Shadow Bloodlines (Shadow Bloodlines #1) by A. R. Cooper Read Free Book Online

it had felt so real. “How did you do that?”
    “It wasn’t me. It was you. You are a shifter, and an octopus if I had my guess.”
    “Guess? You chopped off my finger, but you weren’t certain?!”
    “The finger was tainted. It had to come off or it would have spread. To your hand, your arm, all of you, until you twisted into the agony you saw your finger go through before it died. Either way, you are safer now without it. I smell the ocean on you, even though we are miles from it. So an octopus.”
    “Like Doc Ock on Spiderman? Ewww, can’t I shift into something cool like a tiger?” This had to be some bizarre dream. But the agony of my finger being chopped off was real enough.
    He laughed and this time, the sound made me clench my jaw. He was after something. All men had their own agendas.
    “It is rare that a person shifts into the animal. No, now they mostly take the benefits and some of the weaknesses of that animal. In my time, shifters were common and yes, they did transform into all kinds of animals. You have the ability of regrown limbs, as does an octopus.”
    “You hacked off my finger and you weren’t even sure it would work?” my shriek echoed off the cave walls.
    He smiled a lopsided grin. One that made me think he’d been spoiled as a child. “When we wrestled, it was like you had extra limbs. It was a guess, yes, but an educated one.” He shrugged like hacking off fingers was an everyday occurrence. “But it had to come off or it would have spread through you until your entire body was poisoned, then withered and turned to ash. And it’s more painful that you can imagine.”
    “Yeah, I get it. Turn to ash equals bad.” I was an octopus? What else could I do? “So can I squirt ink? Ewww.” Maybe this was all some crazy dream. I’d wake up and Jacqueline would say I’d kept her up all night moaning and stuff. I still didn’t believe exactly what this dude was saying.
    “Doubtful. You can probably swim exceptionally well and either hold your breath for a long time or breathe underwater.”
    “Cool.” I didn’t tell him I might have already done that when Ms. Moor and the goons were after me and I’d hidden in the pool. So it was because I was a shifter that I did so well in swimming?
    “And you have another animal shifter in you.”
    His words caught me off-guard, and I scuttled back a step. “I don’t think so.” What would he do to test for another shifter? “My mom’s human, so I guess I only got my dad’s. Speaking of him, why didn’t he hang around and teach me all this stuff? It might have helped me get away from that Moor-woman.”
    “No doubt he was an octopus; it is against their nature, especially the males, to raise or hang around, as you say, with their offspring. Every shifter has two animals. One that is hereditary and one that is… like a spirit animal. In my time, shifters had three: one from each parent and then their totem animal.”
    Whatever. I was just happy to have my finger back. “It’s been nice talking all this mumbo-jumbo with you, but I have to get home.”
    “Call me Amar.”
    “Fine. I’m Bethany or Beth.” I looked out over the mountains. How the heck was I getting home? “Um, would you fly me home from here?”

Chapter Eight
     
    “Bethany.” The deep sound of his voice saying my name made me shiver. Not in the way Mom yelled at me to pick up my dirty clothes, but in the way a boy who made your brain liquefy said it. “I’ve told you, the Blood Spirits know who you are. They will wait at your mother’s home and any of your friends’ homes until they track you down.”
    I raised an eyebrow at that last remark. “Didn’t they scream just before you caught me out of the sky?” I had never wished anyone dead before, but Hooknose and Tattoo guy I’d make an exception for. Truthfully, I just wanted this nightmare to end. Leave me in peace.
    “I didn’t have time with you plunging through the air to fight them for but a moment.