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)
“What are you doing, my dear?” a voice asked. “Surely you aren’t going to aid the man who betrayed you. He left you to die. Why would you help him?”
Petru stopped moving and stared at the master vampire as he emerged from the shadows. Eduardo. This, then, was Lilith’s surprise. She had sent the very vampire who had ripped Safia’s heart from her body when she’d been no more than a child.
“He told you he killed me, didn’t he? He is a deceiver. Here I stand, alive and well. He lied to everyone so they would believe him a hero. Their savior. In truth, he is the ultimate betrayer.” Eduardo took a few more steps toward Petru, his long, bony fingers continually moving because he was so restless for blood, he couldn’t quite control himself.
Petru didn’t look at Safia. She’d had to contend with so much already. Now here was the vampire who had bitten into her neck, taken her blood and torn the heart from her chest. It would be easy enough to believe him when he stood there in front of everyone looking immaculate in his three-piece suit when Petru was torn up all to hell.
Who looked like the monster? Eduardo’s hair was trimmed neatly, and his face was clean-shaven. He looked handsome, as if he had never done violence to anyone in his life. Would Safia think her memories of her past had been planted?
Don’t be silly. Lilith would love for us to doubt one another. He is a demon. I am a demon slayer and recognize them very easily.
The knots in Petru’s gut unraveled that easily. Sívamet. He poured love into her mind. He could give her that in the midst of all that happened this night.
“He hasn’t claimed you, has he?” Eduardo continued, watching Safia.
She hadn’t paused in her chanting. The blue flames flickered and grew inside the bodies of the Valk. The flames began to roll out of the one open scale and over the top of the squirming bodies. She didn’t look at the vampire but continued her ritual, sealing the ground against that form of demon so no others could find a portal to pass through, and they couldn’t return to Lilith should they survive.
Impatience was ugly on Eduardo’s features, but he carefully smoothed the lines over. He took a moment to survey the battlefield where the hellhounds had dispatched the last of the demons and were stomping on the bodies. The blue light crept over the valley, infiltrating the darkness there.
Petru stood tall and straight, his body bleeding bright crimson blood—the blood of an ancient from so many places, facing Eduardo across the space between them. It was nearly silent, all eyes on them. He knew where the brethren were—guarding his back and watching over Safia—but Eduardo seemed unaware of them. Lilith no longer had eyes on the battlefield, and no one other than Eduardo was reporting to her.
Petru began searching for signs of her beneath the ground. Do you know where she is?
Yes, Safia answered. She hasn’t moved. She is staying very still, trying to gather information from Eduardo, but I am confusing him by allowing him to see in hints of color.
Very clever. Perhaps he should begin to feel remorse. Worry for you. Confusion. Vague emotions or he won’t be able to believe it. Feelings will have to creep in.
The temptation of ancient Carpathian blood found its way into the air, drawing the surrounding vampires closer. Petru didn’t deign to notice. Eduardo had six lesser vampires with him. He hadn’t been allowed to bring many from the underworld. Lilith trusted no one.
The master vampire’s servants salivated, strings of drool escaping their open mouths. Tiny parasites crawled through the drool or clung to the sides of their rotting flesh. They swayed and stamped their feet, eager to start the pattern that they were certain would lock Petru in their circle, preventing him from fleeing the master vampire.
Petru lifted an eyebrow. “Why would you think I would attempt to convert her? She does not belong to me. She never did. She was never my lifemate. I was not the one to betray her, Eduardo. I did not rip her heart from her body. I did not betray my code of honor and choose to give up my soul.”
Eduardo’s long bony fingers twitched, the thick curved nails that had grown into wicked razor-sharp talons. He sniffed the air, glanced at Safia and then pulled his gaze away with effort.
“Do you not see color when you are around her? At least a hint of color? Do you not feel something?” Petru taunted. “You did even then, when she was a child.”
Eduardo shook his head, his eyebrows coming together. He looked around him at the forest, then once more at Safia. She turned her attention from the ashes of the demons to the hellhounds now baying in distress.