Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“Don’t,” I hissed.
The words she’s your mate had been on constant repeat since Hawke had uttered them. As punishment for fucking with my entire reality, I’d sentenced him to be Lyric’s personal bodyguard, which took him off the execution detail he loved so very much.
Liar. Fine. If I was being honest, I’d put him at Lyric’s back because I knew just how ruthless the bastard was. He’d slaughter anyone who got close enough to breathe on her.
“We’d have your back with the nobles,” Benedict said gently like his words were physically tiptoeing on my headache.
“There’s nothing to have my back over.” My vision swam for a moment, and there were two of him glowering back at me.
“Stubborn ass,” Hawke muttered as I forced my vision back to normal.
Damn it. I hadn’t let myself go this long between feedings…ever. Vampires needed to feed at least a couple of times a week. Paired with a diet of edible food, bloodlust was controlled. Swing either way—too much blood or too little, and the cravings became unmanageable. Addiction and starvation were our biggest enemies, and the human population’s worst fear.
I hadn’t fed in nine days. Much longer, and I’d start the biological process of going into stasis.
“Alek, if we put her under our protection as your m—” Lachlan began.
“She’s not my…” Fuck. I couldn’t even say it out loud. I pushed back from the table and stood, bracing my hands on the onyx slab as my head swam. “She can’t be.”
“Says who?” Ransom asked.
“Says every king that has come before me. She’s human.” It didn’t matter what feelings had me by the dick. She wasn’t our kind.
“Xavier called her a Seer,” Hawke countered.
I lifted my head and narrowed my eyes in his direction. I think. He was blurry. “Et tu, Brute?”
He scoffed. “Don’t even think of going Caesar on me. You can’t let the woman out of your sight for longer than a few hours or you get twitchy. Your fangs come out the second anyone with a dick gets near her—”
My fangs made an appearance, just to prove him right, and my head exploded. The pain was indescribable. They didn’t ache; that was too mild of a word. They pulsed with sharp, relentless jabs of agony, igniting my throat with a fire nothing but blood would quench.
“For fuck’s sake, Alek,” Lachlan stood but didn’t do me the dishonor of trying to physically steady me. There was no graver insult than to imply a king couldn’t physically defend himself. My grandfather had taken the throne that way. “You have to feed.”
“I don’t have to do shit.”
Lachlan swore under his breath.
“We have Julian looking into all historical records of any Seer bloodlines,” Benedict offered. “You know he’s the best historian we have.”
“Seers have been extinct since the plague. Bubonic, to be specific.” But it made sense. She couldn’t be glamoured. My own considerable powers didn’t work on her…or was that because she was my—don’t even think it.
“Whether or not she’s…” Lachlan shot me a questionable look. “Well, you know…we all have your back. We’ll have hers, too. But you can’t expect us to let you—”
“Let. Me?” I turned slowly toward my best friend.
“Fuck.” He sighed, then lifted his chin. “Make me sit down.”
“You’re going to double down on this shit?” I let my power slip free of the tether I’d spent years learning to control, but before I could compel him to do just that, I felt my ability snap back on me like a rubber band. “Damn it.”
“Get out, all of you,” Lachlan barked, then waited until the room cleared. “Alek, it doesn’t matter if the intel Xavier could potentially give us is good if we don’t have our king at his full wits. You have to feed.”
When it became clear to him that I wasn’t going to answer, he marched out the door, shoving it open so hard it slammed into the stone wall. “Maybe you’ll have a better shot at getting through to him,” he said in the hallway just before it closed behind him.
I shook my head and followed him out to find Avianna staring at me.
“Don’t start with me,” I said, walking right past her to head up the stairs.
“You’ll kill her, you know.”
I froze halfway up the stairs, my stomach dropping to the floor as I gripped the banister hard enough to make the heavy wood creak under my fingers. Guess I still had some strength left.
“If you don’t feed,” Avi continued. “You’ll go mad. The bloodlust will take you, and you will kill her.”
“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” I said over my shoulder. But she did.
“Bullshit! You think you sent me away to study how to be a lady and cross my ankles?” Her rage was palpable as she stalked up the stairs and finally turned to face me a few steps up, making us the same height. “I might not have the power of compulsion like you, Alek, but I have an excellent mind.”