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)
My body stiffened. He had my full attention. “Who was she?”
“You’ve never heard of her?”
“No.”
“Who is your family?”
I slowly sat up.
“Let me taste your blood to see if I’m correct.”
I cringed back. “No.”
“Then it seems we’ll both never know.” He somersaulted off the bed, rose in the air, and clung to the ceiling, his body suspended in a moment of acrobatic miracle. While his body faced the ceiling, his head faced me.
It was a horrific and paralyzing sight.
That eyeless face remained in my direction. “Thank you again for earlier today. For turning my body in the right direction. It would have taken me weeks to find it.”
“Ian. Who was this woman?”
“Why deny me your blood when I could have taken it a minute ago?”
“Could you?”
He blurred back down to me, but dropped to the floor. This time, he kneeled next to the bed. “In fact, I could take it right now.”
He touched my neck with his finger. “But, I won’t because I need you as my queen, more than I need a quick meal of blood.”
I battled with the urge to scream or run. Every cell hollered to get away. But vampires fed off fear and with it, he would come after me with more strength and determination. There was no need to entice him.
My voice wavered a little. “Tell me who she was?”
Ian slipped his fingertip down to my chest. The hard surface of his fingernail scraped my skin. I shuddered as pleasure came with the pain of the mark.
He sniffed the air. “My nephew has chosen well.”
“Remove your hand.”
“Just one taste. Please.” He took the finger away. Bits of dust clung to my cleavage. “I won’t take it from you, even though every instinct within me says I should, that I must.”
“And why do you think you should?” I inched back on the bed.
“Because Xander won’t be enough when my brother returns. Xander is still young and ripening. It will be years before he’s at my brother’s level.”
“Xander’s maturing fast,” I countered.
“From your blood, of course.” Ian’s lips curled into a dusty smile. “But my brother has fed off of a special queen too. Nai has had a hundred years to ripen with that blood.”
“Nai?”
“I’m sorry. I forgot Nai has you all calling him the Quiet King.” Ian chuckled a little to himself and then his face shifted into a frown. “Nai will kill Xander with a swift determination. The only good part about this is that he’ll do it quick, with as little pain as possible, because it’s his son.”
“And my brother surely saw your hair and tested your blood, he knows what you are. He will not let you be out of his grips.”
“What is. . .it about my blood?”
Ian licked his lips with a dry twisted tongue. “It is liquid magic. How did you not know? And, it’s only a matter of time before Nai will sense him through the blood and start putting two and two together.”
“Xander has hidden for so long right under the Quiet King’s nose—”
“Of course. He hid as a regular vampire—a little wimpy prince.”
I blinked.
“But now Xander is growing. I can smell his ripening a mile away in the sewer.”
I shivered.
“So many new things will happen to Xander’s body and he won’t be able to hide himself anymore. As if that isn’t enough, Nai will smell him as soon as he steps into the city. It’s a defense mechanism that lives in all of us kings, to kill another one in our area.”
“You’re a king?”
“Yes. Nai and I are twins.”
I swallowed and sat up. “Twins.”
He nodded. “Twins.”
“Yet you will help Xander?”
“If we make an exchange.”
“What type of exchange?”
“You give me blood from anywhere—your neck or finger, I don’t care,” he whispered, “and I’ll protect my nephew and yourself for every day of my life. I’ll do the things that must be done and the things that Xander cannot.”
“Such as?”
“I listened to you both when you were in the bathtub earlier. You were right about Charki being the best place for you to hide from my brother.” He nodded his head and it wobbled as if it would fall off his neck. “The mages will protect you and keep you from the Quiet King because you belong to them.”
“I-I do?”
“I see no other reasoning.”
How did that happen? How did I happen to be a mage, yet live among humans?
Ian continued, “Going to Charki might be your best bet to stay alive and away from my brother. It will also keep Xander safe as he gets stronger.”
I blinked.
“But Xander won’t ever let you go far from him and they would not let vampires enter.”
“He would let me go if it meant getting answers that could help up.”
A low cackle escaped his withering lips. “His mind and soul will want to release you because he loves you and he’s a good vampire, but the power coursing through his veins won’t allow it.”