Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
I look around, unsure of what’s going on. There’s nothing. Not the slightest sound—in a sudden burst of movement, he flies upwards. “Get to your room!” he shouts. Then he disappears over the railing and down to the lower levels.
I gawk for only a moment, then rise and rush down the hall. The sharp bite of his voice nips at my heels. He’s never been that serious before.
Once I’m inside, I press my ear to my door and listen. Long moments go by, my heartbeat the only sound I can make out. If there’s something going on, it’s too far away or too quiet for me to catch it.
I back away and wish for the hundredth time that I hadn’t wasted my dagger on Valen. Ducking behind my bed, I crouch down and wait. It’s the only place I can stay slightly hidden while also getting a view of the door. Did the husks get out? Is Valen back unexpectedly? What had David so concerned?
If there’s someone here, I have to hope they aren’t after me. Unless, of course, it’s a rescue. That thought is like a tiny explosion in my thoughts. I’ve never pondered that possibility. No one even knows I’m here. Just the redhead—Gage. All the people who cared about me are dead, and if there are others, I don’t remember them. Add to that the impossibility of breaking into this vampire stronghold, and my chances of getting a ticket out are nonexistent.
My breath catches when my door opens. Black shoes, black dress pants. It’s not David. He favors sneakers and jeans. Somehow, I know it isn’t Valen either. My hackles rise as they step farther into my room.
“You can come out, Georgia. I know you’re there.”
Everything in me curls into a tense ball at the sound of Whitbine’s nasal voice.
“Allow me.” He comes around the bed and grabs my arm, yanking me upright.
“Hey!” I shove at him.
“Bringing back memories of our first meeting.” He grins, his fangs long and sharp. “What a pleasure it was to make your acquaintance then. Even more enjoyable now.”
My skin crawls as I look up at him, at the seething darkness in his eyes. “You can’t come in here. Valen will—”
“Our Lord Specter is otherwise engaged. And you owe me answers.”
In the space of a heartbeat, he latches onto my throat, his fangs digging in painfully as he grips my upper arms. It burns, the intrusion far more violent, more damaging than Valen’s snakelike bites.
Whitbine clamps down harder, and I realize the difference. Whitbine is enjoying the pain he’s inflicting, so much so that he groans with pleasure as I whimper.
“David,” I call weakly. “David!”
Whitbine finally lets up, my blood smeared on his mouth and dripping down his chin as he meets my eyes. “He’s been detained, I’m afraid.” He licks his lips. “There it is.” He closes his eyes as if relishing the taste. “What I’ve been missing.”
I can’t move, his hands still gripping me tightly.
“You have been tainted.” His eyes open, the pupils dilating rapidly. “Compulsion is running through you, far stronger than I’d realized. I missed it during our sessions at the Black Cavern, perhaps because I didn’t know to look for it.”
“I don’t know—”
“Silence.”
My mouth snaps closed, his compulsion overcoming my will. He must’ve put his own blood into the bite.
“Compulsion and something more,” he says thoughtfully. “Something …” He focuses on me again, a grin peeling his lips back from his teeth. “Something impossible. My, my, my. Valen, how very clever. Unexpected, truly.” He squeezes me tightly. “A treasure. I must get you to Gregor immediately.”
No! I fight his grip, desperately trying to get free, to run, to do anything to get away.
“Stop struggling. Follow.”
I walk behind him, my movements robotic as I trail behind him. Out of my room, down the hall, and down the stairs into the blackness below. I shudder as we pass by the husks level and then into the pitch blackness beyond. I can’t see anything, but my body obeys his command, descending the steps into the abyss. Panic expands in my chest, making it hard for me to breathe. Still, on he goes. Down, down, down. And I follow. The air growing dank and clammy, sulfur in every breath.
I slow and stop, then hear something creak. My legs carry me forward, and I step up, the floor moving slightly beneath my feet.
“Sit,” Whitbine purrs in my ear.
I do. I’m in his lap. My gorge rises as he puts one of his hands on my thigh.
We move. In the absolute dark, we’re moving, the sounds of creaking and metal all around us.
“Why so stressed?” His hot breath is at my ear. “You’re perfectly safe down here… With me.”
I’m trapped in my own head, unable to speak, unable to exercise even one shred of control over my body. I shouldn’t be here. All this time I’ve spent working on ways to escape the castle, but this isn’t it. This isn’t escape. It feels more like a kidnapping, and it won’t end well for me. What am I going to do?