Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 101147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
“Not to his penthouse,” Roan says. “I would bet he took her to his company headquarters. It’s one of the reasons I broke the contract. I suspected he wanted to hurt the consorts, both yours and the queen. I didn’t spend much time there. I know the main office, but again, I think he’ll avoid it. If we call the cops in, it would be the first place they would look. Palgrave Industries has a couple of different arms. Some of the small divisions are in other buildings across the city. Can we look up the building plans?”
Julian whispers something to his employee, who turns and takes off running. “I’ll do one better. I can get you a guide.”
I don’t want a guide. I want that gun Meg carries around. It’s still buried where Kaja hid it.
While everyone else keeps talking, I close my eyes and try to find her. Acting on pure instinct, I open my mind and call to her.
Nothing. I practically scream in my head, and then a tiny whimper. If I never felt it before, I would blow it off as an incidental sound, but now I grab on to that one tiny sound and hold on for dear life. I focus, forcing away the rest of the noise in my head. Her mind is cloudy, unable to think in a clear pattern.
She’s afraid. I hear one word play in her drug-addled brain over and over again.
Dante.
She wants me to come for her. My whole body aches at her fear. I want to kill Chalen Palgrave, but more than that, I want to comfort her. I brought her to this plane where she won’t ever be accepted. I brought her to this.
Hush, sweetheart. I’m coming. I am going to be there, and you’re going to be fine.
I force my own panic to a much deeper place, one that Kaja can’t feel. She needs me to be calm. She’s alone and scared and has no idea why she can’t think straight. I know. I went to enough parties in college to recognize the drugs they gave Kaja. I send out soothing thoughts.
I get a flash of white—so white. All the lights are white, and the man is white, and she is in a cage. The entire vision is disorienting. My stomach churns. Kaja is handling the drugs well. Gods, how much did they give her?
I open my eyes. And then narrow them because I can’t quite believe what I’m seeing. “Meg?”
The queen of the Seelie Fae stands there dressed outrageously in a red leather bustier and what I worry will turn out to be a thong. She’s wearing stilettos that add at least four and a half inches to her petite frame.
“Does Beck know you’re here? Gods, Meggie, he’s not just going to spank you this time. He’s going to go crazy. You go and change into something decent right now. Do you understand me? I do not have time for this. You will change, and you will get in the car I’m going to call for you, and you will go back to my house. You will not step foot outside the Dellacorp building, or Beck won’t be the only one who spanks you.”
Meg’s eyes go wide, and then she falls to her knees in a perfect submissive pose. She turns her face up to Julian, and there’s a placid smile on her lips. “Oh, he’s lovely, Sir. Is he my new Master? You promised to find me one. He’s so commanding.”
Roan elbows him with a shake of his head. “Take another look. She doesn’t glow, Dellacourt.”
Fuck him. Roan is right. This woman looks like Meg, but she doesn’t have Meg’s glow. This Meg is a vampire. It’s odd to see her like this, but it’s only fair. After all, according to Meg, she met my human self when she was on the Earth plane.
Julian places a hand on Vampire Meg’s head. “Sorry, Megan, he’s taken. But I will pair you with a Master when I find the right one. I need your help for another reason. I need to know how to get into the Palgrave Industries building.”
Her familiar face goes blank, and her eyes cast down. “I’m sure they’re closed at this time of night, Sir.”
Julian is obviously having none of it. “Yes, and you, you clever and bratty sub, know how to get around that, don’t you? You know how to get in and how to do it quietly, so no one knows you’re coming.”
Her auburn hair shakes. “I’m not allowed to do anything illegal. I remember everything you said to me after the last time you bailed me out of jail. I am a very good girl.”
No, she isn’t. She’s lying. Even I can see that.
“You’re a masochist is what you are, Megan.” Julian gently pulls her head back. “If I didn’t already have a couple of beloved submissives, I would take care of your discipline on my own. I’ll leave it to Master Leo. It’s not going to go well for you, but I might tell him to allow you to come if you fess up right now. Otherwise, you’ll be on the cross for hours with no relief.”