The Blood Bargain by Macaela Reeves Read Free Book Online Page B

out the window.
    I ’ m not exactly sure how we got from that battered house and the banging dead to Junction. All I know is one moment we were there, and then we were here. Standing outside the old city hall under the moonlit sky.
    He said nothing to me as he sat me down. Then nothing after. He merely inclined his head and took a step in the direction of his homestead. In the blink of an eye he was gone, leaving me in the dull cloud of his scent.
    For a dead thing he smelled fantastic, a strong masculine musk with a hint of pine. I couldn.t help but stare as he walked off, legs moving with the fluid motion of a predator. He was a strange one. Not as conversational as Caius was according to accounts I had heard , not that any of them were decent at small talk.
    I turned toward the building, a sense of dread growing yet again in my gut. I know why he had dropped me here, and who waited inside for my entrance.
    Opening the doors I found a lone man waiting for me. He wasn’ t tall, but he was stocky. Grayed hair perfectly combed, although his shirt was marred with sweat stains around the armpits and collar. He was pacing till he saw me. He stopped, eyes watering as though he had seen a ghost.
    “Daddy...”
    “ Liv . Oh thank God.” He held me close for what felt like an hour. Then he pulled back, his face morphing from relief to anger. Crossing his arms he raised his voice. “What were you thinking? Why would you do s uch a thing?” He hollered at me. This was the side of him I feared, the commanding military man. I thought of going into details...there were so many answers I could
    give him. In the end, there was only one that mattered.
    “All I can say is I’ m sorry.” I answered him flat.
    He looked at the little chain around my neck.
    “You went home?” He breathed no more than a whisper. It was that word. Home. When he said that word, the tears fell from my face. That wasn ’ t home anymore, it was once. I couldn.t respond through my tears, I just nodded. With a curse he gave me another hug.
    “She would have wanted you to have it.” Dad mumbled to me. He went on to lecture me on all the reasons what I did was horrible. It turns out Cole had made it back to town. Then went straight to my Dad. Who then went straight to Caius. Next came the laundry list of reasons why I endangered Cole and how furious his mother was. I bit my tongue when I wanted to interject how he caused my endangerment. Still, I said not a word, just nodded. He was after all, right in every syllable. My actions had been rash. I had almost caused my own death. Frankly, I was still in shock that I was not dead.
    Perhaps I was, and this was my purgatory.
    “ Liv , you can. t go home tonight.” My eyes whipped up at that sentence.
    “What?”
    “Charges have been brought to the council for your actions. I ’ m going to have to escort you to a cell until tomorrow morning.” The pain in his face was clear.
    “Charges?!”
    “Evelyn, you violated every law we have. Even though you are my daughter I cannot disregard our laws. It is not my vote alone.” I took a deep breath, wrapping my arms around my sides. This was the other pill to swallow. The new-age legal ramifications of my actions.
    Hell, when I made my decision, I hadn.t even thought about this part.
    “I understand.” I tried to give him a small smile. All arrests should have been made by the colony watch, yet Dad was here himself. It was obvious he was trying to keep this as under the table and non-aggressive to me as possible.
    He did not cuff me as he escorted me through the building to the old holding cells in the building. This was a s mall town, city hall was combination police headquarters, jail, firehouse you name it. There were only two cells in the place. The eight by eight rooms sported a metal plank
    for a bed and a thin slotted window. Classic.
    I didn’ t fight when he opened the door, or when he led me inside. I could tell it broke his heart to do so. I sat on