Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 51358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 205(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51358 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 205(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
“The end is here, sister,” Kyle, who looks like a fuck-boy version of Barbie’s boyfriend, says as fights take place all around us. Talon, Benedict, and Hawke are covering this area, trying to pinch off the slew of bloodmads getting into the residence.
How the hell did they get in?
“You made a mistake coming after my family!” Valor yells.
Kyle laughs. “Your family?” He turns his nose up and spits at the ground where she stands. “You would pick a pack of sinful monstrosities over your own blood. You deserve to die for linking your fate with them.”
Ouch.
Whoa, shit.
Valor launches herself at Kyle, slamming into him so hard they hit the ground.
I step to haul her off him but take a hit to my side that sends me crumpling to the floor. I cradle my side as the sting ebbs, looking up at the bloodmad who sucker punched me. Hurrying to my feet, I’m able to block a kick it hurtles my way. I cling to his ankle, just like Dagon taught me, and twist until he’s on the ground. A quick combo move later, and I’ve snapped his neck.
The crack reverberates up my fingers, and something sick twists my chest, but I shove it down. Unpack that and crumble later. Save the human now.
I whirl around, instincts blazing as I reach for my power. There’s water not far, in the pipes rushing through the walls—
“Stop!” Kyle demands as I rush toward them.
I halt.
Valor whimpers, eyes panicked and apologetic where he holds her back to his chest, a glimmering blade to her throat.
I raise my hands.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“Get your hands off my mate,” Lachlan’s voice holds a degree of terror I’ve never heard before as he stops at my side. All manner of chaos erupts around us, but I can tell the hunters have the upper hand, the screams of the bloodmads dying down by the minute.
“Your mate,” Kyle repeats in disgust. He jerks her harder against him, and Valor yelps at the move. “I thought of you as dead long ago, but now you’re fully, totally dead to me. My traitorous, whore of a sister.” He focuses on Valor. “I don’t even know you anymore. You’re just another worthless piece of trash now.”
Lachlan’s pupils are so blown out I can barely see his eye color. His hands are fists at his sides, a muscle in his jaw ticking as he practically vibrates. “Let her go,” he demands. “And I’ll kill you quickly. Hold on much longer and I’ll make it last a lifetime.”
Kyle laughs. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
The two are in a stare-off, neither paying attention to Valor, who has something in her hands—a knife slipping free from her sleeve.
I shake my head. She’s in no position to fight back. One wrong move, and that knife Kyle holds cuts open an artery.
She grips the knife.
I step forward.
Kyle hauls Valor back.
“I wouldn’t do that,” I say to Valor, but Kyle thinks I’m speaking to him.
“Who the fuck even are you?”
“Her friend,” I say, trying to keep him talking as I draw on my power. The wall behind him creaks and groans. The water is ready, I just need him to take that blade off of her for one second and I can drown him—
“My family,” Valor corrects me, then shifts her eyes to Lachlan. “Don’t be mad,” she whispers.
She brings her knife up quick as a flash, the blade sinking into Kyle’s throat.
Kyle flinches, dragging his knife across Valor’s neck so quickly, neither of us can stop it.
Lachlan roars so loud the room shakes.
Kyle and her go down in a thudding heap.
“No!” Lachlan drops to his knees, propelling Kyle across the floor until his body hits the opposite wall. Then he pulls Valor into his lap. “Baby, no.”
Valor’s eyes are fluttering, blood pooling from the wound at her neck.
Lachlan covers the wound with his hand, tears streaking down his cheeks.
The power inside me surges as I kneel beside them. I hover my hand, focusing as hard as I ever have, locking onto the water in her human blood. “I can slow it down,” I say, breathless as I do my best to redirect the flow.
Lachlan blinks at me, not fully understanding, before clarity clears his eyes. He brings his free wrist to his mouth, biting hard to open a wound of his own before putting it over her mouth. “Drink, baby,” he demands. “I need you to drink.”
Valor’s eyes flutter shut, but she parts her lips. She can’t possibly swallow, not with the wound at her throat, but he tips her head back and lets her blood flow into her mouth anyway.
“Lachlan!” Talon screams, and I whirl around, spotting one last bloodmad that slipped past the hunters careening our way.
I react on instinct, hitting him with a gush of water that bursts through the wall next to us, sending the bloodmad to his back. I direct the water down his throat, drowning him in seconds.