Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
I keep staring straight ahead.
“Why are you doing this?” He pulls me up short, pushing me against the cold wall and holding me there. “Gregor is going to die. It’s just a matter of time. My sources say he may have a month left, if that. You—”
“Your sources? You mean Valen. You mean the one vampire who’s risked his life again and again to help the humans, right?” I’d push to keep going but this little respite might be what keeps me from vomiting at the moment.
His eyes flash. “He’s still one of them, Georgia. What part of that are you not getting?”
“He’s half human. Why do you always leave that part out?”
“Whatever humanity he may have had is long gone. Let him go, Georgia. He’s a monster. Let him die with the rest of them.”
“‘Die with the rest of them.’” I shake my head. “And you say he’s the monster. Your General Lopez would’ve given me anything to secure the formula for the poison. I could’ve asked for all the gold in the treasury, an entire state to make my own, and he would’ve given it to secure one vial of it. Not once did he offer a single fucking thing for the plague vaccine. Not once. Are you sure you know who the monsters are?”
“The vampires!” He slams his fist into the wall beside me. “They’re the ones killing us, Georgia. Why can’t you face that?”
“I have faced it!” I yell back. “I know what they’ve done, what they’re capable of. But saying they’re the only evil in the world is a lie, and you know it.”
“We didn’t start this—”
“And that makes it okay to end it the way General Lopez plans? To erase their existence? How are we the good guys in that scenario, Gage? We aren’t. There is good in them just like there’s good in us. I’ve seen it just like I’ve seen the depth of their depravity.”
“This is war. Do you understand that?” He takes my shoulders and shakes me. “A war for survival, and I’m making damn sure that we survive!”
I shrug out of his hold. “It’s not a zero-sum game!”
“Maybe not to you, but to the rest of us, it is. It always will be. No matter what you’re trying to accomplish with this insane plan, it won’t work. You don’t stand a chance against Gregor, against any of them. And no matter what you do, we aren’t going to live and work beside killers and pretend they’re like us.”
“We do it all the time, Gage. All the time. Your Saints killed me once upon a time. Before the plague, soldiers like you killed other humans as part of your job description. Or have you forgotten about all that? Taken our atrocities and somehow chalked them up to the vampires?”
“It’s not a competition of who’s worse,” he snaps.
“No, it’s not, but pretending we’re all good and they’re all bad is part of the problem. We know enough about them to know that isn’t true. You know it isn’t true. Their blood can save us! We need them as much as they need us.”
“All right. If you really believe that—” He sucks a tooth. “—then why did you make a deal with Lopez for the poison? Hm? Why would you agree to give him what he needs to kill all of them?”
“Because it was the only way.” Defeat dampens my words. “He wouldn’t agree to anything else. I have to get out of here. I have to try to get to Valen. The poison was the only bargaining chip I had left.”
“Well, I guess you got what you wanted out of that bargain, didn’t you? A one-way trip to your death. Maybe that’s what you’ve been after all along.” Bitterness sours his tone. “Or are you hoping Valen will turn you? Is that it?”
I stare up at him. “You really don’t know me at all.”
His gaze strays to my mouth, then back to my eyes before he pushes off the wall and grabs my elbow, pulling me along with him.
Uncomfortable silence falls between us as we trudge deeper into the base, passing a few guards who all stand at attention for Gage.
By the time we get to the helicopter pad, I’m drenched in sweat with a headache pounding between my temples.
“Sir.” A soldier salutes and climbs into the helicopter, then offers me a hand up.
“I’ve got her.” Gage lifts me easily, and I take a few shaky steps before collapsing into the hard seat. He follows me in, his hands quick with the straps.
I pull on the headphones. This set has noise, the pilot speaking about sunrise. I lean back and close my eyes as the machinery clanks and whirs, lifting us to the surface of a new day. We take off, a cold wind whipping through the open doors as we soar over the quiet landscape.