Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 84072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“THAT would have been helpful two days ago!” Aengus roared. “I can guarantee you he’s been using that serum on himself, probably why he smells so sweet, the immortal blood he keeps pumping into his damn veins.”
“Luna!” Sarah was sobbing as she ran toward me, nearly stumbling to her knees. “Luna! He took him! He took Malcom!”
My entire world went dark as I swayed on my feet.
“Be strong, Luna,” Benjamin whispered gruffly in my ear.
I gave him a weak nod. “What did he look like?”
“It was Jasper, the guy Malcom hates. He—he tried to protect me!” She sobbed harder. “And something freaky happened: like, everything went cold, and then he set Jasper on fire, but Jasper just laughed and grabbed him. I screamed after them, but everyone knows Jasper’s the head of the orphanage, so everyone just assumed Malcom was in trouble again! But he wasn’t! He’s been with me!”
“Shit!!” Benjamin roared, doing a small circle. “Do you have Find a Friend on your phone? Did you add him?”
Sarah’s eyes lit up despite the tears as she fumbled with her purse and pulled her phone out. “Malcom had us add each other because of my late nights and fights with my mom.” She hiccupped.
Ben snatched the phone out of her hand after she put in the code and clicked the app.
It kept thinking.
“Could human technology be any slower?” Aengus roared.
“It’s trying to find a signal,” Ben snapped. We all hovered over the phone as it pinged his location.
In the middle of the forest.
At the care center.
“That’s bad,” Aengus whispered.
But I was already there in my head. It made sense. He wanted some strong blood. He was going to use a full Fae. “He’s going to use Malcom.”
“Yawwnnnnnn…” a feminine voice said behind us.
Both Aengus and Benjamin froze as a gorgeous woman in a black cocktail dress with bright red hair waved her fingers at them. “Mmmm, do you ever do threesomes?”
“Not unless you mind me killing you,” Ben shot back. “Why are you here?”
“Can’t a woman enjoy a provincial festival? By the way, I heard you stopped by. So sorry to have missed you, but here I am.” She did a little shimmy. “I got all dressed up.” She pouted for a minute and then beamed. “So, I see your detective work deserves an A-plus, and here I was so looking forward to keeping you boys in detention…”
Aengus made a gagging noise and then shrugged. “Sorry, not into fish, Pandora, or should I just call you witch? Bitch? Huh, it rhymes…”
Pandora glared.
I tried to place her, but I’d never seen her before.
Sarah reached for my hand, held it tight, and slowly started backing us away.
“Not so fast.” Pandora whipped her head in our direction. “You see, I’m under strict orders to keep you guys at the festival. We wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to Malcom, would we?”
“If Jasper has him, he’s as good as dead,” Benjamin spat. “You’re using his blood.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m bored, but I have always wanted to do an evil manifesto speech, so here you go. Jasper’s daughter is sick. Cry me a fucking river, am I right? I gave him my blood; it was enough to keep her alive. Yay me, I’m almost a hero at this point.” She examined her long green fingernails and let out a bored sigh. “Anyway, I never give something for nothing… besides, it was nearing my birthday, and those fucking orcas refused to extend my existence past this year; something about putting a cap on immortality, you know how it goes. So, I did what any sane woman would do. I made a trade. I would continue to give him my blood if he promised to create a batch of serum for me that could act as an immortality potion. Remember the day I accidentally stumbled upon your little orphanage? To be honest, I was starving, and he was just so scrumptious. I read to him first and realized later that when the child is relaxed, the blood is more potent—tried the other way soon after, and he tasted like shit.” She sighed. “Where was I?” A frown. “Oh yes, so I told Jasper we should go into business together. After all, you have that farm… or orphanage, whatever it’s called. Lucky us, we stumbled upon a few immortals who had their magic bound for whatever reason.” She sighed. “I’m assuming it has to do with you two.” She pointed between Benjamin and me. “So, I think that about sums it up. He’s going to use Malcom for the final serum. I mean, duh, drain him dry, give it to his daughter, and poof! A science experiment gone completely right!”
“Wrong.” Benjamin got up in her face. “His power’s tied to our curse too. You’ll just kill him!”
“Oh, but Benji…” She traced his chest with her finger. “I already saw his magic, and so did that sad excuse for a girl right there. He used it to protect her. After all, he loves her, and he’ll do anything to keep her safe. Isn’t that right, Sarah?”