Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
“No. Not that.” I could take the feather, but the knee tickle? It was game over.
Stark squeezed, zeroing in on the exact spot above the kneecap where the nerves went bananas when prodded. “I’m going to pee! Stop it.” I laughed and growled, squirming on the bed like an angry worm.
“Tell me what I want to know!”
“Fine. Fine!” I yelled.
Stark stopped tickling, and I took my first real breath.
“Charlie asked me to make moonshine,” I panted. “He was planning to use it on Congress so they’d vote against the bill.”
“Really?”
Still panting, I lifted my head with a nod. “Yes. Really.”
“But then what? Vampires would still go to war.”
“His people were rounding up all of your leaders, the ones who want to go to war once the bill is shot down.”
Stark toggled his head. “Not a terrible idea, but lacking the insights of someone like myself.”
I threw back my head on the bed, catching my breath. “What insights? Also, I think I peed a little.”
“Vampires are notorious double-crossers. The ones who say they are with you are generally against you and vice versa. Also, I do not mind a little pee. As long as it is fresh.”
“Ew. Stark.”
“Humans pee. It is natural. The scent only becomes an issue when they allow it to dry and fill the alleys where we hunt. Old urine is quite the repellent.”
As a woman who’d used a few gas station bathrooms, I’d agree. “Stark, this is serious. Charlie had a real plan to save us, and you killed him. That means you killed me, my family, and Leiper’s Fork. You killed the human race.”
Stark sat in his leather armchair. “He really asked you to make moonshine?”
“Yes.”
“And the ingredients?” Stark asked. “Where did he find them?”
“I don’t know. Maybe from the vampires they’ve captured—your missing leaders.”
Stark nodded. “Very powerful hooch.”
“Stark, untie me now!” I yelled.
“Just a moment.” He grabbed his cell from his pocket.
He was already stabbing me in the back and ratting out the plan?
“It is I. Yes. Uh-huh,” he said to whomever he’d just called. “Oh. I see…” Pause. “Yes. You were correct about your assumptions. Kill them all. No mercy.”
“Who are you killing?”
Stark blew out a breath, his cheeks inflating for a few seconds. “The vampires traveling with Charlie last night. But you should know, your plan was already blown. Charlie would have died anyway.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because, as I already stated, vampires always play the other side. He had more moles than our ninth green. Tell me who else was helping him.”
“I don’t—”
“I must be sure we flush out the swine. Who else knew of Charlie’s plan?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Think.” Stark pushed.
I still didn’t know if I could trust Stark, but those big hands were on standby. “Charlie wanted to test his moonshine recipe on me. That’s why we kissed.” I held back the fact that Charlie had also hoped to trap Stark.
“I knew it. And?”
“And Charlie called a vampire. He gave me a command to obey Charlie.”
Stark toggled his sensual lips, which I completely ignored. Almost.
“How did he sound?” Stark asked.
“Mean. Deep voice. Old and crusty like you.”
“Very funny.” He narrowed his ice-blue eyes.
“Calling it like it is,” I said. “Please untie me. I’ve told you everything I know. Please.”
Stark scooted forward in the chair. “Not yet.”
“What more do you want?”
“Who gave you that moonshine on my island?” he asked.
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Why?”
Because I never drank all those bottles. And the poor woman who helped me fake it would die. “Please, Stark, just leave it.”
“I cannot have my island, my command center, infiltrated by traitors.”
“Command center?”
“Yes, Masie. My island is our Alamo. The last stand. Our place to retreat and move to plan B if all else should fail. Why else would I bring you there?”
My mind attempted to piece it all together. I couldn’t. “You have to tell me what’s really going on.”
He walked over, uncuffed my wrists, and then untied my ankles.
I sat up, rubbing the inflamed skin. “Well?”
“I am secretly leading the anti-coexistence movement, but our mission is to send all vampires back into the shadows. Of course, I could not tell you this until after your transformation. Humans are susceptible to vampire torture.” He glanced at the feather on the floor.
“Fair ’nuff.”
“But it all went sideways when you fled. I lost allies. Then another leader, Roman Momackian, began plotting to hijack the VCP for another movement far more sinister than anything we have ever seen.”
The VCP, or Vampire Coexistence Party, was the party Charlie had once belonged to.
Stark continued, “Roman is really the leader of the VCEP, the Vampire Communal Existence Party. One small group to rule us all, humans included.”
How many dang parties did these vampires have? “So this Roman guy, he doesn’t even like the idea of a good old-fashioned vampire war?”
“No. War always redistributes power. The covens on the winning side acquire a majority, their votes counting for eighty percent. The losing covens are given the remaining votes to split amongst themselves. In the past, once a war was over, everyone moved on. Roman wishes to change this. No more covens, no more voting or debates. All wealth, land, and sustenance will be controlled by Roman’s self-appointed council. Humans will be banned from breeding without permission nor be permitted to own anything. Same for us. Think communism, but without the fancy propaganda, the appallingly hideous apartments, or the underwhelming bureaucratic healthcare system. It will simply be…hell. For us all.”