Page 8 of Of Blackened Blood (The Blackened Blade #3)

CREED

W e make our way through the abattoir’s doors.

They are a little worse for wear after the attack a few days ago; the metal on each door now wearing more than just a few scratches and dents from the destruction of that day.

But they still held up. The enforcement spells did their job and helped keep the illusionary and protection magic in place too.

And helped us keep our home hidden and protected.

I’ll have them replaced soon, already having ordered the materials yesterday. But they’ll have to be spelled just as intricately as these ones are.

A heavy sigh leaves my lips. There is just too much to do.

And too much unknown to me right now. And I don’t like one bit of it.

It feels like sand dripping through my fingers. Too much is happening around me lately, and I can’t seem to grab ahold of anything. It feels like I don’t have control of what’s going on. And you can’t protect against what you don’t know.

That’s not something I’m used to. Or how I ever want to feel again.

There are just too many unanswered questions in the air. Who was it that attacked us? Why attack us that night? Are they connected to the group I was looking into? And if so, did they attack Erving’s that night? Was I getting closer?

I drag a hand through my hair. I need answers and quick. It’s the only way to protect my people. My family.

I whip out my phone, checking the last message I got from Morgan again.

She’s with Grey and Ash and all of Grey’s clan. Thankfully, nobody should get near her with that lot.

I’ll give it to the Ashtons, they’ll protect those they care for fiercely and won’t let anyone get into their territory that they don’t want to. Or let them leave still breathing if they do.

The shifter clan was one that accepted all types of shifters, big and small, and didn’t discriminate.

They also didn’t have many ties to the Council either.

It was one of the oldest and largest clans with the least amount of corruption from my investigation.

I would hardly let Morgan near them if I thought otherwise.

I glance back at Annex and Ezra, hearing them both chuckling as Micai wriggles in Annex’s arms before her feet finally hit the floor. Mal appears beside her with her black Doc Martens before scooping low and placing them on her feet.

The look they share as he meets her soft gaze ... something stirs in my chest with the sight of it before I quickly push it away and shake my head.

I take a step away from them and look toward all the debris and mess still lying around the abattoir and then to all the repaired areas. Just days ago, this place was completely destroyed and looking almost irreparable. And by human standards it would have been. Thank the Gods that we’re not human.

I stand mere feet from the spot where Ezra was almost hit .

.. and where Micai had saved him. My eyes flicker toward her with the memory; she didn’t hesitate for a second to protect him, and in the blink of an eye was shot down.

Her body lay unmoving below me, her chest painted black from the lightning as the smell of her flesh burnt my nose.

I felt like time had stopped around me as I watched her slowly close those bright blue eyes, the light in them slightly dimming.

And something dark and painful rose up inside me; a strange and familiar panic grew in me that I hadn’t felt in years.

The thought of losing her ... it didn’t feel right.

It felt like losing one of my people, someone close that I couldn’t lose, shouldn’t lose.

The thought of her never opening those deep, fiery blue eyes again had my body moving forward and falling beside her, my hands reaching for her to try to help in some way.

But that was the problem. I wasn’t built to heal or help like that; these hands and this power are only for destruction and death.

My abilities could take the life from my enemies in one sweep, a power so old and cold it consumes all it touches. A power that was supposed to be long dead from my clan’s lines. But here I am.

I meet Micai’s gaze before she quickly turns away, ignoring me. And all it does is put a small grin on my lips.

Because even if she was pissed with me, even if she hated me ... she was still alive.

Thank the Gods, that by whatever miracle, she slowly began to heal and return to us that night, her body slowly repairing itself as she slept.

I take a deep breath, remembering her face as she slept with each of my brothers unwilling to leave her bedside. She was so quiet and still. Too still.

It bothered me. And made me more anxious than it should have.

Micai stirs emotions in me that I didn’t realise I still had. Or want.

Things that should have been buried long before even my brothers came along.

I kept telling myself she was a threat—and I was right—but not in the way I thought or wanted to believe.

She’s a threat to each one of us, to the sanity we have left, to the fear we thought we no longer had a shred of, and to the hope we thought had withered with our younger souls.

