Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 79726 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79726 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
I’d barely finished my words before it launched itself in attack.
I easily brought up my scimitars, but my blades clashed against flesh as hard as stone. Harder because I’d cracked stone before with my blows.
It flew at me, fangs bared, and I laughed. I felt the tickle of its fangs against my neck, but that was all. It roared in frustration, and I placed my hand on its chest, pouring runes at it to blast it back from me.
The white-blue light knocked it halfway across the battlefield, scattering troops from both armies as it landed. Then it stood up, shaking its head blearily. It took one last look at me and fled in the opposite direction.
I was about to give chase when Romulus stole my body back, his focus entirely back on the battle at hand instead of the fascinating prize that was slipping through our fingers.
It was little comfort that Father had later agreed with me, beating Romulus with hell-metal chains for not realizing that long-term gains were more important than short-term goals. Especially since we lost the battle anyway. And when I next woke, I had to pay with a body sore from the harsh beating.
But then, I was constantly paying for his bad decisions. I close my eyes as the helicopter blades whir overhead, trying to access our shared memory to see what had happened when Lo-Ren had awoken since I obviously wasn’t there to see it. But still, there’s nothing. I swallow a growl. I didn’t intend for my gambit with the potions to work in both directions. I’d only wanted to hide my actions from him, not his from me.
My eyes pop back open, and I look at Lo-Ren, whose eyes have dropped closed as if napping or perhaps just trying to regain some equilibrium after the insanity of the escape. I did not mind the chaos of battle—I even enjoyed it a little, if I’m being honest—but these humans have more fragile constitutions.
Did the potion Layden gave me allow me to permanently sever that connection to our shared memory, or like the long bout of wakefulness, will it too wear off?
We haven’t had any more run-ins with the vampires since that battlefield more than five hundred years ago, and Romulus always thought the encounter with my angel runes had sent it scurrying underground like a cockroach.
We only heard tales of pale bloodsuckers over the years from the same region of eastern Europe. Yes, I have to say my interest is piqued to meet them again.
If only these were different circumstances. I frown deeper and feel my eyebrow furrowing as I continue to look at Lo-Ren. Fuck, she’s so young and perfect and. . . innocent. That word whispers like a curse through my mind. And now we’re taking her from one den of monsters into another.
All for what? Because I wanted a consort? I press a hand to my chest and swallow.
“What is it?” Kharon asks. “Are you well?”
I drop my hand. “I’m fine,” I bark gruffly. Lo-Ren’s eyes pop open, and she looks at me, which makes me feel even—
Dammit, that’s the problem. She’s making me feel things. Things other than want and lust and bloodlust, the only emotions I thought myself capable of. But this. . .
Again, my chest squeezes uncomfortably, and I want to press my palm against it until the sensation goes away again.
For the first time in my whole life, I worry I’ve done the wrong thing.
If I end up putting her in harm's way, I’ll never forgive myself. She is not just another human. I knew she was a prize above all others, but I did not anticipate how…
Yes, my dumb brothers were capable of falling for their humans, but I thought getting a consort of my own would just be like any other thing I conquered. She is not just some prize, though. She is more. She is—
“Okay,” Layden says from the front. “We’re about to land. Glamours on.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
LAUREN
“Be calm,” Remus says from beside me as the chopper begins to descend. It’s strange to see him and his brother without wings, hidden under the guise of whatever a glamour is. I want to ask a thousand questions as I look up into his face, which is even more slightly altered, as if the proportions have been pulled back into a less exaggerated shape. He doesn’t exactly look like his twin, but it’s nearer. Speaking of—the glamour made Romulus disappear completely, cloaking him with a natural-looking head of hair.
Even Kharon looks fully human, with only two arms, like a large wrestler with tan skin instead of blue. In one arm, he holds his swaddled newborn, and in the other, he cradles Ksenia, who looks exhausted from the mid-flight birth.
“I’m calm,” I say in a whisper.
Remus arches an eyebrow down at me. “Your muscles are tense as stone, and I’m sure your heart is racing. Our new guests will be able to hear it.”