The Blood and Light Series (Six Books Boxed Set)

by Rue Volley

  Caine raised his hand to her.

  “It is such a fine line between love and hate… I simply step over it every day,” he said to her.

  “So… I can go?” she asked him. Caine looked at her.

  “Call it sentimental… I’m having a moment, Elin, take advantage of it… Run back to your new friends and let them know that I am here. Tell Joshua Barrington that I will kill him quickly.”

  Elin flashed from the tent and back to her car. She gripped the wheel and screamed out as she hit it. She looked into the mirror and noticed a wrinkle by her eye. She pulled on it and backed out quickly, kicking up dirt and rocks in the process. Jonah stepped up and watched her car leave. He looked back at Caine’s tent and flashed to it. He barged in and Caine looked up at him.

  “Did you eat?” he asked Jonah.

  Jonah wiped his lip and looked at the blood on the back of his hand.

  “No… I just killed him,” Jonah said.

  “Pity,” Caine said as he stood up.

  “The girl who drove away… you knew her?” Jonah asked. Caine glanced at him.

  “Yes… she came to kill me, or attempt it anyway,” he said, waving his hand as he picked up the black leather book. Jonah looked at the book and back to him.

  “Why did you let her go then?” he asked.

  Caine looked at him and laughed.

  “You came in here to see if she had killed me, Jonah. Don’t doubt that I know that you would rather I be dead than here.”

  Jonah cleared his throat and bowed to him.

  “I would never,” he muttered.

  Caine walked past him and placed the book in a chest. He held his hand over the lock and his palm glowed brightly. The lock looked as if the metal fused the lock closed. Jonah looked away as Caine turned to him.

  “You know,” Caine said as he walked up to him and leaned in his ear. “I don’t care that you are a cannibal… or even that you fornicate with your sister, but I will not tolerate disloyalty.”

  Jonah looked up at him and Caine grinned and walked out of the tent.

  ***

  So... bubble bath. How sweet. I leaned back in the hot water and touched my chest; there was a faded white scar from where the blade had been jammed into it. I closed my eyes, sighed and sank down. I reached up and touched my ravens right under my shoulder. I watched as a slight glow came from my fingertips. It made my hair stand up a little. I grinned when I thought about badass Josh running from me in the living room… screaming like a girl. I can’t believe that he hates to be shocked. Of all freakin things… he’s a protector for crap sake, we are the masters of shocking stuff, right?

  I laughed and shook my head, lowered my head into the water and let my hair get wet. I rose up and grabbed my shampoo. I had to clean yet another disturbing memory off. I was not going to cut my hair this time. I guessed it didn’t matter if I did anyway; I could make it grow right back.

  I thought about Sara standing there in that tiny little skirt and bit my lip. What the fudge? I have to have a girl day with her… got to. I loved her to death, but if she ever gave Josh the eye again, I might have to punch her in the stomach.

  I dunked my head under the water again and opened my eyes when I heard a whisper under the water. I looked around and started to sit up. I couldn’t, the surface of the water was clear, but I could feel an invisible barrier between me and getting back to the air. Instead of going into panic mode, which would have been totally me a year ago… I rolled over and saw that I could swim downward. I kicked my legs, until the water changed from clear to bright blue. I heard the whisper again and looked up. I could see the sun shining overhead so I kicked with everything that I had, and broke the surface.

  I looked around and realized that I was on the outskirts of Valon. I spat water out and started to swim towards the shore. I froze when I saw Sophia standing at the edge of the water. I looked around and saw that no one was with her. She grinned at me. Shit… no, no… oh hell no. She held her hand out and a black book was in it. I shook my head at her.

  “Come to shore, Rue Valon,” she said to me. I shook my head again.

  “You have got to be kidding me, right?” I asked her, as I treaded water.

  She held out her blades and threw them into the water. I watched the splash and was half tempted to dive under the water and retrieve them… so I could stab her in her black heart.

