Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
He had silvery white hair pulled back to hang thick and long almost to his waist, corded tightly with leather. His eyes were a slashing silver as he cut through demons and vampires alike. He was covered in blood, some of it black, some of it red, but flashes of lightning lit up the sky continually all around him. He exuded power and sheer confidence. He was mesmerizing—terrifying in the way he faced his enemies so fearlessly. Head-on. Directly. Without flinching. They tore him open, ripped and bit at him, attempted to eviscerate him and tear his heart from his chest, but nothing deterred him. He mowed his enemies down as if they were paper dolls.
Around her, coming at the families with children, were vicious hellhounds, animals with two heads and foul breath, their red eyes fixed on the screaming babies. Automatically, she reached out to try to soothe the creatures. Their brains were chaotic, filled with rage, determined to kill everything in their path. She felt the presence of another, someone cruel driving the beasts onward toward the families, demanding death.
Fires broke out. Hideous monsters with sharp teeth fell on the women and children, tearing at them as flames engulfed the sanctuary. Talons grasped at her, digging into her shoulders, dragging her against a rotting body. She looked up into a gaping mouth with jagged, dark-stained teeth. Rotting flesh sloughed from his face as maggots crawled from beneath his skin, and his hair came off his scalp in bloody patches.
“Let me introduce myself, my dear. I am Eduardo.”
She couldn’t help the little shiver that went through her body, but she didn’t reply. She didn’t look at the bodies trapped in the fire, although she wanted to know if Aura had gotten away. Everyone had tried to run, but the hellhounds and those terrible creatures were rounding them up and throwing them back into the flames to burn them alive. She expected the disgusting creature raking at her shoulders and arms to hurl her into the flames as well, but he didn’t.
His breath was so foul she thought she might pass out. He caught up a baby and handed her the infant. “Throw the baby into the fire. Tell him you want to see him burn.”
The words beat at her mind like a bird might chip away at the trunk of a tree with its beak—an obnoxious, repetitive sound. She glared at the hideous creature, shook her head and tried to hide the crying infant behind her.
At once, fury filled the bloodshot eyes, and he yanked the little boy from her, ripping at him with his claws and then tossing him into the flames. “How dare you disobey me.”
He dug his nails into her and shook her before taking to the air, heading to a high point across the valley, where he could see the fighting below.
The child remained silent, partially out of fear and partially because there was no getting away from or reasoning with Eduardo. She decided to wait to see how everything played out. She knew, like everyone on the battlefield, he was watching the fighter.
“Aura, how did you get away from the fire?”
“Most of the families were Imazighen. I am Carpathian. I simply changed my composition and took to the air. I was so little, the vampires and demons didn’t pay attention to me. They were mostly interested in acquiring you. All along, that was their goal.”
“Why? The child had been about four or five. What good would it do to take her and keep her alive?”
“As I said, there is only one lifemate. That child—you—held the other half of Petru’s soul. They all seemed to know it. If she’d been a grown woman and he’d claimed her, if she died, he would have suicided or gone into a thrall, which would have made him very dangerous. He could have turned vampire. As she was a child, he couldn’t claim her, but all Carpathian males protect their lifemates. They can’t do anything else. It’s instinctive. Their mind and soul demand it. Vampires know this.”
“So by taking the child, they essentially held Petru prisoner.”
“They trapped him, yes. Not only him but her family as well. Her grandfather was head of the tribe. As you know, Imazighen are a peaceful people, but they are fierce fighters when defending themselves and the ones they love. Her parents were alive. Her grandmother and grandfather. There were still Carpathian children alive, but without Petru, no one was going to live through the next few hours, and all of us knew it. The leader directing the war knew it, too.”
Safia placed her palm over the bluish-white star over her heart. “I remember,” she whispered. “I had nightmares.”
“It wasn’t a nightmare,” Aura said. “As evil began to rise, your memories began to return, just as his did. Two thousand years ago, you had an ancestor by the name of Kahina. She was a seer, a true one. When she spoke, her family listened. She was a brilliant woman. You come from a long line of extremely intelligent people.”