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 release my breath in a scoff. “You don’t know me.”
His fiery gaze dims and searches my face. “I know you are mine.”
I shake my head in denial. I’m not his, and there’s no possible way he can love me.
Love doesn’t come that easily. He may love the idea of me, but if he truly knew me, he wouldn’t be so quick to speak that word.
My own parents couldn’t even bring themselves to love me. How can—
Raphael growls low in his throat, cutting off my train of thought. “Anyone who does not love you is a fucking fool.”
Not only do I scoff again at that, I roll my eyes.
Face tightening with anger, his voice dips even lower. “If you were inside me, you’d know what I speak is true.”
The spot over my heart throbs hard and out of reflex I rub it with my hand, trying to get it to stop.
Am I about to have a freaking heart attack over all of this?!
Does he realize he’s about to kill me with all of his craziness?
Gaze sharpening and snapping to the movement of my hand like a predator that’s been lying in wait, Raphael makes a strange noise deep inside his throat.
A noise that’s a mixture of a growl and a moan.
Then, without warning, he releases my shoulders and shoves my hand out of the way.
Before I can even think to stop him, his claws are tearing my shirt open.
“What are you doing?!” I shout in fear and outrage when what he did finally catches up to my brain.
Looking down, afraid he sliced me open, I see the valley between my breasts exposed.
But that’s not what fills me with me with fear.
It’s the red shape of the infinity symbol on my skin.
The Mark of the Beast.
Somehow, I forgot about it. Forgot that it means I’ll never truly be free.
Even if I escape, I’ll always be hunted.
“See,” he chokes out, “the proof is in your flesh.”
All my dreams, all my plans for the future on the precipice of turning into ash, I say in angry desperation, “It doesn’t mean I’m yours!”
Raphael’s eyes snap back up and flare so bright I’m blinded by the glare.
“Doesn’t mean you’re mine?” he hisses menacingly.
Unable to see, I sense him pressing closer and instinctively take a step back.
“Do you want to belong to someone else?” he asks, the question more like a threat.
I shake my head back and forth and take another step back. “No, of course not.”
“Like Caden, perhaps?” he snarls.
Knowing I’ve pushed him too far thanks to the stupid hard throbbing over my heart, I finally give into all the panic I’ve been holding back.
“I don’t want to belong to anyone!” I scream as I turn sharply on my heels and take off running.
It doesn’t cross my mind that running in the mud should be a struggle.
Or that I have no hope of outrunning him.
Letting my fight-or-flight take control, I pump my legs and move my feet as fast as I can as he roars behind me.
Until I slam into something hard and unmovable.
Still blinded and my head spinning from the impact, I think I somehow managed to run into my wall.
Unprepared for the impact, my knees give out and I start to fall.
But cold fingers latch onto me and pull me back up, keeping me from landing on my butt.
I scream, afraid that Raphael has already caught me.
The voice that speaks as the icy fingers tighten around me, though, is not Raphael’s.
It’s the one voice I never wanted to hear again.
His tone conjuring up images of bones rattling against each other, the Prophet says, “I do believe she said no.”
TEN
ALENA
He can’t be real, my mind screams in horror.
The icy fingers dig harder into my arms, nearly touching bone, but the Prophet’s eerie voice is strangely sympathetic as he says, “Oh, I’m very real, my child. And your immortal soul is in grave danger.”
My entire being jerks in shock at the knowledge that the Prophet just read my thoughts, like Raphael.
Has he always been able to do so? Has he always known what’s been truly in my heart?
“Release her!” Raphael roars in fury, his voice sounding faraway.
I shake my head and blink my eyes until my vision returns. The first thing I see is black fabric. The same plain black fabric the Prophet wore the last time I saw him.
Unwilling to look up, to literally face my biggest fear, I twist my neck instead and glance behind to see Raphael several meters in the distance.
The strange thing, however, is that every time I blink my eyes he seems farther away.
Like we’re moving somehow…
But the landscape never changes. There’s no stretching between us my naked eyes can see.
Raphael appears to be running, but he’s only moving backwards.
And it sends more chills down my spine.
As fast as I’ve seen vampires move over the last few hours, he should easily reach us.