Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 140780 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140780 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
The moment his body connected with mine, the world tilted.
A hot crackle shot through us, sharp enough to sting. Heat flared along my entire body—from him or me, I couldn’t tell. My blood reacted to his—recognising its mirroring piece. Heart of my heart. Soul of my soul...
Only for ice to violently smother it.
A headache slammed into me; I staggered against him.
He stiffened as if he’d felt the unexplainable rush of coldness, followed by my miserable pain. His knuckles pressed beneath my chin, nudging my head up until my eyes met his.
His stare dove into me, hunting everything I couldn’t say and all the pains I couldn’t survive. Without a word, his fingers curled around my nape. “Are you trying to pass out on me again?”
God, how was I supposed to survive this man?
Heat rolled off him as his temperature spiked; the single floor lamp across the room flickered as if it struggled to stay on.
For a second, my heart didn’t fight against his, it fell into his, adopting his every beat, falling into perfect sync—
“If you’re not going to pass out, we have to leave.” Letting me go, he shook out his hands as if he felt the same otherworldly sensation I did and stalked toward the door. “Come along.”
“Wait.” I blinked. “What’s going on? What the hell have you been up to while I dozed?”
“Keep Whisper beside you.” He completely ignored me as his hand hovered over the door handle. Looking at me over his bare shoulder, his back muscles tensed. “I don’t expect you to stab me this time, Rook, but I do expect you to stay awake, do you hear me?”
He flicked the lock and wrenched the door open.
I scurried to his side, peering around him as the two guards who’d tried to stop the doctors from leaving leapt to their feet. A few candy wrappers littered the floor from where they’d been relaxing against the corridor walls.
“What the—?” The guards shared a worried look. “Why are you—?”
“We’re leaving.” Lucien smirked that savage little smirk I was so used to seeing just before he killed someone. “I suggest you get out of my way.”
“How are you even standing, let alone walking?” The guard with both arms tattooed yanked a pistol from the holster on his hip. “We were told you lost enough blood to keep you unconscious for days.”
“Yes, well...” Lucien stepped over the threshold. Whisper stalked to his side, revealing sharp teeth. “I suggest you stop asking pointless questions and move.”
The second guard aimed his gun at the useless piece of metal in Lucien’s chest. “Look, sir. We have orders to keep you safe.”
“Good, then let me go.”
“Please return to the room or—”
“In the time it will take you to decide to shoot me—after going over the pros and cons of what will happen if you go against Marcus’s orders—your intestines will already be steaming on the floor.”
Whisper roared, looking positively peckish.
“See?” Lucien arched his chin at the panther. “He’s hungry.”
The two guards gulped and backed up. The taller, tatted one grabbed the radio fastened to his shirt pocket. “Tell that beast to get away from us or I’ll call for backup.”
“Again. In the time it takes for you to press that little button, your spinal cord will be torn out and used as a chew toy.”
The guard gulped.
He pressed the button—
Whisper crouched to pounce.
But the softest pop, pop, and the guard’s eyes suddenly rolled into the back of his head. He crumpled to the floor, unconscious.
The other guard leapt sideways, bashing into the wall and rattling a few decorative plates off their hooks, only to end up comatose beside his colleague.
“What a shame.” Lucien shrugged at Whisper. “Guess you won’t get a snack after all.”
“How...how did you do that?” I asked. “How did you knock them out without moving?”
True fear flared.
Was he getting worse?
Was his unnatural heat just the start?
“It wasn’t me.” He ruffled the panther’s scruff, his mood prickly and tight—just like it had been before he’d ordered me to kill him.
I didn’t like that. At all.
My head pounded as my vision greyed around the edges. “What do you mean, it wasn’t you?” My gaze shot down the corridor just as four black-clad assassins bled from the darkness.
“It was them,” Lucien murmured coldly.
“Mr. Ashfall?” The men didn’t lower their weapons. “Please state your thirteen-digit passcode.”
“1886-348-413-888.” Lucien pointed at Whisper. “The cat is not to be hurt.”
How was he so casual about all of this?
What the hell is happening?!
“Understood.” The man who’d come closer—a mask covering his entire face apart from his eyes—lowered his gun and waved at his colleagues to do the same. “We’ve put down twenty-two guards. Are there more? Is there any danger you can foresee that might hinder your safety if we take you out of this room?”
Lucien shrugged. “No idea. Marcus is thorough but today happened quickly. He’s away until morning I believe, trying to get the upper hand again.”