Bloodline Alchemy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 6)

by Lan Chan

  Andrei didn’t seem to appreciate the celestial beauty of them. As my blade dematerialised and returned to me by the invisible leash that I’d set on it with magic, Andrei darted from the right, leaped into the air, and landed on the malachim’s back. Holding his own blood blade in a downward grip, he sliced into the juncture of the malachim’s left wing. It gave an unrepentant scream as Andrei took its wing completely off.

  And then, in true Andrei fashion these days, his fangs shot out and he bit the malachim in the neck.

  “Run!” I screamed at the kids. Whether or not they did as they were told escaped me. My focus was directed elsewhere.

  I had half a second to draw a circle around Andrei as another malachim struck. Its power slammed into me like a battering ram. Without blood, my magic circles were mid-range at best. Right now, all of my blood was concentrated on keeping the blades operational.

  Another malachim came at me from the left, its white eyes pinned to my face in a frighteningly intimate stare. Trying desperately to clear my thoughts of anything it could use against me was futile. My life was fuelled by fear these days, and the chief cause of it manifested in front of me.

  White eyes bled into forest green at the same time black wings morphed into blistering white. The malachim pretended to fall to its knees as its hollow face smoothed out into tanned skin and sculpted muscle. Ice frosted the grass, the air becoming thick with cooling moisture. Overhead, a cavern appeared. Icicles dripped onto Kai’s bare shoulders and down the chains with which he had been shackled. Smoke wafted from his skin as the Hell dimension sucked out his life-force.

  Shaking my head, I bit my tongue and tasted metal. Not real. Not real. Kai screamed. The absolute agony of it burrowed into my soul. It reduced me to tears despite logic shouting at me that this was just an illusion. Sucking in a freezing breath, I whispered words of light, raised my monumentally heavy arm, and threw the blade right at his throat.

  With my eyes blurry, I tossed the other one too for good measure. Swiping the tears away, I saw the first blade being swatted away by another malachim. Hastily, I called it back and rolled just as the malachim’s claws came dangerously close to the side of my face. Eating grass, I held out my palm as the blade appeared. My head spun but I wasn’t sure if it was from physical or magical exertion.

  There was no time to dwell. A dark patch of fog appeared above me. My arm whipped up, the blade held aloft as a malachim stomped its foot down. As it impaled itself on the blade, I let go and dragged myself out from underneath the monster. It wasn’t until I was a fraction of an inch out of the danger zone that I realised that had been too easy. The reason why clamped itself around my right leg. The malachim that had helped me squirm away now dragged me across the grass.

  A squeak escaped me as I called forth both blades. Nothing happened. My head swivelled in panic, trying to find the blades amongst the rabble. My palms burned where the magic was bracing against the counterbalancing demonic energy the malachim were directing into the blades. The one who had stomped on me yanked the blade from its foot and wrapped it in an enormous black paw. As it crushed, a phantom heat drew up my arm and shot straight into the chamber of my pools of magic. When it was unmade the blade’s remaining power returned to me.

  In the near distance, a baby leopard growled. The muffled nature of it made it hard to tell if it was a challenge or a plea. Sigh. If I couldn’t convince them to run in the midst of a demon attack, how in the world would I command them if I were their alpha’s mate?

  The ridiculous notion took up too much of my headspace. “Sophie!” Andrei shouted. Scuttling backwards, I threw the last of my energy into a protection circle that had only just completed when the claws of the malachim sliced the air in front of my nose. It was so close I felt the displacement of air. Pain licked my right cheek before the claws caught on the circle. I doubled backwards for good measure.

  Something punched me in the chest. I clutched at it and drew my attention inwards to see the pool of kitchen magic ebbing almost on empty. Shit!

  By now, my wrists were two hot patches of skin. I fought hard to hold on to magic that a low witch like me shouldn’t have been able to contain. Andrei raced before my eyes, his blood blade beginning to erode. Part of its tip had broken off and its effect on the malachim lessened. Only one in three hits was catching the malachim in solid flesh.

