Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 117167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Balancing on one knee, Yichen settled a dagger in his fingers and drew in a deep breath.
“Start on the right. I’ll work from the left. Aim about half a meter below the eyes and mouth,” Rei instructed.
He took his words to heart. There was no one else who’d spent more time being hunted by the fae beasts than Rei. If anyone knew their weak spots, it was him.
From the corner of his eye, he could see Rei draw the bowstring, the arrow nocked. The moment his ear registered the dull twang of the string, he threw the dagger at the dog he could make out on the far right of the pack. They struck at the same time. His angry pooch disappeared with a loud yelp and there was an answering one from the left, but he couldn’t tell if either were getting back up.
The dogs scattered, spreading out across the road rather than chasing them in a cluster.
Wind continued to slam into his shoulders, chilling the sweat that had gathered when the Black Dogs were first spotted. The tips of his fingers were growing numb, forcing him to pinch the knives to keep them from slipping away at the wrong moment.
The hunters drew close again, and Rei took aim. The second the arrow flew out, a dog leaped at the SUV. Long black claws scrapped on the glass and found purchase in the crevices of the rear hatch. It growled and snapped its massive maw at them, flashing fangs as long as his fingers.
Yichen lurched away, landing on his ass, narrowly avoiding hitting Rei. His heart lodged itself in his throat and his blood ran cold to see the enormous creature fighting to claw its way up onto the roof with them. One wrong move and he was going to lose an arm, or his throat.
“Yiyi!” Rei shouted.
“I’ve got it! You take care of the others!” Yichen barked, not giving the elf a chance to turn his focus from the rest of the pack.
Grabbing the roof rack to steady himself, Yichen kicked the beast several times in the face, just missing his foot getting snapped off. The third kick stunned the dog enough that he could plunge a dagger into the roof of the monster’s open mouth. With a muffled cry, it fell off the car onto the road, appearing to stagger the others.
Yichen shoved to his knees and prepared to throw another dagger, but Rei caught his wrist. “Wait! They’re retreating. That must have been the pack leader.”
“Lights! We found some lights to follow!” The whipping wind almost carried away Moon’s voice, but they caught enough to turn around to the front of the car. Moon was half hanging out the passenger window, waving at them. “Lights!”
They both watched ahead to see faint spots of light, almost like house lights in the far distance. Except there was something strange about them. They seemed to waver and shift as if they weren’t attached to a fixed spot, yet they also didn’t move like cars.
“No! Don’t follow the lights!” Rei shouted.
As the elf shouted, it dawned on Yichen where he’d seen a glow quite like this. They weren’t man-made lights but will-o-wisps. Another type of fae creature whose entire job was to lead humans astray in the woods.
In the blink of an eye, the murky darkness that had enshrouded them fell away and the bright lights of the SUV splashed across the thick guardrail of a bridge. They were about to drive off a fucking bridge!
Rei shouted and for the first time since becoming a vampire, Yichen didn’t understand the language. The elf threw out his hands in front of him and a white wall appeared between the vehicle and the edge of the bridge. Even with Chen slamming on the brakes and the tires squealing, the front driver’s side bumper banged into the wall and skidded alongside it as the car fought to slow.
The force of the impact and jerk of the car to the right sent Rei sailing off the roof. Yichen launched himself after the elf, catching him in midair and wrapping him up as tightly as he could against his body before they hit the asphalt. Thankfully, Rei’s head hit Yichen’s shoulder rather than the road.
“Yiyi!” Rei gasped, lifting his head to look wide eyed at him.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Yichen roared, even as he cradled the back of Rei’s head with one hand. It didn’t matter that they were lying in the middle of the road where the Black Dogs or even a fucking car could run them over. The only thing that mattered was that Rei was far too pale and trembling in his arms. “You could have been killed! It’s not enough that you’re standing on the roof of a car on a fucking highway, shooting arrows, but then you had to use that giant burst of magic. You could have drained yourself!”