Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 50512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 253(@200wpm)___ 202(@250wpm)___ 168(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 253(@200wpm)___ 202(@250wpm)___ 168(@300wpm)
I hate him.
The pain of that irrefutable, ice-cold hatred slices into the twin bond still buried inside my soul. The one we were born with, the connection that should’ve allowed me to track him down. It’s failed me continuously, never offering a concrete location for where my brother is hiding.
He’s always been better at accessing and utilizing the bond more than me, but I believe it’s also because the brother I once knew and loved is wholly gone, not a trace of him left. He’s fully transitioned into a monster with no redemption. There aren’t many cases throughout our history of twins murdering each other, but the few that are, all caution the act. Twin bonds are powerful. Killing him, severing that bond, will likely kill me too.
I’ll gladly forfeit my own life if it means stopping him.
Aurora’s face flashes behind my eyes. She’d be my only regret. Leaving her here to navigate the world on her own, and me never knowing what it’s like to kiss her, to hear her laugh, to watch her fall in love with the night.
“Anything?” Ajax asks me after we’ve cleared another block.
“Don’t smell anything other than lycan and beer.” Failure threatens to choke me.
“Fuck.”
“Yeah.”
Part of me wonders what would’ve happened if I had just chased after Samuel when he tossed Aurora off the roof. If I’d gone after him and trusted Dagon to save Aurora from the fall. Would this all be over? Would Aurora still bear our mark? Would she forgive me for not being the one to save her?
I’ll never know, because I would make the same choice again. There’s no world that exists where I don’t put her safety first.
Is that a mating bond sign? Or is it simply my ongoing affections for her? Because ever since we found her, she’s the only one who can distract me from my hunt for Samuel. My focus is split in two—one is on her and how much she needs to feed properly, now that the blood supply is tainted. The other is frothing at the mouth to stop Samuel and his role in the Sons of Honor war.
I hate that it’s clear which of those focuses will be easier to achieve.
“Want to call it?” Ajax asks after another couple hours of searching the lycan district with no luck.
I flick my blades closed, sliding them into their holsters on the harness I wear.
“Fucking guess so.”
“There are people who need you back at the residence anyway,” Ajax offers.
I snap my gaze to him.
He shrugs. “Okay, one vampire in particular really needs your attention.”
“We don’t know it’s my mark—”
“It doesn’t matter if it is or isn’t,” he says, cutting me off. “Aurora needs to feed. You know she does. She’s come too far for you to let her slip now. If you’re the only one she’s comfortable with, you need to suck it up and let her do it. Get it, suck—”
I glare at him. “Dagon got to you.”
Ajax grins. “We’re with you, brother. We wouldn’t tell you to do anything we didn’t think you could handle.”
“I would never hurt her.”
“Exactly. So don’t let her starve.”
A primal, pulsing drive has me growling at him like he’s threatened me. Fucker laughs as we both wend back to the residence. The mere idea of her starving has my protective instincts in overdrive.
I know what I need to do, but I don’t know if I trust myself enough to do it.
CHAPTER 4
Aurora
Igraze my fingertip over the potted evening primrose, the delicate yellow petals silky beneath my touch. Gabriel, the king’s most trusted healer and doctor, brought in a selection of nocturnal plants for me to test my power against tonight.
This has been our routine every night for the past week.
The vibrant petals shiver beneath my touch. A tugging sensation pulls at my middle, my power clinging to the life of the little plant. The yellow blooms curl inward, the colors fading to an ash-black before it shrivels into a sad excuse for what it had once been.
The sight makes my heart heavy.
“Dead again,” I say, almost to myself.
Gabriel’s brow is pinched as he looks from the plant to me and back again. “What were you visualizing that time?” he asks. “What did you feel?”
I blow out a breath, a headache pulsing at the base of my skull. “The same thing I told you last night and the one before that.”
Gabriel looks at his notes, then back to me. “You felt the pull.”
“Yes,” I say, exasperated. I’ve felt very little semblance of control since Samuel turned me into a vampire against my will. The one time I felt I held any sort of value is when I helped Ajax save his mate, Grace, when she transitioned from human to vampire. My body had been overflowing with Samuel’s blood as I had been newly turned. Combined with our queen’s rare remedial abilities, we’d given Grace the best chance at surviving the transition. My blood, Samuel’s blood, had helped heal her. But Samuel had the ability to poison just as much as heal.