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)
“No. I’m … alive.”
“You can’t go.” Margaret grabbed at her hand now, her grip surprisingly strong for a human. “You can’t face him. He’s too strong. He’ll kill you.”
“I’m stronger than I look,” Echo promised her.
“No!” Margaret screamed, her fear so thick now, it was pungent in Echo’s nostrils. She grabbed at Echo’s arms, her nails scoring down them as she tried to grip onto her. “I won’t let you! I won’t let you die too!”
“Margaret.” Echo struggled to restrain her without hurting her. Throat burning with unshed tears, she pinned her birth mother to the bed, baring her teeth, feeling her incisors shift down.
Dawning realization filled Margaret’s expression as she suddenly slumped beneath Echo. “No,” she whispered.
Echo released her and stood back. “I’m sorry, but yes.”
It hadn’t been the plan, but she needed Margaret to know she wasn’t powerless.
“When?” She sat up slowly, taking it far better than she had the news of Echo’s existence.
“He made me turn when I was twenty.”
“Do you … do you feed from humans?”
“I don’t kill,” she promised her. “I don’t hurt humans.”
Margaret licked her lips nervously. “There was a vampire in William’s coven. Augustine. He was old. Not as old as William, but old.”
Echo nodded. She’d heard of Augustine. He had been in Eirik’s close circle like William. Until Eirik discovered Augustine was working to find the fae-borne children … to protect them and to stop the gate from opening.
“He showed me kindness … William came for me after he killed … your father and … well, I thought you … William came to finish the job. But Augustine stopped him. He threatened him. It worked. Augustine …” Margaret’s gaze darted over Echo’s face. “He was proof that the vampire does not make the monster … the man does. William was a monster before he was ever turned into a vampire. If you’re here protecting me …” Tears fell down her face as she said, “Then I know William didn’t win. I’m not afraid of you.”
Echo wanted to fall to her knees and bawl like a baby. Instead, she whispered words good enough to convey the measure of her gratitude, “Thank you.”
Elijah’s fingers laced through hers.
She squeezed them.
“You’re safe here,” she assured Margaret. “I’ll be back when it’s over.”
“And … we’ll have a chance to talk?” Margaret asked quietly, eyes still glazed with shell shock.
“We’ll talk,” Echo promised.
“Good. Maybe you can explain why you’re holding the hand of one of the most famous rock stars on the planet.”
Elijah chuckled as he gripped Echo’s hand tighter. “We’ll explain everything later, we promise.”
Miraculously, Echo wondered if perhaps she could get past her guilt so that she and Elijah could embrace the “we” part in that sentence.
29
There’s barely any room to fight, Elijah thought as he stayed hidden in the shadows of the bathroom. The flat in Central London was typical of residences in this part of the city. Fucking tiny.
Margaret’s home, while stylish and cared for, only consisted of an open-plan living and kitchen area, a bathroom, and a bedroom off a narrow hall.
Trying to hide all but one of the eight supernaturals in the flat was a far greater task when the hiding spots were few. Fionn’s hulking form was hidden by preternatural shadows in the back corner of the kitchen.
Niamh, Kiyo, and Conall were hidden in the bedroom closet while Thea sat on the bed.
Elijah, Echo, and Rose were in the tight bathroom.
The only sound that permeated the flat was Thea’s heartbeat. Elijah was helping to mask the sound of his and Echo’s while Rose masked her own.
Niamh silenced hers, Kiyo’s, and Conall’s while Fionn hid his own and cast a spell out to muffle any sound their coming confrontation would cause.
Echo had warned that William might know right away they were there, that he had a nose for magic. Elijah could feel her tension at his back. Still, something had lightened in her since Margaret’s reaction to learning Echo was a vampire.
He was much relieved, though he knew it wasn’t a miracle cure to Echo’s self-flagellation.
Perhaps wiping William off the face of the planet would help.
Elijah knew when everyone else picked up what his sensitive hearing already had. Footsteps climbing the stairwell and coming to a stop outside the door. They all heard the knob turn and the door squeak open on its hinges. And Elijah felt him. He felt the power of the vampire sweep over him. He heard Echo’s intake of breath and turned to her.
Her face was tight with anxiety. “He’s juiced up on power,” she whispered, even though William wouldn’t be able to hear her beneath Fionn’s spell.
But we knew that, he reminded her silently. They knew William was spelled by the Catalan Abella Coven.
“You might as well all come out to play.” An accented, deep male voice seemed to permeate the entire flat like he was speaking through a public address system. “I can feel every single one of you.”