Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 105144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
I’m just about to run another block when someone calls my name.
“Tony!” I call and run to my brother.
“Thank God you’re okay.” Antonio throws an arm around me. “I heard about the incident last night at the VC rally.”
“Those hunters got lucky,” I start, hugging my brother back.
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, pulling out of his embrace.
Antonio’s brows go up. “They’re missing. Haven’t checked in since they set out.”
“Oh…wow. Wait, did the Order give them that post?”
“No. They defied orders by doing what they did, which makes me think they tucked their tails and ran, hence the missing status.”
“Yeah, probably.” I force a smile and nod. There’s no way in hell those hunters are missing. My husband doesn’t make empty threats. The hunters tried to hurt me. All three of them are dead.
CHAPTER 21
“Wren!” I turn, smile on my face, knowing that voice belongs to Leo. Larissa is behind him, eyes narrowed, looking pissed off before she even crosses the street. Leo hurries over and throws his arms around me.
“It’s good to see you,” he tells me.
“You, too.”
“We…we had no idea what was happening,” he starts, in typical Leo fashion. “If we’d known…”
“Well, you didn’t,” I say and take a breath, looking around. No vampires are going to be spying on me, but I wouldn’t put it past Xavier to have humans stationed all over town just to keep an eye on things—including me.
But the general understanding we’ve come to seems genuine. I can’t explain it, and it’s along the same lines as the gut feelings I have that I was trying to explain to Xavier just last night. It’s more than a feeling…it’s almost like a memory of something that hasn’t happened yet. Going against it feels wrong, like I’m changing what’s supposed to happen. It doesn’t make sense, but sometimes I really don’t think you should question what feels right.
“What the hell is going on?” Antonio asks.
“She’s clearly wasted no time getting hitched,” Larissa says as she comes to a stop just a foot from me. Reaching out, she grabs my left hand and shakes her head as she looks at the huge rock on my finger.
“It’s not like I had a choice,” I snap.
“You’re actually married to that vampire?” Antonio asks.
“Duh, we saw the announcement in the paper,” Larissa hisses. “And it’s not lost on us that you had us meet here, in the same place your gross photos were taken.”
“Wait, the photos were published already?” I ask, quickly shaking my head. I’m not surprised Xavier was able to have something run in the papers that quickly, but then again, I am. Because it usually takes a while to get photos edited. Or so I’ve heard from the TikTok videos I’ve seen about photographers showing all the work they put into their pictures.
“You didn’t know?” Leo asks and looks back and forth between Larissa and Antonio. “Are you okay there, Wren? Like…we should take you with us and run.”
“No,” Larissa and I say at the same time.
“I’m actually fine. Xavier isn’t as bad as I thought.”
“He’s a vampire,” Antonio reminds me.
“I know. I’m learning how that family functions,” I rush out without really thinking. It feels like an instant betrayal.
“You could get intel.”
“Yeah,” I say and the feeling of guilt grows. “Um…it’s interesting, that’s for sure.”
“We’ve been warned to stay away from the Malus family,” Leo starts, “which means they’re bad.”
“That’s not the reason we’ve stayed away.” I swallow and cross my arms over my chest. “A long time ago, the Order and the Malus family made a deal to leave each other alone as long as the Order gives them a healthy female every twenty-five years. The Order agreed and has provided them with medical records and everything so they can pick the best one.”
“Why would they want that?” Larissa asks, face paling a bit. Right. It was supposed to be her.
“I don’t know,” I say and then start to feel bad for lying to my siblings. But who can I trust? “I do know they’ve never had a witch before. I can’t be held spellbound…and…and…I just don’t know.”
“Okay, but why marry him?”
“The world doesn’t know I’m a witch,” I start and then regret that it’s so ingrained in my head to excuse what I am. “A vampire-human marriage looks good publicly. Xavier and Theo Malus are pretty involved in the VC.” That info is at least public knowledge and all I feel comfortable offering up right now.
It’s weird how quickly your life can be turned upside down and even weirder how fast the people you’ve considered family can feel unsafe. Once their true colors come out and you realize they only acted in ways that are self-serving…everything changes. I used to feel safe around my family. I used to think they loved me—actually loved me—but now I see they only cared about what I could do for them.