Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
I let my puffy eyes close again, blessed relief. “You know, I was never the sort who forced anyone to call me doctor. I was fine with Georgia or even Miss Clark, as long as it was done respectfully. But you,” I sigh and sink farther into the pillow. “You can refer to me as Dr. Clark.”
A tiny amused sound, nowhere near the enormity of a laugh but the closest I’ve ever heard from him, bursts and dies in his throat. “Would that make you happy?”
“Nothing can make me happy.” I answer, truthfully. “I don’t think ‘happy’ is something I can experience anymore.”
“Losing hope, are we?” he taunts. “I thought you of all people, plucky little scientist, would still be looking for a way to save the world.”
“The world doesn’t know I exist. The world …” I sigh, too tired to keep going. The world left me here to rot.
He rises from the bed.
Panic bells ring in my cranium, blurring out thought and replacing it with sheer terror. “Stay,” I blurt.
He stares down at me, his brows rising in brief surprise before his countenance returns to baseline stony.
“Just until I fall asleep. Or, you could compel me? So I can sleep?”
“That shouldn’t be a problem. You’re exhausted.”
“I know. Right. Don’t compel me.” I reach toward him, but only under the blanket where he can’t see my weakness. “Just stay. Please? You can go on a murder rampage after or drown orphans or whatever you want once I’m out. Just stay till then.”
“If I do, will you stop mewling like a lost kitten?” he asks.
“I’m a kitten now?”
“Worse.” He sits carefully, his back to me. “A human.”
“You’ll stay then?”
“Go to sleep, little rabbit. The wolf will keep watch.”
“Aren’t you a dragon?”
He glances at me over his shoulder. “Does it matter? Both have fangs.”
“I suppose not.” I pull the blanket up tighter and breathe out slowly.
I’m almost asleep when I feel the softest touch on my hair and hear him whisper, “kedves verem.” Unknown words that follow me into a comfortable, dreamless sleep.
“How far do the tunnels on the bottom level go?” I wander through the orchards and ask my question aloud.
David swoops down and lands about 20 feet away. “We have hundreds of miles of tunnel. They don’t all connect.”
“Where does the one that connects to the castle go?”
He has his hair up in a man bun tonight, giving him an even more youthful appearance. “You can’t use it to get away. You know that, right?”
“I know.” I roll my eyes. “You think I’m going to traipse down there in the dark? Now, if you give me a lamp, maybe I could—”
“You aren’t getting a lamp.” He turns surly. “I’m not letting you out of my sight. Valen would turn me inside out if I let—” He swipes a hand through the air. “Not going there.”
“Just tell me where they go. It’s not a difficult question. Besides, I’ve already figured out we’re in rural Virginia.” I watch him closely.
His eyes widen a little.
Bingo. I guessed right.
“Come on. Tell me. Or I can go through all the parts of the smallpox virus if you like. I know you can hear me wherever you are up there.” I point to the sky.
He glowers.
I take a deep breath. “Well, the envelope of the virus—”
“This one connects to DC and branches up to Philly and south to …” He stares off in the distance. “Somewhere to the south. I don’t know.” He shrugs.
“Atlanta?” I ask.
“Maybe.”
“How did the vampires dig all that without anyone noticing?” I wander farther through the orchard. All the leaves are gone now, the trees on the distant ridge past their brightest foliage and dwindling to morose gray.
“I’m sure some humans noticed.”
“And they didn’t say anything to anyone?”
“Think about it, Georgia. What would happen to a human if they tried to report vampire activity?”
“They’d be labeled a lunatic?”
He scoffs like I’m a complete moron. “No, we’d kill them.”
I stop and glare at him.
“Well—” He runs a hand through his hair, then stops when he realizes its trapped in the bun. “We’d definitely compel them to shut up. How about that?”
“I tend to believe your first response more.” I pull my jacket tighter and look up at the full moon. “Where’s your dad tonight?”
“He’s with Valen and the Tantun general, Carlotta. Meeting with Gregor at the Black Cavern.”
“And where’s that?”
“New York somewhere, or maybe it’s Jersey?” He shrugs. “I don’t know. Never been.”
“Never?”
“No, why would I? I’m not one of the nobles.” He shakes his head.
“So there are classes in the vampire hierarchy?” I chew on that as I continue through the orchard, a branch catching in my hair. I untangle it. “Three separate Bloods plus a social structure.”
“We’re just as complicated as humans.” He snaps off a twig and twirls it around in his fingers. “Well, maybe not that complicated. Humans love to pick out all their differences and fight over them.”