Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
“Come on, Aurelia.” I picked up the gun again and rose to my feet before I headed to the double golden doors. Medusa was in the hallway, looking down the corridor, growling and baring her teeth like she was prepared to take them all down by herself.
“Medusa, get over here.” I looked at the double gold doors, the ones that were so heavy I could barely move them. “They won’t be able to get through these. Come on.”
To my surprise, she came right away.
And then I heard voices in the corridor, like they’d rounded the corner at the end of the hallway.
“Oh shit.” I set down the gun and started to push the doors shut, using my entire body to make the doors that weighed tons creak shut. It was like moving a car in neutral, except I couldn’t get any momentum because the doors were on hinges instead of wheels.
“Anyone home?” a guy taunted from down the hallway. “Empress?” he mocked.
These were not the kind of men I wanted to face. That gave me a burst of energy, and I finally got the doors shut in the center. I threw the handle and enabled the lock before I scooted back and grabbed the gun again. “That should stop them . . . right?” They had to be bulletproof. And the lock was concealed within the golden metal, so there was no way they could shoot it.
Medusa stood at the door and growled louder, her stance tense like she was prepared to rip someone’s throat out.
I was so glad she was there. I couldn’t imagine doing this alone.
Then I heard the spray of bullets on the other side, machine guns firing against the golden doors. Even with the barrier between us, it was so loud I couldn’t hear my own scream. I covered my ears to protect my eardrums before I crawled away.
Medusa came with me.
I crawled to the threshold of the bedroom, then looked back, seeing the dents form in the metal from all the bullets.
Then the sound stopped.
“Please tell me it’s over.” Crouched on the floor like a bullet would fly over my head any second, I waited with Medusa, hoping Constantine and his men were on the other side, neutralizing the threat that came right to my door.
But then the gunshots resumed.
I covered my ears again and closed my eyes.
Guess they just needed to reload.
Minutes later, they did enough damage that one of the golden doors fell back and collapsed on the floor, the force so strong it literally shook the floors as if an earthquake had struck Rome.
I’d hoped Constantine would get there before they made it through, but I really was on my own.
“Empress, I’d like a word.” I couldn’t see what he looked like because I was still hidden around the corner, but his voice was deep like Constantine’s—though it was far more sinister. “Come out on your own, or I’ll drag you out by your ankle. Choice is yours.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
What the fuck do I do?
I gripped my gun until my knuckles hurt, but it was useless against their automatic weapons. I didn’t know how many guys there were, but even if it was just the guy who threatened me, I was still outmatched. I could tell from his voice alone.
“Was hoping you’d say that.” His footsteps came as he stepped into the entryway with the round table in the center. He could have gone to the right, where the dining room was, but he seemed to somehow know I was to the left. His footsteps grew louder.
And then Medusa aimed to kill. She rushed him with a speed I’d never seen her use before. She jumped right on him and sank her teeth into his arm.
He didn’t cry out, but he grunted from the bite.
I jumped from around the corner and fired my gun in his direction, not sure if I hit my mark because I’d purposely kept the lights off so it’d be harder for them to see. I fired several times, knowing one of those bullets had to hit my target.
He flung Medusa off him like a 150-pound dog weighed nothing—and she soared across the room until she hit the wall.
“No!”
She collapsed on the floor but didn’t get up right away. She was alert and aware but disoriented.
I looked back at the man who’d thrown her like a Frisbee and saw he was enormous, like a mountain. But unlike Constantine, his strength was utterly terrifying. With dark hair and midnight-black eyes, he looked like a demon in human form. Just one look at him told me this man was pure evil.
He glanced at his arm, which was badly gashed and bloody, then shrugged it off and looked at me.
He looked at me like he fucking hated me. A snarled curl to his lip, vengeance in his eyes like I was the one who’d provoked him when he was the one who’d broken into my home.