Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 107209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Panic gripped him. Fuck. He turned, grabbed his brother around the shoulders, and threw them both out of the gaping hole in the wall. The explosion rocked the room the second he hit the air and propelled them both, along with a flash of fire, several yards up to the heavens.
Vero gripped hits brother tight, holding on, wanting to make sure they landed on him and not Paxton. As they rolled around, fire licking at them, smoke surrounding them, momentum smashed them both into the depot building. Darkness crashed through his head, and he didn’t feel the hard, icy ground when he finally landed, fully unconscious.
Again.
Chapter Nine
The explosion from the main lodge rocked the entire camp, and Lyrica grabbed the counter in the medical building for balance but still went down to her knees.
“Damn it.” Hope fell and quickly rolled up to her feet. She looked wildly around. “Do we have weapons in here?”
“I don’t know.” Lyrica started pulling open drawers to see gauze, tape, medication, and scalpels. Was Vero all right? How many explosions could his body take? “We have scalpels.”
Hope looked over her shoulder at Lyrica, shivering in her ruined nightie. “I don’t think scalpels are going to do us any good.”
“Agreed,” Lyrica said, rubbing her eye. Spikes of ice, rapidly melting into mushy soot, covered her yellow dress. “You need a blanket.” She hurried toward a basket in the corner where she grabbed a fleece blanket and immediately returned to wrap it around Hope’s shoulders. “You must be freezing.”
“That’s okay,” Hope said quietly. “I’m immortal. I can’t die.” She rubbed soot beneath her eye and smeared gray mush across her pretty face.
Lyrica studied her, having wondered about her new friend since Hope had arrived in camp only a month before. “You’re the only female vampire ever born, right?”
“Yeah,” Hope said, wincing, her blue eyes bloodshot. “Until my birth, vampires only created males, just like Kurjans, I guess. I’m a mixture of pretty much every species out there, but my dad is a demon-vampire and my mom is an enhanced human. All immortals take on one aspect of their heritage. So, for example, if your dad’s a demon and your mom is a shifter, you’re likely to be only one of those. Your true nature.”
“Oh.” Since Lyrica had known only Kurjans as immortals since her kidnapping months ago, she was just learning about the other species.
Hope sighed heavily, looking at her cousins, both still unconscious on the beds. “I’ve never shown any extra strength or abilities.” She pursed her lips. “There was a prevailing thought that perhaps I’m more human than immortal, and we never really found out, although the prophet markings on my neck show that I’m definitely immortal somehow.”
“Fascinating.” Lyrica nodded. “But now that you’ve mated Paxton, you’d be immortal regardless. Correct?”
Hope brightened. “That’s correct. However, it’s been less than a month, and no one quite knows when immortality kicks in. In all the tests, it’s a different time frame for each person. Genetics and all that.”
“Oh,” Lyrica said, quickly checking over Liam again.
The vampire hadn’t moved, but the air popped wildly around him. She’d sensed the healing cells that immortals could employ, and somehow they altered the air, or rather atmosphere, around whoever was using them.
“So that’s why Paxton is so overprotective of you.” Lyrica had wondered.
Hope grinned, a dimple appearing in her cheek. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to change. I may hit five thousand years old someday, and I doubt he’s going to be any less protective, but that’s okay.”
Lyrica wondered for a moment what it would be like to have somebody in her life who cared that much. She never had. “Must be a safe feeling.”
Hope glanced at her, awareness darkening her cerulean eyes. “Among other feelings. What about you? Do you have a boyfriend out there searching high and low for you?”
Lyrica snorted. “No.” Sadness wandered through her. “Right after the Kurjans kidnapped us, they gave us the option of either just disappearing or emailing our loved ones to let them know we had gone on walkabout and needed space so they wouldn’t worry.” In fact, she’d heard that Vero had insisted upon the opportunity. “I didn’t have anybody to email.”
“Not at all?”
“No. I’m an only child, and I never met my mom. My dad and I were poor and lived out of cars and sometimes shelters. In the best times, we stayed with his father in the mountains, and I never wanted to leave, but Dad had wanderlust. He died several years ago. When I was taken by the Kurjans, I’d just moved across the country for a new start and hadn’t even found a job yet. I’m a mathematician and an expert in crisis management for financial companies when things go wrong. I love solving problems.” How freaking depressing. Nobody knew she’d been kidnapped. Nobody missed her.