Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 138334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 692(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 692(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
As he leapt over Makar, Gedeon delivered an extremely strong front kick that snapped the Russian’s head back and sent him flying across the room. Makar landed on his back and Gedeon was on him, knee to the chest, hand around his throat, eyes blazing gold and green.
“You missed a boy as well as Meiling when you sent a mob to murder innocent families, Turgenev. Yes, we have gifts and we’re fast and capable, but unlike you with your petty jealousy and fear, Meiling is all about compassion and kindness. She makes the world a better place. You make me ashamed to be a shifter. She makes me proud to be one. Your kind feel superior to the women because you think you’re so much stronger than they are. You’re killing our people, stamping them out of existence, and you’re too stupid to see it. Women like Meiling would have saved us.”
As he spoke the truth as he saw it, his fingers bit into Makar’s throat and his knee pressed into his chest. He was enormously strong. He was leopard. He had gifts. He didn’t have Meiling’s compassion in these situations, although he was desperately trying to be a better man for her. He stared right into Makar’s eyes as the life went out of him, looking to see if the shifter had any regret or realization of the crimes he’d committed. He saw nothing but hatred. There was no remorse. What was wrong with these men that they would trade hundreds of lives, maybe thousands, for wealth that did nothing for them? It made no sense to him.
It is done, my love. Come back to me. We have more work to do before we go home.
Gedeon left Makar on the floor with his oiled body and his loincloth that no longer covered his flabby genitals. The Russian’s eyes were wide open, staring up at him without life. Makar lived no life, and it occurred to Gedeon that he hadn’t been living until Meiling entered his life.
Stop. Come back to me, Leopard Boy.
Love flooded his mind. “Fuck you, Turgenev. You don’t get any more of me. Not ever again.” He turned and left the apartment, not once looking back.
Bolin Wang sat in his hot tub, bubbles churning all around him. The room was dark, but the tub had ever-changing colors glowing on the walls and ceiling. The man’s head rested on a pillow, and he was staring at the ceiling watching the colors change. Classical music played low but matched the rhythm of the changing colors.
“I knew you would come tonight, Gedeon,” Bolin said, without turning his head. “The moment you walked into the room, I knew you were the one to bring retribution for what we’ve done to our people. So many mistakes. So many deaths on our heads. Once a path is chosen and we start down it, leaving it seems impossible.”
“And the women you traffic? The women bought and sold? Brought into this place to pleasure your soldiers and then killed when you no longer wanted them around? What of them, Wang? Many of these women are really young girls. Is that one of these paths you started down and then couldn’t get off of? Did you use these women and girls for pleasure and cast them aside as well?”
Gedeon saw the golden knife Bolin wielded beneath the water. The blade sliced into skin and a scarlet ribbon snaked through the crystal water.
“I did. So many women. Selfish pleasure. The only pleasure I had in my life.” The knife shifted from one hand to the other. The blade sank again as if thirsty for more. “Women are put here for our pleasure, Gedeon. To serve us.” More crimson leaking into the water. “I’m surprised you haven’t learned that lesson.”
“I learned there are women who enjoy sex and will freely and mutually consent to any kind of sex I want. I don’t take.”
“Taking is part of the fun.” Bolan smiled up at the ceiling.
Gedeon didn’t have to pull Wang’s head back. It was already back, lying on the pillow as he stared up at the colors. Gedeon reached for the hand still holding the knife under the water. Wrapping his fist around Bolan Wang’s, he brought the blade up to Wang’s throat and drove it deep, cutting into it, creating a smile. Let him smile while thinking about women whose lives he had destroyed.
Coming out, Lotus. I feel a little sick.
We’re almost done.
Gedeon wanted to take her somewhere clean. Home. The swamp. Where people were not like this. Humans or shifters.
Gedeon entered Longwei Lis’s apartment and it was empty. There was no sign of him. He had been there at one point. The robe he’d been wearing when Gedeon had seen him was laid out on the bed, but the man was gone. Gedeon checked every room carefully. That gave him a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.