. I crinkled my eyebrows as I watched him change in front of me. He went from one image to another, to someone I didn’t recognize. I leaned down and stared at him. His face was changing, right before my eyes. I stood up quickly and ran to my door. I may have killed him. I didn’t know. I thought I was losing my mind. Is this what happened when I jumped...? Was this the beginning of the end? Surely Johnathan did not just change in front of my eyes, and who’s was the face that kept flashing in my mind?

  I turned my doorknob and opened my door quietly, took a peek out and looked in both directions. I saw no one. Perhaps Johnathan had come alone. After all he had intended to um… you know… so I guess he’d wanted privacy. I stepped into the hallway, ready to run. I pressed against the wall and started to hear loud voices in my head. I grabbed at my head and closed my eyes.

  “Stop,” I whispered.

  I opened my eyes as the pain started to fade. I blinked a couple of times and pushed myself away from the wall. I took a step and looked down as the white stone turned black under my foot. I lifted it and watched it slowly fade back to white. I took a breath and started to run as fast as I could. I didn’t know where I was going, but I was going there nonetheless and I had no intention of stopping.

  I ran until I found a door. I waved my hand over it, it rippled like rolling water. I stepped through and stopped dead. There looking back at me were the faces of a hundred Protectors. I panicked and turned around waving my hand again but the door would not open back up to me. I stood there and pressed my hands against my legs. I was still in my bra and underwear, I hadn’t even noticed until that moment.

  “Awesome,” I muttered.

  I heard a voice behind me and didn’t want to turn around. How the hell was I gonna explain myself?

  “Rue Valon.”

  I stood there and another flash went through my mind. I grabbed at my head and moaned. I squeezed my temples and leaned forward.

  “What are you doing in here?” the voice asked me.

  I gritted my teeth as waves of pain went through me. I blinked as my vision started to blur. I decided to turn around and deal with whatever I had coming to me. I turned to see a girl standing in front of me. I didn’t realize that she was so close. I straightened up and grinned.

  “I am taking a walk,” I said, completely illogical.

  The girl smiled at me. I didn’t smile back. I was fighting the urge to hurl all over her. I reached up and wiped sweat from my head. Johnathan walked through the door behind me and I closed my eyes. The girl in front of me looked at him and he stepped next to me.

  “I apologize for her intrusion Sophia,” he said to her. I sighed.

  “Take her back to her room and try to keep her clothed Johnathan,” Sophia said as she waved her hand and started to turn away from us. I stepped forward and guards came at me in a flash, blocking my view of her.

  “I would like to talk to you,” I said. Sophia stopped walking and turned around. Johnathan stepped up to me and grabbed my arm. I pulled away from him.

  “I need to talk to you now,” I said as I tried to step towards her. A guard bound me with a wave of her hand and I fell to the stone floor.

  “I would suggest that you return to your room with Johnathan, he is the only council you need,” Sophia said.

  I tried to lift my hands to her and then at Johnathan. “I don’t know who he is!” I said.

  Johnathan flashed to me. I felt a swell of energy and he flew away from me. The guards surrounded me and Sophia walked towards me slowly. She tilted her head and stared at me and then to Johnathan.

  “Your fall has confused you. I would have hoped that you would feel better now, but obviously you do not,” she said as she flashed her gaze back at me.

  “I am not confused. I need to tell you that he changed, right in front of me,” I said, knowing that I sounded crazy. Sophia stepped towards me.

  “Changed?” she asked me.

  “Yes,” I whispered as I peeked towards him.

  I must have knocked him against the wall pretty hard, because he still laid there motionless. She hesitated for a moment and I thought that she was going to have me dragged back to my room, but then she turned to all the Protectors in the room and waved a hand at them. I watched as they all started to leave quickly. I looked up at her, and she stood there looking back at me, with her head tilted. I tried to look convincing, well, as convincing as I could in my underwear. I grinned and a pain went through my head, it rocked me on my side. Sophia flashed to me and placed her hand on my head. She quickly took her hand away, with her eyes wide.

  “You have a glamour on you,” she whispered. I looked up at her and blinked my eyes.