  She smiled at me. I kicked there in one spot, just knowing that we were at an impasse. I swam forward when my legs started to cramp up. I felt sand under my feet and started to rise up out of the water. Once again I was completely under dressed… well… not dressed at all. I was considering giving up the getting dressed thing all together. I looked at her as I tried to cover myself. She grinned.

  “Could you turn around or something? You’re creeping me out,” I said to her.

  “I have clothes for you,” she said, as she knelt down and grabbed white leather from the ground and held it out to me.

  I looked at them and wondered if, as soon as I touched them, there would be some crash of thunder and I would be knocked unconscious. I decided to grab them and I sighed when nothing happened, pulled on the pants first while she watched me. I cleared my throat and looked at her. She turned as she smirked.

  “Modesty is a human trait,” she said to me. I laughed.

  “Yea, I find myself just hanging on to those ‘human’ things,” I said.

  She turned to me as I pulled the top over my head.

  I looked at the front and saw the tree embossed on the front of my leather.

  “Oh,” I said.

  She looked at it and then to my face.

  “It is all I had.” she said.

  “Okay,” I said as I rung my hair out. “So, you are going to try to kill me right?” I asked her.

  She laughed. I tried to smile.

  “Well, why else would you grab me from the tub?” I asked her.

  I was not playing around with her… I thought it was time to get to the point.

  “Yes… I did. I pulled you through the water.” she said without emotion.

  I stood up straight.

  “Well, I am guessing that you don’t want to kill me, so what’s the deal?”

  “You would be dead if I wanted it to be so,” she said. I looked at her and grinned.

  “Awesome,” I said. Sophia tilted her head.

  “You have such a curious way of speaking,” she said. I put my hands on my hips.

  “Is this memory?” I asked her, as I looked around. She grinned.

  “No it is not… we are on the outskirts of Valon,” she said to me.

  “Aren’t you afraid that I will just freak out and try to kill you?” I asked her.

  Sophia started to walk away from me, which, in my opinion, was a rude thing to do to someone who just threatened you. I started to walk, just knowing that she was probably the only way that I was going to get out of here alive. I walked up next to her and looked her way. She smiled.

  “You cannot kill me, Rue,” she said. I shook my head.

  “Probably not… but really, what is the deal here? What do you want from me?” I asked her.

  She stopped at the edge of the woods and looked into it. I looked too. There was a house sitting there, looking abandoned. I turned to her.

  “Whose house is that?” I asked her.

  “It is Joshua’s house, Rue.”

  I leaned in and grinned. He had no grass really. I looked at her.

  “Of course it is, look at his yard.”

  She looked, but I don’t think that she got the joke. We started to walk towards it then stepped up to the door and Sophia opened it up. It was dark inside and she held her hand out and waved it over the floating orb to her right. The room lit up. I looked around at a room that wasn’t overstuffed, except for a large couch and three chairs. There was a large fireplace, with long swords hanging on the wall over it. I looked up and saw that he had a bed in a loft. I wanted to go up there, but Sophia
stepped forward and walked through the room.

  She opened a door up and waved her hand. The floating orb lit up that room too. I looked around at thousands of books, some stacked, some on shelves… everything that you could possible imagine. I walked towards the large desk, with a huge black leather chair behind it and touched the leather. I ran my hands across it and closed my eyes. I opened them, to find Sophia staring at me. I took my hand off of the chair and grinned at her.

  “Okay, so what do you want?” I asked her.

  She walked towards me, it was the first time since I saw her on the shore, that I felt like I might be in danger. She held her hands in front of her. I stared at them waiting for some flashy light thing to happen, it didn’t and I felt my heart beat slowing down in my chest.

  “I know that it was none other than my son who brought you here,” she said to me.

  I looked into her face. I swear that I saw a glimmer of sadness… it quickly disappeared.

  “Yes, it was Caine who dragged me here. I have not seen him since I went home,” I said as I sat down in the chair.

