Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 61523 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 308(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61523 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 308(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
It’s all the evidence I need to continue—and to let him do the same.
This fight is far from over, but I’m too deep into it to lose.
The only option left is maximum damage.
Romy
From nerves and silence to unease and uncertainty, the moment the tempo of our debut to the stage shifts, it’s impossible to miss. This isn’t the normal process, or at least, the crew working this room and standing guard at the door aren’t acting like it as they scramble and shout into the microphone radios at their chests.
An intense roar has built behind the mirrored wall in front of us, and the sounds of thuds and yells and grunts soon follow.
Girls glance between one another as one of the guards steps forward and holds a hand for us to stay.
“What’s going on?” Abigail asks, all her normal bravado reduced to nothing. At the sound of chaos and pure brutality on the other side, fear has finally reared its head.
“I don’t know,” I offer, trying to be a voice of calm. “But we should probably go back to the ballroom.”
Women scream and scatter everywhere as one of the vampires comes crashing through the mirror in front of the platform stage they’ve constructed for us to parade on and lands splayed and lifeless on the carpet in front of us.
“Oh my God!” Abigail’s shriek is high-pitched and pointed as she jumps off the back of the stage.
The whole room behind the glass reveals an all-out war between the vampires, Cal at the center of it.
But before I can fully process it, a hand clamps around my arm and yanks me backward.
A strangled gasp tears from my throat as cold fingers dig into my skin, and I look up to find a huge vampire with eyes as dark as night staring down at me.
“You’re coming with me, you little cunt.” His smile is pure evil and a growl escapes his throat, but that growl quickly shifts to strangled grasp when two hands wrap around his throat.
“I will fucking kill you,” Cal spits, his hands gripping the vampire’s neck so tightly the whites of his eyes turn black.
The vampire is taller than him, but he’s clearly stronger, and in the blink of an eye, Cal squeezes his throat so hard that the big bastard’s body goes limp. A harsh snap fills my ears, and the vampire hits the floor with a thud.
But when another vampire lunges for Cal, he doesn’t make it three steps before he just drops mid-step. His body turns to a crumpled heap of bones in a flash.
Between one heartbeat and the next, Cal pulls me to him, pressing my body tight against his chest. He kisses me, and when his eyes lock with mine for a half second, they’re fierce and focused and alive.
“Go,” he commands just before four more vampires start to circle him. “Go, Romy!”
I want to stay with him, I want to make sure he’s okay, I want to do a million and one things, but when Cal’s voice is in my head, urging me to get out, I know what I have to do.
Right now, just standing here, I’m a distraction. I’m another thing for him to worry about. And as I told him last night, those are both things I refuse to be.
He has a job, and I do too.
And it’s about damn time I start doing it.
I jump down from the stage, sprinting over to where the rest of the women are panicked on the far side of the room. “Hey! Everyone! Follow me!” I raise my voice over the din and start herding them, unstopped by the guards now that they’ve scattered to join the fray. “Come with me!”
Panicked enough to listen, they follow my direction in droves until we’re out in the hallway and looking for a place to get away from the danger. The other women are here too, having heard the commotion from the holding room set up in the ballroom, and as we all run around in our lingerie, it makes the weirdest scene of scattered ants I’ve ever seen.
It’s like a bomb threat at a strip club, for Pete’s sake.
“Hey!” I yell on another command. “Everybody listen to me so I can get you to safety!”
The women are wide-eyed and terrified, and a quiet hush falls over the group as they point me out to one another and huddle together. Suddenly, the pressure to come up with an escape plan feels monumental. Cal was explicit with the instructions of where I was to go, but as expected, he didn’t provide much insight on how to convince the women to come with me.
“As you can see, things are turning bad,” I say, the understatement of the century a trademark of my discombobulation that’ll go down in history. “I know what to do, though, so I need you all to remain as calm as possible and follow me.”