Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 62580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Being an old vampire like I was, I was able to turn newly dead mortals as long as they’d ingested my blood in the last twenty-four to forty-eight hours, and lucky for me and Acadia, she had.
Corbin looked at me like I was crazy.
I was doing it whether they wanted me to or not, though they didn’t need to know that.
If they didn’t want me to do it, I’d have taken her anyway, waited for them to leave, and then sequestered her somewhere that they would never be able to reach her again.
It wouldn’t work if I didn’t do it now, though. I’d have to distract them fast.
I didn’t dare look down at her body, either. If I did, I would lose it. I would have to admit that this woman was under my skin, and that wasn’t going to keep me calm.
“Do it.” That was Nash.
I didn’t even hesitate. The moment I got the okay, I was down on my knees and performing the same ritual I’d performed on Chen a few short weeks ago.
This time, though, my willpower was much stronger.
She would live.
And as I forced her to drink, forced her to take my undead blood into her body, and willed her to rise, I coaxed my powers into her organs. Sank them into her very bones. Her blood. Her tissues. Her unbeating heart.
And I shocked her. Sort of like a defibrillator would, but with the power that coursed through my veins instead of the machine that brought people’s hearts back to life.
I poured my blood down her throat until I had none left to give, and just when I was about to request someone to feed from, Nash shoved his wrist into my face.
“Take from me. Then you’ll take from Corbin. Corbin has deputies here that’ll help, too.”
“No, he doesn’t.”
I didn’t know who that was, but it didn’t take long for him to start to interrupt what I had going.
“You will not feed him, or you’re fired.”
The man sounded familiar, but I was already sinking my fangs into Nash’s wrist. His blood tasted like Acadia’s, though he had the significant taste of maleness to him that all males possessed.
“You’re fired!”
It was the mayor.
What was the mayor doing here? Why would he be at a crime scene like this when he was too fucking scared to leave his little white house on the hill?
Fox. Abraham. Pavlov. Get him out of here.
I sent my thoughts to the men that I sensed followed me to this place, and they instantly complied.
I sensed Nash getting low, and only then did I go back to Acadia.
She had blood pouring out of her mouth. My blood.
Blood pouring out of a gunshot wound to her head. Her blood.
Blood was on the carpet, seeping into a large circle around her body, and only then did I realize that my knees were kneeling in it. Acadia’s blood was soaking into my pants, mingling with others’ blood from tonight, and I became angry. So fucking angry that I wanted to scream.
Ripping my wrist open again with my fangs, I placed it back over her mouth, then shoved my fingers down her throat to open it, allowing my blood to drip into her mouth and slide down her throat whether she wanted it to or not.
Not that she had a choice either way.
I could still sense she was gone, but there was a tiny little spark that I was coaxing back to life, and it started to grow, brighter and brighter, by the second.
“Ahhh,” that was from Pavlov. “You’ve almost got her.”
I would’ve almost had her. He was right. But life never, ever worked the way it was supposed to.
“What the fuck is going on?” Nash slurred his words slightly.
I’d taken a lot from him. Definitely more than I should have, but I knew these two men were strong. They were also Acadia’s best chance at life since their blood was so similar to her own.
I ran out of blood again, and Corbin was right there next to me, offering me his wrist.
I followed the same process that I had with his brother, stopping only when I’d taken just a little too much.
Then once again slit my wrist and started pouring the blood forcefully down her throat all over again.
It was when I was at the last little trickle of blood that her body bucked and bowed like I’d touched her with a live wire.
With one small convulsion, and a shudder of her body, she lay still, and I sat back on my heels.
Corbin and Nash watched me with horror in their eyes.
“You’re giving up?” Corbin cried frantically.
I stopped him before he could go for my throat.
“She’s back.”
Corbin sat back on his heels as well and looked at me like I was crazy.
“She has turned. She may look not any different to you, but I can feel her life force. It’s a pulsing throb at the base of my neck. Her body’s healing even now. Look.”