  “A what?” I muttered.

  She grabbed my arm and jerked me up to my feet. I swayed a little. Sophia leaned over to her guard and the guard flashed to Johnathan and put a binding on him. I felt my stomach churn and before I knew it I hurled all over the front of her dress. She backed away from me quickly and I dropped to the floor. I looked up at her and grinned.

  “I’m sorry about that,” I muttered to her. I guess she didn’t think it was funny.

  A guard grabbed me and dragged me across the floor following her. She waved her hand and I had to stand there, in my underwear, until she came back out a few minutes later with a different dress on. I tried to tell her that I was sorry again, but she didn’t look at me. She started to walk to another door and she opened it up. We climbed stair after stair until we reached an oval room with a large floating mirror in the middle. I stared at it and a white flash went through my mind.

  Have I been here before?

  The guard dragged me across the floor and dropped me down, a few feet from the strange mirror. I rolled onto my side, as the pain in my head started to consume me. She waved her hand and the mirror started to lower. I stared at it, wondering what the hell she was doing. She turned to me and grinned.

  “We will find out what is going on,” she said. I didn’t like it, not one bit.

  The guard picked me up and placed me in front of the mirror. He turned me around to face him and pressed his hand against my chest. A flash welled up and I flew backwards, like a magnet, into the mirror. As soon as I hit it I was locked into place. I felt like the blood was being pulled from me. I sucked in my breath and the mirror started to rise. It tilted forward and I looked down at a rolling mass of black water. My heart fluttered and Sophia smiled at me.

  “It seems that you do feel,” she said to me.

  “Of course I feel… why wouldn’t I?” I asked her.

  She waved a hand at the guard and he left the room, closing the door behind him. It shut with a nasty echo in the room. I blinked from the noise. My breathing started to become staggered, I felt like my body was heating up. Sweat rolled from my forehead and into my eye. It burned and I closed one eye, trying to keep my focus on her.

  “What the hell is this?” I asked her.

  “You are not the one asking the questions here Rue, I am,” she said as she stared at me.

  I suddenly was so happy that I hurled on her, wish it had been more.

  “Listen, I know that I hurled on you, but it was an accident… I swear,” I said… totally lying.

  She tilted her head again. I looked at her and raised my eyebrows; I hoped the lie would stick.

  “What is
‘hurled’?” she asked me.

  “Umm, you know, I threw up on you. I’m sorry about your dress,” I said as I looked down at the water. Sophia laughed.

  “You think that I brought you here because you spewed bile on me?” she asked. I fake laughed with her and she stopped laughing just as quickly as she started.

  I sighed. I’m screwed, I think.

  “You have such a curious way of speaking, makes me wonder if it is your insanity or something else,” she said.

  I cleared my throat, it felt like it was on fire; I needed a drink… of anything. She flashed to the edge of the circle and stared at me.

  “You said that Johnathan changed. What do you mean?” she said.

  I looked up at her. “You know, his face… it changed, from his to someone else,” I said.

  She raised one eyebrow. I didn’t know what that meant. She then closed her eyes and the mirror under me started to vibrate, at first it tickled and I tried to laugh, it sounded funny and a flash went through my mind.

  A funny looking gold cherub materialized behind my eyes.

  I bit my lip and shook my head. I started to hear voices welling up in my head and I screamed out and threw my head back. I took a breath and it hurt my chest then I opened my eyes and Sophia stood there, staring at me.

  “Tell me what you saw,” she asked me.

  “Some little fat gold child,” I muttered. She tilted her head.

  “I did not see it,” she said.

  I looked at her. “What are you doing? Trying to get in my head? Be my guest, it’s a party in here,” I said as I grinned.

  She didn’t grin. “Your personality seems to be changing,” she said to me.

  My head flew back against the mirror and a sharp pain went through my head. Colors were swirling behind my eyes. I saw that boy again. I opened my eyes and heard his voice. I shook my head. I looked at Sophia.

  “I think I know you,” I muttered.

  She looked at me, and flashed towards me. “You know me?” she asked.