Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 115432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
“Stop!” I called out, and time froze, but I was dizzy. It was only for a split second, so all I could do was throw them back out of the burning cabin.
“Druella. We need to go!” Theseus rushed back to my side, holding me and giving me back the book. “There are too many of them. And you’ve used too much magic already.”
He was right.
I didn’t realize how much magic I’d been using—flying and rewinding time. I wasn’t even sure if the magic I used with the book affected me. And now this battle, on top of no rest. We needed to regroup. I looked at the flames all around us, eating away at our sanctuary, the place where he and I could escape being a witch and a vampire.
It was all over.
There really was no turning back now.
“Where do I go?”
“Hold me.”
It was the best and only choice.
* * *
“Of all the women, it’s her? And on top of that, you thought the wise thing to do was to bring her here?”
I knew that voice.
“Where else am I supposed to take her?” Theseus?
“Out of the country, maybe off the planet, because her coven won’t stop even in Ankeiros,” the other one spoke again, and I was trying to place where I’d heard it before.
“They are not as powerful without her,” Theseus replied.
“We do not know that. And even if it is true, she’ll most likely become a vampire now, and guess what? All that power will be gone.”
“Taelon, we have no other choice for now.”
Taelon as in Taelon Swan?
I opened my eyes, but everything was still spinning, so I closed them. Finally, when I opened my eyes again, I saw an unfamiliar ceiling. I rolled over, and beside the table was a photo of an Asian couple in black and white. Hearing the door open and feeling the presence of a vampire, I sat up fully, hands up and magic at the ready. The short, older woman with white hair and wrinkled skin lifted the tray of food for me to see.
I stared at her, unsure of what I was supposed to say.
Carefully, the older woman came closer and set the tray at the end of the bed before leaving quicker than I could blink, which was disturbing, considering her age. Who in the hell made an old lady like her a vampire?
I glanced back at the warm chicken soup and cupcake that had been prepared. It looked as if it were store-bought and carefully arranged like a school lunch. My stomach growled in hunger, and just as I was about to eat, I remembered the voices speaking. Taelon Swan?
Taelon Swan, mate of Lucy Ming!
Jumping out of bed, I ran out the door and down the staircase, following where I sensed them until I got to a small room, a library, where he stood dressed in a three-piece suit, standing across from Theseus. Both of them looked over to me the moment I nearly blasted the door down.
“Druella—”
I moved Theseus to the side with my magic before he could stop me and grabbed Taelon’s tie.
“Careful, this was a gift—”
“Shut up,” I hissed, gripping tighter. “Where is your mate?”
His eyes narrowed on me. “Ms. Omeron, you are in my home, and this is not Omeron land. Not that you would be welcome either—”
“I do not give a shit! Where is Lucy Ming!” I hollered in his face. “She will pay for what she did!”
He grabbed my wrist and growled at me. “I will hand you to your coven on a plate of gold before I ever let you touch her!”
“Taelon!” Theseus snapped.
“You’re—whatever she is—is threatening my mate. I will not stand for it.”
“How about you burn for it—”
“I’m here,” a small voice came from the left of me.
When I turned to look, it was the same old vampire woman. “Who are you?”
“Lucy Ming,” she said.
“You’re a little too old, physically. I am not in the mood for your vampire games. I want Lucy Ming!”
“I am Lucy Ming,” she said sternly, her voice annoyed. She was annoyed with me? “Taelon, it’s all right.”
“Do you not see she is still holding me by the neck?” he snapped at her.
When I looked at him and saw the concern, the fear in his eyes, I knew that, somehow, this older woman was her. So I let him go.
“Everything has consequences, and I will own up to mine. Show my real self,” she demanded.
“Lucy,” he whispered. When she smiled and nodded, he sighed, his shoulders dropping.
It felt like magic because it was magic. There, before my eyes, the older woman became young again, with perfect skin, bright-pink lips, and long, beautiful, black hair. In my mind, for a split second, I remembered the monster I had seen as a child. Not all cleaned and polished like she was now in front of me, but snarling, her clothes and mouth covered in blood. They were one and the same—this vampire and the beast that tried to kill me. The beast who…who killed Magdalena.