Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 53656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
I laughed, shaking my head. “What is it with you and ripping out throats?”
“It's one of the most satisfying ways to kill a creature,” he said, and paired it with a little shrug.
I grinned up at him, teasingly running my fingers over his chest. “I remember a time when my throat was at risk from your skills,” I said. “What was it that you used to call me?”
Talon shifted his hand to my throat, gently squeezing there in a way that set every inch of my skin on fire. “Little viper,” he cooed the nickname into my ear, his lips grazing over the shell.
“Right,” I said, shivering in has hold. “Still think that I'm going to poison you?”
His smile deepened, turning mischievous. “Perhaps the next time I upset you,” he teased. “But if you're asking if I'll ever be afraid of your bite, that's impossible.”
My fangs punch down on instinct, and he chuckled softly. Running a thumb over one of the sharp tips. “Can we get out of here yet?” I asked.
“This room?” he asked. “Yes,” he said. “Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to take a certain amount of time off to go on that vacation we talked about.”
I gripped his jacket, pulling him down for another kiss before inching back. “We have time,” I said. “For the woods. For the island I've inherited. For all of it.”
“Forever,” he said. Then leaning down, he lowered his voice. “Now let me take you somewhere so you can show me what those viperous little fangs can do.”
Epilogue
ZACHARIAH
Lycan territory felt a lot like stepping across a threshold and into a vat of quicksand.
The lycans had allowed my presence on their lands tonight, thanks to Conclave allowing me to go on this mission alone after gathering some information from Mrs. Zorin, but it was no secret that the lycan dogs hated us.
A sentiment I shared. Despite the fact that the king had come leaps and bounds with his alliances with the beasts, I still had not caught up.
Not that they were what I was here for. Mrs. Zorin had told me about a bloodmad vampire trail, and I hoped to find Samuel’s scent. I didn’t tell Saint because he’d been busy helping calm Aurora after an episode. Dagon had been in hiding, dodging Olivia's requests that he help uncover whether her niece was an elemental like him, and Ajax and Talon had been preoccupied with their mates.
Which was fine, because I didn't need backup.
Not for one bloodmad vampire. Especially not with all the powers I carried inside me. Powers that even the king didn't know about. We had to keep most of them under wraps, me and my brothers, because I could be labeled as a threat. The fact that I absorbed the powers of anyone I killed, or anyone who willingly gave them to me, would be intimidating to even the most trusting of kings, let alone his assassins.
And besides, solitude had been calling for me since we’d awoken. Since I'd had to relive the memory of going into stasis and everything that I'd given up.
Lilac eyes flashed into my memory; crystal clear as if I'd peered into them only yesterday.
I never stopped thinking about her. Never stop smelling her scent in the dead of the day when I slept.
She was my first thought upon awakening, and my last as I went to sleep, a constant source of pain in my heart that grew wider every night.
A branch creaked beneath my boot, and I cursed myself for the sound, for getting distracted enough to not watch my footing as I traipsed through the woods, hot on the trail of this vampire who’d tried to seek refuge in lycan territory.
It didn't smell like Samuel, which left me feeling even more deflated than when I'd come out here.
Either way, I had a duty to dispose of it. The thing had left a string of bodies from vampire to lycan territory, and it was the one thing that I’d been built to do.
A barrage of scents hit me as I cleared a massive outcropping of trees, coming upon a wide-open cave that was set straight into the base of a mountain. I scented at least three, possibly four, vampires. Each of them was tinged with that bloodmadness I’d been trained to hunt and kill.
I’d only taken one step toward the cave before they were on me—not four, but eight—eight vampires all with red eyes, bearing down on me in an instant.
Instinct took over, and I drew my blades, slicing the necks of the two closest to me before dodging the hands of three more. My evasion tactics led me deeper into the cave, something I knew wasn't smart, but couldn't avoid.
I dispatched another, taking the number down to five, but these things were relentless, attacking me with a mindless sense of malice that was signature of a newly turned bloodmad vampire. There were slight hints of Samuel’s scent on them, and guilt filled my veins at the fact that my brother had done this. Was creating these creatures in an attempt to throw us off his trail and to kill us at the same time.