Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 115860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
Leaping over a pair of the freaks in robes, Caden comes to my rescue, elbowing one in the temple, punching another in the nose. They crash to the ground in a heap. He steps over them and leaps for me. Bram and Duke are right behind him, felling more of what must be Anarki.
With a curse, Zain flicks his wrist and opens his free hand. Caden slams into an invisible wall between us. Again, he launches himself at it. Again, he crashes into it.
How the devil did Zain do that?
Magic.
I was right—all these years. The paranormal exists! Now I have to stay alive long enough to write about it.
Bram flicks his wrist, and a ball of blue light heads for Zain—before it stops abruptly and dissipates.
“Oh, you can block magic now. Been learning parlor tricks from Mathias?” Bram taunts.
Zain tenses. “I’m learning from a master. And learning well.”
Caden snarls, still trying to shove his way past the force field once more, his face mottled with rage. His blue eyes drill into Zain’s, vowing retribution. “Let her go! She knows nothing.”
“She wrote the article. Your leader is holding the book in his hand,” he says, then turns to Bram. “It’s a simple transaction: the book for the girl.”
“Give it to him,” Caden barks.
Bram shoots him a long-suffering expression that demands he be reasonable. “Zain may have trained up a bit, but he’s a snot-nosed tot compared to me, inferior in both bloodline and ability. Isn’t that right?”
“The newly transitioned whelp is two seconds from losing his shag if you don’t cooperate.” Zain squeezes my neck a fraction tighter, and I choke, still clawing for breath. “Did you know I have the ability to heat a human up from the inside, boil their blood, cook their organs? I’m a human microwave.”
I would gasp if I had the air. Unwelcome gray dances in my vision. I don’t know if Zain can actually follow through on that threat, but such a death sounds horrific.
Caden looks somewhere between panicked and nuclear as Bram dangles the damn book just beyond Zain’s reach.
“Well, there’s something to be proud of,” Bram quips.
Sinking my nails into Zain’s skin, I claw until I manage to loosen his grip. Finally, I gasp in a huge breath, and blessed oxygen fills my lungs. “It’s my book. Bloody give it to him.”
Zain loosens his grip a bit more and runs his tongue up my cheek again. “There’s a good girl.”
I shudder. Caden looks an instant from going stark mad.
“Sorry.” Bram shrugs, making it clear that he’s not. “If he wants the diary, he’ll have to fight me. If he’s stupid enough to try to kill you, I’ll take the book, disappear forever, and his boss will flay him alive for failing. Again.” He regards Zain with a smug smile. “Are you feeling stupid?”
“You poncy, holier-than-thou twat!” Zain snarls. “If you leave here with the book, you’ll disappear forever, no matter what I do. If I kill Little Red, however, the younger MacTavish could turn completely mental, like the elder, which reduces the able ranks of your Doomsday Brethren by another. I’ve got ten Anarki remaining, so who’s the stupid one? You can’t defeat us.”
Zain has a very good point, but Bram’s confidence doesn’t slip one whit. I begin to suspect he’s off his trolley. And the fact Zain is talking about my death as if it’s a fait accompli hardly comforts me.
“Give him the damn book!” I snap at Bram.
He merely raises a superior golden brow. Duke’s expression is no less assured. Are they utterly mad?
I’m not waiting for the Anarki to attack to find out.
Now that I can breathe, I stomp my foot on Zain’s instep at the same time I ram my elbow into his abdomen, grateful for the self-defense class I took last year.
Zain clearly wasn’t prepared for me to fight back. He grunts in pain and doubles over. I take advantage of his surprise and dart away, sprinting toward Bram, my hand outstretched for the book.
The wizard holds it away from me, then shoots Caden a glare. “Control your woman or I will.”
“You’ll pay for that, you fucking slag!” Zain vows as he leaps to his feet and charges Bram.
Caden wraps his arms around me, holding me close. I feel safe. Relieved.
Until I realize he’s restraining me.
Bram tosses the book at Duke, who catches it in an elegant grab. Before I can blink, Bram waves his hand. Something that looks like a magic wand appears.
A wand, is it? How Harry Potter.
Bram brandishes it with a flourish, jolting Zain with a burst of energy. The sparking blue bolt hits the sodding wanker, who jolts as if he was skewered by a live wire.
His minions rush for Bram and Duke, who both raise their wands. As they charge, they step into the light, and I get a good look at their faces. I scream. Those…things are little more than skeletons with rotting flesh dripping from gray bones, staring out from under their hoods with dead, sightless eyes.