Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 132437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 662(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 441(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 662(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 441(@300wpm)
Arriving at Carmen’s bedroom door, Rhysallhan knocked softly. “Sister mine?”
When there was no answer, he rapped with his knuckles once more. “Carmen, you do not have to say anything. Just listen to me.”
As he swallowed through a tight throat, his mind dipped back to when he’d been downstairs, negotiating in the darkness with the enemy of all that was right and moral in the vampire world, making a deal with the devil.
Actually, it was more stepping into the deal their father had set.
“Carmen, I want you to know that I am leaving this house after tonight and I shall never return. I have… made the future safe for you. You and Theo are free to be mated. This is best for the both of us. The only way… this all could have ended.”
When there was no response, he rested his head on the cool panels. With his heart pounding, he had to breathe harder and opened his mouth. That way, he couldn’t smell the blood of their father on his clothes as much.
“I wish there was a way to explain everything,” he said. “You must trust that I have my reasons, and they are more than sound—”
The door opened without warning, and he pitched forward, nearly falling on his sister. Somehow, he managed to recover and keep his balance, but as wax splashed on his wrist, he hissed out a curse and clearly scared her more. With a shriek and a scamper, she bolted out of the trembling, golden aura of candlelight.
Before she could say anything, he begged, “You cannot call the Brotherhood, Carmen. If Theothore’s family finds out what I have done, they will never consent to a mating and you will be an outcast. You will be left with no one.”
He moved forward into her room, hoping to see her face, meet her eyes. As if proximity equated with persuasion.
“Don’t come any closer!”
A restless shaft of lightning illuminated her crouched form. She was all the way on the far side of her bed, and holding up her cell phone like it was a homing beacon for aid.
“Of course I shall call the Brotherhood.” As the lightning flash faded, darkness consumed her once more, only her voice giving away her location. “You are a murderer. You killed my father!”
Our, he corrected in his head.
“You cannot summon them,” he repeated. “You will ruin your life, Carmen. Where I must go, and what I must do now, is nothing you can be a part of, so without Theo and his bloodline, you will be all alone—”
“You do not stand there, covered in my sire’s blood, and seek to advise me on anything!”
“I will not leave you to fend for yourself—”
“I do not want to know you!”
There was a rustling as she came back at him. On the edge of the yellow glow, she shoved the phone forward and made sure he saw her hit send.
“You are a murderer,” she said in a quavering voice. “A murderer!”
As the ringing sound of a call going through rippled across the tense silence between them, Rhysallhan felt a cold shaft of fear.
“You are sealing your own fate,” he said in a low voice. “Theo will never mate you if this gets out. His bloodline may be beneath ours, but they are still aristocrats, after all. Hate me if you must, but I implore you to think of your future and be logical about it.”
The second ring seemed even louder than the first. Then came the click of a connection made.
“Hello,” a male voice said through the tinny speaker of her phone. “What is your emergency.”
“He hurt you,” Rhysallhan whispered. “When you were but a child. Do not make a saint out of that male just because he’s dead.”
“Hello,” the voice repeated. “Do you need assistance?”
Carmen hung up with a look of horror. “Get out.”
“No.” Rhysallhan slowly shook his head as he extended her raincoat forward. “Here is the way we’re going to handle this. You’re going to put this back on, and you’re going to go open that window by your bureau. You’re going to dematerialize to Theo’s house. You’re going to be rattled and that will be appropriate because you’re going to tell him that Father and I have had to return to the family seat in the Old Country immediately. Although you are upset about our departure, you will explain that this is good news for the pair of you.”
As lightning prowled around the windows, he watched his sister take her coat and hug her arms around herself.
“You will explain that we must go defend our ancestral property against humans and it is not safe for you.” His voice grew tight. “This will make our actions both honorable and emergent, and will be a legacy worthy of you and your standing in the glymera.”