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)
Keeping the sound barrier up around her, Elijah followed her at high speed as she broke the first guard’s neck and then the second before the other even knew what was happening. The sound of their heavy bodies hitting the ground was heard only by them. Echo pointed to the stake strapped to the first’s hip. “Take one.”
Elijah did just that.
Echo gave him a nod as if to say Ready?
He nodded back, buoyed by how easy it had been. And all because of his gifts.
They were the wind as they flew around to the back of the house and Echo removed the other two guards from the playing field.
Echo paused, closing her eyes. She stretched herself, pushing her hearing past the sound of Elijah’s soft breathing and his heartbeat that ticked a little faster than normal. His scent made her muscles tighten with awareness, but she shoved it aside and searched for Odette’s scent again.
She smelled her fear.
She tried to focus past that and listen for the three distinct heartbeats.
Orla’s was naturally a little faster than Odette’s and Roark’s.
Echo tuned into her senses, attempting to visualize their positions in relation to how far their heartbeats were from her.
Her eyes flew open, and she turned to Elijah, who watched her intently. He nodded at her to let her know the sound barrier was still up around them.
“Odette is in the middle of the room. Most likely the couch. Orla is closest—in the kitchen. Roark is by the front door. I’ll go back around the front of the cabin and enter that way while you enter here.” Uneasiness moved through her as she asked, “You can sense me, right?”
He nodded.
“So you’ll sense when I’m ready to burst in on them?”
“Absolutely. I’ll go when you go.”
“Straight in the heart.” Echo pointed the stake near her chest. “No messing around. If you think in the two seconds it takes you to assess the situation that you won’t make the heart, twist her head clean off. Orla is old and fast. Don’t give her time to react.”
A hardness settled on Elijah’s features. “I can do this.”
With a nod, Echo hurried away, all the while hoping like hell she wasn’t leading this male to his death or endangering her sister’s life. She had to trust in Elijah’s abilities. But more than that, she had to trust that he could embrace the darkness. If only temporarily.
Blood rushing in her ears, Echo braced herself at the front door and then vamp-sped her way through it, the door bursting off its hinges as she flew at Roark.
But he was fast.
Too fast.
Suddenly, Odette was in his arms, his hand around her throat, stretching her neck upward alarmingly far. Fresh tears fell down her sister’s face.
A scream rent the air and Echo’s eyes flew from her sister to where Orla burst into a cloud of ash. Elijah coughed, lurching backward as the ash covered him. “Fuck. Fucking gross.”
Roark growled, pulling on Odette’s hair. “Your father is going to make you pay for that. Orla was two hundred years old!”
“Well, no wonder she copped it easily,” Elijah drawled, patting the ash off his clothes as he slowly ventured into the room. When Roark pulled on Odette’s neck, making her whimper, Elijah stopped moving. “She was well past her prime.”
Roark sneered at him. “You’re the fae.”
“Echo,” Odette whimpered. “W-what’s h-happening?”
Before Echo could speak, Roark grinned. “What’s happening is that Echo sees William for what he is. Finally, the blinders have come off. Dearest Daddy is a monster, and Big Sis wants to save you from him.”
Echo bared her teeth. “What’s your agenda in all of this?”
His gaze raked over her. “I want to offer you a deal.”
“What kind of deal?”
“You work with me to kill William so I can take over The Garm … and I’ll back off the fae hunt.” He jerked his chin at Elijah. “I’m not interested in the fairy. I am interested in the power and the money and the businesses.”
That Echo could believe. “You want me to sign it all over to you after William’s dead?”
“That … and you’ll be my mate.”
Revulsion roiled through her. “Never.”
He pulled Odette’s hair and she cried out.
“Stop that, you son of a bitch.”
Roark narrowed his eyes. “We’re good together, Echo. You can’t deny how good the sex was.”
Anger mingled with possessiveness hit Echo like a wave, and it took her a second to realize those emotions were not hers. Attention flying to Elijah, her cheeks flushed with humiliation that Roark had outed her shame in front of him and Odette.
Elijah’s fist tightened around the stake in his hand. He looked murderous.
“Keep your filthy mouth shut,” Echo snapped at Roark.
“I want you to be my mate. That’s the deal. Or I kill little Odette here, blame it on you, and help Dearest Daddy hunt you to extinction.”