Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 62528 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62528 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
Her eyes softened. “Oh gods, Damien.” Regret filled her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Don’t be mad, okay? I swear I didn’t know. I just wanted to help my family.”
“What did you…” A seven-foot-tall figure exited the warehouse. He had long blue-black hair and turquoise eyes.
“Votan?” Damien asked. “What are you doing here?”
Right behind him came twelve other gods, including Ixtab, the Goddess of Suicide; Belch, the God of Wine; Forgetty, the Goddess of Forgetfulness; and Zac, the God of Seduction.
Why are they all here at SBP? he wondered.
Just then, Cimil wandered out. “Hey, tailor. Did Sky fill you in yet?”
“Fill me in on—”
Like a storm, men in camo came from every direction, pointing guns at them.
“Hold your fire!” Gabrán walked out from behind a car in the parking lot. “Sir, I thought you were getting ready to leave for Pompeii?” he said to Votan.
“Change of plans, General.” Votan wiggled his brows. “I have work to do. So do you because the gods are out of retirement. But first, a nap. Must rest up.”
Damien looked at a smiling, giddy Cimil just as his phone vibrated.
“Hello?” Damien answered.
“Tailor! What the fuck is happening?” Votan roared.
Damien looked at his device and then at the man walking away. It suddenly clicked. “Cimil, what did you do?”
She shrugged. “Pure magic.” She waved her hands in the air. “Viva la revolution.”
Cimil loaded into an RV with the rest of the gods. She got behind the wheel and rolled down the window. “Ten o’clock sharp tomorrow, Sky baby! See you then.”
Cimil tore out of the parking lot, nearly taking down several Uchben in the process.
Damien turned to Sky. “Sky, what is this?”
She bit her lip. “Cimil promised to free my sister and nephew and give me a new body.”
“In exchange for?”
“She wants you all to herself. She says you’re instrumental to changing the world for the better.”
So this entire thing had been just another crazy, twisted Cimil plot to detach Sky from his life. Sky didn’t even have a clue that she’d gotten help from the very being who ratted her out to SBP.
Damien inhaled slowly, checking his rage. “Sky, you need to know that—”
“I’m sorry, Damien. But I really didn’t think you loved me. And honestly, I’m not sure it would’ve made a difference. Family first, yanno?”
“So you promised to dump me?”
“That and I can’t ever bother SBP again. Or the governor.”
He nodded at the ground, feeling his anger bubble.
She exhaled. “I have to go now. My family’s waiting.”
How could she do this to him?
“Tailor! Tailor, do not make me come there and strangle you!” Votan’s voice echoed over the cell.
Damien raised the phone to his ear. “I told you, Votan. I fucking warned you. Cimil is always ten steps ahead.”
“What the devil, man?”
“She was not raising an army. She was raising a new family.”
Damien hung up. I am done with all this.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Bernard, I know it’s a dragon lying there,” Jac said hurriedly, standing just outside her cottage after spending all night recapturing some of the world’s deadliest snakes, “but I don’t have time to explain. I have a plane to catch, okay?”
His eyes remained glued to the enormous ten-ton lizard. “Tha-that’s a dragon,” he stammered again.
“Yes, but I need you to focus on the animals…” Her voice trailed off. He still wasn’t listening. “Bernard!” She snapped her fingers in his face.
Bernard’s glazed-over eyes slowly unlatched from the flying battleship on the ground.
“Can you hold down the fort until I get back?” she begged. “Please? I shouldn’t be more than a day or two. I hope.”
“You’re leaving?” he asked.
While she’d been collecting snakes last night, bawling out her eyes over Dash, something Cimil and Damien had discussed popped in her head. They’d mention a new body for that ghost, Sky. A body she no longer wanted.
That was when the idea hit her! We’ll give the body to Dash. He can have it! No, she wasn’t into women, but this wasn’t about sex, romance, or anything like that. She couldn’t stand the idea of Dash being stuck between worlds forever. Freeing him was all that mattered. And who knew? Maybe over time, a male body might come up for grabs. Not that she knew if any of this would work.
Could a disembodied vanity demon’s soul be summoned and then inserted into a new human shell? How were the bodies made?
Either way, going to Cimil and asking for help was a bad idea, but Damien seemed to know his way around her tricks and traps. Unfortunately, when Jac called him last night, he’d completely brushed her off. Never even called me back! Then he stopped answering his cell. This was too important to sit around waiting for action. Especially because that new body could go to someone else.
“Yes. I have to get to LA. Can you take care of the sanctuary?” she asked.