Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
I’ve not felt so…alive…in forever.
There’s a fresh breeze. Distant birds are twittering. The air is full of all kinds of fresh smells—some good and some not so good. There’s no perfume. There’s no stagnant heat suffocating me in my little hotbox of a room. The sunlight is overwhelmingly bright and I love it.
I want to stay outside forever and be free, but I know I can’t. Even now, the thought of returning to my room, trapped and bored and oh god, so damn lonely, it makes me want to scream.
I pull a wad of fabric from my pocket and clutch it tightly in my hand. It’s my panties. No one saw me take them off when I was changing. I deliberately pulled my clothes off underneath my shirt and skirt, because I didn’t want Emma to see what I was up to. I mean, yes, I was shy at the thought of undressing in front of her and her dragon, but there was an ulterior motive. My panties are now clutched tight in my hand, and I’m waiting for the right moment to drop them. The breath catches in my throat and I can feel my heart pounding with both excitement and terror.
Do I want to do this? Can I? Do I know what I’m getting into if I do such a thing?
I close my eyes, and the cool breeze ruffles my hair against my sweaty face. It smells like grass and distant ashes, but it also smells fresh. Pure.
It decides me. I want this.
Swallowing hard, I wait until we pass a tall patch of reeds that overgrows the ancient curb and spills onto the road. We lumber past, the dragon moving slowly and pitching his tail back and forth. At the last moment, I flick my panties into the grass.
I hold my breath, waiting for Zohr to bellow a warning. Waiting for Emma to ask me what the fuck I’m doing. But no one says anything. No one’s noticed. Instead, Emma chuckles low and murmurs something under her breath, stroking her dragon’s scaly neck. I can feel a rumble deep in the dragon’s belly that sounds like laughter. They’re taking no notice of me.
I close my eyes and make a little wish.
Please come find me. Someone. Anyone. I can’t keep living in a prison. Come find me…and love me.
37
EMMA
Hour after quiet hour passes.
We wait, ready for Azar and his men in the building with the banner ruffling in the breeze. Amy’s back home, safely ensconced and perfumed in her hidey-hole, Claudia hovering over her and making sure she’s protected. I know Claudia’s frustrated at me for using her sister as bait, but she knows this is the right thing to do.
The plan should have worked perfectly, but as the night passes and daylight approaches without so much as a motorcycle zooming through the city, I’m forced to admit that Azar hasn’t fallen for our bait.
He’s not coming for “Felicia.” No one is. He’s not sending his men out to scoop up a young, fresh female for dragon bait. Either he’s onto us or he doesn’t need her. Either way, he’s not coming.
I clench my fists in my hiding spot on the third floor of the building, frustrated. I have a gun and three Molotovs at my side. Zohr waits in human form next to me, ready to shift to battle-form at a moment’s notice. Several floors up, Kael and Dakh wait, Dakh’s mate nearby and armed to the teeth.
All for nothing.
It is dawn, Zohr says. Claudia and Sasha are going to rest for a few hours. You should, too.
“I’m fine,” I tell him, picking up my binoculars and scanning the streets below again.
My fires, if he comes, I will smell him. Zohr brushes the hair off my cheek with his claws in a tender, loving gesture. You can rest. I will wake you.
“I’m okay,” I tell him stubbornly. “I want to stay awake. I know the moment I go to sleep, he’s going to show his ass up, and I want to be ready to put a bullet between his eyes.”
Very well. He drags his claw along my chin. But if you grow tired, you should rest.
I won’t grow tired. I know I won’t. I’m too keyed up. Too anxious to get this over and done with. I want to move on. I want our lives to move forward, and we can’t with Azar lurking in the shadows. But I nod at him and we settle back in to wait a bit longer.
I doze some throughout the day. It can’t be helped. The afternoon’s impossibly hot and the muggy heat gets to me. I drift back and forth between exhausted sleep and wakefulness. It’s quiet, the only sound that of the wind itself.
There are no motorcycles. No dragons, other than the one at my side. No nothing.