Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 101147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
I will not drink again. Ever. My mind seeks the connection to my husband.
“I wouldn’t know, Mr. Palgrave. I don’t understand the lure. I would much rather discover how she ticks. I’d like to start with some stimuli to see if I can get her to change back to her human form.”
Dante. I am afraid.
I know, baby. But I’m coming. I won’t leave you there. How many vampires are around you?
I force my head up. Weary. I am so weary, but I look around. I open my senses and let the sights and smells of the place wash over me.
Two men. One woman. Amanda. I think the name with a sneer.
Dante seems to get the message. His next thoughts are hesitant. Um, I can explain about her, love. You see…
I growl.
I love you, Kaj.
I will see about that. For now, I have a job to do. I’m in a small cage. I can smell three others, but they are outside the door.
And then I forget to breathe, the pain is so great. It comes up from my paws and radiates through my body, sending fire through my veins. My lungs feel tight, and breath is impossible. I howl with the ache that goes on and on and on.
“It doesn’t seem to be doing anything,” the man in the white coat says. I watch as he takes his hand off some form of button.
My body sags as the pain stops. My legs shake. I have no control.
There is a kick to my cage that sends the whole thing rattling. The man in the suit stares down, disgust apparent on his face. “Hey, dummy, change. We want to see your human form. Do you think it has a brain when it’s like this?”
White Coat frowns. “I believe so. That was only a medium setting though. Perhaps we should try one higher. I don’t want to push it, Mr. Palgrave. The higher settings tend to kill off the subject or at least fry its brains.”
Kaja, what the fuck was that? What are they doing to you?
Dante’s panicked voice screams in my head. It is too much. They want me to change, but I cannot risk it. I can handle more in this form. If I change and they turn on the machine, there is a chance that I can die. I need time. Dante will come. He will come, and I need to be alive when he gets here.
I will take the pain.
Kaja! You talk to me right now. I felt that. What are they doing?
He caught my pain? That will not do. I will have to shut down our connection. I am loathe to do it. Feeling Dante is the only thing that keeps me going.
That is why I was afraid. I was afraid of loving him. I was unwilling to fight for him because when I could not directly feel him, I did not trust him. It is time to move past that. It is time to believe.
They are killing me. Come quickly. I love you, my Dante.
I close the connection between us as the pain begins again. This time I am alone, with no physical sense of my husband. As the shaking begins, I realized he is still with me. No matter what. I do not need to feel him to know he is coming.
He will always come.
I howl and hold on to the pain. As long as I hurt, I am still alive.
Chapter Thirty
Dante
The hovercar stops in midair.
My brain feels numb. Oh, every nerve in my body feels like a live wire. My heart is beating so fast, I’m surprised the fucker doesn’t set off some alarm. My senses seem far sharper than ever before. I can see farther, smell more. Even my hearing seems to be on some type of steroids. I noticed it as we left The Club. I’m able to hear whispered conversations from yards away. My every sense has come to full life, but there’s a hole at my center. A dead space.
She cut our connection. I can’t feel her anymore. I’m numb so the pain and panic don’t take over.
I strain to see through the thick fog that coats the air, making it hard to see anything, even with my enhanced vision. I manage to make out the name on the building. Palgrave. Palgrave Industries owns all the upper space. I check the side of the building. Twenty-three. Damn. We’re into the lower quarter. No wonder I can’t see much. Visibility is extremely poor below the fiftieth floor. And under twenty is nothing but tenements. It’s where my people stuff the poor so we don’t have to look at them.
My people have more in common with Kaja’s than I like to think about.
“This is it.” Meg points to a small ventilation shaft. She seems excited to see the grubby thing. “It has sensors, but they don’t work. The pollution level here is off the charts. The building next door manufactures something that screws with the sensors. Heavy metals, I think. I’ve been able to get into the building, no trouble.”