I can see it now clearly in their eyes as they watch her. The one emotion we all thought was dead inside us. Love.

They all love her. It is as clear and obvious as day and I had just been denying it.

But not anymore.

She was a part of them now, and I would fully accept that fact. And her.

She had proven her devotion and loyalty to them numerous times. Now it was time to show her ours.

I watch as she walks around the room, making her way through the mess still left behind. Her eyes are narrowed, focused completely on finding something, and oblivious to Annex and Mallyn following closely behind her.

Ezra has moved to where a few of the groups had been during the attack and to where the wall had been destroyed. There’s still some of the wrecked furniture from the party left there too. What remains of it.

He crouches down, his eyes narrowing as he takes something in his hand.

His eyes widen, the colour draining from his face as he clutches the object in his hand. The look on his face has me moving quickly toward him. He slowly stands as I reach him, and he calls Micai over.

They all come over as a strange look twists his expression. Then he holds up the dark metal chain, dangling it between his hands as his eyes narrow further toward it. The metal chain looks like some old, smaller version of handcuffs with a strange tint to the metal itself.

“It’s not one of ours,” Ezra says, pulling my attention toward him as his eyes turn toward Micai.

Her brows quickly furrow in question as he continues.

“It’s theirs ...” He gestures to where the corpses had once been, and where only crimson stains remain. “But it’s the same energy and metal as the bracelet your half-sister gave you . I’m nearly positive of it.”

I glance toward Micai as her small blue eyes widen, a slight look of panic entering them as she gazes at the small metal cuffs.

My fists tighten beside me with the look on her face. What the hell does all this mean? And why the fuck is that demented sister of hers involved?

Micai’s POV

I feel my eyes grow wide, voices sounding muffled beside me as I slowly reach for the metal cuffs in Ezra’s hand. As soon as my skin brushes across the dark metal, a cold shiver runs down my spine.

They were definitely similar to the bracelet Seria gave me, but not exactly the same. This metal is thicker and rougher and there are no decorations or ornaments meant to disguise its purpose; like their cuff-like appearance, their purpose was obvious. Imprisonment.

They also felt different from her bracelet, as if I were immediately being weakened just by simply grasping them in my hands. This metal and these “cuffs” reminded me more of something else, of somewhere else ... The Facility.

Goose bumps form down my arms, my heart picking up its pace with the thought. Why hadn’t I realised this sooner?

I grasp the metal as I glance around the space. This attack ... could it have been them?

This metal couldn’t be such a coincidence. I had never heard of a metal like it before, and now Seria and these attackers both have variations of it?

There had to be a connection here. They had to be involved in some way ...

My blood turns ice cold with the thought.

I thought I had time. Time to plan, to grow even stronger before my paths crossed with them again.

I had graduated and been a year out of the academy before I was taken in my previous life ... that would have given me years to plan my revenge. But if they were here now, if they were attacking us already ...

“Micai.”

Creed calls my name, his curt tone and questioning amber gaze pulling me from my dark, spiralling thoughts.

I glance around at each of the guys’ worried faces before my gaze meets Creed’s again.

I’m not alone this time. I am stronger than before and have people I can trust.

Creed’s words resurface in my mind from the bedroom. He said supes were going missing, that they just disappeared with no one knowing why or how ... and that none of them had returned. Now I know why. They were taken by The Facility. They would be starved and beaten and tested on?—

“Let’s get rid of these for now.” Ezra takes the chain from my hands, the weak feeling slowly ebbing away with their removal as his gaze fills with more worry.

He then calls someone from their clean-up crew to take them and place them in their “detainment shell.”

A couple of minutes later a strange wooden box with silver sigils trailing each corner and edge of its frame is brought over and the cuffs placed inside.

I open my mouth to tell them that I might need to see them again, but Ezra takes my hand in his before kissing my fingers.

“Don’t worry, Micai. We’ll collect as much information as we can and do whatever tests possible to get the answers we need.”

“Is this connected to that evil, klutzy half-sister of yours?” Annex grits out, taking a step closer as anger begins to swirl in his gaze.