Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 128087 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128087 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Lazaar was about to ask for clarification, but a sensation of fear and intense anger consumed him before a glint of flames through the trees made him want to retreat.
Three men emerged through the dense forest.
A hooded being with a stern, scarred face sat atop a massive beast taller than Justice. The animal stood with a gorgeous fall of black hair. Lazaar realized it was a horse.
But it was the second being with sizzling embers dripping from the exposed skin on his arms—standing amid heat waves—that made the hair on the back of his neck rise.
He walked side by side with a tall man in sleek clothes like the Vampire King, but instead of close-cut hair like Wick, this one had shiny, waist-length black hair with a stark silver streak on the right side.
He was gorgeous, but the one beside him, with the fiery ring around his coal-black eyes, made darkness swim in Lazaar’s veins.
He was drawn to it but kept his feet rooted in place.
The burning one spoke, and to his surprise, he wasn’t afraid.
Is he a fire god?
The Vampire King extended his hand in the man’s direction. “Prince Lazaar, this is my second-in-command, Belleron Liatos, the Lord High. Accompanying him is one of his three mates, Wrath.”
Wrath?
“Brothers, this is the dark prince the Mother and I sent to the secluded realm.”
“He is a tribrid.” Wrath’s voice was a rumble that hurt Lazaar’s chest as he moved forward with his mate tucked behind him. “Evil personified. I should kill him now before he ascends.”
Lazaar bristled, tired of them talking about him as if he weren’t there and his life was not his own.
The ground trembled.
“I am not bad, nor am I evil. I am not a prince. I am simply a peaceful lord from a peaceful land.”
“What you are is a threat to Earth and my mates,” Wrath warned in a fierce growl, snarling at Justice while sparks fell around him. “If you leave him here, there won’t be a place he can hide. As I’ve felt his presence, so will others, and only the top-level demons will come for him. He’ll be caught and forced to serve them.”
No, please.
Wrath didn’t stop his condemnation.
“His vampire half is the most dangerous. After he feeds for the first time, his thirst for blood will consume him. There has never been a tribrid. It’s forbidden to create one, and for good reason, Justice. When he reaches maturity and acquires his full power, there’ll be no barrier that will keep him out, no vampire or wolf who can best him. We must get—”
The Mother held her hand up, and Wrath clamped his mouth shut.
“I promised his fathers I would do all within my authority to save Lazaaras from evil, even from himself. He won’t ascend until he has embraced the dark. I still have time.”
The Mother held her arm toward the hooded man, who’d yet to speak.
“Adres, Titan of the West Wind, I will need your help to send him to Tir Scáthanna.”
Lazaar shook his head in disbelief. The Land of Three Suns.
She smiled in his direction. “A beloved with a titan’s heart can save you from the evil your vampire possesses, the form that came from your mother.”
The hooded man climbed off his horse and stood at her side. She closed her eyes and blew a soft breath on the wind that shimmered in the air and flew toward the East.
Lazaar
Tir Scáthanna ~ Land of Three Suns
Lazaar slammed into the ground like a ten-ton boulder.
A second later, Oleksandr landed beside him with a painful grunt, and even Myst squawked and flailed in the sky until she got her bearings.
The side of his head throbbed from the impact, frustration, and annoyance. He got to his feet, his legs trembling as he realized he was standing on foreign ground.
“What is this? Where are we? Olek, what in the gods’ name is going on?” Lazaar fired off questions before his guardian even lifted his face out of the bright green grass.
“Give me a minute, lord.” Oleksandr gasped, squinting through the thick canopy of trees.
Lazaar turned in so many directions he felt sick to his stomach.
With labored breaths, he inhaled fresh air that smelled sweet like honey, unlike his shadowed world with its monotone landscape and smoky air.
All he knew was that he was no longer in the Earth Realm. There, the single sun had been a blinding ball of gas that burned too hot for him—an apparent descendant of a fire lord—to look at.
In this world, the multiple suns shone like liquid gold in the indigo sky, almost welcoming the gazes of their admirers.
Creatures of all kinds were full of curiosity and scampered around his feet with their twitching bushy tails.
Lazaar didn’t know where the sweet songs and tweets of joy came from until he gazed high into the trees and saw birds of every hue staring back at him.