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)
“Come on!” Hillary shouts, stepping up to the plate as my VP of Operations. I’m so freaking thankful, I could cry, but I don’t. The tears will only blur my vision, and I’m going to need that to escape. “Follow Romy!”
Hustling quickly, I usher them back down the hall and past the steps we’ve taken to our rooms every night with only hopes and freaking prayers that there’s an exit in this direction. I’m going on nothing more than instinct and lack of choices, as all the violent chaos and commotion from the men is currently doing a great job of blocking every other direction.
I glance over my shoulder, looking back as we run in a group of flying hair and wispy undergarments that would do the Playboy Mansion proud.
Hillary rushes to fall into step with me, linking arms and crying lightly. “Okay. So. This is scary, and I think you were right about this being a very bad thing. When we heard you all screaming, I tried to come see if you were okay, but the guards wouldn’t let us leave the room.”
“I know,” I say quickly. “They tried to keep us in there, but the fight was too intense. They had to try to help, so everyone stopped caring about us.”
“Fight? The vampires are fighting?” she asks, horrified.
I wince. “Killing each other, Hil. They’re killing each other.”
“Oh my God. Over what?”
“Women, I assume. But I don’t know. It doesn’t matter anymore. What matters is finding a way out of here and quick. Cal told me where to go to get safe.”
“If the vampires are so bad, how do you know you can trust him?” she questions reasonably as we keep running, the pack of half-nakedness following behind us.
“Because I just…can,” I say with only conviction in my voice. “Trust me. There’s so much I have to tell you, but for now, just know we can. And if you can’t do that right now, do it for the other reason. Because we’re shit out of other options.”
“Got it.” She nods.
Cutting the chitchat and focusing on the objective, Hillary and I lead the group of women on a wild, weaving run through fifteen long halls of distinguished portraits and full bookshelves.
Discouragement grows as we turn the group around for the fifth time in a row, coming to yet another dead end.
“Shit.” Fighting dejection, I breathe hard, trying to hold oxygen in my lungs.
“Romy?” a woman in all black suddenly asks, her appearance from the hall at my side both confusing and relieving me all at once. She’s not one of the women to be auctioned—she’s covered in way too much material.
“Yeah?” I ask.
“I’m Kylie.” She hooks a thumb over her shoulder to another beautiful woman behind her. “And this is Blair. We’re Rook’s and Kane’s mates.”
“Mates?” Hillary asks, startling me from right behind.
I nod. “Cal’s brothers’ mates. And…I’m Cal’s.”
“Holy shit, you’re joking! Way to bury the lede, Romy!”
“Come on,” Blair interrupts. “Door’s this way. More gofers will be here soon, so we have to move now.”
Cupping my hands around my mouth, I yell to the women who’ve scattered now, frantically searching every room on the hall. “Ladies! Over here! Come on! The door’s this way.”
A game of telephone transpires as they work to pass on the message, and Hillary and I wait at the entrance to the hall, counting until we’re sure all the women have made it through.
Out on the lawn, we move in the low light of the still-rising moon in a cluster like a bunch of scantily clad geese.
“I swear,” I mutter to Kylie, Blair, and Hillary, having sprinted back up to the front of the group after we were sure everyone was out. “If this weren’t so terrifying, it’d be a hell of a story to make fun of. I don’t even want to think about what it’s going to look like when we make it to the road.”
“We have a bus waiting with a hundred sets of sweats inside,” Blair says with a laugh. “Kane and Rook procured it earlier today on Cal’s orders.”
“Thank God,” I manage with a laugh as we finally make it to the tree line Cal told me would be here.
And just like he said, the light beckons in the distance. It’ll still be a long trek in the pitch dark in six-inch heels or bare feet—but the nightmare is almost over.
I can see the end of the tunnel.
And the future with Cal on the other side of it sure looks bright.
As long as he makes it out alive…
Cal
We’re at a breaking point.
More than a hundred vampires are dead, including Narris and the rest of the Council, and every gofer sent as backup, all at our hands. For a guy who doesn’t tire, I’m fucking exhausted.
Five men joined us in our fight, along with Julian, and for that, we’re grateful. I’m not sure we would have been able to maintain our edge without them, and it’s certainly a moral victory as far as my faith in our species as a whole goes.