Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 85552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Hold your hands out to catch her, Xander ordered.
What?
I put my hands out.
He placed Leeta in my arms so fast I barely registered the movement. Gripping her hard, I lost my balance and stumbled back against the damp sewer walls.
Then, Xander turned and soared through the air, jumping onto Ian in a blur, ripping his head from his body.
The dusty body collapsed to the ground. Blood splashed around Xander’s feet.
Ian’s detached head hung in Xander’s hands as Ian screamed, “Please, prince! Don’t hurt me anymore!”
Shit. He really can handle all of them by himself.
“Now I’m confused, dear Ian,” Xander growled. “Am I a prince or a king?”
Ian’s headless body writhed on the ground. His arms twisted and turned, searching the ground for his head in a way that was almost comical if it wasn’t so horrifying.
“King!” Ian shrieked. “You’re a king! Now please give me back my head.”
“Interesting.” Xander grinned.
All the other vampires scattered in seconds, barely making any noise as they disappeared into the surrounding shadows.
I’ll never forget about his power again.
Xander swung Ian’s head back and forth as he held it. “But, see, I can’t be a king because if I was a king, one would assume that any old, wretched, and starving vampire could not threaten me.”
“Okay, Xander. Stop this.” I adjusted Leeta’s heavy body in my arms, using the wall to keep me upright.
Drool dripped from Ian’s open mouth. “Xander, I was only suggesting, not threatening.”
“Now I’m only Xander? What happened to prince or king?” Xander raised Ian’s head up in the air and stared at it.
Ian’s eye holes went to me, as if begging me to step in and relieve him from the torture.
“Don’t look to her.” Xander laughed. “She’s crazier than you. She still believes she’s no more than a traveling companion with the will to come and go as she pleases.”
“Are you done now?” I was tired of his rant and unable to shield my rage. “You clearly made your point to both of us. I am sorry for doubting your power. But, Leeta is injured. We need to go.”
Xander flung Ian’s head in the direction from which we’d come.
“No!” Ian yelled. His body crawled in the opposite direction, completely away from where his head would land.
Saying nothing else, Xander took Leeta back.
“All of that was unnecessary.” I rushed to Ian’s body and touched his back. It halted in the tunnel. I patted his shoulder and it lay down on the ground.
“What are you doing?” Xander asked.
“Trying to help Ian’s body find his head. What does it look like?” I held the old vampire’s cold hands.
Ian gently gripped me. Dust crumbled into my palms. Straining, I dragged the body around, twisting, rolling it over, and trying to get it the correct way. I panted and heaved him up.
Xander just glared, not even willing to help. “You think I went too far with Ian? The vampire that was going to bite you the last time you were in here if I hadn’t stepped in? The same one that threatened us tonight?”
“There was no need to rip his head off. You already had him cowering. Clearly you had the upper hand.” I grunted and heaved Ian’s body up. My feet slipped in a puddle. I fell, bottom first, onto the wet floor, splashing blood and waste.
Xander came over to help me up.
I pushed his hand out of the way. “Yes. You went too far.”
“He threatened me and scared you. He needed to be taught some respect.” Still carrying Leeta, he lifted Ian’s body with one hand and slung the body in the right direction.
It crawled away in a blur.
Somewhere off in the distance, Ian screamed, “Thank you, Queen!”
I glared at Xander. “I’ve hated being down here for several hours. He’s been down here for several decades. I understand his motivation for trying to get you to be his king.”
“Oh, really?”
I headed off down the sewer. “Why was he spelled anyway?”
“According to Ian, he’s the Quiet King’s brother.”
I paused and snapped my view to Xander. “That is right. I remember you saying something about that.”
“When I first entered the sewers, I met Ian. He told me that he and others were trapped in the sewers for eternity due to a punishment enchantment. He also said that his brother, the Quiet King, ordered him to be executed, but the King’s wife intervened and spelled him to live forever in the sewers instead.”
The King had five queens.
The human women begun as dominas, but once they delivered at least sixty vampire children, they were given the title of queen, allowed more freewill, and could assert authority, only over dominas below them.
Xander’s mother, Queen Regina, was the fourth queen.
“Which queen was this?” I asked, shocked that any of them were able to stop the King from ordering execution or even do magic.