Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 98496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
If he had a Faerie on his side, and of course a rogue Lyccan, too, did he have other races working for him? If he did, Alessandro’s plan would fail.
The sound of something heavy hitting the ground caught Alessandro’s attention, and when he looked up, it was to see Kassia trying to get to him, tears running down her cheeks. “I’m sorry, Professor,” she sobbed. “I didn’t know how much was at stake when you told me...but then Domenico told me and I’m s-sorry.”
Mel rolled his eyes. “Are we really having a fucking lover’s reconciliation right now?” Annoyed, he shot the prince again, this time on his knee to ensure that Alessandro would have a more difficult time moving.
Kassia screamed. “Stop it!” If she could have swapped places with the professor, she would have at that moment. She didn’t think she could bear seeing him in so much pain. She tried to wriggle closer towards him, but it was a slow journey, with Kassia still bound to the chair. Her helplessness chafed at her, and more tears ran down her cheeks.
“Oh, Professor, why did you come here alone?” Kassia didn’t know which was worse, having the professor die because she had been too hard or having the professor die in his attempt to rescue her.
Eighty-seven, eighty-eight, eighty-nine...
Alessandro looked at Kassia. “I didn’t.”
At the exact minute and a half mark, Caros crashed into the warehouse from every direction, bursting through overhead windows, blasting through holes they had made on the roof, and surging inside the entrance.
Although the blood-drinking race and Alessandro’s kind used to be ancient rivals, Domenico’s efforts in disposing of their common enemy had allowed the two races to forge an alliance.
Today, that alliance had stood true.
He heard Kimberley Dresden screaming while the rogue Lyccan cried out his surrender. In the periphery of his vision, Alessandro saw Mel disappearing and knew that the Faerie the human commanded had taken him away. I’ll see you again, bastard, Alessandro promised to himself. But for now, something else was more important to him.
Ignoring the agonizing pain caused by silver mixing in with his bloodstream, Alessandro made his way to Kassia as swiftly as he could. She started crying harder as soon as he reached her. The moment he set her free from her restraints, she threw herself at him, causing him to topple backwards and for Kassia to fall on top of him.
“I thought you were going to die,” she told him tremulously.
“I don’t die that easily, little chick.” He wanted to sound teasing, but his voice came out hoarse with pain.
Kassia noticed the graying pallor of his skin. “Alessandro, what’s wrong?”
“I just need...” His eyes closed with pain. “Call...Domenico.”
She did more than that. She screamed his brother’s name, loud enough to have most of the Caro warriors turning towards her, startled, loud enough to wake the almost dead, which was the professor himself.
As she placed the professor’s head on her lap, Domenico appeared next to her, causing her to jerk in surprise as the older man knelt beside his brother.
“How many bullets?” he asked Kassia grimly.
She hastened to answer him and pointed out where the bullets had landed.
“Thank you.” And then just like that, he dug into the holes in Alessandro’s body.
Kassia screamed. “What do you think you’re doing?” She would have screamed again if not for seeing the professor wince.
“He can’t heal if I don’t get the bullets out,” Domenico answered without looking at her. His face was a mask of concentration as one by one he tore out the blood-soaked bullets from his brother’s body.
Kassia expected Alessandro to heave his last dying breath after it, but to her shock, she saw his color gradually improving. When Domenico ripped Alessandro’s shirt open to check his wounds, Kassia felt close to fainting at the sight of his ruptured skin closing in...and healing itself.
She crossed herself, unable to help it. “Oh God. Thank You God.” She mumbled her prayers in a mixture of fear and gratitude. But then the professor’s eyes drifted open slowly, and suddenly her heart felt fit to exploding. “Y-you’re alive,” she whispered.
The professor’s lips curved. “Not for long,” he said gravely, “if the Lyccan Council has anything to say about it.”
She paled, having forgotten completely about the other threat to the professor’s life. Biting her lip, she asked, “But is it safe for you?”
“I suppose so?” Alessandro was bemused. Did Kassia consider herself a danger to him because of what had happened?
Kassia’s gaze returned to his wounds – or where his wounds used to be – and saw he was completely healed. Even so, she pointed out uneasily, “But what about them?” There were so many people around them!
Alessandro was impressed at the way she had somehow figured out the men with them weren’t all Lyccans. “Don’t be afraid, little chick. These Caros are on our side.”