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)
Knowing he wouldn’t like the next part, Echo nodded hesitantly. “My father believes the fae are capable of cremating the dead. Even the living, actually, but only the most powerful fae are able to do that. But you should be able to do the former.”
The rock star looked vaguely ill. “Cremate them? How?”
She stepped toward one of the dead witches. “I don’t know. Throw your energy at the body and think it? Do whatever you usually do to tap into your gifts.”
“You’re acting like this is an everyday occurrence for me,” he snarled, striding toward the dead witch at Echo’s feet. “How can you so callously stand over this woman’s body and ask me to cremate her?”
Refusing to give in to the guilt or consequent rage she felt at his accusatory tone, Echo narrowed her eyes. “Because she just tried to kill your mom and dad, and I happen to like them.”
He squeezed his eyes closed, seeming in pain, but nodded. Then he lowered to his haunches and placed his hands palm down in the air above the witch. Unsure it was dangerous to be near Elijah when he used this type of magic, Echo strode over to the Webbs and shielded them. Elijah raised his eyebrow, stared at her for a moment too long, and then turned back to the witch.
Concentration strained his expression.
And then seconds later, the witch’s body cracked and crumbled.
“Holy shit.” Elijah almost fell on his ass, his eyes probably as wide as Echo’s as she stepped closer in morbid curiosity.
With a whoosh and a puff of ash in the air, the witch disintegrated.
“Oh. My. God.” Nancy looked shell-shocked and sounded it as she commented, “That’s definitely going to clog my Hoover.”
“Definitely,” Bill agreed, dumbfounded.
Elijah turned to Echo. “What the fuck?”
She shrugged a little apologetically. “Told you.”
8
The ferry to Calais, France, left from Dover, just under two hours southeast of Peckham. Thankfully, the sun had set, so Echo took the passenger seat in the SUV she’d procured from her mysterious contact, and Elijah’s mum and dad were in the back. The car’s boot held the two small suitcases they’d packed with necessities.
Every time Elijah glanced in the rearview mirror and saw his parents’ pale, strained expressions, remorse was a knife across his gut. Being what he was had completely derailed their lives. Despite them moving a lot when he was little, he’d never felt too guilty about it because he’d been a kid and he couldn’t control his abilities as much. Then he’d gained control and hidden them to protect his parents.
Now it wasn’t enough.
How long would his folks, the kindest humans he’d ever met, have to be on the run because of him?
Echo wasn’t the most talkative vampire he’d ever known, so she didn’t break the awful silence that filled the SUV as they drove toward the ferry terminal. Instead, she pulled a bag from the passenger-seat floor that he hadn’t even noticed was there and rummaged through it. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched her turn on two old-fashioned-looking mobile phones and fiddle with them for a bit.
“What are you doing?”
She gave a sharp shake of her head to indicate she was busy.
Not the most personable female, was she?
The next thing that came out of the bag was a tablet computer and what looked like two passports. He wanted to ask what she was doing, but he already knew the answer. He concentrated on the road ahead as she looked at what were indeed passports and then swiped her finger over the tablet screen.
Finally, Echo turned to look at his parents and held out one of the phones. “This is a burner. Prepaid. The only contact on it is for this burner phone.” She held up the other in her free hand. “This is Elijah’s. You text to let him know you’ve arrived safely, or you use it if you’re in trouble. Otherwise, don’t touch it.”
Elijah made a face at her bossy, cool tone. Couldn’t she be a little nicer? She said she liked his parents.
His dad, however, reached forward to take the phone and replied gratefully, “Thank you, Echo.”
“Sure thing.” She reached back into that bag of hers and pulled out a wad of plastic-wrapped cash and handed it over, along with the passports. “Money and forged IDs.”
Elijah huffed. “How the hell did you get all this in place so quickly?”
“Because I knew you were going to agree to this deal before you even knew about the deal,” she replied, annoyingly smug. “All my research suggested you have a good relationship with your parents and you’d want to protect them. So I got organized.”
“Thank you, Echo,” Nancy said, her voice a little shaky as she took the passports. “And this is a lot of euros.”
“Oh wait,” Elijah scoffed. “You couldn’t have possibly known I’d send my parents to France to hide.”