Tree Of Souls (Transfusion Saga #6) - Stephanie Hudson Page 0,18

that I had caused the fight. Gods, but what if my father really hurt him…surely he wouldn’t go too far…surely he wouldn’t risk my own mother’s life? Because although I hated them both that didn’t mean I wanted either of them hurt by my own doing.

They could suffer with the knowledge of what they had done to me. From the knowledge that they had broken our family apart and hurt those they had deceived. But that was the extent of the pain I wanted them to suffer. Which was why I looked to the library and took a few steps towards it before stopping myself. I did this twice more before crying out in anger, hitting the side of my fist to the wall before running in the opposite direction, ignoring the pain to my hand or to the side of my head. I knew the cuts I had suffered, thanks to the deception of the witch, had already started to heal and it sickened me to know why.

Lucius’ essence was still a part of me.

After this decision was made, I continued running until I got to my father’s garage and stole the keys to the car nearest to the door. After that I had broken every speed limit and thanked whatever luck I had left in my life that I wasn’t pulled over by the cops on the way to the airport. But this wasn’t all I did. As after I had angrily swiped away my tears it then took me all of about two minutes of driving to form the first part of my plan.

Because I needed to disappear. I needed to leave once and for all. I could no longer be a part of that world…my father’s world…the world Lucius belonged to. It pained me to think of my parents splitting up or my father being in the same amount of pain as I was feeling. But then no matter how much I loved Lucius, I knew deep down that for my father it would be worse.

So much worse.

Which was why, after the first part of my plan was out of the way, I knew that I needed to call him. Just the once. I needed to know he was alright before leaving for good. But before that call, first came the one to my father’s pilot. A number that was thankfully still in the history of calls in the car’s fancy system. So, a few taps later and I was making plans with him to take me to London, knowing that his next call would be to my father asking his permission. After that I was relying on only one factor left and that was greed.

Which then meant that I had no time at all before I was pulling the car close to the plane and running on board ready to make a deal with the flight attendant, really hoping that she had a thing for diamonds.

I hated myself for doing it, seeing as it had been a gift from my parents on my twenty first birthday. The necklace was called a Pluie de Cartier and was a collar of twenty-one vertical and horizontal lines of diamonds equating to 27.7 carats. Each line was framed by even more diamonds that were all set in 18K white gold. Naturally, I had only worn it once, being utterly terrified of losing it or damaging it in some way. Or even worse, having it stolen, which was why it had remained at Afterlife with all the other jewellery my family had bought me over the years.

But I told myself that one day I would get it back, no matter how much it would cost me. Even though, knowing my father’s taste, then I would no doubt have to sell my flat to do so! However, it was my only ticket out of here, so I used it to gain my part time identity. So, I took one look at her and sent up a quick thank you to the Gods that she was at the very least a brunette, because if she had been blonde then this might have a been a little harder at the whole convincing thing.

After this I took out the necklace and quickly began to explain, telling her time was of the essence. Of course, she had asked me if it was real, making me tell her,

“Look outside and take a look at what car I just arrived in and you tell me if its