Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
“I’ll be seeing you,” Ajax said, slowly backing away from my car.
“I hope so,” I said, reaching into my bag for my keys. “Wait, how are you going to get home?” I asked, looking up from my bag to find nothing but emptiness before me. I glanced around the parking lot, noticing other park patrons returning to their cars, but no sign of the six-seven giant that had kept me company all night.
I hurried into my car, my fingers slightly trembling as I took a deep breath.
Maybe I really had manifested him, but if that was the case, couldn’t I have thrown myself a bone and manifested him coming home with me?
“Thanks a lot,” I grumbled to myself before heading home.
I parked outside the little two-bedroom house I rented, noting my porch light had gone out. I glanced over my shoulder, unable to shake the sense that someone was watching me, but I didn’t see anyone on my quiet street. Not even my nosy neighbor, Karen. The town was quiet except for the sound of insects chirping their nightly tunes.
Still, I rushed inside my house, quickly locking the door behind me, unable to shake that feeling. After a few deep breaths, I shook my head at myself. It was probably just death lurking over my shoulder, and I knew I’d never be able to outrun him.
3
AJAX
“We’ve checked this area at least three times in the past month,” Talon said, his annoyance more than obvious as we walked on the witch-side of the forested border between our territories with Benedict on our last route of the evening.
“And we’ll check it every week next month,” Benedict answered with a sigh, approaching the empty farmhouse in front of us that had belonged to the Greenbriar coven. “Jocelyn’s sister asked us for help bringing the rest of the traitors in the Greenbriar coven to justice, so that’s what we’ll do by order of the Conclave.”
Talon shot me a look behind Benedict’s back, then rolled his eyes.
I grinned and shook my head.
“I saw that,” Benedict said over his shoulder. After weeks of being paired with the two of us to patrol witch lands, he’d generally had it with our shit, which only made me smile wider. It wasn’t his fault that his relation as the brother-in-law of the witch queen made it so he was required to be on every patrol in their territory.
“The fuck you did,” Talon answered. “And come on, I know your mate is a witch hybrid and her sister is the Queen of the Witches, but you’re seriously going to tell me that patrolling for possible turncoat witches is the best use of our time?”
The moon shone on the clearing between forest and farmhouse, making it easy to see that the last footprints around this area were ours.
“I think we’re spread thin as it is,” Benedict said, crouching to touch a footprint that was easily four weeks old, and looking over the property with an attention to detail that I respected. “Do I appreciate Conclave piling more on us while we’re searching for Samuel and the Sons? No, but it’s the job we were tasked with.” He turned, arching a brow at us both in turn. “And before you start with the in my day—”
I laughed, my shoulders shaking at Benedict's uncanny impression of Talon.
“Hey, in our day, hunting Samuel would have been our only mission. That’s what hunters were created for.” Talon’s spine stiffened. “Back me up here, Ajax.”
“That’s true,” I said, studying the landscape around the house. I felt the residue of old magic, foreign and unnatural to me, but nothing new.
“Well, we’ve evolved to multitasking,” Benedict said. “Believe it or not, bloodmadness hasn’t exactly been the issue for us like it was for you old-timers given our modern conveniences like…oh, Conclave. The treaty does more than make us the executioners of Edgemont supernaturals. It also provides for willing human feeders because they live under our protection.”
I scoffed. “If you think bloodmadness has anything to do with the willingness of the feeders, then you don’t know the first thing about hunting a bloodmad vampire.”
“You’re right,” Benedict admitted, rising to stand. “We don’t know enough. It’s why we’re lucky that we were successful in waking you, though our worry had mostly been the Sons, not bloodmads. The few who have turned bloodmad in the last century were all relatively young and alone. Easy to track. Easy to kill. I can’t imagine living when they were organized and a constant threat.” He turned to look at us. “Or how you managed to wipe out most of the ancient bloodmads before our modern…conveniences.”
“Because we’re that fucking good.” Talon smirked.
I glanced at the pistol holstered at my thigh and thought back to the swords we carried, the daggers and bows. “Have to admit, you have better weapons in this century, though I’m never against using my bare hands.”