Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 70294 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70294 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
“No, I mean the scent of lust trailing after you whenever you pass a female,” Olivia joked as we headed into the tunnels that belonged solely to the Residence—the home of the royal family and the Order of Onyx Assassins.
“Not every female,” I noted, lifting my eyebrows at her.
“Shut up.” She rolled her eyes.
“Seriously, though, Clarissa is getting to be…” I tilted my head, thinking of a word. “Insistent. She keeps sending me invitations to her bed.”
“Please.” Olivia scoffed. “Just because a female looks at you with a little heat and her scent goes all needy doesn’t mean it’s an invitation to her bed. Men.”
“Okay, well, would about four dozen emails asking me to fuck her in every way imaginable be enough to constitute an invitation?”
Olivia’s eyes flew wide, and her jaw dropped for a second. “She. Did. Not.”
“Oh, she did.”
Olivia laughed, and the sound filled the tunnel and played tricks with my heartbeat. You always want what you can’t have, don’t you?
We both took the left that led to the war room, then glanced at each other.
“You get summoned?” she asked, waving her cell phone.
“Yeah. You, too?”
She nodded.
I put my hand up to the biometric scanner and the door opened in a series of clicks as the various bolts slid to the unlocked position. This door was a work of art, just like everything else I’d designed to keep the royal family safe in our little war room.
“Ladies first,” I motioned through the door.
“Well damn.” Olivia grinned. “I don’t see any ladies here, do you?”
“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered and strode through the door, but there was a smile on my face. Hell, if I looked in the mirror, I bet my dimples were even out. She was always able to wring a genuine smile from me.
“Good, you made it,” Alek said from the head of the table. Lachlan, his second, sat at his left, a grim look on his face.
“Do you suddenly feel like you’ve been summoned to the principal’s office?” I asked Olivia. My smile fell when I saw hers had.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing,” Alek said, his smile tense. “Why don’t you two have a seat?”
We took the chairs closest to them.
“I think you both know the dire situation facing our world.” Alek leaned forward, bracing his forearms on the thick onyx table.
“Global warming?” I guessed.
Lachlan lifted a brow.
“The Sons have amassed an army right under our noses,” Alek went on, ignoring me completely. “When they attacked the school, knowing we were already mounting a rescue for Daphne…” He shook his head. “We’re getting to where we might just be outnumbered. And while I know our skills make us far more lethal, they don’t matter if it’s a hundred to one.”
My stomach did gymnastics.
“We need to increase our ranks,” Lachlan continued. “But we need warriors. Not trainees.”
What they said was true. We’d faced increased attacks from the Sons of Honor, who were hell-bent on destroying anyone supernatural. They were organized. They were deadly. They were going after civilians, and their number one target was Avianna and had been since her return.
“What are you thinking?” I asked. “Do we need to expand recruitment—”
“You already know what I’m thinking, and you’ve already voiced your concern.” Alek’s features tightened.
Now my stomach wasn’t flipping, it was falling straight to the floor. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“I am.”
“Fuck.” I leaned back in my chair and rubbed the nape of my neck.
“Would someone care to speak in terms I understand?” Olivia asked.
“They want to wake the Hunters,” I told her.
She gasped. “You can’t be serious.”
Both Lachlan and Alek stared at her with stern, unfazed gazes.
“You are serious,” she muttered. “Okay, then.”
“They’ve been in stasis for centuries,” I argued. “Saint was already documented as being half-mad when they locked themselves away, and you think we should awaken them? Six of the deadliest vampires this world has ever seen?”
“You’re the deadliest vampire the world has ever seen,” Alek noted. “Take my mental powers out of the equation, and you know there isn’t a living creature you can’t kill.”
“Flattery gets you nowhere right now, my king.” My mind was already racing, going through the six hunters and any weakness that had been documented before they’d put themselves in stasis.
“You know you can take them out if you need to,” Lachlan argued. “I’ve seen you spar with four of them. Hell, five if you count that bar fight in—”
“I don’t count that bar fight.” I shook my head. “And yes, I can probably take one of them down, but if all six come at me? If even one of them has been driven into madness from bloodlust?”
“You’ll have to figure it out,” Alek said bluntly.
“Awesome.” I let my head fall back against the back of the chair. “And why would you drag Olivia into this?”