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)
“You’ll keep her safe, won’t you?” She heard Odette ask quietly. “She’s the only family I have left.”
Echo squeezed her eyes closed. Because that wasn’t true. And there was a real possibility that if Odette decided to return to her parents, Echo might never see her again. It would be for Odette’s safety. To give her a normal existence.
“I promise I will guard her with my life,” Elijah vowed.
A different kind of ache warmed her chest just as the tingling all over her body told her the sun had set.
It was time to go.
They’d both remained silent as they’d trudged through the dark woods back to the SUV. Odette’s quiet sobs still rang in Echo’s mind and heart. She had a feeling Elijah knew she needed time to process leaving her little sister behind and that’s why he didn’t speak until they reached the vehicle.
“They’re all safe here. No one knows about this place. I bought it under a pseudonym with cash. Even the guy who got all the supplies together doesn’t know my real name.”
Echo nodded. “I know. I just wish I knew for certain I’d be back for her.”
“Don’t talk like that again.”
Again referred to the fact that she’d brought up her possible death to the Webbs while Odette was in the bathroom. Echo had done it so she could give them the name and address of Odette’s real parents in case she didn’t come back from this fight to deliver Odette to them herself. Bill had paled at the request, his gaze flickering worriedly to his son. Echo wished she could promise them Elijah would make it out of this fight alive too. But all she could promise was that she’d die protecting him, just as he’d promised the same to her little sister.
What a funny team they’d turned out to be.
Nancy had vowed to take Odette to her parents if it came to it.
“But it won’t,” she’d insisted sternly. “And you have to believe that too.”
“I’m just being realistic,” Echo said now.
“You’re just getting on my nerves with the fatalistic bullshit, that’s what you’re doing,” Elijah grumbled as he climbed into the SUV.
Echo smirked and followed him inside.
To keep him awake on their long drive north, Echo asked him questions about his life in the band, about their music. The conversation flowed as they chatted about music they both liked, movies, travel … Echo even told him more about her life with William.
“There was always a wall up between us. He professed to love me, but it was from a distance.”
“And you loved him.”
Echo wasn’t sure it was a question. “It’s funny how quickly love can turn to hate when the person you love betrays you.”
“Do you hate him? Really?”
“Why would you ask that?”
“Because if it comes to it, could you kill the man you thought of as a father?”
“Elijah … I need to kill him. Don’t you see that? Odette will never be safe while he’s alive. You will never be safe while he’s alive.” Rage simmered quietly in her gut. “He deserves to die for the untold pain he’s caused over the centuries, not just for the pain he’s caused me and Odette.”
“I’m sorry I asked.”
“Don’t be. You need to know you can count on me. And you can.”
“You can count on me too.”
“I already know that. You’re one of the few beings on the planet I trust.”
He shot her a warm look before his gaze returned to the road.
After a few hours they fell into comfortable silence, only talking now and then.
They stopped at a couple of service stations, once at the halfway point of their journey to grab something to eat at a twenty-four-hour café.
“How is the blood situation?” Elijah whispered to her across the rickety old bistro table.
“I’ll need some by the time we hit the Highlands. Perhaps MacLennan will let me go hunting.” At Elijah’s raised brow, she chuckled dryly. “For deer.”
“Poor deer.”
“I won’t kill it. Just take a little.” Echo wrinkled her nose at the thought. Animal blood wasn’t her favorite. For multiple reasons. She hated frightening them for a start.
Echo began to feel slightly antsy when they were a few hours out from sunrise. Thankfully, they arrived in Calais with plenty of time to spare.
They found a cheap hotel not far from the Eurotunnel.
“I brought tape.” Elijah pulled it out of his backpack as they strode into the small room with twin beds.
Together they taped the curtains closed over the window.
A slight awkwardness fell between them as they readied for sleep. As they stood side by side at the bathroom sink brushing their teeth, Echo almost smiled at the weird, domesticated scenario. A fae-borne and a vampire brushing their teeth together before bed sounded like the start of a joke.
Elijah seemed to sense her amusement and grinned before he spat. He watched her as he wiped his mouth.