Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
One of his hands gripped my neck, lifting my chin again, and his eyes watched me all the while. Peering inside of me, judging, waiting.
“What do you want?”
He smirked. “What do you think? I want you, all of you.”
My hands were helpless as they clung to his arms, holding myself upward. “Why? You knew about my family. You kept me from them. Why would you do that?”
His thumb inched upward and dipped into my mouth, hooking on the inside of my lip. His smirk looked almost cruel. “Why do you think? You’re mine, Shay. If I handed you over to your family before you knew this, what would you have done? You would’ve left me.”
“What are you saying?” My eyes glazed over, feeling him between my legs. He wanted to pierce me, shifting even harder against me, into me. I felt my desire there and knew my wetness had soaked my clothes. I wondered if he could smell it. I did. It was intoxicating and embarrassing at the same time. I bit my lip, wishing my body wouldn’t betray me while it did anyway.
“I’ve known about your mother and your aunt since I became old enough to look for them. It’s been a few years, only a few years, but I couldn’t risk losing you. Paint me the bad guy for that, I don’t care. I still wasn’t willing to gamble you and throw the dice. I brought you to them when it was safe for me. You would’ve done the same.”
I frowned, wondering what he meant, but his eyes snapped to the right. His body stiffened, and he dropped his hands from me, stepping back. I fell against the counter and would’ve fallen to the floor if he hadn’t caught me with one hand. He whispered in my head, “Something’s coming. Demons. They’re not friendly.”
Then he flung me behind him and sent two bursts of black energy at the doorframe. Two dark figures flew in, but immediately were flung backward. They ripped through the house and into the trees outside. Another black figure soared at us from above and something came over me. My head snapped back, all the way back, and my eyes shifted into yellow. I saw the demon and became furious. Yellow energy emanated from me and shot upward, slamming it away from us.
Kellan leapt after the other two and lifted his hand, catching both of them in a paralyzing grip. They floated in the air, helpless to move or fight back, as he drew them to us.
The third demon was coming back. I felt its approach and then flung my own hand outward, palm extended in the air, and I caught the demon in my grip, too. I had no idea how I was doing it, but I was angry. How dare they try to attack us? How dare they think about hurting us? My fury knew no bounds, and I was ready to tear the demon apart. I wanted to torture him one breath after another. I wanted him to hurt. He intended to hurt us. Then Kellan spoke in my ear, “Don’t kill him. Not yet. We need to find out what they know, why they came here for us.”
I growled, “I don’t care.” And I flexed my hand, bending the demon in half and it screamed. The agony that came from its mouth was genuine and blinding. I smiled, bending it even more, until I felt him ripped from my hold.
Kellan glared at me, flinging one of his demons away. It hit a tree that caught it and used both sides of its branches to tear the demon in half. It turned to dust and fell to the ground. A wind then swept it up and flung it away from us, far away. Kellan took the demon I had broken, still hanging together by a piece and rested him on the table before us. It was quivering in pain, writhing in motion, but the sound was the worst. It was a high-pitched whimper, sniffling. I wanted to silence it then and there, but Kellan clamped a hand on me, stopping me as he floated the other one to sit at the table in front of us. Its leader was still thrashing back and forth on top of the table, but this one stared at us in terror. His eyes were wide, white saucers with nothing in the middle. The entire figure was cloaked in a black robe.
“They’re from the underworld,” Kellan spoke in my ear, holding me back. He wanted me behind him, and he spoke in my head, “Remain quiet. They get information from you the more you speak. They can see into your words. Don’t do anything. Trust me.”
I trusted him, but I wanted to hurt them more. A thirst for their pain had been awakened in me. It was nearly intoxicating, threatening to take over, but I closed my eyes and battled for control. Kellan was right. He’d get the information we needed: why they were sent to us, who sent them, and what they wanted. Killing them wouldn’t help us in the long run, but I wanted to. I wanted to so badly.