Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
Safia slid her arms around his neck. Her fingers curled into the thickness of his silvery hair. I might believe you deserve the songs they sing about you, she admitted.
His mouth moved on hers, his tongue tangling, stroking hot flashes of fire along hers, teasing her with an emotion she didn’t want to name until she wanted to crawl inside him and live there forever. The world fell away when he kissed her. There was only the two of them. No underworld. No demons. No vampires. Just feeling. Just them. She wanted just the two of them for a short while. She didn’t need a lot of time—just a little.
When Petru lifted his head slightly, his eyes gleamed so bright she could have sworn they were a true silver. Instead of looking hard, they looked liquid, as if the silver had melted with passion and . . . Her breath caught in her throat—formed a lump there. Love. He looked at her with an emotion very close to love. It was more than affection. So much more.
His smile came. Slow. Taking its time. Making her wait for it before his lips curved and his eyes flickered even brighter, as if the moon were caught there briefly. He truly was beautiful.
“I may not always feel my emotions in the way others do, Pelkgapâd és Meke Pirämet, but what I feel for you runs deep, straight and true. You will always come first in my life. No matter that Lilith will try to drive a wedge between us in the coming days, and she will, believe me. Believe in what I feel for you.”
“She’s far more powerful than I ever gave her credit for,” Safia admitted. She felt truly humbled by her mistake.
“Yes, but perhaps not nearly as prepared as she believes she is.” He brushed kisses across her nose and straightened, taking another slow look around. “Use your senses to feel the area around you. Do it often. You’re used to looking and feeling for demons. You must also be aware of the undead. You are the lifemate of Kuŋe kont ku votjak. The undead will try to find you. If they kill you, they kill me.”
“I don’t know how to search for vampires.”
“You do it all the time when you search for evidence of demons intruding. You know what the undead feel like. You’ve felt the evidence often in my mind. Follow the path with me as I scan, and then do it yourself,” he instructed.
Petru was correct in that looking for vampires wasn’t really any different from searching for signs of demons. The undead gave away their presence as well. They were abominations, and any living creature, grass, shrub or tree shrank from them. If vegetation came in contact with the undead, it turned brown and eventually withered and died. When vampires took to the sky, blank spots gave their presence away. The newer vampires were much easier to spot than masters, but even the older ones were so malevolent that nature rebelled against them, shuddering and receding in an effort to avoid contact.
Safia caught on very quickly and followed Petru’s example, scanning the city, the harbor, the farmlands—everywhere her senses would stretch. She found that being Carpathian gave her a longer reach and much more acute senses.
“Why did you say Lilith is not as prepared for war as she believes she is?” Safia asked.
Petru cupped the side of her face, the pad of his thumb tracing her dimple. “The belief was that she allowed so much time to go by because she wanted your family and me to forget about her. That would mean she had patience. Lilith doesn’t have patience, Safia. That is not one of her traits. She is cruel and vengeful. She was defeated in a war she had invested everything in. I struck at her and damaged her severely. It took her two thousand years to regain her full strength. That’s why she waited, not because she had patience.”
Safia nodded. She may have been a child of five in her previous life, but she remembered that moment when Petru had struck at Lilith. The entire battlefield had gone silent, so sure that Petru would take Safia and leave them to their fate. Safia had known better. He was Aghzen n wayur. Moon monster. Amnay n wayur. Moon knight. Their savior. He had come down from the moon to fight with them, to lead the way to victory. He struck so fast he was a blur, like the very lightning he called from the sky. The devil woman had shrieked out her rage and agony, her promise of bitter, endless retaliation. Putrid smoke rose from the hole in the ground where lightning had slammed deep, and the noxious smell had tainted the entire battlefield.
“Lilith would never have waited for her revenge. She would have done her best to wipe out your entire family, Safia. She would never have taken a chance that you would be born again carrying the other half of my soul.”