Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 115432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
I shook my head before managing to speak again. “No. You are not like the others—”
“I am exactly like the others, Druella,” he replied.
“You know my name.” Of course, he knew my name. He was my stalker. But still, this was the first time I’d heard him speak or seen him so close—the first of everything.
“Your circle is close by. No other vampires—”
“Your name,” I demanded again. “Tell me your name…please.”
He looked me over for much longer than he needed to as a vampire before finally speaking. “Theseus,” he said as he took a step back from me. “My name is Theseus Christian Apollo de Thorbørn.”
I couldn’t help but smile, outstretching my hand to him. “I’m happy to meet you finally, Theseus. I’m Druella Zirie Omeron. Thank you for saving me back then.”
The corner of his lip turn upward, and slowly, he moved to take my hand. I didn’t know why until my fingers touched him, and it felt like I’d touched an iceberg. It made me shiver, but I did my best not to let it show. He brought the back of my hand to his lips and kissed it.
“Likewise. However, it was you who saved me first.”
“What?”
I didn’t get an answer as in a blink of an eye, he was gone, and I was still holding my hand out. I had opened my mouth to call for him when I felt the familiar magic of my circle approaching me.
“Dru!” Simone yelled out seconds later as she broke through the trees.
“Druella!” Adelaide all but jumped me, hugging her arms around me tightly! “Oh, my God! We were so worried!”
“What happened to you? Where have you been?” Jericho questioned.
“We’ve been trying to do a locating spell for hours. You just disappeared in the middle of the meeting. Everyone was panicked…”
Was it wrong that I was annoyed? They were worried, and it was my fault for leaving as I did, but still, I wished they had found me a little later or maybe not at all tonight. I’d finally met him.
My stalker.
I knew his name.
It was Theseus.
Theseus Christian Apollo de Thorbørn.
* * *
“Dru…are you awake?” asked the tiny voice of Magdalena from my door as she gently opened it.
I said nothing. I was lying on my bed with my eyes closed even though I was awake now and feeling much better, but I was too lazy to get up. I listened as she tiptoed into my room, and peeking through one eye, I watched as she made it to my closet. When she spun back to make sure I was still asleep, I shut my eyes quickly and didn’t open them again until I heard her open the closet door.
I watched as she opened the box at the bottom where I kept some of my older school books, not sure what she was looking for. She didn’t seem to know, either. She lifted each book, opened it, examined it all over, and then dropped it to the side gently before picking up another one. I gave her a few minutes before I sat up. Tiptoeing just like she had, I came up behind her little pigtails.
“And what are we looking for?” I asked, making her jump almost to her feet as she spun back to look at me.
“Druella!”
“Magdalena!” I exclaimed in the same manner.
“I thought you were sick.” She pouted and frowned, still hiding the book behind her back.
“I was, but now I am better and wondering what you are doing sneaking around in my room? Does your mom know you are here?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yeah, she’s in a meeting with the elders.”
The elders were still having meetings? Didn’t they ever get tired of talking? I shook my head and took a seat in front of her.
“Okay, so why are you in here and not waiting for them to finish or, better yet, asleep. It’s almost midnight.”
She grinned, and when Magdalena grinned, it was because she knew she was caught doing something she shouldn’t have been doing and hoped her smile was cute enough to let her off the hook. “Nothing. Just looking for a book.”
“Really, and you thought”—I flicked my fingers and sent the book flying from her hands to mine—“you would start with Leon Battista Alberti’s ‘De Pictura Praestantissima’?”
Her freckled face twisted in utter confusion at the title of the book I had taken from her, and I laughed.
“If you are going to lie, at least be committed to it. You can’t just give yourself away like this,” I teased her. “Now, tell me what you are really looking for.”
She made a face before sitting cross-legged right in front of me. “I’m looking for the grimoire.”
“What grimoire?”
“Your grimoire.” She sighed, dropping her chin onto her palm. “Seeing as how you don’t want to show it to me.”
“Magdalena, I’ve told you a hundred times I don’t have a grimoire.”