Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 105144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
And that’s not love. Parents can be just as toxic as anyone and all it will take is a few words to make all the walls come crumbling down for my siblings too. I have to believe they had no idea what Vivian and Marco did, and I don’t know what will happen once they find out that I wasn’t saved but kidnapped so the Order could do experiments with my blood.
“You’re really okay?” Antonio presses, not believing me.
“Physically, I’m fine,” I start. “Mentally, hah…that’s another issue.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying for years,” Larissa quips, and her snotty comeback makes me smile.
“You know, I almost missed you,” I say, tipping my head to the side a bit to look at my sister. On some level, I used to think she cared about me. But after seeing how quickly she traded places, I’m not sure. The worst part is how she knows I would never do that to her. “How’s Gia? She’s not here?”
“No, she’s at home.” Leo frowns and shakes his head. “She’s really upset. Doesn’t understand what’s going on and we don’t know what to tell her.”
“I would start with the truth,” I say. “All these lies…they’re tangled and confusing and—”
“What lies?” Larissa asks.
“Well, for starters, the one where our parents knew there was a really good chance you were going to be taken by vampires,” I say pointedly. “I wasn’t part of the plan.”
Larissa just shakes her head and looks away. “Mom already talked to me about it.”
“What did she say?”
“Hardly anything,” Leo says for her. “It was a similar line to what you were told, but with this being the only way the vampires would leave the Order and the public alone.”
I cock an eyebrow. “So the Order is trying to spin this as a peace offering? Since when do they negotiate with terrorists?”
“That’s what I said!” Antonio exclaims. “Something is off.”
“Something is.” I bite my lip and inhale. “I think there’s a lot more than we know about. But I don’t know what we can do about it.” I have to tread lightly here. I’m only recently starting to see the truth and it’s still a tough pill to swallow—and that’s considering the fact that I’ve always been an outsider to the Order. Antonio, Leo, and Larissa are Order golden children and have Stockholm-syndrome-like loyalty to them.
“What the hell happened last night?” Leo asks. “We saw the video clips online.”
“Am I in them?” I ask, unable to help myself.
Leo narrows his eyes, confused. “How are you living under a rock?”
“I don’t have a phone or internet.”
“Fuck,” he swears. “You’re a prisoner.”
There’s no logical way to disagree with him because I am a prisoner. Shit, maybe I’m getting Stockholm syndrome, too. “I just need to remind Xavier to give mine back. It’s only been a few days. Right?” I close my eyes as I move my head back and forth. “I don’t even know.”
“Here,” Antonio says and gives me his phone. I open up TikTok and do a quick search. The incident is trending, along with several hashtags alluding to wanting to be bitten by Xavier. He does look good in a suit.
The first video I watch was recorded from someone across the room. It was one of the young vamps and a human of the same “living age” recording a trending dance together. They stopped dancing and flipped the camera around when the hunter grabs the woman from behind. In just seconds, Xavier and I are inside and he pulls the hunter off.
There are a few more videos from people who started filming from there, and the comments are mostly full of thirsty women—and a few men—talking about how they want Xavier’s hands around them the same way. A small thrill goes through me when I see a handful of comments saying how lucky the new Mrs. Malus is to get to “hit that” every night. Little do they know my brother-in-law is also supposed to hit that as well.
“So fess up,” Larissa says.
“Fess up to what?” Antonio asks her as I hand him back the phone.
“To what happened last night,” she goes on.
“You want to know what they did in the bedroom?” Leo makes a face. “Fuck, Liss.”
“No,” she scoffs. “The last thing I want to know is what the little vamp-tramp was up to with her monster husband.”
“Hey,” I interject. “You don’t have to be such a bitch.”
“Oh, I’m a bitch?” She raises her hands and looks at our brothers as if expecting them to defend her.
“You are being a bitch,” Leo says almost apologetically. “And that’s crossing a line, sis.”
“I meant,” Larissa starts again, saying each word slowly. “Fess up to that stunt last night. Those hunters, who are missing, are good hunters. They wouldn’t have pulled something like that if they weren’t ordered to. And there are no official orders telling them to pose as vampires and attack a human.”