Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 112398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
The passenger door whipped open, and Pax shouted, “Get in!”
My attention darted once more to the fiend who’d come from out of nowhere—a stranger who’d been sent to hunt me—before I ripped myself from the shock and ran for the car. I dove into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut.
Gasping, I looked out the passenger-side mirror in time to catch the man climbing to his feet.
During the fall the blade had impaled his side, and he ripped it out as if immune to the pain.
Barbarity filled his expression as he began to stumble our way.
Pax caught the action in the rearview mirror. “Motherfucker.”
Jaw clenched, he shoved the car into reverse and rammed his foot on the gas. The tires spun before they caught traction, and we flew backward.
Pax shifted around so he could watch out the back window, keeping his purposed trajectory.
The man lumbered forward, no self-preservation left, and we slammed directly into him with a loud thunk.
A scream tore out of me when the car jostled and bounced as we ran over him, and my hands shot up to cover my face as if it could shield me from the sight.
From the horror of what our lives had become.
Because there was no chance the man was ever getting up again.
Then Pax shifted into drive, peeling out as he ran over him again, going in the other direction. Once he was clear, he tore through the field and out onto the street, the back end fishtailing as we blazed down the street.
I hung on to the dash and the door handle, trying to regulate my breathing. To climb back to sanity.
Pax was ten minutes across town before he finally looked over at me, viciousness carved in every line of his face. “Couldn’t leave him, Aria. He would have gone for your family.”
I swallowed around the turmoil, and I looked at the man who raged in his seat. “I know.”
His expression was grim when he warned, “I will raze them all to the ground. Every fuckin’ one of them. And I won’t stop until there’s not one person left to come after you.”
Chapter Four
Pax
Aria was two steps ahead of me as she climbed the exterior steps of the motel.
Long black locks of hair blew in the breeze behind her, the scent of coconut and the goodness of who she was invading my senses.
My love for her gripped me.
She held herself so differently from when I’d first met her in the flesh. Since the moment I broke her out of the mental facility.
She’d been so fuckin’ timid. Terrified of the burden this life had placed on her shoulders.
Sure she was going to succumb.
I’d sworn then that I would protect her. That I would go to any length to see to it that she came out safe and whole on the other side.
Maybe I’d been a fool to think the other side was going to begin last night. To think that she was finally free of the bonds that held her hostage. Free of the threats. I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.
Easy.
What a fuckin’ joke.
It should have been apparent our existence was far more complex than I’d believed.
Twisted gnarls of mystery.
God, I didn’t think I’d ever been so terrified as when I’d lost her last night in Faydor. No way to tell where she’d gone, though I’d been sure she hadn’t been awakened.
It was different.
I had sensed her. Right there. Floating in the otherworld, but in a place unseen. In a place where I couldn’t reach her.
It had nearly brought me to my knees, having no way to protect her after I’d promised it was the very thing I would do.
My purpose.
Now she walked like she’d found that purpose, and it was bigger than she ever could have imagined.
Because she was more remarkable than any of us had known.
“This is it,” she said as she stopped in front of Room 237.
We’d gone east, following the same path we took the first time we escaped Albany, though we made it an additional four hours deeper into Pennsylvania this time.
Hated that I had to drag her on the run again, but I honestly didn’t know what else to do except keep moving.
Stay one step ahead of the monsters that lurked.
Which was hysterical since those bastards would be waiting for us wherever we chose to go. But staying stagnant felt as if we were setting ourselves a trap, and I was doing the best I could do.
Aria tapped the key card against the reader, turned the handle, and pushed open the door to the motel room.
This one was a bit nicer than some of the dives we’d previously stayed in. Not so off the beaten path. Half of our issues had been solved once we no longer had to keep Aria hidden from her parents.