Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Sam watched him go with tears in her eyes. She hadn’t known how much she cared for R’orn until he walked away.
And now she would never see him again.
11
SAM
“So you sent away the other Protector that Aunt Luna sent you?” Sam’s little sister, Hanna, looked up at her with big eyes.
The two of them were only three years apart in age, but they couldn’t have been more different in temperament and appearance. Despite being younger, Hanna was the taller of the two and she had golden brown hair and hazel eyes that looked green in the light and almost silver in the shadows.
The sisters did have a few things in common, however—they were both curvy girls and both had “The Gift” as their Aunt Luna called it. The difference was, Sam was able to use hers to make a living. For Hanna, the situation was quite different.
Hanna’s gift was too strong—even stronger than their Aunt Luna’s. It was definitely more of a curse than a blessing. She spent her time avoiding the same places that Sam sought out to make her ghost hunting show.
“Yes, I sent him away,” Sam said, flopping down on her sister’s couch with a sigh. “I just couldn’t stand to be near another Kindred warrior. Not after what happened with R’orn.”
“What exactly did happen?” Hanna asked, sitting down beside her and offering her an open package of Oreos. “I know you thought he was a jerk—did you have a huge fight or something?”
“Not exactly,” Sam said dryly. “In fact, kind of the opposite. See, we were staying in a room where these two newlyweds were murdered on their honeymoon—”
“Oh, how horrible!” Hanna put a hand to her cheek and her face went pale.
“Sorry, but it’s true.” Sam winced at the look on her little sister’s face.
Poor Hanna—her Gift was so strong that she didn’t just see and speak to the dead—they could actually interact with her physically. Sometimes she felt their pain and sorrow as her own. And sometimes she saw worse things than the spirits of the dead—supernatural beings that most people would call “demons” or “devils”—dark entities that wanted to cause harm and pain. They seemed drawn to Hanna—maybe because she had a pure soul that shone so brightly and they wanted to snuff out her light.
“No, it’s okay.” Hanna shook her head. “I’m fine. I was just thinking of how awful that must have been for you! And for them—poor things!”
“Well, they were brutally murdered, but that’s not the energy of the room at all,” Sam told her. “They were also deeply in love and they like to encourage the couples who stay in their room to also be, er, in love—if you know what I mean.”
“But you and R’orn aren’t a couple, are you?” Hanna asked blankly.
“Well, we weren’t before we stayed in that room.” Sam sighed. “Who am I kidding? We’re still not. Despite what went on that night.”
“What went on? What are you talking about? What happened?” Hanna demanded. “Did the two of you have sex or what?”
“Well, not exactly.” Sam could feel herself blushing. She usually told her little sister everything—they were extremely close. But she didn’t know how to explain the night of passion with the big Kindred and how R’orn had gone down on her for hours.
“Come on—what happened?” Hanna begged. “You know I don’t have any love life of my own, so I have to live vicariously through you!”
Sam laughed ruefully.
“Well, you’re not having much of a life then, are you? Okay—we didn’t have sex but he did, er…want to go downtown, if you know what I mean.”
“Oh my God—really? He wanted to?” Hanna asked.
“I know, right? It’s not very common,” Sam said dryly. “But he didn’t just want to—it was like he was hungry for me. Like he was starving and I was a five course banquet, if that makes any sense.”
“Oh my God,” Hanna said again, but this time her tone was dreamy and envious.
Sam knew her little sister was lonely—she’d only had a few relationships in the past and every guy she ever dated dropped her because they thought she was crazy. It wasn’t Hanna’s fault—it was just her Gift popping up in extremely inconvenient places. No man wanted to be with a woman who might gasp or squeak or scream at any moment because a ghost had suddenly appeared to scare her or a malignant spirit had pinched or poked her.
Sam knew that her sister tried her best to control her responses to these paranormal encounters but she couldn’t always keep herself from reacting—especially if a cruel spirit was tormenting her.
“Well, it was nice—more than nice—amazing. But it’s over now,” she told Hanna. “He says the Beast inside him wants me too much and it’s not safe for him to be around me now.”