Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“Thought?” Valen sneers. “Since when does anyone of Tantun blood have thoughts?”
Gregor barks a laugh, the sound like splintering wood as Carlotta straightens, murder in her eyes.
His laugh dies abruptly. “And you, Coal, where is your human?”
“Apologies, my lord.” Coal bows. “But I fear my human didn’t leave the Black Cavern alive.”
Gregor asked this already, at the ball. Has he forgotten?
“Ah. Yes, yes.” Gregor waves a hand at him. “I shall grant you another.”
A similar echo from an old conversation. Gregor is fading all over, his body and mind dying. The wild swings of temperament, the forgetting—how long does he have left?
Gregor slumps back, his thin body like a bent branch. “Get her out of my sight before I rip her spine from her body,” he says. “You have one week, Specter. One week. If you haven’t gotten the truth from her by then, I certainly will. And then I’ll add her body to the pile of humanity.”
“Yes, High Lord.” Valen pulls me up, his grip so tight on my shoulder that I swallow a whimper. With a rough push, he walks me from the room, my veins still burning with Gregor’s blood. I’m dazed, barely aware of the hallway, the vampire guards. I can’t feel anything but the flames, the itch in my veins that consumes me. Crawling with fire ants inside and out, I sit heavily on the rail car as Valen takes his seat next to me. Then we’re moving again, the darkness becoming complete again.
“Georgia.” His mouth is at my ear. “You’ll be all right. His compulsion will fade.”
I shiver so violently he wraps both his arms around me to keep me still. He’s warm. He shouldn’t be. Just as I shouldn’t be leaning on him for comfort. But I do. I have nothing else, no one else. Only my jailor, the vampire who’s overseen every ounce of my misfortune. It’s so sick and twisted, but that’s what I am now. So much so that I press my cheek to his chest and let him hold me. His heart beats with thumping strength. He’s alive. But not. I was hoping the books would be able to enlighten me on vampire physiology, but I only have a week to live. One week before Gregor takes what little I have left.
“You can’t let him—” I fight back a sob. “Promise me you’ll kill me before the week is out.”
He hears me over the creaking carriage and the rushing air. “It won’t come to that.”
“It will.” I clutch his shirt tightly. “Promise me.”
“Never,” he says it with a vehemence that verges on feral.
Then I’m lost. I can’t end it myself, and Valen refuses. My death won’t be swift, won’t be anything other than pure brutality. Gregor will crush everything in me before he lets me die.
I try to pull away from Valen.
He grips me tightly, his whisper fervent in my ear. “I won’t let him take you from me.”
“You can’t stop him. Melody told me you can’t directly disobey him. Your blood—”
“You’re my Blood!” He cups my cheek. “You, Georgia.”
“What?”
The carriage slows.
“There’s so much. I don’t know where to—”
“Aww, a sweet moment between lovers.” Carlotta’s voice echoes around us.
Valen tenses.
“Gregor may believe your bullshit, but I don’t.”
The carriage stops with a squealing sound. Eyes wide, I try to find her in the complete black around us, but I can’t. I grip Valen’s arm.
“I don’t recall asking for your opinion.” Valen pulls me from the carriage.
“Give her to me, and I’ll have the answers from her before sunrise.” Her voice comes from everywhere all at once. “Or have you grown attached to your pet?” she taunts.
“That’s one consistent thing about you, Carlotta, you never fail to overestimate your ability.” Valen’s tone is nonchalant, but he holds my hand in a tight grip as we move through the suffocating dark. “Leave now, and I might let you live. I’m not certain, though. I’ve imagined your death quite a few times.”
“Thinking about me often, are you?” she asks coquettishly.
“Thinking about how nice your head would look on my mantle.”
“I see through you, Lord Specter. You and your lies. Whitbine wasn’t working with the humans. He was working with me. You killed him over this disgusting human swine.”
“I’m certain the high lord would love to hear all about your machinations with Whitbine. Is there anything else you’d like to confess?”
I jump when something brushes across my arm.
Valen moves faster, keeping me close at his side.
“Perhaps only one more thing.” I can hear the grin in her voice. “That little safehouse outside Atlanta, the one where you hid the CDC scientists?”
Valen’s grip tightens, and we’re all but running now.
“I raided it just last night. Your human spy was pathetically easy to track. I enjoyed killing everyone inside, especially when I realized they were working on a cure for the plague. It’s truly too bad that I destroyed every bit of equipment, then set it ablaze.”