Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 121008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
I hear—no, feel—Meggie’s scream. It spurs me to action. I take a single, strong punch from a second attacking vamp. Several more step forward to take a shot, too. The vamp on my neck pushes at me, trying to get a better angle. I reach up and pull him off my back, tossing him into the vampires attacking my front. The place where the vamp’s fangs sank in aches. The fucker has gotten away with a hunk of my flesh.
It doesn’t matter. I heal quickly.
I move even faster. I skewer the vamp who took a chunk out of me, and my aim is perfect. The vamp explodes, even as I pull my sword out and move on to the next.
The blood and gore is having an effect on the vamps as well. Two of the vampires have turned on each other. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight as they scream, fangs and claws out. The pair attacks each other viciously. They sink their claws into each other’s bellies, and the high-pitched sound of their pain riles me up even faster. The two quickly drop to the ground. They roll in the sand, each desperate to gut the other. Vampires, for all their claims to civilization, are as brutal as the rest of the planes.
There are only six left, and two are doing their damnedest to kill each other. A fierce joy races through me as I bring the hilt of my sword down on a vamp I trip as he attempts to run away. Silly creature. There’s nowhere to run. I raise the sword to bring it down on the vamp’s throat. I’m swinging it in an arc toward my unconscious rival’s body when I’m tackled from the side.
Rage pours through me as I hit the sand. How fucking dare…
“Quarter!” the vampire yells as he scrambles to get his knife properly in hand. “He’s out, Beck. You can’t kill a man who’s already gone down.”
It’s the same vampire who drew Dante’s ire before the battle. He’s covered in sweat and blood. His hood has fallen back, and his pale skin is already burning. “Give it a rest, Beck. It’s over. The female is yours. We surrender.”
I don’t properly process the words the vampire speaks. I hear them but what I feel is anger and a need to kill until none of them are left. Only then will I be able to properly protect Meggie. They’ll come after her. They won’t stop. The vampire offers me a hand up because I’m on my back in a submissive position. I am not fucking submissive. This is never acceptable. I can hear my father telling me to shove this part of my personality down, that it’s evil. But I don’t care at this point. With a single hand, I toss the vampire away like he’s a child’s toy. Somewhere in the back of my rage-addled head, I see that the gnomes have taken to the floor. They’re trying to help out the injured combatants.
It no longer matters. My rage requires blood.
“He’s gone insane!” Palgrave shouts, trying to get the referee’s attention. “You have to put him down.” The vampire backs up as I growl low in my throat and begin to stalk him. He tosses down his knife and shows me his empty hands. He retracts his claws, but the fangs remain. “I concede, Beck. We all concede.”
A horn blares but it’s a distant, meaningless thing compared to the roar in my ears. There are still bodies twitching. My work can’t possibly be finished. My senses open, and everywhere I smell glorious death. The vamp is forced against back the arena wall. He tries to shrink back as though he can force the stone walls to pull him in.
“I am asking for mercy, Your Highness.” There’s a hitch in the vampire’s voice that sparks my predatory instincts. He pulls away as though trying to disappear inside himself.
It won’t stop me.
I smell the fear on him. I raised my sword as the crowd begins to scream, but it’s a single voice that stays my hand.
“He asked for mercy, Beck,” a soft feminine voice says. “There’s no reason to kill him.”
Meggie. She’s here. The vamp takes the opportunity to run. I’m too shook by Meg’s presence to do anything about it. Dante stands at her side.
Dante was tasked with protecting her. Dante is the reason she is in the middle of a deadly battle. “Get her out of here. How dare you allow her on the battlefield!”
Dante has the good sense to back up. “The battle is done, cos. It’s time for you to come down now.”
“Not until I’m finished,” I promise, my voice rough with dark emotion. Jealousy threatens to take over. What was my cousin doing all this time he was sitting beside my woman? Has Dante been courting her? Dante has no consort. Does he think he can steal Meggie? “You should never have walked out here. Are you challenging me?”