Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 131708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Then they fell outwards, landing hard on the strix, squashing many and trapping others. The demons struggled and hissed, attacking the vines.
Viper returned his attention to the slayer. “You might be reluctant to kill me, Ophaniel, but I’m not feeling the same reluctance toward you.”
Ophaniel’s face tightened. “Don’t make me call out to them, Samael. They would not settle for merely relocating her soul this time, and we both know what they would do to that of your child. This way, your loved ones will at least be reborn elsewhere and live other lives. Be content with that.”
“You know I won’t.” Viper frowned. “I could almost think you came here to die, because I don’t see how you thought you’d live through this.”
Ophaniel’s eyes flickered. Yes, he hoped to die here. He could have taken his own life, but he’d prefer to suffer an ‘honorable’ death by losing his life in battle.
Viper’s entity snorted, now not particularly wanting to end the archangel—it wasn’t feeling inclined to oblige him in anything.
“Release me,” Ophaniel ordered.
“You don’t truly want that,” said Viper. “And even if you did, the answer would be no.”
The slayer sighed. “You’re right. It would bother me none to die here today. But you and your child must die also—neither of you can be allowed to exist.”
Mere moments later, six figures appeared behind Ophaniel and his sidekicks. Viper gritted his teeth at the sight of those he’d once thought of as family. Ella must have recognized them from the replay he’d showed her of the death that her soul had once suffered at the archangels’ hands, because she spat an ugly curse.
Ophaniel angled his face slightly toward the newcomers. “Just to bring you up to speed … the redhead in the blue sweater is the infamous Everleigh, and she is pregnant with his child.”
Viper skimmed his gaze along Michael, Azrael, Raphael, Uriel, Raguel, and Gabriel. “Leave. You will die here if you don’t.”
Gabriel twisted his lips. “We were thinking more along the lines of doing this.” He struck out with an archangelic blast that cleaved Ophaniel and his sidekicks in half.
Huh. His entity’s brows hiked up in surprise.
The queen let out a battle cry, and the strix who’d managed to escape the tangle of vines then charged.
The six archangels swiftly fell into place among the Black Saints, braced to fight. Hooves thundered along the ground as seven hellhorses galloped out from between the trailers, their legs moving with such speed they were a blur. Among them were five black-furred, crimson-eyed bloodhounds and five oversized ravens.
Viper rushed to his mate and teleported her, Mia, and Joe out of the circle and to the clubhouse. Unsurprisingly, indignation flared in the sisters’ gazes.
“No,” objected Ella. “I wanted to fight with—”
“Think,” he bid, cupping her neck. “You’ve got our baby in your belly, he or she needs protecting—including from themselves, and we can’t trust they won’t try to help us fight and then drain themselves psychically. Also, I won’t be able to keep my thoughts straight if you’re surrounded by danger, not to mention anywhere near the archangels who once took you from me.”
“They seem to be on our side.”
“Doesn’t mean they’re on your side. Doesn’t mean they think our baby should live.” He put his hand on her slightly swollen belly. “Keeping them safe is the biggest job, and I’m leaving that to you. The best way you can do it is by staying here.” He looked up at Mia, who stood over her anchor. “I’m trusting you to watch over her.”
The sisters exchanged a look, their shoulders slumping.
“Honestly, I don’t want to leave her or Joe anyway,” Mia admitted.
Ella sighed. “You’ll have to come back for me once it’s over. The enchanted vines won’t disappear until I get rid of them.”
He gave her a hard kiss. “I’ll be back for you.”
“Be careful.”
“Always am, baby.” Viper teleported back to the trailer park just in time to watch the hellhorses charge right into the gathering of strix, mowing them down and trampling on the bodies. Some roared out hellfire, others puffed out noxious smoke that misted the air.
Tossing around unholy orbs, Dice shot him a sideways glance. The girls safe?
Yes, Viper replied.
Though the colony’s attention was now divided, two came right at Viper without delay. He flicked his hand, sending out an archangelic blast of unholy fire that chopped them in half.
A female strix sprung high, its eyes on Viper. And got plucked out of the sky by a vine that contracted around it like a boa constrictor.
He scanned the colony, searching for the queen. A tight cluster of strix caught his attention. They were surrounding her, he realized.
He wasn’t fooled. The queen was a fighter. She wouldn’t truly hide behind her brethren. She knew Viper wanted her dead, and she hoped to lure him away from those who had his back. His entity was insulted that she thought him so easily fooled.