  I adjusted myself. My feet didn’t touch the floor. I looked down at my toes. Sophia stepped up to the other side of the desk. I looked up at her and leaned back, like I was in charge. I’m not, but it’s fun to pretend I guess.

  “I would ask that you help me retrieve him,” she said, almost too low for me to hear her.

  I sat up and looked at her, as I placed my hands on the desk.

  “What?” I asked her. Sophia leaned forward.

  “He has finally convinced me that he is a danger,” she said as she turned. I stood up.

  “You are kidding me? Really? What tipped you off? The war, or wait, abducting me and looking like Johnathan? Or maybe the fact that he is just all around a douchebag?”

  Sophia turned to me. “What is that?”

  I smiled. “A douchebag is a just someone who sucks… really bad.”

  “Okay... well yes, he is ‘sucking’ then,” she said as she stepped to the window.

  I looked at her long hair flowing down her back and her jaw line. She was such pretty girl. I guess I was getting used to everyone looking like they just got out of high school, a bunch of pretty killing machines… weird. I looked at my hands and she turned around.

  “Well… it is imperative that he not be allowed to do what he wishes,” she said. I stared at her.

  “What is that exactly?” I asked her.

  “Why, don’t you know?” she asked. I shook my head at her.

  “I couldn’t even begin to guess what he is up to. I don’t hang out with assholes like him.”

  “Well... Rue, you need to understand that Caine has a need for power. He has always thirsted for it and he has a way of inciting hatred and unrest, it is his gift unfortunately.”

  She turned from the window and looked at me.

  “You know that your Mother loved him,” she said to me.

  That felt like a hot blade right in the wrong place. I stepped back from her.

  “She did not,” I muttered to her.

  “Oh, but she did, I loved your Father and Grace was enamored with Caine.”

  “I don’t... I’m not hearing you,” I said as I stepped back to the chair and held onto the side of it.

  “Is there something wrong with your hearing?” she asked me. I sighed and looked up at her. “No… I mean I don’t want to hear this stuff. I’m sorry, I just don’t like drama.”

  She went on like I never even said it.

  “It is true… I loved William, I did. Caine knew that. Grace was seen as a threat to my happiness by him and he pursued her, relentlessly.”

  “Oh my god,” I said as I put my fingers up to my ears and started to sing. “LALALALALA”

  She looked at me strange… well of course she did.

  “Why are you doing that?” she asked me. I stopped and looked at her.

  “I don’t want to hear it,” I said again, hoping to nail my point home, but no.

  She started to talk again.

  “Wait a minute,” I said to her. “Caine was born after you and my Dad broke up?” I said.

  She tilted her head at me.

  “Broke up?” she asked.

  “You know… dumped, not together anymore,” I said to her.

  “Oh… well, yes. I will not lie, my heart ached for William,” she said as she looked at me.

  I held up my hands.

  “Okay, listen… he is my, or I mean ‘was’ my Dad. I don’t need romantic details, it grosses me out,” I said, as I squinted my eyes.

  “Well… Grace stole him from me. I never forgave her for that.”

  “Uh huh,” I said as I started to move towards the door. She stared at me and didn’t move.

  “I am not feeling this,” I said to her.

  “Caine may be William’s son, Rue,” she said.

  “Okay… so you think that William might be his Dad then. Did you get a paternity test?” I asked, before I realized how daytime drama show that sounded.

  She looked at me. I knew I stumped her. I guess the very idea of my Dad being Caine’s father wasn’t even going to register with me. I was not going to panic.

  “William is not your Father, Rue. Creating children in our race is normally done between two protectors, not like it would be with humans though. Grace invoked the creator to draw you forth.”

  “Okay… listen I have accepted a lot of crazy. I don’t think I can buy this,” I said.

  “Grace conjured you, on her own,” she said as she leaned back in the chair.

  “I am not an ‘immaculate conception’,” I said to her as I quoted it in the air with my fingers.

  I guess that registered with her, maybe she had studied religion.

