Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 142916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Tora, although much older, with a vast amount of information on hunting demons, guarding gates and destroying vampires, didn’t argue with her. She trusted Silke as the slayer, with hundreds of years of knowledge passed from mother to daughter. She trained with Silke nightly and knew her abilities. That alone gave Silke confidence in herself, but she also was very aware of the buildup of the enemy. They were becoming much more aggressive, the storms more frequent and much more violent.
“Testing us,” she murmured again.
“We need to continue on as though we’ve failed to spot them,” Tora said. “The only thing we have going for us is the element of surprise. They can’t know our strengths or weaknesses. We must outsmart them and hope our reinforcements get here on time.”
Silke knew they needed the Carpathian warriors to aid them. There was no hope of winning an intense battle, even in the forest of secrets, without help. She was very conflicted over who would be coming. Every year from the age of two to twenty-three, Silke had opened a package on her birthday containing recordings from Astrid, her mother. Prior to giving birth, she must have had a premonition she wouldn’t survive. Silke came from a long line of women with special gifts. All who knew Astrid testified that she had special talents in abundance.
Silke was fourteen when Astrid’s now familiar voice told her to go to Tora and ask questions about a species of people called Carpathians. Silke always looked forward to listening to her mother’s voice and hearing her advice. This was the first time the recording hadn’t been just personal advice from mother to daughter. There weren’t her usual thoughts on the recording or even tips on fighting demons. Astrid instead detailed how important it was for her to learn about the Carpathian species and reiterated several times that she was to rely on Tora to educate her.
Silke had grown up speaking an ancient language, one that Tora referred to as Carpathian. She’d asked, of course, where its origin was, but Tora had simply said she would reveal all to her in time. Silke was so busy learning everything from fighting skills to other languages that she had stopped asking. Now, her mother had specifically instructed her to learn what she could about the Carpathian people from Tora.
Tora had been her best friend almost from the first day Silke could remember, even before she could walk. Tora was kind and patient, and Silke considered her family, a sibling. Since both of her parents had died, as a child Silke clung to Tora. She always seemed older, although when they were children, she couldn’t have been more than five years older—at least that was what Silke had thought at the time.
“When I first asked you about the Carpathian species, you told me they were warriors, hunting vampires,” Silke said to Tora. “At that time, you said they slept in rejuvenating soil and drank blood without killing their donors. You told me they had tremendous powers, including shape-shifting and flying. You were very matter-of-fact. I didn’t have any trouble understanding or believing. Mostly because I knew you. When you told me that every gift comes with drawbacks, and you explained that Carpathians were nearly immortal but would become paralyzed during daylight hours and come out only at night, I realized you were Carpathian. You visited me at night, never during the day. Only once in that conversation did you mention demons and Carpathians in the same breath. I thought you meant vampires, but you didn’t, did you?”
Tora shook her head. “Carpathians view vampires as just that—vampires. They’re wholly evil and prey on every species on this earth they can. They create flesh-eating puppets and ruin the land. They have made alliances in the underworld recently. Banding together and making alliances is new, from what I’m told.”
That didn’t explain the demon reference Tora had so casually made all those years ago. Silke knew where vampires came from. When she turned fifteen, she learned that aside from being a demon slayer, her mother had also passed on another responsibility—a huge one. Silke guarded the soul of a Carpathian warrior. If that wasn’t fantasy, what was? When a Carpathian male was born, his soul split. He retained all the darkness, and somewhere, a female child was born with the other half of the soul made up of his light. His task was to find her and bind their souls together. It wasn’t easy to find their lifemate, and many of them succumbed to temptation, turning vampire, forcing friends to hunt them. The woman could die, and the soul would be born again and again for as long as the Carpathian male still existed.
The thought of such a responsibility at fifteen was disconcerting. Still, at fifteen, none of the things she learned about Carpathians seemed real. They were larger-than-life heroes, hunting vampires and keeping mankind safe. They were warriors fighting for others despite the constant whisper of temptation to kill while feeding just so they would feel a rush. Those were facts she’d learned from Tora.