  “Go!” I yelled at him. His lips pulled back to reveal black-soaked fangs. Once upon a time, I would have rolled my eyes and considered him an idiot. But for too long now, he’d watched my back because of his own code of transferred loyalty. He’d protect me because of Lex, or he’d die in the process. I was afraid the process was going to win. My heart lurched as the malachim slashed him across the chest. Andrei snapped his fangs, blood spraying from the wound.

  It happened in slow motion, though it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds. Time stilled as a malachim appeared in front of me, its enormous wingspan blocking Andrei from my sight. It held my blood blade aloft on a hand that phased between this dimension and another. Drawing out a single, silver spine from its metaphysical body, the malachim pointed the tip of its weapon at the blade.

  I held my breath as it slammed the weapon down. Unbearable pain burst in my mind as the blood blade shattered. My mouth opened in a silent scream that somehow came out in the thunderous roar of a lion.

  Andrei staggered backwards and fell into a wobbly crouch. His head turned down, chest heaving as he tried to find balance. To my horror, the black fire surrounding the clearing expanded. It spat embers as it moved in a line towards the alleyway leading to the Reserve. My eyes watered as the stench of brimstone clotted my nostrils. It settled into the back of my throat, making me cough. That only served to somehow drag the scent of the Hell dimension into my lungs.

  I took in a ragged breath, trying to clear my head. Instead, the tendril of brimstone brushed up against a chamber of magic that I kept locked away. The sweep of Hell acted like a key, busting open the door to my alchemy and the secret that I’d locked away in there ever since Lex had sent me her final message.

  Before my eyes, the black fire gave birth to another swarm of malachim. They emerged from the air like someone had blown a breath at a dandelion puff. I should have run. That was the exact message Andrei was throwing at me from where he was trying to push himself up. Even though this many malachim must be draining him to the point of exhaustion. They blotted out the morning sun completely. Andrei tried to crawl in my direction. Usually, his movements were a blur of supernatural speed. Right now, he was like a toddler wading through a pool, tripping over himself and cursing.

  There were too many. Even half of them were too many.

  The malachim closest to me opened its wings. For a moment, it stood against the backdrop of darkness. Its white eyes swirled, and I couldn’t drag my attention away. Something silvery grey streaked across its vision. Had I not been mesmerised by it, I would have missed the thing entirely. The malachim’s cheek twitched and I could swear that I saw its jaw clench. Almost as though it was biting its own tongue in resistance. Its chest convulsed. And then just like that, the expression evened out and its eyes cleared. I had less than a second to make a decision.

  The pool of secondary magic inside me parted to furnish me with a tendril of power I should never have possessed. From the front pocket of my jeans, I retrieved a vial containing a few drops of the most powerful blood in the world. Lex’s blood. Lucifer’s power by extension.

  Placing a tiny drop in the centre of each palm, I bit my finger until I bled and smeared the blood against each other. Just as the malachim surged towards us, I slapped my hands together and spat out the words of light.

  The world around me became a tundra of lightning as my alchemy grabbed hold of Lex’s blood in an attempt to transmute it into my own power. How she managed to contain the power for so long was beyond me. I watched as pink light presumed to ingest the silvery black of her bone magic.

  Every nerve, every fibre in m
y body burned. A single drop of blood and it felt as though a hundred thousand spikes were being drilled into my brain. And like every other attempt I’d made to tame her blood, it was completely misguided. The bone magic threw off my alchemy like a duck shaking water off its back. If magic had an emotional range, pissed-off would be the way I would catalogue the cold vibration of Lex’s blood before it lashed out and the world exploded around me.

  5

  Crude. That was how I would explain the magical bomb I’d just tried to set off. Knowing exactly how my last-ditch attempt would go, I used my remaining strength to throw up a protection circle around Andrei. I prayed that Lex’s magic wouldn’t engulf us in its wake. The resulting blast as my alchemy stuttered had me cowering on the ground. It stampeded through the clearing, tearing into the malachim closest to us. Every muscle in my body squeezed tight. A keen of fear ripped from my throat as the shockwave of the explosion rolled over me. The magic scraped at my skin like sandpaper, rubbing it raw.

