Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91636 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91636 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“Shut up,” Kita says, apparently incensed by the idea of shifting under the full moon. “Just shut up, okay? I’m busy. I have something to do. Now you can tag along if you want, but you don’t get to be in charge of me, or what happens to the heart.”
Tension is rising again, because she will not listen to sense, reason, or instinct. She’s immune to all influence besides the plan inside her head. The mere suggestion of doing anything other than what she wants to do seems to send her into an absolute fury.
It is at this moment that Damon slides into the room, his eyes dark and watchful. I do not know where he has been or what he has been doing, but I know whatever it was it was probably important.
He moves past the both of us and grabs Kita. I don’t know how he does it, but she always calms down when he touches her. I think it’s the lack of verbal pressure. He doesn’t tell her what to do. He gives her what she needs.
Damon gathers her into a hug, then flicks his eyes at us, nonverbally telling us to get out.
Conroy and I leave. There’s nothing we can do right now, nothing that won’t send our mate into a feral frenzy and maybe even risk an uncontained shifting event, which would be very dangerous in this city. Wolves are shot on sight here.
We shut the door to the bedroom and take our conference next to the dirty plates.
“Can you fucking believe this?” Conroy runs his hand through his hair. “An explosive vampire heart in a truck. She’s got us toting an incendiary fucking dark relic around like a cargo of bottled water. We lost the port for this.”
“Getting a new mate can be disruptive,” I say, trying to downplay the drama a little. My words come out pretty much on auto-pilot. I too, am impressed by the sheer insanity of her actions. This woman came into our lives looking like prey, seeming like a sweet little rebel to be claimed and tamed, but she has brought darkness with her the likes of which I have never seen. Damon might be more familiar with it. Might be why he has that unspoken bond with her.
“Disruptive? Understatement. We’re in the most hostile city on the continent. I should never have allowed her to come here. I should have insisted on inspecting the cargo…”
“Then you would have blown yourself up,” Kita calls out from the bedroom. “That thing is trapped so many different ways, you would have been wolf mist before you knew what was happening.”
Conroy glowers, but we both fall silent. There is no point arguing with her. We have to work out a way to work around her. She needs to be managed.
“Arguing with her is a mistake,” I murmur softly. “We’ve got to engineer the situation.”
Conroy nods, though the muscle is still ticking in his jaw. He is a time bomb of a different sort. Between the two of them, I can see fireworks about to be unleashed. This is where my skill set comes to the fore. If Damon is the silent peacemaker and Conroy is the warrior, then I am the tactician.
The bedroom door opens, and Kita appears in the doorway.
“Listen, my complex revenge plot is not supposed to be an inconvenience to you. It’s something I did for me. I wasn’t planning on forming a mate bond. Just let me finish with this vampire, and…”
“What’s the end game?”
“Uhm.”
“Kita,” I say softly. “What was your plan?”
“Well, I suppose I thought eventually he’d kill me, but I’d annoy him quite a bit first.”
I don’t know if she’s telling the truth about that, or if she’s being an edgy little shit. It could be either.
Conroy, Damon, and I look at one another.
“Your plan was to annoy an ancient vampire into killing you?”
“No. I mean, it wasn’t the main point. I just figured eventually I would die, like my parents did. Dying to vampires runs in the family. It’s genetic.”
I think she’s joking, but I also think she is entirely serious. She is prepared to die in aid of inconveniencing and annoying the vampire she considers to be her mortal enemy.
“Well, we are going to interrupt your plans, because we want you alive,” I tell her. “We’re actually all very invested in you staying alive.”
“I’ll stay alive as long as it doesn’t get in the way of my plan for vengeance. Deal?”
“Something of a deal.”
Damon ushers her to the table, and we all take a seat. Four chairs for four of us. We sit around the circular round table staring at one another with varying expressions, each of us with a different plan.
“So talk,” she says. “What do you want?”
“I want babies,” Conroy says. “I want a mate to love and protect and to breed.”