Series: The Un Series by Izzy Sweet
Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 109192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
I’ve longed for this moment for so long…
For centuries.
Yet the very sight of me sends her into a panic.
Maybe she feels my panic through the bond? Or senses the terror that’s trying to grip my soul and shred it to pieces?
“Were you one of the ones that kept drugging me?” she asks quietly.
“What?” I ask in horror.
How could she believe such a thing about me? Does she not feel anything from me?
“Never,” I insist. “I never would have done that to you.”
I can tell from the look on her face she doesn’t believe me.
“I don’t remember anything,” she says. “I don’t know how I got here after… I only remember being held down, drugged, and forced to sleep.”
Fuck.
That makes two of us losing our memory. Except I wasn’t drugged when I couldn’t control myself.
I have faint recollections of right before we stormed the building that Nikolaos was holding her prisoner in.
The agony of knowing she was trapped and not by my side.
I remember the red haze that ripped through my vision. The uncontrollable rage as my berserker broke free from his chains.
I tried to control the rage. I always try to control it, but I couldn’t.
From the state of my clothing, I know I fought.
And most likely killed.
From the smell of the blood on me, I know I battled shifters and vampires.
But which side did I destroy? Mine or theirs?
It should matter to me, but I can’t seem to find the worry. Only the longing to stare at her enchanting face.
The lips I wish to kiss.
The eyes I want to stare into for eternity…
“Do you remember what happened before I took you?” I ask.
Shaking her head, she says, “No. I can only remember chains around me and… I don’t know… vampires like you?”
Another loud buzzing in my pocket and the sound of tires racing up the street nearly sends me into a rage.
We haven’t had enough time!
I’d crumple the cellphone to dust if I wasn’t worried it could be my family warning me of a possible attack incoming.
Yanking the phone from my pocket, I have to stop myself from smashing my finger through the screen.
Putting it up to my ear, my entire chest rumbles as I snarl, “What?”
If this isn’t important, so help me unholy gods…
Andrei speaks so loud even my soulmarked looks up in surprise. “We’re pulling up on your location now. Unless you’re actively turning your Marked, we need to move locations immediately.”
I wince when her heartbeat races with fright. “Now’s not exactly a good time.”
“Doesn’t matter, Raph,” Andrei says back. “You’re deep in the middle of the Order’s territory. I mean deep.”
Watching the other half of my soul, I see sheer terror filling her eyes before she jumps up from the chair.
“No!” she shouts into the darkened room. Her wild eyes searching every corner. “We have to leave.”
“She’s right,” Andrei says then disconnects.
That’s not exactly the reaction I thought would happen when the Order was mentioned.
And all of a sudden there’s a vise crushing around my ribs.
Squeezing so tight, I would struggle to breathe if I needed to.
My blood rushes hard and fast through my veins, as if I’m being flooded with adrenaline.
These aren’t my feelings, though. They’re coming through the taut string connecting us both.
Then a deep, emotional pain slams through what little fog I had in my brain, scattering all my thoughts.
Moving faster than she can react, I scoop her back up into my arms.
Her words slam into the thread.
Flee.
Hide.
Don’t speak or draw attention.
Am I supposed to feel her emotions this powerfully only to have them fade to almost nothing?
I wince when she shrieks in my ear, begging to be released. “Please let me go! They’ll find me!”
Shaking off her fears, I feel the beast inside of me wanting to be free again. He wants to run and sweep across this street, this neighborhood, this city like a fucking tornado.
He wants to leave death and destruction in his wake. He begs me to give him full control.
Not like when I went to hunt my beloved down.
No, this one is different.
I haven’t let him go into a full, raging berserk of destruction since the War of the Witch. When I rampaged across Europe like a plague…
In fact, most of my barbaric rampage was blamed on a plague.
Holding my very soul in my arms, I whisper, “I’ll protect you with all that I have in me.”
Pushing tentatively on the bond, I try to calm her raging emotions. But I dare not push too hard.
Nor do I dare let her see the real me.
She would truly want to run then.
I walk us quickly to the door, and she calms enough that she’s no longer screaming madly in my ear.
But her delicate human body trembles against me.
She’s so fragile right now. So very fragile that I can’t help but fear I’ll accidentally crush her in my arms.