Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 93727 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93727 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Ian was still beside me, fighting with a skill I hadn’t known the young Vampire possessed. It was a good thing that he was so skilled, because I wouldn’t have stopped to help him if he got into trouble.
Behind the house were a large shop and two smaller ones. All were dark, but the doors were open and there were men everywhere.
I stumbled as I crossed the yard, but I used the momentum to keep moving forward. There were no helpful shots coming from the ridgeline above the property on this side of the house, and I had to meet every man myself. By then, I was moving slower than I was used to, but it was still effective.
We cleared one shop and had entered the second when Dalton and Chance caught up to us.
We cleared the last shops quickly.
Then there was just silence surrounding us.
“They’re not inside,” Dalton said so quietly that even I barely heard him.
“Don’t touch him,” Chance hissed as Ian moved beside him. “Leave him be.”
“But—”
“Don’t,” Chance said firmly.
That’s when I heard someone in the woods. I began to jog, barely noticing that one leg was dragging a little with each step. The sound was coming from the area to the west side of the house and moving upward through the trees.
My mate.
I dodged branches and stepped over the ferns and bushes in my way as I followed the sound.
The first thing I saw was Thunder racing through the trees at an angle.
Then from across the property, high on the hill, I heard Gary’s voice. He wasn’t shouting, but Thunder must have heard him because he picked up speed.
“Voren! Fass!”
Go. Attack.
I ran to intercept him, and just as I reached the point where I could follow, he leaped like a cat through the darkness and hit what I’d thought was a tree.
The man bellowed in pain as he went down, Thunder’s jaw wrapped around his throat.
“THUNDER, FASS!” Gary shouted. “FASS!”
It was over before the man knew what had happened.
Then all hell broke loose.
I turned and fired as something moved to my left.
Chance was shouting.
Other voices I recognized came from all around me, and I picked my way through them for the voice I was searching for. Men fell one after another. There were so many that I was practically tripping over them.
They filled the forest.
Finally, I stopped.
Moonlight filtered in through the trees, illuminating a long brown braid I would recognize anywhere.
I roared as a large fist wrapped around it and yanked.
Chapter 13
Rosemary
They had the house surrounded.
We hadn’t realized it until we’d made it to the trees, and by then it was too late to turn back. The men in the SUVs had swarmed the yard, and going back that way would’ve been a death sentence.
Erik and Beau led the way, taking down anything that moved. Ambrose watched our backs.
Aunt Halle and I protected the boys, sometimes with our own bodies.
We were immortal. Someone would have to take our heads to end us for good.
The boys were not.
The bullet wound on my hip throbbed. The one in my shoulder sent shooting pain all the way down my arm.
I was pretty sure there was a hole in my cheek, but I refused to touch it with my tongue, afraid of what I would find.
None of us would leave those woods unscathed. I just hoped that we’d survive it.
As we slowly and quietly made our way toward where Reese and Lucy were hidden, I sent every desperate plea I could think of into the universe. We just had to get outside the perimeter that the humans had made. If we did that, we could find a defensive position and hole up until someone found us.
Pop had made calls to old teammates. Daniel and Uncle Dalton had to be finished soon, and they’d get the message Pop had sent. Someone was coming.
I had to believe someone was coming.
Holding back a scream, I watched as Ambrose fell.
I raised my rifle and fired.
Ambrose rose again. The human didn’t.
Daniel’s oldest brother nodded at me to keep going.
Setting my hand on top of Seamus’s at my waist, I walked forward.
The humans were like fleas, popping up when I least expected them. It wasn’t a coordinated attack. Instead, they seemed to be lying in wait until we were nearly on top of them.
My nerves were fried.
Seamus’s hot breath shuddered against the back of my neck. He was crying.
The boys had been trained the same way that Ian and I had been. They were proficient in every type of weapon imaginable, and we’d armed them.
But we still forced them to use me and their mother as cover.
Aunt Halle had taken a bullet in her chest near her collarbone while shoving Grant to the forest floor.
I’d been hit in the face while backing Seamus around the trunk of a tree.