Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 52247 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 261(@200wpm)___ 209(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52247 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 261(@200wpm)___ 209(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
“What ya goin tae do now?”
Good question. Easy answer. My mission hasn’t changed, just my target.
I’m about to tell him to get intel on where Xavier is when an SUV screeches into the lot. In a cloud of dust, an escalade pulls up and parks behind me, blocking me in.
“Declan,” I croak. “I’ve got company. I gotta call you back.”
“What do ya mean, company?” His voice gets high and tiny as I toss the burner on the seat beside me. The escalade looms in the rearview mirror. Doors open and shadows stream out of it. My visitors aren’t human.
My stomach starts roiling again. As if in a dream, I twist and grab the cooler on the car floor. Take the blood. You might need it.
Lucius knew this moment would come. My bad luck that it happened sooner rather than later.
Eyes on the vampires surrounding the car, I grab the first bag and uncap it.
A vampire knocks on my window. “Get out, sweetheart. Xavier wants to talk to you.”
Bottoms up. I tip my head back and swallow the thick liquid as fast as I can. Maybe I’m too desperate to be grossed out, but the bittersweet taste isn’t unpleasant. As soon as it pours down my throat, adrenaline floods my system. Time slows. The vampires blurring from the Escalade to my car seem to walk at a normal pace. My limbs, a second ago weak and shaky, feel stronger than ever.
My last gift to you.
I can fight anything off, even a vampire. Which is good, because in about two minutes I’m going to have to fight a lot of them.
“Come on,” the vampire knocks again. His buddies are now armed with crowbars. Shame to use them on the Lambo, but I’m not getting out of the car. Not until I’ve downed more blood.
“Go to hell,” I reply, and grab a second bag.
The world slows.
Moonlight glints on the leader’s fangs. “Your funeral.” He grabs his colleague’s crowbar--the blurred movement almost at normal speed to my enhanced vision--and leaps on the car. A thud as the hood takes his body weight, and another as he brings the crowbar down onto the windshield. The glass cracks but doesn’t shatter right away. Must be reinforced.
I wait as the vampire brings down the metal rod again and again. His buds stand back and watch the show. Not that they can pick the lock while their leader is destroying this beautiful car. Xavier must want me dead or alive--and I don’t blame him. If I plotted and planned, killed and manipulated for a decade, only to have my quest for revenge thwarted by a single she wolf, I’d be mad too.
Not as mad as said she wolf. The blood of a Vampire King sizzles through my veins, augmenting my boiling rage. I’m going to get out of here, track and kill Xavier. First I have to deal with these thugs. It’ll be a nice warm up.
Above me, the vampire grunts and brings down the crowbar hard enough to make the Lambo shudder. The glass is a fractured cobweb above my head. Any moment it’ll shatter.
I have to bite the inside of my cheek not to laugh. This is going to be fun.
The vampire raises his weapon again.
“All right, all right,” I shout, pretending to be scared. “I’m getting out.” I raise my hands, showing empty palms. The vampire jerks his head towards my door. I unlock and open it, swinging out slowly. The vampires stand back to give me space.
Mistake.
The vampire on the car roof drops to my side. “Xavier wants--”
I never learn what my former mentor wants. A crowbar can’t kill a vampire, but grabbing and jamming it into their guts is a good way to get their attention. Follow it up by twisting their head around hard enough to break their neck, and they drop neatly, ready to be staked or left out for the dawn. I do all this, and I do it fast enough that I blur. When I turn, I take a second to register the shock on the waiting faces. I’m fast as a vampire. Maybe faster.
As if in slow motion, the vampires start to jump on me--too slow. I jump first. The crowbar disembowels a second, a third. I’ve lost the element of surprise, but I’ve spent years practicing fighting and killing vampires. Between Lucius’ blood, and Xavier’s training, I am unstoppable.
I chase two into the park and stake them with palo verde branches. I return with more quickly fashioned stakes and take the rest of the guys out. I drag them into the park, hiding them in a ditch. Hopefully, no human will find them before dawn comes and turns them to ash.
When I stick my head into the Lambo, the burner phone is bleating. I grab it and the cooler of blood, and jog to the now empty Escalade. I took the keys off the leader.