Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 160578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 642(@250wpm)___ 535(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 642(@250wpm)___ 535(@300wpm)
Her brows cross.
“Wait, you sold her?” Halen asks, crossing her arms in front of herself.
“Honestly, I’m surprised it wasn’t Vaden who bought her.” River shrugs.
Halen chokes on her drink. “I’m sorry—what? So…Vaden?”
“Not relevant.” I move from Halen, but her words swing everyone back on her.
“Ahhh…yes, it is. I’m sick of not being in the know. What the fuck—”
Bypassing the brat throwing out her toys, my eyes land on War, who’s already watching me carefully. This is exactly what the fuck I meant when I said she’d be a problem.
“Priest!” Halen snaps, and I take a careful step forward.
You can hear a pin drop it is that quiet.
“You don’t talk to me like I’m your brother when it comes to shit in this world, Halen. When we’re around a dinner table, laughing, I’m your brother. Christmas?” I raise a brow. “Brother. Birthdays, deaths, births, brother.” I take another, and she’s at least got half a brain to take one back and straight into War’s arms. “Here—everywhere outside of those venues, I am not your brother. Do you understand me?”
She sighs, but it’s one that doesn’t come from frustration, rather from disappointment.
“You know better…” I warn, turning back to my spot.
“As I was saying, we started this. The rules are simple.”
Stella’s eyes brighten, her fingers tapping against each other like a kid in a candy store. If I’ve ever seen Stella excited, it was always when there was blood, murder, or sex involved. She is a headcase, and usually, it is Vaden who keeps it secured on her shoulders, but since the ritual, things have gone haywire. He still hasn’t said a fucking word about the curse, but he doesn’t have to, because it’s only a matter of time.
There’s no saving the damned.
Nature swoops through the branches of trees as I pluck the cigarette from between clenched teeth.
Opening the first message, an unknown number blares across the screen. The loading signal pops up where a photo is supposed to be.
I tap on the video.
“Hello, lover. You didn’t want to play with me, so I’m going to play with you!” Her eyes widen, and all my fucking life, I don’t know what I saw in her. Everything about her makes me miss who she was. A walking reminder of everything I’ve lost.
“Catch me if you can!” She moves the lens onto a farm-style house with a wrap-around porch.
“Uhm.” Halen looks out to the people behind me, who were here for the distraction of the cars. “Nothing’s on tonight! You can all crawl back to your homes or whatever.” In a round of mumbles, we all wait until the hot pipes of JDM imports have disappeared through the night.
Now with the only people who should be here, the scene feels different.
Smart. The second time she’s used her brain tonight.
“I don’t know about you,” Archer says from beside me. “But that keyhole looks awfully familiar.”
My jaw clenches. How’d Archer know about that? I thought it was a fucking Hayes thing.
“Go. I’ll keep them here.”
The more time I spend with him, the more I realize why Dad trusted him all those years ago.
Stella draws up beside me, pointing to the door. Archer grows tense beside me, but she barely notices. “The door, it’s unlocked?”
I turn off the panel of my car. “Fucking bitch.”
“What does that door mean!” Halen calls out, trailing behind me.
I snap, spinning around in her face. “Get the fuck back in the car!”
“No!” Halen’s face scrunches. “I will not! You told us we could come, that means we cou—”
I don’t bother paying her any more attention, because War finally inserts himself—and his two balls—between us, finally putting her in her place.
I’m already halfway through the clearing when I hear footsteps rush up from behind me. What the fuck? I thought Archer had it.
“Priest!” Stella finally falls to step beside me. Of course it’s Stella. “What the fuck is going on?”
My phone vibrates again. River’s name flashes over the screen, but I shove it back in my pocket, dodging more fallen branches while reaching into the waistband of my jeans.
I flip the lever.
“Jesus, what the fuck? We killing her or something?”
The sound of twigs snapping beneath the soles of my shoes breaks through the rustling branches and chirping hollowness of the night.
“Stella, why the fuck did you come after I said to get in the car?” I ask while keeping focus solely on what’s going on around us.
She doesn’t hesitate. “You were looking at Halen, so I figured I didn’t count.”
I roll my eyes.
“Don’t roll those pretty little devil eyes at me, cousin! You and I both know that I don’t listen.”
“Huh, I wonder why that is…”
She dances in front of me.
“You do know that I can’t see you, right?” I say to her, sidestepping away from her swerving footsteps.
She must smile because her teeth flash through the night. “That’s the point, isn’t it? Humor me…do you fuck her even when she’s not her? Like, which one is better in bed? See, off the bat, I want to say Darling, right? Because she’s so damn psychotic, but!” She pauses, causing me to stop. I glare down at her, and even if she could see me, it still wouldn’t stop her. “But Luna, though. There’s something untouched about her innocence. Like, like the good girls are always the real freaks, leaving me out of the equation because I remember this one time—”