Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“My turn?” Tabby laughs.
Skor snorts.
“You can all hate me as long as you like. But I’m going to look after my babies, and yours too, probably,” he says. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life, however long it is, looking after you, Tabby, and the pups we have. I promise.”
Thorn strolls over, still naked. People are going to make calls to the authorities.
The three of us stand in the bushes, next to some old, crushed beer cans.
“We are family. Do you understand? There are no loyalties outside this. Only to each other,” I say. “No captives. No vampires. No zombies.”
Tabby sighs.
“What?”
“It’s going to be boring,” she says.
“It’s not. It’s going to be an adventure like none you’ve ever had before. It’s going to be full of love, in a new city, where every day there’s a new wonder, and you’re going to learn what it’s like to have babies and a family that loves you so deeply they won’t let you be eaten by monsters in the dark.”
Tabby smiles, and I watch as her eyes go a little bit watery. When I met this woman, I thought she was too everything. Too young, too wild, too scrappy.
Now I know I love all those too’s. I can’t wait to raise a whole pack of little creatures just like her, and me, and Thorn, and yes, I suppose we have space for a few little Skors as well.
CHAPTER 16
Tabby
Eclipse City is like a mountain range, except flat. There are so many buildings, and they’re so tall they all look like crags in their own right. We drive through them in the car, which has a shiny pad on the back of the front seat where you can watch pictures move and make sounds. I’ve spent much of the journey here watching a hand-drawn pig have tepid adventures.
Now, as the world elevates itself around me and buildings of all kinds rise above my head to giddying heights while lights and little metal creatures rush about in the sky, I am entranced by what I see.
“How many people live here?”
“Oh, millions,” Krall says.
There are hundreds of them around us right now. Thousands probably. They’re wandering around, driving about, whizzing on motorbikes.
“What are the pretty yellow ones?”
“They’re delivery bikes. There’s a rumor the king’s mate likes to drive one of them when the mood takes her.”
We drive through the vast city all the way to the river, where a glorious palace stands in a fancy sort of way. None of this looks real to me. This is all just generally outlandish. The palace is large enough that hundreds of people would have to live in it just to make it make any kind of sense.
“Are we going in there?”
“We are. We are expected.”
Now it makes sense why he made us all get changed before we came. The men are all wearing suits with high collars, broad shoulders, tight pants, and tall boots. I am wearing a black dress that covers all the indiscreet parts of my body. My hair has been put up into a style that Krall described as tidy.
We get out, Krall taking the lead and me walking behind him with Skor and Thorn flanking me. Someone comes and takes the car away, though he has an expression on his face like it should probably be burned rather than parked. This is a place where only very fancy things happen, I can tell.
There are a lot of uniformed guards around the place, but they sort of defer to us as we walk into the palace under garden arches. It’s very pretty, with many exotic plants, a lot of which threaten to make me sneeze.
We are met just inside the palace by a very tall and handsome wolf-man with an incredible beard and piercing eyes. He greets Krall like a brother, extending his arms and drawing him into an embrace.
“Krall! We are honored to have you here. It has been too long!”
“What’s going on?”
“Krall’s kind of a big deal,” Thorn murmurs to me. “He’s a war hero, basically. He’s killed more vampires than the rest of us put together.”
“Really? I never saw him kill anything. He just growls and snaps and…”
“This is my pack, and my mates,” Krall says. “Tabby, Thorn, and Skor.”
The older wolf gives us all a onceover and nods. “You are all honored guests of the king.”
We are drawn into the royal household and once again I have the feeling that I am living in a dream. I am far from the windswept mountains where dark things roam. Here the only dark thing is Skor and he has been more like a muted shade of gray lately. This is a world of riches and pageantry and finery. We are served on delicate plates and the food is of a kind I have never imagined could exist. It’s all complicated and so good, I think it’s going to ruin me.