Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 131708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
And then she saw them. The rest of the Seven. They’d stared at her so dispassionately as they pinned her to a wall and took what they’d had no right to take. Not only her life, but her memories of Viper. The motherfuckers.
As she watched it all play out, she frowned. The replays plucked at elusive recollections, bringing images and sensations and emotions to the forefront of her mind.
Buried as she was in the past, it was hard to snap back to the present. It was his scent that led the way; that gave her something to focus on.
Leather, allspice, and bay rum with an earthy undertone.
Soft pulses of his breath fanned her face, and she could almost feel him watching her with that hawk-eyed gaze. She lifted her eyelids … and met startling-blue eyes that, steely as a bird’s, honed right in on hers. Longing clutched at her throat, her emotions toward him so much more intense now that she’d seen flashes of their history.
A history that had been stolen from her.
“Those rat bastards. They had me pinned to a wall.” The latter words rang with the anger she was struggling to suppress.
His nostrils flared. “I know. They paid for it.”
Cold fingertips raced up her spine at the menacing note lacing his voice. “Good.”
Given he’d fallen for her at a time when her soul had hosted a different body, she might have worried that he looked at her and saw only Everleigh—a person he’d lost. But as he’d shown her their past, she realized it wasn’t like that. She would have otherwise sensed it in his memories, in the emotions attached to them.
He looked at her and saw only the woman he’d claimed as his.
And strange as it might sound, that time didn’t feel like a ‘past life’. It felt more like her years as Ella were a continuation of her years as Everleigh … but with some differences. Just the same, his time as Viper would be a continuation of his life as Samael … but with a few variations.
Their names, prior circumstances, and new realities didn’t matter. Not to her, not to him. Their connection went beyond that shit; ran too deep for any of it to make a single difference.
“You know, I don’t think they did a thorough job of making me forget you. I’d look at you and think, ‘Hmm, he reminds me of someone.’ Your eyes seemed familiar somehow. I dismissed it, not for a second thinking we’d met before. And those memories you showed me … they pulled at little scenes that I have vague recollections of. I think I might have been dreaming about you.”
Which would explain why Mia’s talisman hadn’t worked. They hadn’t really been dreams, she’d been seeing flashbacks of her time with Viper.
His brow creased. “I did wonder if maybe I seemed familiar to you. If your soul did manage to retain some memories, being around me would have triggered them to surface. They would have come to you as you slept. You didn’t remember them on waking?”
“Only brief flashes here and there. Nothing I could ever piece together.” She cocked her head. “Could that be why it felt like my dreams were taking a toll on me?”
He nodded. “Your brain would have been sifting through and trying to soak up the memories. It would have been tough on your psyche.”
Then that totally explained it. Although … she didn’t think she’d dreamed of—well, had flashbacks of—him in weeks. Yet, she still felt weighed down by fatigue.
She puffed out a breath. “You’re nuts coming back for me and choosing to live a cursed life when—”
“The life I led was dark and dull and left me feeling dead. Until you.” He palmed her jaw and swept a thumb over the side of her face. “I talked about you to the rest of the Seven, trusting them to keep it secret from the Uppers. That was my mistake. One you paid for. Never again,” he swore. “I don’t know who’s sending the notes, but I won’t let them hurt you.”
“Do you think whoever did it put a compulsion in the ink that would force me to stay away from you or something?”
“Maybe.”
“You’d think they would have given up sending me snares, considering the other three notes failed to work.”
“I don’t think they thought the most recent one would work either. I think their intention was to make you ask questions and leave me no choice but to tell you everything.”
She frowned. “How would they know you already hadn’t told me?”
“They won’t believe in a million years that you’d accept a man who’s the embodiment of a deadly sin. I’m not even certain you will.” An intensity gathered behind his eyes. “But I won’t let you go. I came to this world knowing I would stain it. I don’t then have the right to claim something good from it. But I’ll do it anyway. I need you.” He slid his hand from her cheek to her hair. “Never needed a single person in my life except you.”