Blood Sacrifice (The Blood Sisters Book 3) Read Free

well?”
    Amanda’s
eyes widened, as if her question was off base, but the only thing wrong here
was bringing Joseph with them in the first place. “Jessica.”
    But
Jessica shrugged and tried to temper her voice. “Just a question, since we’re
travel buddies now. We have to talk about something.”
    Joseph
held up his hand with a soft smile. “It’s all right, Amanda. I don’t mind the
questions. Your sister is right not to accept me so easily. “
    He
folded his hands and turned toward Jessica. There was a beautiful, but haunted
quality to his eyes. Jessica could tell he had seen a lot, like a soldier returning home from war, but his had
almost been unending. It might have softened her a bit toward him, but not
toward Amanda’s decision-making skills.
    Joseph
was here because Amanda chose to exorcise him. Period.
    That
girl would go out of the way to put them in danger until it got them killed.
For good.
    “I
learned from Vaughn. He took to the language easy during our crusades in
Britain. I was in a deep sleep, or so it felt, but I heard things. The
knowledge he had is still with me. I don’t know if it’ll always be so, but for
now I have both his memories and mine.”
    Jessica
figured such a thing must be horrible, but she didn’t want to appear overly
sympathetic. Luckily, Amanda had that one in the bag. “I’m so sorry, Joseph.”
Amanda gripped his hand. “We understand if you don’t want to talk about it.”
    “Yeah,”
Jessica said listlessly. “We’ve had enough pain to last us a lifetime. We won’t
make you rehash. In fact, there’s a small town not far from here. Good people,
nice place. On our way to rescue our friend, we’ll drop you off there. There’s
a soup kitchen, homeless shelter. We’ll get you some money along the way.
You’ll be fine.”
    Joseph
sat up straighter and turned to Amanda. Jessica knew what was coming and she
wouldn’t be argued with. She threw some crumpled bills onto the table. Excusing herself, Jessica rose up and headed toward the
restroom. Any hope that that would end the conversation was crushed when Amanda
charged after her.
     “Jessie,
wait!”
    Jessica
didn’t slow down, but when she reached the bathroom door, Amanda grabbed her
wrist. “You can’t ignore me, Jessica.”
    Her
teeth snapped together. “I’m just going to the bathroom. Keep an eye on our
little friend, okay?”
    “Why
are you doing this? Why are you in such a foul mood?” Amanda’s eyes were hurt
and wide. “You feel like a whirlwind of emotion. You’re tying me into knots
again.”
    Jessica
didn’t mean to and she hated the implication. “How can you even ask me that?
Duncan’s kidnapped and you’ve been promoted to queen. Meanwhile we have a
helpless plus one, Amanda.” Jessica let out a long sigh and shook her head.
Times were tough enough as they were. Why did her sister never see that? “We’re
dropping him off and that’s final. If he comes with us, he’ll be killed and
since we went through the trouble to save him…”
    Amanda’s
eyes fell to the floor. “But—.”
    “No,
buts.” Jessica sneered. “And don’t think you can change my mind by touching me,
because I won’t allow it.”
    “I
would never!” Amanda’s mouth fell open.
    But
she had done it before and Jessica wouldn’t allow her to do it again. With the
look of heartbreak on Amanda’s face, Jessica wasn’t sure if her sister even
realized she had done it. That was even scarier to Jessica. Just how powerful
had her sister become? Was the power overriding the good person Amanda was?
    “Go
back to the table,” Jessica ordered her. She cringed at how unkind she sounded.
“I’ll be a minute unless you want to watch me go.”
    “I
know you’re worried about me,” Amanda’s voice was low, “but don’t be so mad
that you push me away.”
    Was
that what she was doing? “Everything isn’t peaches and cream.” Something their
mother always said tumbled right off her tongue—how many