Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
Poison seeped from the crack in the trunk. The vampire couldn’t keep his presence hidden from nature. All things living recoiled from the abomination of the undead. The vampire had to be hiding inside the trunk of the tree, but Petru knew he would be unable to resist the lure of ancient blood.
A long lizard-like tongue escaped through the crack in the trunk, seeking the air, looking for those droplets of blood. Tentatively, a bulbous head emerged, the undead freezing in place to look warily around before he tilted his rotting chin toward the branch overhead, where a few drops of blood clung to a cluster of withered leaves. The vampire couldn’t quite reach the blood without moving more of his body outside the protection of the tree trunk.
Petru deliberately stirred the breeze to float more of the enticing scent to the creature. He was starved for blood. He’d been in the tree, waiting to spring his trap, and had been smelling blood from the battlefield for some time. He was extremely anxious to feed on the blood and couldn’t keep his mind on anything else. Saliva hung in streams from both sides of his mouth.
He stuck his head out further, gave a cursory glance in both directions and then turned his head up toward the branch as his torso emerged. Petru struck with violent force, punching through the back of the undead as the vampire stretched as high as he could, concentrating wholly on reaching the droplets of ancient blood.
Petru ripped through muscle and bone to grasp the shriveled heart. The vampire roared and tried to twist, but the tree held him prisoner, allowing Petru to extract the heart. Lightning met the shrunken organ in the air. Petru dragged the shuddering body from the tree and tossed it to the ground so the bolt could incinerate it.
He dropped to the earth and continued his forward momentum, right down the valley, as if he knew they would be victorious even though six more of his men had fallen. Six more and it was over for them. Once those men went down, Lilith would order the hounds released, and she would discover they were under Safia’s control. Before that happened, he had to know how to destroy her generals.
For these demons to be created, and they were, there must be one place on them that is a birthmark, much like where an umbilical cord would have been. At least one vulnerable spot.
She was musing to herself. Had she been able to, he knew she would have been pacing. He didn’t hurry her, although the sense of urgency was on all the fighters, and she had to feel it. So much pressure on her shoulders.
They sit astride the hellhounds. They oversee the packs of hellhounds. Only they handle them. They seem to be completely impervious to them. Immune to their venom.
Part of Petru kept looking through Safia’s eyes. Not only was she meticulously studying Rupert, using her enhanced vision, but she was using the hellhound’s vision and going through his memories as well. He couldn’t give up enough of himself to speculate on what she was onto. He was too busy sending out his men ahead of Lilith’s army and fighting off her demons and vampires.
Three more replicas went down. That left only three fighters representing Gwafa left. Petru felt a small hint of relief sweep through Safia’s mind. She found something that she was confident she could use against the demon generals. She showed a small indentation on Rupert’s thigh. It was a light spot in his armor. It appeared as a discoloration, almost a golden stain. That one small scale glistened as if it had oil on it.
He has rubbed hyssop oil just on that scale. No others. He’s vulnerable to the hellhounds right there. If a horn or a claw penetrated that spot, most likely he would be infected immediately with whatever Lilith has had the mage place in the venom. I would have to introduce the flame of the crystal into him through that opening and destroy him from the inside out.
Petro’s heart skipped a beat. He’d promised himself he would trust her to do her job. She was the demon fighter and very skilled. To do what was required of her, she would have to approach each demon while she was entirely invisible, stay undetected and remove the oil from the scale without them noticing.
The Valk had acute senses. If she moved the smallest amount of air or her energy got away from her, there were so many things that could go wrong. He shut his mind to the hundreds of possibilities. He just had to know one thing.
Can you do this when we lose your father?
Not if they lost him; when they lost him. And that time would be very soon. It was a brutal thing to ask of her and entirely unfair, but he had to know. They all had to know they could count on her. Her father was suffering, dragging out the end of his life as long as he was able in order to give Safia the chance to destroy the four demon generals.