Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 117510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 588(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 588(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
“We have a tail,” announced Levi as they stopped at a red light. “The pick-up truck two cars behind us. I turned off the freeway and drove into a rough neighborhood to see if they followed. They did.”
Pocketing his cell, Knox peered out of the tinted rear window. It wasn’t the first time they’d been followed. Sometimes it was paparazzi, sometimes it was someone hoping to pitch a business idea to him, sometimes it was a PI hired by a business rival or even a nosy Prime. Other times—though they weren’t so common—it was a threat.
Squinting, Knox studied what he could see of the driver, which wasn’t much. Scruffy dark hair. Scraggly overgrown beard. Red T-shirt. “I don’t recognize the driver. It could be the incorporeal.” The thought made his demon unfurl and rise close to the surface, ready to lunge and attack if needs be. It wanted a fight, craved revenge on the entity that could potentially be just behind them.
As Levi stopped the car at a red light, Knox glanced around, taking note of where they were and how many humans were walking along the drab street. Not many. There was an elderly woman struggling with an umbrella, a vagrant pushing a cart, a woman with a stroller, and a trio of teens that had just strode out of an alley. Still, he’d prefer to battle somewhere more secluded. If there were humans around, it would limit how Knox could retaliate against an attack.
“We need to lead the incorporeal into a more derelict area,” said Knox.
“I got a place in mind.” Tapping his fingers impatiently on the wheel, Levi sighed and tipped his chin toward the pedestrian crossing the street. “There’s always a slow old lady when you’re in a rush. Seriously, she’s moving, like, an inch at a time.”
If he wasn’t so focused on the matter of the incorporeal, Knox might have smiled. Instead, he was running through battle plans in his head. His heart was pounding, and adrenalin was pumping through him. Preparing him. Invigorating him.
Like his demon, he relished the thought of fighting the demon that had dared to not only attempt to possess his son, but who had made his mate bleed. The delicious anticipation of it had his demon practically licking its lips.
Glancing at the traffic light, Knox rolled back his shoulders. It would go green any moment now, surely. Every second that ticked by seemed like minutes, winding him that much tighter with tension.
Amber.
Green.
“Fucking finally,” Levi burst out, shifting the gear and exerting pressure on the pedal.
“Don’t drive fast or try to lose it,” said Knox. “We don’t want it to know we’ve made it.”
Further up the street, the woman with the stroller halted at the curb. As they neared, she looked their way. Smirked cruelly. And then shoved the stroller right into the road.
Levi slammed his foot on the pedal and sharply swerved the steering wheel, making the car skid until it was sideways. Tires screeched and the reaper swore a blue streak. His quick reflexes might not have been enough if Knox hadn’t reached out with his psychic hands to yank the stroller to a standstill.
That was when a powerful gust of gale-force wind swept up the Bentley and tossed it in the air like it was no more than a leaf.
Even as the car flipped over and glacial air thrust into the open windows to freeze him, Knox grabbed Levi and pyroported them directly behind the woman, witnesses be fucking damned.
Just as the crackling flames eased away from him and Knox snapped a psychic hand around her throat, she went limp. He saw it leave her—saw the vaporous swirl that dissipated so fast, he could almost think it had never been there at all.
Shaking with rage and frustration, Knox sent hellfire blasting out of his hand like it was a flamethrower; aiming for what he could no longer see, even as he knew it would do no real damage anyway.
His heartbeat was pounding so loud in his ears that it took a moment to realize the woman in his psychic grip was screaming and struggling to get free, wanting to get to her baby. Knox released her so fast she stumbled, but he was too consumed by fury to feel bad for her. Just the same, he couldn’t find it in him to feel any sympathy for the truck driver, who’d hopped out of the vehicle, looking equally baffled.
Spinning to face Knox, Levi hissed out a breath. “That mother-fucking motherfucker.”
Silently cursing himself, Knox flexed his fingers so hard his joints cracked. “I was so busy concentrating on what was happening behind me that I didn’t think to focus on what was going on right in front of us.”
“The incorporeal must have realized we’d made it, abandoned the driver, and then possessed the woman in the hope of catching us off-guard with a frontal attack.”