Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 122030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
He’s going to Hell.
We’re all going to Hell.
But while we wait for that, we’re going to be here, which is… pre-Hell.
I know where this is going. I know what Lucia is going to say next, but it still shocks me when the words come out of her mouth.
“And you are going to make that wish come true.”
I shake my head and turn away from her. “No.” But my objection is soft, and low, and weak.
“Listen to me, OK? Just hear me out. The reason I showed you Coyrah and the aquis equī is because the witches have a breeding game too, Syrsee. Just like the vampires.”
“What?” I’m so confused I turn to look at her.
“Paul is—was, actually—a great student geneticist once upon a time. But he made abominations. Disgusting things, Syrsee. I mean, think about it for a moment. How bad, how disgusting, how vile does a creature have to be that even vampires are repulsed?” She pauses here, letting her descriptions sink in. “Paul made monsters so terrible from the blood of vampires and witches that the Obscurati had no alternative but to strip him of power and banish him for life. That’s how we ended up here.” She points to the ground. “Do I sound like I’m from Montana?”
She doesn’t. Her accent is very posh and not at all American.
“And right now, in this very moment, he is turning Ryet into one of those monsters.”
“No.” I shake my head and turn away from her again. “No. No. Fuck this shit, I’m not killing Ryet.” I say it first because that’s where she’s going. “I don’t even know how that would be possible, but that’s what you’re going to tell me, right?”
Lucia grabs my shoulders and turns me around. Gently. Carefully. And when we are face to face again, she looks me in the eyes. “How bad, how disgusting, how vile does a creature have to be that even vampires are repulsed?”
I look away from her. “I don’t know.” And I’m not deflecting, either. I’m no expert in demons, or spirits, or whatever. “But I can’t do it.”
“Fine.” Lucia withdraws her hands from my shoulders and walks across the room to the bed where my real body is sleeping. Or… unconscious. Since the third bag of blood is full now. And while I’m not any kind of authority on blood, I’m pretty sure three bags is pushing the limit.
I feel so detached from that body at the moment, I actually begin to wonder if I’m dead.
Lucia takes the bag off the stand, places it in the ice chest near the door with the others, and then hooks up another bag. But she doesn’t start the flow of blood again. Instead, she walks over to the armoire where the supplies are and begins straightening things up as she talks. “Let’s forget about Ryet for a moment. Let’s think about Paul. He has made these creatures before. This is his… life’s work, OK? Does that make sense?”
I shrug noncommittally. “I guess.”
“He has been planning this moment for hundreds of years. And he’s going to succeed, Syrsee. Ryet will drink you tonight. I can’t stop it. I’m nothing compared to Paul. He could hunt me down in minutes. He would do terrible things to me. Maybe not kill me—he would have to take off my head for that to happen—but he could torture me for… well, forever, if he wanted.”
“Is this little admission of weakness supposed to inspire trust in me? Because if so, you really need to work on your approach.”
Lucia turns away from the armoire so she’s facing me again. Only now she’s holding a syringe in her hand. “I’m merely stating facts. And these are the facts. We need to stop Paul. You’re not going to die tonight. He will use your blood for as long as he can. He’s not letting you walk away, darling. When he told you that, he meant to make you realize that you were not a part of his and Ryet’s future. You see, it is just him and Ryet.”
I want to play dumb here. But I already know she’s right. And Paul told me this, didn’t he? He didn’t say he was going to imprison me and bleed me out for the rest of my life, but why wouldn’t he? I’m the blood he’s been waiting for.
Lucia is smiling now because she knows I’m listening. “We can’t kill Paul. But we can… pack him up and put him away, so to speak.”
“And how would we do that?”
“Throw him into the purple, my dear. Just like the magnificent cities made of ice that disappeared long ago. They crossed the veil and they never came back. We can pull the cloak of purple over Paul and trap him there.”
“And how does Ryet fit in?”
“He can be killed. He has not transformed yet. All you have to do is feed him dead Black blood.”