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)
“She is.”
I am starting to understand that the vampire is actually somewhat desperate. He took Kita when she was a pup and now she is more trouble than she’s worth. He wants to kill her, naturally, but killing her feels bad to him for all the reasons that are now so terribly obvious to me. A murderous, vicious, terrible creature who enjoys torture and inflicts death for his amusement is struggling with softer feelings.
“Let me see him!” Kita screams out again. “Let me see them both!”
“It might be easier to put her in here with me,” I say.
“Yes. It might.” Alexander leans in. “I will have that heart back, wolf. I will have it back at all and any costs. Do you understand? I may not kill Kita, but I will kill you. I have already killed your friend.”
My blood runs cold.
“Tailor? You killed Tailor?”
“He was redundant. You are clearly the stronger and more dominant of the two, and nobody needs more than one mate.”
The fury and grief I feel is incredible. It is like I have been punched in the chest. There is no time to react, and there is no way I have any intention of allowing him the satisfaction of seeing my pain.
“You seem sad. Don’t be. It means you have increased usefulness, and increases your chance of survival by quite a margin. Are you ready to see your mate?”
“Yes. Sure. Why not.”
Alexander smirks coldly. “I am not impressed by your attempt at seeming unaffected. You will die as easily as the other one when I decide your time has come. And the most frightening thing of all, from your limited animal perspective, will be that you will beg for it.”
“Am I going to see Kita, or are you going to keep the foreplay going, big guy?”
I inject enough sass into the dryness of my tone to hopefully show him just how little I care. He is not the master of my emotions. I am.
Alexander swings the door of the cell open and invites me to step out with a curt come hither gesture of two fingers. It takes all my self-control not to shift and hurl myself at his throat. I know it won’t do any good though. He’d burst into a thousand bats before I got anywhere near him.
Alexander is the originator of absolutely every vampire rumor and theory. Bats, garlic, crosses, sparkles. Actually, not the sparkles. I don’t need to know everything about him to know that I have absolutely no chance against him in a 1-v-1 situation.
“Good boy,” he says, taunting me. He wants me to try to attack him. He wants me to make myself seem stupid and weak. He wants to humiliate and torture me, the same way he no doubt humiliated and tortured Tailor.
I am not going to be the one to tell Kita he has killed Tailor. I do not want to acknowledge it or admit it myself.
He leads me down the hall to a cell where Kita is at the bars, clinging to them with fury.
“Alexander! Why are you like this? This is stupid. I’m not going to get you the heart back if you do this to us. Let me out. Let us all out. Then, maybe, if I’m in a really fucking good mood, I will think about getting you the maker’s heart.”
“Kita, if you keep acting this way, I will eat you.”
“No, you won’t.”
“Do not mistake the fact that I have not done it yet for the idea I will not do it at all. I am thousands of years old. You are a snack. I have not spared you because you are special. I have spared you because you are the human equivalent of the crumbs on the floor of my larder.”
“Good speech,” she throws his attitude right back. “I’m a crumb with your maker’s heart.”
He opens the door and thrusts me into the cell with her.
“Good luck,” he says. “She is entirely uncontrollable.”
She waits until he disappears, a feat that takes all of a second. He doesn’t burst into bats. He’s just… gone. I am sure he could come back just as quickly.
Kita looks at me, throws her arms around me, and bursts into tears.
“I’m so glad you’re alive,” she sobs. “I’m so sorry. Again. I’m sorry again. I’ll spend my whole life being sorry about the things I do to you. And I just keep making it worse.”
“Don’t worry,” I say, holding her close. “It’s going to be okay. We are going to make it okay.”
“We’re trapped here, and he’s not going to let us out until he gets what he wants, and I can’t give him what he wants.”
“Slow down. I need you to explain what the hell is going on. I thought the vampire hated you, but he clearly doesn’t want you dead. Tell me everything.”