Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 58532 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58532 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
I make the vampire doll stand taller than the girl.
“I will take care of you,” I say for him.
“Do you love me?” my Blair doll asks.
“Yes, I love you. You’re a special girl.”
I wish I could tell my best friend Laura about my vampire dolls and my special blood, but my mommy and daddy said that Laura’s family doesn’t know the secret. Not many human families know about the special blood and special vampires.
I’m not allowed to talk about any of it at school. Or at church. Or anywhere, really. And I only ever hear my parents talk about it when certain people are at our house. Only humans who know. And vampires too. Sometimes my mommy and daddy have special vampires at our house. They’re big, strong men and they’re kind of scary, but I think that’s just because they’re so strong.
“I won’t tell anyone about the secret,” my Blair doll says to the vampire doll.
“Good. You’re a good special girl,” the vampire doll says.
“And you love me?”
“And I love you.”
I set the vampire doll down and smooth the Blair doll’s hair down her back. “You don’t have to worry,” I tell her. “A vampire will choose you. Because you have the special blood.”
My mommy says when I’m a grown-up girl, I’ll go to secret special events and a vampire man will choose me because he loves me and my special blood.
“They’ll feel it,” Mommy told me. “And you will too.”
I pick my favorite vampire doll back up, the blond one with the green-but-sometimes-purple eyes and examine his face closer.
“When I grow up and get chosen,” I whisper. “I hope it’s someone like you.”
Kane
If this were a normal party, I’d be enjoying myself.
I’d work the room, make people laugh their asses off, and probably convince at least three total strangers they’ve known me for years. I’d flirt a little with the bartender in the name of getting her to employ longer pours and talk the host into letting us fuck around with karaoke rather than listen to this fancy classical shit.
I bring golden-retriever-with-a-knife energy.
I’m charming as shit and excellent at making friends, but if someone starts trouble, I won’t hesitate to be the one to end it—or them.
But this isn’t a normal party, and tonight, I can’t be myself at all.
Tonight, I’m background noise.
Tonight, I’m a nobody in a mask.
Being invisible is not my natural state, but if I let even ten percent of my personality out in this room, someone would notice. And if someone notices, someone dies.
Real talk, my brother Cal and I should not be here. Naturally, that means it was mostly my idea, and the purpose of our mission is to find out how far up shit’s creek we are.
Very early this morning, my brothers and I may have made a slightly controversial decision involving the elites—by killing three of their gofers in Kylie Moon’s driveway and kidnapping her.
Technically, we rescued her. Though, I’m guessing the elites won’t be interested in that particular distinction since they’re the villains in our scenario.
But Kylie Moon doesn’t belong to the elites; she belongs to my elder brother, Rook. They’re fated. Written in the fucking stars. Which means right now he’s holed up somewhere safe with her, probably basking in the glow of what happens when destiny finally stops dragging its feet and gets naked.
Lucky bastard.
Meanwhile, Cal and I are standing in the middle of a ballroom full of elite vampires who would happily rip our heads off if they knew who we were.
Rook doesn’t know we’re here here, though, and he wouldn’t like it if he did. He thinks we’re running surveillance from a safe distance. He doesn’t have a clue we walked straight into the viper’s den.
I adjust my mask and give my best impression of an apathetic GQ model in a tuxedo.
Across the ballroom, my brother Cal stands like a marble statue, pretending not to hear every heartbeat in the room. He’s the youngest of us three Slater brothers, and I swear, his hearing is supernatural even by vampire standards. Most vampires can hear things humans can’t, but Cal could hear a squirrel fart three counties over if he focused hard enough.
“Tell me again why I didn’t draw the straw for the brother who gets to stay with the girl?” I tease, murmuring so quietly, I’m basically just moving my lips.
Cal glances up, meeting my eyes, and the look on his face says, Stop being such an annoying fuck right now.
This is what I’m talking about. The Avengers would kill for hearing like his.
Chastised, I fade into the background as much as I can, and it’s clear by the way Cal is basically standing between two lush potted plants across the ballroom, he’s doing the same.
This event is being held in the kind of decadent mansion most people only see in movies, and it’s located in one of the most opulent areas in Boston. Lit chandeliers are hanging from the extraordinarily tall ceilings, marble covering every square foot of floor, and a string quartet of men in tuxedos plays classical music in a ballroom that sits past the opulent staircase that’s showcased near the entrance.