Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 65871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 329(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 329(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
There’s something in Alexei’s tone that makes my body move. The sight of Dom killing has shattered his hold on me for the moment. For just a second I have the ability to escape the vampire’s grasp.
I rush to Alexei’s side, grip his arm, and look back at the dealer of death standing over those he has claimed.
“Why?” Alexei’s voice cracks ever so slightly as he trains his useless weapon on Dom. “Why has all of this happened this way?”
I take the question as being grief-ridden and rhetorical, but Dom decides to answer it.
“Two kopeks,” Dom says. “You gave me two kopeks. I give you two corpses. We are even.”
“Is that really what this is about? The coins?” Alexei sounds absolutely confused. I do not think he is able to understand what he has just seen either. Death usually comes with more fanfare and drama. It is rarely visited in such a casual fashion.
“The older one gets, the less tolerable little slights are,” he says with a slight shrug. “Imagine what I will do to you for the indignity of having been chained up in ultraviolet prison. This is not over, Alexei. I have lived for generations and I will live generations more. My vengeance will be felt for hundreds of years to come. Run along. Go back upstairs, and get your soldiers out of my way. I am not in a merciful mood.”
Elena and Vlad are dead—destroyed as if they were nothing, because to Dom, they are nothing. They are not on his breeding list. Alexei and I are alive because we are part of his game.
“Not you,” Dom says as we start to move. He extends a hand and I feel myself being drawn back to him, almost as if he were a magnet and I a piece of iron. In very short order, I am back in his grasp, at his mercy.
I see an expression of pure determination establish itself on my handsome mate’s face.
“I’m not going without her,” Alexei says. “I’m never going to leave her. I may not have had any choice in being her mate, but I will choose to die for her on any given day. She’s not yours, Dom. She never will be.”
He pulls his gaze away from the vampire, and looks at me. I see less arrogance and anger now. Instead, I see regret.
“I am sorry, Anya,” Alexei says. “I should have told you. I have exposed you to evil beyond comprehension. I have failed to protect you. I thought my lie might do that, but it has only done damage.”
I am starting to feel very afraid.
And I am starting to lose my temper.
I am furious at Dom’s murders. I am angry because he has taken away my sense of having been chosen by Alexei. Every single part of my world has been infested and corrupted by him. Every time I see this creature, something terrible has either happened, or will soon happen. I know I cannot end him, but I can hurt him. Sometimes all a bee can do is sting. They do so even knowing it will be their end. They do it because they have decided it is the right course of action.
I have come to the same conclusion.
I turn in the vampire’s grasp, and I sink my teeth into his hand hard, taking my wolf form as I do, so my canines rip into the cold creature’s flesh. I take a literal chunk out of Dom. The foul, aged taste of it would be enough to make me retch if it were not for my fury.
He can kill me if he likes. I do not care what happens to me. Everything good has been taken from me time and time again. Every time I tried to step out, to be something other than what fate or some man determined for me, it has been ruined.
I am furious with Dom, with Alexei, with Elena, with Vlad, and with myself. We are all acting on terrible impulses, and though my action now is no different, I imagine it will satisfy my fury somehow.
“Feral thing,” Dom notes, not so much as a quaver in his voice. He looks down at me, and I feel his will once more inside me. He wants to direct me, to control me. He wants to make me his…
I lean back on my haunches, and I go for his throat.
Alexei
I’ve never seen a wolf try to eat an ancient vampire alive before. The sight of Anya locked onto the vampire’s throat as the creature attempts to dislodge her without actually killing her is somewhat comical—or would be if it were not for the fact that my mate’s life is yet again in danger.
I am not sure if there will ever be a time Anya is soft, quiet, and safe. She is too fierce, too bold, too entirely full of life and lupine vigor.