Bloodfire (Blood Destiny 1) - Helen Harper Page 0,88

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