Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 53656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Cassandra’s sigh was likely only audible to me. “Francisco Goya,” she answered. “Eighteen-twenties.”
“The name?” her mother hissed the question, like she was pissed Cassandra had answered correctly.
“Witches’ Sabbath,” Cassandra said, her voice monotone.
Where was that sharp tongue I couldn’t stop dreaming about? The one that loved to cut me any chance she got or, quite the opposite, distract me by sliding into my mouth and making me want to claim her in all the ways I shouldn’t.
“Hmm,” her mother said, not an ounce of pride on her features as she moved on to the next.
And the next.
And the next, until I was more than ready to eat her just to get her to shut up.
“Gods,” Cassandra groaned after we’d made it back to her quarters an hour before dawn. “That was dreadful.”
“Dreadful?” I said, shifting back into my vampire form. “Try torturous.” I rolled my shoulders, situating myself back into this skin as I grabbed my sweats and slid them over my lower half. I didn’t bother with a shirt as I turned around to face her.
“Oh, I assure you, her torture is much worse.”
I furrowed my brow, noting the light way she said the words didn’t reach her brown eyes. “Enlighten me?”
Cassandra shrugged, waltzing over to her wardrobe and grabbing a pair of her favorite yoga pants. She must have training on her mind.
“My family had this estate custom-built centuries ago,” she said as she went into the bathroom and shut the door to change. “They spared no expense. As you can tell, it’s quite the paradise.” She came back out of the bathroom, her long, lithe body looking absolutely stunning in jewel tones of green and gold.
“But?” I urged as I followed her to where we’d been training every night.
“There are no less than four closets painted with Night Thistle-laced paint in this estate,” she said. My blood ran cold. “Complete with iron chains and other uniquely dreadful artifices designed for nothing but harming our kind.”
“You’re telling me they would threaten to put you—”
“Not threaten,” she said, squaring off before me. Her fighting stance had improved immensely since we’d begun training. “I spent half my life in one of those closets, whenever I back-talked. Which, after spending so much time with me…”
“Fuck,” I hissed, my mind whirling with the picture she’d painted. Her as a young opinionated vampire, being punished simply for speaking her mind. My fangs punched out, every instinct in my body roaring to tear her mother’s throat out with my bare hands.
Her father was already dead.
But her brother and mother…I could end them with half a thought—
Cassandra punched me right in the nose, hard enough that my head snapped back and my vision went thermal.
“Yes!” she cheered. “Finally got one.”
“Good,” I said, shaking my head to clear my vision. I was snapping to thermal too quickly, and my throat burned at the memory of my hunger.
It didn’t help that Cassandra smelled like salvation.
She’d offered to feed me…
I couldn’t.
Feeding led to other things…more intimate things.
First it would be my fangs sinking into her, then my cock. It really was hard to separate the two and the last thing I needed, especially after that hot-as-hell kiss, was to lose myself in a female I wasn’t sure if I could fully trust. Fuck, I didn’t even know if I trusted her at all.
“You’re looking at me like you want to eat me,” she teased, dodging one of my advances. “You need to feed.”
“I’m fine.”
“You keep saying that, kitty cat,” she said, hopping up to dodge one of my kicks. “But I can tell you’re not. For gods’ sake, I can feel it, Talon.”
I cocked a brow her direction, slowing my movements. “You shouldn’t be able to feel it,” I growled. “The connection doesn’t work like that.”
She shrugged. “Maybe your shifty senses are broken, because I can,” she said, tapping the center of her chest as if that’s where she felt my hunger. “It’s maddening. Especially when I’m right here, willing to feed you so when the shit hits the inevitable fan, you won’t be too weak to get us out of here.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not some two-hundred-year-old vampire,” I said. “I’m a thousand—”
“Yes, yes,” she cut me off. “You’re ancient. I know, but we run off of blood. If you don’t feed, you won’t be able to shift properly. You know that—”
“I don’t need a lecture,” I said. “Fuck, you sound like Zachariah.”
The smallest of smiles shaped her beautifully red lips. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Shit. She was right. It was a compliment.
“Are you warming up to me?”
“Maybe I feel sorry for you because you’ve been shit on for the past five days,” I fired back, then cringed at my lack of filter.
“Right,” she said, her shoulders falling an inch. “Because gods forbid you actually work your way up to a simple respect for me rather than hate.” She rolled her eyes. “The whole not-trusting me thing is getting so boring. If I was going to betray you or your brothers, I could’ve done it a dozen times already.” Her eyes crackled with fire as she tipped her chin at me. “Especially with you starving. I landed a hit, at least, finally.”