Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
“OH YESSSSSS!”
And then it pounced.
It was a blur of motion but I saw Hornsby fire again…and again and again. Not that it did him any good. Slade’s Darkness was on him and already spreading its jaws.
I wanted to look away, but it was too late. Before I could even close my eyes, the long white teeth were engulfing Hornsby’s entire head. With a snap and a crack and then a horrible tearing sound, the Darkness bit it completely off.
I finally turned away as I saw the blood begin to spray. As much as I hated Hornsby, I couldn’t bear to watch his lifeless corpse twitch as the blood fountained from his mutilated neck.
“Holy shit!” I heard one of the guards beside me exclaim in a low, trembling voice. And then he turned and bolted, running across the courtyard as fast as he could. The other guard was close behind him and both of them kept throwing terrified looks over their shoulders, as though checking to see if the monster Slade had become was following them.
They needn’t have worried. The Darkness was still just standing there, not far from Hornsby’s corpse. But this time he was staring at me.
My breath started coming short and my body was suddenly tense with fear. I knew why he was looking at me like that. I knew that Slade felt I had betrayed him—it wasn’t impossible that he was here to hand out the death sentence he thought I deserved.
I should have run—I should have tried to hide from the enormous monster looming over me.
Instead, I walked right up to him.
“You know what? Go ahead!” I said, glaring up at the Darkness. “Do it—bite my head off. I’m miserable without you—miserable without Slade. I’ve been wishing I was dead ever since he left me here. So go on and kill me—I don’t care!”
Then I closed my eyes and braced myself, my hands balled into fists as I waited for those massive jaws to close around my head and end me with a single bite, just as they had done for Hornsby.
I waited and waited…but death didn’t come. Finally I heard a low, familiar voice said,
“Goddess damn you—do you really think so little of me? You think I’d kill my own Fated Mate?”
I opened my eyes and saw Slade standing there, looking as upset as I felt. His jaw was clenched and his golden eyes were burning as he glared down at me. His whole big body was tensed as though he was being racked with some deep, internal pain.
“I don’t know what you’re going to do!” I exclaimed, glaring up at him. “All I know is that you left me here to die! So why shouldn’t I think you were going to kill me?”
“I never left you to die!” he growled. “I gave you the means to stave off The Need!”
“Like it was any kind of substitute for you!” I snapped. “I’ve been miserable without you! And now I’m nothing but a ‘fallen woman.’ That’s why my brother sold me to Hornsby—who was going to turn around and sell me to that Skeezix Brute.”
“What?” His eyes widened and he looked more upset than ever. “Your brother sold you to Skeezix?”
“No—he sold me to Hornsby who was just about to take me to Skeezix so he could…could cut me up for cloning.” The words seemed to stick in my throat but somehow I got them out.
“Goddess of the Four Faces!” Slade growled and ran a hand over his horns distractedly. “I can’t fucking believe this!”
“I can,” I snapped. “But it doesn’t matter—you know why? Because I’ve been wishing I was dead since you left me here. So if all you’re going to do is just leave me here again, I’d prefer it if you kill me first. Just let your Darkness out again and bite my head off!”
“Goddess damn you!” Slade growled and grabbed me by the arm.
“Wait—what are you doing? Where are we going?” I gasped. Was he really going to do it? Was he going to kill me?
But his next words seemed to refute my fears.
“I’m taking you back to the penthouse,” he snarled, not looking at me. “It seems I can’t fucking leave you here—who the fuck knows what your idiot of a brother will do next!”
“If you’re guessing he might sell me again, that seems like a good bet,” I snapped. “Considering he’s done it twice now.”
“Fucking fucker,” was his only comment. And then he was pulling open the passenger side door of his ship. Grabbing me roughly by the waist, he shoved me up into the ship, almost bumping my head in the process.
“Hey!” I exclaimed but he was already slamming the door shut and heading around to the pilot’s side. He slid in and started the ship, lifting off almost immediately. I watched as L’Crist fell away from us and then got smaller and smaller in the viewscreen.