  But it was inside where the damage was done. Though it spared my life, Lex’s magic dragged my sight into the Ley dimension. I blinked and my aura flashed in front of my eyes. The soft pink glow was now laced through with streaks of dull brown and red. It was like a pink eyeball with irritated capillaries throbbing all around it. My heart almost jumped out of my chest when I followed the lines of disease down to where it should have been held securely in place to the soul tether. This line was also poisoned by threads of darkness. The mass led to an origin that was blurred, and I didn’t have the magic to force it to show me where the thread would lead.

  It had started with a single tendril that compounded into many strands each time I attempted to use my blood alchemy to contain Lex’s magic. Now, almost a quarter of the thread had turned an ugly, dead colour. Thick as I might be, even I knew that I was warping the light of my magic. For some reason, the voice that cautioned me belonged to an old man. My great-grandfather.

  Every step you take is in the wrong direction, Sophie.

  And yet, I couldn’t stop. Unless I found a way to overcome Lex’s power, there would be no hope against Lucifer when he came.

  Hope was the furthest thing from my mind as the ringing in my ears subsided. The first thing I heard was the low, scratchy sounds of the malachim. Dammit. I would never be strong enough.

  I pushed myself up only for my limbs to give way. For a second, I allowed myself to just lie there, soaking in the lush, magically enhanced grass. Over to my right, I heard Andrei attempting to do the same. Biting my lips together to stop from groaning, I put my hand on the ground and pushed again. Sit up. That was my only goal. No need to be a hero.

  Then I saw what we were up against. The magical blast I had set off had killed all but three of the malachim. The problem was, there were plenty more where they came from. It was like cutting the heads of a hydra demon. Cut off one head, two more grew in its place.

  The black fires licked at the earth once more. Andrei began to drag himself towards me in earnest. I shook my head at him as another malachim appeared in the sky. There was no time. They were already too many. At this point, they were just playing with us.

  “Go!” I mouthed at him.

  The pitiful sound brought the attention of the malachim towards me. That was okay. If my death could buy Andrei some time to run, I had to be happy with that. The malachim in front of me pointed a finger in my direction. I had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but the way all the hairs on the back of my neck stood up was pretty telling. Fisting my hands, I shot a burst of alchemy into the words of light at my wrist. A thin blood blade appeared in my hand.

  Swiping at my nose, I swallowed hard as the mirage manifested through the fog of the malachim’s ethereal bodies. A lion roared again. I dropped the blade.

  The air in the clearing vibrated with the power of a rolling storm. The sound was so deep, so frightening and full of rage, it blasted through my nerves and froze me in place. Something primordial inside me rose to the surface, and my fight and flight instincts disintegrated. Resisting the urge to cover my ears almost gave me a nosebleed. The sound was deafening, so loud it blocked out the return screech from the malachim as they rose to the challenge.

  Above the pool of almost-depleted magic, the thread of the mating link hummed. It made sense that this illusion resonated in every cell in my body. That didn’t mean it was in any way comfortable.

  I held my breath as the half-man, half-lion that was Max’s beast form stalked into view. My gut bottomed out as a hundred nightmares came to screaming life. And yet, I drank up every inch of him, a feeling of...relief flooding through me. Like every second of these past six months had been winding me tighter to the point of explosion.

  His bare chest was covered in a thick matting of golden hair interlaced with blue and pink streaks. Veins throbbed and popped from the straining muscles in his arms. But it was his eyes that held me captivated. Molten gold surrounding a pulsing centre of red that radiated menace.

  My muscles turned to liquid, causing me to slump down on the grass. I held a palm to my chest, trying to ease the pain that suddenly gripped me. Too real. This was too real. My nightmares didn’t compare to the power of the malachim. At least in my dreams, the visions had been softened by my subconscious trying to protect me.

