Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
Fuck.
Shuli immediately holstered his knife and gun and started paddling his puss with his palms.
His face was covered with that slayer shit.
“Here.”
He took what was offered without looking, without asking—and pulled up when the thing was damp and smelled like grandma perfume. “Baby wipe?”
“Sometimes you need a moist towelette.” The male did a well-duh in Shuli’s direction. “Are you here for Lyric?”
Shuli started scrubbing and spoke through the godsend. “I saw the video. Don’t wait for me—”
“How is it we’re in the field and she’s the one who nearly gets killed tonight?”
All Shuli could do was shake his head. Then again, he felt like shitting his pants every time he thought about the near miss.
“Don’t wait on me,” he repeated as he started to work on his jacket.
There was the hiss of a vape and then a white cloud the size of a car came out of the guy’s piehole. As Rhamp brought things up for a second inhale, his hand was visibly shaking.
“I don’t want her to see me all—” He took another hit and exhaled again. “You know.”
Shuli wadded up the wipe and shoved it in the ass pocket of his leathers. “I think she’d be offended if you weren’t fucked in the head.”
Rhamp grunted as they both went for the steel emergency door. “It’s that meet and greet, remember—”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Hold up.” Rhamp froze. “Where’s L.W.?”
As the guy looked around—because, sure, it was totally possible to miss something as big and pissed off as “Little” Wrath—Shuli rolled his eyes and yanked the exit open.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Stepping into the dark blue glow of the VIP section, his eyes went immediately to the shimmering galaxy of stars in the center of the packed space. The flashes of all kinds of cell phones were directed at the female he’d come to see, and goddamn him, she was as beautiful as always with that long blond hair and a shimmering dress he’d never seen her wear before. She was with her father, locked in a desperate embrace—
As sire and daughter eased back, she looked over to the far corner like she sensed her twin and him. Her shaken expression immediately perked up, and as she brushed tears from under her eyes, she started to come over. The crowd parted for her with expectation, like they were dying to see what the next heart-affirming-reconnection-after-tragedy was going to be, and Shuli fussed with his leather jacket, trying not to be obvious about passing both his hands through his hair—
As he caught a fresh whiff of spoiled sweet-and-sour sauce, he looked down at his palms. Fuck. He had lesser blood in his hair, too.
With a quick snatch, he snagged a drink off a passing waiter’s tray and poured some of—oh, good, vodka and tonic. Perfect.
Be cool, he told himself as he swept the cold and limey into his ’do. Just tell her that you’re glad she’s okay.
God, if people only knew he was giving himself a pep talk right now. In their group, he was known as having stellar game with the ladies. Hell, especially when it came to vampire females, he didn’t even need a smooth tongue and all the right words. His money and his bloodline did all the talking for him.
Lyric was different, though. And always had been—
His heart skipped a couple of beats as she arrived in front of them—and oh, fuck, she was looking right at him. In slow motion, her arms raised, and on instinct, he stepped forward as the trippy techno music dissolved, along with all of the people, most of his pride, and at least three-quarters of his brains—
Rhamp’s shoulder bumped him out of the way as the guy caught his sister and held her off the ground.
“God, I really needed to see you,” she said to her twin.
“Like I wouldn’t come?” Rhamp’s voice was rough as sandpaper. “You were almost crushed by a conference. In your car-wash dress.”
Lyric glanced over her brother’s shoulder. “Oh, hey, Shuli,” she said with an offhand wave.
As the mob surrounded the pair, Shuli let himself get pushed back, and the next thing he knew he was all the way at the emergency exit. It was easy to hit the handle and open the thing. What was hard was the last look he took back into the VIP section.
Lyric was with her sire and her twin, and the three were a bubbly center around which an entire universe spun. Meanwhile, he was headed out into the cold—
Come on, what was he so bummed out about. After a near-death experience like that, of course she’d need to be with her immediates. Shuli, on the other hand, was just a friend, and she had loads of those. Sure, later they’d probably have a nice big, friendly friend-friend hug-it-out—but he was never going to be on her short list like her brother and her three fathers and her mahmen.