  “She birthed you as a human would, it has never been done with our people.”

  “Wait,” I said, as I stood up and started to pace back and forth.

  “So… my Mom just had me? No help from my Dad?” I said.

  Sophia grinned. “I am glad that you understand.”

  “No… I don’t understand. I am just getting your drift, so what am I?” I asked her.

  Sophia stood up and laid the black leather book on the table. I looked down at it.

  It looked identical to the one Theodore had.

  “That is one of the nine books,” I said to her.

  She smiled as she opened it. I saw nothing on the pages but she leaned over it like she could read it. I looked up at her.

  “You pulled me here with that book didn’t you?” I said. She grinned and turned the pages.

  I leaned forward. I have been sucked into drama… again… freakin awesome.

  “What am I?” I asked her again.

  “You are a miracle,” she said.

  I stepped away from her and held up my hand.

  “I am just an eighteen year old who recently found out that I have this weirdness in me, I am not a miracle,” I said as I walked towards the door.

  “Oh, but you are… and you seem to be the only thing that Caine desires, other than Valon, or something similar to it.”

  “So,” I said, as I stopped and looked at my hands.

  “He wants to have a child with me then?” I asked her.

  Sophia stepped up behind me and placed her hand on my shoulder.

  “It seems to be. I ask that you lead him here,” she said. I turned to her.

  “What, like into a trap?” I asked her.

  “Yes… exactly.”

  I rolled my eyes. She watched me and I knew she didn’t know what it meant to do that.

  “Are you okay?” she asked me. I sighed.

  “No… I’m bait.”

  I stepped out onto the porch of Josh’s house and stared into the forest. I saw a flash and stepped back, almost knocking into Sophia. Sam came to a dead stop… her hair was dripping wet and her eyes looked crazy. I kept Sophia behind me. Sam gripped her blades in her hand and tilted her head at us.

  “Rue?”
she asked me. I held up my hand and waved… giving her a weird grin.

  I really have to stop being so awkward in awful situations. I glanced at Sophia.

  “Let me handle this,” I said in a whisper.

  I stepped down and looked at her.

  “Sophia brought me here and she wants my help,” I said.

  Sam looked past me, to her, and pointed her blade at her.

  “You stay where you are or I will run my blade through you, Sophia,” Sam said, with anger in her voice. Sam leaned up to me.

  “You are okay?” she said. I nodded.

  “I’m fine really, she just asked for help, Sam.”

  Sam laughed and grabbed my arm. She flashed so quickly that my feet barely touched the ground. She jumped into the water gripping my hand; we sunk under and I kicked my legs until I saw a faint light above me. Sam still gripped my hand. I saw an arm in the water and she grabbed it. We shot up, the water sprayed the entire bathroom and we landed in the middle of my bedroom floor. Josh stood there with his hands glowing like fire. He hurled the light at my bathtub and the porcelain shattered.

  I rolled over and spit what little water I had in my mouth out. I stood up and Sam sat there staring up at me. Josh flashed in and placed his hand on my face. He looked down at my leather battle gear and took a step back as he stared at the tree on my chest. He shot a look a Sam. She held up her hands and shook her head. I stepped towards my tub and shook my head, as I glanced back at Josh.

  “Well thank you for slaying my evil tub,” I said to him.

  He flashed up behind me and grabbed my arm; he swung me around.

  “What happened?” he asked me. I pulled my arm from his hand.

  “Oh my god Josh… calm down. I went under the water to wash my hair and I heard a voice. I ended up in the lake, outside of Valon.”

  “Oh okay… is that all!” he asked me, as he flashed to his room.

  I heard the porcelain shatter in there too. I flashed to his bathroom as he flashed by me, heading for Kai’s room. I made it there just in time to see him slay that tub too. I placed my hands on my hips and stared at him.

  “Do I look like I got hurt?” I asked him.

  He picked me up and flashed to the couch. He sat me down and looked at me.

  “Okay… are you ready to talk yet?” I asked him.