Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
I focused on scrubbing my body and my hair next. Beyond the shower curtain, I heard Vasilios moving around, and my skin prickled. What was he doing out there?
An awareness fell over me, and I grew self-conscious that I was naked while he was beyond the curtain waiting for me. Was he still facing the wall, or had he turned around? Could he see the outline of my naked body? A shiver washed over me, and I quickly finished up. I reached out to grab a towel before wrapping it around myself and a smaller one around my hair. When I reached up to retrieve the clothing I’d left hanging over the shower railing, I froze. It was no longer there. I pulled the curtain back and found Vasilios was gone, too.
Panic struck. Where the hell was he?
Had he decided to play some kind of schoolboy trick by stealing my clothes and abandoning me here? Fury bubbled up, but it quickly dissipated when I spotted my red jumpsuit folded neatly on the bed. Upon further inspection, I saw that the torn parts had been mended, and it was dry as a bone. Vasilios had used his magic to mend and dry my clothing, and I couldn’t help being touched. Some suppressed emotion bubbled up, lodging firmly in my throat.
Ugh, get a hold of yourself.
I was busy putting my clothes back on and towel-drying my hair when a familiar scent hit my nose. I stilled. At once, my entire body ached with need, every vein singing for sustenance. There, on the nightstand, someone had left a single drop of blood. No, not someone. Vasilios. He’d left it there to tempt me, to weaken my resolve, and it took everything inside of me not to dash across the room and inhale it.
I couldn’t move because if I did, I would head straight for that blood.
“Vasilios?” I whispered, but there was no response. He’d left, and I could only hope he’d made sure the barred door that led back to the main part of the prison was unlocked. Otherwise, I had no way of getting back in.
I squeezed my eyes shut and focused on my breathing, but all I could hear was my heart pounding inside my chest, my hunger a beast that raged to be fed.
I didn’t know how long I was standing there when suddenly my willpower snapped. I lost control, and within less than a second, I was across the room, licking up the drop of blood as if my life depended on it. It tasted strange, but not in a bad way. Vasilios was from another dimension, and his blood was like none I’d tasted. It was dense and powerful, similar to Peter’s, but with an unusual aftertaste. I could taste the magic within it, but it was a wholly different kind of magic. Peter’s magic tasted pure, like good intentions. Vasilios’s didn’t taste like bad intentions. Instead, it sat somewhere between the two … like morally grey intentions.
My body hummed with the power from that single drop, my remaining injuries healing within seconds. I flexed my hand, stunned by how swiftly my strength had returned. I stretched my arms up over my head, feeling supple and lithe. Not a single ache or pain. Sifting my fingers through my hair, the damaged part of my scalp had healed. There was still a bald patch, but it wasn’t sore or tender anymore.
Swiftly, I left the room and hurried down the empty corridor. My body was infused with energy, and I couldn’t tell if I resented Vasilios or was glad he’d left it there for me. I’d direly needed it, and yet, there was no way I’d allow myself to feed from him directly.
I suspected he knew that, so he gave me a chance to take his blood without any kind of intimacy involved.
I ran my fingers through my still-damp hair as I approached the barred door and found it unlocked. Thank the heavens! I had no means of locking it after myself, but hopefully, Vasilios would return later and lock it so that no guards or other prisoners discovered it open.
I was headed toward my cell when I saw a gathering of elves ahead. Cassandra was among them, and when one of them spotted my approach, they whispered in her ear. She turned, surveying me with fury in her eyes. It was obvious I’d showered, and she was steaming mad about it. I knew it as soon as she stomped her way toward me, her expression enraged as she demanded, “Who the hell let you use the showers?”
I straightened my shoulders and met her gaze head-on. Now that I’d washed, was wearing clean clothes, and had new blood in my system, even if only a drop, I felt renewed. I wasn’t the weak, desperate girl she’d encountered yesterday. I was ready to take her on.