2. Darkness in the Blood Master copy MS 5 Read Online Free PDF Page A

blooming like acid in my stomach. “Look. Do you see that?” At the girl’s side, there was a very faint blur. The more I stared, the more convinced I became that it was a spectral shape. I sagged down into my chair.
    He didn’t answer me. He didn’t have to. The acid in my stomach had been joined by an icy cold fear that traveled across my body in waves. His hands, warm and human and trembling, reached for mine.
    “What?” I felt Logan’s solid warmth against my right side, fierce and reliable. He leaned closer to the picture. “What do you see?”
    I turned and buried my face in Ethan’s cotton and juniper scent. I didn’t need to look again. “I think there’s something there, Logan. A shape of some kind, just sitting there, glued to her side. It’s easy to mistake it for camera blur, but I don’t think that’s what it is. I just can’t tell what, exactly.”
    I heard Logan pacing, the solid wood floorboards a familiar bass thump behind me. “What the hell is happening, then?” he demanded, his voice threaded with that combination of fear and anger he used when anything threatened family. “What does it mean? Dark Nephilim kidnapped a twelve-year-old girl with some kind of blurry friend in the photo? Why?”
    “Gifts are different,” Ethan said simply, still grimly fascinated by the newspaper. “What Caspia can do is pretty rare. Maybe this girl can do something else.”
    “Like what?” I demanded, but Ethan was silent, studying the grainy photo.
    “What else does it say?” Logan grabbed the paper and held it between whitened knuckles. “Mr. Bedford describes Caroline as a shy girl, more comfortable with animals than people: ‘...so gentle birds eat out of her hands. She’s never even been to school. She must be terrified.’ The sole survivor of a car accident that killed her mother, Caroline Bedford is multimillionaire Nathan Bedford’s only heir.” Logan’s finger’s had made holes in the newspaper where he clutched it.
    Ethan cupped my face in his hands. He spoke gently but with unmistakable seriousness. “Someone has kidnapped at least one Nephilim descendent with gifted blood.” My knees went wobbly at his words, but his hands held me by the forearms, bracing my body just as his presence steadied my insides.
    “But why?” I choked out. “Why take a twelve-year-old girl to the Dark Realms? What use could she possibly be?” The blue green eyes I loved so much had no answers, only sorrow. And fear.
    “You can draw the future, Caspia. This girl’s father said she could charm wild birds to her hand. That was probably not an exaggeration. Nephilim descendents have different kinds of gifts. The gift of Caroline Bedford’s blood probably connects her to animals in some way. The shape at her side, if that’s what it is, could be anything. I won’t pretend to know everything about gifts.”
    “Gifted blood,” my brother repeated slowly. The words hung in the air of our apartment, heavy with meaning. Gifted blood, like the ability to draw the future, or summon Light and Shadows. “But… why?” Logan’s hand rested against the small of my back as he repeated my earlier question. I hadn’t seen him move, but I was grateful for his presence, for both of them, surrounding me, supporting me. “I didn’t even think there were that many Nephilim descendants. None of this makes sense. How do we know it’s not just some random kidnapping?”
    I knew with sick, utter certainty that this was not just some random kidnapping. I fought the urge to run back into my room and hide there. “Asheroth,” I said, giving in to the urge to pace. “He’s been trying to warn me. He keeps saying things like a war is coming, or that terrible evil roams the streets. I wrote it off as more of his rantings.”
    Ethan returned to the table and began clearing away the remains of breakfast. It was a real testament to how distracted we all were that we let him. “Those were not just random kidnappers in