Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Asleep.
For a moment, that beautiful face angled toward me was serene.
Lost to the smallest amount of that peace that I wasn’t sure she could ever find when she rested within Tearsith’s sanctuary. Her eyes had finally drifted closed just as the sun had breached the horizon and splintered the darkness with glittering white rays that had glinted over the expanse of snow that covered the Earth as we traveled.
She’d fought it, wanting to stay with me, before she finally let go when I’d whispered, “Sleep.”
The rest of our Laven family would have long since disappeared. Most awakened by now to walk through the day or still fighting in Faydor. She’d be alone, where she could find true respite from the darkness that hunted us.
Where, for a few hours, she could be removed from it.
Elevated from it.
Which was where I wanted to keep her.
All except for the twisted part of me that wanted to drag her into the depths of my own depravity. The part that wanted to give in to the way she’d looked at me while she tended to my wounds.
Like I could be everything to her if I’d just give in.
The woman was my ultimate temptation.
And fuck, that temptation was getting harder and harder to ignore. The way her fingers had felt when she gently traced them over one of the scars that littered my body. The way she’d whispered her care for me, a direct buoy to my disfigured soul. The part that wanted to turn myself over to the need that thundered through my blood whenever she was near.
It was the sick part of me that wanted to tear apart her innocence. Write myself all over it. Claim what was forbidden. This inkling at the back of my brain enticing me into believing she’d always been meant for me.
A tiny moan filtered from between her lips, and I clenched my jaw to fight the rush of lust that slammed into me at the slight sound, but there was no way to stop the way my stomach tightened into a fist of want.
You can’t have her.
I silently chanted it, driving it home and praying it would take root.
Aria was innocent.
Pure.
And I wasn’t fucking close to that.
I scrubbed a hand over my beat-to-shit face to break myself from the dangerous spiral of thoughts. I mean, fuck, she’d never even been kissed.
But that danger went so much deeper than marking her with the physical. Deeper than her innocence. Deeper than the life I’d led while awake.
It was this bond.
This bond that was so fierce and unrelenting that once our time together in the waking world was severed, I wasn’t sure how either of us would continue to stand. Experiencing the connection this way and then having it ripped from us.
I wasn’t sure how the fuck I would ever walk away from her.
Taking it further past the boundary I’d already overstepped would only make it a million times worse once the time to leave came.
A cut so deep and unbearable that it would leave a scar far worse than either of us had ever sustained.
Knowing it didn’t take away this feeling, though. The surge of possession I felt when she shifted in her seat, moaning again before she blinked open the palest gray eyes.
Face so pretty it pierced me in the chest. Mouth soft and plump and pink.
Everything about her was so familiar and warm and right that I had to force myself not to reach out and trace my fingertips down her cheek. Not to dip them in and take.
She stared for a moment before she turned her gaze away as heat rose to kiss her pale skin, like she’d borne witness to every salacious thought that had churned through my mind, and she sat up and stretched as she peered out the windshield.
“Where are we?”
The terrain had become flat, grasslands interspersed with small towns. The trees here were less dense, their branches spindly and barren in the winter cold.
“We’re getting close to Oklahoma City. I figured that’s where we’ll stop for the day. We need to rest. Shower and eat. Pick up supplies and get better clothes for you to wear. Maybe find another library to dig deeper into what we found yesterday.”
She looked down at the white tee she had on, which was smudged with my blood.
A reminder of what had happened last night.
Only it wasn’t the man who’d come for her that she immediately mentioned.
“I can’t get that little girl off my mind,” she whispered instead. “I almost thought when I closed my eyes and stepped into Tearsith, she would be there.”
Unease rattled through my consciousness. Still, I tried to play it off as inconsequential. “She’s not a part of our Laven family, Aria. Seeing her was just a coincidence.”
I didn’t know why it felt like a lie when it should be the truth. When it shouldn’t matter. But there was something about it that wouldn’t let me shake the disquiet, either.