Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
“I have to make a call.”
“No, I’m calling first,” Ursula cried, scrambling for her phone.
“No, me!”
Just like that, the five of them rushed off in different directions—all of them shouting down the phone to whoever, I assumed, was going to make them an empress. Their lemmings chased after them.
“That was impressive.” Nik stuck his head out of the doorway. “I thought for sure all five of them were going to walk away with five pieces of you—each. But you completely defused them,” he gushed. “You’re amazing. Can all mortals do that?”
I chuckled. “They can if they work in the service industry.” Dusting myself off, I gestured down the hall. “Want to walk to History of Hell with us?”
For some reason, Nik looked up and down the hall—twice. “Uhh, sure, yeah,” he said hesitantly. “I think it’s okay. I mean, we are going the same way, so... yeah, yeah, it’s fine.”
My brow crumpled. “Nik, is everything—”
The hallway winked out.
In a flash, Dora, Nik, and the whole crowd of students sullenly shuffling to their next class were gone.
Coming to a sudden, abrupt halt, I was dumped on the floor.
Pitching over, I vomited right on the carpet.
Nausea and dizziness wracked my body and spun the world on its head. I’d felt like this once before when—
“Radu?” I gasped, fingers curling in the fibers. “What is... wrong with you? Just because—” Slicing off, I threw up again. Tears leaked from my eyes. “Stop doing this to m-me! There are easier ways to meet—”
“Sorry, darling.”
Terror lanced through my anger and sickness.
“But the Elder isn’t here to save you now.”
I tried to get up and tipped over, landing hard on my back. My spinning vision made out four—five—ten?—sallow faces and glowing eyes as they crowded in, hovering above me. I could barely see, but I knew we weren’t in the vampire wing. That place was pitch black—not a trace of light or fire anywhere—and since my abductors weren’t going to turn the lights on for little old me, I had to be somewhere else.
Somewhere Elder Radu won’t hear my screams for help.
The truth of that single thought stopped the nausea, stopped the heaving, stopped the dizziness, stopped everything. My body sank into a still and peaceful reverence... as if preparing for death.
Taking a slow, steadying breath, I gazed at their drooling mouths and darkening eyes. There were six of them—all different heights, sizes, and ethnicities, but all sharing the same expression. I wouldn’t waste anybody’s time by asking why they brought me here, but the fact that my limbs were still intact and they weren’t feeding on me in a ravenous frenzy meant the rational part of their brains was still operating.
For the second time that day, I may be able to defuse a violent situation before it blew up.
“Okay, okay,” I rasped. With steady vision came the recognition. I was in the library where we caught the shade, lying on the carpet of the new Sins lounge area. “I understand that you’re hungry—”
Loud, hair-raising hissing hit the air.
“—but think this through,” I rushed out. “Living humans don’t make trips down to hell for the fun of it. I’m the only one who has come down here in three hundred years, and after you kill me, there won’t be another one. You’ll just go back to starving.”
One—just one of them stopped hissing. For the barest second, his predator black eyes blinked harmless white.
It’s working.
“That’s why you should keep me alive,” I cried. “I’m going to live for another sixty, possibly even seventy years. Wouldn’t you rather have fresh, flowing blood for seventy years instead of a one-time fix?”
Two more stopped hissing. Eyes changing, they blinked as if coming to their senses.
“I can safely donate a pint of blood every month,” I continued. “It’s yours. All you have to do is—”
“Wait? A pint?” one of the white-eyed ones asked. “That’s fucking it? Screw that! You’ve got ten times the amount in you right now”—his eyes flashed black—“and it’s mine.”
“Noooo!”
Half a dozen pairs of fangs pierced my skin—
—and then they were gone.
“Naughty, naughty.” Radu threw the guy who spoke into the air, and beheaded him on the way down.
That was the last thing I saw.
Rushing, twisting, blurry shapes flashed all around me, telling of a battle happening too fast for me to see. By the time his head rolled to my feet... four more hit the floor.
“Hi, honey!” Santino beamed at me from the top of the stacks. “Do you see, my love? I told you we’d meet again soon!” He shook a bug-eyed, disembodied head at me. “Who knew it’d be because these little shits finally went through with their plan?”
A single word penetrated. “Finally?” I cried, bolting upright. “Did you just say finally? Are you telling me you knew they were planning to kidnap and eat me!”