Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 121008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
“Don’t call them peasants.” Dante whistles under his breath. “Them’s fighting words. One day you call them peasants, and the next day they unionize.”
Cara ignores him. “The royals are the vampires with ancient blood. They are pure vampire. If they can find a proper consort, their lives are greatly elongated by taking his or her blood. The consort also receives a much longer life by taking the vampire’s blood into his or her body. The consort’s blood makes the vampire stronger than he or she would normally be. I heard your sister recently married her consort, Mr. Dellacourt.”
Dante’s nose wrinkles in distaste. “Yes. Now our house is filled with love and roses every day. I’m not having any of it. What’s the point in an extra couple of hundred years if you can’t party? Susie and Colin. They walk around like lovestruck teens. It’s disgusting. See, the bad part about finding a superhot piece of tail like you is the inevitable, long decline into idiocy.”
“He’s trying to say that vampires fall deeply in love with their consorts,” Cara says primly.
“You say potato, I say potahto,” Dante sings.
“You, miss, could serve as either a bondmate or a consort,” Reeve interjects over the increasingly impatient crowd. “The psychic connection goes hand in hand with the differences in the blood. Normally, there would be plenty of suitable men and women. It is a common thing in Fae creatures. It’s why our poor king is related to that one. Mr. Dellacourt’s father took the king’s aunt as his consort. The Fae and Vampire planes are closely linked.”
“Well, they were until that bastard Torin took over,” Dante says.
“Why does everyone speak English?” I’m still trying to understand this strange place I find myself in. “I don’t get it. Dante sounds like every half-assed player prowling the bars on a Saturday night.”
Dante touches his chest and looks horribly offended. “Now who’s rude? For your information, I speak English because my people created it a long time ago. You can’t possibly think your ancestors were intelligent enough to come up with such a convoluted and ridiculous language. At some point in time, my people found the door to your plane and taught you a thing or two. It probably happened around the time your people started standing upright. By the way, fire? Also a vampire discovery. You have us to thank for that, I’m sure. As to my speech patterns reminding you of your home plane, I can only say, ick. I don’t mean to sound like some human. It’s an unfortunate truth that our planes are closely connected. If our research on the subject is correct, there are a lot of similarities between the two. Think of it like this—our planes started out on the same track, but humans took over your plane, and vampires were the evolutionary winners on mine. There are bound to be many, many similarities.”
“Like the potato song,” I muse.
“You have that, too? Funny how that happens sometimes. I’ve heard you can run into yourself on planes like that. The Vampire plane and the human plane are parallel. I wonder if there’s another me on the human plane. I bet I’m getting an enormous amount of tail there.”
“Hush,” Reeve says. “It’s starting.”
My heart threatens to stop as a line of men walk out from the far side of the arena. A masculine voice booms throughout the space, announcing each as they walk through. It’s easy to tell the Fae males from the vampires. The Fae wear only pants and boots. Their chests are bare, and their long hair is pulled back and knotted behind their heads. The vampires have on long sleeves and gloves on their hands. They wear sunglasses like Dante’s, and their shirts come with a hood covering their heads.
“We burn easily,” Dante explains when he notices me staring. “Our skin is delicate. The sun on our plane isn’t as strong as the others. We don’t have a lot of ultraviolet light. Dellacorp is currently working on a cream that will protect the skin.”
“Yes, it’s called sunscreen. It blocks UV rays.” Finally something my plane did better. “We piddling humans came up with it long ago.”
“Seriously? You don’t happen to have any of that on you? I could make a killing with that.” Dante’s business sense is quickly shelved as a vampire walks into the arena. Dante stands and strides to the railing, his sunglasses flowing as he moves into the light. “Well, if it isn’t Kinsey Palgrave, you stupid ass. You suck, Palgrave! And your profits were down ten percent last quarter! Yeah, everyone saw it, you pathetic chump. Your stock’s going to take a nosedive.”
The other vampire shoots Dante the bird and bares his fangs. “Why don’t you get down here, Dellacourt? Or do you need your sister’s permission?”