Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 118860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 594(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 594(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
She sat on the floor for a moment, breathing deep, pushing beyond panic to look at the situation from more than one point of view. There was a convincing argument that the Carpathians had woven the safeguards for her protection.
She wasn’t going to hide from the truth. She had been able to stall the male shifters, but she never could have defeated them in battle. She wouldn’t have been able to prevent Rud from taking Sandrine. She believed he would have killed the child simply because he was thwarted in getting what he wanted. She couldn’t have stopped him, not if Percy and Bacus entered the fray. She didn’t trust either of them.
She wasn’t certain how much help Jasmine would have been. She was ready to trade her life for that of her child. She was so terrified for Sandrine and so focused on keeping her alive, Sarika doubted if she would have gone against anything Rud said or did. She wanted to appease him and keep him in a good mood. Sarika couldn’t blame her, but it wouldn’t have been helpful.
So okay, Tomas was committed to her protection. If she looked at it like that and not that he’d made her a prisoner, she could have a conversation with him and point out what was wrong with his approach. He could have asked her to stay inside…
Sarika let out a groan and covered her face. Luiz had asked her to stay inside, but she hadn’t done that when she heard a child crying. She could understand why Tomas might think she would leave, even if she agreed to stay. She’d done exactly that. But if she hadn’t…what would have happened to Sandrine?
She forced herself to her feet, flung her pack behind one of the chairs and made her way to the bathroom. She was a little in love with the tub. She’d always wanted one that was deep and wide and where she could sink into the hot water, put her head back and just relax. A part of her found it difficult to see Luiz having the tub or even the large beautiful bathroom. There was no woman in his life to decorate, and yet the house looked like something out of a magazine, specifically to her taste. She liked that she and her cousin shared the same taste.
The water filled the tub abnormally fast. She still hadn’t figured out how it did that or where the water came from, but she was grateful for it when she sank down into its depths. She loved that the faucet could be handheld, and she could wash her hair and rinse thoroughly after soaking.
Her body was still sore from travel, and weirdly, her neck throbbed and burned, making her aware of a spot right over her pulse. She found herself covering the spot over and over with her palm and then rubbing at it with her fingers. It was a strange sensation, but she found, after consideration, that she liked it.
She closed her eyes and tried to relax. That uneasy feeling hadn’t left her. Usually, the hot water would help ease all tension, but she found herself becoming almost agitated. The only thing that soothed her was the way she stroked her fingers over that burning spot on the side of her neck.
Tomas. She couldn’t get him out of her head. There was some part of her that kept wanting to reach out to him. To connect. To just touch him. They didn’t even have to talk. She wanted to know he was close. She made herself take a deep breath, realizing panic was beginning to set in. She forced herself to analyze the situation. That was one of her greatest strengths. She could step back and look at a problem from various angles. Needing to touch base with Tomas was definitely a problem as far as she was concerned.
She might have written him a hundred letters over the years, but it was difficult to equate the living, breathing, larger-than-life man with the faceless figure she’d had so many discussions with on paper. Across oceans. Far away. What were the odds that he would be trying to put a claim on her?
“Trying?” she murmured aloud. Tomas had done something to bind them together. She felt those ties. She felt them pulling at her now. The ritual words he’d spoken in his language and hers had bound them. She knew the power of words. She wore an ancient protection amulet and felt the weight of it each time she was in a dangerous situation. Words mattered.
There was no book to research the secretive Carpathian species. Nowhere to find information on them. They were an ancient race and yet had managed to hide themselves among civilizations for centuries. Not only had they managed to hide themselves, but they had hidden the fact that vampires weren’t simply a myth as well.