Blaze by Kaitlyn Davis Read Free Book Online Page B

side. The
picture was of the two of them in the pod, heads close and eyes
locked on one another, with Parliament in the background. Kira
realized it must have been taken moments before they started
kissing, but the timing of the photograph was perfect.
    Kira shifted over on the rock so she could
lie down and put her head on Tristan’s lap. He ran his fingers
through her hair, splashing it over his legs, and Kira looked up at
the sky enjoying his touch. She lifted the keychain up to glance at
it again, taking a moment to study the image.
    Peter Pan, she thought silently to herself
while noting the image of Big Ben in the background, the boy who
didn’t want to grow up. Was it better to not want to grow up or to
not be able to grow up? For Tristan, immortality felt like a trap,
keeping them apart and keeping him alone in the world. More than
anything, he wanted to be human again and wanted to erase the many
years he struggled to cope with what he was.
    For Kira, growing up seemed like the trap.
She didn’t want the responsibilities that came with it—learning to
control her powers, being thrown into the conduit world against her
will, and making life or death decisions no teenager should have to
make.
    Regardless of Tristan and Luke, there were
decisions Kira needed to make about her future, decisions that
seemed to haunt her as time slipped away. Could she give up life
with the conduits like her adoptive mother had? She would be able
to pursue her dreams of being a chef and she could have a somewhat
normal life. But how did Luke fit into that plan? Giving up the
conduits would mean giving him up as well.
    But if she chose the conduit lifestyle of
fighting vampires and wielding her powers, any semblance of normal
in her life would vanish and Tristan would probably vanish right
along with it.
    Kira was at a crossroads in her life: two
paths both equally enchanting and equally foreboding in nature. But
right now, there was only one path and that was the road to
Aldrich’s castle.
    Kira sat up and Tristan nodded, thinking the
same thing as her.
    “Aldrich’s?” Kira asked.
    “Aldrich’s,” Tristan confirmed.
    Kira gulped, unable to stop the growing
sense that everything in her world was about to change.
     
     
     
    Chapter Four

    Really, no street lamps? Kira thought as
Tristan continued driving along the dark, winding English road.
They had been driving for just under two hours and the further they
got from London, the more deserted the streets had become. Large,
well-lit roads were replaced with narrow, country lanes.
Occasionally Kira saw the windows of a house gleaming through the
fog, but it had been well over twenty minutes since she had seen
any sign of life.
    “Not to sound like a bored two-year-old, but
are we there yet?” Kira asked while wrapping her arms tightly
around herself. These silent streets were giving her the
heebie-jeebies. Even Aldrich’s castle seemed like an oasis compared
to this dank landscape that lacked even the sparse light of the
moon.
    “About ten or fifteen minutes away I think,”
Tristan told her before turning from the road to focus his eyes on
her. “Do you remember what I told you?”
    Kira rolled her eyes. “Yes, Aldrich is not
to be trusted. He’s evil and will say or do anything to get what he
wants.” It was all he had been telling her for the entire car ride.
As soon as the two of them stepped out of the rose garden, Tristan
had been strictly business.
    “Right,” he said with a sturdy nod.
    “Can I ask you a question?” Kira paused for
a moment, not really waiting for his permission but waiting to
gather her thoughts. “Do you think it’s possible that he really
might have my mother? That in twenty minutes I might actually meet
her for the first time I can remember?” She gulped, trying to
swallow her nerves. Even Kira couldn’t believe the idea—it was too
good to be true that her mother might just be waiting for her,
living and breathing, even if she was