Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 72056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Is he in on this? Rogan?
No way. No way is Rogan working with my son-of-a-bitch stepfather.
Then again, he did orchestrate the attack on me that first night. He did tell Delacourt I wasn’t worth the effort.
Who the hell can I trust?
Not the man standing next to me—that’s the one thing I know without a doubt.
A chuckle erupts from my throat. Yes, I’m right on the edge of madness, to laugh at this predicament. But I can’t deny that it makes a bizarre kind of sense.
Richard Tomlinson, a demon.
I always knew there was something off about him—I just didn’t know how off.
So who to trust?
Not my father. Sure, he’s my blood, but he uses me for his dirty work. He’d be here seducing Rogan himself if the wolf liked men.
Can I trust Rogan? My so-called mate?
He brought me here, told me to search the place, which means…
He could definitely be working with Richard, but if that’s the case, why does Richard want me to prove Rogan is behind the vamp murders?
They can both go to hell.
I gather all my strength and attempt to stand, my hands curled into fists. “Where the hell am I?”
“Easy, Hannah,” Richard says. “It’ll be a few hours before you’re back in prime working order.”
“What did you put in my body?”
“Nothing that will do any permanent damage.”
“And I’m supposed to take your words at face value?”
“You can think what you want of me,” he says. “You will anyway, and it’s no secret that I’m not your biggest fan. But you are your mother’s daughter, and I’d never do anything to hurt her.”
“You already have, you degenerate. You’re a goddamned demon!”
“A demon who your mother loves. A demon who treats your mother better than your vampire father ever did.”
I can’t fault his words. They’re true.
My mother. She’s brilliant—a damned Fulbright scholar. How can she be so unwise when it comes to love? Excellent choices—a gay vampire with a mean streak and a demon with an even meaner streak who blinded her to everything except him.
I plunk my ass back down. I’m not going anywhere for a few hours.
“Tell me,” I say. “Why do you care about implicating Rogan—or anyone else—in a string of vamp murders? What does it matter to you?”
“It matters to demons.”
“Why?”
“You’re a smart girl. Figure it out for yourself.”
I will. Once my brain is fully functional again. For now, though— “Why you? Why are you doing this dirty work for your kind?”
He stays quiet a moment—a moment that makes prickles skitter over my flesh. Something’s brewing in that evil mind of his.
Something I’m not going to like.
Not that I have a chance of liking anything about him. I’d rather swim in alcohol and razor blades than have one good feeling toward this man.
“You going to answer me any time this century?” I ask.
“It’s my duty to see that my kind are taken care of,” he finally says.
“Yeah? Why?”
“The answer is simple.” A serpentine smile crawls across his face.
I suppress a shudder. “Clearly I’m too stupid to figure it out for myself,” I say sarcastically, “so you’re going to have to enlighten me.”
He walks away from me and sits down. I narrow my eyes to focus them. Things are still pretty blurry, but the chair he’s sitting on is ornate and gawdy. His smile is even bigger and more corrupt.
And it dawns on me.
He’s seated on a throne. A fucking throne.
My stepfather is the demon king.
21
“King?” I gasp. “You’re the fucking demon king?”
“Give the girl another gold star,” Richard drawls.
“You know, I didn’t think it was possible to hate you more than I did. I see now it is.” I rub my temples. My head is throbbing, and I swear a jackhammer is pounding inside my brain.
“Demons aren’t all bad, Hannah.”
“Are you kidding me? You’re evil. It’s part of being a demon last time I checked.”
“You’re not wrong,” he says, “but we’re capable of emotion. We’re capable of love.”
“I’ll never believe it.”
“Just because your vamp senses can’t tune into it doesn’t mean it’s not there.”
“You expect me to believe that? That you actually love my mother?”
“I expect you to believe it because it’s true.”
“She’ll be very happy to know that you drugged her daughter, then. That’s an act of love if there ever was one.”
“I never claimed to love you.”
“But you love her, and she loves me. You said yourself you wouldn’t harm me for that reason.”
“She does love you, in her own way, but she loves me more. Has she ever taken your side over mine?”
Dickhead has a point. My mom is blind when it comes to this jerk. Totally blind. She abandoned Larissa and me the day Richard came into her life. And he expects me to believe there’s no thrall? How does an intelligent Fulbright scholar who loves her daughters forsake them for an asshole demon without some kind of spell?