Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 112001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 373(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 373(@300wpm)
The coughing spell started as they all did, a little throat-clear that Daniel tried to hide. But like the most recent ones, the spasms in his lungs were a deadly locomotive that refused to be slowed down or derailed.
The hacking brought him up off the pillows, his hands punching into the mattress as he jacked himself forward and bent his knees to triangulate into a pose that gave his poor lungs the best chance to inhale fully. Desperate to breathe, his mouth opened wide and his eyes bulged as sweat broke out across his chest and forehead, his flush an ugly purple as he desperately attempted to haul oxygen in.
She grabbed a towel on the way to him, yanking it off the top of the bureau. Idiotically, she noted it was still damp from when they’d showered together earlier—
Too late. The blood speckles, bright as ink, marked up the covers underneath him.
As he grabbed the terrycloth, she lunged for the bedside table, knocking bottles of pills onto the floor as she went for the inhaler. Shoving it into his open mouth, she pushed hard on the cylinder, but he couldn’t breathe anything in—
“Work with me,” she said. “Calm yourself—work with me—”
Lydia had no idea what she was saying. No clue whether the medicine was getting into his bronchial tubes. No prayer left to offer up to anything or anybody. With tears spearing into her eyes, and her own chest turning into a block of ice-cold terror, she couldn’t do this anymore. She couldn’t live like this for one more day, one more night. She couldn’t bear to hear the staccato, snare drum beat of the cough—
The tide began to turn subtly, a little more air getting down and carrying the spray into Daniel’s throat. Then the coughing took a pause of a second. Then two. Then three… seconds.
“One more,” she said over the wheezing as she punched the top of the cylinder again. Even though she’d been told to only give him a single dose in a rescue situation.
Like anything had gotten into him, though?
When Daniel finally sagged in relief, his head dropping between his knobby knees, her own legs went out from under her and she sank down onto the floor at his bedside. With shaking hands, he moved the towel away from his lips.
There was so much red on it, the thing looked like it had been died.
Dyed, she corrected.
“I’m calling the doctors back to us,” she said as she reached for the phone. “Right now—”
Daniel grabbed her arm. Desperate eyes locked on her own. “Find Blade. Help Gus. It’s what he would do for you and me.”
SIX
The Black Dagger Brotherhood Mansion
Caldwell, New York
AS A CELL phone went off like a car alarm two feet from her head, Xhex, mated of the Black Dagger Brother John Matthew, had two thoughts: One, she was actually sleeping—and this was good news. Number two? If the fucker who was reaching out and trying to touch her was a telemarketer, she was going to reach through her fucking Samsung and let her fingers walk all over them.
Throwing her hand out into the darkness, her speed was better than her grab-accuracy, and instead of palming the Samsung, the thing went eight ball in the corner pocket.
Except she didn’t sleep next to a pool table, so it shot off into thin air.
“Sonofa—”
Beside her, her mate came alive, jumping out of the bed and landing buck naked in an attack crouch. In his dagger hand? A black, finely honed blade capable of gutting anything that lived and breathed. In the other, a nine millimeter, the laser sight of which was trained on the door that opened out into the hall. Then into the dim marble confines of the bathroom. Then at the panels of their walk-in closet.
“It’s okay,” she said as she stretched out her arm. “I just knocked the phone off trying to answer it.”
As if the Samsung didn’t want any of that smoke, it rang again to remind everybody why it was in the room—and the electronic bell was enough to get John off the boil. That black dagger slowly lowered as Xhex reached down to find…
In the dim light from the bathroom, her mate’s naked body was illuminated with a lover’s touch, his broad shoulders and tight pecs, his ribbed abs and winged hips, his heavy thighs and strong calves thrown into relief with shadows cast by the contours of his power and strength—
The third ring cattle-prodded her back into focus. Cursing, she promptly over-extended herself, slipped off the side of the mattress, and dropped from the waist-high antique bed frame. As gravity got greedy and snatched her in a hard hold, she tried to catch herself before she face-planted—
The electrical cord to the lamp somehow got tangled in her carpet fend-off, and she managed to pull the heavy crystal block and its hot-air-balloon-sized shade onto herself. Fortunately, the top half was what hit her top half, so things were cushioned. Unfortunately, her hips and legs followed.