Page 1 of Blood Magic (Ariel Kimber 3)

Chapter One

I stared at the fogged-up mirror feeling stupid for being grateful that it was there. Not the mirror, but the condensation covering it. It hid my face from view.

A face I had no desire to get a good look at.

I was a coward.

And I really didn’t enjoy feeling like one or knowing that I was one.

Looking around the small bathroom, I drew in a deep breath and forced myself to remain calm. Easier said than done given my current circumstance.

Avoiding the mirror, I clutched the towel I had wrapped tightly around my body to my chest as I bent over and picked up a black backpack off of the floor. Tyson had given it to me right before shoving me into the bathroom and closing the door right in my face.

I had assumed the bag had clothes in it for me and I had not been wrong. After placing the bag on the counter next to the basin, I unzipped the bag and dug around inside. Frowning, I pulled out something black that was too big to belong to me. It was a plain, black V-neck t-shirt. The material was incredibly soft. I put the thing to my nose and inhaled in hopes of catching the scent of the owner. I caught nothing but Tide. At least it smelled good.

Annndddd I was stalling for time.

I dropped the towel to the cold floor and pulled the black t-shirt over my head. It fell down past my hips and didn’t stop until it hit mid-thigh. The thing was huge on me. It probably belonged to one of my Salt and Pepper twins.

I shook my head. Why did I care who it belonged to? In reality, I did not care. I glanced at the pile of clothes on the floor. My clothes. They were ruined, covered in both my blood and Dash’s. The majority of it being Dash’s. He was quite the bleeder.

I raised a hand towards my face but stopped it before making contact. It seemed I was quite the bleeder as well.

My vision blurred as tears began to pool. Not now, please not right now. If I let the tears fall I would end up a sobbing, hysterical mess. I could fall apart later, when there weren’t several people standing on the other side of the door. People who were upset and worried, waiting on me to come out so they could see for themselves that I was okay.

My eyes shot to the mirror before quickly skirting away.

I ran my shaking hand through my wet hair.

A loud knock sounded on the door, making me jump and my heart beat speed up.

I had locked the door, at least I had that going for me. Modesty wasn’t the issue. What did that matter when they had already seen the goods? It didn’t, at least not to me. My face, however fucked up it was, wasn’t the issue either.

So, what was the problem, you ask? If not those things, then what?

It was the tears threatening to come pouring out of my eyes at any second. The goddamn tears I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to keep at bay for much longer. It was the slight tremble in my hands. Yeah, it had come down from full-on body shaking and feeling like my body might rattle apart, but it had taken a while to come down to simply having hands that held a slight tremble to them. How long would it last, before my hands stilled? Hours? Days? I had no idea; time held no meaning to me at the moment. The last problem? The psychotic look I imagined going on in my eyes. If they were reflecting anything I had going on on the inside? I wouldn’t want to look myself in the peepers at the moment.

No, thank you. To all of it.

“What’s wrong?” Tyson called through the door.

Ah. So it must have been him pounding on the door. I wondered if he had been sitting right outside of it the whole time I had been in here. Not a surprise, actually. Or, it shouldn’t have been.

What had he asked me?

Shit.

“Ariel?”

I cleared my throat. Twice. “I’m fine.”

Two little words. One ginormous lie. I hated lying to any of my boys. Absolutely despised it. But I was too raw for the truth, to frightened by my own emotions to go the truthful route. If I let one thing out I feared my whole world would come splintering apart.

How would I put myself back together again?

The door handle rattled as Tyson tried to open the bathroom door and barge in on me. None of these guys knew the meaning of the word privacy, something that I found annoying on a normal day.

“Ariel,” he barked through the door in a rougher voice than he’d had seconds ago.

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