Jaded Blood

      Blood Bound Series Book 10

      Amy Blankenship, RK Melton

      Copyright © 2012 Amy Blankenship

      Second Edition Published by Amy Blankenship

      All rights reserved.

      Chapter 1

      Eleven years ago… LA, the Hogo Shrine.

      Tasuki listened to the silence of the house and it was slowly starting to drive him crazy. He couldn't sleep right now if his life depended on it. Getting out of bed, he flipped his bedroom light on so he could see the picture tucked into the rim of his dresser mirror. The picture was of his best friend’s sister Kyoko and he’d taken it from their house when no one was looking.

      The photo had been taken at the perfect moment, catching her beautiful emerald eyes in the sunlight. The day it was taken must have been windy because it looked like her hair was lifting around her to frame her sweet face.

      He’d never wanted a girlfriend before but the little girl staring back at him from the photo was all he could think about. Reaching for the picture, his hand stilled when he saw something white moving in the reflection behind him. Turning, he went to the window to gaze out at the house next door.

      He frowned seeing Kyoko wearing a white nightgown and standing out on her balcony. What was she doing outside at this time of night? Tasuki unlocked his window hoping he could get it raised without the creaking sound waking his father up. He groaned when it stuck about halfway and he had to push harder only for it to then fly up with a loud thud.

      Kyoko stepped out onto the small wooden deck that was connected to her bedroom on the second floor. The cool night air felt good as it rustled around her knee length nightgown and blew her long auburn hair back from her face. Emerald eyes stared up at the stars and her lips formed the kind of smile that only a happy little girl could make.

      It was close to midnight and she couldn’t sleep. She was too excited. It was almost her birthday and she would be ten years old. All her friends from school were coming to her party, even some of her brother Tama’s friends. Tama was a year younger and already so much taller than her, but she wasn’t jealous at all. She loved her brother dearly.

      Tama had taken up for her the other day while walking home from school. Some of the boys from school had started teasing her, saying she was being raised by a crazy old man who went around telling everyone that demons were real. One of them went as far as to say he’d heard his father telling his mother that it wouldn’t be long before the people from the insane asylum would be coming to haul her grandfather off in a straitjacket.

      Kyoko had thrown her book bag on the ground and tackled him for lying. He was a bad boy that Yohji!

      The bullies hadn’t stood a chance when Tama and Tasuki suddenly appeared. Tasuki had jerked her out of the fray and pushed her behind him while Tama grabbed up a big stick and held it like a baseball bat.

      Yohji had only laughed feeling brave in front of his friends and accused Tama of being just as much a freak as his sister. Tama whacked him good across the arm, making Yohji grab his arm and fall to his knees in pain.

      When Yohji’s big brother moved forward to retaliate, Tasuki didn’t hesitate and decked the bigger boy making him crash backwards into his brother. Kyoko thought the fight was over and was glad… but Tama wasn’t happy yet.

      Her brother had turned on Tasuki and yelled, “I am her protector… me! Not you!”

      Kyoko giggled at the memory of the furious look on Tasuki’s face. It was that look that had really scared the bullies away. She’d had to step in to break up the fight between her brother and Tasuki before it was all over. They were best friends for heaven’s sake, and to see the two of them fighting like that was just wrong.

      In the end, they had both agreed to be her protector from then on. They were now calling themselves her guardians… they made a blood pact and everything. At least that’s what Tama told her.

      Just the thought of guardians surrounding her made Kyoko feel so warm inside that she didn’t think anything would ever get her. With Tasuki living in the house right beside them, they could always walk to and from school together and the bullies would leave her alone.

      Her smile got even brighter when she vaguely heard the big old clock downstairs chime twelve times. It was after midnight now and that meant she was officially ten years old.

      She glanced toward Tasuki’s house and smiled when she saw him standing in his bedroom window watching her. She started to wave, but he suddenly looked behind him and his bedroom light went out just after he disappeared from the curtains.

      Kyoko bit her bottom lip wondering if he’d gotten caught by his dad for being up so late. She didn’t understand why Tasuki had a bedtime. He was twelve years old and, in her eyes, a big boy. When she grew up, he was going to be her boyfriend… he’d told her so just today.

      She looked out at the pond that lay just beyond her grandpa’s shrine house and sighed softly when she saw the reflection of the moon on its calm surface. Kyoko tilted her head a little when something from the shrine house caught her attention and she wondered if her grandpa was inside the wooden walls. She could have sworn he was in bed.

      Staring hard at the building, she could see a blue glow coming from the inside. She chewed her bottom lip as she leaned over the banister trying to get a better look. The light showing through the cracks in the wood was… like a black light but bluer. Her emerald eyes narrowed when she thought she saw a shadow move across the light making her want to go down and get a better look.

      Making a face, Kyoko blew her dark bangs out of her eyes remembering what happened the last time she had dared go near that sacred shrine house. Her grandpa had gone inside of it leaving the door cracked open just a little. All she had done was peek inside and he had flipped his lid.

      “I don’t see what the big deal is… it’s only a statue of a princess,” Kyoko whispered the same words she had that day.

      Grandpa had responded by slamming the door shut and padlocking it. He had looked so frightened when he’d turned around and told her to never, ever go in there. She’d readily agreed because something that would scare her grandpa like that… she didn’t want anything to do with. That had happened a couple months ago though and her curiosity was slowly starting to eat away at her.

      Smiling mischievously, Kyoko looked over her shoulder into her bedroom to make sure the coast was still clear before climbing up on the banister rail and daggling her legs over the side of it. If anyone had been awake to see her do this, she would have been in big trouble. But sitting like this was worth the lecture on safety. With everything behind her so she couldn't see it, sitting up here made her feel like she was floating in the night as she looked out over the water.

      Her attention turned back to the shrine house when that blue light suddenly got brighter like a star being born. In a blinding flash, the light soundlessly exploded outwards. The door of the shrine house fell off its hinges with a soft thud followed by a big splash.

      ‘A splash?’ Kyoko thought to herself.

      She jerked her gaze back to the glistening water of the pond seeing the ripples growing into bigger circles where something had just fell in. Without thinking about the dangerous height, she turned around on the banister and slid down one of the metal poles that held the deck up.

      As soon as her small feet hit the grass, she took off running thinking grandpa had somehow been blown into the water. Using the small bridge, Kyoko jumped into the water aiming for the center of the ripples. She didn’t have time to think about the icy pinpricks of the cold water surrounding her as she kicked her way down into the deepest part of the pond.

      She knew it would be too dark to see anything, but she opened her eyes under the murky water anyway. Her grandpa was down here somewhere and she had to help him. Her lips parted in awe when she did see something in the water… something so bright it was almost blinding. Right there in the