Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
“Everyone thinks Antonio is a vampire,” Christine says with a shrug. She’s angled her body away from Ryder, probably a little turned off by seeing him pine all over me without saying a word. “What if we tell them he’s been spotted or something?”
“I’m not important enough,” Antonio says so matter of factly it’s like a punch to the gut. “That alone won’t work. We need something more…something that would draw her out into the open so we can—”
“Kill her,” Theo says suddenly, startling the hunters. Xavier gives him a shut the fuck up look I’ve seen mothers give their children when they’re misbehaving in public. “Fine. We won’t kill her,” Theo goes on, sounding bored. “We’ll get the key from her and send her on her merry way.”
“She’s in hiding,” Leo goes on. “And is taking great measures to be hard to find.”
“I don’t want to state the obvious,” one of the hunters says. “But have you tried just calling her?”
“Her phone is off and the location settings disabled,” Leo tells him. “My dad’s, too. They moved Gia to a safe place in Florida. Whatever they’re doing, they’re serious about it.”
“If they need your blood,” Christine says, “why not use yourself as bait?”
“They’d have to be quite dumb to come after Wren,” Xavier answers.
“Not if they do during the day,” Ryder says, words landing a little too harshly as he tries to get a reaction out of Xavier. Instead of taking the bait, Xavier leans back.
“You know them better than I do. Come up with something.” He raises his eyebrows and waits.
“They don’t know how to use the key,” Mabel says, filling the awkward silence. “What if Antonio really was turned because Wren selfishly wanted to build her own vampire army and he has the missing piece to complete the ritual?”
“That’s…uh…that’s…” I look at Mabel and then at Xavier, making sure he’s thinking it, too. “That’s actually a really good idea.”
“It is,” Antonio agrees. “We have to be really careful in how we deliver it, but that could work.”
I keep a steady hold of Xavier’s hand while everyone talks, ironing out the details of the plan, not telling anyone that I have my own plan, too…which is to put the key in a safe place after we get it.
And not let Vaelric out.
“We should all try and get some sleep,” Antonio says, standing up and stretching his arms out in front of him. For the last few hours, we’ve been going over plan after plan, running through every scenario we could until we came up with the best one to lure the Russos out of hiding. The two hunters—Jay and Ramon—left a bit ago, leaving Ryder and Christine to awkwardly hang back with us.
“I’m too wired to sleep,” Leo replies.
“You drank like an entire pot of coffee,” I tell him, knowing I’ll fall asleep right away the second I lay down next to Xavier. Or at least I hope so. There’s a good chance I’ll lay down and be haunted by anxious thoughts of impending doom and not be able to sleep at all. And then knowing I’ll be tired if I don’t fall asleep right now will put me into a spiral and I’ll lay awake for hours.
Xavier’s phone rings for the third time in a row and he silences the call again. It’s Victoria from the VC and nothing she has to say can be that urgent right now.
“Bloody hell,” Theo huffs when his phone rings. “Now she’s pestering me.” He picks his phone up from the table and lets out a snort of amused laughter when he reads the text. “Victoria wants to know why two goth guys on Tiktok are insisting you are a Jedi with—and I quote—Jedi mind powers.”
I look at Leo and shake my head. “Man, I wish you could remember.”
“If this has something to do with that night I got piss-ass drunk and started fights…yeah. I got nothing. I don’t remember a thing.”
“I telekinetically stopped a drunk guy from punching my even drunker brother in the face and then said I was a Jedi when he asked how I did it.”
Theo leans forward. “You told a drunk man you were a Jedi?”
“I mean, it seemed more plausible than saying I’m a witch.” I shrug. “Oh come on, like it’s not a little believable I could be a Jedi?”
“You’d be a Sith Lord,” Theo shoots back, slowly shaking his head.
“Take that back!” I exclaim, exaggerating my offense. “I do what is right for the good of the people, like a Jedi.”
“Do you?” Theo sits back, amused. “You know, the Siths think they’re right and I’m doubting if you’re even a real fan. I saw all three original movies on release day, by the way. I’m as OG as they get.”
Ryder watches our exchange, not saying a word but the judgement is there, written all over his face.