Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 115886 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115886 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
“Well, that needs to change,” Keenan clipped, his heart pounding. He paced up and down like a caged animal. He couldn’t keep still; couldn’t find any calm, no matter how deep he dug for it. “Contact one.”
“I’m unable to,” Eric told him. “They serve heaven; they do not concern themselves with angel business or anything that happens outside of their realm. Even if I could contact one, no amount of money or threats of violence would persuade one to come here. To put it simply, they wouldn’t care, just as you probably wouldn’t care to save the life of a carpet mite. The creatures down here mean nothing to them.”
Keenan’s demon snarled, wanting to punch and smash and destroy. He grabbed Khloé’s hand and raised it. “Try again, Eric.”
The angel shook his head. “But I—”
“Just try,” insisted Keenan and his demon, battling for control of their vocal cords, making the words come out loud, deep, and mechanical.
Swallowing hard, his eyes wide with fear, Eric did as he was ordered. But, again, his attempt to heal her didn’t work.
Anger whipped through Keenan like a bolt of red-hot lightning. He swiped the office desk, sending everything on the surface crashing to the floor. No one moved, no one tried to calm or placate him. They waited, trusting him to get ahold of his temper.
His breaths coming hard and fast, he glared up at the ceiling. He’d come here expecting to have Khloé healed; to be able to take her back to the penthouse, healthy and free of what Enoch left inside her. Instead … Fuck.
A familiar female mind softly stroked his own. A touch that was meant to comfort and calm him. He swallowed around the lump in his throat. He loved that she’d try to soothe him, but he hated that she felt the need to do it. She shouldn’t have to worry about him—she was the one who was riddled with an infection. He wouldn’t be a selfish bastard and make this all about him.
Forcing himself to think past the rage clawing at his insides and the hardness that had settled in his gut, he said, “There has to be other preternatural creatures that can help her. Some shifters can heal. Even some vampires have the power to do it.”
“But none of them produce pure life like an angel,” Eric pointed out. “They wouldn’t be able to combat death essence.”
Keenan raised a brow at him. “Can you say that for certain?”
Eric faltered. “Well, no—”
“Then we don’t give up.” Keenan turned to Knox. “You once met with vampires. Can you talk to them and find out if they have one who could heal Khloé?”
Knox gave a slow nod. “I can ask them.”
“I’m in contact with some practitioners,” said Vivian. “I could see if any of them could be of any aid to Khloé.”
“Do it,” Keenan told her. “I have a contact who’s a lone bear shifter. I’ll speak with him and see if he knows a shifter who’s also a powerful healer.” He looked down at his imp. “The situation isn’t hopeless, Khloé. There are millions of preternatural creatures on this Earth. At least one of them has to be able to help you. We just have to find out who they are and then get their ass here.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Khloé picked up the remote and switched off the TV. She hadn’t been able to follow the movie because her mind was elsewhere. It just kept replaying those earlier moments when Eric’s attempts to heal her had failed. She hadn’t expected that. She’d taken it for granted that all she needed to do was find an angel. Any ole angel.
She’d been wrong.
The only saving grace was that her brother was no longer infected. Not that Ciaran seemed so happy about it. She’d almost slapped him across the head for stupidly feeling guilty.
Khloé hadn’t given up hope that there was a way of ridding her of the infection. Nope, not at all. She didn’t admit defeat so easily. Keenan was right—the law of probability said that at least one of the preternatural creatures out there had a gift that could help her. Khloé trusted that her loved ones would do everything in their power to find such a person, just as she would have done for them.
With both her lair and Keenan’s working together on this, it would surely only be a matter of time before she found herself standing in front of someone who could heal her. In fact, that could even happen shortly. Keenan was currently meeting with the bear shifter he’d mentioned; he might return with positive news.
In-keeping with her plan to stay in the Underground out of Enoch’s reach, she’d remained at the penthouse. And now, bored out of her mind, she wished the time would tick faster so she could head to work and do something.