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)
Caden’s face tightens with disgust and loathing. A look that ages his boyish features a couple of decades. “You finally found your soulmarked, your other half… Something we’ve all been dying to do since the night we were reborn! And you left her! You fucking abandoned her!”
A pang of pain slices through my chest where my mark is, like I accidentally swallowed something too quickly.
Reaching up and rubbing at the spot, I suddenly feel a faint emotion that confuses me.
Shame. I feel a deep, dark shame, like I’ve done something wrong and unforgivable.
But why would I feel shame over anything Caden said?
Raphael’s head dips and my eyes fly up in reaction. On his face, I see the shame I’m feeling reflected back at me.
Is it his emotion? How…
Out of the corner of my eyes, I see Caden take a step forward with his fists still clenched in anger. “You don’t de—"
“That’s enough,” Asher orders with so much power and authority, I swear a ripple of it flows over me. “We will discuss this matter, like a family, later.”
Caden’s foot is literally in midair as he comes to a complete stop.
Tearing my gaze away from Raphael, I watch in fascination as Caden unclenches his fists.
Putting his foot down on the floor, he grinds out, “Yes, Sire.”
It’s creepy. Yet, thanks to Chloe’s compulsion, I still can’t freak out over it.
I can, however, totally freak out when Asher says, “Get to the cars, it’s time to leave.”
Fear rushes through me at the thought of returning to Boston.
But before I can voice it or scream again, Raphael is grabbing my face and forcing me to look back up at him. “What’s wrong? Why are you so afraid?”
If I wasn’t scared out of my mind, fearing they might force me to go, I’d rip my face out of his hand and shove him away.
Raphael may have had a sudden change of heart over what happened when he pushed me away and called me tainted, but I certainly haven’t.
I don’t like him, not one bit. In fact, he hurt me so badly, I think I hate him a little.
But the way he’s looking at me, he might be the only one who will actually listen to me…
Putting aside my hatred for the time being, I take a deep, shuddering breath and say, “I can’t go back to Boston.”
There’s so much concern in his eyes I’m actually half-tempted to slap him.
He has no right to look at me like that. Like he actually cares deeply about me.
Not after what he did and said.
“Why?” he asks, stroking his thumb tenderly against my cheek.
Where his thumb touches, my skin seems to light up in response. Every tiny little nerve coming alive.
It’s a pleasurable sensation.
Too pleasurable…
A vampire trick? I wonder.
As scared as I am, more frustration boils inside me that he’d do such a thing, especially now.
“Because I’d rather die than ever step foot back in that city,” I grit out between my teeth.
His dark eyes search my eyes then peer deep, as if he can see inside me. “Truly?”
Peering back at him, I show him the truth.
I’d rather die right here, right now.
Raphael’s eyes widen with horror, of all things, for the briefest of seconds.
“Then we won’t go,” he says, and squeezes me tight to his chest.
“What do you mean you won’t go?” Asher asks with a hint of a growl.
“Exactly that,” Raphael snaps.
“We have to leave, Raphael,” Asher says with more exasperation and rakes his fingers through his blood-speckled hair. “It’s no longer safe here. We’ve both made sure of that.”
Raphael nods his head in agreement, and my heart stops beating for a second. “Alena and I will have to go somewhere else.”
“We are not splitting up after starting a war,” Asher says. His exasperation quickly becoming frustration. “Divided we are weak. We must stick together.”
Raphael gazes back down at me and there’s this look in his eyes…
This look that he would do anything and everything for me. If I didn’t dislike him so much for rejecting me, it would probably take my breath away.
He’s so big… and there’s this… untamed wildness about him. Like he’s doing everything to keep it together and not go completely feral.
“Boston is out of the question,” Raphael growls. “Don’t push it, Asher.”
“I could force you,” Asher threatens.
Raphael’s gaze jerks back up and his eyes glow bright red. “You could try.”
The two of them stare hard at each other, having a battle of wills, before Asher throws his hands up in defeat. “God fucking dammit! Fine! I have no clue where the fuck we’re going to go… But get your ass to the car!”
Asher marches off in anger, leaving Raphael and me alone in a room that looks like a bull ran through it.
Raphael looks back down at me, and I don’t know why but the simple act of having all of his attention with no other distractions draws all my awareness to him.