Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 105815 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105815 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
That was the old superstition that preyed on the minds of every cat who’d looked at the orphan after they’d found him. Despite cat shifters being insanely rare, they refused to raise another’s kitten. It was thought that if you took in another cat’s offspring, you doomed your own. Cats were independent by nature. If a parent died, shifters believed the kitten should survive on its own.
Except the little boy couldn’t have been more than two years old!
How could he be left on his own? He would have died.
Yet, after he’d been discovered and brought to that house in the woods, more than one cat had whispered to him in passing that they should leave him. Some bad karma had found the parents, and it was only a matter of time before the same fate befell the kid and anyone who helped him.
Fuck that shit.
It wasn’t karma that had killed the boy’s parents. It was the damn fae.
“You did the right thing. You’re the one who said that these vampires were like a real family. I bet they’re going to feed him and teach him things. You know, other than how to bite people.”
Leo lowered his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. He’d had about enough of this conversation.
“Besides, what were you going to do? Keep him and raise him yourself?” Sage cackled so hard she almost fell off her stool. “You can barely keep yourself alive. What do you know about caring for a kid?”
“Nothing,” Leo mumbled. “He’s just a cute kid.”
“Absolutely adorable.” The eye roll was evident in her words, and Leo ignored it. “That still doesn’t mean he isn’t better off with bloodsuckers.”
“Don’t call them that.”
“What? Bloodsuckers? That’s what they are.”
Leo bit off the rest of his argument. Yeah, Junjie and the rest of the Zhang clan might be vampires, but they were way more than that. However, his words were wasted on Sage, and he didn’t want to bother anymore.
“Okay. Fine. You found me. Was there something else you wanted?” He lifted a hand to the bartender to get his attention and made a motion in the air as if he were signing the bill. It was time to close his tab and get the hell out of there.
“Are you worried about them coming to find you?” Sage asked.
“No. If they wanted to catch me, they could have before I got away from the house.”
When he’d formulated this plan to lead Junjie to the child, he’d been only twenty percent positive he’d be able to sneak away from the vampire if he tried to pursue him. That number had dropped to zero the second Junjie had invited Xiang and Kai along for the ride. Xiang was a daywalker and had no problem chasing him after the sun rose.
And then there was the fucking dragon. Nothing stopped Kai when he wanted something. The only snag he’d run across was dealing with the fae, and the Zhang clan had largely fixed that problem.
Leo knew he’d escaped the house and the woods thanks to Junjie. The vampire had to have told his clan mates not to pursue him, which was totally what he’d wanted.
It didn’t matter that maybe there was a part of him that had secretly hoped Junjie would stop him and force him to return to the Zhang manor with them.
But Junjie had let him go, and Leo had walked away from the kid. There was no returning to the manor grounds, and that sucked.
The bartender ambled over with a receipt and a pen. Leo spared it a glance to make sure the guy wasn’t trying to scam him, added a respectable tip, and scratched out his name. If he left now, maybe he could escape Sage while she waited for her bill.
He was not that lucky.
The door to the tiny hole-in-the-wall bar opened, sending a bright slash of light through the place. All the occupants squinted and cringed from the glare, trying to shrink into the retreating shadows. With the light came a gust of wind that carried the rich scent of flowers and petrichor after a summer storm.
Leo’s heart leaped into his throat, and he whipped around. His brain had expected to find Rei standing in the doorway, sent by Junjie to drag him to the manor so he could answer questions about the kid.
It wasn’t Rei but five other elves he’d never seen before. And judging by the weapons in their hands, they hadn’t stopped by for a drink.
For a heartbeat, the world froze as the occupants eyed the elves standing in the open doorway. Tension thickened in the air until there was no oxygen to suck in at all. The fine hairs on the back of Leo’s neck stood on end and every muscle in his body tightened, preparing to either fight or flee from the building. In an instant, the pleasant haze created by the alcohol evaporated out of his pores, leaving his brain on high alert.