Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 35195 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35195 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
The power stopped, and Kellan chuckled, dryly. “Or what? You’re human.”
Caden’s gaze darkened, and our Shay took a step closer to the couple.
Kellan noticed, but only drew a breath as his Shay’s hand touched his chest. She moved in front of him. She spoke to us, “We have no wish to harm humans, but make no mistake that he is more demon than human. Do not provoke him. We’ve had instances where his demon side broke apart from his human side, and it was not pretty. I don’t say this to scare you. I say this to help you remember we’re not all like you. You don’t know our world or our rules. Caution would be wise.”
“He has rules to follow?” Shay asked.
Gum snorted. “No. He’s probably the only being who doesn’t, but he’s chosen to live here because of her.”
Kellan gave him a piercing look.
Gum’s eyebrows rose. “Yeah, man. Even I heard about the Son of the Dark Lord, who walks the world because he fell in love with a Messenger.”
“You show respect now?”
Gum snorted again. “It’s not respect, dumbass. It’s called knowing who the big baddies are, which is smart for me to do.”
“If you know who I am, you know I don’t need to adhere to your friend’s claim of protection.”
“But you will.” Gum gave an easy nod towards She Shay. “Because she cares, and because you love her. What are you even doing here? I never got a real answer before Lancaster showed up, issuing threats back at the bar.”
“We’re on vacation,” she answered. “We graduated college, and we’re taking a year before I start graduate school.”
“You? College?”
Kellan began chuckling.
“It’s more me, and yes. Education is always a good idea.” She gave him a onceover. “You never went to college? You look as if you could house an entire fraternity, just yourself.”
Gum’s amusement was evident in his crooked grin. “I went. And yeah, I joined a fraternity. It’s fun being a human sometimes.”
Okay. Lovely. They were bonding over pretending to be us. I started to raise my hand, but jerked it back down. “I have a question.” And before I even got a look, I said it. “How come we’re under this Aimilios guy’s protection?”
“I already said. You’re staying at his place.”
“We’re under his protection just because of that? He doesn’t know us. That’s it?”
Gum shrugged. “You’ve got a look to you. I knew some of the Mers might want to mess with you, so I messaged my friend. His power was cast over you as soon as he said you could stay at his place, and because of that, the Mers stayed away from you.”
Caden growled. “What do you mean they would’ve tried to mess with her?”
“You know. Same reason you were drawn to her. There’s something off with her, but it draws a person in. Supernatural creatures are just as drawn as humans are to her. I did you a favor.”
Caden spat out, “Did you really?”
Gage decided to join the conversation, raking a hand through his hair. “I have no idea what’s going on, but I’m heading back to check on Bello. Also, I’m tired. I don’t want to go in the ocean anymore. I think that giant goldfish is still out there.”
“We’re going to go, too.” Shay shared a look with Caden, skimming over the Supernaturals. His hand guided Kennedy ahead of him, as she began to follow her brother. “We’ll talk later?”
Caden nodded. “Try to sleep.”
Shay grunted under his breath. “Got no idea how that’s going to go, but I’m thinking we need a debrief drink later today.”
Nothing else was said as the three left.
Caden asked once they were out of sight, “You’re not going to do anything to us?”
Kellan’s eyes took on another evil gleam, and his top lip lifted in a sneer, but his woman said, her hand firmly pressing on his chest, “No. We’re not here to upset any treaty already in place, and we know other humans who are aware of us. We’d only do something if you asked.”
I had a feeling it wouldn’t work on me, but I wasn’t going to say that. Maybe I was just special? But the evil guy had reacted when he found out his powers hadn’t worked on me, and I did not want to endure that again. He seemed to have let it go.
Also, I was so just going with the fact that I was special. Made sense to me.
Caden’s hand pressed on my back. “Then we’re going to go. Apparently we have a mile to walk.”
“Nah. I’ll give you a ride.” Gum motioned into the trees. “My Jeep is parked a little ways away. I can show you how to get inside Aimilios’s place.”
Caden and I didn’t move.
Gum flashed a blinding smile and he looked like a surfer in that moment. “I just fought for you. Got no plans to undo all of that. It’s not the funnest taking on this guy, if you get my drift.” He gestured towards Kellan, who was now back to looking bored. He had pulled his woman into his arms, waiting for whatever she wanted to do. One of his arms was wrapped around her shoulders, in front of her neck. She relaxed back into him.