Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 44211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 221(@200wpm)___ 177(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 221(@200wpm)___ 177(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
How the hell had he picked up someone his own size and thrown him like that? Was it the ogre strength he’d talked about?
Thoroughly impressed, though his heart was racing and he was still dizzy, Everett waited to see if the guy got back up.
He didn’t. His eyes were staring unblinking at the sky, glassy and unfocused. And when Everett looked closer, he saw that the man’s spine was bent at an unnatural angle.
Holy shit, Dax had broken his back.
Everett turned to find Dax breathing fast and glaring at the body on the ground. Because it was a body. With that broken spine, those wide-open eyes, he had to be dead.
Panic set in.
“Oh my god! He’s human, right? Do you handle this or do we call the police? Will you get in trouble for this? They did try to kidnap me.” He kept blabbing as he frantically looked around for Jessica. She was struggling with Emory and Ivor, who had stopped her escape. “That’s Jessica. She’s with that estate sale company I’d hired.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “I don’t want you to get into trouble, Dax.”
“Hey, hey,” Dax said softly as he placed his hands onto Everett’s shoulders. “That’s not a man, but a demon. And no, we don’t call the cops, just as we didn’t with the perytons. Xavier will send someone here to take him away. It’s going to be fine. We handle magical beings differently.” He hugged Everett close.
“Why did they…?”
“I think they’re after that stone. They couldn’t find it in your things, and then you kicked them out. They must be trying to take you to find out where you’ve put it.” He snorted. “If they knew it was at Protective Solutions, they wouldn’t dare go there. Most preternaturals are scared of Xavier.”
“What, is he like a super-supernatural or something?”
The corner of Dax’s mouth quirked. “Something like that. He’s the strongest preternatural I’ve ever met, and it’s well known throughout our communities that he is not someone to mess with.” Dax pulled back, his mouth falling open when he looked at Everett’s forehead. His scowl returned. “You’re hurt!”
Everett reached up and winced at the pain of his own touch. His fingers came away with blood. “I must have scraped it on the ground when he tackled me.” Anger shot through him like a fiery arrow, and he stomped over to where Jessica was being held. “What the fuck do you want with me?”
She tightened her lips and glared at him.
“You’ve wasted your time. The stone’s not here. Is Rick behind all this?”
All he got was a mutinous scowl.
“She’s not going to talk,” Emory said, fingers still wrapped around her arm. “We’ll take her to Xavier.”
Her face went shock white. “I don’t know anything. I was just supposed to take Everett because we couldn’t find the stone. That’s all he wants.”
“Why does he want it?” Everett asked.
“I have no idea. I promise, I know nothing else.” She looked at Emory. “Please, just let me go.”
“As if we would.” Emory smirked. “Dax, I’m going to take her in. Ivor will see to the cleanup here. I’ll come back as quickly as I can.”
Dax nodded and touched Everett’s shoulder. “Let’s go in and clean up the scrapes on your face.” He scowled. “I’m sorry I didn’t get out here fast enough.”
“It’s not your fault. I shouldn’t have come outside by myself. I just thought it would be fine with your friends out here. This was all my mistake.”
“At least we now know who’s been after you. I’ll call our IT guy and have him pull up everything he can on the estate sale company and its owner.”
“His name is Rick Aspen. You know, I thought the whole time this might be coming from that real estate guy, Allen, but it was Rick.”
Dax touched his face again, his expression dark. “We’re not going to meet with my parents today. There’s something I need to do first. And you can’t leave my side again like that. I need you to promise me.”
Everett nodded. “I promise.”
Chapter Nineteen
Dax
Seeing the blood on Everett made Dax want to break things. But it had also clued him in to something very important.
He was completely in love with Everett.
And Dax had no doubt now that the human was his soulmate. He could feel the bond between them. It was there, no matter what logic and research told him.
So there had to be something he was missing. Something about soulmate lore that went beyond everything he knew to be true.
Only Xavier might have the answer he needed.
So Dax took Everett with him to the office. There was no way he was letting the man out of his sight now.
“Do you mind waiting out here a few minutes while I talk to my boss?” he asked as he led Everett to a couch to the side of the main office space. Leaving him next to the cubicles full of preternaturals was the second safest place he could possibly be—under the protection of an army of Dax’s colleagues.