Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 81867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
“Yeah,” Layden says. “We did it. Thank you. Both of you. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
We all clamber into Sabra’s car, Sabra and I in the front and Layden in the back. I lift my passenger’s side visor mirror to look at him, adjusting it so I only see his face. “I’m so proud of you,” I tell him, and he smiles wide.
He reaches a hand up and squeezes my shoulder. I feel the touch all the way to my toes.
“So,” Sabra asks as we pull out of the parking lot and onto the road. “What will you do now? The world’s your oyster. You can go anywhere you want. Do anything.”
I frown, and Layden’s gaze connects with mine again in the mirror.
“I don’t know,” he says. “I’m not in any hurry.”
I look down and readjust in my seat, pulling my shoulder away from his touch. He withdraws his hand.
You trapped us all. Sabra’s words echo in my head. Is that what I do?
And always Vlad’s voice. Are you a selfish little girl?
I see myself like a spider in that other dark, frigid realm. Waiting and spinning, patient for so long, selfishly drawing human after human into my web and feeding on their life force.
Oh, I got myself into the human realm eventually, all right, as they fed on others, an unending hunger. But only so I could keep trapping victims in my net and using them for my own gain. By then, it was all I knew.
I look back at Layden, smiling in his new freedom.
Once, Sabra and I were best friends. More than that, we were like sisters. And now she hates me.
Would Layden start to hate me eventually, too, if I asked him to stay?
Chapter Nineteen
LAYDEN
Present Day
“We need a plan,” I say to Phoenix as we run for the garage. “What’s to stop what happened last time from happening again if we manage to catch her?”
Dammit, I should have spent last night planning for when Ammit popped her head up instead of… well, what I was doing. Now we have to come up with something on the fly.
Phoenix’s stride falters a little, but she keeps going, pulling out her phone. “Vlad, we found Ammit. I need a driver and to borrow your car.” She rolls her eyes. “Look, do you want this problem solved or not? I need it now if we have a chance of catching her.” She nods into the phone. “Good, have Lucian meet us at the garage.”
We finally get to the door leading to the underground level of the garage.
“So what are we doing?”
“I have an idea.” She bites her lip nervously. “But it’s a little out there.”
“I’m game. Whatever.”
She nods at one of Vlad’s minions, who slides into the driver’s seat of a sleek black limo with blackout windows. I open the back door for her, she slides in, and I climb in on the long bench beside her.
“What’s the idea?” I ask. “Spill?”
“To the university,” she instructs the driver. “No interruptions.” Then she pushes a button, and blackout glass slides up between the front and backseat.
“It’s soundproof,” she says. “He won’t be able to hear anything.”
I nod. “Okay, so what’s the plan? Should we call Sabra—?”
Phoenix just waves her hand. “There’s no time for that. We only have thirty minutes until we get there, and we’ll barely have enough time as it is.”
“For what?”
She breathes out hard and looks me in the eye. “To get out all our sexual tension so she doesn’t have anything to weaponize against us.”
“Oh.” I swallow. The beast in my belly roars in approval. “And how do we—”
Her eyes are still on mine, and then she pulls off her shirt and climbs into my lap.
“Oh,” I say, nodding. Her breasts hang full right in front of me, all but bursting from her bra. Beast happy. Very happy. “Oh.”
Then she leans forward, stopping right before kissing me. “Is this okay?” she asks, sounding suddenly shy. Moments before she was so in charge, a general executing a plan. But now, on top of me as my arms slide around her, she’s all woman.
I lift a hand to her face, my thumb caressing down her cheek and then teasing inside her mouth. She sucks in a breath, lips closing on my thumb. Her whole body trembles on my lap. “I mean, we have to do what we have to do,” I say.
I lift up to kiss her, but she pulls back right as my lips are a whisper away from hers.
“We could just. . .” She bites her bottom lip, and her cheeks go pink in a way I’ve noticed they do on the rare occasions she feels embarrassed. “Take care of ourselves individually.”
My heart thumping, I nod even as I note how hungrily she’s staring back at my lips. She’s hungry for me. And there’s no Ammit here now. My cock goes so hard beneath her I see her eyes widen as she feels it.