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)
My body is fire and I scream at the pain.
“And he hates you!” The old feeder sings and cackles these words through the night. She’s haunting my reality now. “He hates you, he hates you, he hates you…”
I need fresh blood.
I need her blood.
And I can’t have it until he has had her first or all these decades will go to waste.
I scream again.
And then the purple comes and I go… somewhere else.
CHAPTER NINE - SYRSEE
Fuck the world.
“Run!”
The word is all my grandma has left. She slumps over, dead. And in this same moment I feel a shock go through me. Like an electric charge. Like… strength. And cold. My body turns to ice. And then I see something. Something blurry and teal. A head, maybe. Of some kind of animal. But then, suddenly, a cloud of purple drifts up—hiding the thing from my view. And everything turns into a cloud of inky violet.
I stumble backwards, bumping right into Zusi. Blinking, as I try to understand what just happened.
Zusi has me by the shoulders and she’s shaking me. Like she’s trying to force me out of a trance. “You heard her, Syrsee. Let’s go!”
Zusi is pulling me towards the door. But I’m reaching for my grandma. She gave me a gift. Her death did something to me. She transferred something to me. And now I can’t even ask her what it is or what it’s for. “Why didn’t I come visit her sooner?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore. It doesn’t matter. She’s gone, OK? And we have to leave. That fucking scion is in Breckenridge right now. He’s got a helicopter.”
“What? But that was—”
“Yesterday! Yes. I know. That’s what I’m saying. We need to leave right now and we’re gonna have to do something drastic to cover your scent.”
“Drastic?”
“Come on!”
She tugs me out the door and I have just enough time to look over my shoulder and whisper a soft, “Goodbye,” to the only blood relation I ever knew.
Zusi shoves me into the back of a black SUV, gets in next to me, and then leans into the front seat where Tristin is. “Drive!”
They take me to the Rifle Airport on the Western Slope of Colorado where a private jet is waiting. On board, I settle into my luxurious leather seat and let out a long breath.
No one says anything until we’re in the air. And then it’s just arguing.
I’m too tired. Too spent. Too ready to just give up.
What’s the point?
But Zusi and her partner, Tristin, are poring over maps on a tablet. I don’t bother asking where we’re going. None of this is up to me.
Then my grandmother’s words come back to me now. And the icy-cold electric jolt upon her death. The magic will be gone with me. You must learn to do it on your own.
What did she mean by that? And what was that jolt of power? Was it magic? Was it… something else? A spirit?
I would rather it be magic. I don’t like the idea of spirits. I never have. Vampires, scions, I don’t like them either, but they make sense to me. Spirits do not. Because if they’re not here, in this world, and they are there—or somewhere in between—then what is that other place? Where is it?
A part of me knows what it is. The same place I go when I dreamwalk. But if that’s a real place where spirits live, what am I doing there?
And even if I know what it is, I don’t know where it is. And every time I come back from a dreamwalk, I can’t help but wonder if the next time I will get stuck. If I will get trapped. And then I will be the spirit on the wrong side of the veil.
My grandma’s other warning comes back to me now too. He will come for you. He will get you. And he will make you offers, dear heart.
“Magnificent promises.”
“What?” Zusi and Tristin have paused their argument and are now looking at me from across the aisle.
“That’s what my grandma said. That the… that Paul will come to me and make offers.”
Zusi crinkles up her nose in an expression of disgust. “What are you talking about?”
“Nothing.” I sigh, suddenly feeling very tired. “Forget it. It’s just… she was rambling at the end.”
She was not rambling. She was warning me. But I don’t feel like explaining it. Not right now. The scion is close. Way too close. I just need to get far, far away from him and then I can think about all the things that actually happened tonight.
Run!
It makes sense. And it’s good advice.
So that’s what I do, only in the comfort of my leather chair on a private jet. I close my eyes and let my head fall back as I let out a long breath.