Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
The handcuffs would prove her gut feeling right or wrong, anyway.
And if he was fae and had no idea, that would only work in her favor.
That he’d been attracted to her also worked in her favor. At least, she was sure he desired her. What she felt pressing against her skin was foreign and male and all-consuming. How am I sensing these things?
It didn’t matter. She shook off her concerns. All that mattered was that he wanted her and that the lust she’d felt toward him was probably just an instinctual, animal reaction to his own uncontrolled desire.
Yeah, Echo was pretty confident Elijah would show at her hotel room this afternoon. It was five thirty. The band’s flight landed earlier this afternoon. One of the werewolves working for William had informed her of the band’s arrival at their hotel.
Two hours they’d been there, probably settling in, getting some rest. Not that Elijah needed much.
But he was coming.
The werewolf, Jacques, had texted to let her know Webb had left in a cab ten minutes ago.
She chewed on her lip and checked the room again. The sun didn’t set for hours in Brussels. Echo used to like long days when she was human. Now she loathed them. The blinds and curtains were drawn, but still Echo stayed away from the vicinity of the window in case daylight shone through any cracks.
A bottle of champagne and a bowl of fresh strawberries sat on a room service tray. Not very original, but it set the tone. Music played from her cell as it charged. Nothing by the Strix, but a playlist comprised of angsty indie rock about sex and love.
Finally, Echo acknowledged the butterflies in her belly. She hadn’t experienced butterflies since the first night she’d fed from a human. For months, William allowed her to drink nothing but blood from the donor bags he procured on the black market. Then about six months after her turning, he took her on a hunt to teach her control. Echo hadn’t needed it. The thought of drinking from an innocent human had tormented her into nausea. She hadn’t wanted to admit it to William. Didn’t want him to think her weak.
Instead, he’d praised her control, admired it, even. But he’d also forced her on another hunt. This time they followed a male who had spiked a woman’s drink at a nightclub in Munich. They’d switched the drinks on him so he was drugged instead, and then they’d manhandled him into the alley behind the club. From there, Echo had bitten a human for the first time.
The sensation was entirely different from drinking from a bag.
More intoxicating.
Not sexual with him. Just hunger.
But her control never slipped.
She took what she needed, released the would-be attacker, and licked his wound closed with the healing properties in her saliva. William had been blown away by her discipline. She’d glowed under his obvious pride. Said she was one of the most composed vampires he’d ever met. And she knew that’s why he trusted her, most likely why he wanted her to become his second-in-command despite her youth.
Echo wasn’t so sure about her control, even then. She had a vengeful streak. The next evening, she’d gone out to stalk the human she’d fed from, to take away his ability to attack women … only to discover he was already dead.
Drained of his blood.
She’d never asked questions.
Assumed William had disposed of him for the same reasons.
Now she knew better.
He wasn’t called William “the Bloody” Payne for nothing.
How could she have blinded herself all these years?
“Stop it,” Echo muttered angrily. She threw back her shoulders. Odette was counting on her to get this right. To get Elijah Webb exactly where they needed him.
Odette, who was so human her biggest problem right now was a girl bullying her at the same boarding school in New Brunswick that Echo had attended. Twelve-year-old girls were the worst. Echo had given her sister some advice on how to handle her bully, hoping it would be enough until she could come for her herself.
“It’s so unfair,” Odette bemoaned. “My dad and sister are these scary, badass vampires who could break her neck just looking at her, and yet I can’t tell her that because—”
“She’d have you committed,” Echo said in a warning tone.
Just like Echo, Odette was raised with knowledge of the underworld that existed beneath most human awareness. Unlike Echo, Odette was far more eager for the promise of becoming a vampire than Echo ever was. She’d turned to please William. Odette, however, was filled with childish romantic notions about immortality.
If it was the last thing Echo ever did, she’d save her sister from the reality.
“Hold on a bit longer, little darling,” Echo whispered.
A knock sounded on the hotel room door, drawing Echo out of her meanderings. Elijah Webb’s golden energy pulsed from beyond it. The fool really needed to learn how to mute that. The door suddenly clicked open and in he stepped, holding the room card up that she’d left for him at reception.