  This thing the malachim had conjured up was not blurred by sleep. The image was sharpened by the continued sound of a growl rattling in his chest, and stark hunger in his eyes as they locked on me.

  Just like in my nightmares, my body wouldn’t cooperate when the malachim mounted their attack. Silver spines the length of an angel blade appeared in the grip of the remaining malachim. They surged forwards, their gargled cries laced with anticipatory glee. I screamed for real this time. Every piece of anguish that I’d held trapped inside me for months at the thought of Max dying escaped in a shrill alarm that had his head snapping up.

  Everything slowed in direct opposition to the unrepentant beat of my heart in my throat. The malachim on Max’s left raised its arm. The silver spine sliced through the air so quickly it was a blur. I waited for it, knowing what would happen next but unprepared at the same time.

  And then something worse occurred. Max’s arm whipped out, snagging the malachim by the throat even though it wasn’t corporeal. His touch turned its foggy body to flesh. The malachim gave an unearthly moan. Its other arm tried to gouge a hole in Max’s chest. He blocked it with his free arm, eyes never leaving my face. His lips pulled back into a predatory grin at the same time his clawed hands crushed.

  The snapping of bone and tearing of flesh reverberated through my ears like the death knell of a cathedral bell.

  Real. Actually real. No.

  Max snapped the malachim’s neck in the time it took me to blink. The impossibility of it didn’t even occur to me because all I could think was that I needed to run. Andrei had the same idea. Staggering to his feet as the remaining malachim converged on Max, Andrei attempted to reach me. I held out my arm, ready to grab his hand and teleport, when something slammed into his side and pushed him away. A flash of white-blonde hair sailed across my vision before something grabbed me by the upper arm and dragged me backwards. I struggled in the vise grip of the amber-eyed shifter who held me like a rag doll. In human form, I didn’t recognise him. There had been news that the Reserve was populated by shifters from many of the outlying packs, but I hadn’t let myself dwell on that possibility.

  “Let go!” I pleaded.

  The shifter didn’t say a word. Neither did he loosen his grip. Kicking out, I tried to hammer my foot into his thigh. I knew I had given my leg the command to kick but all that happened was it moved a little. I was completely tapped out. A flash of white teeth was all I got in response. The shifter pulled me well away from the perimeter of danger.

  Andrei’s vampiric snarl dragged my attention towards him in time to watch the Blonde Shifter plant her fist in his face. Normally he could have taken a hit like and come back for much more. But prolonge
d contact with the malachim had taken its toll. Andrei’s head snapped to the side and his eyes rolled back in his head.

  “Search him,” the Blonde Shifter ordered.

  “Leave him alone!” I shouted. Even though it was useless, I struggled against my captor. The Blonde Shifter’s ice-blue eyes skewered me. Where the malachim looked at me with a general kind of malice, the way her eyes narrowed and her nose scrunched as she peered at me was distinctly personal. I tried not to take it as such. After what I’d done, most of the shifters should despise me.

  “If she keeps bleating, knock her out,” Blonde Shifter spat.

  The vehemence in it stopped me cold. All around us, bright bursts of gold bloomed in the sky as Nephilim and First Order mages finally arrived. They clashed with the malachim. The mages crouched down in the grass to reinforce the Angelical wards that would throw the malachim back into the chasm from which they had arrived.

  Seeing that Max was no longer in immediate danger, I continued bleating. “Can you please at least let me see if my friend is hurt?” I asked the shifter holding me.

  “I don’t take orders from you,” was the curt reply. Orders? Where in the world had that come from?

  “Please?”

  He shook me. Hard enough that it rattled my teeth. “You heard what she said. One more word and you’ll be taking a little sleep.”

  Dumbfounded, I stared into his now deep-set brown eyes. Looking back at me was a creature devoid of any sympathy. My mouth opened, and the pressure of his hand on my arms cinched tighter. There was no doubt that if I disobeyed, he would carry out his threat. Part of me wanted to snap my teeth around his nose and tear it off his face just to see how he would react. That fantasy was shoved down by the logic that always held me in check. What would be the point in antagonising him further?