Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 110802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110802 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Knox very carefully slid his hand to the back of her head to check out the swelling. It wasn’t so bad, which meant she was healing fast. Lost in her own thoughts, she didn’t even seem aware that he was touching her.
He watched her closely, unsure what reaction his news would receive. He would wager that he knew Harper better than even she did, but he was never able to predict her responses. She was a guarded, complex, elusive creature who always managed to surprise him, which was an actual achievement considering he was someone who read people easily.
It was her ability to both surprise and intrigue him that had first drawn Knox to her. It made her different. Interesting. And that had intensified the raw need she sparked in him. Not even five and a half feet tall, she was small and feminine with delectably sinful curves and a mouth from every male’s fantasy. She also had a natural grace and moved with an innate sensuality that enraptured his demon.
What Knox liked most about his pretty, shiny little mate were her eyes. Not simply because they were unusually glassy and reflective in a catlike way, but because they routinely changed color. Right now, however, they were annoyingly covered with contact lenses to hide her unique eyes from humans. And they showed absolutely no emotion. Whatever she was feeling about the Carla situation, he wasn’t yet sure.
Mother and daughter had an extremely complicated… well, he wouldn’t call it a relationship. There wasn’t anything between them. When aborting Harper didn’t work, Carla had wanted an incantor – a demon that could use magick – to bottle Harper’s soul in order to punish her father, Lucian. That plan had also failed, at which point Harper’s grandmother had paid Carla to carry the baby to term. Carla had then left Harper with the imps and never once played a part in her life.
It wasn’t that Carla was evil. She’d just been too twisted up inside after Harper’s father, who was both Carla’s anchor and the demon she’d chosen for a mate, rejected her on both levels. A demon who lost its mate was both dangerous and unstable. Given that Knox would be just as hurt if he lost Harper, he could understand why Carla became so twisted. Nonetheless, he didn’t see it as an excuse for anything Carla had done.
Harper had grown up believing the woman hated her just as she hated Lucian, and she’d come to terms with that in her own way. Months ago, however, they had discovered that Carla had actually watched Harper from afar when his mate came to Vegas – she’d even gone to Harper’s graduation. Knox had sensed that a part of Carla wanted her only daughter in her life, but it simply wasn’t a big enough part of her to make any difference. Learning these things had thrown Harper off-balance and forced her to re-evaluate what she’d grown up believing.
He suspected that too much had really happened for the two females to ever have a relationship of any kind. He strongly doubted that Carla’s absence in her life bothered Harper that much, though. She wasn’t bitter about it, and she didn’t want anyone in her life who wouldn’t be a positive influence.
In her position, Knox would have felt neither here nor there about the disappearance of a mother who had been anything but a mother to him. He certainly wouldn’t feel sympathy for someone who had so drastically let him down. But unlike him, Harper had a huge soft spot. Beneath her hard exterior lay a marshmallow center that would no doubt feel bad for Carla.
“What do you mean by missing?” she finally asked.
Knox gently stroked her long sleek, dark hair that was tipped with gold – it was drying fast, since Levi had turned the heaters on full-blast. “Lawrence Crow, another demon from our lair who is also her neighbor, seems to have taken her.”
“Against her will?”
“Yes,” replied Knox. His demon wanted to nuzzle her. It had lost some of its anger now that she was safe, warm, and at its side.
Harper gave a soft shake of the head. “I don’t get it. Why would someone take Carla?”
“In Crow’s state of mind, it’s not easy to say.”
“He’s the demon you told me about who was bordering on rogue, isn’t he?”
“Yes.” And that was a reason to worry, since it would mean the male’s inner demon could soon have complete and utter control of him.
“Has he gone over the edge? Is he rogue now?”
“His partner, Delia, doesn’t think he is yet, but he’s close.” Again, Knox watched Harper carefully. Again, her expression didn’t change.
Harper exhaled heavily. “Then she’s in big fucking trouble.”
His mate was right. Sharing your soul with a dark, mostly psychopathic predator was no easy thing. It was a constant struggle to prevent the entity from taking over, and some didn’t have the mental strength to be dominant over their inner demon. Those people either went insane, committed suicide, or turned rogue.