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)
It was like being in a car crash without the bumpers and the airbags.
As John willed the overhead fixture on, there was a blazing light, sure as if the Scribe Virgin were still around and had decided to check on all the commotion.
“Fuck…” Blinded, Xhex covered her eyes with the crook of her elbow. Which was easy to do considering she’d nearly knocked herself out with the damned thing. “And who the hell is calling us at this hour?”
It had to be, what, three in the afternoon? Fine and dandy if you were a human, an absolute ungodly interruption when you were a vampire.
As the fourth ring registered, and John Matthew came around the base of the bed, she pushed a hand under the inlaid three-drawer stand—and finally, her phone was ready to be found. Snagging the thing, she answered it on the way to her ear.
“What.” If this was some asshole talking about buying a piece of property she didn’t own, a car warranty she didn’t have, or school loans that she—“You better start talking or I will reverse-search this bitch and find you—”
The female voice was instantly recognizable. But the torrent of words that came through the connection was nearly indecipherable.
“Whoa, whoa—slow down. What…?”
Shoving herself up, Xhex leaned back against the horizontal rail of the bed frame. As John Matthew knelt beside her, she switched to speaker.
“You need to slow down,” she said to the phone. “What’s going on?”
In a tinny tone, Lydia Susi announced: “I need to get in touch with your brother.”
Xhex closed her eyes. The wolven might as well have asked to hold a grenade with the pin out in her palm.
“Mind if I ask why?” Or, more bluntly: Are you fucking insane?
The story rolled out as most drama did: A good guy in a bad situation with no better options. Except throwing Blade into anything other than a bonfire was guaranteed to make things go totally tits up.
“Lydia, I don’t know what to tell you.” Well, she had a list of dumb-idea expletives. But what was that thing—is it useful, is it kind? “Other than you need to look for another solution.”
As she tossed out the advice, she glanced at her hellren. When John Matthew motioned back and forth between them, she shook her head.
No way did they need to volunteer for the complications.
“Gus is our doctor.” The female cleared her throat. “But more than that, he’s a good man. He doesn’t deserve to be hurt or—worse. Please. Can you ask your brother to meet me up on the mountain?”
Xhex closed her eyes. “You don’t want to do this.”
“I agree. But none of us want to be in this situation, and the only thing that’s worse is sitting around, doing nothing.”
“I can respect that, but why would you think Blade can do—”
“He was Daniel’s boss. They used to work together, and Daniel has a lead that Blade may know what to do with.”
Xhex cursed under her breath. Fucking Blade. Of course shit was more entangled than she’d known.
“What exactly did Daniel used to do?” she asked grimly.
“He worked for what he thought was a clandestine arm of the U.S. government.”
And why hasn’t this come up before? Xhex wondered. But at least that was one question she could answer: Because her brother was a lying, manipulative, dangerous sack of shit. That was why. God only knew what he had done with a bunch of humans like Daniel Joseph at his disposal. The only thing she could be sure of was that it probably made money and definitely wasn’t a crocheting circle with an Etsy shop attached.
“Look,” she said, “it’s not my business to tell you what to do—”
“So please have him meet me—”
“—but my brother is no savior you want.”
“—up at the summit tonight.”
The two of them talked over each other, but ended at the same time, like a pair of dancers pirouetting around separately to harmonizing chords.
“You’re not safe around him.” Xhex did nothing to hide her don’t-be-a-dumbass tone. “And yeah, I know you’re a wolven, and I don’t doubt you’re deadly when you want to be, but he’s deadly all the time.”
“I’m not afraid of him.”
“You should be.”
“So is this a no?” the female demanded. “Are you telling me you won’t reach out to him?”
Xhex looked at her hellren’s chest and focused on the star-shaped pattern that marked his pec. The symbol of the Black Dagger Brotherhood was embedded in his flesh, the marking that was given to each Brother during induction somehow something he had been born with.
“Hello?” the wolven prompted. “Have you hung up on me?”
Xhex pictured her brother, from his gleaming black eyes to his coldly beautiful face to the black hair that was so like her own—
Her past rushed up at her, just like the floor had, and the impact was as pleasant as the rug burn on her shoulder: Instantly, she was back over twenty years before, bound and gagged, being dragged into a van up at the symphath colony. She hadn’t known where she was going to end up, but she’d been certain of three things: She was being punished. She was not going to survive this.