Blood Ties Book Three: Ashes To Ashes

She nodded. “I am fine. I am sore all over for some reason, but I am fine.”

“Well, after you blacked out, we all took turns kicking the shit out of you.” He smiled weakly. “Do you remember what happened?”

She shook her head vehemently, then winced and rubbed her neck. “The last thing I remember, I was looking into my scrying bowl, and I was starting to get a picture. Then I woke up here. I had the most terrible dream.”

“Do you remember what it was about?” He briefly considered grabbing a pen and paper, but decided that might seem insensitive. Not that he would normally treat her with perfect sensitivity, but she’d had a rough ordeal. She deserved at least a day to rest before the interrogating began.

When her gaze met his, her eyes held a hint of hopelessness. “I saw a man. He had white hair…. And the Oracle. She was there, feeding off of his blood. And she was becoming strong from it. I do not know why it was so disturbing, it just was.”

“The Soul Eater.” He shook his head. “When you blacked out, the Oracle…she took over your body.”

“What?” Bella shrieked, her face pale.

He laid a hand on her knee to calm her. Even through the blankets and her clothing, he imagined her skin searing his. “Don’t be freaked. She didn’t make you go crazy or kill anyone, like the Soul Eater did to Nathan. She used you to speak to us. Basically, she just popped in to announce her presence.”

Bella’s brow furrowed. “I knew that.”

“Well, then you weren’t as bad off as we thought,” he stated, for lack of anything better to say. He could have murmured, “Tomorrow is another day,” or “Every cloud has a silver lining.” That would have been just as brilliant.

“Somehow, I knew that.” She started to shake, her eyes wide. “How did I know that?”

“It probably leaked into your subconscious. I mean, she could have left, like, psychic residue….”

Bella quirked her eyebrow. “Residue?”

“I’m sorry, I’m not hip to the whole mental communication scene.” He tossed his hands up.

“You are a vampire. What about the blood tie? That does still happen, does it not?”

You have no idea. Everywhere Max looked—at Marcus’s bed, Marcus’s chairs, Marcus’s obscenely expensive rugs— all he saw was a hole where his sire should have been.

Of course, he couldn’t expect a werewolf to be sympathetic with that. “I’m just trying to help.”

“I know.” Her voice was uncharacteristically soft. “She is on her way to meet the Soul Eater.”

Max frowned. “We assumed that—”

“She is on a boat. It is a cargo ship of some kind, headed for…Boston.” Bella shook her head. “Why would she give you that kind of information?”

He decided to ignore the chills racing up his spine for a moment. “She didn’t.”

They stared at each other for a long minute. Vaguely, he noted the ticking of the clock in the corner, and the click that registered it was about to chime. When it sounded, they both jumped.

“How did I—”

He cut her off. “I don’t know. Do you know anything else?”

“Many things.” She trembled openly now, and a tear slid down her cheek. “She killed a sailor sent to check on something in the hold. Hold. That is not a word I would use.”

“It doesn’t come up in a lot of my conversations, either. ” He brought his clasped hands to his mouth. “Maybe it’s a fluke.”

“Fluke? I have her memories in my head. You think that is a fluke?” Bella moved as if to get out of bed, and Max put his arm out to stop her.

“You’ve had a bad night. Just take it easy.” He tucked the blankets in around her legs.

“Take it easy?” she screamed, kicking the covers back. “Do not tell me this! I have been used as a puppet!”

“Look, there’s no reason to panic. At least, not yet. She didn’t have enough power to continue inhabiting you.”

Bella covered her face with her hands. “Why me? I am not one of you. Why did she not seek one of her kind?”

“I don’t know.” He’d wondered the same thing. More specifically, he’d wondered why it had to be Bella instead of himself. He would have gladly changed places.

She tried again to get out of bed, but her arms shook, not up to the task. She fell back on the bed with a startled cry, as if pain and muscle fatigue were things she’d never experienced.

He moved to help her, repeating, “Take it easy. You really took a beating tonight.”

“A beating?” She snorted. “I am strong. Nothing the Oracle could do to me would matter.”

“You were suspended five feet off the ground and she dropped you. And I’m sure your ribs hurt after the CPR.”

Smooth, Max.

“CPR?” She frowned.

Max rolled his eyes. “Cardiopulmonary resuscitation. You kind of…died.”

“Died?” She bolted upright.

“Just for a second!” He held out his hands, prepared to stop her if she tried get up again. “Minutes at most. Carrie brought you right back.”

Bella raised her fist as though to strike him. He braced himself, so he wouldn’t flinch when she hit him.

But she didn’t. She broke into sobs.

Max, having long ago dismissed the idea that werewolves, Bella in particular, had feelings, had no clue how to deal with the situation. In his mind, female tears were like acid, and he had never willingly wetted himself with that.

Still, Bella was usually so unshakable, so collected, so stone cold…. It killed him to know something could bother her so much.

“Hey, don’t cry.” He reached to put his arms around her, painfully aware of how awkward he felt. When she didn’t lash out at him or drive a stake through his heart for trying to help, he gave her a hug and a brotherly pat.

It didn’t surprise him at all that his gesture didn’t help.

“I hurt so much,” she sobbed, her words almost incomprehensible, given her tears and her accent. “It hurts to cry and I cannot stop.”

“Just…you know, get it out.” He rubbed her back gently. Physical contact had always distracted him from his troubles. She couldn’t be much different.

“That feels good,” she sniffed. “My back is like a fishing net, it has so many knots.”