Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 99935 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99935 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
“All I care about is you telling me the truth in the next ten seconds, because if you don’t, I’m taking that axe and skipping the fingernails—I’ll just go straight to chopping your arm off.”
“What?!”
“—eight, seven, six—”
“Are you insane?!” I thrashed in the chains, flinging myself about. “Let me out of here, you lunatic! I’m not human!”
“—three, two—”
I blinked and Radu was looming over me, wielding an axe.
He swung on my arm. “One.”
“I’m here for my sister!”
The blade halted millimeters from my wrist.
“My sister,” I bleated. “She was taken by demons a little over a month ago. The same five demons who were the first to be murdered. I still don’t know who had her taken or what they want, but I know that I’m no threat to anyone!
“I came here to save my sister and bring her home, and nothing’s going to stop me. Not even you.” Furious eyes flayed him where he stood. “Because if you try to kill me, he will kill you.”
“Who”—Radu squeezed the axe handle so tightly, he snapped it in half—“is he?”
I bit my lip hard, penning in the truth.
But it was no use.
“Lucifer,” I whispered. “I made a deal with him to get into this academy, so that I could search for my sister.”
A scream leaked through my teeth when he pressed his face against mine, inhaling me into his lungs. “And is that all he did for you, little one?”
“N-no...” I couldn’t stop crying. I couldn’t stop apologizing to Dora deep in my heart. “He sent me Sabrina to be my guide—”
“And?!”
I jerked out of my skin, crying harder. “And he gave me a disguise—”
“Why?” Radu hissed. Grabbing my face, he rubbed and kissed all over my cheeks, eyes, and lips—making my tears his own. “Why? Why? Why?”
He was insane. Completely and absolutely gone, and now... I would be too.
“Because... I’m a human mortal woman,” I whispered, “and as alive as they come.”
“Ah— Ahh!” he cried out—jubilance heavy in his voice even as he fell to the floor, clutching his head.
It was much the same pain and head-clutching that Tristan felt when the glamour broke, and the wool fell from his eyes. And as Radu gazed at me like I was the crown jewels, Mona Lisa, and the sunset over Lake Brienz all in one, I knew that wool was gone.
My flush cheeks, my fluttering heart, my very much not-red eyes. He could see it all.
“Professor, please—”
A loud, hair-raising hiss ripped from his throat. Eyes darkening to pitch black, Radu crouched—his muscles coiling.
“Don’t!”
He pounced. Tearing my head half off my shoulders, he snapped it to the side, exposed my neck, and buried his fangs in my vein.
Chapter Twelve
Iwoke up in a strange bed, not in a strange place.
The shelves, upon shelves, upon bookshelves surrounded me, welcoming me back to Professor Radu’s quarters.
I stirred under the sheets, making a half-hearted attempt to push them off and sit up, but I didn’t so much as twitch a finger before giving up.
I felt terrible. I was tired and dizzy. My skin was cold and clammy, but also so sweaty, it was grossly sticking to the sheets. My head felt like it was immersed in another hazy cloud, and my heart was fluttering wildly in my chest like a trapped bird.
I didn’t know the symptoms of rapid and extreme blood loss, but if I had to guess, I was experiencing every single one of them.
High above me, two silver, lamp eyes floated above the rafters.
“W-why...?” I croaked. “Why... am I alive?”
“Oh, you beautiful, perfect, tasty thing.”
Something dropped on the sheets. I didn’t need to look to know it was drool.
“Why would I kill you?” His voice was soft and flickering like the candlelight. “If I did that... I’d never find the other one. Your sister.”
Two words, and they punched through the haze. “What did you just say?”
“Two of you,” he breathed. His shiny eyes went out as he closed them, sinking deep into his daydreams. “I’d keep you both. Both of you so fresh, young, and plump. Both of you all mine.” Radu moaned deep and low in his throat. If he told me he was jerking off, I would’ve believed it. “When one of you needs rest after my feeding, I’d simply switch to the other one.
“Always fed, always satisfied, always blood.”
Radu appeared on top of me, dropping his hands on either side of my head.
“Ahh!” I screamed, sinking back as far as the pillows would let me.
“I would never kill you, sweet Charlie.” Dipping down, Radu licked my lips—an act equal in intimacy and possession. “You’ve made me happier than I’ve ever dreamed of. You’ve given me everything.”
I gaped at him. “You— You can’t have me, you raving corpse! And you can’t have my sister either! We’re not walking blood bags here for your sipping pleasure,” I shrieked. “And—and—”