Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
He set off running after the wolven.
When they got to the car, the other male knew what to do with whatever small device was in his hand, lights flashing at the four corners of the vehicle as all the locks were disengaged. While Kane piled into the rear with Nadya, he had a thought that this was what Apex had done for him, stuffing his broken body into a lifeboat that had four wheels.
The wolven didn’t waste a second. He started the engine, slammed the gear shift back, and then they were off, exploding into reverse. The squeal of the tires was followed by a lurch that was so violent, Kane rebounded off the door he’d shut, and he did what he could to keep Nadya from flying loose and getting knocked out.
“Take this. It’s fully loaded.”
As a gun was tossed into the back seat, Kane caught it just as another screeching sound screamed in his ears and they shot forward. The lane ahead was illuminated by the headlights, and he measured the distance and direction. There were no meaningful conclusions to be drawn, however. He didn’t know where they were going. Where they could go.
“I have a place,” the wolven said. “Five miles from here.”
“Go faster.”
There was a corresponding increase in the engine roar, and soon enough, they were off the property and on a road that was better maintained.
Shifting Nadya around in his arms, he breathed in to see if she was bleeding.
“Are you all right?” he asked hoarsely.
“I think so. But Apex—”
The rumble on the roof was like something dropping out of the sky and landing on top of the vehicle, and immediately the wolven started wrenching the wheel back and forth like he was trying to lose whoever or whatever had attached themselves up there.
Damn it.
It was a guard. It had to be—one of them had dematerialized onto the roof. Cursing some more, Kane trained the muzzle of the gun upward, covering Nadya’s ear with his forearm. Just as he was about to pull the trigger—
“Don’t shoot!” came the holler over the din. “It’s me!”
“Apex?” Kane yelled back.
The wolven glanced upward. “Hold on tight, vampire! I can’t stop!”
There was a final surge of speed, as if the male behind the wheel had stomped his foot and demanded all of what was mechanically possible out of the engine. Outside the windows, the forest that crowded up to the road whizzed by in a blur, and as they rounded a curve, he caught sight of a vehicle that had been involved in a crash. There were bodies next to it, lying in the road.
The wolven drove past the wreckage—and over some of it.
“Are you okay?” Kane asked again softly. When there wasn’t a reply, he felt a stab of fear. “Nadya?”
“Yes. I think so—yes.”
Kane glanced behind them. When there was only darkness in the road, he told himself they were going to make it.
But he wouldn’t have bet much on that outcome.
* * *
For Nadya, it was such a whirlwind, from getting thrown out of the building to being caught by a stranger. And then the car ride.
Her mind couldn’t keep up with it all, and she felt like that was a good thing. The risks were too obvious; she had heard the gunfire and smelled the acrid smoke of the discharges back at the prison camp. And now felt the lurching of the vehicle they were in, and heard the yelling among the males.
So she wasn’t sure how to answer the question that Kane kept posing to her, and decided to just go with the reply that would make him feel a little better. Besides, what was really bothering her the most didn’t have anything to do with the guards or the mortal threats.
What she was really struggling with was that he’d seen her. That revelation, which she had never intended, seemed more traumatic than the very obvious risks of this escape. Rescue. Whatever this was—
“Nadya…”
The way Kane said her name, with such compassion and sympathy, was the reason why she hid herself away, his pity the worst possible reminder of how bad she looked. And it was even more terrible because it was him. She just wanted to look how she’d been before for him. Which seemed so superficial given they were speeding away from the camp with a male on top of the car and at least a half a dozen guards free to come after them.
She glanced at Kane. As the world rushed by, he was still staring down at her, and she thought of what it had been like to sit by his bed, safely under her robing, hiding and yet feeling whole because he had been so broken.
“What happened to you?” she asked quietly.
The driver spoke up over the roar: “It’s not much farther.”