Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 65871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 329(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 329(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
I am glad we have had this meeting.
“I did not like that,” Alexei says. “I did not like that at all. Come with me. Now. I don’t want you out of my sight, Anya, do you understand me? I want you with me at all times from here on out.”
He is bristling with barely contained rage. I nod swiftly. Now is not the time to argue.
Alexei summons Elena back from her US visit immediately, getting her on video chat to debrief.
“A vampire! In the castle!” I’ve never seen anybody actually speak in exclamation marks before. Elena is shocked and incensed and worried, I can see that, even though she is trying to maintain something like a professional veneer.
“Apparently, Anya ate a couple of their thralls, and a vampire,” Alexei explains. “The vampire indicated that could have consequences in their coven, and maybe physically for Anya.”
“She ate a vampire?” Elena practically loses her mind at that statement. “Did we know they were thralls and vampires?”
“Not until today, no.”
“Thralls carry a small amount of their feeder’s DNA for want of a better term. To have consumed them means having consumed the vampire curse. That’s bad enough. But to have consumed the flesh of a vampire itself—it’s possible your mate is infected. Or if not entirely rife with the curse, that she is now at least linked to one… or maybe several of them.”
“Linked?”
“Vampires always know where their progeny are. She might very well be on their radar; almost certainly she is on the radar of the vampire you just met. That’s probably how he found you. It’s likely that he didn’t have directions to the castle. He has directions to her, always, no matter where she is.”
Alexei curses so violently I feel a rush of pure fear run through me. I now understand how badly I fucked up. It wasn’t just about doing something dark and messy and weird. I put myself in danger in more ways than one.
I cower away from him, afraid of what will happen when he gets off the phone. He wants me to be his, and only his, and that is what I want too—but I felt the pull when I looked into Dom’s eyes. I know it’s wrong. It was an accident. I never meant to become vulnerable to anybody else, but Elena is right. He found me. He knows where I am. And if what she is saying is correct, he will always be able to find me.
“What do you think will happen?”
“I don’t know. This is unprecedented,” Elena says. “But I think it might be wise to move your mate away from fragile targets. There’s a possibility they might use her to locate things and launch attacks. If I were you, I’d take her to a very populated city with a lot of surveillance…”
I don’t hear the rest of what is said. Or at least, I don’t pay attention. My ears are pounding with blood as I process how deeply I have fucked up. I’ve not just put myself at risk. I’ve not only fucked with Alexei, but I might have put the entire pack in danger.
CHAPTER 9
Alexei
Elena and I discuss the matter thoroughly, and following Dom’s visit, we come to the conclusion that the vampires might have wanted Anya dead to begin with. It is possible that now they simply want her.
“They could see her as a female at the very nexus between our kinds. Someone capable of killing and consuming, someone who has taken in their poison already and survived,” Elena says. “Most vampires are stupid vicious killers, but there are some older ones with more intellect, the more pure ones. It sounds like you’ve had an encounter with a potentially ancient vampire. Anya has managed to draw him out in a way I have never been able to in all my studies.”
She sounds excited, which I know is another cause for concern. Fascination with vampires is not a phenomenon limited to humans.
I always knew Anya was special, but this is even more intense than I imagined. Not only are vampires starting to rise again, but they are now inextricably linked into our pack because my young mate did something so incredibly impulsive and headstrong and wild.
She was supposed to be safe with me. I was supposed to keep watch over her. But I didn’t. I took my eye off her, and I let her get hurt. I let her become a tool of my enemies. This was a mistake. My mistake.
In the aftermath of the vampire’s visit, I am busy. I send Anya to our room, and that is where I later find her crying pitifully to herself, curled up at the foot of the bed like a miserable whelp.
“I’m sorry,” she whimpers. “I’m so sorry.”
“This isn’t your fault,” I tell her.