Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
My stomach sank.
“I’m not blaming you,” Patrick said, shaking his head. “I know you would never bring harm to a human family. Can I ask where you met with him?”
“He kept his shop open late for me,” Benedict replied softly. “It’s a second-generation family business I’ve patroned for fifty years or so…” He sighed. “So he knew what I am.”
“That was never in question,” Patrick assured him. “The family has quietly been a friend of the council for years.”
“Not so quiet, now,” Alek said. “But I’ve never seen Sons use night thistle bullets on humans.”
“The scent isn’t as strong,” Benedict added. “Could be they’re adding a small amount to every bullet they make just in case.”
“Their targets have been larger than this lately,” Dagon said. “They’ve gone for schools. Clinics. Aristocratic vampire estates, not human families.”
“Guess they’re changing tactics,” Patrick muttered. “Either the Sons knew that Harold was a friend of the council, or they knew he was doing business with Benedict, but it’s clear that one of those things led to the execution of the family.”
We were quiet as we filed into the front yard. There wasn’t anything else we could do but leave the human police to do their jobs.
One by one, we scattered to our nightly missions, until only Benedict, Talon, and I remained.
“This isn’t your fault,” I told Benedict as he stared at the house, his face stricken.
“It is if they saw me with him.”
Talon turned to me. “You’d better check on your human.”
Grace. My chest tightened. I’d been at the hospital in plain sight, at the amusement park, the bungee jumping place—everywhere.
“What human?” Benedict asked, his brow puckering.
“He’s been spending time with a human woman,” Talon answered.
Benedict’s gaze snapped to mine. “You have?”
I nodded. And if they’d seen me…
“You’d better go,” Benedict urged. “We’ll cover the patrol tonight.”
I didn’t need to be told twice.
I wended into the shadowed side yard between Grace’s house and her neighbor’s, then paused time, so I could recon unseen and unheard.
Had I inadvertently put her in danger? Simply by being seen with her in the human world?
I examined the area around the house, checked her back door, her garage, everywhere considered an entrance point to the house before I started toward the front porch, my thoughts tangled in a knot of self-loathing. In my time, humans weren’t a considerable threat to vampires. Sure, there was the occasional pitchfork-carrying mob when a bloodmad eliminated a village, but there had never been an organized movement to exterminate us. In fact, in my time, the only threat to Grace besides her own body would have been a bloodmad using her to get to me.
Samuel.
How fucking stupid had I been?
I didn’t breathe until I stood on her front porch, seeing her paused mid-swing, reading her novel.
She was alive. Samuel hadn’t followed me here. The Sons hadn’t hunted her down. She was still breathing, still existing.
For now.
I backed away and sat on her steps just out of her view before I released time so it could carry on. I’d sit here all night if that’s what it took to make sure she was okay.
Illogical laughter bubbled up in my chest, but I kept it in check. I was one of the deadliest predators on the planet, and here I was, sitting guard for a human woman I couldn’t get out of my head, determined to save her from a premature death, when death was already stalking her.
The creaks of the swing slowed my heart rate, calming me as I unfucked my head.
She deserves so much more.
“Shit,” I whispered to myself.
“I can hear you, you know,” Grace said, and the swing kept its steady rhythm. “Stop being weird and come sit with me.”
Damn, that woman had some incredible hearing. I slammed my mental shields down like it would help me contain my reeling emotions and stood.
She cocked her head at me as I climbed the rest of her steps. “How long have you been sitting there?”
“Just a second or two,” I answered. I never counted the time I kept paused. The breeze carried her scent to me as I reached the top step and moved onto her porch.
Taste.
Fucking instincts.
Hunger stabbed low and painfully. I needed to feed again before I saw her. Maybe that would shut my instincts up. Hungry vampires were dangerous vampires.
“You look…” She studied me. “Off. Bad day collecting souls, Grim?”
A tiny smile quirked my mouth. “You could say that.”
She sat up and patted the cushion next to her. “Sit.”
God help me, I did.
“It’s been a couple days,” she said, but it wasn’t a lecture.
“I’m realizing that it’s not entirely safe for you to be around me.” I braced my elbows on my knees. “And it’s…troubling.”
“I don’t understand.” She closed her paperback and set it next to her. “I’m the one who keeps dragging you on roller coasters and bungee jumps. Seems to me like it’s not entirely safe for you to be around me.”