Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 125179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
“Do you have a better idea?” asked Claud.
“I do,” Wynter cut in, rolling onto her back.
The vampires looked down at her, their bodies tense, their mouths open wide. Before any had the chance to strike, her monster took over.
*
Wynter stumbled forward as she came back to herself. She was on her feet, so she clearly hadn’t passed out this time. She wasn’t injured, but her skin and clothes were streaked with blood. Oh, grand.
As for the vampires, well, going by the large scattering of ashes they were all in fact dead. There was enough blood to suggest that her monster had brutally torn into them as it killed them. Its mood was still foul, though. Mostly because the entity was too close to Aeon for its liking. The monster loathed that place. It wouldn’t be happy to return unless it would be free to feast on its residents.
Damn, it was gonna take her a while to get back to Devil’s Cradle. It sucked that she had no way of contacting anyone to give them her location and assure them that she was fine. One touch to her soul would confirm for Cain that she wasn’t dead, but it wouldn’t tell him that she was safe. Hopefully neither he nor her coven would do anything stupid.
Had anyone even realized that she was missing yet? Maybe. Maybe not. Her coven would assume she was in the shed as usual. They might not notice she’d disappeared until they wondered why she hadn’t returned to the cottage at the end of the workday.
People would eventually notice that Wynter was gone. Some would soon be looking for her. They’d assume she’d been taken and they would try to find her. The problem was that they weren’t likely to come this far out, since they probably wouldn’t suspect that she’d been teleported anywhere. And even if they did, they wouldn’t manage to cover the distance in a hurry unless they used a teleporter—one who would probably aimlessly ’port from spot to spot in the hope of stumbling upon her.
One thing was for certain: she wasn’t going to simply wait here for someone to appear and rescue her ass. Not Wynter’s style. She’d try to make at least part of the journey home herself.
Well, she had no intention of making it on foot.
After magickly returning her sword to the wardrobe in Cain’s chamber, she walked among the blanket of ashes in search of something that Enzo had earlier dropped and—aha—she found his key fob. Soon, she was in the SUV . . . at which point she realized that she had no clue which direction she needed to head in. Figuring that following the tire tracks the vampires left behind would likely take her home, she did exactly that.
As she drove, she thought of all the things that Kali had told her. Things that Wynter wouldn’t have begun to guess at. Things that the deity had made clear that Cain and the other Ancients couldn’t yet know.
Wynter hadn’t reacted so well on learning just how many things had been kept from her. She’d cursed, she’d hissed, she’d even yelled. Kali thankfully hadn’t gotten pissed. She’d only calmly asked, “Can you tell me that my reasoning for withholding the information until now was not sound?”
The bitch of it was that, no, Wynter hadn’t been able to say that. Not when she could look back and see just how many decisions she might not have made if she’d known everything from the outset. A lot of things might have played out very differently.
Wynter also hadn’t been able to claim that the Ancients should be immediately made aware of all that she now knew. It didn’t seem fair that they were in the dark, and she hated the thought of keeping it all from Cain. But she understood why Kali had insisted on it. The deity was right to believe that the Ancients wouldn’t react well to what they’d soon learn. If they learned it too soon . . . well, the consequences wouldn’t be good.
Approximately three and a half hours into Wynter’s journey home, the SUV sputtered to a stop. She’d ran out of gas. Motherfucker. She slammed her hands on the wheel as she spat a string of curses.
Slipping out of the vehicle, she let out a heavy sigh and felt her shoulders slump. Walking the rest of the way really did not appeal to her. It would take her days to get home.
God, all she wanted was to get a hug from Cain, see her coven, shower the day away, and then see to it that Shelia paid for what she’d done. Was that really so much to ask?
Figuring she should be at least grateful that the sun was close to setting and wouldn’t beat at her skin, Wynter rolled back her shoulders and began to walk. Until that moment, she’d never been more grateful for choosing immortality. It meant she could keep up a decent pace, wouldn’t tire as quickly, and had good enough stamina that she wouldn’t need to repeatedly stop to rest.