Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 104842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
Lying there, knees bent, hands on my chest, I took several breaths, not yet ready to move. Zev walked over to where Sibel and Kamari were with the guards, probably to get the story of how the chase had begun as well as to explain why he wasn’t turning over the assassin. Dae-Jung lay down near me, not touching, simply there, close, in his jeans, T-shirt, and hoodie. He looked eighteen or nineteen, when really, he was well over a thousand.
“What was with rubbing under my nose?”
“It’s supposed to help.”
“Okay.” I let that go. If I asked how or why, I was likely to get a long, convoluted answer about how back in Goryeo—when Korea was called by that name—that was how it was done; other times he’d say he’d read it somewhere. “Tell me how you and Zev know about cramps.”
“Jason,” he began with a sigh, “vampyrs experience cramps, same as humans. Our bodies are quite similar, except that a genetic mutation makes us gain all our sustenance through blood, and you through food. As for myself, I’m perfectly happy not to have ever ingested any part of any animal. I find it barbaric.”
“And drinking blood isn’t?”
“Drinking blood is done through a vein or from a goblet. I don’t think you can argue that slaughtering an animal and masticating its flesh is better.”
“Chewing,” I corrected him.
“I believe the words to have similar meanings.”
I was too tired to argue, and more importantly, I just wanted to go on vacation.
After a few moments, Eris approached and stood over me, scowling in judgment as Brenna crouched down near my head.
“You’re bleeding again,” Eris announced. “Why are you always bleeding?”
“I’m not always bleeding,” I muttered petulantly.
She squinted at me.
“It’s a small cut,” I explained. “There were assassins at the ball and—”
“Of course there were,” she groaned, sounding pained.
“It’s not my fault,” I defended myself.
“No, it never is,” she muttered.
“Listen, I—”
“Remember over a year ago now when you were worried that we’d be bored being your personal guard?” Brenna began.
“This time it—”
“You must be more careful,” she insisted, looking at me like I was gum she wanted to scrape off the bottom of her shoe but was afraid to touch. Her aggrieved tone was just as bad. “You are the prince’s consort, and as such, if you see trouble, you must send for us when you’re someplace we cannot attend you.”
“Did it ever occur to you that maybe I had to act before I could do anything else?”
She turned to Zev. “We must petition the king that you accompany Jason everywhere going forward. Perhaps His Majesty needs to be reminded that the prince’s consort is, after all, merely human.”
Zev nodded.
“I hate you all,” I made known.
“Don’t be a child,” Dae-Jung admonished. “Brenna’s idea is marvelous, and you should be pleased she thought of such.”
“I liked it better when you were afraid of me.”
Soft, judgmental grunt from him. “I was never afraid of you, and that was a terrible thing to say, was it not?”
It was.
“Do you feel bad?” he pressed.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You must use your words, my consort.”
I exhaled sharply. “I do feel bad.”
“I would expect as much,” he allowed.
“Second sorry of the night.”
“Which I receive with an open heart.”
Really, he was gifted at making me feel like total crap.
“What precisely happened?” Eris wanted to know, and I looked up and saw her furrowed brows. Everyone who guarded me always had the same scowl, I noticed.
“Yes,” Dae-Jung said. “Let’s hear your latest tale.”
“Latest tale?”
“There are many,” he clarified for me.
“You know, I really am sorry I was short with you a moment ago. You know I never wanted you to be afraid of me for even a second.”
“I do know,” he said, smiling indulgently, as if I were a child. “But really, tell us what happened from the beginning.”
“I don’t want to,” I grumbled.
“You must,” Brenna ordered me. “Relate the exploit now before it runs from your mind and must be dredged from your memory.”
Really, it was no one’s fault but my own that they all questioned me this way. I allowed a freedom no other royal did, and that was because all the bowing and scraping and asking permission gave me hives. I wanted, needed, friends, not sycophants.
I groaned, still not ready to stand. “Remember how you all thought I was nuts when I was trying to convince you that someone was watching the king and would probably make an attempt on his life?”
“So someone tried to kill the king?” Eris inquired, squinting at me, not looking like she believed me, smoothing her thick fiery-red braid over her shoulder like she did when she was worried. I saw the action a lot.
“Five of them. Six, actually, counting the one I chased that Zev knocked out.” I pointed. “He’s right there. I saved him.”