The Blood Trials by N. E. Davenport

Author:N. E. Davenport
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-04-05T00:00:00+00:00

I hammer a kick into the chest of a bot. I spin out of the kick at the sound of approaching steps and the deep timbre of the voice that calls my name. Maintaining the momentum, I lift my leg a few inches higher and aim a follow-up kick at Reed’s head, testing his reflexes and letting my anger loose on an actual person. He grins while dodging the kick and sweeps his foot out in a move I never see coming. My legs fly out from under me, and I land on my ass.

I curse, tensing muscles to surge to my feet, but Reed is on top of me and pinning me to the ground before I can. He collects my hands above my head in a steel grip.

“That’s twice now,” he points out.

In response, I jerk my head forward. My forehead slams into his. I was aiming for his nose. It would’ve felt good to break it.

“You should find a different move. That one is growing boring.”

I fully realize I’m spiraling into the reckless, hotheaded Ikenna that does dumb shit out of spite that I vowed to Brock I’d leave behind after being confirmed—a vow I’ve broken a few times already. It doesn’t help that the fight with Selene and Zayne has me wound tight. They are all I have left after Grandfather. I lost him, and it feels like I’m losing them too.

“Good advice.”

I tear an arm free, wedge it between us, and jab my fist into his solar plexus.

Stop thinking the worst, I tell myself. It’s nothing that can’t be repaired. For some reason, it doesn’t seem like that’s true.

Reed grunts and his full weight collapses on top of me. The heat from his body is searing. Parts of me that shouldn’t react to our bodies melded together do. Reed’s eyes drink in my face. They trace my lips, the top one first then the fuller bottom one. My lips tingle with heart-racing memories of kissing him. A particular part of Reed’s body presses against me harder than the rest, making other places on my body tingle with memory too. I don’t have boosters available; my body yearns to indulge in something else that will take the edge off my problems.

Something shifts in Reed’s gaze. It loses its combative edge that’s driven by adrenaline and becomes a thing that’s darker, driven by a baser emotion. My body quivers and tenses in anticipation, denial, and the abject wrongness of it all, because he still could be treacherous. The conflicting urges to shove him off me and haul him closer wage war inside me.

The open lust in his gaze disappears, replaced by iron control and absolute discipline. He leaps off me. I spring to my feet. My stare snags on the smooth, inked skin of his bare chest and his delicious ab muscles. What the hell is wrong with me? I’m thinking like Selene.

“What do you want?” I ask.

“The same thing I wanted before. What did Chance say to you in the cage when he held the knife to your throat?”

I tense.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.