Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80563 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80563 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
“Ostende mihi faciem praeterita,” Callie chants, but I don’t look away to see what she’s doing. I have to hold the nurse spellbound or she’ll start screaming again. “Revelare faciem reus.”
A minute passes before Callie speaks again. “I know what happened. Don’t worry. He won’t get away with it,” she promises her friend. She steps back. “Let’s go,” she tells me.
I push my control deeper into the nurse’s mind. “We were never here. You never saw us. No one came into this room.” I break my hold and the nurse blinks a few times, mind adjusting to the new reality. The lights flicker above us again, and Callie leads the way out of the ER room.
“I have to take care of something,” Callie says when we emerge into the parking lot “If you don’t want to come, that’s fine. You can go.”
She looks pissed as hell and watching her get her revenge is going to be good. “The sun doesn’t rise until five-thirty. I have time.”
I stand a few feet down in the hall, watching as Callie knocks on the door to an apartment. On the way here, she told me what she saw when she did the spell in the ER room. The asshole who lives in this apartment slipped drugs in Betty’s drink and then left her passed out in the parking lot behind the bar they were at.
Men who take advantage of women enraged me when I was human and it still does now. Few things remained the same about me after I died and woke up as a vampire, but that is one of them. I’d get revenge on the fucker myself if Callie wasn’t so…so capable.
I can hear four people inside the apartment, saying they don’t want to answer the door in case it’s the police. The asshole knows he’s guilty. Callie doesn’t wait; she throws her hand out and telekinetically opens the door. That’s my girl. It was Callie’s idea to go in alone, and normally I would have refused to let anyone walk into a room full of assholes like that by themselves.
But Callie isn’t anyone.
She doesn’t need me to protect her from danger. She can protect herself, and it’s not something I’m used to, but I really fucking like it.
“Mike Miller,” she says, anger palpable. “Sorry to interrupt the sausage fest, boys, but I need to have a word with your boy Mike here.”
“Who the fuck are you?” a man, presumably Mike, spits out.
“I’m here on behalf of Betty Jones, and what you did is not okay.”
“Are you like a lawyer or something?”
“Or something,” Callie says and I smile.
“Listen, lady,” another male says. “You better get the fuck out or I’m calling the cops.”
“Go ahead,” Callie replies and I move into the doorway. “Call the cops. And then Mikey here can confess what he did.”
“That’s it,” one of the guys says. He smells like whiskey and comes at Callie. She doesn’t miss a beat and holds out her hand, flicking her wrist. The guy flies back into the wall.
She’s sassy. Cares about her friends. I can tell she’s a good person who wants to do the right thing
But she takes no shit. She’s not afraid to cross over into the darkness. Maybe there’s hope for us after all.
Another guy slowly makes a move toward her, also shitfaced but not so far gone to realize that there’s something other worldly about Callie.
“Ah-ah-ah,” she coos. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
“What do you want?” another asks, close to bursting into tears.
“First,” she says. “I want you to invite my friend in.”
The guys look at me, realizing for the first time that I’m standing there. Their hearts sky rocket. I’m not ashamed in the least to admit the joy it brings knowing just the sight of me scares humans shitless. “No fucking way! It’s a fucking vampire.”
Callie raises her hand, sending the guy who has to be Mike sliding up the wall. He kicks his legs, trying to break out of the telekinetic hold, and another one of the guys looks at me.
Right in the eyes.
He’s spellbound in a second flat. “I’d really like it if you’d invite me in,” I say. The others try and get to the guy I’m holding spellbound to break my gaze. Using magic, Callie shoves them back.
“You boys really need to learn to listen,” she warns.
“Come in,” the man I’m holding spellbound says, head slowly moving up and down.
“This…this isn’t going to hold up in court,” Mike grumbles. “I’ll tell my lawyer and he’ll get you thrown out.”
“Spoken like a true entitled white asshole,” Callie retorts. “But the thing is, I’m not a lawyer. You messed with one of my friends. So now I’m here to mess with you. So tell me. What exactly were you trying to accomplish when you slipped Betty Jones date-rape drugs? I want to hear you say it. To admit how pathetic you are.” Callie inches closer and all four men tense.